So you've got big plans for your Website, a not so big advertising budget, and no idea how to make your site dreams into a reality. You, my friend, are in need of some media and communication planning. Fortunately, the tried and true strategy of media planning is one that can work within any budget for any online organization or individual site owner.

A media plan will help determine the best routes for you to invest your time and resources, and will keep you on a timeframe to see the best results for your efforts. If you have a creative team to work on the media plan, super. But even if you are a one-person show just trying to improve your online presence, the development of a media plan is a fairly simple - and usually fun - process! To get started, keep a few of the following tips in mind:

1. Establish Your Purpose

Too often, organizations will develop creative campaign ideas and begin implementing them without really keeping a focus on the purpose of the campaign. That's why it's so important to specifically lay out and state your goals & the purpose of the media campaign before you put your brilliant creative team to work.

Are you trying to drive traffic? Increase conversions? Make your company a household name in the industry? Whatever the objective driving your campaign is, you must keep it clear and in the forefront of everything you do with your plan.

2. Set Specific Goals

This is the media plan equivalent of keeping your eye on the ball. Lay out several specific goals that are immediately related to following your purpose for the campaign - and keep in mind that specific is key! If you simply want to increase traffic to your site, set yourself a hard, unforgettable goal.

Your goal could be to "increase traffic on the site." Or your goal could be to "increase traffic to the home page by 30 percent." Better still, it could be to "increase traffic to the home to 400 unique visitors per day." If your goal is as specific and defined as possible, it will make deciding which types of communication and marketing strategies will work best for your situation.  

3. Define Your Audience

This seems like common sense, but a lot of media plans go awry because they are too broad (or, in some cases, too specific). If your Website is dedicated to people who own monkeys, there are specific avenues you will want to take that will differ greatly than your friend, whose Website is designed for, say, fiddle players. You will waste your time, resources, and potentially money if you try to convert your friends' fiddle playing audience over to become monkey owners. Stick with the marketing strategies that will target the monkeys.

4. Set a Timeline - And Stick To It

Your media plan should clearly state when each strategy will be implemented, and how long the entire campaign will last. A lot of media plans are designed for six months to a year, but the timeline is solely at the discretion of your organization's plan.

Make sure your timeline makes sense. If you are planning a Website promotion as part of the media plan, it's obviously a good idea to issue the press releases in advance of the promotion. (Read a little farther down for some more insight about press releases!). If your media campaign is building to one or two large events, be sure that your timeline is designed in a way that will most successfully allow you to capitalize on those events.

5. Design It & Implement It!

Implementing a successful media plan can be a lot of fun, especially if you are using creative strategies to achieve your goals. While large corporations obviously have agencies that specialize in public relations and marketing plans, small businesses and individual Website owners usually find themselves on their own.

The beauty is that a media plan can be a successful planning tool that will break down exactly what an organization or site owner needs to do in order to reach the designated goals. The specific design of the media plan doesn't have to be complicated. I once designed a six month media plan for a local non-profit agency that fit on two typed pages (besides the attached press releases and event details, of course).

There is no set template for designing your plan as long as the end result provides for exactly what, when, why, and how you are using your available tools and resources to reach an end goal.

6. Be Creative

With Internet marketing, there are almost endless options for specific strategies. Some of the traditional strategies that work for brick-and-mortar businesses can work just as well - if not better - for online companies. These include

• Press Releases
• Press releases can make a huge impact on the success of your campaign if done correctly. While I could write an entire post on effective and ineffective ways of distributing press releases, there are a few important facts to remember. First of all, mass transmittal of a press release with no follow-up will very likely leave you disappointed. Take the time to find the best contacts at the best media outlets, and follow up. Also, plan on sending several press releases throughout your campaign - at least one well in advance of your event or news, and at least one just before. Also, a follow-up call to the media outlet to which you send it can be the difference between your organization's information ending up in the trash can or up in lights.
• Reviews / Customer Success Stories
• Oddly enough, even mediocre user- or reader-submitted content is likely to have more impact on your site visitors than your top writers' most genius work of public relations writing. Put this content front-and-center!

Of course, with a mass audience through the Internet, you can also have the potential to get even more creative and have a lot more fun with your media campaign. Some other ideas for reaching your goals include:

• Special Offers
• Give people something to remember you by! If you offer viable products or services, for example, you can promote a two-hour sale on your site. Make it even more compelling, and promote a midnight sale in the middle of the night … with a promotion code for visitors along the lines of "I Buy ACME Sprockets in My Underwear." Your site visitors will remember your promotion code - and they will remember your site.
• Virtual Event 
• Promote a unique, short-term event on your Website that will capture attention. Certain organizations are unforgettable because they stage news-worthy events in major cities. The same can be done online! While they can be similar to your special offers, virtual events should highlight what your site or company is about, designed for a specific time on your site, and, of course, be highly promoted through the use of other communication strategies. Just keep in mind that with a little creativity, you can take an ordinary "virtual event" into something that will have the online world buzzing with talk about your organization.
• Other ideas include hosting conferences, obtaining sponsors for your events or site, and submitting editorial content to both local media and online media. The key is to be creative and make your site be known.

Conclusion

Part of the beauty of designing a media plan for your campaign is that you can be creative, save money from traditional advertising measures, and see remarkable results! Compose your plan within your budget and within a reasonable timeframe, stick to it, and the chances are that your goals will be easily attainable. Have fun, good luck, and above all else, BE CREATIVE!