Choosing your media mix is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a digital marketer, so there’s always a little extra pressure to balance your spend. Between ad campaigns, social platforms, and community marketing, your options are nearly endless. Make your media mix work for you, instead of becoming a slave to your budget, by testing into the mix that works for your customers and continuously iterating toward improvement. Trust us, optimizing your media isn’t as difficult as it seems.
1. Prioritize your media mix:
The first thing is to realize (and accept) that your team can’t do everything at once. And that’s okay. Even the biggest companies can’t cover every channel and every demographic perfectly. If they could, there would never be any competition. What you can do is flawlessly prioritize your media. If you already have data around how your social platforms and channels are performing, choose your top one or two platforms and invest there. If you are just beginning to optimize your mix, see where your competition has a strong presence and begin exploring there. As your return on investment and company grows, you can expand and test into more channels. Also recognize that it isn’t just about prioritizing where you post. Make sure you prioritize your time as well: spend 50% of your time creating content and contributing in your communities, spend 30% of time engaging with your various channels, and 20% of your time finding content and scheduling shared posts.
2. Use your media mix to set and measure goals:
Improve your media mix by using it to set and measure goals, and then by refining your spend and media presence accordingly. Always include a call to action (CTA) in your posts and digital advertisements. Ideally, you should choose a different CTA for each channel or ensure you have clear tracking tools in place so you can determine which mix performs best. Tracking the performance of your mix helps you forecast goals for the upcoming quarter and year, lets you test different engagement methods to discover what your audience needs, and helps you refine your creative approach. In this way, your media mix becomes a vehicle to generate business and to align your team around common goals and business needs.
3. Diversify your media mix:
Once your media mix is performing solidly, it’s time to begin diversifying. Use old content that you previously ran as a print ad or repurpose social media content for a digital ad. You might even consider exposing other peoples’ content as long as it does not pose any competitive risk and you have their permission. Swap content across channels and track which types of content perform best in each. A great piece of content or creative campaign may perform tremendously on a landing page with a paid spend, but it may struggle as a social ad. Most times, discovering what will work best, and where, starts with a hunch. Test into these ideas in small percentages so you never risk your core business, but never be afraid to try new things.
4. Don’t forget to listen:
Last, but never least, don’t forget to listen. Social listening is an important part of how to determine your strategy. Invest in listening tools, partner with your local Orlando digital marketing agency, or scour your media channels for customer feedback or key data points. Remember, your media mix is first and foremost for your customers, so letting them guide you is the most important key to balancing your media mix like a pro.
Give us a call today for an assessment of your current media mix and how you can begin optimizing your time and money based on your business needs.
