Local vegan fairs
Taking a stall at your local vegan fair is often the first step into a larger world for many vegan businesses. It might be that you have products to sell, or are looking to book appointments and find new clients, but a local fair is a good first place to get feedback on your business or to validate your business idea. We’ve met so many great businesses and made so many new amazing friends by simply touring local fairs and it’s a good way to immerse yourself in the sector at a veg-roots level.
The cost of having a stall at a fair are usually not huge, but costs go beyond just the fee you have to pay to the event organisers. It includes the cost of transport to the show, getting signs printed, business cards, paying one of your staff for the day or even putting people up in a hotel for the night. Many businesses will add up all these costs and then weigh it against how much product they think they will be able to sell. However, there are lots of benefits far beyond just making sales on the day and it is worth booking your company in to a busy local vegan fair as the first step to engaging one-on-one with your customers.
This is where you can do all your first-hand research to work out exactly what real people think about your products, not just your friends and family. Is there a certain product that everyone gravitates to and picks up first, or a certain sign that people stop and read? You can ask people what they would normally buy and how your product compares to that. You can start to work out what kind of people, and what kind of vegans, connect with your products or services. You might find yourself having to explain a feature of your product or service over and over again, which means it’s not obvious enough in your marketing. Or you might find that the thing you thought was unique about your product just doesn’t get anyone excited. Feedback from live events can be hard to take but you should welcome it all! Find out what people’s objections are. Is it price? Do they need to go away and think about it, do they need more information, or is your company just not exciting them enough for them to engage in a conversation? If you booked a stall at an event and didn’t sell to a single person – but instead had 50 people tell you WHY they don’t want to buy your product – then you will have arguably got something more valuable than selling to them in the first place.
You can also use fairs to try different pricing strategies. If it’s a two-day fair try one price on the first day and another on the second and meticulously record your sales. If anyone questions you saying that it was more expensive yesterday, tell them that’s because you don’t have any storage so you need to sell them all today. Find out where your price point is, does putting up the price by 10% make any difference to how many you sell?
Link your real world event with your digital marketing. Have a strategy to collect as many people’s email addresses at the event as you can: run a competition where they just need to provide their name and email address to enter. If you can, get them to type this into a tablet to avoid not being able to read the email addresses later. This is a great way to build up your email list and make sure that even if they don’t win that they receive an email from you soon after the fair, thanking them for stopping by and giving them a link to your site. It might be that what you sell is not something everyone would impulse buy on the day, so you need to open up a channel of communication with them so that you can catch the sale later. Or it might be that someone who would have been a great long-term customer and who loved your company might completely forget who they bought those amazing vegan chocolates from, or what the name of that vegan plumbing business was that was run by that really nice couple they met at that fair a few months ago – what were they called again? Did you take a photo of the stand? Where was the card we picked up? Never mind…
This is why so many people push their social media accounts on their stall, and it’s why you should also. Get people to take a photo with your stand and to tag in your Instagram or Facebook page. Get them to do it on the stand so you can help them find your page, telling them you want to re-share it with your followers and you’ll only forget to do it later if you don’t do it now. Not only have you snagged them into your social media ecosystem, but you’ve just shared your company with all their friends too, you marketing ninja. And don’t feel like you’re being pushy doing all this. Someone wouldn’t have come to a vegan fair if they were not interested in veganism. They would not have stopped at your stall unless they had at least a passing interest in your business. They will, in the overwhelming majority, be glad to engage.
If you become a regular on the vegan fair circuit you will become known both by other stall holders and by visitors. People travel long distances to go to a good local vegan fair, and you will start to spot the same faces and build up a relationship with them. If they seem to recognise your stand then talk to them and ask them if they have seen you before; maybe they were even a customer last time. If they bought from you then ask them what they thought, welcome them like old friends and once again get them tagged on your social media. These are the people who are becoming your tribe, so embrace them, spend time talking with them, update them with what’s happening in your business and ask them for feedback to get them on board with your mission.
Many vegan fairs are run by the same organisers, and once you have taken a stand at a couple of them then ask for a catch-up call with them. All vegan businesses need to build their tribe, so become an active part of theirs. Ask how you can help them or if there are any opportunities to get more involved and increase your visibility. Can you do a talk or a presentation at the next one about your company and your mission? Can you do a Facebook live on their events page from your stall? Can you do a joint promotion for the next one to get featured in their email newsletter? The more remarkable you have made your company, the better story you have to tell, the bigger your mission, the more they will say yes.
