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It was once said that doing the same thing over and over yet expecting a different result was the definition of insanity. In other words, if you want to get results you have never before achieved, you have to create a media plan that is unlike any you have tried before. Set yourself up for success by completing the following five best practices for developing a sensational media plan.
1. Document Your Business Budget and Goals
Remember, without a clear plan you won’t end up anywhere significantly better than you are at right now. Therefore, it’s imperative that your first step in this process is creating SMART goals. Use the anagram SMART to help you remember these individual goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound goals. Make sure you document your budget and your goals, so you are able to track your ROI down the road.
2. Determine Your Target Persona’s
The next best practice for creating a functional and effective media plan is to create your target persona. This is a fictional representation of your ideal customer toward which you are aiming your marketing efforts towards. You will likely have a few target persona’s and not just one. Define your target audience by brainstorming about your buyer persona’s and then tailor your content towards them through targeted ads.
3. Solidify Your Buyer’s Journey
Another way to quantify this step is by defining your buyer’s journey. In other words, this is the customer’s path to purchase. It involves them researching a problem, finding a solution and then choosing a solution for their problem. There are specific stages of the typical buyer’s journey, which are listed below:
- Unawareness
- Awareness Stage
- Consideration Stage
- Decision Stage
Keep in mind that your customers today have more access to information than ever before and can therefore compare your products to others on the market fairly easily. This also gives you a great opportunity, though, to anticipate your customer’s questions and inquiries about your products and go ahead and answer these questions or provide these solutions within your marketing efforts.
4. Define Your Message
Your marketing message matters greatly. Therefore, you must take great care in defining your specific message. What is it about your brand that stands out from the rest? Remember, your customers are likely seeing hundreds of ads a day (some of which could be from your competitors), so what makes yours meaningful and memorable? Consider these points and define your message more completely.
5. Automate Your Marketing to Fuel Sales
Finally, the last best practice when designing an effective media plan is to automate your marketing to fuel sales. One way to go about this is to utilize inbound marketing strategies. Inbound marketing can be described as a marketing strategy that draws customers to your services or products through high-value content. These methods include but are not limited to blogging, email marketing, and premium content creation.
Of course, automation is not only found within inbound marketing. In fact, though the two are both marketing strategies, they are basically opposite sides of the same coin. Marketing automation often includes the use of software that is designed to replace manual processes with automated solutions. This means you could automate other elements of your marketing strategy, such as social media posts and more.
Bottom Line: You Need to Have a Plan
Define a clear, strategic direction that will ensure you have an effective marketing plan that follows your personas through campaigns and is time-bound and budget-driven. Contact our team of marketing experts to learn more or to get started on your plan of action today!
