Pick any part of the world that has a relatively significant media reach, and you’ll find that the media giants that are occupying your airwaves—your culture, are the very same media giants (more or less) occupying theirs. How did this happen? Thanks to the Internet, cable/satellite TV, and other forms of media, these companies have literally broken barriers. If you’re starting up, you would want the secrets to their success as well.
1. Cover all the bases: text, audio, video, and speaking/teaching.It is essential for you to be as versatile as possible in your mediums of communication. If you want brand awareness, explore the most basic or the easiest form possible first. Try reaching your target market through text mediums like blogs, social networks, websites, books, newsletters, reports and whatnot. Then try something you’re not quite comfortable in.
2. Explore other mediums and try to master them. Video, audio, and speaking or teaching mediums will help you garner more people—those who are not likely to sift through what you’ve already written in your newsletters. Educate yourself on how to effectively manifest these tools so you can use them to your advantage.
3. Be sensitive about what your market wants. Be aware of trends you can ride. These media giants paid people to actually observe the “general population”. Most of them targeted teenagers because they’re both the agents and the influenced parties of what is “cool”. If you can’t pay people, be your own radar.
4. Determine your target. Are you planning to increase sales or are you satisfied with simply working on stronger brand recognition? If you’re planning to convert visitors into actual sales, then you should craft your tools in such a way that they’re interesting to people in general, but at the same time, sneakily hooking the right people to buy your products as well.
5. Have a clear plan. A concrete plan doesn’t always ensure 100% success, but it will at least help you keep your energies concentrated on a singular goal. Be prepared to tweak the plan as you go along, but if the plan works, try to stick to it. Having a clear plan also helps you avoid unnecessary expenses in your marketing efforts.
6. Be cool. These media giants have made it this far because they went from infiltrating culture to becoming culture. Try to do the same thing. Try to package your product in such a way that people want them just because they carry your name. Of course, if you’re just starting out, you might be getting way ahead of yourself, but it’s a good goal to have.
