With social media, traditional newspapers, printed and online magazines, radio, television and trade publications all vying for a slice of the advertising dollar, many businesses make an easy, yet critical, mistake.
They adopt a carpet-bombing strategy; spreading the same marketing messages across as many platforms as possible.
Ultimately that message is weakened because they have missed an important truth: every media channel works differently and is consumed differently by different groups.
And as a business, you need to understand the value of tailoring your marketing messages to the medium it is distributed on.
Where is your target audience spending their time?
Before you begin to target the message, you need to know where that message should be placed.
What media is your audience consuming?
It would make sense, for example, for an insurer selling its business product to advertise in the business pages of a national newspaper, rather than on lifestyle-driven platform Instagram.
Similarly, a business wanting to target the youth market would be better placed upping its presence on social media rather than in printed newspapers and magazines.
When you’ve identified who your audience is and what media they consume, spend some time there and analyse the language and marketing messages used; the style, language and call to action.
This gets a bit easier if you’re working with social media because you have the power of insight – you can see which marketing messages cut through to your audience and prompted the most engagement.
What is your audience is doing?
Once you’ve found out where your audience is, think about what they are doing.
People might read a newspaper on the train to work but spend time browsing social media during their lunch break.
They might flip through trade publications at the office, but read the lifestyle sections of newspapers and online magazines in bed on the weekend.
The tone, messaging and call to action of your ad should be tailored to capture the audience in their relevant state of mind.
What stage of the buying cycle do you want to focus on?
It’s important to tailor your messaging to every stage of the buying cycle, and in a way that is most suited to that stage.
For example, at the research stage, where people who have questions or have identified a problem, are seeking information, you might consider advertising or creating content that addresses those questions or advises readers on solutions.
If you are seeking to communicate with people at that stage of the buying cycle, you might consider targeting trade magazines or shopping platforms.
Similarly, if retention is on your radar, you might want to use social media platforms or regular email newsletters to build your brand and foster relationships.
Are you using medium-specific advertising?
For maximum impact, the form your advertisement takes needs to be specifically tailored to the media channel it appears in.
For example, radio advertising should be light and memorable; infographics work well in lifestyle or wellness magazines; whereas social media advertisements have been shown to be more effective when accompanied by a photo.
If you’d like to find out more about how you can tailor your marketing messages to specific mediums, Assemblo can help.
Give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or complete the contact form below.