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Go Digital or Go Home: How to Improve Your Online Presence
Use ATA resources to boost your online presence, strengthen your business, and compete in today’s digital age.
Photo Credit: Ace Archers
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Author: Cassie Gasaway
How did you summon service and find businesses 15 to 20 years ago? You let your fingers do your walking in the Yellow Pages, right?
That world changed fast in the digital age. Society dropped landlines and embraced cell phones. We also traded notebooks for computers as communication’s pace exploded with websites, Google and social media.
Has your business shifted to an online presence? It needs too, and the ATA can help.
“Having a digital presence is your Yellow Pages listing,” said Wendy Lang, ATA’s senior membership manager. “It tells customer where you are, when you’re open, and how to reach you. Much like a Yellow Pages listing, a digital presence doesn’t sell your products. You do!”
Lang said greeting customers with a welcoming voice on the phone and a smile in person helps make a sale. But you won’t do either without a digital presence that attracts new customers.
A digital presence differs from e-commerce. That is, you need a digital presence for e-commerce, but you don’t need e-commerce for a digital presence. How you present yourself and your business online defines that presence. Companies with a strong online presence appear on Yelp, Google, Facebook and YouTube. Those companies stay active online by continually posting useful, relevant content that engages loyal and potential customers alike.
Whether you’re posting your first digital “listing” or enhancing your current listings, you’re not alone. Your ATA offers many helpful resources. These ATA tools teach you how to build your online presence to ensure customers find you online.
View the courses available on the MyATA Learning Center. Photo credit: ATA
MyATA Learning Center Courses
The MyATA Learning Center provides ATA members free on-demand advice and education on business and best practices. You’ll learn skills and strategies through interactive videos, follow-up questions, and other resources. Consider these five videos:
1. Marketing 101
The ATA’s “Marketing 101” course details how websites and social media help you reach your target audience. The courses below go into deeper detail.
2. How to Run a Facebook Ad Campaign
This four-part video series teaches ATA members how to run archery and bowhunting advertising campaigns on Facebook. The “How to Run Your Own Facebook Ad Campaign” video course offers step-by-step instructions for video-marketing campaigns.
The video course helps retailers engage their communities and turn nonarchers into archers. You’ll learn how to upload videos to Facebook, prepare your shop for new customers, and welcome newcomers to archery. The course includes customizable flyers, a shop-cleaning checklist, a new-customer tracking spreadsheet, and other tips for robust campaigns.
3. Build a Low-Cost Website
Jill Schaben, ATA’s senior manager of marketing and communications, created the "Build Your Own Low Cost Website" video course. This course details how to secure your domain, find a web host, and build your site with Wix. You’ll find it under the “Marketing” section in the MyATA Learning Center.
4. 5 Myths of Digital Retail: Selling Through COVID-19 & Beyond
Michele Salerno of Celerant Technology, a MyATA service provider, worked with ATA staff to create “5 Myths of Digital Retail: Selling Through COVID-19 & Beyond.” The video explains how brick-and-mortar retailers can stay competitive in today’s rapidly evolving digital marketplace.
Celerant Technology, a MyATA service provider, helps ATA retailers and other outdoors and sporting-goods stores grow their businesses with innovative software and technologies. Celerant provides archery dealers affordable, cutting-edge retail technology for their stores, ranges or online-sales platforms.
5. Hitting the Target with Your Online Presence
Another MyATA service provider, Approval Payment Solutions, hosted a webinar for ATA members called “Hitting the Target with Your Online Presence.” The webinar explains how an effective online presence grows your business, details what not to post on your website, and explains how “search engine optimization” differs from “search engine marketing.”
APS specializes in website development and digital marketing. The webinar explains how to attract customers and boost sales through your online platforms.
Those free courses, and many more, are available 24-7 to ATA members through the MyATA Learning Center. Log into your MyATA member dashboard, and click “MyATA Learning Center.”
Visit the Resource Website for helpful documents. Photo Credit: ATA
ATA’s Resource Website Offers Marketing Help
The ATA can help you learn strategies for marketing your business online and teach you to create digital content for your platforms. Consider these documents:
- How to Shoot a Video
- How to Share a Video on Social Media
- How to Post a Video to Your Website
- How to Post a Video on YouTube
- How to Manage Your Google Listing
- How to Create a Google Map
- Website Evaluation Checklist
- How to Respond to Customer Review
The ATA shares professional archery and bowhunting images on the Resource Website to help revive your website or create polished social-media posts.
Log into your MyATA member dashboard and click “Download Free ATA Resources.” Select “Marketing Resources” under the “Downloads” dropdown menu for free resources for promoting your business. You’ll find the ATA’s social-media calendar under the “Retail Resources” category on the dropdown menu.
Embed the A360 or B360 widget onto your website to share our content. Photo Credit: ATA
ATA’s Bowhunting 360 and Archery 360 Widgets
Use the ATA’s Archery 360 and Bowhunting 360 platforms to engage consumers, and boost archery and bowhunting participation while growing your business.
Archery 360 and Bowhunting 360 are information-and-education websites, as well as social-media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. ATA created these platforms to attract and inspire beginning archers and bowhunters. The sites also help retain archers and bowhunters while reactivating former participants.
ATA members can also use those platforms to strengthen their online presence. Use them to supplement the content on your website or social pages. Add the Archery 360 or Bowhunting 360 widget code to your website and – voilà! – the widgets deliver fresh, unique archery and bowhunting content to your website. Or share the content on your social pages. Click here to learn more about the widgets.
Final Thoughts
Outdated content on your website or social platforms is like outdated milk: No one will open it. Use the ATA’s resources to create or revive your online presence.
Questions? Contact Wendy Lang at wendylang@archerytrade.org or (866) 266-2776, ext. 103.
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