Sure beats advertising

[maple flats]

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a reporter for the Syracuse Post Standard, a large paper bases in Syracuse, NY. I am not sure but I think the reporter got my name because my listing in the maple weekend web site, a site of the NYS Maple Producers Assoc. She asked if I would mind if she asked me a few questions. From this I ended up getting my picture in the paper 2 different days, Saturday, March 15 with an article about maple syrup making and the various aspects of it. Then on Thursday, March 20, in a magazine section they call "Neighbors" I was the feature article, 3 pages of article and some pictures. The article was rather well written even thou there were a few errors. First, they said Maple Weekend was Saturday and Sunday but did not say which, so I covered the sugarhouse all day, ran the evaporator real slow to get my last 120 gal of sap to last the day, and had the best 1 day sales I have had ever with the exception of my best 2 out of 4 days in 2 weekends for Maple Weekend of 07. I had several new visitors who read the article and looked us up AND every visitor I had bought product. I have never had that in years past. I had committments for today and just put out a rack of post cards giving the correct date for the maple weekend and I have no idea if I missed any customers because of the Easter Holiday. I think next weekend, being thecorrect maple weekend will far exceed anything I have done traffic and sales wise. The 5 pages between to 2 days of newspaper articles was far better than any newspaper ad I could have bought and the price was all i could afford, FREE.
If any of you ever get a chance to talk with a reporter I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of it. Have a positive attitude and look to the bright side on all questions the ask and you will reap great rewards.

[gmcooper]

Maple flats,

congrats on the good press!
We do a number of interviews each year and they do make a difference. It does make a difference how you answer the questions. Being polite and keeping a positive spin on things helps for sure. You do have to be careful as sometimes they throw out a loaded question hoping you'll bite. We don't do anything to get them to call us but be polite and try to be promt when returning calls from them. You never quite know what they are going to print after the interview.
One reporter said they get calls from some people wanting to be intervied for stories. At least this guy did not have much use for that. Not sure what his coworkers think about that.

[skinny78]

My cousin works for the local newspaper here and she came out and wrote up an article on my maple syrup making. I got the privilege of editing the article before it went to press and it turned out great. I had people look me up in the phone book and call wanting syrup. I ran an ad in the classifieds and sold some syrup, but after the article ran in the paper I nearly sold out.

[maple flats]

Almost selling out IS A GOOD THING, especially at retail instead of bulk prices!!!
That is my goal each year, to be almost sold out as the evaporator sweetens the next season. This year I had 9 gal left but 8 of those were bulk grade B I didn't bulk out last year. This year it goes bulk.

[Russ]

Having some experience in marketing, a good proactive approach to getting the free press would be to send out a SHORT note (press release) to your local print and broadcast media outlets, telling them that it's maple season, the annual rite of spring, and you will be tapping/having an open house/boiling/whatever on such and such date. Give them contact info and reply promptly to any inquiries. Do not write the article for them, let them discover their own angle.

[ziggy]

Maple Flats, yes the reporter for the Syracuse Post Standard is because of Maple Weekend. Nice job with the article. FYI, we should have a good Maple Weekend the web site had almost a 1/2 million hits last week alone. This week it should do even better.

Good luck

[Brent]

Well Mr Flats, I took your lead and sent a message to our local paper (about 20 pages twice a week). Told them what we were doing and gave them our email address. Fifteen minutes later they responded. Want to come out and do a little article, take some pictures etc.

We'll see what this does. It may get more response than we planned on, but I sure would like to sell a bunch to help pay for all the new toys. I don't think our 7 gallons is going to go far.

The weather guessers better be right that spring is going to come on slowly.

[maple flats]

Brent, just don't bottle it in big containers. Have 2 or 3 sizes, maybe 250ml, 500ml and 1 liter the biggest. If you sell out take names and phone numbers for when you make more as the season progresses.

[maple flats]

I got more free press. My hometown paper, The Oneida Daily Dispatch ran a feature length front page article on me and my syrup operation, with a large picture and a smaller one. The article ran today and our maple weekend is Sat and Sunday. I hope I have enough product. I do have all of my tanks full, about 1500 gal and for an open house I start boiling about 90 min ahead of the start time and only boil at med fast firing rate (about 60 gph) so things are less likely to get away from me if I get to talking too much.

[IRDSDJD]

we always open our arms for the reporters cant beat the publisity channel 8 was at the sap house this year for a story we couldnt say no to that. mark you are right about the loaded questions we use a oil fired evaporator so the reporter asked me about 6 times if that was the reason we had a price increase on our syrup. told him over and over that it wasnt just that but also increases in gas jugs labor taxes ect in other words the cost of doing bussines is going up for every body. thankfully he didnt put that in the story seems like they look for a bad story so you have to watch what you say

[maple flats]

WOW, I now have a better best day ever. My previous best 1 day was last Saturday, 2 days after the 3 page feature article in the Syracuse Post Standard appeared, today I did more than double that. I was real crouded in the sugarhouse from 11-3 with the open house running from 10-4 officially. My first customers came about 9:45 and I never had any time all day where there was no one there until after 3:30 when I had a 10 minute break more or less before more people came. I saw many old customers and a whole slew of new ones from up to over an hour's drive away. I now only have med amber, sold out on light and dark, but have a good supply of med with about 14 more gal in the canner, a little heavy, that will be blended down to proper density and bottled tomorrow morning. I now have only about 350 gal of sap left and nothing ran today. I do have a friend going to collect some for me tomorrow mid day from my bush that did not get picked up yesterday but that is only about 150 gal and then he will pickup my other locations after they have only had about 3 hours of running tomorrow just to make sure i do not run out. I should be OK. I sure hope tomorrow is near as good as today, I do like selling retail rather than wholesale. Now I just have to let them know that med amber is the best grade for them.