Ah, Social Media! You know I couldn’t put together a blog post about making the most of your vendor/craft fair without talking about social media. It’s FREE and you get in front of a huge audience by being active on social before, during and after your vendor/craft fair. Here are just a few ideas you can use that’ll get you in front of more people that just those you follow your business social media pages:
Before the fair:
- Take advantage of the vendor/craft fair event page. A lot of vendor and craft fairs have Facebook event pages created. On the days leading up to the fair, post regularly inside that event page. Show pictures of products, give out free ideas on how they can use one of your products, mention a special offer or promotional item, etc. Use the free event page to get in front of a larger audience to connect and showcase your products.
- Promote the vendor fair on your business and personal pages. Let your friends and family know about the event. They may want to come and bring their friends. Most people who attend these fairs generally go with a friend or two, so why not start with your immediate sphere of influence.
During the fair:
- Drawings – encourage people to put in their business cards or create your own drawing slips for a chance to win an item. Make sure you have their name and email on those drawing slips as well as a disclaimer that they agree to have their email added to your email list. We’ll talk more about email etiquette later. When it comes to giveaways, generally offer an item with a perceived value of $10 (i.e. maybe you sell a fun $10 tote bag that would only cost you $3 to make). You want to giveaway something of decent value in order to get people excited to win.
- Encourage people to “like” your Facebook page on the spot and then you do a raffle drawing at the end of the day. There is a way to look at who liked your page during your event.
- Take pictures throughout the event so you can post them real-time on social or after the event. Real time is nice, but it’s better to pay attention to your customers inside your booth then to be posting on social and neglecting them. Remember customer service is imperative!
- “Check-in” on the vendor/craft fair event page. Remember that event page you did a bunch of posts on prior to the event? Now’s the time to check in on the event page. Just another way people can see you engaging on the event page as well as a way for people to see your business out and about in the community.
After the fair:
- If you did a drawing, post a picture of the lucky winner with the prize.
- Post all those pictures you took during the event on both your business page and inside the event page. People love to see themselves on their news feeds and will generally share them on their pages (or at least like, comment, etc.)
- Post the most popular product on your business Facebook page. Encourage people to post a picture of them wearing the product in the comments.
- Go further and show a fun impromptu video of the product being made or even a new shipment arriving and being opened.
There you have it! 5 ways to make the most of your vendor/craft fairs:
- Marketing Pieces
- Presentation
- Atmosphere
- Attention Grabbers
- Social Media
With these 5 ways, I believe you’ll take your booth to the next level and you’ll visibly see an increase of sales because of it. When you do, let me know! I’d love to hear how they impacted your business. I’d also love to see how you implemented these ways into your booth – so send me some pictures at holly@startpointmediagroup.com.