spacer
What We Do |
Where To Find Us |
Who We Are |
Contact Us |
spacer
  spacer

MEMBERSHIP GROWTH

LOAN GROWTH

DEPOSIT GROWTH

BRANDING & IDENTITY

MEMBER COMMUNICATION

CUCHECK

FREEBIES

Dare

White Papers

Wake Up

 

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Media World

Each year in the U.S., the average person has more than 200,000 advertising messages pushed at them. Traditional broadcast media outlets have splintered into satellite and cable.  Newspapers and magazines are losing readership.  No-Call Lists are obsoleting phone marketing. Outdoor has competition from transit, environmental, stadium, even urinal advertising. Yellow pages are proliferating and going online. Online media is driven by search engine traffic and user groups. And direct mail postage keeps going up and up. With all of these options, how do you develop a media strategy that reaches your intended audience, without breaking your budget, and without diluting its effectiveness?

Start with your strategy. What is your positioning in your market? Are you an established brand in the minds of your target audience? (Not just in the minds of your members, staff or board. Don’t let egos get in the way.) Detail your objectives. Increasing home equity loans is not an objective. Increasing HELOC loans by $20 Million with 35-65 females with $60K+ household income gives you a target you can hit. Make a Wish List. Prepare a list of anything anyone feels would help achieve the objective, and guesstimate costs. Prioritize Your List  (1=required, 2=crucial, 3=important, 4=supplemental). Keeping objectives in mind, arrange the wish list by order of priority AND budget.

Review the Pros and Cons of Each Media. Take a look at all of the media outlets available to you. One may be targeted, another appeals to a general audience. This one is great with the female market, that one is strongly male. Network TV may have numbers but be too expensive, yet HGTV on cable may be a great fit for your target audience. Radio is cheaper to buy, but its effectiveness may be multiplied when a drive-time buy is combined with outdoor on a heavy commuter route. And don’t forget your current members – in-branch displays and direct mail should be ranked at the top of your list.

Understand how to buy. Some media use a cost per point. Others talk about market share. And how can two radio stations claim they are Number 1 at the same time? Then there are click-through rates, circulations, traffic and more. Make sure you understand the finer points of media buying before committing your budget, or consider using a media buyer or agency as an asset (instead of a pain in one.)

Review your choices. Combine your ranking of priorities with the reach of each media, and a plan can be implemented to fit. Above all, remember your media mix should reflect your marketing strategy, not your CEO’s favorite stations.

Get everyone on the same page. Share the information with the Product Manager, your staff, and  your agency or designer. Strategy always clarifies direction, without wasting time or stifling creativity. Besides, it’s hard to hit the target when you don’t know where to aim.

Kent Dicken is President and Marketing Evangelist at iDiz, a collection of adcraftsmen, graphic artisans and media surgeons specializing in every aspect of credit union marketing.

Back to first article... >

 


 spacer