Britni Levitt, co-owner of Barefoot Swag, recently interviewed a client to gain some insight into how they approach their marketing, specifically to millennials. Read on to learn more about their brand and how they reach their target demographic.
What is Ume? Ume is a smartphone app designed to connect Job Seekers and Employers. It takes the traditionally disconnected approach of finding and filling jobs and provides a platform to connect Job Seekers and Employers in a more personalized, social media style way. It incorporates profiles that include a video resume, photos, and the ability to have deeper insight into a candidate or company. The system does all the work, searching behind the scenes and automatically connecting Job Seekers and Employers when a match if found. Think Facebook meets Match.com for finding and filling jobs.
How did it get started? After struggling to find people in positions for other small businesses that we owned for years, the idea came about. We questioned why the hiring process and job hunt process is so difficult and how tough it is to get noticed from just a piece of paper where your resume may sit in a pile or may never get looked at. We decided it was time to change the process so that employers and employees could stand out.
Who should use Ume? Anyone looking for a better way of searching for a job or to fill a position within their company. Right now, the software is primarily geared towards hourly workers and positions, but ultimately it can work for anyone.
What various marketing tools are you using to market to potential clients? We are working to build a brand that people connect with. Traditional job search boards are cold and impersonal. We are utilizing events and promotions locally to reach our target demographic as well as building out a social media following which includes paid social promotions.
What marketing challenges have you encountered? Is there anything unique to your demographic? The biggest challenge is getting people to pay attention to new software. It seems like there’s an app for everything anyone could want to do. So cutting through the “noise” and increasing user adoption is challenging. Being a new brand, there’s a lot of education that comes with the marketing. People’s attention spans are short and it’s challenging to get an audience sometimes.
How has swag helped with those challenges and what results, if any, have you seen? If using the right kind of swag for your demographic, it can be very helpful. It gets people interested in at least engaging us which gives us a few minutes to explain our product and what we do. There’s also continued brand recognition when they leave and use the swag. It also helps us create a memorable connection between our brand and the cool swag they received as a result of engaging our event.
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