We asked three veteran archery shop retailers "What mediums do you use to educate your customers on archery and archery products?" Here's what they had to say.

Bill Henneman

Wildcat Archery
Pooler, Georgia

Quite often we use our Facebook page to provide our customers with technical tips on everything from sighting-in bows to properly selecting arrows. Of course, we target these tips toward specific applications, be they target archery, bowhunting or recreational archery.

Our archery technicians have been shooting bows for many years and are very well-trained in all facets. All my employees have been working with me for 3 to 10 years. Our customers know they can get professional advice from any of us. As a staff, we do tons of reading to learn new things every year. Keeping an open mind in this business is beneficial, especially as technology and techniques advance. We work to stay well-informed so that, in turn, we can better educate our customers.

We often distribute product brochures to our customers when they’re pressed for time. These resources help them read about and compare products. If a customer asks a question for which we don’t know the answer, we use our tablets to search for answers online.

We currently aren’t using YouTube videos to introduce new products or explain shooting techniques, although we’ve certainly discussed it. We plan to jump on that in the future.

Our technical customers want more information so they can constantly improve their shooting. But the internet is full of advice both good and bad. All we can do is try to drive more traffic to our Facebook page where they can get legitimate advice from our expert staff.

Of course, beginners are more concerned with doing things correctly from the beginning. We do offer a free lesson with every bow purchase, but our customers can schedule subsequent lessons if they want to learn more. We start with the basics and work up the ladder as their skills develop.

Bob Erla

Hunter’s Friend
Oil Springs, Kentucky

We offer several online guides to help customers select a compound bow, the right arrow and so on. We have guides for everything archery and bowhunting related on our website. Customers can access them at any time from a tablet, computer or smartphone. Most of our guides and materials are found through organic Google searches. We don’t really advertise them.

We do very little in-store educating. We haven’t really done educational clinics or seminars. But our customers know we are professionals. If they come in with a question or a problem, we can guide them through it. We encourage our customers to visit our website if they should have further questions after leaving our store. Of course, we invite them to call or email us any time, too.

Our social-media efforts currently revolve around fun and current events. In other words, we’re posting our customers’ bowhunting-success photos and similar things. We aren’t posting any educational materials on there yet. However, we’re looking to tap into that within a year.

We’re also building a new website. With that, every product we have in inventory will have its own YouTube video in which a staff member will discuss its features and benefits. The videos will be short and to the point. We believe the videos will educate our customers so they shop more decisively.

Monica Friedmann

Summit Archery Center
Labadie, Missouri

Group lessons at Summit Archery Center effectively educate our beginners who want to experience archery and learn more about it. These run twice weekly. We have Genesis bows on hand for them to shoot.

We present the basics first — how to hold the bow, where to anchor and how to shoot instinctively since the Genesis bows aren’t equipped with sights. Archers begin shooting at very close distances. As they improve, we move them farther away from the target.

Our basic lessons create a fun atmosphere and help beginners decide if archery is for them.

Although we have some adults who come alone, most adults are there to accompany their children, and they often become interested themselves. That’s awesome, because archery is a great family sport.

For those who desire to take archery to the next level, we offer more advanced classes. These classes really help them improve their shooting skills. The advanced classes are offered once weekly, and we teach participants how to use and adjust sights and improve their individual shooting form, among other fundamentals. We utilize positive reinforcement to instill confidence, but we also try to identify flaws so that we can help them continue improving. The goal is to have them master form, muscle mechanics and shot execution so they can shoot consistently every time.