As we move further into the age of Internet advertising, changes in the way that people utilize the Internet, and innovations in business tools have begun to influence the way that we attempt to communicate with our target market. While planning a unique and creative marketing scheme using interesting media can be an exciting experience, it's important that companies don't allow their enthusiasm to override their common sense. Sometimes, when this happens, a marketing campaign that seemed promising at first can turn out to be a complete disaster.

Failing to plan your media marketing campaigns properly, or dedicating little time to planning them in the first place could mean that you lose crucial customers, profits, and brand authority. The more that your customers come to associate your company with bad media, the more they're likely to avoid your business in favor of your competitors.

Following are just some of the costs associated with bad online media plans.

1.    Consumers Will Stop Spending Money with You

If you've seen a website that's full of bad media before, or a banner advertisement that uses terribly planned creative, then the chances are it didn't promote feelings of respect. One of the most important things you can do when convincing your customer that you're worth their money, is gain their trust. Bad media makes it look as though your company isn't interested in investing in itself - so why would potential customers bother investing in you either.

Fortunately, changing up your creatives and showing good customer service can increase purchases, even after a customer has had a bad experience with your company in the past. However, you need to get to work on improving your image quickly, before the negative associations that have begun to develop with your company become too deeply ingrained.

2.    Customers Will Share Bad Media For The Wrong Reasons

Part of what makes a successful advertising campaign is its share-ability. If you can convince your market to promote your banner ads and videos ads on your behalf, then you have less work to do when it comes to seeking out new audiences. Unfortunately, the old saying "any publicity is good publicity" may not apply in these circumstances.

On the Internet, you'll find that visitors are more likely to share news about the bad experiences that they've had with your company, than the good ones. If your badly planned media leads someone to struggle with your website, or results in other problems, news will spread quickly, and other visitors will be advised to stay away from you, narrowing your potential market.

3.    You May Be Penalized By Google

A lot of media marketing campaigns, regardless of whether they involve banners, content, or videos, rely on search engine rankings to some extent. After all, you want your website to show up on the top of the results for Google when someone makes a query relevant to what you're selling. Unfortunately, if you produce bad or unplanned media, then it's more likely that Google will penalize you, meaning that you end up being practically invisible to your target audience.

Everything from banners that cause your website to load too slowly, to content that you've copied from another website, could be enough to push you further down the listings to the point of online oblivion. Planning your media in advance helps to avoid this, by ensuring that you cover all potential problems.

4.    Your Brand Promotion Strategies Aren't Coordinated

Part of what makes a good marketing strategy, is the consistency that goes into each campaign you create. Unplanned media that doesn't adhere to the strengths of your business, speak with your intended voice, or apply to your chosen audience will confuse your market, and leave you looking unprofessional. A proper plan for your media will mean assessing your market in advance and following an appropriate strategy to promote your company.

By sticking to a consistent tone throughout all of your marketing efforts, you'll be sure to increase brand recall and awareness over time for all of the right reasons, meaning that your audience will associate you with a reliable and trustworthy source of products, services, or information.

5.    You Will Waste Your Ad Budget

Finally, most businesses - particularly those that are just getting started, don't have infinite amounts of money to spend on different media intended to promote their business or company. Planning ahead with your media opportunities ensures that you create the creatives that are most likely to appeal to your audience, and convince them to convert with you. In other words, you develop something that's worth the money you're spending on it.

Failing to plan ahead simply increases the chances that your ad budget will be wasted on media that is ineffective and unproductive, meaning that you'll have to start again and spend more money on developing something new.