Where is the Best Place to Buy Media? It’s a question that I get a lot from various product marketers or faith based organizations desiring better understand how to gain wider exposure and effective response. It’s not always a simple or easy answer, put another way, it all depends!
One factor depends on your specific campaign goals and objectives. Are you looking to achieve a positive ROI on your media investment? Is it a campaign designed to achieve Lead Generation or is a spot campaign created as a branding tool or awareness campaign with some type of back end development program attached to it? Goals and objectives will help determine a strategic media plan and help save budget. A media buy designed to be effective in both the testing phase and roll out of any campaign.
For targeting specific demographic profiles, we look at each network or media outlet accordingly to see if those target demos match up more effectively than do others. Does the media outlet skew older or younger? More Women or Men? Does it truly fit our target demographics? To profile your best target demo you can use a geo-demographic solution to gain valuable insight into demo and psychographic characteristics which will allow for pinpoint targeting.
Another important factor is to consider where your target demo is most likely watch or listening to certain programs, dayparts or channels. If it’s a longform (30 min program) campaign, consider adjacencies to shows who might match your target demo that would be good candidates to consider.
Competitive analysis is also a good tool to factor into the decision. When you find certain programs are airing and re-airing on a regular basis in the same programming on same networks, then consider buying around those programming areas or dayparts. If it’s working for the competitor, it may work for you.
Sometimes the question, “Where’s the best place to buy media?” can also mean “Where is the biggest bang for my buck?” Again, this all depends on predetermined ROI goals and campaign objectives. For example, an often overlooked area of opportunity when considering certain product categories for men is late night or even overnight buys. They can be the most cost effective and best return areas to place the media. Rates are usually cheaper and inventory is more flexible.
The real answer to this question is “do your homework to find out.” There is no one-size fits-all media outlet. Each program and campaign has unique elements to it and in order to find your best media fit, it takes a lot of experience and research.
We work with a wide-variety of clients representing diverse organizations, from product sales, to humanitarian causes and ministries. One thing they all have in common is the need to constantly test in order to improve results and grow.
The Direct Response TV industry knows the importance of “Testing” very well…from a media perspective you must be willing to “test, test, test” before you can “buy, buy, buy”! Most importantly you must “test” in order to be most cost effective and be able to deliver the strongest ROI’s possible.
What does ‘Testing” look like?
It depends on the type of media and programs being tested, but for example, you can test different levels of offers, different types of “asks” depending upon the organization and mission, testing different “CTA’s” (Call to action’s), different media outlets, different call scripts and so on.
One of the ways this is done is testing in a controlled environment or a “model”. This typically means testing in a measured capsule or period of time. On TV networks or stations can mean testing programs on those media outlets that have proven effective for similar types of programs, products, ministries or humanitarian organizations. Various controls can be used, including competitive analysis, and viewer demographic profiles.
The standard protocol for a test is a two week window for media, typically best on a limited number of media outlets, a separate 800# of each media outlet is a must with all calls and orders coming into one 800# and call center. Sometimes, you can test different Call Centers to see who will deliver the best results for that particular type of offer.
Results are collected and then concluded based on the target ROI goals and objects of each offer or organization. Target ROI’s are subject to different criteria and based on the uniqueness of each program, offer and ministry. Newton Media has developed a break-even analysis model to help guide our clients.
Another area to test is the Web or Landing Page for each offer presented on Television or Radio. Some campaigns are focused on driving viewers and listeners to the web to order products, or make donations. Some use it as a secondary outlet to Television and give more detailed information about the product, offer or mission. We are beginning to see a greater number percentage of income through the web than ever before, in some cases, as much as 40% of response can come from web activity.
As we move into a new year, we look to continued ways to improve results for our clients, and so the testing continues…
Steve Newton is the founder and CEO of Newton Media, a full service media planning and buying company headquartered in Virginia with offices in Dallas. Founded in 1995, Newton Media’s team of seasoned experts has become a leader in both Ministry and Direct Response TV and radio.
As a CFO, COO and President, I have spent millions of dollars over the years trying to get people to respond to marketing campaigns, and have made my share of costly mistakes. The lessons I learned are appropriate whether an organization sells products or is looking for donations.
Here are seven valuable lessons that can have a huge impact on your top line:
1) You can’t just throw money at a problem and expect results
More money in marketing isn’t the answer to solving top line revenue problems. A company I helped found competed with doctors for cosmetic procedures. A doctor’s wife or office manager would see our ads in the paper or on TV and convince the doctor to throw a chuck of money into advertising. The doctor got little results and soon gave up on advertising; while our phone rang with new prospects saying they saw our ad (we were not where they thought they saw us). Therefore, the doctor’s ad became our ad. The remaining marketing sins will explain why.
2) If there is no plan, then plan to fail
The doctor had no plan. He was simply copying what we were doing or taking the easiest route to spend his budget or following advice from a friend or associate. While we had a specific plan for each month’s marketing campaigns and knew the kinds of results we should expect. We also were constantly planning and trying new tests to see what we could change to get better results than our base campaigns. The doctor’s money was wasted or worse yet it helped us and gave him little in return.
3) Money is wasted by not capturing all your leads
We knew when the phones would start ringing from our marketing campaigns and made sure we had a way to capture the calls and get them to a trained and scripted sales person. On the other hand, the doctor’s calls came into their general phone lines and the busy, overworked staff either did not answer the sudden burst of calls, or had no idea how to respond to calls asking for more information.
4) Money is wasted by not following up with leads multiple times
Every lead that came to us was captured and put into a follow up process (in our Customer Resource Management System) because we knew people buy when they are ready to buy, not necessarily when we are ready to sell. We were in front of them periodically, even years later when they finally decided it was time to buy what we had to sell.
5) Results drop when there is no script for calls coming in
We scripted each call response because we knew the factors affecting a prospects decision to buy. (It’s no different than donors with a passion for your mission). We reduced their reluctance by asking permission to ask questions and lead them through a process that led to a logical (and emotional) choice. I could tell when salespeople left the script because I saw immediate evidence in their declining results.
6) Do you know your key performance indicators
Because I knew the cost per lead and cost per sale for each of our marketing campaigns and close rates for my salespeople I could do a lot of very positive things. I could do a monthly and even quarterly marketing mix plan and know with amazing accuracy what my results would be. I could immediately respond with help to salespeople who began to have lagging results. All these gave our organization a significant competitive advantage. I also knew my TV marketing campaigns gave my other campaigns support and better results and that prospects generally need to see something 5 to 8 times before deciding to respond in the first place.
7) Knowing the lifetime value of your client/ donor is key
Because I knew how much on average a client would spend over time, I knew how much I could spend on marketing and even if I could lose money up front on a campaign because I knew additional revenue would be coming in the future from our clients.
The bottom line to successful marketing results: Plan, measure, test, learn and do it over again and again!
Tom Noon is Newton Media’s CFO. He started his career in a Big 4 CPA firm as Manager and has over 35 years of financial management, strategic planning, operations management and project development experience with start up organizations to organizations with over $250 million in sales in a wide range of industries including media, publishing, franchising, retail, internet and software development.
Thoughts from the DMA Nonprofit Conference
I just recently returned from the DMA Nonprofit Fundraising Conference in NYC, and this was a topic debated by a few at the top echelons of the non-profit world. The long and short answer to the question is…BOTH! Social networking continues to develop as a tool that helps nonprofits build brand awareness, mobilize volunteers and yes, help with fundraising.
Depending upon the target demographic, the effectiveness of Social Media channels are still being determined. For example: Are women age 60+ viewing banner ads and chatting on FB? Maybe, but not as much as 24-35 year-olds, though those numbers for older demos are increasing year to year.
It’s also interesting to note that many nonprofits using Social Media are driving potential donors via other media channels such as Television, Radio or Print at the same time, and incorporating multiple channels into a cohesive strategy.
Branding is a continual focus for any organization and the use of internet, web and social media outlets are becoming more effective tools to increase brand awareness and generate response. Mobile is going to be a more important part of the mix in the years to come, but one thing will not change, and that’s content. Content will always remain “King”.
One main discussion point was the need to “Test, test, and do more testing,” to find out the best ways to make Social Media work for you. No one was particularly advocating using Facebook to promote your non-profit, as it’s more of a social or non-business outlet, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to be in front of potential thousands of new eyeballs with your brand image.
Other Social Media outlets include blogs, online newsletters, emails, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. You never know how a potential new donor will “connect” with your organization and become a lifelong donor.
Some suggestions include having a “Donate Now” button on your homepage or running an online “Survey” to ask your constituents specific question about what they do and don’t like about your organization or ministry.
The key take away on this hot topic is – Get a professional and take the time to develop a plan that compliments your other marketing efforts. It is easy to allocate a percentage of your marketing budget to develop a social media channel. Online strategies will become more and more important in the years to come. What you do with Social Media to build your organizations uniqueness and effectiveness through online channels will determine if in the end there is ROI or just PR.
Steve Newton is the founder and CEO of Newton Media, a full service media planning and buying company headquartered in Virginia with offices in Dallas. Founded in 1995, Newton Media’s team of seasoned experts has become a leader in both Ministry and Direct Response TV and radio.
Welcome to Newton’s Media Fix (The Fix), the premier best practices newsletter in our industry. I want to share with you not only valuable insights I have learned from my 30 years in the Media Industry but also our teams broad knowledge throughout all aspects of planning, execution and follow up for effective Media Campaigns and Programming.
