As a market operator, making sure that customers come to an event is the most important action that must be done for the paying stallholders. This is a MINIMUM requirement and it is what stallholders should expect for their pitch fee. Unless people know that an event is taking place they cannot be expected to support it. Having no customers will ultimately mean no stallholders and eventually no market. Everyone in the chain must support it from Councils right down to the locals and customers.
Advertising a market that takes place regularly (weekly, monthly) in the same venue is one of the easiest and most budget-friendly types of event to promote. From erecting signs, to building a social media network, to issuing press releases, to speaking on local radio, to encouraging buskers, these are all free forms of publicity to announce your presence but are generally shunned by market operators due to their ignorance of media tech.
A customer once tried to find me in a town she knew I was trading in (Cheltenham). She asked a few passers-by where the market was being held and nobody, not even locals, knew! That is when you come to realise that not everyone knows what you think they must surely know!
The magic key to advertising any event is to understand that the people you are advertising to is the person that you once were before you knew anything about X event or X venue. Assume that your target audience knows NOTHING!
Top tips to advertise a market for your stallholders and influence the footfall:
- Erect signs around the town and at entrances to the town or city in question. This is so that locals can be reminded regularly that an event is taking place. Ideally, signs must be taken down once the event has finished otherwise your potential audience could get ‘sign weary’ and not pay any attention to them in the future. Also, the local council may have something to say about the constant signage.
- Build a social media network through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any others that are relevant to your particular market. If it is a craft market, make sure you have a presence on Pinterest too as it is the main social for crafters.
- Contact your local newspapers or media stations with press releases. Local news are always on the look out for news to talk about. This is free advertising and incredibly effective to garner local support. Your press releases can include anything about the market, its regular stallholders, new stallholders, harvest festival, valentine’s day, mother’s day, the market’s 5 year anniversary etc. You get the picture, anything that will get you an audience interested enough to come out and see for themselves. Your local news teams will be incredibly happy for something to write about. Perhaps you could even take a regular column in a newspaper (see Stroud Farmers’ Market) or a regular spot on the local radio. If, as the market manager you are unable to do any of this, find a willing stallholder to take on this task or create a market committee that you can oversee.
- Have flyers printed which include future market dates for folk to attach to their fridge doors as a constant reminder. These flyers can be placed on each stall and collected at the end of the market and then re-distributed at the next market. Very few markets do this as it is an added expense however, those that do it are often paid for by the local council in question.
- Ensure that the market has a web presence. As a minimum. Test it out. What happens when you type in e.g. ‘Rotherham market times’ or how to get to ‘Cheltenham farmers’ market?’ or ‘Helmsley market dates’.
- Create a market page on Facebook and encourage regular customers to ‘like’ the market page so they can be reminded each time there is a new post or piece of market news. E.g. ‘market cancelled due to high winds’ etc. Once the page is created, it will be down to stallholders to promote it with their regulars but make sure that the Facebook page ‘handle’ is everywhere so that folk can refer to it and like it there and then.
- Announce the market BEFORE the event. It is so annoying to receive social media notifications of an event that has passed, particularly if you wanted to attend. It does not take much at all to remind customers of an upcoming market the day before.
- Announce each day’s stallholders BEFORE the event. It is easy to take pictures of the stalls that are attending a market by just picturing them once they have set up ready to trade. Many market organisers do this and it is somewhat effective, but more of an ego boost for the stalls in question rather than an effective footfall influencer. However, as a recipient of these announcements, by the time they are received, it is too late to attend the market anyway and just becomes irritating noise. Announce the day’s attending stallholders at the same time as the market announcement, i.e. the day before.
- Encourage your stallholders to announce their presence at the market. Every stallholder these days announces their presence at a particular market anyway. Ad infinitum. We all do it. Even though we may feel that none of our customers will come out to a particular event, it doesn’t matter. It keeps customers connect to the brand and helps them engage. This builds loyalty and ownership and goes a long way to build your market ‘tribe’.
If marketing is not something that the market operator is familiar with, or worse, doesn’t think it is their role to take part in, then asking a group of stallholders to do it for them is an obvious solution and would be taken on willingly by canny market sellers. It could even be in the interest of all concerned to offer the one stallholder who takes on this role, cost-free market stalls for as long as they do it.
Engaging in this free advertising is crucial to the success of the market and means that if stallholders have people to sell to, they will make money. If they don’t have anyone to sell to they won’t make money and they will be less inclined to return to a market if they have the choice of a better one to go to. If that is the case, then the market will go downhill, customers won’t be inclined to visit because there are only a few stalls left and the market will eventually die. Not only will the market operator lose the market but the town will lose a vital part of its identity. All because the market was not kept alive with a few simple solutions.
For any market operators who want any further advice on this subject, please do get in touch.
Happy Trading!
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