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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Tracy Call
Jan-Feb 2023

Tips

1, Know what you’re looking for. Is personal brand awareness enough? Or are you looking for a specific count of clicks, phone calls or product sales in order to determine success?

2, Always customize media buys by first defining your campaign objectives, identifying specific target audiences, researching how they consume media and determining which channels reach them efficiently.

3, Media buying isn’t a transactional business; it’s relational. The best media buys come from quality relationships between media buyers and sellers.

4, Take the time to communicate discrepancies to media organizations if they don’t run as they are supposed to.

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Sweet marketing music

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Make media buying your secret weapon

When most small business owners think about advertising, they focus on what they want to say. But in a crowded and chaotic media environment where the average American is now bombarded with 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day, the “where” can be even more important than the “what.”

This fact should be a huge consideration as you allocate your 2023 marketing dollars. Gartner found that the average 2022 marketing budget comprised 9.5 percent of total corporate revenues, up nearly 50 percent from 2021. If you want to get maximum bang for those additional marketing bucks, then smarter, more strategic media buying is your best bet. 

Here are seven do’s and don’ts to get the most out of your annual media-buying budget. 

1. DO recognize the difference between “direct response” and “awareness.” 

We’ve run a billboard campaign for one of our clients stressing the tagline “Don’t Sell Without the Intel.” The owner knows it’s working because people walk up to him on the street and recite it back to him. His goal is personal brand awareness and the message and medium are delivering that perfectly. Is that what you’re looking for or do you need direct response: a certain number of clicks, phone calls, product sales or appointments? 

Media organizations measure their performance differently, so “awareness” vs. “direct response” informs both your message and how you approach your media buy. Will you be satisfied with the traditional ratings numbers that TV stations provide? Do you want the “impressions” favored by digital and social outlets? The specific demographics of over-the-top (OTT) media service? Or are you content with simple anecdotal evidence that people are paying attention? 

2. DON’T discount “traditional media.”

As evidenced last spring by the Harvard Business Review, the death of traditional media has been greatly exaggerated. In addition to print seeing increased spending, marketers are steadily realizing that their choice isn’t between TV, radio and print versus social and digital; it’s a “yes and” situation. In my experience, the best campaigns work across multiple mediums to reach consumers wherever they are during a typical day. That might mean serving them an OTT spot on their smart TV while they eat breakfast, a radio ad during their commute, Facebook ads during the day, and a commercial during their late local news broadcast. 

3. DON’T “spray and pray.” 

Some marketers assume that advertising is a numbers game like sales: The more ads you run, the more responses you’ll get. They saturate the market and then wonder why it doesn’t work. Always customize media buys by first defining your campaign objectives, identifying your specific target audiences, researching how those audiences consume media and determining which media channels reach them most efficiently.

For example, you might assume that the best radio strategy for your medical device is to run a spot on the most popular morning drive-time radio show. A little detective work might reveal that a DJ on the No. 2 show suffers from the exact condition your device solves. Doing a paid endorsement with that DJ will give you far better results than plastering a generic ad on the “higher-rated” station. 

4. DO recognize that relationships matter.

Media buying isn’t a transactional business; it’s relational. The best media buys come from quality relationships between media buyers and sellers — not from hardball tactics that burn bridges instead of building them. With an established level of trust, each side can help the other navigate potential issues and succeed. Over time, you might also earn better rates, more desirable ad spaces and more accurate measurement data. Make the effort to build relationships with media reps. It’s much more pleasant and productive than shaking them down for every last cent. 

5. DO make sure your media buys run like they’re supposed to. 

Once you finalize a media buy, you can assume that it’s going to run exactly as planned, right? Wrong. Your ad might use the wrong creative, run in a different time slot or not run at all. Most companies don’t have the time or resources to “reconcile” their ads (that’s the inside baseball term). And that’s a shame because they’re leaving money on the table. Take the time to communicate discrepancies to media organizations. They need to make you whole through pro bono spots or other added-value opportunities. 

6. DON’T play the short-term game. 

In our instant gratification world, companies often structure their media buys to deliver quick wins. This can look impressive on a Q4 financial chart, but short-term strategies fail to account for the constant ebbs and flows in results that ads generate. You’ll benefit more by taking a longer view, making more reasoned decisions, riding out the natural ups and downs of media, and managing for steady growth over time. 

7. DO pull in outside expertise when needed. 

As you’ve probably figured out from the previous six items, media buying is an increasingly complicated and specialized process. It can take years to master and it’s also constantly changing. If your company doesn’t have strong in-house media-buying expertise, then consider bringing in an outside professional. But keep in mind that this is also a complicated process. Your return on investment depends on the fee structure of that outside person or agency. Will all of your media-buying dollars go toward the actual buy or will the outside buyer take a huge cut? 

Today, more than ever, strategic media buying is your secret marketing weapon. Combined with the right messaging, it can deliver a one-two punch resulting in more awareness, leads, referrals, engagement and sales. 

I’ve seen lazy media plans lead to incredible waste. I’ve also seen smart media plans help regional businesses go national, enable private companies to go public and give entrepreneurs overnight name recognition. In a world where media buying can be your secret weapon, make sure you do it right.