Assignment on major media types that marketers use in order to get their message across to their customers

Media channels consist of all the modes of communication as well as advertisement to reach out to the customers with most effective ways. Marketers have got ample of ways of reaching out to their customers but choosing the right medium is the ultimate task. They have to make sure that they spend their money and valuable time rightly on the right medium without incurring any loss. While there are many media channels out there but you need to realize that not all those channels and platforms can work beneficiary for you or if they will prove to be right for your business. Choosing the right channel first and then knowing how to strategically use each medium is the main thing. So make sure that to grow your business, the main focus should be on choosing and focusing on the right channel to maximize growth of the business and here we will describe the most effective to least effective options of media channels that can work efficiently for the growth of your business. The media channel can be any medium used for marketing activities and they are mainly divided into two categories i.e, digital media channels and print media channels. Listing down the options of media channels as per most effective to least effective mode:

1)      Direct Mail: Direct mail or Email marketing is the most efficient media channel as it is the best way of getting direct response. Your target audience can easily have access to the content, products and sales about your business or brand by just opening their mails. Using more personalized e-mails is even more effective as the customer feels more attached to the brand. It has always been the preferred method of communication in a formal environment. It is considered to have more good place in reaching prospects under the professional environment and with personalized mails, prospects can be interacted more efficiently. It is also effective in a sense that it a great tool for segmenting your target audience based on the behaviors. With direct mails, yiu can easily check who are more likely to purchase from your brand and who have subscribed to your channel and also shows who have reported the mails as junk. Many renowned international brands like The Body Shop only uses Direct mail as a media as well as a marketing channel while they have no other mean of promoting their products. Consumers are required to sign up for their email to get notifications about sales and promotions. Hence, direct mail is the most effective medium as it creates a direct contact with consumers and also sustain secrecy in advertising while providing detailed information with regard to the product as per the buyer’s need. These mails can also hold personal appeals that can act beneficial for the arousal of consumer’s interest.

2)      Social Media: It is now considered to be the age of social media and after direct mail, social media is the most effective medium to reach out to the target audience. It is great way to broaden your audience that too at lower costs as compared to other mediums. It includes different types of promotional activities that you can incorporate as per your requirement like search engine, paid ads, business pages or even simply creating organic posts. It a great way to show new and latest content as per the viewer’s demand which ultimately triggers them to visit the website. It includes the use of online applications like facebook, twitter, instagram or any other platform that consists of a mass audience and allows marketers to communicate their brand message or simply conduct promotions to the interactive audience. Social media works on three simple dynamics that makes it very efficient i.e, creating buzz, fostering community and facilitating two-way communication. Unlike other mediums, social media allows marketers to track their potential online customer behavior and how they behave and interact to your business page publically. Many viewers even become advocates of your brands by leaving positive reviews and comments which can also become a trusted and credible source of selling your products efficiently without having to focus on other marketing channels. Many big and renowned telecom companies use social media to promote their offers to their target audience.

3)      Digital Marketing: After Email and social media, digital marketing becomes an effective mode of communicating to your customers. Unlike social media, digital marketing works on techniques like ‘pay-per-click’ that allows you to grow efficiently as soon as the customer clicks your ad shown anywhere online. This method is very effective in this era of online and internet awareness. People are more into using digital gadgets than engaging into any other real time physical activity. Customers don’t have that time to visit the stores physically so they prefer using digital mediums for their day-to-day shopping as well. It is an unbeatable and effective medium providing diverse options to brands. For instance, Google ads will help connect with users that are searching for products or services similar to yours, allowing them to click on your ad and visit your site.

4)      Television: Television has an extensive reach to a mass audience and it is ideal if you are trying to cater a large market. It gives the characteristics of color, sight, sound and movement to persuade customers to buy the products. Television works on the agenda of producing advertisements that allows you to demonstrate the characteristics of your brand or business. It does reach out to a bigger audience and also brings more credibility but since television ads runs by time slots which are prohibitively very expensive, especially for small businesses, so it makes it less effective. Also, it becomes difficult to reach out to the selected audience and also requires more efforts.

5)      Outdoor: Outdoor includes many ways of advertisement like billboards, signs, placards, electric displays, skywriting,  posters, hoardings etc. it can be even on smaller objects like moving cars or buses to bigger billboards to get the attention of audience with a big impact. This medium is only effective if the customer passes by your billboard or poster frequently so that he can he can recall it as the main aim is to catch the attention of that passerby within twinkling of an eye. Even the largest of billboards usually have very limited information and they carry very short messages which not only makes this media option less effective but also it a very costly option while the marketer is not even sure if the passerby has viewed or read the poster or billboard as sometimes they are difficult to read. It is an only effective option for soap advertisements or clothes that includes nothing to read but more to appeal as in vibrant colors and pictures.

6)      Magazines: It is an old medium which is now deteriorating with time because of the digital invasion in our lifestyles. It is a source of reaching to target audience but only is the consumer has made the subscription and if they have interest in reading magazines. This medium is generally more expensive than newspaper yet it doesn’t prove to be ideal if your product needs catchy displays. Although, magazines have better print value still magazines do not serve a small area or a specific town so if your target audience is a smaller percentage then this medium can be very costly. But because the magazines tend to be costlier for consumers as well so there is one advantage that people might have a tendency to preserve them for longer period of time. Also, magazines are meant for only special class of people exclusively relating to trade, industry, fashion, finance or economics and this is the reason, magazines have lesser flexibility as compared to other print mediums as last minute changes can never be introduced in magazine advertisements because they have to be sent to the press for publication before-hand. Also, there is limited secrecy and lesser repetitive value.

7)      Radio: Radio is least effective as it is not only costly but also the air time is very less and specific which provides a little recall value. Also, the sound has its own limitations which make it difficult for listeners to remember what they heard on radio and this causes the lost of radio advertisement impact.

8)      Newspaper:

Newspaper is the least effective medium for media or advertisement as it has a very shorter life and does not even prove to be appealing because of the black and white color mostly that it comes in. there is no secrecy plus it is meant to be only for literate people who can actually read the content as visuals are vey less. It has a poor print quality and also holds low control over ad placements.