Blog / A Small Post with a Large Amount of Information about Every Medium

Making decisions about where to spend your media budget can be a little overwhelming. Should you buy newspaper ads, billboards, TV commercials, direct mail, or web ads? There are so many choices, it can be paralyzing. You want everyone to know about your business, so you might think you need to puts ads in every single media that exists.

It certainly helps to clearly define your target audience, which includes the people who are most likely to become your customers, visit your business repeatedly, and tell their friends about you. Once you know your target audience, you can choose a specific set of media that will reach that audience.

Below is a brief overview of various media types with descriptions for the primary audience of those media.

Newspapers

• Broad audience with a variety of interests
• Older, well-educated readers
• Can target specific sections, such as sports, local, lifestyle

Radio

• Large, diverse audience
• Each station has a specific niche depending on music type
• Affordable ads means more repetition of your message

Television

• Most homes have at least one TV
• Large audience
• TV ads are more memorable than print or radio, since they combine both visual and audio
• Expensive spots, and it’s costly to produce a quality commercial

Online

• Very popular with almost everyone, especially younger audiences
• Easily track data on who is viewing and clicking on ads
• Can target specifically to age, gender, language, location, hobbies, and interests

Billboards

• Usually not effective as a standalone ad, but work to reinforce message shown in other media
• Only have about six seconds of viewers’ attention
• Effective boards use a strong image with a small amount of text

Direct mail

• Great for promoting something specific like a sale or event
• Can purchase mailing lists to target specific demographics
• Needs to be designed well with a strong call-to-action in order to stand out from the clutter of junk mail

If you’re still feeling a little overwhelmed by media, give us a call! We would be happy to help you develop a campaign and media schedule to make your business stand out.