In speaking to small business owners and managers on advertising effectiveness, Melissa Yao, chief marketing officer for the Savannah Area Chamber and Visit Savannah, first wanted to debunk a few myths:
• Print is not dead. In fact, it’s one of the best ways to solidify your brand.
• Social media is no longer a fad, It’s a way of life.
• Google isn’t just a search engine. You can use Google analytics to measure the effectiveness of your digital message.
“How many times have you or your boss wondered ‘How do we know if our advertising strategies are working?’” she asked the group gathered in the Savannah Morning News auditorium Tuesday for the Small Business Council’s SMART lunch.
“It’s often hard to quantify, but there are ways to measure many of the things you do,” she said.
But before you can start measuring, you have to have an advertising strategy.
“Begin by brainstorming,” Yao said. “Get a blank piece of paper and put down anything that even resembles an idea. At this point, there are no dumb ideas, just ideas.
“Once you have filled that paper up, you can use it to start mapping out where you want to go and what you hope to achieve with advertising.”
Next, Yao said, plan a budget.
“Know how much you have to spend and what you want to get out of your advertising dollars.”
The next step is to develop a media plan, looking at how you can utilize all effective media channels — print, radio/TV/broadcast, digital, social media, email and direct marketing.
“Once you can put a check mark by each one, you should have a complete media plan,” she said.
“Remember, you first have to have a plan in place before you can start to measure the bang for your buck.”
With that, Yao turned the program over to Zeek Coleman, Visit Savannah’s interactive marketing manager, to talk about measuring success in digital advertising.
“By far the best free tool out there is Google analytics,” Coleman said.
With it, you can learn how well your social, mobile, search and display ads are working, how many customers you’re attracting and how users are engaging with your site,” he said.
Facebook is another effective digital marketing tool, Coleman said, adding that small companies with fewer “friends” or “likes” can partner with larger companies, such as Visit Savannah or SavannahNow to reach a broader audience.
Facebook also has tracking tools if you know how to find them, Coleman said.
“Facebook Insights provides Facebook page owners and platform developers with metrics around their content, giving them a look at what works and what doesn’t,” he said.
“It’s a great way to see what is resonating with people and what kinds of messages they like.”
Yao asked luncheon attendees to write down their questions and/or issues with using social media in their businesses. At next month’s meeting on April 2, Visit Savannah will cover social media and analytics in more depth, she said, incorporating as many questions from Tuesday’s group as possible.