The 5 commandments of media planning. 📜
“What is media planning?” we hear you ask. 🤔
To put it simply, media planning is the process of deciding when, where, how and why your brand shares media with consumers and potential consumers.
Through deciding the when, where, how and why, brands can begin to plan out and decide what gets shared on which channels and for what reasons. These reasons can be many, although reach, engagement, ROI and conversions tend to be chief among them.
Now, don’t let the definition fool you. Media planning is far from simple, and the process requires a lot of work and many moving parts.
But it doesn’t need to be so complicated. At least, not according to… well, us.
So, sit back, relax, and let us discover the 5 commandments of media planning (as decided by yours truly). 😜
Why is media planning important?
Through strategizing ahead of time, brands and advertiser’s can make decisions based on their knowledge of the most important part of the media plan: the target audience.
By developing media strategies that cater to the target audience, brands can use media planning to keep up with the latest online trends, determine important factors such as time of posting, frequency, and the content itself, to develop an online presence that perfectly targets potential customers, turning them into actual customers.
Why is media planning important? Because it gets results.
Media planning negates the need for any unforeseen costs or hurdles. With the right plan in place, brands can see amazing results.
Not only is media planning important, but it's important to get right.
5 Things you MUST do/consider when implementing a media plan
1. Who are we?
Commandment #1: Know Your Brand.
Who you are as a brand is a direct reflection of who your target audience is. And the best way to get to know both is through conducting thorough market research.
From here, the process of tailoring content to reflect your brand voice, values & message, and to appeal to your target audience, becomes much simpler.
Understanding these core principles such as where your target audience can be reached and how will make the whole media planning business a breeze.
2. What do we want?
After analysing where you are currently, establishing clear and definable goals will allow you to make the most of your media plan.
For example, some brands might need to focus on engagement, where others would prefer to focus on ROI. No matter what your goals are, set them, define them, and don’t forget them.
3. How will we get there?
So, you know who you are as a brand, you know who your audience is, and you know what your goals are.
Now is the time for planning.
In using the information from #1 and #2, you can set out a detailed plan about how to meet those objectives. Is Facebook Ads right for you, or perhaps an influencer marketing campaign?
A mixture of the two?
When you know who you are as a brand and who your target audience is and where they hang out, it becomes easy to plan how to reach them and smash through your targets.
4. Here we go…
Commandment #4: Do the Thing.
So, you’ve planned, strategized, and (possibly) made a thousand spreadsheets.
Now, comes the actual execution.
After making sure all parties are aware of their role in your plans, and how their role fits into the larger media plan.
5. Well, that went well!
Finally, evaluate your progress.
Don’t ask: what went well?
Ask: did we achieve our goals? Did our content add value and help us reach these goals?
When evaluating the results of a media plan, always link back to your goals.
Sure, maybe you improved your engagement, but if the engagement wasn’t your goal, then it is important to analyse and understand where could have been improved to meet your goals.
With these 5 commandments in mind, we hope you use them to develop a new (or improve existing) media planning strategy.
To learn more about Media Planning, get in contact today.
