Do-It-Yourself Marketing: Which Medium

By Tim Oestreich | Sun, 14 Jan 2007

We are continuing our series on DIY marketing mistakes. Let us address another major "Do-it-yourself" mistake, not choosing the correct medium for your marketing.  Web, print, direct mail, television, and radio are all viable avenues, but which one is right for you?  This decision can cost you time and devastate your marketing budget. The formula for choosing your marketing medium is balancing your budget with your audience.  

Maximize your Marketing Budget 

The goal is to maximize your cost-per-contact.  Part of the planning phase is to look at the average sale for a particular client.  Let's use a hypothetical example.  The client's average sale is $1.00, and the gross profit of that sale is .50, then you have a starting point for determining how much each sales contact is worth.  Obviously, anything more than .50 per contact would put you in the red, and of course the ultimate goal is to generate the greatest response for the lowest cost-per-contact.

Know Your Target Market

Once this number is established, you can move on to the next step which is to analyze your target demographic.  Knowing who your audience is will help you choose the right medium for your advertising.  If you are marketing an insurance policy geared toward the 65+ demographic, the internet will not get you the exposure you could get with television ads during daytime television.  Consequently, if you are advertising a product or service that appeals to the 25-45 demographic, the internet should probably be the anchor medium for your campaign.

Not every medium works for every company.  Television works for some, radio for others, print for others. In some cases all media can work together to produce a successful integrated campaign.

The real lesson in choosing the right marketing medium is that a well planned campaign must start with a thorough assessment of your needs balanced with your budget.  The ultimate goal is to establish a sound footing with a marketing plan that produces sales based on a realistic budget.  The resulting increase in revenue will allow you to expand your budget and continue to grow at a healthy and predictable rate. Good planning and experience will save you a lot of time and money.