Media Options
After you’ve considered your marketing mix and understood more about your audience, you can then use this information to inform your media for actually engaging with your audience. We often start here without first knowing how or why certain media reach various segments of your audience. Instead of merely defaulting to a standard set of platforms to use, consider how you use each platform and also adapt your content to the platform.
In marketing, we want to consider reach, engagement, and investment. Reach is the number of people who are exposed to your materials. Engagement is the number of people who actually interact with the materials, And investment includes the resources (such as financial cost, time, and personal skills) needed to produce the materials.
Ideally, all of your marketing efforts would have high reach as well as high engagement with low investment. But realistically, you will likely need to prioritize one of the areas. It might be most important to you to be highly visible, trying to reach as many people as possible just to expose your name. You might focus your efforts in a particular area because you think that part of your audience is the most likely to actively engage with you. You might have a lot of resources available for a project, so you can use as many different platforms as possible to expand both your reach and engagement, or you might have limited financial resources, so you focus your efforts on low-cost digital. And so on. Understanding your options and how they balance these elements will help you to maximize your marketing efforts.
These platforms are specific to Highline College. There are other platforms available in other contexts; depending on your program, you might work with another medium.
| Platform | Reach | Engagement | Investment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Print: Posters | Potential for high reach, especially if you use every bulletin board on campus. However, an abundance of posters can crowd each other out on a board. | Low. In some areas, people might linger and scan posters while they wait, but often, it’s more important that people see the posters multiple times to help them stick. | Need time to create a good poster and someone with reasonable design skills, plus access to print enough copies to reach all of campus. |
| Print: Handouts | Potential for high reach. Can be distributed to many individuals. | Some individuals will immediately discard, some will pocket for later, and a few will look at it immediately. | Does not need high quality design, but should be legible and have useful information. Need to print a lot and ideally have people to hand out directly. Potential for a lot of waste if people immediately discard them. |
| Print: Brochures | Relatively low. Individuals will need to come across your brochure in a context where they would find it particularly interesting. | Relatively high. If someone picks up a brochure, they will flip through it and learn a lot about your program. They are likely highly interested. | Needs to be well thought out, in both content and design, ideally with a skilled designer to create it. A full color and glossy brochure can be costly. |
| Print: Sandwich boards | High. Thousands of people will walk past a well-placed sandwich board daily. But if left for a long time, it can also become invisible to people. | Low. People generally walk past the board and don’t stop to read a lot. But can be very useful for some (finding the location on the way to an event, for example). | Need time to create a good poster and someone with good design skills, plus access/funds to print in large format, and the board itself. |
| Print: Banners | High. A large banner in the student union is eye-catching and exposed to thousands of people. | Low. Because the banner is so far away and content needs to be minimal, people will see the banner but might not take any action with it. | Any material printed that large needs to have a good design. Need access/funds to print in large format. |
| Print: T-shirts | Depends on how the t-shirts are used. Could have high reach if all volunteers at an event wear the shirt (exposing people on the day of) and continue to wear the shirt afterwards (ongoing promotion). But could be low if only given to a few people and/or they don’t continue to wear the shirt. | Very high for the people wearing the shirt and a well-designed shirt can be eye-catching. Most likely to engage someone connected to the person wearing the shirt. | Printing t-shirts can be costly (and costs rise with the number of design elements and print colors). Needs a great design. |
| Digital: Campus screens | Potential for high reach if displayed across campus. | Low. As with posters, in some areas, people might linger and read the screen while they wait. But seeing the same screen many times can also become furniture, as with sandwich boards. | Ideally would have a good design but at least needs to be clear and informative. No printing cost. |
| Digital: Website | Depends on your website’s current traffic. If your website receives a lot of traffic, then your reach for advertising a particular program could be high. Or you could partner with another high-traffic page to promote your program. | Potential for a lot of engagement, especially if website is well organized and the information about your program is clear. | If whoever manages your website is comfortable with the platform, basic updates are easy. Major updates (such as a new page about your program) may take more time. |
| Digital: Direct Email | Sending an all-student or all-faculty/staff email can reach every person on campus. You can also set up email lists for people who have engaged with you before; your potential reach is then as big as that list. | Common knowledge says that people, especially students, don’t read emails. However, if even 25% of people on a 1,000-person list open an email, that’s 250, which is more than the 100 printed handouts you could distribute. Emails also stick around and can be searched for and referenced. | Quality emails require time to write and organize, but anyone can do it. Additional time and financial resources may be required if you want to set up a newsletter or listserv. |
| Social Media: Facebook | Facebook’s mysterious algorithm means that even if you have a large following, your posts are not necessarily reaching your entire followership. Monitor your accounts to get an idea of your reach. Reach is enhanced by engagement (if more people are engaging with the post, Facebook gives it higher priority in people’s feeds). | Certain types of posts tend to get a lot more engagement than others, such as pictures of people others in your audience know. However, engagement on Facebook has been declining overall. | Writing effective Facebook posts takes time and requires posters to pay attention to what has worked for your audience. No financial cost to have a page, although paid ads and boosts expand your reach. |
| Social Media: Instagram | Instagram’s algorithm is based on how much users have engaged with your content (or similarly content) previously. For example, if someone likes all of your previous posts, then your latest post will likely show higher in their feed. Reach is enhanced by engagement. | Engagement on Instagram can really vary account to account and how you use it. There’s a lot of potential, but you’ll have to pay attention to what is most engaging for your audiences. | Instagram is driven by visuals, so you’ll want to take the time to think through how to best showcase your program and write good posts. On the other hand, stories in particular can be quick and spontaneous. No financial cost to have a profile, although paid ads can expand your reach. |
| Social Media: Twitter | Depending on the nature of your program, it’s possible to build a large following on Twitter. However, because of the nature of the Twitter timeline, any single tweet may only reach a small portion of your audience. | Again, depending on the nature of your program, it’s possible for your audience to engage a lot with your content. It can also be helpful to interact with other organizations via Twitter. | Posts can be written quickly, although you should take enough time to check for mistakes or potential issues that could arise from your posts. No financial cost to have a profile, although paid ads can expand your reach. |
| Social Media: Other platforms | New platforms are constantly emerging. Depending on your audience, it might be effective to experiment in newer platforms, but reach will be limited to who is currently using the platform. | Pay attention to what is trending on newer platforms to find the best ways to engage your audience. | On the one hand, you can spend less time on newer platforms if you are just experimenting and your audience isn’t there yet. On the other hand, it may take more time to learn the platform and what works best on it. |
| In person: Tabling | Staffing a table at an event or in a high-traffic area can expose your program to a lot of people, even if they just see your table and don’t interact with you. | Personal interactions at your table can be among the most engaging experiences for your audience. However, you will need to be staffed by people who will effectively engage with guests, and your table needs to be intriguing to passers-by. | Time and thought need to be put into the materials at and presentation of your table. Staff time will be required for the duration of the event, as well as any preparation for your staff to be effective. There may be a cost to host a table at certain events. |
| In person: Class visits | Reach is limited to the students in the class and the number of classes you visit. | Engagement can be high, particularly if students trust their instructor (and therefore you as an invited guest), if your program is connected to the class material, and if you share a memorable presentation. | Time and thought need to be put into reaching out to instructors for the visit and preparing for the presentations. Staff time will be required for the visits. Good print materials should accompany your visit. |
| In person: Word of Mouth | Reach is based on who is sharing about your program and to whom. You of course can’t control word of mouth directly, but you can influence others to talk about you (tell a friend!). | Assuming people trust their friends, word of mouth can be the most engaging platform of all, as students who hear about a program from a trusted friend may be more likely to engage with you. | No investment necessary for others to tell about you. However, you could create incentives (such as a free ticket if you bring 5 others). |
Accessibility Considerations:
As you consider how to reach your audience, it’s important to ensure that you keep in mind how people with varying abilities will interact with your materials. In particular:
- Printed materials may not be accessible for people who are blind/low vision (a larger format can be useful for some). Digital materials should include all necessary text in a format accessible by a screen reader, and images should be described with alt text.
- Without an interpreter, in-person promotion might not be accessible for people who speak ASL. Consider having printed material available to accompany you.
- All designed materials need to consider readability and legibility, including color contrast, organization of material, etc.
- Materials should be distributed so folks at different heights or using a wheelchair can view them.
More from the Marketing Toolkit
What is Marketing?
The Marketing Mix
Understanding Your Audience
>Media Options
Basics of Graphic Design
Social Media