Effective Media Buying will Boost Your Sales and Save your Business Money

Media buying may be categorized as a sub function of advertising management. The primary purpose of media buying is for advertising, for which the media buyers are responsible for buying time and space for advertising objectives. This is a highly specialized skill which requires the experience and wisdom of your customers, consumer behavior, the medium and the criteria used to measure the results and cost. There are many important factors that may be critical in determining what to buy, such as costs, demographics, products services or primary goals. The buyer must anticipate the best possible return on investment that is reliant on the resources, type of medium like television, radio etc, and how much space is required and how much time is needed.

There are two types of Media Buyers: General Marketing Media Buyers and Direct Response Media Buyers. General Market Media Buyers execute media plans made up by media planners. They negotiate prices and create media to-do list based on a media plan built by a Media Planner. Through this Media Planner, General Market Media Buyers are dependent on published cost per point guides which in fact, are often based on theoretical standards as opposed to yesterday’s models.

The Direct Response Media Buyer is well versed in negotiating a functional rate and in obtaining a variety of media channels from the suitable stations. The Direct Response Buyer follow the sales, and make the necessary adjustments to the media plan and schedule as necessary to fortify the results by using unique phone numbers to each station they buy the spots.

In the process of buying media for your organization, it is a great time for you to learn all the key factors applicable to the tax industry to purchase your own air time. The following is a summary of the most important components:

• Always buy TV and radio on a "tonnage" basis. Establish you target market and then reach as many people in that specific market.
• You’ll always want to reach the most viewers with enough frequency to make an impact. This goal will be achieved by advertising to at least two of the four major TV stations (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. You should buy time on all four if rates are competitive.
• You can purchase time in specific programs (higher price)
• A great technique is to get proposals from all the TV or Radio stations. Get a schedule that would use half of your total budget over one month.
  
  

Additional tips for Media Buying:
If you are willing to provide a full commission for small advertising companies and freelance media buyers, they usually agree to give away up to 15% commission to you or throw in some other services for free.

It is also advised that you setup your own "in-house advertising agency". This will reduce the cost of all commissionable advertising you buy and save you lots of money. All you have to is setup up a small advertising division in your current business and obtain a local business license. It’s that simple.