I had the opportunity to attend the Agents of Change digital marketing conference last weekin Portland, Maine. This is the second time that I've been able to attend this conference, and every time I come out of a conference like this my to do list grows exponentially. It's a huge inspiration to see what people are doing in different digital marketing spaces and I love to try to apply as much as I can to my personal and professional life. Of course, in the past everybody has been talking about how blogging is a must do and that hasn't really changed. But now the attention is moving more towards podcasting and other types of digital media, because EVERYONE is already Blogging! So it's time for me to consistently blog. Technology is making is so easy that I actually used the Evernote app on my iPhone to record the first draft of this entry while I was driving (Hands-Free, of course!)
One of the things that I struggle with as a Restaurant Marketing director is applying things I learn at an event focused on businesses that sell products P2P or B2B online is applying some of the lessons learned to a traditional brick and mortar business. So the day after the conference I drove to Ellsworth as it is Autumn Gold Festival weekend and every year our restaurant Participates in the local Chowder Festival. Of course this is a great opportunity for our brand to reach out to new guests and that's really how we look at it. Last year when the local restaurants actually accused us of cheating. Of course we would never try to do something like that, but you could always look at the old adage if you're not cheating you're not trying? Our goal is to raise awareness of our brand with potential new customers and our loyal guests. So to do that we bring as many options with us as we can for customers who may or may not like one particular soup, including cookies and dinner rolls. And again this year, we were lucky enough to win the judges choice for best suit. It's nice that we won, but we really aren't there to win.
Our main goal is to reach out to customers that we don't see on a regular basis or at all. The lesson there is sometimes you have to go outside your full walls and do events like this to be able to reach out to your customers and people similar to your customers. It's really how small businesses with little or no advertising budgets are using social media. You HAVE to grab those opportunities that present themselves in real life. How many times do you see a situation where your lined upside-by-side with your competition and have the ability to prove to your customers that they should give you a chance? The reality is that a brick and mortar business needs to blend social media and face to face marketing to survive in today's economy. Do one and not the other? You're setting your self up for failure.
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