AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute MarketerHow to Optimize Your Media Mix

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How to Optimize Your Media Mix

I know there are times when you must buy a particular medium for reasons other than performance or metrics. But the media mix of yesterday is rapidly changing and so should your media-spending pie. chartoftheday_682_share_of_media_time_vs_share_of_total_ad_spend_n

Most of the media expenditures are in line with media consumption, except for 2 key areas: Television and Mobile. Television may be driven by rates (for example, TV stations are charging exorbitantly high rates for “issue advertising” so many of those dollars are quickly finding another home), but I’m surprised by the low media spending around mobile. We all know that nearly every teenager (95% Pew Research) has access to a smartphone, and every adult I see has a smartphone as well (77% Pew Research). So why the hesitancy on going mobile with marketing?

The one area where revenue is not matching the actual share of media consumption is in the area of print. It’s true that print is going through tough times, but share of media consumption and actual usage are two different things. Highly persona-targeted publications may be highly effective, but the share of media would be very low.

The media mix of today is much more complex than the mix of yesterday. Better targeting makes the mix more accurate and more effective. Optimizing your mix probably means more mobile.

 

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.