Media Buying is Easier Said than Done

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Mon, 10/18/2010

Faster than you can say the internet, todays available media have increased their complexity exponentially, splitting the marketing pie into a multitude of pieces. The good news is that you can target much more effectively. The bad news is you need to make sure you have done your homework so money is not wasted.

Traditional media, which in many cases has now blended into new media, makes it’s programming or editorial decisions based on business trends. If you are not tracking the trends, your choices of media may be made for the wrong reasons.

Every media has inventory to sell, whether its radio, cable or television time, print ads in newspapers or magazines, or internet sites with Pay-Per-Click or Search Engine Optimization options. In all cases, if the inventory be stagnant, you can bet the sales manager is offering packages to its sales staff to unload the inventory. This can be great if the inventory fits your target market. For example, if you are being offered programming for male dominated viewers, and you have products or services to advertise which best suit females, hang on to your money and wait for a better opportunity.

In addition, once you have made the choices of medium, it is equally as important to make sure your placement is not positioned where your chance of reaching your customer is anywhere from slim to none. In the newspapers you want to be above the fold of the paper, on the right side page and toward the front of the section that makes sense for your business. In magazines you want to be on the right side of the page. Radio should position you first in a break of five commercials, or equally distributed in all day-parts. Inserts in a newspaper may be better on Monday when the amount of inserts is next to nothing, rather than in a cluster of forty that appear on Sunday.

Make sure you are working with senior salespeople at your choice media. They know that getting you the best position will get you the best results, which will ultimately get them more business from you. Take the time to make the right decisions and you will soon see that all media can work. In any case, the process of media buying is more complex than ever, and yes, easier said than done.