You won't get customers if you don't advertise!!

Yesterday I did a market in Margate Old Town. It is supposed to be a 3 day market and last night coincided with the turning on of Margate Christmas lights. This has cost me £50 for 3 days and yesterday I made £20 and apart from one other lady I was the only person to make a sale. Why is this??? Because it was really poorly advertised. There are posters around and I saw some posters at Imogen's school but there was nothing in the local press I even checked last night in case I had missed it.

Please don't get angry with me and think I am putting down the guys I worked with yesterday because I am most definitely not. They are a great bunch, enthusiastic and keen to promote Margate Old Town but at a higher level they are being let down. There was a torchlight procession last night with 2 local schools being involved and I knew nothing about it. There were fireworks and carols with the Salvation Army. I knew nothing about it. There was a mini market with local craftspeople selling their art and craft. I only knew about it cos I was involved.

The torchlight procession was lovely so nice to see all the kids dressed with christmassy LED lights all over them. This has happened for the last 4 or 5 years maybe more and I have lived here all my life (nearly 40 years) and I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT. You would have thought that even by osmosis it would have got around the Thanet grapevine is a wonderful beast but not with this little snippet! Everyone moans about Margate says that there is nothing going on well last night there was and how many people were there??? I know for a fact that people stumbling across the market probably totalled a maximum of 100 if we were lucky.

How to advertise? I am no expert but there are some very simple and free things that can be done to raise the profile of someone or something. I should know I have done it with my own business!

1) Facebook fan page
2) Twitter
3) Blog
4) Join forums on the internet and promote yourself.
5) Local radio may promote you

No money involved in any of these and not a great drain on time a group can quite happily work these things together and raise profile instantly.

Come on Margate sort it out and stop being so apathetic.

BTW I am back at the market today from 11 til about 1.30 so come along if you mention my blog you can have a 10% discount on all your purchases.

TTFN xx