Yes, it's time to start your 2017 advertising plan. You know that ads can draw huge traffic to your site and generate business, but without a plan in place, you can quickly overspend without getting much in the way of results. If you're already a forward-thinking person, you might be asking, "But what about products that will be coming onto the market that we don't even know about yet?" This is exactly why you really need to plan.

One of the essential elements of an advertising plan is establishing goals. The path becomes clearer once you know where you're going. Determining your best response to various market trends is more doable when you have an advertising plan, which is not the same thing as a buy.

There's no doubt that we're living in a digital world, but old habits die hard. Traditional broadcast media advertising is alive and well, and it can be instrumental in increasing website traffic. A recent IAB report found that for 78 percent of adults, watching TV is no longer a standalone experience. In fact, two out of three smartphone owners multiscreen while watching TV. A further 24 percent of users said their online multitasking behaviors are directly related to what they're watching on TV. Clearly, broadcast media like TV and radio can positively impact the traffic to your website. Here's how they drive online activity and how you can take advantage of them in your own campaigns.

Autumn has always been associated with warm colors, cooler temperatures and the beginning of sweater season, but in recent years, another icon has come to dominate this time of year: the pumpkin spice latte. This drink first came on the scene in 2003, and in the decade+ since, it's become a seasonal phenomenon, with sales upwards of 200 million units in its first ten years, according to Forbes — not bad for a drink that's only available for about three months a year. While thoughts of the pumpkin spice trend may bring to mind the warm fragrances of nutmeg and cinnamon, there's actually a lot that marketers can learn from this unlikely autumnal icon.

The services they provide are much different than your typical organization, but just like those businesses, health care companies need to make their offerings known to the public.

If you're in the industry, you know that marketing is a critical component of your business' long-term success — but the keys to success are much different for you than they are for, say, a retail company or a restaurant chain. You're tasked with promoting your services while establishing your expertise and building considerable trust among your potential patients. There's plenty to balance in terms of professional ethics, sensitivity to patient needs, and the duty to provide the highest standard of care possible.

So how can you reflect these core values through your marketing? Here are some tips.

Today, more than ever before, viewers are turning to second screens for more information about what they're watching. If your online presence doesn't complement your broadcast ad strategy, chances are good that you're losing leads you've worked hard to generate. Squaring your online presence with your radio and TV leads could mean a huge win for your company.

Fifty percent of Americans with online access second-screen when they're looking at video content (including that on TV) — and a whopping 88 percent of millennials admit to engaging in this seemingly absentminded activity, according to Consumerist.

Of course, many of these people are flocking to social media to share their feelings about their favorite characters, but eMarketer reports that more than half of US internet users are still watching TV commercials. What's more, 62 percent of consumers who paid for a product or service advertised in a TV or radio commercial researched online before buying.

Almost every commercial brand looks forward to certain holidays with great anticipation. Taking advantage of these seasonal spikes in business can occupy the better part of a marketing department's calendar year, and for good reason: Some industries see the bulk of their annual sales generated in a single month leading up to some of the most sales-heavy holidays.

With digital and traditional channels to choose from, you have a lot of options at your disposal to create a successful seasonal campaign. That means making the right choices while avoiding costly mistakes. Here's a primer on how to build a local strategy that accomplishes both goals.

Brand awareness should be a focal point of any marketing campaign. This tough-to-pin-down metric is a general reflection of how well a given audience recognizes and knows a particular brand. For companies trying to earn recognition, patronage and sustained loyalty from a base of dedicated consumers, developing a brand awareness strategy is the place to start.

Awareness isn't easy to come by: It takes a combination of time, money, resources and creativity to build it among an audience large enough to sustain a company. For a business like Coca-Cola, it's a decades-long work in progress, and one of its best drivers of sales. Few companies today, if any, have the luxury of planning out that far ahead, but there's a simple, universal lesson from Coca-Cola's example: When executed properly, brand awareness strategies can pay dividends for years to come.

Understanding your customer is the critical starting point when it comes to generating leads and increasing conversion rates. Your customers' needs drive company growth, which means you must recognize those needs before crafting or adjusting strategies. Capturing these needs, however, isn't always easy. Fortunately, there are many customer insight tools available to help you out.

Data Management

Facebook Business offers insights and tools you can use to understand the market in general, compile data on people who like your page, track conversions (e.g., content consumption and sign-ups) and more. Facebook's Custom Audiences tool can also generate a Lookalike Audience based on a customer list or data from your site. This way, you can identify new customers with behaviors and demographic characteristics similar to your existing customers. With almost 1.6 billion users (as Tech Crunch points out), this data management platform (or DMP) is robust.

As the leaves and temperatures fall, the busiest season of the year heats up. That means now is the time to start planning your fall advertising. Being proactive with your holiday marketing plan will provide you with a leg up on the competition. It may even allow you some time to enjoy the holiday season yourself instead of scrambling last minute! Get ready to start planning with some of these ideas.

Deck The Handles

A low-cost way to spread holiday cheer is to hire a graphic designer to give your media images a seasonal feel. A holiday-inspired logo or cover is affordable and reusable. Using the same images across different platforms will help establish brand consistency through your website and social media accounts, too. Continuity is especially important if you conduct transactions online. A simple holiday wreath or strand of lights used across all marketing channels can instantly make your message pop. Take it a step further by creating images to coordinate with each holiday starting with leaves in September.

Election season is here, and while marketers may feel it's harder to cut through the noise of the various local, state and federal elections happening during this busy time, the 2016 election season is actually revealing a number of interesting insights about consumer behavior.

In fact, Google recently published a voter behavior report containing the following three insights: