What is the media mix?

Understanding the Media Mix

A brand's media mix is the strategic combination of media channels it employs to reach and engage its target audience. It's about creating a comprehensive and consistent messaging strategy that surrounds customers and guides them through their customer journey.

Key Elements of a Successful Media Mix

• Consistency: Ensure that your messaging remains consistent over time across all channels to reinforce brand identity.

• Relevance: Tailor your content to align with where the customer is in their customer journey. These means the media mix surrounding a customer will change as they move through the sales funnel.

• Traditional and Digital Integration: Combine traditional media (e.g., TV, radio, print) with digital channels (e.g., social media, search engine marketing, email) to maximize reach.

A well-crafted media mix is essential for successful advertising. By understanding your target audience, selecting the right channels, and creating consistent messaging, you can effectively guide your customers from the Awareness phase, to the Engagement phase, all the way through to Conversion.

Below is an example of how a brand’s media mix might evolve as its’ annual marketing budget grows. We recommend brand’s invest at least 3-5% of their annual revenue in marketing.

<$100,000 Annual Revenue

This business should dedicate at least $3-5k toward marketing. At this size, we would recommend focusing on owned media channels, like a website, emails campaigns, and SMS campaigns. Digital ads, especially social media ads, might also be accessible depending on what the specific objective or target audience is. This business should focus primarily on bottom-funnel objectives like generating sales or leads; objectives that are directly tied to growing the business.

$100,000-$500,000 Annual Revenue

In addition to owned media, this business can begin to flesh out their media mix by investing more in digital ads and targeted traditional media, like radio or direct mail. Testing and experimentation plays a critical role at this stage, which requires a robust analytics infrastructure and organized CRM (Customer Relationship Management platform). Here the media mix should focus on bottom AND middle-funnel objectives.

$500,000-$1,000,000 Annual Revenue

At this stage, a brand has the budget to implement a comprehensive media mix focusing on the entire sales funnel. At this stage, brands should continue to invest more in a variety of digital and traditional channels, and might consider investing in public relations. Media channels like highway billboards, cable/broadcast TV, and special events start to make more sense at this stage. Top-funnel media channels focused on driving awareness are expensive, but efficient in terms of reach. This is why we recommend dedicating 50-60% of your marketing spend on top-funnel campaigns. Investing in generating awareness helps feed the sales funnel with a continuous stream of new eyeballs.

>$1,000,000 Annual Revenue

With an established media mix that effectively guides new customers through the sales funnel, brands can begin to take more risks with their marketing. One example would investing $20k toward sponsoring an indie film or some kind of sophisticated pop-up at an arts festival. Experimentation remains critical at this stage. When brands get complacent with an established media mix, they run the risk of not keeping up with the customers changing habits and behavior, and falling behind their competitors.

Conclusion

Not every project fits into one of these boxes also neatly. If you have questions about how to invest your marketing spend, contact us.