Introduction
Holding a stall is a great way to engage with people face to face about your campaign issues. Stalls allow you to raise awareness of issues and can help you recruit supporters for your campaign and group.
To get the most out of your stall, it is worth putting some thought into planning it to ensure its effectiveness. Try these tips to get you started.
Tips
1. Decide your Aims and Message
Ask yourself:
- why are you doing the stall?
- What is the message you hope to get across about your campaign?
- Do you want to recruit supporters for your group, or get people to take action? It may be both of these.
Identify the main reason for your stall and focus on that.
2. Design an eye catching display
Take some time to think about how you want your stall to look. Maybe use display boards, posters, fliers, props and costumes.
Take things that focus on your campaign but make sure not to clutter your stall as this can overwhelm people. Have fun and be creative!
3. Resources
Think about what materials you might need for your stall – posters, leaflets, postcards or petitions, briefings, badges etc. You might also need a foldaway table and tablecloth, paperweights and lots of pens and clipboards.
You may want to create a postbox for people to post their signed postcards into or a signup sheet so that people can go on a mailing list.
It’s also worth taking a camera (digital preferably) so you can take photos of yourselves in action and for local media!
4. Location
Think about where you could hold your stall. Is there somewhere nearby that fits your theme?
If for example you are campaigning about cuts to a local service, perhaps you want to have a stall near the council buildings. It’s important that the stall is in an area where there will be lots of people, but not too many so that people won’t be able to access your stall.
So you could think about your high street for example. If you know of a festival or event taking place in your area, ask if you could have your stall there.
5. Choose the Right Time
Find a day that suits everyone and a time when the area will be busy. It might be worth thinking about having your stall on a specific day if it’s relevant, for example Human Rights Day in December or International Women’s Day in
March.
If you know of an event taking place in your area where you could hold your stall as part of counter protest, you might find that useful. This might also be a way to attract local media attention.
6. Recruit and Brief Volunteers
If you have people who are interested in helping out with your campaign, asking them to help with a stall is a good way for people to get more involved.
Think about pairing people up, so those who are not so confident talking to the
public are with more experienced people.
Draw up a rota to make sure that everyone shares responsibility for tasks. Make sure all volunteers have been briefed beforehand about the main aim of the stall.
7. Be Enthusiastic!
You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention so if you are positive and friendly you are more likely to encourage people to come to your stall. Once you have their attention you can tell them more about the campaign and ask them to take further action.
Try not to lecture or use acronyms when speaking to people and communicate in an open manner. Relax and enjoy talking to people about your campaign.
8. Be Approachable
Smile and try to keep your body language open. But don’t rely on people coming to you – give as many people clipboards/fliers possible so they can draw people to the stall by approaching people passing by at a distance.
Think about who you are talking to and change the way you communicate depending on who they are. It will help encourage people from diverse backgrounds to feel included and engage with you.
9. Follow Up
Thank everyone who helped with the stall. Tell them how successful the day was and ask if they have any ideas for improvement.
Keep a list of people who want to stay in touch with your campaign. Think about writing a short story about how the day went and send it along with photos to your local newspaper, share on social media and your website.
Access Resource
Setting Up a Street Stall (PDF)
Explore Further
- Conversation Tips for Stalls, Events & Door Knocking
- How to Run an Effective Stall, Global Justice Now and Campaign Against Arms Trade
- Grassroots Lobbying: Tabling, Citizens’ Climate Lobbying Australia
- Run a Stall, Friends of the Earth