Category: Marketing Automation

Today’s digital landscape is a competitive one. For any business to find success today, it must create and share media content (such as images, videos, written content, and podcasts) with its audience.

Publishing new media is how you boost brand awareness, engagements, conversions, and revenue for your business. Not to mention, media content helps you stand out from competitors.
Over time, though, it can become confusing to keep track of, plan, organize, distribute, and analyze all that media content.
The best way to combat these issues is through media planning.

Media planning has many moving parts, and the process can be difficult to get right.
By working through the media planning steps as well as implementing media planning templates, you’ll keep any media-related challenges at bay.

What is a media plan?
A media plan details what kind of media you will create and where and how you’ll publish it to best engage and convert your audience. Some media plans align with larger company initiatives and campaigns, following along with pre-approved messaging and content.
Other media plans are standalone strategies that detail how organizations plan to leverage media (written, video, audio, etc.) to connect with followers and customers.
There are a number of benefits to media planning.
Benefits of Media Planning
Media planning aids with parts of content creation and distribution, including:

Getting to know your target audience on a deeper level so you can effectively reach them through your media content

Deciding which media channels and platforms on which you’ll share your content

Determining the timing and frequency of the media and content you publish and share

Keeping up with the latest media trends and technology

Sticking to your budget as you work to create, publish, and share high-quality and engaging media content

Conducting analyses to measure the success of your media planning process

In addition to the benefits of media planning, it’s important to note how it differs from media buying. Although the processes are related, they have different purposes and are often confused with one another.

Media Planning and Buying
Media planning and media buying are closely related and work in tandem with one another. Depending on the size of your business and your budget, your team members who plan your media may also handle the media buying process.
So, what makes these processes unique?
Well, media planning focuses on the strategy behind the media content that’s created, published, and shared among your customers and target audience. The media referred to here is all-encompassing, meaning it doesn’t always include paid ads and paid content.
This is where media planning and media buying differ.
What is media buying?
Media buying is related to paid media — whether that means your business is buying campaign or ad space on various channels, paying to share targeted campaigns and ads, or negotiating with media vendors.
In a world where your business can create and share media and successfully reach your audience for free, media planning can happen without media buying.
However, media buying requires media planning. (It’s like that “a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square” lesson that baffled us all in elementary school.)
Media planning sets the tone and direction for the buying that needs to occur. Once ad space is purchased or content distribution plans have been negotiated, there needs to be a strategy (or media plan) for getting that media to your audience and customers.
Next, let’s review the steps in the media planning process so you can begin developing your business’s strategy.

As you work through the following media planning steps, keep in mind that how your business applies the results and conclusions derived from each step will be unique based on your audience and needs.
1. Conduct market research.
The first thing you’ll want to do when developing your media planning process is conduct market research. Market research will allow you to tailor the content you create and the media plan you implement to your target audience and customers.
Start by creating (if you haven’t already) and studying your buyer personas as well as developing an understanding of who your target audience and current customers are.
With this information, you can determine what media will reach, resonate with, and convert your audience. Additionally, it’ll help you decide what platforms and channels through which to share your content.
2. State your media planning objective.
When developing your media plan, keep a goal (or a few) in mind to help you effectively navigate the process. Moreover, goals can help you know what content types and platforms you can say “no” to.
Here are some examples of media planning objectives you might have:

Strengthen cross-team collaboration (e.g. content, graphic design, animation, video, blog, social media) while creating and sharing media.
Enhance and streamline the publication and distribution processes for all media.
Improve media distribution timeline to ensure our content is shared efficiently so it’s relevant to our target audience.
Amplify the success of our media content by allowing for ample time to analyze its impact and reach our audience.

For instance, say you’re looking to create a media plan for your Facebook and Instagram social content. Your objective may be to streamline the content creation process in a timely fashion and then schedule posts on both platforms in advance.
This way, you ensure your posts are relevant to your audience so you can boost engagement and stay top of mind. 
3. Determine which media planning templates you’ll use.
There are a number of easy-to-use templates available to help with your media planning strategy, such as editorial calendar templates and social media strategy templates. We’ll cover these options, and several others, in detail below.
Media planning templates ensure you stay efficient and effective while working on all aspects of your media content. They keep your media content organized while publishing and sharing it among your audience members.
Due to the variety of templates available for different types and parts of the media planning process, the templates you incorporate will be unique to your business. Don’t be afraid to experiment with or combine different templates.
For example, if your business is looking to create a media plan for your Facebook and Instagram social media, you might choose to implement a social media calendar template.
This type of template will help you coordinate your content across both channels, boost engagement, and improve productivity among your team members — and therefore, achieve the objective you set in step two.
4. Implement your media plan.
Ensure all parties who should be aware of the plan have the necessary details to help you execute accordingly.
Additionally, share the contact details of the media-planning point person at your company in case anyone has questions or comments.
To get a better understanding of what I mean, let’s refer back to our example in the above step about your social media plan for Facebook and Instagram.
If you implement a social media calendar template as part of your media plan, ensure everyone who will be working on or creating the content and publication schedule for both platforms has access to it.
5. Evaluate your success.
Whether your media plan revolves around individual posts on Instagram or a month-long, company-wide campaign, be sure to measure the success of your plan.
Ask yourself and your team questions like, “Did this media plan help us achieve our specific goals?” and “Did the media planning templates and tools we used add value to our media creation and publication processes?”
The way you evaluate your media plan’s success should be directly tied to your business’s specific goals regarding your media and content, the teams who create the media, and the value you hope to derive from the media (e.g. boost conversions, engagements, revenue, etc.).
Let’s look back at our example from above one last time. Think about whether or not your social media content plan and the calendar template you implemented have helped you reach your target audience and achieve the objective you set.
Ask yourself whether or not your media plan helped you boost engagement on the social platforms you focused on as well as collaborate and coordinate more effectively to increase team-wide productivity. 

What to Consider for Your Media Planning Strategy
After following the media planning steps above, there are a few additional things to consider.
First, what’s your media planning budget? If you’re aiming for free media, you can disregard this question. But if part of your media planning involves media buying (as we discussed above), you’ll need to sit down with your marketing leadership to understand what funds you have to work with.
Set this budget before you start researching platforms and creating content. You don’t want to start formulating a campaign that you can’t afford down the road.
Second, consider your key messaging points you want your media to communicate. You don’t have to pre-write all your media content, per se, but you should establish the main themes at the beginning so all media is consistent and on theme.
These messaging points will come from from your audience research and may also influence what content types and platforms you pursue, so be sure to establish these early on.
Now, let’s review some resources available to simplify the media planning process.

Media Planning Templates
There are a plethora of media planning templates available online that you can purchase or download for free. The great part about using media planning templates is that you can customize and tailor them to your business’s specific needs and goals.
Depending on the media software your business uses, such as HubSpot’s (free) CRM, Marketing Hub, or Sprout Social, there may be customizable planning templates included (similar to this menu of options from HubSpot).
You may also elect to create templates on your own with the help of Google Sheets.
Either way, how you choose to implement and use media planning templates will be unique to your business and needs — so don’t be afraid to modify your templates over time as your goals evolve or audience grows.
Free Media Planning Template [Download Now]
Download this Template
Types of Media Planning Templates
To help get you started, here’s a list of common types of media creation and planning templates. (Click the links to be directed to an associated template resource.)
You might use one or several media templates based on your needs. Remember, there’s no right or wrong answer to which template you should use — it’s about preference and what works best for your business.

Use a media planning template to organize your paid media efforts and expenses in one visual location.

Use a social media strategy template to align your media content with your audience in a way that provides value for your business.

Use a social media calendar template to customize a timeline for when you’ll share your social media posts in a simple, organized, manageable, and effective format.

Use an editorial calendar template to plan and optimize all of the marketing content you’ll publish and share including blogs, social media, and campaigns.

Use a blog post template to simply fill-in-the-blanks and begin writing engaging, relevant, and well-optimized blog content for your audience (all while avoiding writer’s block!).

Use an ebook design template to take the guesswork out of how to make your ebook professional, eye-catching, and beautiful all while saving yourself valuable time.

Use an infographic template in Powerpoint or Illustrator to quickly customize the way you present data, share insights, and promote offers in a way that looks and feels professional.

Use an analytics and reporting template for Excel, PowerPoint, and Google Drive to make the processes of pulling, organizing, and sharing data simple no matter which metrics you track.

Use a budget template to manage and review your spending and budget with Excel or Google Sheets.

Use an advertising template to help you plan and manage advertising campaigns in a way that’s sure to convert audience members into leads and customers.

Begin Your Media Planning Process
Media planning is an integral part of your business’s ability to successfully create, publish, and share media content. It’s how you streamline cross-team communication and collaboration around your media as well as ensure it’s shared with your audience in a timely fashion.
So, work through the media planning process steps above and choose which templates you’ll use to begin reaching and converting more audience members.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Hi everyone! I founded a startup that makes personalized videos at scale, completely indistinguishable from real recorded videos. We use a mixture of cutting edge AI and clever programming to bring tomorrow’s possibilities into today, and we’re in talks with some pretty big players in the banking and eCommerce world to apply it within their funnel! I’d like to encourage more on the ground, creative use of what we’re building. So I’m launching a private beta where select users will get unlimited access to our video creation tool. We want to see how you apply it within your funnel, let us know what your building, and support you along the way! We’d like to keep this to a tight-knit community of a few dozen people, so shoot me a DM and we can get on a call! I’d love to meet you, show you what we’re building, and see if you’re the right fit. Feel free to view a few samples on our site, bhuman.ai. Creativity is the only limit, and I can’t wait to begin creating with you all.
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We do newsletters and it’s a huge time sink to have to copy and paste all the article information from our website into Marketo. There’s about 10 articles and for each one, we’re having to copy and paste: headline, subtitle, image, and link (x2), and we have various modules in which to do it in the newsletter template. Is there a solution to this? It’s very easy to miss one thing, and we’re finding the time spent just making a single newsletter is exhausting. Is this what everyone does?
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What are the Best Email Marketing Softwares out there for your business? Getting the appropriate Marketing Software product is as straightforward as comparing the features and terms offered by these three softwares that We personally use and recommend. We suggest that you take some time to review their unique features and determine which one is the better alternative for your organization. What’s more remember to take into account your company’s or industry’s special circumstances, for example, a multilingual app for a global company or a mobile platform to help you work in the field. https://szdebrecen1.medium.com/top-3-best-email-marketing-tools-on-the-internet-b046831cf4d8 ​ https://preview.redd.it/i99dzrynrti61.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b28bb06d14ea921c7815b705b75e4caef665a1b
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I’m needing to upload leads automatically to a referral system that currently doesn’t allow bulk uploading of any kind, has no API. You have to navigate to login page, login, then click a button and then populate a form manually to submit a referral. Does anyone have recommendations for a tool that could possibly automate this for every new lead that comes in? Something like Zapier trigger (Google sheets new row) -> web browsing automation -> submits new lead information as a referral.
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In a 2019 MediaKix report, 71% of marketers agreed that the quality of customers or traffic from influencer marketing was better than other marketing channels. So, we know influencer marketing can be a very profitable marketing strategy.
If you have been thinking about using this tactic but are unsure where to start, consider YouTube.
Unlike other platforms that are usually restricted by time (think TikTok and Instagram), YouTube celebrates long-form content. This creates space for influencers to deep dive into topics and give detailed reviews on products and services.

Beyond that, engagement rates on YouTube are the highest when compared to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, according to a 2020 Influencer Marketing Hub report.
Now that consumers are turning more to YouTube for uplifting content, this gives brands a huge opportunity to leverage the power of influencers on a platform known for high engagement.
So, what type of videos can influencers and brands collaborate on? Let’s go through seven examples.
1. Day-in-the-Life Vlogs
One of the most natural ways influencers incorporate sponsored products into their YouTube videos is through day-in-the-life vlogs.
Usually done with a morning or daily routine video, the influencer will take viewers through their day and mention the product or service as part of their ritual.

In this video, Natalie Barbu gives her audience a peek into her daily routine, emphasizing her planning process. She covers the benefits of software like Asana and Google Calendar, and in the middle of her video, at the 9:03 mark, she introduces Skillshare.
What’s effective about this style of product integration is that it fits in organically with the influencer’s content. Some ads can be quite jarring and disrupt the user experience, which can lead to ad skips and video drop offs.
The video title sets the expectation that the focus of the video will be planning. So, when Barbu introduces Skillshare as a platform to learn new skills (including how to use Asana for planning), it’s a smooth transition.
Another approach influencers take is mentioning the sponsor toward the end of the video.

This video shows influencer, Mayuko, showing her version of a productive work day. Near the end of the video (at the 7:08 mark), she thanks the brand, Nord VPN, for sponsoring the video and presents the benefits of using the software.
With this method, there’s a risk that some viewers may not stick around to hear more about the sponsor, given that engagement rates fall toward the end of videos. However, the sponsor is mentioned at the beginning of the video and in the description box, providing additional opportunities for viewers to learn more about the brand.
2. Hauls
Shopping hauls and unboxing videos are some of the most popular videos on YouTube among fashion and lifestyle influencers. They can also be an effective way of showcasing sponsored products.
What’s great about this type of video is that it doesn’t require influencers to dedicate an entire video to a single product, but rather include that product within a broader category.

In this video, UK-based Influencer Patricia Otegwu, known as Patricia Bright on her channel, covers a wide range of luxury items that are great for the autumn season.
She starts the video by framing the importance of occasional “treat yo self” behavior. She then goes through a few items, explaining the reasoning behind each purchase. At the 5:01 mark, she introduces products from Lily Silk, which fits in perfectly with the theme of the video.
In addition, mentioning the product in the first half of the video gives the brand better odds of reaching more viewers.
3. Behind-the-Scene Tutorials
Another opportunity for seamless product integration is in behind-the-scenes content.

In this video, popular YouTube illusionist, Zack King, gives viewers a full breakdown of some of his illusions. So, how exactly does Google fit into this?
Well, King first uses Google Meet and a cool hand-through-TV illusion to introduce his conference room segment at the 1:59 mark. Because Google’s platform promotes virtual conference meetings, it’s a nice, subtle touch.
Then at the 3:53 mark, he introduces Google’s Password Manager app to transition into his next trick. It’s an example of how quickly and efficiently you can highlight sponsored content without distracting from the main purpose of the video.
4. How-Tos
It’s one thing to explain to viewers how to do something. It’s another to use a tool that will help them do it. Brands and influencers often use this approach to introduce new product lines to the public.

In a very meta example, Sean Cannell, from the popular channel Video Influencers, gives viewers tips on how to get sponsors on YouTube using the sponsored product, FameBit.
FameBit, recently rebranded to YouTube BrandConnect, helps connect brands with influencers and vice versa. With that in mind, the channel – and its viewership – likely aligns very well with the sponsored product.
Cannell does a quick overview of the platform’s key features and spends the rest of the video detailing his personal experience with the product. The review is a great example of social proof, as that often carries more value than a simple product overview.
5. Comedy Sketches
People love to laugh, and some brands, like GEICO, are skilled at turning sour topics into funny ads that leave an impression.

In this video, comedian influencer Caleb Glass, of CalebCity, does a hilarious sketch in which he asks a psychic to prove their abilities by guessing what he ate that day. If the psychic gets the answer right, he agrees to commission the psychic to find a hidden inheritance and split the money with them.
This is where it gets good. The psychic guesses all the right ingredients but assumes that a dish that good had to be cooked by a chef. Glass slams the sponsored product, Devour Foods, on the table and tells the psychic they are wrong as the dish was prepared in the microwave. A screaming match ensues and the video ends with a product display.
Here’s why this video works: It plays on the idea that microwavable food can’t be delicious in the context of something completely different. Brands with playful identities can greatly benefit from using comedic influencers to promote their products.
6. Product Unboxing and Reviews
Nothing brings me as much joy as receiving a new product in the mail and opening it.
It seems a lot of us share that trait, as unboxing videos are very popular videos on YouTube. In this video style, viewers live vicariously through the influencer as they open up a product box and explore its features.
The success of this approach lies in the ability to attract viewers at or close to the decision-making stage.

When PlayStation released the new PS5, the brand collaborated with Justine Ezarik of iJustine, a tech, travel, and gaming influencer on YouTube, for this video. Often, brands will send influencers free products in exchange for unboxing videos and/or honest reviews on their platforms.
With much of Ezarik’s channel focused on gaming technology, her subscribers likely fit PlayStation’s target market and made her an ideal influencer to promote this new product. In the video, she comments on the product’s futuristic look and lightweight controllers while adding B-roll footage for close-up shots of the PS5.
There are many ways to use this type of marketing on YouTube. What brands should prioritize when considering an influencer is whether the influencer’s brand and values align with their own. Secondly, to produce influencer marketing campaigns that convert, it’s also important that the influencer’s audience fits the brand’s user persona.

Not long after I first started at HubSpot, I was welcomed with a fresh pair of orange, noise-canceling headphones. At the time, I had no clue that these headphones would carry me through many long work days and some of the deepest, darkest levels of writer’s block.
Over three years later, they are truly the gift that keeps on giving.
You see, for me, listening to music while working is the secret to my productivity. All it takes is the right Beyoncé track, and I go from idle to uber productive. (Seriously, it works like a charm.)
The trouble is, finding the perfect playlist isn’t always easy. With endless streaming music possibilities at my fingertips, it can be hard to nail down just the right tunes to get the wheels turning. So, I did what we do best around here — a little research.
As it turns out, there are a ton of studies that explore the influence of specific types of music as they relate to your productivity levels.
To help you find just the right mix, we’ve sourced and curated seven Spotify playlists designed with specific studies in mind. Whether you’re into Mozart or Chance The Rapper, we’re confident that there’s something on this list that will do the trick.
Note: Some of the playlists contain tracks with explicit language that might not be suitable for the office.
7 Science-Backed Office Music Playlists for Productivity
1. Classical Music
One of the most frequently cited studies related to music and productivity is the “Mozart Effect,” which concluded that listening to Mozart for even a brief period each day can boost “abstract reasoning ability.”
The study — led by researchers Gordon Shaw, Frances Rauscher, and Katherine Ky — employed 36 Cal-Irvine students who were divided into three groups. Group one listen to a Mozart selection, while group two listened to a relaxation tape, and group three endured 10 minutes of silence.
After the listening activity, all 36 students were issued the same test, in which the Mozart group averaged an eight-to-nine point increase in their IQs, compared to the remaining groups.
Since then, the “Mozart Effect” has been hotly contested, but many researchers have gone on to explore the mental benefits of learning and listening to classical music. One recent study, for example, found that elementary-school-aged children who participated in music composition education outperformed students in a control group on reading comprehension.
Think classical music might work for you? Check out this classical-influenced playlist to find out for yourself:

2. Video Game Soundtracks
“Choosing the right video game soundtrack to work to is all about understanding what type of music motivates vs. distracts you when you need to concentrate,” says HubSpot’s VP of Acquisition (and former video game marketing consultant) Emmy Jonassen.
“For example, if you’re the type who gets amped and focused listening to high-energy music, rhythm game soundtracks, like those from Thumper or Klang, could work well. Conversely, if you need calm to concentrate, the serene soundtracks from exploration games, like ABZÛ and Journey, may do the trick. With thousands of games releasing every year, including many independent titles, there is a soundtrack to suit everyone’s ear,” she went on to explain.
Think about it: Playing a video game requires a lot of focus. To make it to the next level, players commonly have to avoid traps, dodge obstacles, and discover secret tools that will help them progress to the next level. As a result, the music selection for video games is often very strategic, in that modern soundtracks tend to reflect epic, inspiring cinematic scores rather than just basic sound effects.
And while studies have revealed mixed results, there is evidence to support that gamers can experience improved performance by playing a game with the volume on.
For example, when psychology professor Siu-Lan Tan and her colleagues John Baxa and Matt Spackman specifically honed in on the game “Twilight Princess (Legend of Zelda),” they found that participants who played with both music and sound effects off performed worse than those who played with it on.
Want to try it on for size? Check out the playlist below:

3. Nature Sounds
According to psychophysical data and sound-field analysis published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, listening to “natural” sounds could enhance cognitive functioning, optimize your ability to concentrate, and increase your level of satisfaction.
Think: Waves crashing, birds chirping, streams trickling, and the like.
That could explain why more consumer-facing brands — from Google Home to the newer Noisli — are introducing such ambient sound features to help listeners relax or focus. It might also be behind Spotify’s multiple nature-themed playlists, like this soothing one:

4. Pump Up Songs
After observing that many athletes arrive at the stadium wearing headphones, Kellogg School of Management professor Derek Rucker and three of his colleagues — Loran Nordgren, Li Huang, and Adam Galinsky — set out to answer the question: Does listening to the right kind of music make us feel more powerful or in control?
So, back in 2014, the group of researchers set up a study to gauge how music might influence motivation and subsequent behavior. First, they played several songs for participants in a lab, and asked them — on a scale of one to seven — how powerful, dominant, and determined they felt after listening to each song. There were three “high power” winners: Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This,” and 50 Cent’s “In Da Club.”
Then, to gauge how the music would influence their behavior, they asked participants to listen to the music and then determine whether or not they’d like to go first or second in a debate. As it turned out, those who listened to the high-power playlist volunteered to go first almost twice as often as those who listened to a less powerful playlist.
The lesson? “Just as professional athletes might put on empowering music before they take the field to get them in a powerful state of mind,” Rucker explained, “you might try [this] in certain situations where you want to be empowered.”
Next time you’re looking to feel empowered before a big presentation, interview, or salary review, check out this roundup:

Want more? Check out my colleague Amanda Zantal-Wiener’s picks here.
5. Instrumental Songs
In 2015, Middle Tennessee State University researchers Carol A. Smith and Larry W. Morris discovered that students who listened to “sedative” music during a test scored higher than those who listened to lyrical music. (That somewhat contrasts their initial findings 39 years earlier, which showed that while music didn’t reveal an impact on test scores, those who listened to “stimulative music” showed a significant increase in worry and highly emotional reactions.)
That isn’t to say that it’s entirely impossible to cross things off your list while listening to songs with words — I actually prefer lyrical music, but my colleague, Amanda Zantal-Wiener, has joked about hip hop verses accidentally slipping into her first drafts when she listens to songs with words. If you’re like she is and find that lyrics are too distracting, you may want to experiment with some instrumental options.
For those times, check out these lyric-less tunes — we promise they won’t put you to sleep:

6. “Feel Good” Songs
Buried in deadlines? Trying to unearth yourself from an email mountain after some time off? Whatever’s bugging you, sometimes, the best remedy for productivity loss is a solid dose of “feel good” tunes — you know, the kind that make you spontaneously use a pen as a pantomimed microphone.
But scientifically speaking, music can stimulate the same part of the brain as delicious food and other physical pleasures. Researchers at McGill University, for example, discovered that when participants received the opiod-production-blocking drug naltrexone, they didn’t respond as positively to their favorite tunes as they might normally.
The verdict? Our brains are trained to naturally produce these chemicals when we hear our preferred playlist.
And while “feel good” songs vary from person to person, a search for Spotify playlists with those very keywords yields dozens of results. That said, here’s one of our favorites:

Can’t get enough? Here are a few more suggestions from my colleague Amanda.
7. White Noise
According to a study led by Yamaguchi University, “When carrying out intellectual activities involving memory or arithmetic tasks, it is a common experience for noise to cause an increased psychological impression of ‘annoyance,’ leading to a decline in performance.”
Whether you’re remote working with roommates or working in an office space with noisy colleagues, it can be tricky to focus with conversations happening around you. Neutral, non-verbal background sounds like white noise, which is not the same as nature sounds, can help block out these distractions — things like the din of a restaurant or shopping mall, an electric fan, or even laundry machines.
And in case you’re wondering — yes. Like all of the above, there is a playlist for that:

So go forth — focus, get pumped, feel good, and rock out.
What are your favorite songs for getting work done? Let us know in the comments.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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