The Right Medium For Your Advertising

Your choice of media for advertising depends on what you want to accomplish and who you wish to reach. Common sense will guide you in many instances, but the following information may help you better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various media.

Choosing the best media for your advertising depends on four factors:

Your objective. What do you want the advertising to accomplish and by when? Your advertising objectives should be clear and written. Writing them down forces you to be specific. These objectives should be included in your promotion plan. Most importantly, your advertising objectives should be stated in terms of advertising, not sales endpoints. Advertising can accomplish a shift in perception or create awareness, but - aside from specific adaptations of advertising - advertising alone can't create a sale. Many inexperienced advertisers think that Advertising = Sales, but that's an advertising myth.
Your target audience. Who and where are the people you want your message to reach? Take time to carefully define your audience. Certain media will have stronger appeal to some groups than others. Narrowing down who you really want to reach will help you make wise and cost-efficient media choices. For example, the provider of a pet product might advertise in magazines or newsletters for pet owners. Additionally, this business owner may look for special ad placements, such as placing an ad in a special, one-time feature section on pet ownership published by the local newspaper.
Your message and frequency. What do you want to say and how often do you need to say it? The media you choose should carry your message effectively. If you have lots of information, don't choose a 30-second radio spot. If you need to show your product in action, don't choose any print medium. If you need a message repeated with high frequency, for example "Sale ends in two days," you would not choose a weekly magazine where you would get one exposure, but you might choose radio where your ad could run periodically day and night.
Your budget. Your budget is probably the single most influential factor in your advertising plan. It might make all the sense in the world to place a TV ad or a full-color advertisement in a prominent magazine, but you must be able to afford it. Your budget should be established and written out. The advertising budget is part of your marketing plan budget. Buying just one TV spot is not an effective purchase since research shows that buyers need to be exposed to an ad several times before they take action on a message.

Dollars alone should not be the deciding factor in choosing your strategy. If you can afford 16 spots on one radio station, 10 on another or one half-page newspaper ad, you would not automatically opt for the 16 impressions. It's not that simple. You would also want to consider who listens or reads each medium, the timing of each medium, and the suitability of each choice for the message you want delivered, too.

In marketing this type of planning is called creative strategy. Once you have your creative strategy developed, you are ready to look at specific media.

Advertising is a message is delivered through mass media, as opposed to face-to-face, or voice-to-voice. So, the medium you choose for carrying your message is critical to the success of your advertising.

The following information will help you make good choices. But, always remember you should consider each ad message or ad campaign separately. Just because a medium makes sense for one message does not mean it is the best medium for you all the time.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of media: