Essential Elements of a Complete Advertising Plan

When crafting an advertising plan, consider these five aspects!

1. From "I want to be famous" to understanding the market and audience

Before making a plan, determine the goal you want to achieve. This goal is not as vague as "I want to be famous" or "I want many people to know about it," but rather to understand where the market for your product or service is, what groups it targets, their purchase motivations, methods, timing, and where they come into contact with advertisements. Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you formulate an effective plan.

Based on the communication task and level of engagement the advertisement aims to achieve, there are several types of ads:

1. Informative advertising

For example, when a new IoT car is launched, and there was no such product before, the ad focuses on introducing its performance, uses, features, price, etc., to stimulate initial demand.

2. Persuasive advertising

Many people know the slogan "This year, no gifts, only Brain Gold!" This type of ad aims to make consumers develop a "preference" for your product over others. Such ads usually require a certain amount of time to accumulate and do not produce immediate results.

3. Reminder advertising

There is a story about a person driving through a desert who asks his companion, "When can I get away from civilization?" The companion is puzzled, and he points to the Coca-Cola ads appearing at intervals. Coca-Cola has global recognition but still spends a lot of money on advertising to maintain its image and market share. Another example is "Wang Laoji changed its name to JDB."

2. Budget makes the art of advertising more scientific

How much does this plan cost? Compared to advertising by intuition, budgeting in advance is an important means of controlling advertising activities and provides an economic indicator for evaluating advertising effectiveness. Generally, consider the following points:

1. Product life cycle

A product often goes through introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stages. New products need extensive advertising to build awareness and stimulate demand to quickly start the market. More specifically, products also have peak and off seasons, so consider the phased use of funds.

2. External competitor situation

Generally, if there are many competitors, you need to increase promotion. Additionally, they can serve as a reference for your own advertising: what markets they target, how they do it, and the results, to seize opportunities for leveraging or suppressing.

3. Advertising frequency

To avoid disappearing suddenly after a burst of fame, you need to master a reasonable marketing rhythm. When to launch, how many times to run, etc., all affect the budget.

3. Good content can move mountains with a feather

This is the most important part, usually the section where the client listens attentively and the agency focuses on after presenting a dozen pages of "persona analysis." It involves creativity and so on. That is, what content to convey and how to express it to leave a deep impression on the audience.

The accuracy of the advertising appeal to some extent affects the effectiveness of limited advertising funds within a certain period. Sometimes, if the content is good, it may not require much money to go viral.

4. Choose the most suitable and optimized channel mix

Choosing which channels to promote is also important. Traditional media and internet channels are all options, whether TV, newspapers, celebrities, internet influencers, or others. What matters is which one suits you. Generally, consider the following points, conduct thorough research, and maximize the effectiveness of your budget:

1. Target group's media habits

For example, if you produce a cute beverage that young people are willing to buy, you might use Weibo, WeChat, live streaming, A-station, B-station, etc.

2. Choose media based on product characteristics

Different media have different advantages in expressiveness, visualization, explanatory power, credibility, etc.

3. Cost

If you only have a budget of 1 million, but want to have celebrity A record a video, celebrity B sing a song, and celebrity C make an appearance... then forget it. Starting from the budget, honestly see which channel mix is optimal.

5. How to measure advertising effectiveness

This goes without saying: if you invest a lot of money in advertising, you need to measure and evaluate the results to ensure a return on investment. This is increasingly valued by both clients and agencies.