Tag: advertisers

The Right Way to List Advertising Media, and Why it Matters

Posted on by Casey Pridemore

“If you build it, they will come” is a popular saying that originated in the film “Field of Dreams.” Over time, it’s become quite a popular idiom. While the quote certainly applies to building community structures or other brick-and-mortar establishments that meet a need, the same can’t always be said about an advertising campaign. With so many brands vying for high-value spots on coveted platforms, the competition is steep. Inopportune placements can lead to campaigns left unseen and ad spend squandered. Teams brand new to listing media might find themselves lamenting, “I need to figure out how to list my advertising media for a campaign!”

Media lists are a common tool used by veteran advertising professionals. These documents compile outlets where the content within a campaign could be listed for maximum reach and impact. They’re usually vertical-specific, with some outlets offering more efficiency on one platform than another. Compiling a listing resource for advertising media is a time-consuming but vital process that’s well worth the effort.

Why Media Lists Matter

The short answer is that an advertising media list is the blueprint for an effective advertising campaign. It helps brands guide investments toward outlets that best align with the campaign’s strategic goals and target demographics. Without a thoughtful list, brands risk allocating budgets to low-visibility channels that don’t deliver the necessary results. This ultimately diminishes the campaign’s impact and inflates the cost-per-acquisition.

Media lists also facilitate cross-functional alignment. They ensure that media buyers, creative teams, and analytics partners operate from a unified resource. Ensuring that everyone involved in the campaign has the same media list reduces inefficiencies and prevents overlap in placements.

Understanding Campaign Objectives and Audience Profiles

The first step in compiling a media list involves articulating precise campaign objectives. Is the goal driving brand awareness, generating leads, or boosting direct sales?

Developing comprehensive audience profiles that encompass demographics, psychographics, and media-consumption patterns is equally critical. What generations does the brand target? What is the customer base’s financial situation? What kind of media do they consume? Which brands do they already trust?

When forming a media list, brands should map out where their ideal customers spend time. For example, do they browse industry publications, social channels, or connected-TV platforms for news?

This is also the time to think about the media mix for listing the campaign. While most marketing teams focus on digital media these days, some brands can benefit from listing their advertising media in print publications as well. This is especially true for brands in industries that regularly print popular trade publications.

The next step is matching outlets to audience behaviors. This lays the groundwork for an efficient, targeted media list.

Researching and Evaluating Media Outlets

After establishing a framework, it’s time to meticulously harvest data on each prospective outlet.

This is best done by leveraging industry reports. Gartner can be a great first step. Their insights on digital advertising trends help a brand gauge a channel’s technological sophistication and targeting capabilities. Cross-reference these findings with broader market forecasts, such as Deloitte’s Global Channel Opportunity Framework, which provides a matrix for evaluating digital versus brick-and-mortar viability in specific regions.

Next, supplement that information with editorial research. The Content Marketing Institute stresses the importance of understanding each outlet’s content style and audience expectations to ensure brand voice consistency. Browse thought-leadership pieces on sites like Forbes to identify emerging niche publications that resonate with your target demographic. While there, note factors like subject-matter authority and journalistic credibility.

Finally, pilot smaller buys or test placements as HubSpot recommends with its media-planning templates. This allows brands to validate performance hypotheses and refine a media list before scaling to full budgets.

Building and Structuring A Media List

With the research stage done, it’s time to consolidate findings into a centralized database. Ideally, this database will capture key attributes for each outlet. This includes audience reach, pricing models, historical performance, and alignment with campaign objectives. MarketingProfs suggests integrating qualitative notes to enrich quantitative metrics and support informed decision-making.

Corporate teams often organize media lists by vertical or platform category, such as digital display, video, print, and out-of-home. This organization enables rapid scenario modeling and budget reallocation as market conditions evolve.

A brand’s media list influences how it advertises its campaign. Strategically building out that list will ensure that the listing goes smoothly and reaches the target audience.

Platform Prioritization

Not all media outlets contribute equally to campaign success. Adweek’s analysis of high-impact CTV campaigns demonstrates that layering programmatic video with premium streaming services can significantly amplify engagement. This is especially true when that layering is balanced against cost considerations.

Forrester’s research further emphasizes the convergence of media scale and skill, advocating for partnerships that combine wide-reach inventory with sophisticated targeting capabilities to drive efficiency and lift. By creating scoring criteria such as cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), click-through rates, and conversion lifts, teams can rank outlets objectively and allocate spend to the highest-yield opportunities.

Monitoring Performance

A media list is not static. It needs to evolve in tandem with campaign results and market dynamics. Routine performance reviews will reveal which outlets exceed or underperform expectations. Dig deep into this practice for the best results. It should incorporate metrics from ad servers, analytics platforms, CRM systems, and more.

Feedback loops that adjust bidding strategies and creative rotations in real time ensure that high-performing media placements receive continued investment. Meanwhile, underperformers are deprioritized.

Advertising Campaigns on Brand Platforms

With a media list created, how does a brand actually advertise its campaign beyond listing? There are a few ways to spread the word.

Email marketing blasts capture those who are already interested enough in a brand’s messaging to have provided their email addresses. Adding sharing widgets in emails and on landing pages lets users spread the word about a campaign with just a tap, and an action widget prompts new display windows or tabs to take consumers toward the next step of converting.

Updating social media platforms and the brand’s landing pages will draw the eyes of new guests and organic traffic. Influencers, on the other hand, are considered part of the campaign itself rather than a way to list.

Structure Makes a Difference

Mastering how to list advertising media for a campaign requires a structured, data-centric approach that involves defining objectives, profiling audiences, evaluating platform performance, and continually refining a brand’s given media list based on empirical results.

For corporate marketing teams, this disciplined process safeguards ad budgets, strengthens cross-departmental collaboration, and elevates campaign outcomes. By adopting these best practices, brands can precisely navigate the crowded media ecosystem and drive the high-impact results that today’s competitive landscape demands.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an example of a media plan in advertising?

When a brand has a media plan, it uses the media channels of its choice to promote a particular campaign. For example, it might use social media platforms or other advertising media to spread awareness.

What are the 5 M’s of advertising?

Mission, Money, Message, Media, and Measurement are commonly called the 5 M’s of advertising. These principles help guide marketing professionals as they create campaigns. The 5 M’s can also be applied to listing advertising media. Brands should focus on listing in publications that align with their mission and message on media platforms their target audience frequents, that are affordable given the money they have to spend on listings, and provide ways to measure the results.

Organic vs Inorganic Marketing: Which Strategy is Right for Each Brand?

Posted on by Robin Zabiegalski

Marketing used to be straightforward. There were only a handful of ways for a brand to promote its products and services. Those days are long gone. Thanks to Beyonce’s internet, brands can reach consumers anytime and anywhere in the world. However, to do this effectively, brands must decide whether organic or inorganic marketing or a combination of the two is best for their business. 

Here are some details on each strategy, which ones work for different kinds of brands, and advice on how to choose the marketing strategy that fits the brand.

What Are Organic and Inorganic Marketing?

Understanding the benefits and disadvantages of each marketing strategy is the first step in deciding which one works best for a brand. Both organic and inorganic marketing have significant benefits, but they each have disadvantages as well. Here’s a breakdown of the difference between the strategies. 

Organic Marketing

Organic marketing refers to any form of marketing that does not have a budget behind it. The most common and familiar form of organic marketing is search engine optimization, or SEO. When brands optimize the content on their website, blogs, and social media pages so search engine algorithms favor them, they’re using an organic marketing strategy. 

This strategy also encompasses marketing campaigns built and distributed via zero-cost platforms, like social media. These campaigns rely on consistent, aligned marketing messages delivered over time to build an audience and engage with that audience. For example, a brand may start an Instagram page and post photos and videos emphasizing its values. This content could include images of quotes, relevant memes, videos of employees, infographics related to causes they care about, or anything representative of their ethos.

Organic marketing on social media can also include information about new products, special sales, and events the brand is participating in or hosting. However, focusing entirely on products and sales isn’t an effective social media strategy. Today’s consumers are more moved to purchase when they know about a brand’s story and its ethics than when it’s having a sale.

The downside of organic marketing is that it takes time to deliver results. Increasing search rankings from SEO efforts or significantly growing a brand’s follower base on social media through organic content can take months.

However, organic marketing has a significant advantage. It helps brands build a loyal audience base. More about this later.

Inorganic Marketing

Inorganic marketing refers to marketing campaigns that require a budget. Examples of inorganic marketing include paid ads on search engines and social media platforms, influencer campaigns, display ads, affiliate marketing, and search engine marketing campaigns. 

These paid strategies are highly targeted and meant to drive high-quality leads to the brand. While organic marketing focuses on building a broad audience over time, inorganic marketing focuses on acquiring people within the target audience who are ready to take a conversion action. These actions could include signing up for a newsletter or email list, accessing an exclusive limited-time deal, or completing a purchase.

The obvious disadvantage of inorganic marketing is that it’s expensive. Brands must be willing to allocate a decent portion of the marketing budget to these campaigns. The advantage is also obvious, though. Inorganic marketing attracts customers who are most likely to convert.  More about this below.

Is Organic or Inorganic Marketing Best For Business? 

This is actually a trick question! An effective marketing strategy shouldn’t just include organic or inorganic marketing; it should consist of both. The key is figuring out how to deploy each strategy in a way that makes sense for the brand and optimizes advertising spend. 

Organic Marketing is Time Intensive, But it’s Time Well Spent

Creating high-quality content requires time. So, organic marketing not only takes longer to show results, but it also takes time on the front end.

Because consistency is the key to organic marketing, brands need to invest in people who create and distribute high-quality content regularly. This might involve posting to each social media platform 3 to 5 times per week, or even daily, creating a blog post every week, and sending out an email newsletter every week. Yes, it’s a lot of work. However, organic marketing is the best way for a brand to get its marketing messages to its target audience in an unobtrusive, authentic way that builds consumer trust.

Brands can steadily grow an audience that resonates with their message or seeks a solution to the problem they address. Organic marketing can also help a company establish itself as a credible resource.

Over time, effective organic marketing attracts consumers who become invested in the brand. Hopefully, this emotional investment means they’ll repeatedly return to the brand’s content. An average consumer typically encounters a brand or product several times before they’re moved to make a purchase decision. So, the more a customer interacts with a brand’s content, the more likely they are to convert. Brand loyalty, built through compelling content, can also drive repeat business.

While effective, organic marketing is slow. As social media’s algorithms become more competitive and the digital space welcomes more players, it can be very difficult to compete for viewers’ attention. It may take months of weekly podcasts or weeks of daily social media posts to finally reach the desired consumer.

Although it requires time and effort, successful organic marketing is far from impossible. A well-planned, long-term strategy with realistic expectations for the results will make organic marketing work for nearly any business. 

Inorganic Marketing is Capital Intensive, But Worth the Spend

Inorganic marketing leverages data from digital behavior, allowing it to deliver fast results. This highly targeted method uses audience insights to place content in front of the right people at the right time. The objective of inorganic marketing is visibility, which makes it great for campaigns advertising time-sensitive promotions or events.

This marketing strategy is also highly effective at capturing people who are looking for a specific product or service. Paid advertisements that appear on search engines when people search for products or services, or on sites where people read product reviews, reach customers further down the purchase pipeline.

Although inorganic marketing produces noticeable results quickly, it is costly. Companies often find themselves burning through ad spend budgets more rapidly than expected without receiving the results they’d hoped for. So, inorganic marketing campaigns must be carefully planned and budgeted before rolling out. 

Another thing to remember about inorganic marketing is that the results usually cease after the budget is cut. Financial investment is required to sustain engagement levels, so it’s a good idea to plan for short bursts of engagement rather than expecting that level of engagement to continue long-term. 

When brands execute a well-thought-out strategy for inorganic marketing, they usually find that the campaign’s return on investment is well worth the spend.

Blending Organic and Inorganic Marketing

Both organic and inorganic marketing have their place in any brand’s marketing strategy. Organic marketing builds long-term brand loyalty and credibility but takes time, while inorganic marketing drives quick results but requires ongoing investment. The most effective approach requires a strategy that leverages the advantages of each while minimizing the disadvantages.

By understanding the audience, analyzing data, and refining strategy, brands can create a marketing plan that balances cost efficiency with growth, ensuring scalability and lasting success.

Rules of the Road for AI Content Development

Posted on by jiten

Rules of the Road for AI Content Development

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the buzzword of the minute.  It is being used in many ways and in many aspects of life. Recently, digital media publishers have been more transparent about their use of AI to create content. For example, the Associate Press uses AI to write some of its news stories. Forbes uses an AI-powered platform called Bertie to recommend article topics for its contributors based on their writing history and performance. Even The New York Times uses AI to recommend articles to its readers based on their reading history and interests. They also use AI to help with their moderation efforts on social media platforms.

If you are planning to use AI to develop content for your digital platforms, here are some important things to consider before you start:

  1. Set clear goals: Before using AI to create website content, it’s important to define clear goals for the content. For example, are you trying to increase website traffic, improve engagement, or drive conversions? Understanding your goals can help you to choose the right AI tools and techniques for achieving them.
  2. Use high-quality data: AI tools rely on high-quality data to generate accurate and relevant content. This means that you should use reliable data sources and ensure that the data is up-to-date and relevant to your target audience.
  3. Train your AI models: To improve the accuracy of your AI-generated content, you may need to train your AI models on specific topics or writing styles. This can involve feeding the AI models with large amounts of relevant data and fine-tuning the algorithms to produce content that meets your specific needs.
  4. Combine AI with human input: While AI can be useful for generating large volumes of content quickly, it’s important to remember that it’s not a substitute for human creativity and judgment. Human writers and editors should work together with AI tools to ensure that the content is high-quality, accurate, and aligned with your brand voice and messaging.
  5. Monitor and evaluate results: As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to monitor and evaluate the results of your AI-generated content. This can involve tracking metrics such as website traffic, engagement, and conversions, and making adjustments to your AI models and content strategy as needed.
  6. Ensure ethical use of AI: Finally, it’s important to ensure that your use of AI for website content creation is ethical and transparent.

 

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