4 Free Ways to Promote Your Markets, Shows or Festivals
Here are 4 free ways to successfully promote the shows, outdoor flea markets, fairs, festivals, bazaars, craft markets, or other one-day selling events to help grow your business and get customers to shop your vendor booth.
Any type of promotion is great, but can sometimes be pricey. This list is free, and it will help you grow your flea market business.
1. Facebook
Why Facebook Is a Must-Have Tool If You Sell at Flea Markets
If you sell at flea markets, having a strong social media presence—especially on Facebook—can be one of the most powerful tools in your vendor toolbox. This platform continues to be a mega-communicator when it comes to show and market promotions.
When you sell at flea markets, many show organizers use Facebook to reach out to vendors. Often, they’ll send you a direct link to a promotional post or vendor highlight that you can easily share on your own page. This is something we do regularly for our Ship-Chic Crafts, Gifts & Goodies Markets and Antique Markets here in Shipshewana.
When you share these posts, you’re not only letting people know you’ll be there, but also promoting the market itself to your network. It’s free, targeted advertising that works!
Create Your Own Facebook Event
Another smart tactic when you sell at flea markets is to create your own Facebook event. Include:
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The name of the market or event
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Date, time, and location
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Photos of what you’ll be selling
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A catchy title to grab attention
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A personal message inviting your friends to visit
This gives your followers a clear and easy way to find you and the event you’ll be part of.
What If the Market Doesn’t Send You Anything?
If you're signed up to sell at a flea market and haven’t received any promotional content from the event organizers, don’t hesitate to reach out. Give them a call or send a message and ask if they provide marketing materials or social media shoutouts for vendors.
Make It Easy for People to Find You
Whether you’re a first-time vendor or a seasoned pro, marketing yourself is just as important as setting up your booth. The more people who know you sell at flea markets, the more likely they are to stop by your space. Use every tool available—especially social media—to stand out and succeed.
2. Flyers & Handouts
Keep flyers and handouts handy! Call the venue or show coordinator for each event you are participating in. See if they have flyers to give you for handouts. Use these to promote each show you are attending to keep your customer informed.
You can also make a schedule of your whole year. Have some copy paper laying around? Great! List the dates, times and locations of each show you will be at. It doesn’t have to be big and fancy (but aesthetic appeal doesn’t hurt!)
How to Distribute & Create Them
You can use your flyers as bag stuffer, mailers, or just hand them to everybody that comes into your booth. You could also include a special deal on the handout… “Bring this flyer for 10% off Your Next Purchase”.
Want an easy way to design your own flyer? Check out Canva. It’s an awesome, FREE website that helps you create any type of document like this. It’s easy to use and it has lots of pictures and fonts available for your designs.
3. Email & Newsletters
One of the most important things you can do to coddle existing customer relationships is to keep in touch. As we stated in a previous blog, 3 Flea Market Customer Service Tips You Should Use When Selling at Flea Markets…
“…relationships are very important in the world of business and is an asset in the realm of customer service. Being a vendor in a flea market gives you great opportunities to meet lots of different people in one setting, on one day. For instance, is it easier to search for, find and reach out to new potential customers or nurture the relationships you already have with existing customers?”
Yes, it’s important to grow your customer base, but keep it fat and happy by retaining existing customers. Monthly or quarterly emails or newsletters can be that touchpoint that keeps customers coming back. These people have already bought from you, they like you! That’s why they signed up to be on your mailing list. Keep your products and services in front of them each month by sending an email!
Great Things to Share in Your Newsletters
You can introduce new items, promote items you want to sell more of, or give special deals and discounts exclusively to those on your email list.
**Hint: Doing something like this will also KEEP people on your mailing list… discounts make it “worth” receiving emails!
Keep your customers up-to-date with your shows by listing your schedule. Since emails and newsletters are something that get sent out more than once a year, (weekly, monthly or quarterly) you can either send out a schedule for the whole year, for the quarter or for the month of the shows and markets you will be selling at.
4. Free Site Listings
There are lots of websites out there that allow you to freely list events such as craft shows and flea markets on their calendar. Mostly you’ll just have to sign up by giving your email address to be able to add events. Although this doesn’t directly promote your business, it will certainly help. Double check to make sure shows and markets you will be attending are being advertised. If not, grab a cup of coffee, snuggle up in your favorite chair, and take a little bit of time to gather specific information about the show and submit your own listing for the event.
Here are just a few examples of free-listing websites that we use for our own events:
Many local and state convention and visitor bureaus are great at listing events. You may have to scroll to the footer of their page for partner resources or a phone number, and they may have minimum requirements to be listed, but they are usually more than happy to list great events taking place in their communities providing a great visitor experience for the area.
Our local and state visitor centers are great resources for all events LaGrange and Indiana!
You don’t have to post and list on every single website you come across. Find ones that are relevant and make sense to spend time on. Don’t make it hard on yourself. Put time into it, but don’t overdo it.
Want more tips and tricks for selling well at markets and keeping overhead costs low? Download our free E-book on how 3 vendors built a successful flea market business
