Has your company placed ads in newspapers or on the radio only to find that nobody responds? Marketing dollars should never be squandered! Many companies think they understand what media their clients listen to, read or watch and therefore believe that buying an ad or two is all they need to do to make the phone ring. If this has been your businesses approach, the frustration that follows when you receive the invoice for the ad is probably palpable. Here are a few tips to help focus your advertising strategy:
- What is the goal of the campaign? Does your company need to create awareness or drive sales? Each approach is different and the advertising content and media platform choice is very important in achieving the goal.
- Identify your audience. How old are they? Where do they live and how do they currently find you? What are their media habits?
- What is your budget? Electronic media like radio and TV are about frequency. If you can’t afford to do it right, then another strategy should be considered.
- How important is web traffic? Many media companies offer combination advertising programs to help you reach a larger audience and leverage online traffic.
- What are others in your industry doing with their advertising dollars? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. As long as your offer is unique, then sometimes you need to be right where the competition is!
While buying advertising isn’t rocket science, if these questions make your head spin, then you might want to hire a professional media planner. Media buying is both an art and a science and through the use of specialized media buying tools, an agency can typically offer good rates and hard data to support the recommendation. For more information on the media buying services at Winger Marketing visit our “what we do” section.