8 secrets to a successful sale season marketing plan

As a seasoned sale catalog designer for seedstock producers nationwide, I (Emily, here) often witness marketing mishaps that jeopardize the consistency of marketing a business and attracting potential sale customers. Here are eight secrets you can put in your back pocket to assemble for an effective marketing plan in your next sale season:

1.    Hire a designer. All jokes set aside, really, step one is to hire a designer who understands the seedstock business, no one should have to translate what EPDs are to their designer. Take the time you usually spend pulling your hair out, designing a sale catalog (and marketing materials) you aren’t satisfied with, and multiply that by the number of hours you could put into talking with potential buyers. How much would your sale average increase? Comparing that to how much you would pay Emily here at Gen 6, a simple catalog design pays for itself pretty quickly. Don’t believe me? Click here to request your catalog design quote! 

2.    Know your brand colors. So your business’s color is red? Great! Did you know there are about 134 different shades of red? Gen 6 can help you collect and organize your colors so your shade of red will stand out from the rest.

3.     Invest in your company logo. Guess what piece of marketing has the highest return on investment (ROI)? Your business LOGO, because it should be placed on everything. If your logo is outdated, or if you’ve never even had a logo design, contact Emily, here at Gen 6 for a brand design consult. Sidenote - a logo isn’t a line of text, a logo should be well-designed by your designer with brand strategy and target audience in mind in the proper design software for versatile use. Make sure you have your logo stored as a vector/PDF file, not a JPG file. Yes, your printer and publications will thank us very soon.

4.     Assign your font pairings. Did you know font pairings are one of the single most important design aspects? So you don’t want to waste hours on end scrolling through endless fonts to decide you don’t know which ones to select? No problem, Emily has your back.

5.     Update your website. Your website should be the mothership of your marketing plan. Whatever you create or develop, all arrows should point back toward your website. Interested sale buyers should be directed to visit your website for more information about your upcoming sale offering. Need help with your website? No worries, we can talk about website design as soon as you are ready.

6.     Capture photos outside of the picture pen. Photos are key assets to any type of marketing material. Not just picture pen photos, but scenic and action shots can play a major role in effective marketing for your ads, catalog, and website needs.

7.     Book your livestock photographer. Booking your livestock photographer is the first step to taking charge and speed lining the sale catalog process. Because we all know, no one has time for weather delays!

8.     Allocate your advertising budget. How are you reaching new sale buyers? How are you marketing to your dedicated customer base? It never hurts to try something new. Click here to download my advertising spreadsheet made specifically for seedstock producers, to help provide a breakdown of how to identify the cost per impression in your marketing materials.