Christine Hazelet – Web Marketing InternBarlow’s Mill

Table of ContentsAbout Barlow’s Mill / My Duties as an Intern 1

Social Media & Squarespace 2

Other Promotions 3

Catering 4

A Learning Experience 5

Barlow’s Mill is a small event venue with a 750 square foot interior made to hold 49 people. Its purple exterior makes it hard to miss and it’s located just a mile from downtown Fredonia at 369 West Main Street. With its manicured vineyards, colorful flower gardens, old trees and historic farm, Barlow’s Mill can be a beautiful venue for any event. For the warmer summer months, tent rental is available and there is off-street parking available for 10 cars. Inside, Barlow’s Mill comes equipped with Wi-Fi, a wheelchair accessible ramp, a caterer-friendly

kitchen, tables and chairs. Events can vary anywhere between weddings, rehearsal dinners, family gatherings, work meetings, birthday parties, retreats, or classes that meet once a week.

One of the events that happen at Barlow’s Mill is Growing with Music Together classes. Growing with Music Together is a licensed center with Music Together®. Music Together® is an internationally recognized early childhood music program. These classes run year round and follow the seasons: fall, winter, spring and summer. Each semester is 10 weeks and meetings are once a week. Classes are for very young children (babies, toddlers, etc.) and their caregivers; no music talent is required. Based on the philosophy that children learn best through play, classes are fun-loving, hands-on music experiences that build upon children’s’ natural love of music while aiding cognitive and motor development.

I started this internship in September of 2014. When I had first met with Kay Barlow, we had discussed marketing her business, Barlow’s Mill, through the use of advertising and social media. Thus, I became her web marketing intern.

There are many duties that come along with the title of a web marketing intern. My first area of business was creating flyers and brochures to post around town. Next was to create a Facebook page, and then updating her website. Eventually we moved on to using Google Ads and creating a Google+ page.

By the use of social media, we were able to increase the awareness of Barlow’s Mill as well as get the word out to the residents of Fredonia, Dunkirk, Silver Creek, and the other surrounding towns.

1

ABOUT BARLOW’S MILL

MY DUTIES AS AN INTERN

We created the Barlow’s Mill Facebook page on October 6, 2014. Since then, there have been 135 people who liked the page. We decided to create a Facebook because that is a very common form of social media that is used today, especially with the younger generation. By posting pictures and updates frequently, we are able to help get the word out more and hopeful that more people will hear about Barlow’s Mill and ask to rent from us. Pictures help customers and potential customers see the many ways Barlow’s Mill can be used; whether it is a meeting, birthday party, or a class.

This is the look of the homepage to our website when we are in editing mode on the Squarespace template. Squarespace makes it very easy to design and edit the look of your website. You pick which template you want to use and then you can edit it really any way you want.

If you hover over the “music” and “rentals” section in the navigation pane, you will find more pages to go to. We did this to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for. Under music, you will find music classes, piano lessons, and birthday parties. Under rentals, you will find the rental page and photos of the uses of Barlow’s Mill.

2

SOCIAL MEDIA & SQUARESPACE

In the fall, our main focus was getting new families to sign up for our winter semester. To do so, we opened up a campaign on Google. In other words, we used a Google Ad to try to get families that are not already customers familiar with Barlow’s Mill. Having never used Google Ads or a campaign, this was a learning experience for the both of us.

Through the use of keywords and location filters, you can easily type in how you want customers to find your business. Since ours was for music classes, we used words such as “music”, “music classes”, “Growing with Music Together”, winter, etc. We also set the location filter to target surrounding cities of Fredonia such as Angola, Gowanda, and other cities all within a 20 mile radius.

We also made a Google+ account for Barlow’s Mill, that way whenever someone types in “barlow’s mill” or “event venue” into Google (in the Fredonia area), Barlow’s Mill will always show up as an option. This is a great way to get noticed. Not only does this display the name of the business, but it also shows the phone number, as well as a map with the address. Google+ is an up and coming social media site that has a lot of potential.

3

OTHER PROMOTIONS

Recently Kay and I had the opportunity to sit down with the owners of The Catering Company, Krista Compano and Shaun Heenan. We established a relationship with them and we are now exclusive partners. What this means is they are able to help cater and set up for events that happen at Barlow’s Mill, as long as they are being catered.

This is a great way to help get the word out around town for Barlow’s Mill. When customers visit their website, Barlow’s Mill name is shown; that is great advertising and can cause word-of-mouth publicity around town. We are hopeful that partnering with The Catering Company will bring more customers who are looking to rent out the facility.

The Catering Company is conveniently located in Fredonia and is available to cater for any type of event: picnics, graduation parties, Sunday brunch, memorial and funeral services, weddings, etc. They prepare the food the day-of the event with the highest quality food so it is hot and ready for the event. Their professionalism with presentation is hard to beat, as they have décor for every type of event they cater.

4

CATERING

This internship has taught me so much in the past year. I learned how a small business in a small town works and that it isn’t always the easiest task. Word-of-mouth communication and getting people talking about your business is crucial.

After working this internship, I realized that web marketing, the use of social media, and inputting and analyzing data is the field of marketing I want to pursue my career in. This internship helped me with my marketing skills by trying to branch out the business. Using the Squarespace template for their website was a learning experience but easy once I grasped the concept of it.

Easily my favorite part of this internship was meeting Kay. Working with Kay Barlow was such an uplifting and rewarding experience; she’s one of the nicest, kindest, and hard-working people I know. Her and her husband put so much time and effort in to make the mill the best it can be. I can only hope that my job working there helped them as well.

5

A LEARNING EXPERIENCE