I’d like to talk about promoting the event, as a final nod toward the weekly craft show articles that I’ve been presenting. When you are setting up a booth, nothing comes close to the importance of doing this. Imagine this: if no one attends the event, then there will be no one around to buy your goods! Events promotion should be done both at the venue and outside of it.

Whenever a customer purchases something, I make sure to hand him or her a market flier about the event. A lot of people are sure to want to take the flier; what they do with it after is their choice, but it will still lead to them spreading the word. Try to ask your neighboring sellers to do the same with their buyers.

If you have an online shop, it’s advisable to print the URL of the site on the flier as well. A good way to do this creatively is to use more attractive items rather than fliers. What I have are promotional bookmarks. There is a picture of my shop’s banner on it. And I ask my customers how they came to hear about the show. This helps me figure out how to better promote the event.

Outside promotion is also quite necessary, but in many cases is not left to you. The organizers of the event will be the ones to send out press releases every week to the local media. You’ll be lucky if your market manager can get the show in the local newspaper, magazine, or even on television.

However, this does not mean that the vendors themselves should be lax about promoting the event. Ask the organizers if they have fliers prepared and then spread it around in as many places as you yourself. Just don’t litter!