Advertising: So Many Ways to Spend All Your Money

I once began a conversation with a marketing firm by asking, “Where should we advertise to get the best bang for our buck?” Being a marketing firm, they answered the question with their own question, “How much money do you have?”

That answer bugged me, but it made sense from their point of view. They knew there was a limit to what we could spend, and they saw their jobs as figuring out how to maximize the potential of each dollar available. They’d tailor their plan based on what we could afford, whether that was $5 or $5 million.

When starting a new program or service, like a state-sponsored retirement program, marketing is incredibly important for getting out the message to those impacted and eligible, so they know about it and have an opportunity to make an informed choice. It’s also a key factor in ensuring the program can achieve its goals to further people’s retirement security and ultimately pay for itself. This is true even if the program includes a mandate for employers to participate, and it’s even more critical if employer participation is voluntary, to help convince folks to join.

So where do you start?

Usually before I even begin talking to marketing firms, I like to create a simple communications plan. It helps me think through what I need and then get consensus from my team so that we’re on the same page before we bring marketing folks on board. Our marketing partner can then use the communications plan to develop their proposal.

Here are the basic elements that I like to include in my communications plans:

Audience 

Whom am I trying to reach? Different audiences will react differently to opportunities and to various types of messages. Some communities may rely on certain types of media more than others or need the messages delivered in other languages or by specific trusted messengers.

Goals and Outcomes

What are we trying to achieve? If it’s just general awareness, then maybe we should focus on tactics that reach people far and wide and as often as possible, knowing it takes a lot of exposure to get a message to stick. If the goal is to spur folks to action or convert them to customers, we might take a different, more targeted approach. 

Key Messages

What do we want to communicate? It can help to write these out in bullets, like talking points. I usually don’t worry about getting the wording just right, as long as it hits all the salient points. A good marketing partner can then wordsmith and A/B test various ways of saying it to see what resonates the best with key audiences.

Tactics

Now we finally get to my original question. There are a whole lot of ways to spend all of your money. Have a tiny budget? Digital might be a good way to go, since it costs so little per impression or click and you can hyper target key audiences. Need to reach basically everyone and have millions of dollars just burning a hole in your pocket? Then it’s TV for you! Here are some options to consider: 

• Print: newspapers, magazines, culturally specific publications

• Digital: social media ads, banner ads, sponsored content, search results, videos, streaming ads (Pandora, Hulu)

• TV/radio: commercials, paid sponsorships, sponsored content

• Out-of-home: billboards, bus/train ads, transit stops, movie theaters, flyers, brochures 

• Email, text, mail and phone campaigns

• Influencers and trusted messengers: the people audiences listen to, whether online or in person

Success measures

This is an important one that often doesn’t get enough attention. How will you know if you’re successful at meeting your goals and outcomes? It needs to be measurable and specific, such as increasing public awareness by 10% over the next year, which you could measure through surveying. 

Free is the Right Price

As stated earlier, a lot of choices about tactics will depend on your budget, but it’s worth remembering that there are many ways to spread messages for free or minimal cost. Here are some that I have used in the past that have, at times, worked even better than the paid methods:

• Earned media: press releases, making pitches to specific reporters, talking to editorial boards, holding press conferences

• Partner communications: partners (other agencies, non-profits, etc.) often put out newsletters or notices. Check with them about sending messaging through their existing channels, networks, publications, and mailing lists. 

• Podcasts and local radio: niche podcasts and local talk radio are often looking for folks to discuss various topics and are usually happy to have a conversation on air.

Another way to stretch your budget is to consider who else might be willing to help pay for outreach. There are often advocacy organizations out there that might be willing to run parallel campaigns or even just pay for advertising to help you spread the word, and it can be an easy pitch if you’ve already developed the messaging and materials for them to use.

The last thing to remember is that you can always shift tactics over time. My communications plans often only cover a short period, like six months or a year, and I like to revisit them often based on lessons learned. Often times, advertising for new programs is a learning experience and an opportunity to continuously improve messaging and tactics.

More to come! / Joel

Columnist and Senior Associate Joel Metlen is based in Oregon. Joel is a pioneer of the state facilitated retirement savings space, woven into a career of public service and innovation. At OregonSaves, Joel’s responsibilities ranged from marketing and employer engagement to operations and data analysis. You’ll see his insights from that experience, and more, here.

This piece was featured in the October 21, 2021 edition of Retirement Security Matters. For more fresh thinking on retirement savings innovation, check out the newsletter here.