Media Planning: The Ultimate Guide

Efficient media planning is essential for any enterprise to succeed at this time.

Media content material — photos, movies, written content material, and podcasts — retains you top-of-mind together with your audience and helps you stand out from opponents by making certain your model stays seen and interesting.

That is why I all the time advise shoppers to create and share recent media content material.

Nevertheless, preserving observe of, planning, distributing, and analyzing all of your media content material can take effort and time. Efficient media planning helps you handle these duties effectively and keep a powerful presence.

Media planning has many shifting components, making it tough to grasp.

Nevertheless, by following the appropriate media planning steps and utilizing media planning templates, you possibly can simplify the method and sort out any challenges that come your manner.

Kinds of Media Plans

Choosing the proper kind of media plan will depend on your marketing campaign targets, price range, and the character of your services or products. However earlier than all that, that you must perceive the several types of media plans.

Steady Media Plan

A steady media plan entails a gentle run of adverts over a interval. That is greatest for services or products that are not seasonal and wish fixed client reminders. Suppose: toothpaste or cleaning soap.

The thought is to make sure frequent publicity that retains your model top-of-mind all 12 months.

Flighting Media Plan

A flighting media plan alternates durations of promoting with durations of no promoting. Consequently, this facilitates high-intensity publicity throughout essential durations, creating urgency and anticipation that results in extra income.

Opposite to steady media plans, it is good for seasonal services or products with fluctuating demand. For instance, an organization promoting vacation decorations may closely promote earlier than the vacation season and cease afterward.

Nevertheless, that you must know your model‘s peak instances. Use instruments like HubSpot’s marketing analytics software to research gross sales knowledge throughout a number of advertising channels and accordingly modify your flighting durations for optimum outcomes.

Pulsing Media Plan

A pulsing media plan combines steady and flighting plans, sustaining a gentle baseline stage of promoting with durations of elevated depth.

I like this strategy for 2 causes: (1) it balances price range effectivity with sustained model consciousness in key markets, and (2) it is versatile and adaptable to altering market circumstances.

Seasonal Media Plan

A seasonal media plan focuses on particular instances of the 12 months when a services or products is most related. This sort maximizes influence by aligning with peak demand durations, creating sturdy associations with particular seasons or occasions, and being budget-friendly by concentrating on high-relevance durations.

For instance, a journey firm can use seasonal media plans to advertise its trip packages. It might probably focus promoting efforts throughout winter and summer time, leveraging seasonal themes and promotions to make its campaigns extra interesting and related.

Roadblock Media Plan

A roadblock media plan locations adverts on a number of media channels concurrently to maximise attain and influence. For instance, when launching a new product, you possibly can run the identical advert on TV, radio, on-line, and social media to shortly generate buzz.

Consider it as synchronizing adverts throughout varied platforms — you create a powerful, unified message that captures consideration and encourages quick response. Nevertheless, this strategy requires cautious planning and coordination to make sure every thing runs easily and successfully.

Drip Media Plan

A drip media plan steadily releases content material or adverts, similar to a sluggish, fixed drip. This strategy is ideal for instructional campaigns or nurturing leads over time.

As an example, in an e mail advertising marketing campaign for a B2B software program firm, we used a drip media plan. We despatched out beneficial emails over a number of weeks, every tailor-made to handle particular ache factors and wishes. This manner, each touchpoint added worth and introduced prospects nearer to a purchase order choice.

The purpose was to maintain our viewers engaged with common, useful content material. Over time, we constructed relationships and belief, which in the end led to conversions.

Advantages of Media Planning

Media planning aids with components of content material creation and distribution, together with:

• Attending to know your audience on a deeper stage so you possibly can successfully attain them by your media content material.
• Deciding on which media channels and platforms you’ll share your content material.
• Figuring out the timing and frequency of the media and content material you publish and share
• Maintaining with the newest media developments and know-how.
• Sticking to your price range as you’re employed to create, publish, and share high-quality and interesting media content material.
• Conducting analyses to measure the success of your media planning course of.

Now that we’ve mentioned the advantages of media planning, let’s overview the steps within the media planning course of so you possibly can start creating a method for your corporation.

As you’re employed by the steps in media planning, needless to say how your corporation applies the outcomes and conclusions derived from every step will probably be distinctive based mostly in your viewers and wishes.

1. Conduct market analysis.

The very first thing I do when creating a media planning course of is conduct market research. This step permits me to tailor the content material and the media plan to my audience and prospects.

Begin by creating and finding out your buyer personas. It’s essential to perceive who your audience and present prospects are.

Then, with this info, decide what media will attain, resonate with, and convert your viewers greatest. Moreover, choose the platforms and channels you may use to publish and share your content material.

Featured Useful resource: HubSpot’s Market Research Kit + Templates

Download the Kit

2. State your media planning goal.

Subsequent, I all the time maintain a transparent purpose in thoughts.

This helps me navigate the method successfully and guides me in deciding which content material sorts and platforms to give attention to.

Having particular targets permits me to confidently say “no” to choices that do not align with my marketing campaign’s aims.

Listed here are some examples of media planning aims you might have:

• Strengthen cross-team collaboration (e.g., content material, graphic design, animation, video, weblog, social media) whereas creating and sharing media.
• Improve and streamline the publication and distribution processes for all media.
• Enhance media distribution timeline to make sure our content material is shared effectively so it’s related to our audience.
• Amplify the success of our media content material by permitting for ample time to research its influence and attain our viewers.

As an example, let’s say you are planning your social media content material for Fb and Instagram. Your purpose might be to streamline the content material creation course of and schedule your posts forward of time.

This manner, you possibly can guarantee your content material is all the time related and interesting, preserving your model prime of thoughts.

3. Create your media plan utilizing a template.

Now, it’s time to make your media plan.

I’ve discovered that it is not sufficient to easily plan after which assume everybody else is on the identical web page. It’s essential to define your technique by an in depth media plan. Whenever you do that, you guarantee alignment inside your staff and maintain all events accountable.

Some media plans may function standalone methods that element how manufacturers plan to leverage media — written, video, audio, and so on. — to attach with followers and prospects.

Media planning templates are invaluable in staying environment friendly and efficient whereas engaged on all elements of media content material. They assist maintain every thing organized whereas publishing and sharing it together with your viewers.

Given the number of templates obtainable for various sorts and components of the media planning course of, the templates you incorporate will probably be distinctive to your corporation. Don’t be afraid to experiment with or mix totally different templates.

When one in every of HubSpot’s shoppers wanted to create a media plan for Fb and Instagram, our staff applied a social media calendar template for them.

This kind of template helped coordinate content material throughout each channels, increase engagement, and enhance productiveness amongst staff members.

It in the end helped our shoppers obtain their aims quicker.

4. Implement your media plan.

Guarantee all events who ought to concentrate on the plan have the mandatory particulars that will help you execute accordingly.

When our staff works on media plans, we all the time share the contact particulars of the media planning coordinator in our firm in order that anybody with questions or feedback is aware of precisely who to achieve out to.

To get a greater understanding, let’s refer again to our instance of steps for a social media plan designed for Fb and Instagram.

After we applied a social media calendar template as a part of our shopper’s media plan, we made positive everybody concerned, whether or not on the inventive staff or the publication staff, had entry to it. This manner, everybody was on the identical web page and will contribute successfully.

5. Consider your success.

Whether or not your media plan revolves round particular person posts on Instagram or a month-long, company-wide marketing campaign, it is essential to measure its success.

Ask your self and your staff questions like, “How did this media plan assist us obtain our particular targets? If it didn’t, why?” and “How did the media planning templates and instruments we used add worth to our media creation and publication processes? In the event that they didn’t, how can we transfer ahead?”

The way in which you consider your media plan’s success ought to be instantly tied to the particular targets of your corporation relating to your media content material, the groups who create the media, and the worth you hope to derive from it (e.g., boosting conversions, engagements, income, and so on.).

As an example, when reflecting on previous campaigns, our staff usually evaluates whether or not our social media content material plan and calendar template helped the shopper attain their audience and obtain their desired aims.

We additionally assess whether or not our media plan boosted engagement on the shopper’s centered social platforms, continually looking for methods to collaborate and coordinate extra successfully.

Media Planning Technique Elements

There are just a few further issues to contemplate when crafting your media planning technique.

First, what’s your media planning price range?

Media Planning Funds

When you’re aiming totally free media, you possibly can disregard this query. But when a part of your media planning entails media buying, sit down together with your advertising management to know what funds you must work with.

Set this price range earlier than researching platforms and creating content material. You don‘t wish to begin formulating a marketing campaign that you may’t afford down the highway.

Professional tip: Embody the prices of curating and distributing media kits in your price range if you happen to plan on increasing media protection later. For inspiration, take a look at our prime media kit examples cherry-picked by Ramona Sukhraj, Principal Advertising and marketing Supervisor at HubSpot.

Second, take into account the important thing messaging factors you need your media to speak.

Media Planning Messaging

You do not have to pre-write all of your media content material, per se, however I like to recommend establishing the primary themes at first so all media is constant and on theme.

These messaging factors ought to come out of your viewers analysis and can information your content material sorts and platforms, so nail these down first.

Third, you want the media content material for publishing.

Media Scheduling Technique

A strong media scheduling technique permits you to create content material when inspiration strikes and fine-tune your promoting technique whenever you’re prepared. This protects you time in the long term.

Your scheduling technique will look totally different based mostly on the type of media you’re engaged on.

For instance, timing is every thing for social media posts (free or paid adverts). It’s essential to schedule your posts based mostly on when your audience is on-line, even when that point is inconvenient for you. Fortunately, there are numerous instruments, corresponding to HubSpot’s social media management software, that may assist with this.

Alternatively, consistency is essential for newsletters and weblog posts. You need your viewers to be trying ahead to your media content material, thereby boosting visitors and fostering a group round your model.

My prime ideas in your media scheduling technique embrace:

• Research your readers and prospects to know after they’re obtainable on particular platforms
• Put together your content material in bulk to keep away from any inconveniences, corresponding to delayed deadlines, which can have an effect on your frequency
• Select the right automation instruments for every platform
• Be constant—consistency is every thing!

With these factors in thoughts, let’s stroll by tips on how to create a media plan of your personal.

Create a Media Plan

1. Goal your purchaser personas.

As a marketer, you don’t wish to promote to simply anybody. You wish to appeal to the kind of purchaser who’s within the media you’re creating—in any other case often called your buyer personas.

A purchaser persona is a semi-fictional illustration of your preferrred buyer based mostly on market analysis and actual knowledge about your present prospects.

When you recognize precisely the kind of purchaser that you must goal together with your media plan, you possibly can appeal to essentially the most beneficial prospects to your corporation.

When making purchaser personas, I usually heart them round these vital attributes:

• Demographics: Age, revenue, location, or identification
• Background: Job, profession path, and life-style
• Identifiers: Communication preferences and social media platforms
• Objectives: Main, secondary, private {and professional}
• Challenges: Their roadblocks stopping them from reaching their targets

2. Outline your SMART targets.

When setting targets in your media plan, use the SMART goals framework (Particular, Measurable, Attainable, Related, Time-Certain). This may enable you to observe progress and obtain better influence.

Furthermore, establishing these targets earlier than beginning ensures your media plan has a transparent course for you and your staff. It additionally means you possibly can have fun your successes after they occur.

Some examples of SMART goal-setting in media planning might appear to be:

• Particular: “We wish to generate a better variety of certified leads.”
• Measurable: “We would like our media plan to realize 2,000 followers throughout Twitter, Metaverse, and Instagram.”
• Attainable: “We beforehand reached 70% in buyer engagement on-line over the previous quarter, so we’re aiming for 75% within the subsequent.”
• Related: “We wish to obtain extra constructive buyer engagement to raised the model’s fame and achieve extra followers.”
• Time-Certain: “We would like our media plan to realize 2,000 followers within the subsequent three months throughout Twitter, Metaverse, and Instagram.”

When you’ve decided your targets, begin exploring sources that may enable you to attain them.

3. Discover the media planning instruments greatest fitted to you.

I‘ll share some unbelievable media planning templates for your corporation later on this submit, however first, let’s speak about software program instruments that may do a few of the heavy lifting for you.

To begin, HubSpot Marketing Hub is ideal for drafting, planning, scheduling, and accumulating conversion analytics. However if you happen to’re in search of extra choices, take a look at our listing of 15 essential media planning tools so that you can use.

4. Analyze historic knowledge.

You need to know the place you started earlier than you can begin shifting ahead. I all the time look again at my earlier media planning methods to research their influence and attain.

For instance, in case your model is already on Fb, I’d check the business page insights to see how far we acquired with the previous posting schedule and content material. I’d additionally have a look at the posts that acquired essentially the most engagement, the time durations with the best visitors, and the content material that helped flip prospects into prospects.

By noting the efficient components of your earlier technique, you possibly can let that drive a few of your brainstorming in your new media plan. Consider it as constructing on previous successes.

5. Select your media combine.

On the subject of selecting your media combine, it is vital to remain knowledgeable about the most well-liked advertising channels, in addition to those most well-liked by your purchaser personas.

In accordance with HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, over 1,400 international advertising professionals imagine the advertising channels with the best ROI are:

• Web sites/Blogs
• Social Media
• E mail Advertising and marketing
• Content material Advertising and marketing

In my expertise, an omnichannel media plan works nice to achieve your audience wherever they’re. By researching which channels your purchaser personas frequent essentially the most and being open to exploring new ones, you possibly can resolve on the correct mix in your model.

6. Put your media plan into motion.

When working in your media plan, regulate your insights and see how they stack up in opposition to your SMART targets. Bear in mind, you possibly can all the time modify your plan as wanted. Advertising and marketing is a dynamic area, and having the ability to pivot is essential.

Now that you just‘re accustomed to making a plan, let’s have a look at some sources to make the media planning course of simpler.

Media Planning Templates

There are many media planning templates obtainable on-line, each for buy and totally free. What I really like about utilizing these templates is how customizable they’re; you possibly can tailor them to suit your enterprise’s particular wants and targets.

Relying on the media software program your corporation makes use of, corresponding to HubSpot’s (free) CRM, Marketing Hub, or Sprout Social, there could already be customizable planning templates included. I’ve usually used HubSpot’s templates, which supply an awesome menu of options to select from.

In fact, you may as well create your personal templates utilizing Google Sheets. I’ve achieved this myself, and it’s a good way to make sure your planning course of matches completely together with your distinctive workflow.

No matter technique you select, do not forget that your media planning templates ought to evolve as your targets and viewers develop. Don’t hesitate to regulate them over time to remain in sync with your corporation’s altering wants.

Free Media Planning Template [Download Now]

Download This Template

Kinds of Media Planning Templates

Here is an inventory of frequent media creation and planning templates to get you began. (Click on the hyperlinks to entry every template.)

Select the templates that fit your wants. Bear in mind, there‘s no proper or fallacious selection—it’s all about what works greatest for your corporation.

• Use a media planning template to arrange your paid media efforts and bills in a single visible location.
• Use a social media strategy template to align your media content material together with your viewers in a manner that gives worth for your corporation.
• Use a social media calendar template to customise a timeline for whenever you’ll share your social media posts in a easy, organized, manageable, and efficient format.
• Use an editorial calendar template to plan and optimize all of the advertising content material you’ll publish and share, together with blogs, social media posts, and campaigns.
• Use a blog post template to easily fill within the blanks and start writing partaking, related, and well-optimized weblog content material in your viewers (all whereas avoiding author’s block!).
• Use an ebook design template to take the guesswork out of tips on how to make your e-book skilled, eye-catching, and exquisite, all whereas saving your self beneficial time.
• Use an infographic template in PowerPoint or Illustrator to shortly customise the way in which you current knowledge, share insights, and promote provides in a manner that appears and feels skilled.
• Use an analytics and reporting template for Excel, PowerPoint, and Google Drive to make the processes of pulling, organizing, and sharing knowledge easy regardless of which metrics you observe.
• Use a budget template to handle and overview your spending and price range with Excel or Google Sheets.
• Use an advertising template that will help you plan and handle promoting campaigns in a manner that’s positive to transform viewers members into leads and prospects.

Media Plan Examples

Though we’ve mentioned media planning and even shared just a few media planning templates, doing it virtually should still pose a problem. Due to this fact, I’ve created media plan examples and linked the templates I used for extra readability.

Social Media Plan

On the subject of social media, focus your efforts on the platform the place your prospects are energetic. When you’re nonetheless figuring that out, it’s nice to experiment with just a few platforms to see what works greatest.

Here is a pattern social media plan impressed by HubSpot’s Social Media Content Template to help you explore multiple platforms.

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Running a blog Media Plan

Monitoring how usually you publish weblog content material is essential for monitoring your progress. A running a blog media plan can assist you handle your writers effectively, lowering the necessity for fixed e mail follow-ups about their weblog submit progress.

Right here is a straightforward instance of a running a blog media plan you can download from HubSpot.

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PR Media Plan

Making a PR media plan generally is a bit extra intensive because it entails coordinating with different organizations. You will want to decide on the appropriate type of commercial, collect the mandatory sources, and determine key contacts.

On this pattern template, I’m solely sharing the “attain out” and “content material planning” phases. Nevertheless, the whole template from HubSpot has every thing you want, together with useful resource planning. As a bonus, if you happen to’re a newbie, you possibly can even take the free course on PR Media. Take a look at the whole HubSpot PR Plan template.

Exercise	Description	Begin Date	Finish Date
Visitor posts	Selling our new exercise pants	3 March, 2025	3 June, 2025
Press releases in recognized publications	Selling our model on the whole	10 July, 2025	20 December, 2025
Newsletters	Ship out month-to-month newsletters each month	3 March, 2025	29 December, 2025

We‘ve lined media planning intimately, however there’s one other essential facet to contemplate: media shopping for.

Let’s get into it.

Media Planning vs. Media Shopping for

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Digital media planning and media shopping for are carefully associated and work hand-in-hand. Relying on your corporation dimension and price range, the identical staff members may deal with each planning and shopping for.

So, what makes these processes distinctive?

Media planning entails deciding which media content material to create, publish, and share together with your prospects and audience. This media content material is all-encompassing and doesn’t all the time embrace paid adverts and content material.

Media shopping for, alternatively, is a definite course of centered on buying promoting area and time on varied platforms. That is the place the primary distinction between media planning and media shopping for lies.

What’s media shopping for?

Media shopping for is all about paid media. This implies your corporation buys campaigns or advert area on varied channels, pays to share focused campaigns and adverts, or negotiates with media distributors.

Whereas sharing media and reaching your viewers totally free is feasible, efficient media planning can nonetheless occur with out media shopping for. Nevertheless, media shopping for all the time requires media planning.

Consider it like this: all squares are rectangles, however not all rectangles are squares. Media planning units the tone and course for the media shopping for that follows.

As soon as you’ve got bought advert area or negotiated content material distribution, you want a method—or a media plan—for delivering that media to your viewers and prospects.

When you don’t have an in-house media planner, you’ll want to contemplate hiring one that will help you with the campaigns. However what precisely does a media planner do? And the way a lot will it price?

Beneath are the solutions.

What does a media planner do?

A media planner takes over your complete media planning technique, evaluates it, and advises you on the way in which ahead.

Listed here are some roles {that a} media planner will deal with in your organization:

• Maximizing the influence on all ads you pay by networking with media shopping for businesses
• Arising with inventive methods to achieve out to your goal audiences for higher engagement and conversion charges
• Figuring out the very best platforms for your corporation to make sure you’re spending your advert cash the place you’re more likely to get returns

How a lot do media planners make?

In accordance with Comparably, the typical Media Planner within the US makes $69,374. When working with a media planner, anticipate to pay them between $30,000-$150,000.

When you want an professional planner with a few years of expertise, then you definitely’ll have to plan for about $155,000.

Nevertheless, you possibly can all the time lower your expenses by hiring a contract media planner. They may cost a bit extra per hour, however you solely pay them when you could have a mission.

Start Your Media Planning Course of

Media planning is an integral a part of your corporation’s capacity to create, publish, and share media content material efficiently.

I like to recommend using the pulsing media plan the place you possibly can. It provides you the consistency of steady promoting with the depth of flighting, making certain a gentle presence whereas permitting for strategic bursts of exercise.

What has all the time stunned me is how dynamic media planning might be. No two campaigns are the identical and require their very own distinctive technique, however that‘s a part of the problem and pleasure. So long as you recognize when and the place to interact your viewers, you’re on the appropriate path.

Editor’s be aware: This submit was initially revealed in February 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.