If you are contemplating using different media such as Social Media, TV, Radio or the Internet within your advertising mix and don’t know where to start, getting an overview of each media form, its reach and effectiveness should help you narrow your options and define your needs.
When buying advertising, you are trying to reach a specific audience, your audience. You must understand what media may best suit your product or service. You also need to know what media is most effective to convey your message and reach your goals.
Ad Agencies of all sizes help companies like yours with branding, advertising, marketing, production and editing, media strategy, negotiating, planning and scheduling on all forms of media. The sections below will assist you by providing useful information on the various media used in advertising.
Television
How can you not mention TV when it comes to commercials. There is nothing more memorable and effective than TV advertising. (Think of the Super Bowl).
Why TV? Well TV for one captivates your attention, allows for text, sound, speech, video, emotions and builds awareness. You can really convey your message in this medium.
Best of all, 99% of us have at least one TV, making Television the imminent choice for Corporations small, medium and large.
Americans watch an amazing 35 hours of TV per week and is still on the rise. Most business owners tend to think that TV is just for very successful corporations with unlimited budgets. Not true.
TV is the undisputed advertising king. Nothing beats the credibility and power of TV.
Examples of this medium: cable TV, satellite TV, broadcast TV (local and national)
Radio
Radio has a slight advantage over print because it conveys to its listeners the exact emotions missing in print.
You may have professional voice overs, music, sound effects, grab the person’s interest. With radio, there is a good chance that your audience is doing something else than just listening, such as working or driving which might make it a bit more difficult to grab their attention.However, thru frequency, you can get results at a fair price. Radio stations are ready to barter or negotiate prices much more than other media.
One major advantage over print is that commuters in major traffic hot spots across the United States will tune in while driving, giving you a captive audience for the drive home and work scenario. In some cases, listeners may also tune in during work.
Examples of this medium: locally broadcast radio, nationally syndicated programs
Print media
Print is available everywhere and at what seems like reasonable prices. Not necessarily. Print is actually one of the more expensive forms of advertising out there. That is from the CPM (cost per thousand) point of view.
The disadvantages of print are that the number of thousand readers are greatly overstated and you also do not know if the intended 2 line ad, to full page ad, will be viewed or even read. The readership might be targeted when it comes to some specialty magazines, however the CPM is very high even with a diluted number of readers.
In essence, if you calculate the real number of subscribers that took time to read your ad versus the number of prints, your CPM might actually surprise you, negatively. Another disadvantage of print is the obvious fact that it is static, therefore not conveying any emotions, music or voice and it is difficult to grab your attention thru the clutter of all the other ads in the same page and finally you cannot show how to use your product or how your service works.
If you own a garage, your service is clearly understood from everyone as to what a garage accomplishes, however it doesn’t set you apart as to how your garage is different. Readers can’t get the feel for the level of customer service they might experience. In essence, you’re relying solely on words and colour schemes.
Examples of this medium: newspapers, magazines, posters, flyers, direct mailings, coupons, billboards, kiosks
Search Engines
What if a potential customer needs your product or service and they don’t know that you exist? Well, welcome to Google, the biggest search engine in the world. Make sure your website is optimised for Google, as they dominate the search engine market.
If your website is search engine optimised (SEO), you will have customers finding you based on keywords in your text and in your advertisements using Adwords. With Google, there are two relevant search results. One is paid advertising, based on selected keywords for which you have bid on in order to appear in front of the pack.
The other is based on an organic result (unpaid). Do both and you win. Once again, most businesses will pay an ad agency or SEO company to optimise their brand’s website, and devise an internet strategy for accrued visibility and sales.
You may also have your advertisement appear on other sites pertaining to your field or relative to your product and benefit from the traffic those sites already generate. You really only have to concentrate on Google and maybe Bing and Yahoo search results. The other search engines are simply too small.
Examples of this medium: Google, Bing
Social Media
If you haven’t set up your social media’s presence yet, well, get prepared, since this is a new must. Most of the fortune 500 companies have their YouTube channels, corporate Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, to name the 3 most popular. These time-consuming tools enable corporations to keep in contact with their fans (customers) and try to gain new ones thru referrals and word of mouth (forwarded You Tube videos, retweets, LIKE this website, and so on).
So it’s time consuming and costs money, however is it worth it? It certainly seems like it, based on most recent numbers that indicate immense growth for this sector.
Companies have a new playing ground to fight for ad space, airtime, customers attention, customers new online spending habits, globalisation, new emerging markets, etc. A whole new frontier to conquer.
Facebook has more unique daily visitors than the USA has total population. However, you do need to have dedicated personnel and or an ad agency or other specialists to help you maintain your brands visibility and integrity. You will need to invest time and money.
Examples of this medium: Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Delicious, and Linked-In
Word of Mouth
You’re not in control of what will be shared, positive or negative, through word of mouth. This makes word of mouth very powerful and influential. It’s reach depends on how many customers you service and how many will spread the word. An outgoing or socially savvy person can sway the opinions of many people with whom they associate.
As an example, restaurants work really hard to spread the word of mouth thru tasty meals and good service. Studies indicate that for every positive review spread through word of mouth seven new customers are gained. However, 21 potential new customers are lost for every negative feedback.
Facebook can be a good place to create a corporate page for your business and generate word of mouth advertising. Your followers can like or dislike you and it is usually used by businesses to maintain client relationships (and not so much to acquire new customers). Your main advantage is that your fan base can be identified and sent rebates or coupons or other promotional information before any other targeted customer. Creating Facebook pages is a good technique for developing brand loyalty.