Have you placed all your eggs in one basket?
With the rise of social media, we see more and more businesses turning to Social Media to get their message out there and to increase their brand awareness, launch a new product or to just engage with their target market without thinking of their Media Mix.
For this we applaud those that are looking to find new ways to engage and communicate and to involve their clients. However recently we are seeing more and more businesses relying on just Social Media to get their message out there. When this happens it’s a case of STOP as Social Media is not going to solve all your problems just on its own and show us your strategy and plan.
Marketing and Business Plan
Now don’t get me wrong Social Media obviously has its place and is one of the best ways to reach your target market and still one of the most cost effective, but where does it fit into your marketing plan?
Marketing plan you say, what’s that? You would be amazed at the amount of people that haven’t sat down and put together a media and marketing plan as part of their original business plan when they first look to start up the business. New Zealand has a high rate of new businesses failing in the first 12 months and a lot of this is down to failing to plan.
Many businesses haven’t even sat down and put together a business plan looking at their market, target market, competition, vision, marketing and advertising and revenue etc. If you are one of these as you sit reading this then do me a favour and stop everything and go and put a plan together of how you are going to achieve your business goals.
Starting a business is not a case of being Kevin Costner in Filed of Dreams where it’s a case of “build it and they will come” (I know I’m showing my age right there in that one statement).
Within your business plan needs to be a robust section on marketing and advertising and how you are going to take your message to market and what percentage of your profits you are going to need to put to one side to achieve this. If it doesn’t then you are going to end up like so many that turn to Social Media, start posting every now and again and then sit there in the hope that people will purchase and when they don’t then tell everyone that Social Media doesn’t work for their market.
So where do you start?
The first starting point is to understand your customer and to define your market, then research them carefully to learn what they value and what their habits are.
This is where your avatar should come in (no not some blue alien from another planet). Your avatar should be a clear picture of who your ideal customer is, give them a name if you want to and have a picture of them on your office wall showing that its Jo who is ex old with 2.4 kids and drives a blah, blah and likes to eat out as well as ……..
You may well end up with a couple of avatars for different areas of your business or for different packages or products which is fine.
Once you have this clear picture in your head and you’ve done your research, which should include doing research from those that are maybe already using you then you can start to put together a media mix based on what they listen to or read or watch etc. It will also give you a clear indication as to which Social Media platforms you should be on to reach your market. You can then start to look at the cost to advertise on the relevant platforms, which then means that you can start looking at your budget spend for your marketing and advertising.
So, what is the Mix?
The first mistake to avoid is what I call the blunder bust tactic, which is to basically take the scatter gun approach and place your message across just about every form of media you can. To give you an idea there are around 90+ different ways to advertise and get your message out there in the market place, so don’t go there. You need to go with the .22 approach, which is to hit your target right between the eyes with targeted and well-placed media messages on relevant platforms for your avatars.
Look at what media works well together and compliments each other and pick 3 – 4 platforms that you can monitor and you know will get in front of your target market. Social Media should obviously be one of those that you pick, so a good example might be Social Media, Radio and Outdoor Media or Social Media, Radio, Digital and TV etc, etc.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
You’ve heard this saying plenty of times and it applies perfectly to advertising, Marketing and Media. You simply cannot place all of your time and dollars into one avenue and platform and expect results as there is no way that just one form of media will hit your target market, no matter who you are trying to reach. I cannot emphasize this enough and those that know me will tell you that it is something that I’ve been preaching for my whole career.
So, put simply, make a plan, research your target market, get a budget set in place and then take your message to market using the right platforms for your clients.
Want to know more on how to put a media mix together? Call our team at Live Wire Media today
