How to apply for Salad Days Market: Everything you need to know and our top tips for getting your brand noticed
When you come to write an application for a market, it can be overwhelming and daunting! It’s hard to know where to start, what to include, and how to get the attention of market organisers to give your brand the best chance of being chosen.
We’ve been running the market for 6 years now and so we’ve seen our fair share of market applications in those years. We’ve probably looked through 10,000 applications! We can get anywhere up to 1000 applications for each market we host, and so we definitely have some thoughts! If you’re thinking of applying to trade at Salad Days Market, or are wondering how to get into Salad Days Market (or any other market really!), then let us share our top tips.
How can I apply to Salad Days Market?
We take applications via our website only. We do not take applications via DM. We will announce dates we are booking via our newsletter so sign up there to be the first to hear! We will also list these on our Applications page. See which date suits you, and then drop us an application via the booking form on our Applications page. Any applications received when we are closed will unfortunately be disregarded.
I applied to Salad Days Market but didn’t hear back, what does that mean?
That unfortunately means we weren’t able to offer you a spot on this occasion. Next time you apply, review your application and check to see if you’ve included all the suggested information below! Tell us what’s different, what’s new, and why we should be excited about your brand next time around!
What kind of brands are you looking for?
We are looking for brands with beautiful handmade products, vintage products, and products that can be personalised or customised in some way. We are also specifically looking for brands who can offer live activations for example in-the-moment customisation of products and live portraits.
Our top tips for applying to Salad Days market:
Take your time on your application; double check the info is correct and all links work
The most common mistake we see! We see so many applications with the wrong social media accounts, wrong email addresses, wrong websites and links that don’t work. Not only does this look unprofessional it also means we can’t see more about your business. We usually disregard these applications straight away as we can’t see all the info we need. Take time on your application, double check all the information, all the links and all the information is correct.
Keep it succinct; make every word count and cut out the unnecessary stuff
Giant applications with tonnes of writing can be overwhelming and it’s likely that lots of what’s in there is irrelevant to your application and won’t have an effect on whether you get accepted to a market or not. Keep your application succinct, and cut out anything else. Also don’t copy and paste big paragraphs from your website; we can see that there! Use your application to share new information we can’t find anywhere else.
Highlight your biggest successes, sell your brand to us!
We are scanning your application for three things: to check your brand is relevant to our audience, to see if your products are new/different and will be an asset to the line-up, and to get an overall feel for whether we’re excited about what you’re doing and we think our audience will be excited too! Focus your application towards those things, and cut out anything else unnecessary. Focus on selling your brand; highlight any big press features you’ve had, your best-selling product and why customers love you!
Make sure your website and social media accounts are up-to-date
After reading an application, we’ll often check a brand’s social media accounts and websites to read further and see more, so make sure all of these channels are looking their best and are up-to-date before you send off your application. Each one should show off your brand to its best potential, with high resolution images of your products and information about what you offer.
If you’re a returning brand, share what’s new
We always want our customers to be excited, and so if we’re booking a returning brand we ideally want them to have something new or exclusive to bring with them! If you’re a returning brand, share what’s new and what new or exclusive products you’d bring with you this time. What’s different? What’s changed? Have you improved your table layout and visual merchandising, do you have a brand new product, can you now offer personalisation?
Share your passion and excitement
We want our markets to be the best, and full of the most gorgeous people and beautiful products! We love working with people who are passionate and excited about what they’re doing! So don’t be afraid to share your passion and excitement for what you’re doing in your application!
