THE FLYERS ARE FLYING OUT

Hello everyone

Another beautiful day - makes even the horrible jobs (housework, for example) one has to do a lot easier.  I keep checking the forecast and hoping that we have seen the last of the rain and wind, so fingers and toes crossed.

Although not yet counting down the days, it is now less than two months to my first Godalming Independent Market as the organiser - exciting and a  little nerve-racking too.  More display material has been ordered, printed and is on its way to me - these signs will be placed at prominent positions (roundabouts and other places where permission is given) around Godalming for approximately a week/two weeks prior to each event.

Places are filling up for all of this year's Godalming Borough Hall events and I am getting at least one request per day for information about booking a stall.  There are quite a few new businesses taking part in this year's events and that is really good because it means different and new products for our customers to view and, of course, buy. We all know that variety is important when selling at these types of events, so new sellers alongside the regular stall holders are very welcome.

As I mentioned above, places are filling up fast and I only have 6' table spaces available at the April event now as all 3' table spaces have been booked.  April is also now fully booked for jewellery makers/sellers.  It's a popular month for the Godalming Independent Market as this one takes place in time for Easter gifts to be purchased.

Why the title 'the flyers are flying out' for this post?  Nearly all stallholders who have booked places for this year's events have agreed to take a quantity of flyers and posters - thank you everyone, it all helps with the promotion and as you know it is a two-way thing.  Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting these.  One pack is already on its way to a local event organiser who is including them in the goody bag she hands out to the first 100 visitors to her event in March.

Time to do some gardening, it's a little chilly outside but the sunshine is gorgeous.  Have a great week everyone, don't forget to get in touch if you would like to be a guest blogger here or would like more information about the Godalming Independent Markets.

Have a great weekend - 'see' you next week.

Jill

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

Hi everyone

What a gorgeous day after so much miserable weather.  I know we are not completely finished with the grim winter weather, but I understand this coming week is going to be fairly reasonable. Let's hope it gives those people that have been flooded out of their home a break from the torrential rain and wind.

Onwards and upwards with the Surrey Independent Markets and Streetlife has provided me with an amazing number of  people wanting to take part in the markets.  A great variety of items and lots of them have already booked their spots at some of the events.  I am getting communications from at least one potential seller every day and this makes me feel that the Godalming Markets have a lot of interest from both sellers and buyers - thank you Streetlife.

The flyers for the first event have been published and during the beginning of March I will be posting some out to the sellers who have agreed to assist with the promotion of the events.  I am also going to make the flyer available for sellers to add to the Facebook, Blog and websites, so please let me know if you would like to take part in this promotion. Here is the flyer:

I have added our event to the Waverley Borough Council website, and I am working my way through adding the events to other visitor attraction websites.

The items donated for the raffle are increasing and I am pleased to say that a local business has offered a one month free gym pass.  I will be adding a list to a later blog of the names of the businesses who have joined in promoting the Godalming Markets.

I will be back next weekend with an update on the Godalming Markets' progress.  Have a good week everyone.

Jill

BLOG POST NO 4

Hello everyone

I know, not a very imaginative title but I thought it could become a piece of music - perhaps Mozart (my favourite classical composer) would have turned it into an opera? Or my other favourite composer/singer, Freddie Mercury, could have made something great out of it.  Sadly, neither of them are around, so it will have to remain just the title of this week's blog post.

A soggy week for everyone and aren't those pictures of the West Country heartbreaking?  It is hard to imagine what it must be like to lose your home, and for some having to give up their farm animals and their livelihoods, but it is an experience I really want to avoid.  We are lucky in Surrey - yes, I know it is bad in some places and the bottom of our garden is permanently under water at the moment, but on the whole we have faired well.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Welcome to my two new followers: Dawn and Jill.  Both supporters of the Godalming Independent Markets and both create beautiful work.

Another busy week with the Surrey Independent Market events - I feel as though most of the week has seen me chained to the computer.  The new banner has been designed, ordered and is on its way and here is the final design:

This is the banner which will be placed outside of the the Godalming Borough Hall for the week prior to each event.  The date of each event will be added as necessary.

In addition to completing and ordering the banner, I have also designed and ordered 1,000 fliers.  Most of these will be used for letter box drop in the residential area around the borough hall.  Others are destined to be included in goody bags that are distributed at other events - some organisers offer this to other event organisers and for a small fee it is a great way to increase promotion.  Some more will be left at venues that have agreed to hand them out for me.  I have also bought some spotty bunting and balloons - pink, green, yellow and blue.  I will add these to the display outside the borough hall and also in the entrance hall, which always seems rather dark and uninviting.

Details of the Godalming Markets have been added to Streetlife - if you haven't come across this yet, it really is worth a look.  My interpretation is that it is like a very local Twitter.  You can advertise, promote, engage friends and neighbours and find out lots of information about local activities that you might not have heard of.  I have added information about all the Godalming dates and the good news is that the listing will be seen/accessed by just over 2,000 people.  How lovely it would be if they all came to the markets - well, not all at once, but you never know.

Posting today as my 'other me' blog (Christmas Pie Crafts) is written and posted on Sundays and it was getting a little tricky to fit both of them in on the same day.

Time to unglue my fingers from the keyboard - I will be back next weekend with more information on how things are progressing for the Godalming Markets.  Don't forget to leave a comment and do get in touch if you would like to be a guest blogger.

Have a good week everyone.

Jill

EXCITING TIMES

Hello everyone

The blog has its first follower - welcome Poppylocke, your work is really beautiful.

I am running a raffle at the first event (possibly others) and am very pleased to say I already have some lovely local Godalming business people taking part.  The raffle will be drawn on the day of the event and if any stallholders want to take part, please let me know.  It's another great way to promote your work.

Another busy week for me Surrey Independent Markets - lots of new sellers coming on board, which is really great.  Still space for regulars, but spaces for jewellery sellers are filling up fast.

I have spent the last few days working on a new banner for the Godalming events, as well as new business cards for Surrey Independent Markets.  Here is pic of the new banner - although as I change the layout every five minutes, this may not be the final design:

I have been busy adding the event details of websites - I know that not everyone uses the Internet but its the best place to get advance notice taken of the markets.  A few of the places details have been added to are:

Where Can We Go

Friday-ad (it will run for one month on this site and then be renewed

The Best Of

If you know of places that are good to advertise in (or on), please let em know.  I know all of us involved in the Godalming Market Events want to make them a big success, so join in the marketing and promotion with me.  Reading and comment in this blog helps, because it pushes it up the Internet rankings.

A mini post this week, lots of Independent Market work still to do, plus with my other hat on, CPC Wedding Stationery, I have two wedding fairs to create stationery for.

Don;t forget to get in touch if you would like to be a guest blogger here, lots of lovely free promotion as I will tweet your post every day in the week following publication.

Have a great week.

Jill

MOVING FORWARD

Hello everyone

I hope you have had a good week.  We have had some very odd weather here recently; apart from the now normal heavy rain, we had what appeared to be a mini-tornado yesterday!   Winds that bent trees over, heavy rain followed by calm.  Very odd.  Looks like the weather this week is going to be similar, but with some snow to break things up!

I have spent a lot of time this week contacting previous and new stallholders with details of this year's events in Godalming Borough Hall  and I am pleased to say that I already have bookings for all six of the events.  It was a little nerve-racking really because this is the second change of ownership of this business in a year and understandably people do wonder what the future will bring.  Thank you to those of you that have already booked, I will be in touch with each of you in the next week to confirm details.

Marketing and promotion of the events has begun: I have been promoting the events on Twitter and Facebook this week to attract both new stallholders and customers.  All Godalming events have been listed on Stallfinder and also on UK Craft Fairs; both websites are visited by customers looking for fairs to visit and by stallholders looking for events to take part in.

I am in the process of contacting local shops and businesses in Godalming to see if they will support the markets by way of advertising.  This could be by allowing me to place a poster in their shop window, having leaflets on their sales counters or other ways of advertising that will be mutually beneficial to the markets and the businesses.

One final new action this week is that along with a new owner, I have changed the name of the event company: as you know originally it was called Godalming Independent Market, then Independent Market and I am changing it to Surrey Independent Markets.  I know Anna wanted to add other venues to the list of markets and as I want to continue with this, I felt Surrey needed to be included in the name as the markets will be held in this county (although if great venues over the borders seem ideal, I will certainly check them out).  I am in the process of setting up a new website for Surrey Independent Markets and will post details on here once that is complete.

That's all for this week.  Don't forget to contact me if you would like to be a guest blogger on here - it is free and another way to promote your company, new product or range and freebies are always welcome.

Have a good week.

Jill

UP AND RUNNING

Hello everyone

This is my first blog post on the new Independent Markets blog and I am really looking forward to a very exciting year arranging craft and gift events.  A big thank you to Anna Matthews for all the great work she did in 2013 and for handing over such a well organised business to me.  I have inherited a list of fantastic stallholders and I am looking forward to working with them and also to welcoming new sellers on board too.

The aim of this blog is to share the experience of the Independent Markets with both stallholders and customers, so please feel free to comment and if you would like to be a guest blogger, that would be great.  This is an extra place for you to promote the products you will be selling at the Godalming events.  I will also use this blog to add links to websites, articles and blog posts that I feel may be of interest to both customers and stallholders.  If you come across information that you would like me to publish on this blog, please do get in touch with me; this may be something you feel works well at craft events or great ideas for promoting what we make and sell.  Please remember to ask permission of the owner of the article, website or blog before you recommend its publication on here.

Anna had plans to hold markets in other venues outside of Godalming and I will continue with this.  She had already identified some other great places which are ideal for our sort of market, but if you know of any other venues in Surrey that you think would be suitable, please let me know.  Ideally we want somewhere that is either in or very close to a shopping centre or in a residential area, has plenty of parking and is well known.  I stress well known because there are some venues that are poorly sign-posted and this cans affect the footfall.

The dates for this year's events at the Godalming Borough Hall are as follows:

Saturday, 5 April 2014

Saturday, 7 June 2014

Saturday, 6 September 2014

Saturday, 4 October 2014

Saturday, 22 November 2014

Saturday, 6 December 2014

I hope to be posting on this blog at least once a week, so do come back to catch up with the progress of this year's events.

Have a good week everyone

Jill