Marketing Ideas
I am considering joining the chamber of commerce in my county to promote the Market. What are others doing to advertise or promote their market?
Thanks is advance for your responses.
John
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
? | Show this help |
---|---|
ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
r | Focus the comment reply box |
---|---|
^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘
instead of Control ^
on Mac
Support Staff 1 Posted by Eric Wagoner on Apr 05, 2010 @ 03:34 PM
I've relied on word of mouth. We sponsor events that get us in the paper regularly, such as farm tours, cooking demonstrations, and so forth. I've never bought advertisements or anything like that, mostly because for most of my market's history, supply and demand has been in a delicate balance.
Doing what you can to get in the local papers seems to be the biggest thing you can do. You've got a great story, just by existing, and reporters love to tell stories.
2 Posted by John Erdmann on Apr 05, 2010 @ 04:13 PM
I just got a call from the local paper today. It is suppose to run in Saturday's edition. We'll see what happens. BTW, I did join the local chamber of commerce. They have been getting request from restaurants for local produce and did not know we existed. I'm going to give it a try for one year to see what happens.
3 Posted by Briana Moore on Apr 14, 2010 @ 02:31 AM
We use facebook alot! We made a fan page and promote it and post updates and related food news stories. We have advertised in the newspaper and did not get the response I anticipated. Although, we have a donations to a local food bank through the site and I'm hoping to write a press release highlighting this. We've had a booth at Earth Day, I've spoken at a garden workshop and we have alot of events to bring people in, like potlucks. Also, we have donated memberships and products at silent auctions for fundraisers. But, overall, word of mouth has been the most successful for us!
Briana
spacity.locallygrown.net
4 Posted by John Erdmann on Apr 21, 2010 @ 03:41 AM
I also have a facebook page for the market, but my postings are very limited. How can I find your page in facebook to see what you have done? I do not charge for memberships but like the donated items at silent auctions. I would think gift certificates would be a good item. any thoughts on this?
Thanks for the ideas.
John
Support Staff 5 Posted by Eric Wagoner on Apr 21, 2010 @ 12:00 PM
My market's Facebook page is "Athens Locally Grown". It ought to show up in searches. I actually put all the postings on my market's Twitter account (@athlocallygrown) and they make it over to Facebook automatically.
Both of those are pretty recent things, just in the last year. I don't use it for important notices -- I use the locallygrown website and its weblog for that -- but instead use it for short little updates and more social blurbs.
I do donate gift certificates to local silent auctions, and have been surprised to find that my customers have also begun buying gift certificates for auctions for groups they are involved in. I've offered to donate them myself, but so far they've always insisted that they pay. Our customers are pretty amazing.
I've attached a sample gift certificate to this message. It's the standard template I use, and you can see it's much more than just a dollar amount. I felt like I had to fit the details of how we operate on there so the recipient would know what they're getting without having to go to the website and research it.
6 Posted by John Erdmann on Apr 21, 2010 @ 12:28 PM
Your gift certificate is pretty fancy, obviously you have have some graphic design background. I currently charge the growers and sellers 5% each for their transaction in lieu of a membership fee. Is there a way to set up the certificate so that no transaction fee appears? or do I create a new grower that offers only the certificates with zero fee and then remove the customer fee upon purchase?
Thanks
John
Support Staff 7 Posted by Eric Wagoner on Apr 21, 2010 @ 12:36 PM
No graphic design background, just a Mac that came pre-loaded with pretty templates :)
You can list products under the market's name, and the market doesn't charge itself a grower fee. So, I put my certificates on the site that way, with a price of $1. Then, if someone wants to buy a $25 certificate, they just put in a quantity of 25.
If you want to knock off the customer surcharge (my market doesn't use that at all), you'll have to do it on the order, since the system doesn't know how people are paying. Or wait... you meant when they're buying a certificate, not when they're redeeming it, don't you? You'd still have to adjust the order after they purchase, but that's a little easier.
8 Posted by Briana Moore on May 02, 2010 @ 10:15 PM
Hey John! Search for "Spa City Local Market" on Facebook. Also, we put a free "datebook" ad in our newspaper that lists calender events. We are brainstorming about having a cooking class that directly ties in with the products we have. We'll see if that brings in "foodie" people.
Briana