Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - How about just dragging a table to the end of the driveway?

feralcatfriend · November 25, 2008

Dudes! The church and the developments give you a GREAT marketing opportunity! Let me explain.

For the church: obtain their schedule, if you don't already know it, since a parking lot packed with cars is a big clue and you say they are right across the street (so, obviously, you see them). Make friends with the minister/governing committee, or whoever, to get permission to hand out flyers as people exit the church, or to put flyers under the windshield wipers of the cars. Bring samples of your tomatoes on your friend-making visit.

Use the flyers to educate prospective buyers about why your tomatoes are RARE and delicious. Include their stories and tell the colors and sizes of the varieties you have. This captures their imagination. You can even use it to state the hours you are open. Make sure to put your address and e-mail address on the flyer, plus the hours you are open.

Have the bottom of the flyer be a tear-off coupon with a small discount with a deadline (such as, "Today, (date), only!"

Create a little 10-recipe booklet and offer that for free to customers willing to give you their e-mail addresses so you can e-mail them when particular varieties are ripe or are on sale. Also, tell them they can e-mail you to buy by appointment, if you're willing to do that to make things convenient for them. If you don't give people something like the little recipe book in exchange for their e-mail address, they are less likely to give it to you. It costs you less to make the little book as your gift to obtain opt-ins than it does to give discounts, but experiment to see which technique works best for you. (Your booklet can be something as simple as 10 pages stapled together; you don't have to be fancy.)

For the developments, mail your flyers or go door-to-door handing them out.

Your tomatoes are rare, so I hope you charge more for them than grocery store tomatoes. But, you can make people feel better about paying the premium, first, by educating them about how rare the tomatoes are, and second, by putting up a sign with an even higher price crossed out, with the sale price written next to it. Change these periodically to keep up your credibility, and when your supply is low, charge the higher price because that's capitalism, baby! (That is, when supply is low and demand is high, you can charge higher prices because the willing and able buyers outbid the cheapskates.)

Good luck!

Cynthia

P.S.

When you make a sale, include a coupon with a short deadline to encourage repeat business.

P.P.S.

Keep track of how many coupons you get back and keep a sample of each coupon so you can evaluate your marketing campaigns so you know what works and what doesn't.

November 25, 2008	#5
feralcatfriend Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Bel Air, MD USA Posts: 42	Dudes! The church and the developments give you a GREAT marketing opportunity! Let me explain. For the church: obtain their schedule, if you don't already know it, since a parking lot packed with cars is a big clue and you say they are right across the street (so, obviously, you see them). Make friends with the minister/governing committee, or whoever, to get permission to hand out flyers as people exit the church, or to put flyers under the windshield wipers of the cars. Bring samples of your tomatoes on your friend-making visit. Use the flyers to educate prospective buyers about why your tomatoes are RARE and delicious. Include their stories and tell the colors and sizes of the varieties you have. This captures their imagination. You can even use it to state the hours you are open. Make sure to put your address and e-mail address on the flyer, plus the hours you are open. Have the bottom of the flyer be a tear-off coupon with a small discount with a deadline (such as, "Today, (date), only!" Create a little 10-recipe booklet and offer that for free to customers willing to give you their e-mail addresses so you can e-mail them when particular varieties are ripe or are on sale. Also, tell them they can e-mail you to buy by appointment, if you're willing to do that to make things convenient for them. If you don't give people something like the little recipe book in exchange for their e-mail address, they are less likely to give it to you. It costs you less to make the little book as your gift to obtain opt-ins than it does to give discounts, but experiment to see which technique works best for you. (Your booklet can be something as simple as 10 pages stapled together; you don't have to be fancy.) For the developments, mail your flyers or go door-to-door handing them out. Your tomatoes are rare, so I hope you charge more for them than grocery store tomatoes. But, you can make people feel better about paying the premium, first, by educating them about how rare the tomatoes are, and second, by putting up a sign with an even higher price crossed out, with the sale price written next to it. Change these periodically to keep up your credibility, and when your supply is low, charge the higher price because that's capitalism, baby! (That is, when supply is low and demand is high, you can charge higher prices because the willing and able buyers outbid the cheapskates.) Good luck! Cynthia P.S. When you make a sale, include a coupon with a short deadline to encourage repeat business. P.P.S. Keep track of how many coupons you get back and keep a sample of each coupon so you can evaluate your marketing campaigns so you know what works and what doesn't.