What is a media plan and how to create one for your business

Your business has great potential but you don’t know how to advertise it? Take note: you need a media plan. Its purpose is to structure marketing actions strategically, so that all campaigns have a good return.

More than this, this planning also helps to keep outreach initiatives interacting with the business identity. After all, some brands have authenticity crisis caused by the urge to attract consumers. Want to know more? Keep reading!

What is a media plan?

There were times when advertising a product or service was done solely and exclusively on the radio, on TV or on billboards.

Today, we have various platforms for marketing campaigns that can help businesses achieve results that are more targeted to their goals and audience.

However, how can we avoid getting lost amid so many options provided by the digital transformation?

Media plans are used precisely to keep things under control! They determine:

• Strategic goals;
• Approach types;
• Audience specs;
• Media vehicles to be used;
• Initiative planning;
• Budget for each action;
• Campaigns in each channel, etc.

In other words, a media plan is a real map of promotional and communication actions of the business. The idea is to reach the public, filter the options that are most consistent with the brand’s identity, and strive for efficiency – taking advantage of the available resources, be them human, financial or material.

What should be analyzed when creating a media plan?

To build a well-structured media plan, it  needs to be based on a number of analysis and considerations. See what to consider at that point.

1. Market

What is your business segment? Which are the main trends and innovations in this area? Is there any detail to be taken into account? What is the competition behavior about campaigning?

2. Branding

Branding refers to your business identity management – from the colors used in your logo to the positioning of the brand regarding current issues, key values, and tone of voice used during interactions with the audience.

3. Audience

The media plan should also focus on the characteristics of the audience you want to reach. After all, the purpose is reaching and making an impact on them. Therefore, think about advertising channels and campaign strategies aligned with the expectations of your products and services consumers.

4. Budget

Defining a budget is crucial as this “limitation” will draw your possibilities. 

Additionally, being absolutely sure where to possibly invest is also a great stimulus for creativity – a very interesting trait in the media plan.

5. Strategy

Another fundamental point is analyzing what are the goals of your strategy. Typically, the media serves to:

• Reach: Increase the percentage of audience impacted by your products or services.
• Frequency: Increase the audience interaction with your business.
• Continuity: Reinforce communication for the continuing nutrition of your audience.

How to develop an excellent media plan?

After thinking about all these questions, you have a good basis to structure your media plan and bring it as closely as possible to the profile of the business, the audience, the market and its possibilities at that point.

So, get to work!

1. Build a briefing

The first step is building a briefing, which literally means “instruction”. In other words, it’s a roadmap of actions. Make sure to:

• Describe and set forth the life cycle of your product or service;
• Your position in the competitive market before the media plan
• Identify the main direct and indirect competitors
• Provide your marketing (clear and measurable) goals in the short, medium and long term
• Inform the strategy coverage (local, national, international)
• Give the scope of the main desired campaigns
• Determine the broadcast period
• Define the amount available for each initiative
• Provide a description of the persona, among other relevant information.

2. Choose the media vehicles

As your briefing develops, choose also the vehicles to be used in your media plan. Don’t forget to take your business and your audience profile into account! The main ones are:

• TV and radio
• External media (billboards, posters, plaques)
• Digital media (social media, blogs, video platforms);
• Magazines and newspapers.

After that, customize all the chosen media so that they dialog with your brand identity and defined strategy.

3. Build a calendar

Insertion refers to a promotional or marketing initiative. Some examples are: A TV commercial, a social media post, a YouTube ad, etc.

Your calendar should contain the best frequency and quantity of actions, and the main hours of interaction with the audience, considering every insertion, vehicle and campaign.

4. Create coherent content

Everything has been planned, right? So, it’s time to really get your hands dirty and start creating your materials. At this point, don’t lose your focus from the analysis criteria that we discussed – like branding and public.

Ideally, all content, ads and other insertions speak the brand’s voice, serve to create connections with potential customers and also provide a competitive position in relation to the market.

5. Track the results

Now that the plan’s ready, all you have to do is make sure your material insertion is following the calendar, right? Wrong!

Besides keeping your media channels moving, it’s essential to use metrics to analyze the results and change the media plan as needed. After all, construction never ends! Keep an eye on:

• Coverage of propagated actions
• Frequency in which your ads or posts receive some kind of interaction;
• The cost per thousand (CPM), which is the investment required for every thousand impressions of your audience
• The cost per point (CPP), which refers to the amount spent to achieve a given briefing purpose
• Traffic and conversion indicators, among other metrics

This is to find out what is working and what the weaknesses of your media plan are.

This way, you’ll be able to increasingly refine the tactics used and enhance your results. The idea involves not only the first definitions, but the capacity to adequate your plans to audience and market expectations.

What is the importance of a media plan?

As we have seen, a media plan brings together all the steps to promote a business – in traditional and digital media. This planning is essential for consistency in marketing and promotion campaigns.

The main advantages that stand out are the strengthening of the brand’s identity and better use of its resources.

Now that you know its importance and how to create a media plan, find out how inbound marketing strategies can boost your business!