The OFMA Resource Library
Brand & Marketing Toolkit

Printed Giveaways & Goodies

Your farmer’s market is a community hub, and you want more foot traffic! How do you create print work and signage that will promote your market and your vendors, build more meaningful relationships with your current customers, and reach new customers? In this chapter we’ll explore how printed giveaways and goodies can turn your visitors into ambassadors for your market throughout Oregon.

Watch our Print Marketing Workshop to learn more about creating print work and giveaways.

Print Promotions 101

Once you have solid signage at your market, you can start to promote your market through printed giveaways. When these giveaways appear in spaces outside your market — stickers on the back on laptops and notebooks in coffee shops, tote bags carried around town, t-shirts or water bottles in gyms and on trails — folks are reminded of your market. These outreach tools give your current customers a way to start a conversation with new people about your market, why they love it, and how to shop with you.

They can also be powerful tools to reinforce your brand values. Is sustainability important to your market? Consider printing on recycled papers, having tote bags made to replace plastic bags, printing on waterbottles or mugs and start a reward program for market customers that bring their market mug or waterbottle on open days.

Whatever you do, avoid creating a bunch of throw away pieces. Instead, consider the second life of things you decide to print on, and how your customers can use them to become ambassadors for your market in your community.

Today, people are more influenced by recommendations from their friends and community members than paid advertising in a newspaper or magazine. Consider spending your marketing dollars on printed promotions that reinforce your brand values, enable your market name to continually stay top of mind in your community, and give everyone something to talk about!

Printed Goodies on a Budget:

The power of a sticker and a story card.

A sticker is a simple, cost effective way to help people help you get your Market name out there, and remind folks about your market on the regular.

Sticker are multi-use, and can appear anywhere from a laptop to a notebook, a water bottle, a car bumper, a sticker wall in town, a community bulletin board, or even as a wearable, on someone’s shirt.

These cards can be given away with purchases at your market by vendors or market representatives. They can be included in CSA’s, hung on community bulletin boards and in community spaces, and given away at neighboring businessses.

A story card is a simple 3x5 or 4x6 in palm card/postcard size giveaway card.

On it you can have a photo and logo on the front, and a short 1-2 paragraph story on the back, and some basic logistical information, like the website URL and your social media handle.

The story should reinforce the values of your market and summarize what the market is about. When thinking of what to include in a short story, think about what you’d want to hear folks around your community saying when they are telling others about your market. When you hear someone talking about the market, and using the words you shared in your story card, you’ll know it was a success.

Empower Your Customers to become Brand Ambassadors.

Tote bags and other simple printed materials can spread the word about your market.

First of all, what is a Brand Ambassador?

Technically, a brand ambassador is a customer of a company or organization often paid to share a brand, often on social media. But it can be simpler than that — a brand ambassador can be anyone of your customers that loves your market and is excited about sharing your market story with others.

You can empower the folks that shop at your market regularly to spread the word with simple giveaways, like stickers and story cards, as well as with objects that they may use in their everyday, like tote bags, t-shirts, pins, water bottles.

Be intentional with what you chose as Merch; any object that you think reinforces what is important to your market. You can sell this Merch at your markets; just let customers know what their $$ goes to— is it an investment back into the success of the market? Tell them that, and reinforce their purchasing power. When they carry or wear Market Merch in your community, they are representing your Market, and offering a conversation with anyone that asks!

You can also do select giveaways of limited edition Merch to incentivize folks to join your community — like encouraging them to follow on social media to stay informed, or to come to an event you might be hosting or a new market time open.

Case Study:

Oregon Farmers Market Association

The Oregon Farmers Market Association invested in key materials for print, from a button for members to simple branded sticker that can be used on anything, like the packaging to the left. While OFMA does not have a photographic story card, there is a simple rack card, similar to a story card, that reinforces the four seasons in Oregon.

The simple OFMA illustrations can easily be printed on tote bags as well as scarves. During COVID, OFMA had simple stickers made as a Pledge to be Covid Safe. Simple printed materials can have maximum reach if they are well considered.

More on your own:

Tools & Resources

Sticker and Card Design with Canva

Printing & Sticker templates with StickerMule

Printing cards & Merch with Moo

Tote Bags and Apparel with VistaPrint

FAQ

 

Find answers to frequently asked questions about branding and marketing for farmers markets below!

  • See above the list of resources! If you have the time to research local printers, and shopping local is a value of your market, we recommend you consider local printers before you decide to print with an online vendor.

  • Stickers and Story Cards are great giveaways to provide to partner businesses in your community. If they will, ask them to give away with each purchase or to each visitor, and equip them with 1-2 sentences of information about your market.

  • Usually it’s best to ask printers what kind of file they prefer for best quality printing! If you are printing with an online vendor, they will usually provide a template to design on, or specifications for file type, resolution, and size to upload.

    Most often, printers are looking for a high quality/high resolution PDF, or possibly a JPEG file. High resolution, vector-based PDF files are always the best!

  • Visit our branding section of this toolkit to learn more on how to develop imagery, colors, and a look and feel that communicate your market.

  • We recommend trying to have some kind of cohesive look and feel in all your communication materials, from flyers and posters to social media and digital communication. If you keep your look and feel consistent, people will start to recognize your market easily by the colors, fonts, photography, and general style of the brand. See our branding chapter for more information!

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