Marketing Workshops for Local Food Businesses
You can boost sales and customer engagement this summer season! Register for these free virtual workshops specifically for local food vendors and farmers. If you sell directly to the public and community and want to learn how to better market yourself and connect with customers, then these are for you.
April 10 & 16 For the two social media workshops, taught by Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, MBA, of Beyond Engagement. Instagram will be the focus, as Instagram is getting more engagement from customers and growing at a faster user rate. Whereas Facebook is important, Instagram is where more and more customers are turning to engage with YOU. Beyond Engagement’s Website
April 29 Ashley Cavender will host a panel with area farmers market and farm retail entrepreneurs on designing and setting up a retail stand to draw in customers.
April 23 Creative Cat design firm will present a Branding & Design workshop for local food businesses, giving you the principles to understand the power of design and color theory to attract customers to YOU, and holding plenty of space for one on one advice on your logos and branding. We will also workshop a few logos. If you don’t yet have branding and want free advice, this session is for you. Creative Cat’s Website
These workshops are supported by funding from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service under an RFSP grant award.
Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez is a seasoned marketer, social media strategist, serial learner, speaker, and marketing educator living in the Tricities, TN. Specializing in helping individuals and their businesses build authentic connections with their social media to boost customer relations and create a strong, purposeful community online. She also deeply understands digital content, social media platforms, social listening practices, and digital marketing strategies, with over 10 years of experience in the world of social media. As a co-author of the book, “The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever,” she collaborated with over 35 fellow marketers to give you their combined top strategies for 2023 and beyond. he has been featured in multiple podcasts available on her website and has won several prestigious awards throughout her marketing career.
Ashley Cavender is passionate about engaging and educating people from diverse backgrounds to grow and consume local healthy foods. She has worked with 12 or more farmers markets in the region. Prior to joining the ARCD as the Program Director for nutrition and food access, Cavender was employed by Visit Johnson City as Director of Meet the Mountains Festival. Before that she served as the Volunteer and Development Coordinator for One Acre Cafe, a community cafe. Her passion for local food and farmers markets blossomed while attending ETSU where she became the ETSU Farmers Market manager. From there, she found her home in Jonesborough and served as the market manager for Jonesborough Locally Grown, and helped to open Boone Street Market.
Creative Cat is Dustin and Rebecca Nelson. Based in Johnson City, they specialize in graphic design, dynamic and eye-catching video and photography for churches, nonprofit organizations, and small businesses.
