Next weekend, downtown fills up for the 32nd Harvest Moon Festival, Sept. 11 through 13. Pottery, woodcraft, a food court, the kind of weekend that pulls people in from out of town before the leaves turn.
Here’s the pattern. A festival weekend brings foot traffic and out of town dollars whether or not you do anything about it. Most owners do nothing, then wonder why the weekend still felt like any other one.
The festival fills Whiteside Park, but most of that crowd parks blocks away in the neighborhoods around it. They’re not necessarily walking up Sheridan Street or down Chapman Street, and they’re not going to stumble onto an outfitter or a shop just outside downtown on their own either.
That’s exactly why this isn’t about foot traffic. It’s about the list you’ve been building these last few weeks. A specific offer gives someone an actual reason to make the trip to your door, whether that door is two blocks from the park or a few past downtown.
That’s doubly true this fall. A visitor deciding whether to come back after the closure needs a specific reason and a specific date, not just “we’re open.” The Harvest Moon weekend hands you both, already built and advertised by the festival itself.
The Chamber even does some of the work for you. Their own push, called Harvest Days, runs Thursday through Sunday and specifically points festival visitors toward local businesses like yours.
This week’s tip: write one offer, specific to that weekend. Send it by Tuesday, three days before the gates open.
Skip the straight discount. Don’t raise prices either, trying to make up for what the Blueberry Arts Festival cancellation cost you. People see right through that.
Buy one, get one. A free gift with any purchase over a set amount. Buy one, get the second half off.
People respond better to getting more than to paying less right now, with everything costing more than it used to.
Make your email subject line clear: “Thursday through Sunday, Harvest Days Specials.”
This one doesn’t get to sit on your desk like the others did. The festival is one week out from today.
Write the offer now. Get it in front of your list with enough runway that locals and past visitors both have it on the calendar, not buried in an inbox the morning the festival starts.
One email typically isn’t enough, in my experience. Send a short, personal one again Friday morning, no pitch this time. Something as simple as “Looking forward to seeing you this weekend” keeps the offer on their mind as the festival starts.
Next week: turning the goodwill sitting in your gift card drawer into money you can actually spend.
Richard Stuart builds websites and revenue systems for owner-operated businesses from his home in Ely. Have a question you’d like answered in a future column? Send it to [email protected]. If something’s quietly costing you customers, let’s talk: richardstuart.me.
