Many Craft Artists choose to start selling at Markets due to the relative simplicity of getting started. But it’s not just a matter of putting your shingle out. Over the last couple of posts we have covered lots of Market tips. Today I’d like to cover a topic that often get missed in relation to Markets.
Marketing. To be a bit clearer, Promotion and Marketing. This is today’s Lesson and one I learnt very early on. Promotion and marketing is your responsibility. This is your business and as a business owner you will need to promote your business.
Do not rely on the Market Owners/ Stall Manager to do all the promotion. Here’s the thing, God did not create all Market Owners equally. I think of them as landlords and just as with renting a property you will get excellent landlords, bad landlords, absent landlords and dare I say it slum landlords.The excellent landlords will work with you to help you, realising that good business for you is good business for them. The others, well…..
Marketing and Promotion need not be expensive.
- Savvy use of social media sites can alert potential customers where they can find you.
- Pop a flyer in with each purchase informing customers where else they can find your product.
- Have some business cards made up with your contact details.
- If you truly have an unique product and can create an angle why not send a press release out to your local paper.
- Tell people. we all talk to different people everyday, Other Parents, the Postman, Doctor, Work Colleagues, the Passenger sitting beside you on the train. You get the idea.
- Join a group.
Having been a Market Committee Member for many years (past tense) I saw that the Stallholders who actively participated in promoting their businesses,(or indeed even considered their stall a business),were not only the most successful but were the ones who were happy to show up in all kinds of weather.
Are you an Active or Passive Stallholder?
More Marketing and Promotion Tips are available in How to Teach Art & Craft. These tips are relevant to all craft businesses.
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