Holiday Market Vendors Spread Cheer with Their Marketing

[Abigail_S]

It’s the time of year where Boston becomes a magical snow globe, we begin romanticizing the frigid New England air, and we have Mariah Carey waiting in queue. It’s also when Boston’s Seaport transforms into Snowport with endless vendors, twinkly lights, and holiday cheer. Snowport brings together a diverse group of small businesses and gives them a platform to market their products, make connections, and allows you to shop locally. 

The Holiday Market at Snowport in Partnership with Constant Contact features more than 120 small businesses, 66 percent of which are local to Boston and the New England area, and 76 percent are minority and/or female owned.

Three of our Constant Contact customers participating in this year's Holiday Market share their story on how they use marketing to communicate exciting updates, stay connected with their audience, and capture new emails. Whether you’re an aspiring holiday market vendor, a seasoned veteran, or a small business looking for holiday ideas, learn how these customers are making the most of the holiday season through Constant Contact.

John Dykes is a Freelance illustrator and artist. He has been living in Boston for the last 5 years and has been capturing city life through his artwork and illustrations. As an artist, it’s important to get feedback and Snowport provides the opportunity for his work to be seen and have people respond to his work. 

By engaging with people at Snowport, John can market more directly to art buyers as “Constant Contact will help with this pivot in doing more fine art and marketing more directly to individual art buyers,” says John. 

Being a small business owner, it is just as important to cultivate relationships 

with those interested in your work as it is to create products to sell.

“It’s just wonderful to have people be drawn in and take a closer look.” 

Through Constant Contact, John has a QR code at Snowport where visitors can scan and instantly join his mailing list. When you send an email to your contacts, you never know who they'll share it with. Making sure your email is shareable beyond your contact list increases the chance you'll get new subscribers and potentially fall in the right hands of new buyers. 

Kinnari Sanghavi is the founder, artist, and creator of her products at Kinnari Sanghavi Studio. As an artist all her life, she found that her handcrafted and hand painted work was admired at global galleries. She has been in business since 2021 and has expanded her business into one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.

“Snowport is a huge stepping stone for my business, and I think it will be a massive push we need to pivot in the right direction to grow to scale,” says Kinnari. 

Kinnairi is the perfect example of a small business owner who had a passion, created a following, and took the leap. She says “people are loving what I’m doing, they are appreciating my work.”

Keep in mind, you don't just have to rely on your friends and social media followers to spread the word about your organization. Beyond an event like Snowport, advertising on social media is a great way to continue to market your business. This helps you get your content in front of the right audience so you have a better chance of finding new customers and supporters from the vast sea of social media users. Through Constant Contact, you can drive traffic to your webpage, customize the target audience for your ad, and target your ad to Facebook and Instagram users who look like your current contact list.

Lizzie Johnson is the owner of Lizzie’s Bakery. Lizzie moved to Boston in 2017 and started Lizzie’s Bakery in March 2018. Coming from a conservative college, Lizzie began baking and throwing dessert parties for her friends. Once she graduated college, she began making custom cakes and her business was born. 

Lizzie “moved [to Boston] with only 2,000 Instagram followers, [and] now Lizzie’s Bakery has over 36,000 followers” 

Lizzie is a great example of how when you connect with your followers on social media, you get to remind them of what you have to offer, who you are as a brand, and how you're keeping relevant. Growing your contact list is important, if you can fill your list with people who really want and value your content, your emails are going to perform better. You can Create ads on Facebook and Instagram to collect new subscribers, customize the target audience for your ad based on the demographics that are most important for your organization, target your ad to Facebook and Instagram users who look like your current contact list, and follow-up with your new leads by sending them targeted email content.

Constant Contact allowed Lizzie to promote her business in ways she never thought possible and allowed Lizzie to see “this is what we can do, we can create forms for you, we can create messaging for you to promote on social media.” 

What are you waiting for?

Now is the time to use marketing to build your brand and start growing your business. After listening to so many stories about how other customers are growing their businesses with Constant Contact, we want to know how you are sharing your #smallbizstory. Hop on Instagram, post a story, and tell us how you're attracting new customers by tagging @ConstantContact and using #smallbizstory.