CONGRATULATIONS!
Your application has been reviewed and you are officially invited to be a vendor for the Winter Market at Mylan Park Community Center on Saturday, December 3 from 10am to 4pm.
Please add this email address to your contacts so future emails don't end up in Spam. The next few months are sure to fly by, and I want to make sure you feel confident and ready to rock + roll at the Winter Market.
I'll be sending several emails over the next few weeks with updates about the event and some useful marketing tips + tricks you can use to help drive traffic to the event and maximize your sales without adding any extra stress to your busy schedule.
Here are a few updates about the Market and a few things you can do to start promoting the event and getting people excited about Shopping Small.
First up, go show River Fair Trade (@riverfairtrade) some love! Shannon Dowling is the owner of this special, small shop on High Street that makes a big impact in the world through fair trade relationships and product sales. Shannon is also a huge champion in the small business community, and she also carries select products made by local artisans and makers at River Fair Trade.
You'll see the River Fair Trade logo on the new postcards + posters we'll be distributing throughout the Fall Festival and around town leading up to the event. Shannon has been hyping our markets, displaying our posters and giving out the Fall/Winter postcards to customers in her shop this year, and we're truly grateful for all of her support and encouragement.
We're looking for more sponsors to help with the purchase of feather flags and yard signs if anyone has referrals or you'd like to see your logo on our marketing materials.
Second, the Hazel + J.W. Ruby Community Center at Mylan Park is a GIANT space with room for over 150+ vendors. It's my vision to fill this space with artisans, makers, and creative small businesses to create an opportunity for shoppers to support their local economy and buy from people they know (and meet) at the market instead of resorting to Amazon and big box stores for their gift giving needs during the holiday season and throughout the year.
This is a space for everything we need and want on a regular basis to live intentionally and focus on reducing the impact the retail industry has on the environment. It gives people an opportunity to put a face to a name, and get out from behind a screen for a day filled with things that make our experiences truly meaningful and empowering.
We're currently at 1/3 the general capacity of the space, so please encourage your maker friends and favorite artists to join us for this unique new experience. This is the second holiday market I've hosted. The first was Shop Small at the Mall last December in the old Forever 21 store.
That experience with 25 incredible vendors changed my life, and helped me through some of the darkest days of grief and transition I've encountered. To see these markets scale to this size in a year has been remarkable and I want to thank you with all of my heart for being part of this incredible new path with QUARTZ + COAL.
Third, social media is a key part of getting the word out, building trust with potential buyers and making meaningful connections with the small business community.
The word *networking* has some really gross vibes, but the action of meeting new people, getting to know them, liking what they share and trusting them enough to invest your money in their work is a powerful energetic exchange.
To help facilitate these connections, conversations and community building efforts I've included a Share Folder Link with some elements you can use to create cohesive content to promote your participation in the market or simply share the assets that have already been created to promote it.
Please show Natalie Kovacs a.k.a Shapelessflame (@shapelessflame) some love + support for creating our awesome market poster and an adorable Yeti to help us get the word out and get people excited to come shop small on 12/3.
The Share Folder contains a few different versions of the market poster graphics you can use to spread the word on social media, include a graphic in your next email for your list or print out a few of the PDFs to decorate your booth or your shop so customers and curious browsers can find out the best way to shop with you in the future and potentially access some Market Exclusives and other special offers.
TAP HERE TO ACCESS THE SHARE FOLDER
This folder will be updated throughout the next 6 weeks with more graphics, so check back often and watch for reminder posts on my green, Close Friends posts on IG for updates. I'm also starting a Facebook group for vendors to share free resources, marketing tips and updates for anyone who prefers that platform.
Finally, if you've made it this far--congratulations! If you can't tell, I get REALLY excited sharing about this stuff and I'm deeply invested in your success at this event. I want you to have an incredible experience that encourages you to keep going when you have a rough day, a bad week, a challenging month or a flat out awful year.
The first step towards Market Ready success is sharing that you're a vendor at this event. You'll find a few options for Canva templates with the event branding colors you can use to pop your favorite selfie into the photo frame and share it where you spend the most time online.
If you don't have Canva, you can easily use the free plan to access these free graphics I've designed and/or make some of your own if you're feeling creative!
There are Facebook + Instagram Posts and Story graphics you can customize with your face. I recommend creating an event countdown on Instagram so you can share the countdown graphic when you post your product photos and other promotional posts about the event.
This stuff is psychological, folks! People need to be exposed to something at least 7 times to remember it and learn it. You can post every single day and people still won't see it because of their personal social media settings, the algorithm, and other factors you have little to no control over.
The main thing to remember is you have the power to control the effort you put into your work and your business. All you can do is try to show up consistently and trust the process! It's exhausting sometimes so make sure you plan breaks and regenerative time into your schedule to avoid overwhelm, burn out and the inevitable doom + gloom days when you want to quit.
I started my marketing journey as a senior in high school in 2002, and I graduated from Concord University in 2007 with a business degree with a major in marketing. I've been helping small business owners while running various small businesses of my own and launching special projects for over 20 years.
I've read all the books, taken all the courses, watched all the webinars, hired all the coaches and done my due diligence applying, adjusting, adding and subtracting things from the processes and systems I've been creating, honing and teaching others for two decades so you don't have to!
There's something truly magical about you and what you do, and if I sought you out to invite you to a market or I struck up a conversation online or at an event it's because you already have what it takes. You're doing the thing and you're making moves!
You're here for a reason, and I hope one tiny part of that reason is to pull up a seat at this giant table with me and my small business community so we can build a space where people get to be unapologetically themselves while doing what they love and adding a little something special to this big, beautiful world we sometimes forget to appreciate through all the bad news and manipulative media.
Thank you for joining the Winter Market team. I hope being a vendor at this event helps you feel like a welcome part of this community. If you have any questions, please feel free to hit reply or send me a message on IG or FB.
Please remember I am a person first, a mother second and a small business owner third. My response time reflects my availability at any given moment. If you haven't heard back from me in 2-3 business days, something terrible has happened and you should send help lol...just kidding!
I typically respond in 24 hours, but I try very intentionally to take weekends off and evenings are very chaotic once my kids get home from school. I appreciate your patience and I will try to respect your boundaries and your time, as well.