Media Planning 101: The Final Information for Entrepreneurs

Why is media planning so vital? We’re glad you requested.

In right this moment’s aggressive international media panorama, efficient media planning is important to saving time whereas driving higher model consciousness, engagement, conversions, and income. The magic phrases each marketer desires to listen to.

Choosing the proper advertising channels to share high-performing content material is essential to media planning success, however that’s usually tough to pin down. And it’s even tougher to make a splash within the sea of content material on the market proper now.

Not 100% certain the best way to method media planning? Don’t fear, we’ve acquired you coated. Seize a cup of joe and settle in with our final media planning information.

What’s media planning?

Media planning is the way you select to share media content material along with your audience and why. In different phrases:

It’s about creating content material audiences crave, on the channels and platforms they will’t get sufficient of.

On any given week, a media planner may very well be scheduling a wholesome media mixture of photographs, video content material, print promoting, and even audio codecs like podcasts as a part of a company-wide advertising marketing campaign. The “why” may be no matter finish objective you wish to obtain. 

Maybe you wish to improve the attain of your social posts on Fb to boost model consciousness, or enhance gross sales of a brand new product by creating an attractive new YouTube video. And also you’d positively use it to launch an epic out of house promoting marketing campaign (OOH) that will get individuals speaking about your biz. Media planning is the right technique to manage and nail it.

Media planning vs media shopping for

For the document, there’s an enormous distinction between media planning and media shopping for. Many individuals confuse the 2 phrases or use them interchangeably, however they’re two fully separate issues:

Media planning is about deciding the perfect platform and strategic method for a marketing campaign, whereas media shopping for drives that marketing campaign ahead and retains it on observe.

The titles are the massive giveaway right here – planning versus shopping for. Media planners and consumers work collectively towards the identical objective, however their roles and tasks differ. Whereas a media planner could be concerned in planning a paid media marketing campaign, they wouldn’t spend time negotiating charges for advert house or buying media. That every one sits with the media purchaser.

However that stated, it’s not unusual for some smaller corporations and businesses to mix each tasks into one position, carried out by a media-managing mastermind. All of it is dependent upon the group.

So now what media planning is, how do you get began? Once more, the clue’s within the identify. You want a strong media plan. 

Forms of media planning

Inside advertising, there are a number of sorts of media plan you possibly can create, resembling:

Social media plan

Paid media plan

Public relations (PR) media plan

Print media plan

OOH media plan

No matter which avenue of content material advertising you’re creating it for, all plans share the identical objective:

A media plan helps you align groups on technique, and optimize your organization’s messaging for constant cross-channel campaigns.

Mainly, it places everybody on the identical web page. Meaning you need to use a media plan to prepare each digital promoting and print campaigns with ease. 

An efficient media plan ought to cowl:

What sort of content material you wish to create

Which media channel(s) you’ll publish it on to finest interact your viewers

How steadily you’ll share content material (together with occasions/dates)

How a lot of your finances you’re planning to spend

A lot recent content material is being printed on the day by day, with a brand new distribution stream or media outlet popping up each different month. That’s why media planning is vital. It’s a media planner’s job to maintain up with the most recent shopper developments and shifts within the international media panorama, to allow them to keep glued to their viewers and strategically goal them with participating content material. 

What does the media planning course of contain?

The right media plan ought to clearly observe your marketing campaign publishing schedule, so precisely what you’re sending out when, to whom, the place, and why.

For many entrepreneurs, the right step-by-step media planning course of appears to be like just a little one thing like this:

Begin with viewers analysis

Set your media goal

Create and roll out a media plan

Measure your success

Now let’s discover every of those steps in just a little extra element.

1. Begin with viewers analysis

Earlier than you do anything, begin your media planning course of with viewers and market analysis. Why? As a result of it offers you a view of the present media panorama, and the way shopper attitudes and behaviors have shifted inside your audience. This occurs extra usually than you’d in all probability anticipate. 

Particularly, viewers analysis lets you dive deeper into your audience to grasp their habits and pursuits, the platforms they’re utilizing, and any related shopper developments value tapping into. With this degree of perception, precisely what sorts of media content material will resonate along with your viewers and the place to share it.

For instance, a fast dip into the GWI platform reveals 30% of customers uncover new manufacturers and merchandise through TV adverts, which creates a severe case for focusing on them on the telly. When you wished to dive even deeper, you possibly can examine in opposition to different shopper attributes to assist section your viewers, resembling:

Favourite social media service

Paid TV subscriptions

Units used to entry the online

Every day time spent on media

Mixed collectively, these strategic insights will enable you plan a profitable cross-channel media marketing campaign. However because the media and advert house is extremely saturated, we additionally suggest conducting aggressive evaluation as a part of your wider market analysis. This reveals you what’s at present participating customers, and what’s going to assist your marketing campaign stand out from the gang.

2. Set your media goal

Now what content material will rock your viewers’s socks off. What’s subsequent? It’s time to set your media marketing campaign objective. Your “why”. As we talked about earlier, this may be no matter you wish to purpose for.

For instance, you possibly can purpose to construct model consciousness on a stylish new social channel with enticing media content material that’s tailor-made to your goal market. Or it may very well be one thing actually easy, like saving time on content material creation and scheduling with a extra environment friendly course of.

It’s overambitious (and to be trustworthy, pointless) to cowl each media platform or channel going, so that is the place environment friendly objective setting may help you slender down your focus areas. When you’re focusing your consideration on-line, these useful digital media planning ideas will enable you ace it.

An important factor is to outline a transparent measure of success. That might imply analyzing KPIs like attain and impressions, engagement price, conversions, and even ROI. Use information to often assess marketing campaign efficiency and see what’s (and isn’t) working, and apply your learnings to future decision-making.

3. Create and roll out a media plan

Calendar template, digital software program, or a fundamental spreadsheet? It’s time to determine. When filling out your media plan, there are a great deal of points to contemplate by way of the media you’re publishing.

As an example, you possibly can publish content material that aligns with topical points, information tales, nationwide or international occasions, and even stuff that helps a bigger firm marketing campaign or initiative. Be mindful the top objective you set earlier – what do you wish to obtain, and what’s in it in your viewers?

No matter you determine, alignment and consistency are key. That’s why we suggest together with some explainer notes in your method, so you possibly can share your media plan with the broader advertising crew and get everybody aligned on technique – particularly these beautiful media consumers able to run along with your marketing campaign. Explaining your “why” additionally ensures any content material and imagery that want creating are in step with your plan.

Plan perfected? Everybody’s clear on what’s wanted? Go on, roll it out.

4. Measure your success

Whether or not you’re monitoring efficiency day by day, weekly, or month-to-month, it’s all the time a very good time to evaluate and replicate in your marketing campaign by assessing these all-important KPIs. Did you obtain the objective you set previous to creating your media plan? And if not, why not? 

Don’t overlook to examine in along with your viewers once more. It’s seemingly that whereas your marketing campaign was operating, issues have shifted available in the market. Any change in shopper attitudes or behaviors might’ve had a big effect on how your media marketing campaign landed, so it’s value reviewing along with your ends in thoughts.

Keep in mind, there’s no set system for achievement in media planning. All you are able to do is hold testing and studying with information, utilizing recent insights to tell your media technique and decision-making. The extra usually you do it, the extra impactful your media content material might be. Analyze, then optimize. Identical to you’d with any good advertising plan.

Media planning ideas

What must be thought of for an efficient media planning technique relies upon fully in your objective and your viewers. For finest outcomes, make viewers insights the inspiration of each marketing campaign to grasp how and the place to position content material and promoting.

Aggressive evaluation is extremely helpful and we suggest you do it earlier than making a media plan. However whereas it’s nice for inspiration and setting the bar in your subsequent marketing campaign, don’t overlook what makes your online business distinctive within the first place. What helps you stand out?

So long as you base your media plan round up-to-date viewers analysis, and give attention to what you wish to get out of your subsequent marketing campaign, it’ll be uniquely focused to the wants of your particular viewers. And no competitor can maintain a candle to that.

It’s additionally a good suggestion to maintain your media plan versatile. This helps with making changes or swapping scheduling dates round to suit your advertising technique, at the same time as shopper conduct and attitudes change. That’s completely essential to reaching your audience effectively, each time.

Learn how to enhance your media planning technique with GWI

Why is GWI so nice for media planning? It takes the guesswork out of it. With deeper insights into your viewers’s lives, you possibly can plan all kinds of media campaigns to have interaction them extra successfully. Right here’s an instance.

Think about you’re planning a company-wide promotional marketing campaign to spice up gross sales of a brand new product. You recognize out of your viewers analysis (step one of the media planning course of, in fact) that almost all of your audience are espresso drinkers based mostly in New York. On this case, you would possibly contemplate inserting a poster or billboard reverse each Starbucks or Dunkin’ to catch them whereas they’re sipping their morning matcha. And hey, possibly they’re scrolling by their social media feeds whereas they’re at it.

To amplify your marketing campaign, you possibly can dip into the most recent on-line media consumption developments to see which social media platforms your viewers is utilizing, then goal them with well timed social posts and paid media adverts encouraging them to purchase your product. Ensure the marketing campaign messaging and visuals are constant throughout owned media, earned media, and paid media for max influence.

Brief on time? Use our useful integration to outline your viewers in GWI, then plug them straight into your chosen advert platform (Google Adverts, TikTok Adverts and so forth). The right technique to create adverts audiences love and nail your social media advertising technique. You can even match up your current audience segments to make operating programmatic promoting in different platforms a breeze. Preferrred when you’re an promoting company.

And in case you have any unanswered questions, you possibly can faucet into customized analysis to laser focus your focusing on and sync that viewers information along with your current insights in-platform. Identical to the BBC did.

As these examples show, GWI helps you attain your viewers and different potential clients in a number of methods, backed by dependable insights housed in a single simple platform. Fairly neat.

The underside line is, infusing your media technique with demographics and psychographics is a strong technique to supercharge success. You recognize precisely the place to seek out your viewers, what pursuits them, and the best way to interact with them on their phrases. 

By understanding actual individuals on a deeper degree, you possibly can cowl all of the bases you’ll want to maximize marketing campaign influence. And that, merely, is media planning magic.