Every company needs a media plan to coordinate your efforts and reduce wasted motion. And if you have a budget and no time, it might be time to delegate your media planning. But how? We’re gonna talk about exactly how to delegate your content planning, grow one of your staff and get success while you do it.
If you’re managing communication for your company, either as a brand manager, content strategist or marketing director, you’re publishing. Seth Godin famously claimed that every company is a publishing company, pointing to the need to understand ongoing communication to build and maintain momentum.
Knowing how to think about a media plan helps you to lead, but it doesn’t always get you down to the everyday. Now, here’s how to manage the work. It’s just an example. Add your own genius, experience or secret sauce.
Find the Right Person
It’s great to have someone with experience. But if you don’t, choose someone dependable, who knows what you’re trying to accomplish, who can use a spreadsheet, who isn’t afraid of numbers, who can understand the order of operations.
The hard part is someone who knows what you’re trying to accomplish. This is where your communication skills shine. Share with them a simple structure and let them build on it. Talk them through each one, asking them what they know about the topic.
Your goals is to get them all caught up with you. You want to avoid telling them they can do it how they want, and then, when they deliver, you add a bunch of new requirements. So get that all out of the way early.
Choose Your Mix
Give them a list of media channels to use to start. They can build on it later. But keep it simple for now. Maybe it’s just a blog post, building to some social media and a newsletter.
3 basic channels:
- Blog: Here’s where you’re generating new ideas and showing off your expertise.
- Newsletter: You want a media channel that you can build into an empire? A mailing list is what you want. The data you get from these is incredible.
- A social media channel or two: A place where you can publicize your thoughts and build an audience.
- Bonus: You need a place to send everyone. And this is usually a place you want them to land on your website. Maybe it’s your contact form or your mailing list signup. But you have to have something for them to do.
Get the Recommendation
Give them a week or a month to bring you their recommendation. Ask them for the following.
Channel Mix: What channels do they recommend?
Get them thinking beyond the list you gave them. Ask for one more media channel suggestion to get them thinking. Ask for a recommendation on whether to advertise paid or boost posts.
If they don’t show up with their recommendation or can’t explain it well, challenge them. It’s the only way they’ll know you’re serious about wanting both their contribution to the team and personal growth.
Budget: You’ve given them a budget. Now see how they’ve distributed it.
The first thing they need to know is what’s included in the budget. Man-hours? Printing? Or do you have internal printing resources? Let them know what they’re paying for from this budget and what’s already paid by overhead or other budgets.
Do you have prices for contractors or other vendors? Make sure they have those.
Then see what they’ve forgotten to account for or under/over-estimated. Other than the above, common things forgotten or under-estimated: project management costs to make sure everything stays on-track. Media placement, unless you’re doing that in-house. Comment below if there’s one we’re not thinking of.
Schedule: How have they laid out the media, given the budget you’ve provided.
Make sure things are spaced out intelligently. If they have a lot of things going out at times that seem sub-optimal, then ask them to find out what the best times of day/week are to send those things out. For example, it’s usually best not to ship a newsletter on a Monday or Friday because it’s just less likely to be read.
Measurement: How will they measure success?
Give them a lower boundary for how complicated it needs to be. Complication costs money. If nothing else, start them with some metrics that can be measured using Google Analytics or whatever analytics you’re currently using.
Delegation Makes You Go Further
So find the right person and give them time and the right guidance, and you’ll multiply yourself and keep your content on a good, effective tempo, getting your company’s genius and philosophy out there into the world.
Need help? Before you embark on this journey, consider your brand. Compelling content is great, but if your brand doesn’t earn their trust, it might compel them to get someone else to help them. At Resound, our system focuses on brand first, positioning you as the one who can help. Contact us to find out more.
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