Tips for Having a Classy and Successful Market Booth
I’m a market lover! Being in Florida and having pretty nice weather all year round, markets are a big thing here. Even if you just get to experience them seasonally where you live, I hope you agree with me that it’s just so fun to browse around and connect with small business owners, artisans, community members, and fellow market lovers. In addition to my predisposition towards attending them, I also love being a vendor at markets.
Having Anuket Luxury Apothecary has afforded me the opportunity to host at several markets and, totally tooting my own horn here, we always get the best compliments on our booth and branding. Putting together eye catching market booths that draw in business and make my time at a vendor event worthwhile is honestly kind of fun for me. So, I thought I’d love sharing my tips and tricks for a successful market booth here with you as well!
Be clear with your signage
Don’t be shy! Make sure your signage is both clear and correct. Also, be sure that it is the right size for your booth size and location. How can you stand out? Can you wave it above the booth to be seen from farther away? Can you place a banner across the front so people approaching know where they’re headed? Or you can take our approach and have an understated but beautiful table-top sign with your company name. Then you can consider another letterboard sign, which allows you to change the messaging to a variety of things like an intriguing question, a list of new products, or current sales announcements. The idea here is to get their attention and pull people into your booth!
Be consistent with branding
Make sure that your booth is branded down to even the smallest details. Pens with logos, notepads and clipboards in your brand colors, branded swag, etc. If you think you’re being detailed enough, look further. I’m talking coordinated table cloth colors, the clothes (and in my case, the fragrance) you and your staff wear that day, the display units themselves, literally anything that is a part of the booth or will be seen near it should coordinate with your brand and brand colors.
One of my favorite tricks is to use aesthetically pleasing packing boxes to get your products to the market, then use those on the tables to create multiple levels. I personally use these inexpensive boxes from IKEA, in all black to match our brand, in both my office and to carry products and supplies to the market. Once they are unpacked, I put them on the tabletops with displays and products on top. Creating these different levels help people see more of your products and makes it much more visually appealing.
Create an experience
The entire atmosphere of the booth should reflect your brand experience. Accessorize the booth with plants, decorations, samples, and more. Invite them into an experience that will give them a taste of what working with your business or using your product will be like. Identify the energy that you want the booth to exude and plan accordingly. Selling a fragrance? Make sure they can smell it as they approach. Selling jewelry? I sure hope you are wearing some so they can see how it could be styled. Selling food? Samples are key!
Have marketing materials ready
For as many people as you will have who will stop and engage with your beautiful booth, markets are full of quick browsers who may just quickly pass by. Don’t count these folks out! Have handouts like business cards, samples, informational postcards, and service or product menus printed and ready to hand off. You want to give potential clients something tangible that will leave an impression if at all possible and these simple but affordable tools are so impactful and easy to prepare in advance. I personally hand out postcards with our website address and information all about our signature scent papyrus oil. And I have my beautiful business cards available, which always get compliments for their soft touch texture and gold foil detailing. I love Moo.com for quality luxe business cards!
Collect customer info
Have a notepad ready for customers to easily opt into your email list. Incentivize them with a giveaway or the chance to earn swag if you’d like. Collect any additional information that benefits your business or helps you serve your clients better. This could mean getting phone numbers, conducting market research with a client survey. It is all up to you but, at minimum, you should be using these events to build your email list.
Be sure to have plenty in stock
As the old retail saying goes, “stack it high and watch it fly.” Be prepared with more product than necessary to sell so that you don’t run the risk of running out and sending customers home empty handed. Market goers love to buy in person and you may lose out on a sale by running out of product and having to encourage them to place an online order or, worse, wait for more product to be made.
Download our packing checklist
Be sure to download our packing checklist to make sure that you have everything you need for a successful market booth that draws in the right crowd. These are the little details that we sometimes forget to pack, like scissors, tablecloth clips (in case it’s windy), water bottles, and more.
If you have any tried and true market tips to share, please leave them in the comments. If you have great success using our tips, share with us! Let us celebrate with you!
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Cheers,
Ashlee
Anuket Owner
Hi Ashley!
Thank you for such inspiring information!
I too have spent (23!) years in the health field. It is exhausting serving in such an emotional capacity.
I love ‘vendors’ and am considering making the change. I love you demonstrate a ‘classy’ version!!
My kind of girl!
Kind regards,
Pamela (Texas)