I’ve realized that to really join with prospects, it’s important to be all over the place they’re — whether or not that’s on social media, e-mail, web sites, and even conventional retailers like TV and radio. That is the place a strong media combine comes into play.
Through the use of a number of channels strategically, I can ship messages extra successfully, making certain they attain the appropriate folks on the proper time.
However how does this enable you to plan higher campaigns? And why has it develop into such a vital a part of trendy advertising and marketing methods? I’ll break down how a powerful media combine works, share some compelling stats, and spotlight an instance of a model that’s nailing it to take their campaigns to the subsequent stage.
Desk of Contents
What’s a media combine?
A media combine is a advertising and marketing time period for the mix of channels a enterprise makes use of to fulfill its advertising and marketing targets. It may well embody billboards, e-mail, web sites, and social media. Companies would possibly discuss with their advertising and marketing combine when fascinated about methods to hit future advertising and marketing marketing campaign targets.
A media combine is one other time period for an summary of the channels companies select to execute their advertising and marketing methods on. In the end, media combine optimization is the method of analyzing the efficiency of these channels.
Take into consideration the final marketing campaign you noticed from one in all your favourite manufacturers. What did they do in a different way that actually clicked with you? By incorporating a media combine into your yearly planning, you may slender down what resonates along with your viewers.
Media Combine Instance
Idea is nice and all, however it’s vital to see this strategy in motion. I instantly consider make-up model The Lip Bar’s current marketing campaign introducing their restricted version HBCU lip gloss assortment.
To construct anticipation and drive demand for this restricted product line, The Lip Bar launched a multi-channel marketing campaign that reached audiences each on-line and offline.
First up, web site.
If you land on the model’s homepage, you’ll see a picture of the CEO with the next sentence “Introducing HBCU lip gloss assortment. Restricted version sheer lip glosses impressed by our HBCU girlies.”
Upon clicking on the picture, you’ll arrive at a touchdown web page that shows the complete assortment of lip glosses and explains the idea behind this restricted version.
The second digital channel the model leveraged for this marketing campaign is YouTube, publishing a 59-second video celebrating HBCU tradition paired with the lip gloss.
Transferring offline, I really like how the model additionally confirmed up at FAMU’s homecoming and arrange a pop-up store. They marketed on Instagram to get folks to their in-person occasion.
So, what’s the conclusion to attract right here? The advantage of utilizing a media combine is to leverage completely different methods to see which techniques work and result in higher conversions.
I believe The Lip Bar’s current marketing campaign is a good instance of how any model can leverage channels in a different way to succeed in the identical advertising and marketing objective.
Media Combine Stats in 2025
Issues have modified considerably within the final couple of years, particularly because of the introduction of AI. So, how are entrepreneurs tackling completely different channels and campaigns? The scenario is evolving, so I’ll share the newest.
Likewise, our in depth in-house analysis reveals the next:
Media Combine Optimization
Now that you realize what a media combine is, how do you discover the correct mix to your model and product?
That’s the place media combine optimization is available in. Based mostly on information out of your earlier campaigns and viewers analysis, it is possible for you to to determine one of the best channels to succeed in your viewers — after which ship your message throughout these numerous media.
I believe optimizing your media combine is vital as a result of it is going to will let you make investments extra money and time into advertising and marketing methods which are greatest suited to your audiences.
If you optimize a advertising and marketing media combine, this implies wanting on the analytics and ROI of varied advertising and marketing methods. This may be something from engagement information of social media platforms to views on the latest business.
Enter media combine modeling. If media combine optimization is the “what,” modeling is the “how.” Each mannequin can (and may) look completely different, relying in your advertising and marketing and broader enterprise objective.
Media Combine Modeling
Media combine modeling, also called advertising and marketing combine modeling, is an evaluation approach used to measure marketing campaign affect and decide how every channel (and sure parts) contribute to conversions. Outcomes from media combine modeling permit entrepreneurs to be taught what drives conversions to create campaigns that supply a excessive return on funding.
Media mix models can be utilized to investigate the connection between a dependent variable and an impartial variable.
As an illustration, let’s say my enterprise has a query like, “How did paying for a sponsored tweet have an effect on total weblog site visitors?” My enterprise’s media combine mannequin ought to then precisely depict how a dependent variable — like total weblog site visitors — pertains to an impartial variable, comparable to investing in X.
For companies nonetheless deciding if a media combine optimization is a good suggestion for them, I’ve put collectively key tricks to information you when making a media combine mannequin. Let’s discover these subsequent.
Ideas for Optimizing Your Media Combine
1. Gather personal-level information.
Right here, it’s essential to discover and give attention to analytics that may assist present an correct image of how prospects interact along with your media combine.
Analytics software program is expansive and gives an array of instruments to be used. When you ask me, there’s no cause to depend on something apart from the HubSpot Marketing Hub.
I’d additionally advise in opposition to having too many metrics; this may be complicated and result in inaccurate information. Therefore, one of the best plan is to have an thought of which metrics it’s essential to observe to allow them to be proper from the start.
A traditional media combine optimization course of can take wherever from a couple of months to a yr. So, accumulating the appropriate info in the beginning contributes to getting probably the most correct info total.
2. Have a strong reporting course of.
When utilizing a media combine, you typically mix on-line and offline methods. With this in thoughts, it may be harder to measure the affect of a billboard in comparison with a paid social advert.
Which means you’ll need to assume outdoors of the field when evaluating your media combine. As an illustration, whereas a web based advert can have clear conversion charges you could find, a billboard might require some artistic monitoring.
Maybe, you may observe the uptick in branded search quantity or improved model recall.
This requires having a strong reporting course of that accounts for the occasions you’ll be monitoring — each on-line and offline.
3. Select the appropriate platform.
Advertising and marketing groups that use CMS or analytics software program are already forward of the sport. Software program like that is important to optimizing a media combine as a result of it may give you numbers that may in any other case take a while to determine manually.
A model can analyze its media combine with using platforms that gather engagement information in actual time and compile that information into monitoring stories.
I like to recommend searching for a platform that may give a holistic view of outcomes throughout the board, so outcomes will keep consistency. It’s additionally good to decide on software program that makes a speciality of the advertising and marketing channels you’re utilizing on the time.
As a result of optimizing is measuring plenty of completely different information directly, persist with as few techniques as attainable.
For companies which are out there for a CMS, Content Hub is a good possibility that’s straightforward to make use of for manufacturers of any dimension.
4. Analyze the info.
I’ve been speaking rather a lot concerning the form of information and analyzing that must be carried out in a media combine optimization, however one other vital issue is having the ability to interpret and perceive that information.
It’s no secret that within the advertising and marketing world, there’s an abundance of processes and acronyms floating round. Whereas first entering into the groove of understanding them and what they imply will be intimidating, it’s vital to know the info being collected and methods to use it to your benefit.
As an illustration, if a advertising and marketing crew had particularly excessive click-to-open charges for weekly newsletters, that’s helpful info to deduce that the subsequent marketing campaign may gain advantage significantly from an e-mail advertising and marketing rollout. Alternatively, if a advertising and marketing crew has no thought what a click-to-open fee is, these numbers aren’t going to be useful — just a bit complicated.
Studying information to know its usefulness is simply as vital as accumulating it.
5. Contemplate public notion.
Figuring out how the general public perceives your model will help fill in some interpretation gaps through the modeling course of. Within the media combine mannequin, take into consideration how to slot in buyer opinion. That approach, the numbers can have some buyer opinions to outline them.
There are a few methods I counsel you do that:
- Monitor model mentions. To raised perceive your model notion, monitor your brand mentions on social media. Pay attention to the positives, the negatives, and the questions.
- NPS survey. You too can create a survey to know the way your prospects really feel about your organization and its providers and use a net promoter score (NPS).
An NPS asks prospects how probably they’re to suggest a enterprise to a pal. Figuring out this may support in determining how a enterprise fares among the many competitors out there. It should additionally help in future advertising and marketing endeavors.
- Monitor related metrics. Maintaining a tempo of your metrics like model consciousness, model loyalty, and buyer satisfaction will help you gauge how your brand is doing within the public’s eye and the place you possibly can enhance.
These strategies in the end give the media combine optimization reigns to the client.
Takeaways
My greatest takeaway is that you need to promote by way of quite a lot of media in 2025. Gone are the times of easy, one-stop-shop promoting. However to successfully put your message in entrance of your target market, it’s essential to optimize your media combine with actual information to know the place your viewers is and methods to attain them.
Taking the time to optimize your technique will in the end prevent time and direct your sources to the appropriate channels.
Editor’s Be aware: This publish was initially printed in February 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.