Media planning in startup projects: expert opinion

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    Launching a new project involves asking a huge number of questions. Draw up a financial model of the project, choose a business model, present an organizational plan, analyze the market, select competitors and decide on a competitive strategy, and draw up a marketing plan. All this data is collected in one document which is most often called: a business plan. These types of work can be done by both the owner of the business and a hired specialist: a business analyst.

    The financial plan as an integral part of the business plan is 50% of the whole work. Costs are capital (one-time, initial), operating (current work of the project). Operating, in turn, include salaries, rent payments, project promotion. It is advertising that is the accelerator of any business, since marketing activities bring customers to the project, and they, in turn, income and profit, which is the main thing for any business.

    This review will focus on media planning: when and how to plan advertising activities, how to link advertising with other plans into the big picture, is it possible to draw up a media plan on your own, and also why plan anything at all.

    When should you write a media plan?

    It is reasonable to assume that a media plan must be drawn up before the advertising activity itself, and before that, a certain budget should be allocated for this activity. At the same time, any company will predict a certain return. The number of prospective new customers can be predicted in three ways: based on the previous experience of similar companies, inventing a certain figure in your head, trusting the experience and professionalism of media specialists. An interesting fact is that when developing a business plan, and this is in 80% of cases working with startup projects, the initiators of ideas have nothing more than a brilliant idea, only air on paper. However, the investor, banker, project partner insistently demand that the project owner provide a media plan as an integral part of the marketing plan. Figures and forecasts must be objective, reliable, bring the maximum output to the project. Only then can the project receive investments, which in turn will make it possible to pay for the media plan and advertising bill.

    How to link the media plan with the rest of the company’s plans?

    In any company, in addition to advertising planning, there are a huge number of other activities. Who is our target customer, how we differ from competitors, what our product or service looks like, sales funnel, goodwill, the sales department itself, after-sales service, repeat sales, word of mouth. Daily work on self-organization and planning allows you to lead the company to high results. Many in childhood assembled a puzzle, which at first does not inspire much confidence in relation to its expediency. However, step by step, the overall picture is revealed, and most importantly, with each new piece, it becomes easier and easier to put the puzzle together. In business, everything is exactly the same, in the process of work you understand everything better. The work plan is becoming larger and larger, not limited to one advertisement, but also for a period of one month. Large companies make plans for years ahead, intending not only to catch up with competitors, but also to significantly outperform them in the future.

    Can I make my own media plan?

    You can do everything on your own. There is no limit to human strength. However, the very principle of business is the delegation of authority, which can be performed by other specialists, or in the company’s staff, or outsourcing. The task of the director, the management team is to think strategically, build tasks and monitor their implementation. It is important to note that when cooperating with media agencies, there is always the opportunity to receive reports on the work done. Not all outsourcing specialists can boast of such discipline, which already brings such cooperation to the level of high responsibility.
    Липчевский Андрей, бизнес аналитик

    Why do you need to plan something?

    Man by nature is an absolutely free being, no one owes anything to anyone. The business space is a different substance, it has its own rules, and the main one is planning, reporting on the work done. An important point: the judgment that the report on the work done is the final stage of planning is erroneous. This will be followed by an analysis of the work (efficiency), as well as work on the mistakes and drawing up a new plan based on the results and experience. It is worth remembering that the business process never stops, which means that you need to constantly set new goals and boldly go towards their implementation.

    Author: Andrey Lipchevsky, business analyst, http://www.uknd.com.ua

    http://www.uknd.com.ua

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