Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Farmers Market Uses Google Maps Posts to Boost Saturday Sales
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this farmers market in Portland — the one on Hawthorne every Saturday, rain or shine. They've been running for about six years, but their Saturday foot traffic was plateauing. Last October, they decided to get serious about Google Maps posts. Luna: I've seen their stand — it's that long block between 30th and 32nd, right? Always a line for the mushroom guy. Lucas: Exactly. The mushroom guy is a draw. But the market manager told me their growth had flatlined at around 1,200 visitors per Saturday, which for a weekend-only business is a ceiling. They needed a way to remind people — not just once, but every week — that Saturday was coming. Luna: And Google Maps posts are the obvious tool for that, but most farmers markets I see just post a generic 'see you Saturday' photo and call it done. Lucas: Right. Generic is the enemy. What this market did was build a weekly cadence. Every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Pacific, they publish a 'what's new' post on Google Maps. Not a post about the market in general — a specific post about what's coming that Saturday. Luna: Thursday night, not Friday morning? That's interesting. Why Thursday? Lucas: Two reasons. One, they found that people plan their weekend errands on Thursday evenings — the data from their Google Posts insights showed higher engagement Thursday 8 to 10 p.m. than any other window. And two, if they posted Friday, the post only had about 18 hours before Saturday morning. Thursday gave them a full day and a half of visibility. Luna: So they're essentially leveraging the 'weekend planning' mindset. What did they put in those posts? Lucas: They rotated three themes. Week one of the month: seasonal produce — 'first strawberries of June, picked yesterday.' Week two: a vendor spotlight with a photo of the vendor's setup. Week three: a 'sneak peek' of something new, like the honey stand or the fresh pasta pop-up. Week four: a recap from last Saturday with a call to action — 'don't miss the tamale lady this week.' Luna: The recap thing is smart because it social-proofs the experience. People see a photo of a crowded market with happy shoppers and think, 'I want to be there.' Lucas: Exactly. And the numbers back it up. From October to June — so about eight months — their average Saturday visitors went from 1,200 to 1,610. That's a 34 percent increase year-over-year for Q2 2026. Luna: That's significant for a business that only operates one day a week. Did they change anything else? Ads? Flyers? Lucas: No. They kept everything else the same — same flyer distribution, same Instagram posting. The only variable was the Google Maps posts. They tracked it using UTM codes on their website link in the post, and they also asked new visitors a simple question: 'How did you hear about us?' About 22 percent said 'saw it on Google Maps.' Luna: Twenty-two percent is huge for a zero-cost channel. And that's probably undercounted because not everyone remembers where they saw something. Lucas: Right. The market manager told me that before they started the posts, Google Maps was essentially a passive listing. People found it when they searched 'Portland farmers market' but it wasn't driving repeat visits. The posts turned it into a marketing channel that reached people who already knew the market existed but needed a nudge. Luna: I think one of the hardest parts for a small business is consistency — actually committing to posting every single Thursday. Did they miss any weeks? Lucas: They missed two. One in January during a snowstorm, and one in March when the manager was sick. And both those Saturdays, traffic dipped noticeably — about 15 percent below the trend line. So the pattern held. Luna: That's the kind of data point that makes you take this seriously. It's not theoretical. Miss a post, lose visitors. Lucas: And it's not just about frequency. The content itself matters. They tested two photo styles — a single hero product shot versus a collage of four different items. The single product shot got 2x the click-through rate. Luna: That makes sense. A collage can feel cluttered on a mobile screen. One beautiful strawberry or one smiling vendor is more compelling. Lucas: Exactly. Simple, focused, and specific. That's the recipe. And I think this applies beyond farmers markets — any weekend-only business, any event-based business, could use the same Thursday-night cadence. Luna: You know, speaking of things that are worth a small investment, if this episode gave you a practical idea you might actually use, there's a way to support the show that's really straightforward. It's at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo.