Media planning isn’t exactly rocket science.

However, it’s very easy if you’re doing your own media planning to make some simple mistakes that can greatly affect your company.

Careful media planning helps you reach your customers wherever they are. In an effort to make sure that your media planning strategies are strong as they can be, let’s take a quick look at seven common mistakes you can make in your media planning.

Mistake #1: Only Using Familiar Media Sources

This is a biggie. Oftentimes, because we’ve found one successful media source for our advertising, we make the mistake of leaning too heavily on this single source.

It doesn’t really matter how successful you’ve been with a single media source, the key is to make sure that you’re always on the lookout for new places that you can advertise.

Strong media planning takes careful note of new media sources that you can use to advertise your products services. You might be surprised when you find a new source that far exceeds the results of your current favorite source.

Mistake #2: Forgetting Your Promotional Vision

If you don’t know what you’re goals are for your promotion, it’s very easy to choose the wrong media source for your advertising.

Having carefully and clearly outlined goals, you can be sure that your media planning is focused in the right direction and delivers the highest quality results for your company vision.

Mistake #3: Not Knowing What Factors Are Affecting A Campaign

It’s easy to blame a specific media source on the failure of an advertising campaign.

However, there are so many things in play that can affect any single advertisement. There are definitely ways to measure and track many of these factors, but one of the big mistakes companies make, is blaming a specific media source as the reason for campaign failure early on,  instead of actually looking at the data and determining what the real factors are that are affecting a campaign.

Don’t make this analysis mistake and leave a media source, unless you clearly know what factors contributed to the failure of the campaign.

Mistake #4: Not Keeping Up With Constant Changes In Media Vendors

When you’re doing your own media planning, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening with specific vendors and partners.

This is one of the reasons for making the case for hiring a media planning agency. If you do decide to do your own media planning, you need to be careful to monitor the changes in media vendors and partners.

In the information age, advertising partners change very quickly. Companies merge and products and services offered by media sources can change overnight. You need to carefully monitor and keep up with changes in media vendors and partners if you decide to do your own media planning.

Mistake #5: Not Staying Unbiased Towards A Vendor

We all have our favorite media sources. For whatever reason, we think very highly of this source, and it’s easy to become biased towards a new vendor that were not familiar with.

It’s possible that a single vendor rep can make a bad impression. Don’t immediately write off a new media source based on one experience with a single employee. Everybody has a bad day. Every company has new employees that are in the process of  being trained in their media products and services.

Don’t make the mistake of missing out on a great media source simply because you judged and became biased towards a vendor over a single isolated event.

Mistake #6: Acting On Feelings Instead Of Campaign Data

It’s easy in your media planning to make the mistake of putting too much emphasis on your feelings about a media source instead of carefully looking at the data.

The truth of the story always lies in the data because it is objective. Don’t make the mistake of relying too heavily on your feelings instead of carefully analyzing the data you’ve collected from the advertising campaign.

Mistake #7: Not Keeping A Fresh Look Out For New Sources

It’s easy to get “in a rut”.

One of the mistakes that is often made when you’re doing your own media planning is not carefully keeping an eye out for new sources.

You should schedule time each week or month to research and look for new media vendors. Keep a file handy where you can place new sources to be researched later as you discover them throughout the week.

Online research for new media vendors has never been easier. Make a plan to find new vendors on a consistent schedule, so that your media plan never gets stale and you reach more of your audience wherever they are.