Today's post is about getting vendors, which goes along with the first step in advertising. From what I have seen in the past 3 months, most small shows do not do enough advertising for vendors. My guess is that the organizers do not know how. I was so worried about getting vendors that I hyper-focused on this part the first few years. When I was co-director, this was the biggest part of what I did.
If you are doing a show to raise money for a church or organization like we are, your income is from your vendor booth fees. In the beginning vendors will be a little wary of your show. They will ask a lot of questions about how you plan to advertise for shoppers. You will want to make sure your price is low. It needs to be worth it for the vendors so you start building a good reputation for the show. After a few shows you can raise your price and vendors will still be happy to come.
Once you have a few shows under your belt, vendors will look forward to your show and sign up early. But the first couple of shows you will have to work to get vendors. If they don't know about your show they can't sign up, so you have to get the word out. But if you spend a lot of money advertising the event to vendors you cut into your profit and you still have to advertise for shoppers.
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| Vendors at the Jenks Church Craft Show. |
So how do you find vendors for free or very little money?? What work can you do to be sure your event is full? Read on dear friend, and learn from my experience.
The best way to find vendors is to have your event EVERYWHERE on the web at least three months out. At least! Especially for your first several shows. Even though you will get a ton of vendors applying in the last three weeks, you need to have your information out there as early as possible. Waiting till the last minute is STRESSFUL!
The more places you list it, the more places will pick it up your event and add it to their own calendar. This is FREE ADVERTISING! We once had our event listed in a community calendar in a utility bill for a city about 30 minutes away from our venue city. I have no idea how that happened, but yay! If you think about it, things like that do not happen if you wait until the last minute to list your event. And the more times this happens, the more advertising you have FOR FREE! And the more often a vendor hears about your event the better it sounds to them. The more places they see it listed the more likely they are to apply.
Think about it from a vendor's perspective for a moment: How do you find shows to be in? Most people do a very simple online search or ask other vendors at shows, (who have already done a simple search). Google is your friend! Put in your city and "craft show" and see what comes up.
Open a new tab and do it now. I'll wait.
What do you see? Any shows come up multiple times?
This is what your vendors are doing. This is how they are finding shows. So you need to have your show listed on enough places that you are on the first page of a search engine. Even without your own website. You do that by posting it on all the free event listing sites you can find. But don't worry. I've done some hunting for you and came up with a list. Because I am doing a show in Jenks, Oklahoma, the links may not all be helpful to you. Several are specific to my area. But it will get you started.
MOST online event calendars are free for posting. Not all, but I don't pay for listings. I pay for several different kinds of advertising, but not to list the show for vendors. I can list my show and have it on 30 calendars without paying, so why would I spend my advertising money on an online listing? I have never had trouble getting vendors. NEVER. You won't either if you do what I do.
So, three or four months out, start listing your event on websites. This takes time. It isn't hard, but it is tedious. You will get so tired of typing a show description!
HINT: (I gave you this hint in my last post. Copy and paste the information from your first listing -- which you went through at www.craftlister.com as you wrote your guidelines -- and send it to yourself in an email. So you can copy and paste.
Here are some sites where you can list your event online:
General Event Sites (These are websites that list for multiple types of events and in multiple areas. Vendors can search for their area. You make your listing on the general site.):
Craft Lister/Event Lister www.craftlister.com
Leisure and Sport Review - http://www.lasr.net/addEvent.php
http://www.festivals-and-shows.com/submit-a-festival.html
https://www.eventbrite.com
http://www.artsandcraftshows-usa.com/Listing.shtml
http://festivalnet.com/festival_listings.html
General Local Event Sites: (These are general sites, but you must go to the local subsite for your area to make your listing.)
http://craigslist.org/ (There are a few places you can put listings - certainly make a craigslist event, but also do a "vendors wanted" ad in arts and crafts, too.
http://local.yahoo.com/
www.WhoFish.com Be sure to let them know if you are a church or non-profit doing the show -- they have a special deal for charities.
http://www.nordster.com
OKLAHOMA Sites:
http://www.travelok.com/ Get your information to them early enough and you will be in their printed magazine as well as their online calendar.
http://www.okmag.com/event-calendar/
TULSA Area Specific Sites (Find these kind of sites in your area.):
http://www.visittulsa.com/events/
http://www.tulsapeople.com/Tulsa-People/Things-To-Do/
http://www.tulsaworld.com/calendar/
http://www.tulsakids.com/Alternative-Calendar-Page-with-Monthly-Calendar-View/
http://tulsaevents.com/
http://www.kxoj.com/calendar/events/
http://www.newson6.com/category/286093/events-calendar
http://www.kjrh.com/entertainment/calendar (link is at the bottom of the page)
http://www.k95tulsa.com/s/ccec/ If you would like your community event posted here, email the event info and artwork to Kim.Dallow@coxinc
I know these are not all the radio stations. I need to add more next year.
This page lists event calendars for Tulsa. Keep pages like this bookmarked in case they add a new links that you don't have. http://www.tulsaweb.com/calevent.htm
It may take a bit of searching to find your local places. One thing you can do is to search for a local event you know about. I am telling you, Google is your friend! Everywhere you find that other event, look into listing your event.
Word of mouth & print advertising.
This really overlaps with advertising for the shoppers. I will have a whole separate blog post on that. But any advertising you do for shoppers early enough will bring in vendors, so you need to do some of it early on.
You need flyers for your event. Color if possible. At least on colored paper. Find yourself a volunteer who will make you some cute graphics. [Think brand. Nike swish, Santa's red hat, etc. The thing that sticks in people's mind.]
Choose an image that will work for you for years to come. We have a beautiful teal green and flowers design on all our signs. Now that we only have a fall show it kinda bugs me, because it is kind of "Spring-y" but it is on too many things to change it now. Any time I see anything remotely like it I think of the craft show. I want the vendors to be like that, too. You want YOUR vendors to be like that. And your shoppers. So choose wisely.
Once you have flyers designed you have to print them. In house is cheaper, but if you don't have a good printer, check around for the best price, You want some full page size flyers (I print 100), but for handing out to folks a half page is fine. (Print 200 2-to-a-page flyers. I'll get to this more later with other advertising.) Save the file as a PDF and a graphic like .JPG, You can add .jpg files to most of your website listings, but not all will take PDFs.
You can also start handing them out. Give 10 to every member of your committee and 5 to every member of your group and ask them to hand them out to people who might be interested in being a vendor. (Later you can pass them out to everyone.)
For many of our shows we had our teens hang flyers in the neighborhoods around our venue. We always asked permission from the neighborhood associations, and never had a problem, but over time we felt banners, yard signs and other advertising was a better use of our time and money. But I won't stop putting up the flyers in the shops. I get way too many vendors that way.
FACEBOOK
It goes without saying that your event needs a facebook page. You want a group page. I will do a different blog post on doing that and not take up room here. A simple tutorial with tips and things to avoid. But just put it on your to do list. You must have a facebook page for your event. NOT JUST AN EVENT.
In addition to creating your own group page, you can advertise your show all over facebook on various other group pages. Specifically, groups of people who want to know about craft shows. And it is EASY to find them!
Open your facebook account in a new tab. Go ahead. I'll wait.
In the facebook search bar, type the word craft.
You will see a list of people and groups you are associated with that have craft in the name, but below that will be an option to list all groups with craft in the name. There are currently over 1000. The majority of those groups have something to do with craft shows or craft vendors. You can narrow your search by adding a city name (i.e. Tulsa craft). Look at each group's description. If it is a group of crafters in your area, you want to contact that group. You can change the city name and even search for your state. In all, you may have anywhere from 10-20 facebook groups who would be willing to post your show information.
Now, don't go joining all those groups unless you just want to. You can message the group owner and ask them to post the information about your show. Give the group owner the information in text form (just the basics) and a flyer in picture format (.jpg), and ask if they would please pass it along to the group. Most of them will be happy to do it and will thank you!
Some Oklahoma Facebook groups with potential vendors:
https://www.facebook.com/OklahomaCraftFairs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagetulsa/?ref=br_rs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/443068632472852/?ref=br_rs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/148765371833671/?ref=br_rs
There are way too many to list here... But you get the idea. Just do a search and find yours.
And these groups are specifically for craft show vendors in OK.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/678334935514268/ Vendor Events in Central & Northeast Oklahoma
https://www.facebook.com/groups/234212846747360/ Vendors in NE Oklahoma/TULSA
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CraftShowVendorChitChat/ Craft Show Vendor Chit Chat
You can also use the graphic from your show as your picture on facebook - either your background, profile picture or at least post it to your wall as a status update every so often. Send the graphic to every person in your organization and ask them to do the same at least for the week or two before the show. The same picture on several people's walls gets attention.
And don't forget to send an invitation to the event to everyone you know in the area. Even guys.
Other places to get vendors
Etsy - www.etsy.com - Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade goods. In other words, a bunch of crafters list their stuff for sale there. This is a great place to get vendors -- vendors with stuff you like! You know you will like it because you get to see it! At the main page, you can scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and see a variety of site navigation links. Under where it says Join the Community is a link to teams. If you click on teams you can do a search for teams in your area or state. There are 24 teams in Oklahoma at the moment. Teams are just groups of Etsy crafters with a common interest. So check out the teams. The first one listed in Oklahoma, "Oklahoma Crafters" has this description: "If you craft and you live in Oklahoma feel free to join, no matter what you craft you are welcome. This is a group that will hopefully help one another, with any questions they may have. Either actual crafting, website help, sales in general, classes and Crafting fairs." Right there in the description is the fact that they are interested in craft fairs, which is another name for craft shows. SO this group is most likely going to be VERY OPEN to advertising your show for you. You can click on the members button and see the members. This particular group has 26 members, 2 of them are considered leaders. You can find the leaders by selecting the leaders tab of the members page. Click on the leaders name (in blue) and it takes you right to their personal page. You can click on contact and start a conversation with the leaders. Ask them if you an send them a flyer to post to the group's discussion page or if you can email the group.
This is time-consuming, but very targeted, which means it pays off in vendors. This is VERY EFFECTIVE!
You can also search for all vendors in your area and email them individually. Tell them you found them on Etsy and why you want them to be in your show. (I love your necklaces. Your doll clothes are so cute.) Don't add them to your mailing list or anything. Let them know you are not going to continue spamming them. :-)
Another way to get vendors is to go to show websites and contact the vendors listed. If they have done a show, they usually do lots of shows. So they usually do not mind being told about another show. Be honest, tell them you saw that they were a vendor for Indie or whatever show website you saw them on, and you wanted to invite them to your show.
Some OKLAHOMA shows that list their vendors:
(Mine) www.jenkschurchcraftshow.com
Indie Emporium - http://www.indieemporium.com/makers/
And one more "hard way" to get vendors -- go to facebook pages of local events such as this one https://www.facebook.com/ChristmasAtTheLodge Christmas at the Lodge in Mustang, OK. Look at the people who have "liked the page;" or that this page has "liked;" and people who have posted to the group page. Many of them will be vendors - you can tell from the names or comments. If someone comments "Thanks for letting me come out and sell my carved pumpkins at your show" that is pretty much a giveaway. If their name is "Pretties and Punkins" you can kind of guess.
Do you see how a bit of effort can really yield a lot of vendors? You can do this! Really! Getting vendors is work, but it is not horribly hard and difficult.
However, KEEPING vendors coming back is the best way to get vendors. As you get a reputation for running a good show, your vendors will return year after year. Then you don't have to put as much effort into getting the space filled. You have to turn people away, and that feels nice.
This really overlaps with advertising for the shoppers. I will have a whole separate blog post on that. But any advertising you do for shoppers early enough will bring in vendors, so you need to do some of it early on.
You need flyers for your event. Color if possible. At least on colored paper. Find yourself a volunteer who will make you some cute graphics. [Think brand. Nike swish, Santa's red hat, etc. The thing that sticks in people's mind.]
Choose an image that will work for you for years to come. We have a beautiful teal green and flowers design on all our signs. Now that we only have a fall show it kinda bugs me, because it is kind of "Spring-y" but it is on too many things to change it now. Any time I see anything remotely like it I think of the craft show. I want the vendors to be like that, too. You want YOUR vendors to be like that. And your shoppers. So choose wisely.
HINT: You can get a logo designed for $50 on Etsy. (Our design is worth way more than the $50 logos I've seen, and our gal designs our signage, posters, etc. -- you won't get that for $50, but perhaps your volunteer could start with a logo and add in your info.) You will use this for YEARS, so it is OK to invest a little in it. It is just hard the first year because there is so much to buy.Have at least 3 people check your design for all signage, flyers, etc. Typos, readability, focus and clarity. Do the people immediately know what it is? Do they know when and where? Is the date correct? (I accidentally printed 100 full-page color flyers with the wrong date this year -- ouch!)
Once you have flyers designed you have to print them. In house is cheaper, but if you don't have a good printer, check around for the best price, You want some full page size flyers (I print 100), but for handing out to folks a half page is fine. (Print 200 2-to-a-page flyers. I'll get to this more later with other advertising.) Save the file as a PDF and a graphic like .JPG, You can add .jpg files to most of your website listings, but not all will take PDFs.
You can also start handing them out. Give 10 to every member of your committee and 5 to every member of your group and ask them to hand them out to people who might be interested in being a vendor. (Later you can pass them out to everyone.)
Go to craft shows and pass them out to the vendors. (Some shows will let you put flyers out at the info desk. Don't be shy - ask them!)
Have stacks available at all the events your group has in the months prior to your show.
If you are a church, send a flyer to the other churches in your area.We hang posters in the downtown area of the little city where we have our show about a month out. We have vendors call every year because of those posters. The first year, if I had known how many vendors it would bring, I would have put them out earlier. That is your call. Some businesses have a time limit. You might do one poster for vendors (that says "Now Accepting Vendors") and then a month before the show change it out with the one for the show/shopping (that lists how many vendors you will have).
For many of our shows we had our teens hang flyers in the neighborhoods around our venue. We always asked permission from the neighborhood associations, and never had a problem, but over time we felt banners, yard signs and other advertising was a better use of our time and money. But I won't stop putting up the flyers in the shops. I get way too many vendors that way.
It goes without saying that your event needs a facebook page. You want a group page. I will do a different blog post on doing that and not take up room here. A simple tutorial with tips and things to avoid. But just put it on your to do list. You must have a facebook page for your event. NOT JUST AN EVENT.
In addition to creating your own group page, you can advertise your show all over facebook on various other group pages. Specifically, groups of people who want to know about craft shows. And it is EASY to find them!
Open your facebook account in a new tab. Go ahead. I'll wait.
In the facebook search bar, type the word craft.
You will see a list of people and groups you are associated with that have craft in the name, but below that will be an option to list all groups with craft in the name. There are currently over 1000. The majority of those groups have something to do with craft shows or craft vendors. You can narrow your search by adding a city name (i.e. Tulsa craft). Look at each group's description. If it is a group of crafters in your area, you want to contact that group. You can change the city name and even search for your state. In all, you may have anywhere from 10-20 facebook groups who would be willing to post your show information.
Now, don't go joining all those groups unless you just want to. You can message the group owner and ask them to post the information about your show. Give the group owner the information in text form (just the basics) and a flyer in picture format (.jpg), and ask if they would please pass it along to the group. Most of them will be happy to do it and will thank you!
Some Oklahoma Facebook groups with potential vendors:
https://www.facebook.com/OklahomaCraftFairs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagetulsa/?ref=br_rs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/443068632472852/?ref=br_rs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/148765371833671/?ref=br_rs
There are way too many to list here... But you get the idea. Just do a search and find yours.
And these groups are specifically for craft show vendors in OK.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/678334935514268/ Vendor Events in Central & Northeast Oklahoma
https://www.facebook.com/groups/234212846747360/ Vendors in NE Oklahoma/TULSA
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CraftShowVendorChitChat/ Craft Show Vendor Chit Chat
You can also use the graphic from your show as your picture on facebook - either your background, profile picture or at least post it to your wall as a status update every so often. Send the graphic to every person in your organization and ask them to do the same at least for the week or two before the show. The same picture on several people's walls gets attention.
And don't forget to send an invitation to the event to everyone you know in the area. Even guys.
Other places to get vendors
Etsy - www.etsy.com - Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade goods. In other words, a bunch of crafters list their stuff for sale there. This is a great place to get vendors -- vendors with stuff you like! You know you will like it because you get to see it! At the main page, you can scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and see a variety of site navigation links. Under where it says Join the Community is a link to teams. If you click on teams you can do a search for teams in your area or state. There are 24 teams in Oklahoma at the moment. Teams are just groups of Etsy crafters with a common interest. So check out the teams. The first one listed in Oklahoma, "Oklahoma Crafters" has this description: "If you craft and you live in Oklahoma feel free to join, no matter what you craft you are welcome. This is a group that will hopefully help one another, with any questions they may have. Either actual crafting, website help, sales in general, classes and Crafting fairs." Right there in the description is the fact that they are interested in craft fairs, which is another name for craft shows. SO this group is most likely going to be VERY OPEN to advertising your show for you. You can click on the members button and see the members. This particular group has 26 members, 2 of them are considered leaders. You can find the leaders by selecting the leaders tab of the members page. Click on the leaders name (in blue) and it takes you right to their personal page. You can click on contact and start a conversation with the leaders. Ask them if you an send them a flyer to post to the group's discussion page or if you can email the group.
This is time-consuming, but very targeted, which means it pays off in vendors. This is VERY EFFECTIVE!
You can also search for all vendors in your area and email them individually. Tell them you found them on Etsy and why you want them to be in your show. (I love your necklaces. Your doll clothes are so cute.) Don't add them to your mailing list or anything. Let them know you are not going to continue spamming them. :-)
Another way to get vendors is to go to show websites and contact the vendors listed. If they have done a show, they usually do lots of shows. So they usually do not mind being told about another show. Be honest, tell them you saw that they were a vendor for Indie or whatever show website you saw them on, and you wanted to invite them to your show.
Some OKLAHOMA shows that list their vendors:
(Mine) www.jenkschurchcraftshow.com
Indie Emporium - http://www.indieemporium.com/makers/
And one more "hard way" to get vendors -- go to facebook pages of local events such as this one https://www.facebook.com/ChristmasAtTheLodge Christmas at the Lodge in Mustang, OK. Look at the people who have "liked the page;" or that this page has "liked;" and people who have posted to the group page. Many of them will be vendors - you can tell from the names or comments. If someone comments "Thanks for letting me come out and sell my carved pumpkins at your show" that is pretty much a giveaway. If their name is "Pretties and Punkins" you can kind of guess.
Do you see how a bit of effort can really yield a lot of vendors? You can do this! Really! Getting vendors is work, but it is not horribly hard and difficult.
However, KEEPING vendors coming back is the best way to get vendors. As you get a reputation for running a good show, your vendors will return year after year. Then you don't have to put as much effort into getting the space filled. You have to turn people away, and that feels nice.
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