Eddie’s Energy Bars Blog

The point of a blog is to connect with your customers. I want to let them know that I am a real person they will be dealing with when they order their energy bars for Mother’s day. To know their product is handmade, hand-packaged, and hand labeled before it is sent to them. I feel like I haven’t been personal enough on this blog. Sure, giving tips on health and fitness, keeping up to date on my college life as an entrepreneur, and some random things thrown in as well are great, but are they topics I should be writing about? Do readers like what I am writing? Should I be including pictures of my life, and personal anecdotes? I guess I haven’t quite been able to find my “blogself“.

I don’t even know if that is a word, but finding my blogself is what I need to work on. I am reading constantly on writing to your target market, what they want to read. I believe I am doing that, but do you think so? I feel my target market is the consumer with an active lifestyle, somewhere between the ages 0f 18 and 45, however, many of my customers are above and below that target age (mostly family and friends), and I think that is fine. If you like Eddie’s Energy Bars, eat them, and you will join Eddie’s NATION, the growing group of consumers who have had the privilege of eating a moist, flavorful, and healthy energy bar made in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

I was hoping, my customers would be thrilled to read what I have to say on my blog, and I would be able to interact with them to form a long-lasting relationship with me, Michael Adams, owner of Eddie’s Energy Bars. Instead I don’t know who buys my bars, unless people tell me. Sure, I know who is buying energy bars online, but who bought the dozen bars that sold at Beaudry’s in Huntington (I know Ann Zuccardy of Vermont Shortbread Company bought some). It is the mystery behind manufacturing for retail sales. I want to know who my customers are. I want to be able to talk to them, find out if they enjoyed my bar, and form the great relationship that everyone says you should have in owning a small business.

I try to make a personal connection with readers of my blog and customers I meet hanging around town, but is it working? Am I going in the right direction with this? It is something I will have to figure out with time. This summer (hopefully), Eddie’s Energy Bars will get out more and meet its customers. How to go about doing that, I don’t quite know, but it is a priority of mine.

Feel free to leave any nuggets of wisdom for this budding young entrepreneur.

Michael Adams, Owner
Eddie’s Energy Bars

Spring Weekend has almost come to and end, and I would have to say it was a total blast. Saturday was a day full of live music, great food, fun, and games. Here were the highlights:

Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers
The people who did not attend this memorable show certainly missed out. Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers knew how to really get the crowd involved. I had never listened to them before, but after the first couple songs, I was a convert. This music was great spring and summer music to relax with some homemade energy bars, and Stephen Kellogg turned up really high. After the show was over, he came up to me and my friends Becca and Kaity, and thanked us for coming. We then talked to Stephen for about 10 minutes about his music, and how not enough people come to events like this. We were able to get a little souvenir from him too: A picture key-chain with my two friends and I, along with two members of the band. You can listen to their music here.

O.A.R.
I didn’t think the music could get any better yesterday, but O.A.R.took me by surprise. I’m not too big of a fan, but I am slowly being converted. This was a crazy show jam-packed of college students eager to hear a great band, to the point where probably twenty-five kids crowd-surfed. Some of which were pulled over the fence by concert security. After the concert, I couldn’t hear anything. My ears are still ringing right now from the speakers at the concert. You can check O.A.R.’s music out here.

So, as you can see, I am a huge fan of live music, and of course energy bars.

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars

PS: Reminder that Mother’s Day is coming up in a few weeks. Have you ordered your mom some energy bars? Click here to shop now!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday. The day was so jam packed with fun and events because it is Spring Weekend at Bryant. Quick post today because I’m headed to yet more festivities. I think the craziness of Spring Weekend is equal to the craziness with Eddie’s Energy Bars, but it is all just so much fun,

Here is a little recap of the events that went on for the first day of Spring Weekend:

It’s Mental
I went to a mentalist, and was picked out of the audience so she could guess what I was holding in my hand. It was a $50 bill (I know–I am rolling in dough, haha). She was right. Then, she continued to read the serial number–getting every single letter and number. They also did some freaky aura thing, and a kid was able to see the ghost of his Great-Grandmother. It was amazing what these mentalists can do! I wanted to pull out an Eddie’s Energy Bars business card, and have her guess the information on that, but I failed to bring one with me.

Bingo
This is no ordinary bingo in an assisted-living facility. This is cut-throat, to the point where when the first person yelled BINGO! She was booed walking to claim her prize. It could have been because everyone was not aware of their surroundings…

No Starburst for me
This was not a planned event for Spring Weekend, but my buddies Chris and Brandon attempted to get Starburst out of the vending machine because it was hanging loose. We failed horribly, but Chris ended up buying it, so we were satisfied. It would be cool if our healthy energy bars could be in a vending machine, wouldn’t it?

That was basically day one…Now, I am off to experience day two!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars

It’s the calm before the storm here at Bryant University. This calm is equivalent to being at the ocean and hearing the seagulls flying about in the sky, taking in their views from above; the still action of the water and sand below. I kind of wish I was there right now. The calm on campus will soon be over and the infamous “Thirsty Thursday” will begin. But this is no Thirsty Thursday. This is the Thirsty Thursday of Spring Weekend 2007.

What is Spring Weekend you ask? It is basically where every student on campus makes it their goal to not remember what they did last night (if you get my drift). They also eat plenty of healthy energy bars to get them through this busy weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to spring weekend. O.A.R. is coming to campus, and there are plenty of activities to keep me busy, and my mind OFF FINALS. Some of the events I am looking forward to are the three comedians coming. I love to laugh. The relaxing, care-free aspect is so appealing to me. The last comedian I went to on campus, I was made fun of, but it was all in good spirits (he apologized after).

Secondly, I am looking forward to Bryant University’s BIGGEST BINGO EVER! There are so many prizes to be won, and it is my goal, before I graduate, to win something at bingo. Whether it will happen, I don’t really know. You should wish me luck tomorrow. Maybe I should offer up some Eddie’s Energy Bars as a prize…that would be cool. What do you guys think?

Lastly, I want to remind everyone to have a safe weekend. Whether you are on the Bryant campus, or another campus, please stay safe.

PS: Another sure sign Mother’s Day is coming: the trees are starting to bud and blossom. Just another reason to hop on the bandwagon and grab mom some homemade energy bars for her next outdoor adventure.

Have an exciting Thursday night/Friday!

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars

I present to you the College Entrepreneur’s guide to marketing on, not a shoestring, but half a shoestring. That’s right folks! Marketing on a college student’s budget.We all know that, in general, college kids have no money. It is a true fact, probably even scientifically proven by some professor with a PhD, at some college that has a lot of broke students.

I am often faced with the problem of marketing on a ridiculously small budget. Why such a small budget you ask? I haven’t had the privilege to obtain some large sum of money (i.e. winning the lottery, or more realistically, getting a decent-paying part-time job) quite yet. Basically, I am still running off the money I got from my Bar Mitzvah when I was thirteen. Well, not really. I have had an hourly-wage job since I was sixteen, but the money I made quickly dwindled once I had to pay for a year’s worth of college textbooks (It’s highway robbery as far as I am concerned).

After many months of marketing with a tiny budget, I have decided to let out my secrets, so that maybe, just maybe, a big company will catch on and say, “Hey! That’s a great idea, and it’s cheap too!” That probably won’t happen, but nonetheless, here is my list of things you and I can do to market on half of a shoestring:

Word of Mouth-form a supportive network
God didn’t create mouths for no reason. People are meant to talk to other people, so go ahead and tell them about your product or service. Make sure you carry your business cards with you everywhere you go. Chances are if they aren’t interested, they will know someone who is, and will let them know about your fantastic company. If you’re young, play the teen card. Everyone is impressed when I tell them that I am 19 and I run an established energy bar business, Eddie’s Energy Bars. WOM is probably the most effective type of free marketing, but be careful. If your company has a bad product or service, the customer will tell 30 people about how the dislike your company, but if they like your company, they will let 10 people know, and those will hopefully be 10 future customers.

Press Releases
I love press releases because, once again, they are free. Press releases should be written when your company does something newsworthy. For example, when your business starts, launches a new product, or donates to a great cause–all of these are reason for a press release. With a press release, you probably won’t land on the TODAY Show, but you are likely to land in your local paper because writers are always looking for stories to publish. Press releases are how Eddie’s Energy Bars landed a spot in WCAX Channel 3’s “Made in Vermont” segment. For tips on writing a press release, click here.

Free Samples of Your Product or Service
Although this is not free to you, it is certainly not expensive. I offer free samples of my homemade healthy energy bars all the time. I do it because I know that consumers in the store are hesitant to buying a product they have yet to try. Once they enjoy the product, they will always come back for more. The same could ring true for your business. If you own a car detailing business, detail your neighbors car for free, and give them some business cards to distribute when their friends ask why your neighbor’s car is so shiny.

Create Long-lasting Customer Relationships
Marketing in the 21st century is all about forming relationships. Once you have the customer, you need to keep them around, having them constantly thinking about your company. This can be done be simply following up with a phone call or an e-mail asking if the product arrived OK, or if they were satisfied with the service you provided. You could also create a e-newsletter if you had the time, and send that to customers once of twice a month, but newsletters are a whole other story.

I hope these tips will help you market your company on half a shoestring. Let me know how it works out.

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars