“This will solve all of your marketing needs.”
If anyone says that to you, politely walk the other way. As a novice marketer, the first thing I learned was that there is no marketing “silver bullet”. There are, however, a number of tools at our disposal – some free, some not – that allow you to pinpoint your marketing.
In a meeting recently with Jesse Hayes, co-owner of Archive Coffee & Bar, I was educated at the various percentages of users and metrics in the Salem Metropolitan Service Area relative to social media. The “big one” that allows for the most pinpoint marketing of course is Facebook. Many businesses are also using Instagram quite well. One that I hadn’t thought of as being a business tool, until recently, is Snapchat. —> click here if you don’t know what Snapchat is yet
I’m the dad of 2 girls, ages 11 and 14. At this stage in my life, they’re teaching me more about social media than I could ever learn on my own. Much of what I learn is a result of parental vigilance, and Snapchat is no different. Once I wrapped my head around it, I’ve found it to be quite effective in communicating with people who use it quickly. I’ve made a number of appointments with people that are otherwise hard to reach by “snapping” them, and had a meeting on the calendar in just a couple of minutes. It’s important to go where the people are. A growing number of people are on Snapchat (and many of them are millennials).
A few days ago, my snapCircle got a little larger…and I was intrigued. It was a business:
The Bridal Gallery is a Salem Chamber member and downtown business that employs a good number of 20-somethings. The owner, Angie Oven, is a savvy marketer and was encouraged to venture into Snapchat as a business for the very purpose of “going where her people are”. Many of Angie’s clients are shopping for dresses and tuxes for proms, weddings, dances, celebrations. This same group of people is on Facebook less and Snapchat more. Smart move, Angie.
Angie admitted that she and her team at Bridal Gallery are still exploring Snapchat, and how to leverage it best for their business. There are no classes for this stuff – only trial and error. Kudos for taking it on.
If social media has taught us anything, it’s that trying new things doesn’t get us very far. Doing new things is where it’s at.
In the words of Yoda…