Back to the basics: Health Care Marketing Revisited

How much does an advertising campaign cost?

Spend any time at all in marketing communications and you’ll hear that question.

A lot.

It’s difficult not to respond with something glib. But let’s admit it—it’s a silly question.

One oft-used but apt comparison is to ask, “How much does it cost to build a house?”

It depends, of course, on where you want to build it. What you want to build it with. Who you want to build it. How big it will be. How plain or fancy. How functional, and how extravagant. How many frills. The décor. The number of doors and windows and rooms and hallways and alcoves and utilities and amenities.

And so on.

Budgeting a marketing communications campaign is measurably more complicated.
Who do you want to reach? How often? Where are they? What are their buying habits? What is their media use? What’s the nature of the buying process for your product or service? Who influences the buying decision?

And so on.

That’s not to say you can’t estimate costs and build budgets. We do it every day. But it’s a studied process, based on establishing realistic—and measurable—objectives, careful planning, allocation of resources, and continuous tracking and adjustment.

Always involved in the discussion—always—is the seemingly glib, but absolutely necessary, question a client must answer: How much have you got?

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Next time: How to waste money on advertising.