There’s a lot that goes into a marketing plan, including the product or service you wish to market, what you want to say about it, the way you say it, and how you measure the effectiveness of what you’re saying.
Objectives spell out what you want to achieve with your marketing. They’re the north star of any marketing plan — guiding every aspect of planning, from content (what you want to say) to design (the way you say it) and even how one measures the effectiveness (data and analytics) of campaign objectives.
These objectives should align with an overall strategy or master plan for the brand (or what you want to market). Media covers the topic of where your message is published, and setting objectives for media as part of a comprehensive marketing plan makes sure you reach exactly who you intend your message for. Of course, by “who”, we mean your target audience segments, which you would have already specified.
Finding the right media objectives begins with identifying who you want to reach (target audience). Being able to identify this will inform your selection of appropriate digital marketing channels to enable your message to reach them.
Identifying target audience characteristics like audience size will directly influence the budget you’ll need to set aside, in order to effectively reach them via your selected media channels. This amount is typically referred to as a media budget.
Apart from defining your target audience characteristics, identifying your campaign objectives will also help you determine how best your media budget can be allocated. An example of such an objective would be Brand Awareness — a media objective classification that serves as a fundamental marketing objective across many global advertising campaigns.
Objectives such as brand awareness come with set performance indicators, such as Reach — which indicates how many people saw your ad or were exposed to your message. Depending on what your exact objectives are, say, “to reach X number of people within my target audience”, reach will be able to indicate how well you campaign is able to succeed.
Apart from reach, other metrics you can monitor for brand awareness include:
Once your target market becomes aware of what you are marketing, what do you want them to do next? In other words, once they’ve seen your ad, what action do you want them to take? This ‘action’ is known as a conversion objective, and typically involves motivating audiences to either click through to a campaign landing page, or sign up for a product.
Clicking on a link, filling out a form or downloading a piece of content are typical examples of such conversion objectives. Your conversion goals are set when you are able to specify how many of these overall objectives your campaign needs to meet. Because different brands have different objectives, customising your reports becomes necessary for informing your decision-making.
Say your overall objective is to find qualified leads. Customising your reports can demonstrate where leads came from on their customer journey, e.g. from an ad, they went to your landing page, then downloaded your free content. This indicates that they are interested in your product or service, and more likely to be marketing-qualified leads. However, it may also be beneficial to include disqualified leads in your reports to figure out how you can improve your media campaign, e.g. adjusting audience targeting.
While ads on media channels such as Facebook or LinkedIn already come with forms, driving traffic to your website is another fundamental marketing objective. Your website allows you to explain — in more detail than you ever could over other channels — why your target audience should choose you over your competitors.
High traffic volume is a strong indicator of marketing success and whether your media planning is effective. Choosing the right media to get more of your target audience to visit your website is as indispensable as crafting the message to get them to go. After all, if nobody gets your message, you won’t be able to convince them to visit.
The three main types of media you can choose from are:
Owned Media, such as the content you create and post for free on your social media accounts, as well as articles you post on your blog.
Paid Media, or media you have to pay for to get your message delivered to your target audience, such as display, search ads, or social media ads.
Earned Media, or media other people use to discuss your brand with your target audience. Examples of this include product reviews by individual customers, or when a media company reviews your brand without your sponsorship.
All these media types can boost awareness and ultimately increase website traffic because awareness can lead to audiences wanting to find out more about your brand and what it offers. Paid media campaigns are typically used to drive traffic, and increasing conversions by specific traffic sources can also feature among your media objectives. It’s also a good idea to make sure that all the content across your chosen media contributes as traffic drivers to guide audiences to your website.
Regardless of what your specific campaign objectives are, you can always get expert advice and assistance in identifying the right media objectives for your marketing plan when you work with us at Mediatropy. Let our experienced media planning and buying teams help you increase your reach, build brand awareness, find more qualified leads and increase your website traffic. We’re just a message away.
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