Why media training is important for your business

Almost every business advertises their products using the media, so it’s important to have the relevant training to help you understand how the industry works, and how you can get the best deals. Without the correct media training, you may find it a struggle to understand the different options available to your business, and may also end up paying extortionate amounts of money.

What is media training?

Media training for someone like an actor or musician relates to training on speaking with the media, like newspapers or online magazines. In the business world, media training is when executives or business owners are trained on medias used for advertising, be it print, television or digital ads, along with others.

Media changes quickly and it can be difficult keeping up to date with who the best advertisers and media channels are in each industry and country. Thankfully, there are businesses dedicated to offering media training to teach companies the ins and outs of the advertising world.

For example, AuditStar is a global organisation offering “customised media training” for their clients. They help bridge the gap that can exist between a business and an advertising agency they are working with. For many businesses, it’s not about learning about to do their own advertising, but getting the tools they need to effectively evaluate an ad agencies media spend.

Media training helps you pick the right media for you

Media tends to account for a massive portion of a business’s marketing budget — last year, Pampers had an advertising budget of over $8 billion — so it’s important to make sure that you spend the money wisely to get the most out of the adverts produced. Having an insider knowledge of how agencies work, and where your money is going, will help you decide how best to spend your money.

It’s important to pick the right type of media for your business, and understand what advertisers are offering. There are many different forms of media and advertising you could choose from, some of the most popular are online marketing on social media, TV and radio adverts. These all have varying costs and benefits, and some are better suited to certain industries. For example, TV adverts on in the after-school and early evening time slots are more likely to be seen by children, therefore it may not be worth advertising mortgages and life insurance during this time, as it’s the wrong target audience.

While this is an example of a more obvious, logical consideration, media training will get into the finer details and data. It could help you identify that the highest interest is in January and that paid video interstitials on Facebook are the best way to get seen by the ideal middle aged demographic.

Media training can help you grow your business

If you know what kind of media you want your business to target, you’ll be able to define your message to properly reach your target audience. Media training will give you insider knowledge to effectively deal with agency working processes, and get the best deals for your campaigns. Having a working knowledge of how the media works will also help you when it comes to auditing your media, as you’ll be able to start the complex process before your media goes live.

Media auditing is important as it highlights the most effective marketing campaigns and activity from your business. It evaluates performance against targets, tracks brand awareness, sales, and the overall response to your campaigns, and lets you see which campaign works best. Businesses should audit every campaign to get an idea of what works best, and set realistic goals and targets for future campaigns, which helps a business grow.