Anyone interested in creating a message for mass consumption knows there are a lot more channel options available today, and that audiences, more or less, expect you be on all of them.

For people in both broadcasting and marketing, having to reach people on multiple channels is a complication – an expensive, disruptive headache – they didn’t have 10 years ago. While most now concede the new reality, and some have made good use of the expanded media landscape, very few have grasped its real potential.

Those that have succeeded at leveraging their message effectively and efficiently across multiple channels, or created truly integrated campaigns, have done so through solid planning.

Planning isn’t complicated. It’s the work that eliminates complication. But as with so much in life, a little effort at the beginning leads to good things in the end. In the case of cross-media planning you will not only save time and money, but you’ll create a better, more effective product.

Here are some things to consider when planning a cross-media production or campaign.

Start with your story (not tactics).

It’s easy to talk tactics. If the first idea tossed out in a brainstorming session is, “I know, an interactive game!” run. You can’t talk about games, or websites, or TV spots, or any other tactic without first knowing what it is you want to say and achieve. So start by getting your story straight. Once you have it down you’ll be amazed at how easily the ideas flow – for all tactics. You may also discover that your idea doesn’t require tactics you initially thought necessary.

Go to your audience.

Research will tell you where your audience is and what they’re doing. With this knowledge you can focus the development of your story on the places your audience consumes and engages with media. If 100% of your audience does nothing but listen to radio, you don’t have to make a podcast. Then again, by creating a podcast you leverage content already produced and expose your story to a new group of listeners.

For many people how and where they access content is a matter of convenience. They want the same content but the choice of how it’s delivered. If they are at home they’ll watch TV, if they’re at work they’ll use a computer, or if they’re on the bus they’ll use their mobile device.

Look at news organizations for good examples of how to deliver the same story many different ways. After a slow start they have truly embraced the idea of cross-media delivery. There adoption was in part due to large audience demand for anywhere, anytime access to their content but many lessons can be learned from studying their creative and production processes. Consider where your story makes the biggest impression and how would you tell it on each different channel.

Move your audience.

Think about how you want to move your audience through tactics and what you want them to do or take away. Creating media for multiple channels allows you to extend your story, connect with audiences longer and more deeply, and direct them towards some action that is mutually beneficial.

This strategy has been pretty widely adopted in marketing for a long time. Everywhere print ads point to websites, and TV ads urge us to “call now”, but that’s usually where it ends.

Great ad campaigns like Doritos White Bag (2009) get different segments of their audience moving across channels and participating with their brand seamlessly.

Likewise, the Lost franchise created The Lost Experience (2006), an elaborate Alternate Reality Game that lets their fans engage directly in the story and that makes use of e-mail messages, phone calls, commercials, billboards and fake Web sites that are made to seem real.

Break down the silos.

Cross-media planning may require a shift in thinking for many who see of their work in terms of a media type. There’s no more, “I am in TV”, or “I do radio”, or “I do direct marketing”. Instead, teams have to focus on the story, determine how it can best be told on each channel, and how each channel is going to work together. Once the planning is in place they can concentrate on producing the tactic in their area of expertise.

Plan production around assets (not tactics).

A common refrain in advertising is, “we just shot a beautiful (and expensive) TV spot, now what are we going to do online?” Account execs scamper down to the web team who hobble together a concept based on 60 seconds of video. A lame animated web banner usually emerges a few days later.

It could have been an interactive video banner but the media buy had already been made. It could have been a branded microsite that extended the TV-spot from 60 seconds to 6 minutes if a photographer had been sent along and an additional 3 minutes of video been shot. But these things require foresight and planning.

Defining what each tactic is and does before production lets you make smarter media buys. More importantly, it allows you to plan production around assets – the design, writing, photography, audio, video – you need for each tactic. Knowing exactly what you need to produce for all tactics, which assets can be re-purposed, and how assets will be adapted for each channel creates efficiencies that can dramatically reduce workflow.

The primary benefit, however, will be a more cohesive product. It doesn’t matter if you are a marketer trying to raise awareness or a producer trying to tell a story, cross-media planning will save you time and money, and make your audiences happier.