Emily Frantz Creative | Livestock Sale Marketing

Last Minute Sale Marketing Strategies

2018 is already flying by, and if you’re like our family, you’re realizing that you should have started marketing your sale a moth ago. It’s okay, trust me when I say you are not alone. We’ve all been there, caught up in other important tasks and putting off advertising. Don’t worry though, I’ve compiled my best tips for last minute marketing to share with you!

Social Media

This should be a given. We all use it, and we all know how beneficial it is when it comes to marketing. One of the simplest ways anyone an promote their sale is by posting in Facebook groups. There are several groups out there dedicated specifically to show pigs, cattle or whichever species you raise. By just taking a few minutes to post there, you are guaranteed to get your sale information seen by your ideal customers.

I want to ask you a question, though. Do you have a Facebook business page? If not, what the heck are you waiting for? It’s free and allows you to gain a broader reach than your personal profile does (not to mention the legalities of it). When it comes down to sale advertising, I also recommend establishing a Facebook and Instagram ad budget. Are your ideal customers listening to the radio or reading the paper every day? Probably not. Cars have satellite radio and bluetooth and phones have news readily available. I can guarantee your target audience is on social media, though. Put your money where your customers are and set aside some of that advertising money to really hone into social media marketing.

Another free option is to use the Facebook event space to promote your sale. This has been a great tool for us, as it allows us to collect potential customers in one place. We use our business page to create the event, then we and our partners can share it across our pages. This has been really handy to invite locals and to have an idea of how many people to expect. Once they are in the event, then we can also really target them without over-selling to everyone else.

Print Advertising

This might be pushing it just a little, but it’s not over until it’s over! Print is far from dead, so hop to it. The magazines are already out, so we have definitely missed the mark there, but that’s okay. Our family doesn’t advertise in publications, but we always make an effort to make flyers and postcards. There’s just something awesome about having an agriculture business that keeps the spirit of personal connection alive and well. Some may call it old school, but we love getting mail, so we pass that simple joy onto our customers. Mailing out postcards or flyers gets your sale information physically in their hands. They can’t scroll past you and it makes it tangible. As much as I love marketing online, there’s still just nothing quite like having the information in my hand. So get a design put together, find a local print shop and get your information out there!

Email Marketing

It’s last on the list, but it should be your first priority! We have less than a month before sale season kicks off, which means that you might not see the fruits of your labor until next year, but don’t use that as a reason to put it off. I’ve talked about social media and physical mailing, but what if you could combine both concepts and use email to pop into your customers inbox? What if I said you could do this for free? Sounds pretty awesome, right? I’ve compiled a few strategies to help you grow your email list, which puts your ideal, invested customers in one private space (get it here). You can reach them directly by sending a personal email with all of your sale information. There are countless platforms out there that you can use, but I’m currently using MailerLite, which is a great free option for beginners (if you sign up with my link, we’ll both get a $20 credit to use when you’re ready to upgrade to a paid account).

I hope this helps you ease some stress when it comes to sale prep. Know that you’re not alone and that it’s never too late to make a big push on the marketing front. Social media, print advertising and email marketing are your friends, especially when you’re in a bind!