5 Great Ways to Promote your Market Stall
1.Social Networking
Most of us are starting to come to grips with the power of social networking with sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It’s important to recognise the differences between these two sites however. Facebook is much more personal, so don’t constantly bombard people with reminders about your stall or they may hide your feed or even ‘unlike’ you.
It’s a good idea to remind people about your stall, perhaps on a Tuesday and then a friendly reminder just before the weekend on a Friday.
Twitter is much more transient, so more regular reminders are much more acceptable.
On the day of your market, you can tweet about your stall every couple of hours or so, to catch those people who may be out and about.
Of course you can also promote your market stall on various websites. One great one being, The Market Roll! (sorry, I’m sure you can understand my bias..hehe) If you don’t take our tour and all will be revealed!
2. Mailing Lists
Every first time customer is a potential future customer, so make sure you get their contact details. Have a guest book or mailing list form on your market table, where people can leave their e-mail addresses.
Send out newsletters or promotional material later on and keep in touch with your customers so they return to your next market stall and buy from you again.
You can also send them advance invitations to your up coming stalls. Tell your customers what new products you’ll be selling and perhaps offer incentives such as a printable coupon for a percentage off or a give away prize for one lucky customer on the day.
3. Blog / Website
When I had market stalls, I found that having a personal/business blog was a great way of getting customers to my stall on the day. It’s always quite a buzz too, when customers say, “Hi, nice to meet you! I read your blog.”
A regular blog is a great way of keeping potential customers updated with the new products you’re making and where you’ll be selling them. Remember though, a blog requires pretty high maintenance. You’ll need to post at least a couple of times a week to maintain your readership. These posts don’t have to be long and onerous. A couple of pics of your latest creations would be great.
4. Product Bags
Your business needs to be out there amongst the people, not on a tiny business card at the bottom of someone’s hand bag. I’ll be honest – I’m not a fan of the business card. They have their place in business, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if market stalls are the place.
Firstly, they can be expensive and they can make your business look unprofessional if the card is cheaply printed and ill-designed.
Solution? Everyone loves the re-usable ‘nice bag’. I know when I buy something in a nice carry bag, I store it away and re-use it for gift carrying or something of that nature. Let your bag do your advertising for you! The bag gets continually passed on, giving your business many more impressions than a tiny business card that never gets passed on.
If the customer doesn’t buy anything but wants your details, give them a bag anyway! They’ll be sure to use it and advertise your stall without them even knowing.
With a bit of online shopping, you might find that they’ll end up costing you about the same price as a batch of business cards.
5. Tell Your Friends
I know what you’re thinking – “But sales to friends, don’t count!” Yes they do! A sale is a sale and no matter who has your product they will still do your advertising for you. “Wow, I love your scarf! Where did you buy it?”
“Thanks! My friend makes them. Their next market stall is at….”
You get it! It works.
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