One of the saddest feelings you can ever experience is to carefully plan and prepare for a party for months, only to have nobody come. Selling your first dozens to the public may not exactly be a blowout bash but, after all your hard work over these past few months, you’d be crushed if no one bought your—and your girls’—efforts.
Promoting your homegrown business is crucial to both avoiding being overrun with eggs and to provide you with a practical purpose for keeping your flock. Here are four ways to help you get the word out.
Streetside Sign
Your neighbors are your first and best target market, as they live close by and can easily become repeat customers. They may even be looking forward to buying your farm-fresh eggs. Let them know you are open for business with a streetside sign.
Signs come in so many varieties and range, from simple and straightforward to an expression of your personality. Many feed shops and farm-supply stores sell ready-made “Fresh Eggs” signs that you can hang from a hook on your mailbox or mount or suspend from a mini garden-flag pole.
Another option is a white-board or chalkboard easel that you can set out on egg-sale days. This will allow you to customize your sales messages. Let everyone know that Clara is proud to present her eggs, that you’re having a two-for-one sale, or that you’re open an extra hour.
If you choose a customizable sign, make sure to write your messages in large, easily read letters. Be aware, however, that just because your town or HOA allows for egg sales does not necessarily mean they permit streetside signs. A quick call will clarify whether you can set our your sign temporarily on selling days or at all.
Read more: Make sure you stay legal with your egg sales! Here’s what to look out for.
Community Boards
Many public spaces, including markets, churches and gyms, feature community boards on which you can post flyers promoting your eggs. The advantage of posting on a community board is that many more people in your town will learn about your egg sales than simply those who live on your street.
The drawback is that your flyer will be competing with others hawking garage sales, puppies and car-wash fundraisers. A simple yet colorful flyer design will draw the attention of passersby. Keep their gaze by imparting all of your crucial facts in a glance.
You’ll be more apt to gain new customers by stating a quick phrase such as “Fresh Eggs $3/Dozen Every Thursday 10A – 3P 14 Main Street” than if you go into details about the breeds you raise, what you feed them, and why fresh eggs are better than storebought.
Make certain you create a detachable fringe of contact-info slips along the bottom of your flyer with “Fresh Eggs” and your phone number and street address.
Read more: Pack your eggs right to appeal to potential customers.
Social Media
In this digital age, it’s absolutely vital that you’re promoting your eggs on social-media. Many platforms exist, the best known being Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Opening an account only requires a verifiable email address.
Facebook allows you to post your photographs and videos, create recurring events, and create a group that customers can join to receive updates and announcements.
Instagram is a more visual platform, focused on photographs, quick visual “Stories” and 30-second video “Reels.”You can show behind-the scenes footage of your hens foraging, of eggs being packed for sale and much more.
Twitter is popular with businesses wanting to get messages out swiftly to their clientele. Food trucks and pop-up restaurants rely on Twitter to let customers know they’re open and where they are located. You can similarly use Twitter to let customers know you’re open for business, that you’ll be open for one more hour or that you’re offering specific specials that day.
The key factor to success in social media is that you need an existing client base to follow you and encourage friends and neighbors to do the same. Relying on social media alone when you are starting out is like shouting into an enormous, noisy crowd. You’ll be lucky if anyone acknowledges you.
Business Cards
The modern business card goes far beyond simply conveying your business name and contact information. It’s a vivid collage of your best images on a 2-inch by 3-inch rectangle.
Not only can you entice customers with beautiful photos of your eggs and hens. You can use the reverse of the card as a frequent-buyer tracker or as a discount coupon. You may treat it as a referral your customers can pass along to their friends or whatever promotion you can devise.
Print your own cards at home using pre-cut card stock. Or have them printed for you by office-supply stores such as Staples or online printing services such as Vistaprint. Hand your cards out with each dozen you sell, and they’ll start promoting your delicious eggs on your behalf.
