With all of the fantastic new marketing ideas and avenues available to businesses today it is easy to forget that, when it comes to putting a clear message in front of your business’s intended audience, traditional paid advertising is still as effective as ever. Yet, interestingly, we have discovered that a lot of businesses are reluctant to hire a media marketing agency. There are three primary reasons for this:
- They don’t really know what media planners and buyers do.
- They don’t know how media buying strategy works.
- They are of the mind that hiring in-house media services is more cost effective and beneficial to the company.
If most companies knew the truth about media buying strategy they would find that there are at least 6 advantages to working with a media buying agency.
1- BUYING POWER
If you are reading this blog then my guess is that you are not the owner of Nike or Coke and you’re not spending hundreds of millions of dollars buying media. Most businesses can’t compete with the buying power of an agency. And the reason buying power is so important is that a media buying agency can leverage its entire media spend for all of their clients to access better time slots (radio/tv), ad positioning (print), bulk rates and other efficiencies that stretch the budgeted dollars for their clients.
2- YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Experience matters. Would you rather have the 18 year old rookie or the 4 Time NBA Champion Lebron James as the captain of your hoops team? Media buying agencies have been working with companies concerning how to plan and negotiate their media almost daily for years. They’ve developed proven media buying strategies to optimize ad campaigns and built customized strategic plans for numerous clients.
Yes there are expenses associated with hiring a media agency as there are for any quality service. But with media much of that cost is offset by the fee structure that media has established with these agencies. Savings are also realized when your business’s media strategy gets done right the first time. Because of their long established relationships with various media vendors your media agency will work their influence on your behalf.
3- A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Media agencies offer a fresh perspective on your media buying strategy and objectives. Agencies are in the thick of the media negotiating process all of the time. Because they are constantly in the market they have greater insight into and understanding of the many daily media rate fluctuations. And by working with numerous clients across a spectrum of business verticals, agencies bring fresh eyes and unique perspectives on how media buying strategy works for all kinds of businesses. All of this experience helps them creatively with fresh ideas for approaching your toughest challenges and connecting with your best audiences.
4- ACCESS TO DATA & TOOLS
For businesses who decide to pursue the in-house media buying team approach there is one glaring weakness, strategic planning. Most in-house buyers do not have access to the data and tools necessary to identify and engage with key audiences at scale. By deciding to work with an experienced media agency will give you access to these advanced tools and data.
What does that mean? It means that through methodical and insightful planning your media buys will be efficient, effective, reduce ad waste and maximize responses.
These powerful planning tools leverage incredible amounts of data and allow your business to uncover your actual customers’ own media habits. Which allows you and your media agency to precisely connect with your audience throughout your media buys.
5- WILLING TO DO THE GRUNT WORK
When your business does its own media buying there is a long laundry list of to-dos that come with self-service. That is to say nothing about all of the planning and buying that is necessary. Take a look at this list of day to day tasks that media buyers handle:
- Collecting and integrating data from multiple platforms for proper planning
- Establishing and nurturing relationships with platforms and vendors
- Negotiating and activating media buys
- Trafficking broadcast spots
- Reconciling invoices
- Media buying strategy
- Posting ratings
- Measuring and analyzing media effectiveness
Each of these important tasks takes time to learn and perform efficiently. Which means that if you’re running a business, you and your team will have to find the time to get people trained and efficient at their tasks. The good news for you is that media buyers are experts at making your media campaigns run smoothly. When you work with a media buying agency you can refocus your energy to deal with all of the other important things you do each day to operate and grow your business.
6- TAKE AND MAKE THE SALES CALLS
Spending time on the phone with a media sales rep, can feel a lot like you’re on the phone with a used car salesman. But by working with a media marketing agency, all of those sales calls get shifted to them as your new point of contact for every media sales rep. The advantage here is that you never get stuck on the phone talking through “the daily deals” or any of the other opportunities media reps just have to tell you about.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, you can approach a media marketing agency for your media advertising and receive a smorgasbord of advantages for your business. An even more efficient approach is to select a full service marketing agency that will oversee your media buying strategy and will also, with your goals in mind, work with you to meet a wide range of your business advertising needs. These include the expertise to hone your brand, design an overall marketing plan that is tailored to your company, website development, SEO, PPC logo design, printing services, swag, and much more for your business.
Here at zo agency we work to build long term relationships with our clients. We call it Tribe!
We will work diligently to discover your vision, your passion, your needs, your hopes and dreams for your business and then will create an overall marketing plan that meets your needs and fits your budget. Visit us today at www.zo.agency
