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100 Episodes in Review: Barn2Door's Favorite Podcasts Picks
276 Plays3 years ago
We're celebrating 100 Direct Farm Podcast Episodes! We sit down with the Barn2Door Farm Account Management team to revisit their favorite Direct Farm Podcast episodes and the tactics that successful Farms shared to increase sales and save time & money.
FAM Favorite Podcasts:
Favorite FAN Feature: Old Rich Valley Farm
How To Secure Sales Before the Busy Season
The Farming Student Has Become the Master w/ Chucktown Acres
A Farmer's Market(ing) Campaign to Grow Faster Online with Bennett Farms
barn2door.com/resources
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Direct Farm Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast, the go-to resource for farms across the US looking to grow and manage their business. Tune in weekly to hear tips and tactics from our most successful farmers on how to increase sales, access more customers, and save time and money. We'll also speak with industry experts, business leaders, and partners to share the latest farm business trends selling direct to market.
00:00:27
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rory,
Celebrating 100 Episodes with Rory and Farm Account Management Team
00:00:30
Speaker
your host for today's episode, the 100th episode of the Direct Farm Podcast. We've got a great conversation for you today with the members of our Farm Account Management, or FAM team. Our FAMs are dedicated to helping farmers implement tactics to help drive sales, access more customers, and save time and money.
00:00:48
Speaker
As this is our 100th episode of the Direct Farm podcast, we'll hear from the fans regarding their favorite podcast episodes, the tactics that came out of those episodes, and why these tactics have become their go-to best practices to share with farmers to aid in their success. First
Highlight: Old Rich Valley Farm's Subscription Model
00:01:03
Speaker
up, we have Kevin Songkran. Welcome, Kevin. Thanks, Roy. Glad to be here. Yeah, for sure. So what is the episode? What's the one you share the most with the farms that you work with? It's subscriptions by Old Rich Valley Farm.
00:01:17
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. Amy and Will with Old Ridge Valley. They're awesome. Great family out in Virginia. What are some of the ways that Amy and Will are using subscriptions that you think is really helpful and makes you want to share this with other farmers?
00:01:28
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. So they're doing quite a few things that are really making people's lives easier. And so a big part of what they do is provide convenience for customers. And so they allow them to choose how they pay, whether that's weekly, monthly, or pay in full at the beginning of the subscription. And
Benefits of Subscription Models for Farmers
00:01:42
Speaker
then they have, I believe they said six different delivery options to choose from as well as farm pickup. And in our world, convenience is king. It can be the make or break point for a sale.
00:01:50
Speaker
In addition, subscriptions are a way to help prevent having like a freezer full of meat that you hope people are going to buy. And instead, you know, from a farmer's market or another outlet for them, the majority of meat that they have stored in their freezers, it's already bought and paid for. And at the end of the day, one of the things I mentioned that I really liked is that education plays a big role in the subscription process. So they really take an opportunity to educate their buyers by sending out recipes and providing ways to cook the different cuts.
00:02:14
Speaker
or ground beef because a lot of cattle farmers and have a lot of extra ground beef, right? And so a lot of times with these subscriptions, buyers are getting more than they know what to do with. And so being able to educate them on how to use that or how to cook some of those off cuts that people aren't used to seeing, it really helps encourage the customers to use them and want them as opposed to just seeing it as like a wasted product. They also shared a couple of other things that maybe aren't necessarily ways that they're using subscriptions, but I thought were really interesting facts. They said a lot of people that joined their subscriptions were not existing customers.
00:02:44
Speaker
And they found that it was actually very appealing to an entirely new set of customer base that had a budget in mind and knew how much meat they wanted towards the end. They said that right now about half of their sales are through subscriptions and herd shares and a lot more new customers. So it really didn't take away from their existing customer base.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. And that's, I think something
Managing Inventory with Subscriptions
00:03:02
Speaker
to highlight there too is if that's half their sales, then half of their sales are guaranteed income month over month, which is huge. That goes a really long way, especially in farming. And I think something else that you pointed out that I really liked there was when you're doing proteins, it's hard to avoid the freezer space problem. But at least knowing that all that is already spoken for and having that sitting there, you don't have to necessarily be worried about making sure that you're selling that at markets, calling people up and seeing if they need more beef that
00:03:27
Speaker
All that ground beef that maybe you're worried about getting through is already spoken for with those subscriptions and you can make sure you're moving it through the door. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. You work with a lot of farms. Why are subscriptions so helpful to farmers using Barnador? While also, as we kind of already have touched on, so convenient for the customers. Yeah, sure. So really like at the end of the day, subscriptions are a game changer for both farmers and customers. Farmers can use it to plan for the future, especially when they're processing meat, it's helpful to be able to plan and know
00:03:55
Speaker
what they need to process and how much they've already sold. But then for them, they also know that they've guaranteed sales coming in and they know what product they'll be moving. The best part is knowing exactly how much money they're going to be making for subscriptions as you highlighted earlier. From the customer standpoint, they're going to have meat for the next year without having to worry about the costs, right? Depending on how the farmer sets up the subscription, customers have the option to pay it all upfront, recurring, but regardless, they can enter their payment info once. They don't have to worry about it again for the length of the subscription. If a customer wants a half a beef, but they don't have the freezer space, which a lot of us don't have,
00:04:25
Speaker
a chest freezer or a walk-in freezer, or they don't have the cash flow to get a half beef, they can purchase that through the subscription and get that over the course of the year and pick it up and pay monthly. Yeah. So it just makes it really convenient for customers.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, those payment options are huge. And I know being able to, as you said, whole beef or a half beef, that's a big investment for folks. And so being able to space out those payments is really great for the consumer. And a lot of times as a farmer, you might have kind of ups and downs of the seasons where you're busier and things are quieter. So knowing that money will be spread out across all those seasons, it goes a really long ways to not having like big feast or famine. Great point. Great point, right?
00:05:03
Speaker
So Kevin, Barnador recently just released ongoing subscriptions and I'm really glad that you chose this podcast as the one that I wanted to share about because this is a new feature with Barnador. We're really excited about it. I know a lot of farms have been waiting for it. Have you been working with farms to implement this feature?
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, I have. And it's a relatively simple process. And ongoing
Barnador's New Subscription Feature
00:05:21
Speaker
subs are what most of us expect as customers, right, Rory? Like you think about a lot of the subscriptions we have, they're essentially ongoing, Spotify, Netflix, maybe a gym membership. Many of them that we have, we sign up once, we get our product or our service every single day, week or month, and we never have to worry about it again. And so it's really kind of the expectation of the world. And so the fact that we now have that for farmers and for their products, it's just going to make everybody's life a lot easier.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's really awesome and great to hear that you're already working on it with farms to implement it. I know it's still really early in the process, but have you seen any results from that or what have some of the results been with farms? Yeah, I think the biggest result we're seeing right now, Rory, is just a general excitement from farmers that they don't have to worry about signing people back up for subscriptions when they end. You know, at the end of the day, it's just saving them time and a headache of worrying about that. People are excited and it's great. I think we'll see more feedback come in as they implement it more and more, but right now people are happy with them.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's great to hear. Awesome. We're excited to keep hearing how that goes. Well, Kevin, typically when farmers think of a subscription, I think Amy and Will even say this in the podcast, like the first thing that comes to mind is a CSA and they're like, oh, this is something that's built for produce farmers who are doing a CSA and giving people produce every week. But this feature, as Amy and Will point out can be really great for protein producers. Cause you made me talk about that and how you've seen protein farms use this subscription feature as well.
00:06:41
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. I mean, ultimately their subscriptions are great for moving whole animals and for different cuts that people aren't normally drawn to. At the end of the day, most customers, they just want steaks and they want the nicest steak cuts, but with the subscriptions and the way you can set them up with the bundle boxes or herd shares or doing a subscription for a half beef, essentially just allowing as a farmer, you're able to move the whole animal. You don't have to worry about getting backed up on too much of one item. Like we mentioned earlier, crown beef is something that
00:07:06
Speaker
A lot of farms, they just end up storing in their freezer for months and months. And so that's a worry taken off the plate. So yeah, they put it really well throughout the podcast about beneficial. It can be for all types of farms, regardless of the products that they're selling. Yeah, definitely. Cool. So then kind of continuing on that, how does this, the structure of a meat share or a hard share subscription, how does it play into helping farmers consistently move more of those products and gain that recurring revenue too?
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, so what it allows them to do is it allows the consumer to sign up for a half beef share and they have that half beef divided up over 12 months or whatever they subscribe to. Ultimately, it helps the farmers plan production because farmers know how many sales they already have accounted for and if they sold out and if they have the capability to produce more, then they can start to maximize their farm's true potential, right? Best of all, like these herd share options, these meat share subscriptions, they really just help the farmer move the whole animal, not just the high value cuts like stakes that many customers want or think they want.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And I think that ties back to like what you were saying about education and kind of teaching people, there's a lot of really great cuts on a cow. Absolutely, man. And that was what I loved about this podcast, where it was the way they started, that was essentially a theme throughout the podcast. And they started by talking about how education is so important, even not related to subscription, just them as farmers and how much of a learning process everything is and how they like to share that knowledge. And
00:08:26
Speaker
You know, at the end of the day, like the mistakes aren't mistakes because they're learning from them and they're making themselves better. And that education goes both ways, I think. And they made a strong point to emphasize that throughout the podcast. Yeah. No, Amy and Will are always really big on telling people, hopefully you can learn from the mistakes we made. Hopefully we can learn from the mistakes you might've made and everybody can keep rolling the ball forward together. They're a big reason why this community is such an awesome community, right? People like that. Definitely.
00:08:51
Speaker
I was going to say too, with what you were saying about holes and halves, right now with processing being what it is, subscriptions are a game changer for that. And being able to know and plan ahead of, I'm going to need X many animals to process to fulfill this many subscriptions. That just makes planning processing so much easier. And I know I think Will touches on that in the podcast as well.
00:09:11
Speaker
a hundred percent. And what he touched on, I was actually just talking to a farmer earlier today about this concept. Like his farm and a lot of farms have the capability to produce a lot more than what they produce. Like that is there if the demand is there. And so they can only plan that out when they know those sales are guaranteed to come in and subscriptions help them get to that point. Yeah, definitely. Awesome. Well, Kevin, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah. Thank you, bro. I appreciate it.
00:09:34
Speaker
Next up, we have Matt Greenham. Welcome, Matt. Welcome on to the podcast. Hey, Rory. Thanks very much. Yeah. So what episode did you choose as the episode that you tend to share the most with farms or that you find really helpful for farmers? Yeah. Thanks, Rory. I chose a podcast that I share out a lot and I personally enjoy. There's so much to learn from it. And that is how to secure sales before the busy season with Joe from Dirty Gold Produce down in California.
Pre-Orders: A Strategy for Financial Planning
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah, Joe's awesome. So obviously, yeah, that one is very focused on pre-orders. What could be some of the highlights that you could share with people about how Joe utilizes pre-orders?
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Look, I think Joe has done such a good job over the years. He's obviously been with Barnadore for quite some time and the growth of his business has just been staggering. I think one of the things that Joe has really leveraged with his produce is to really take advantage of pre-orders in the pre-season, right? So he has, you know, obviously when it comes to produce and even if we use the example of
00:10:35
Speaker
protein farms as well where you might have a fair bit of time between processing dates. There's a huge opportunity to set up pre-orders which is very easy to do in your store and Joe has worked on that and mastered it to great effect in particular with the way that he uses subscriptions to get people excited well before the producers even grown or picked.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And that's a great point too about protein farms, like with a CSA or with produce that you're going, it makes a lot of sense that you can't always do those products unless you're doing it through a greenhouse. Yeah. You don't always have those products year round. So pre-sale makes a lot of sense, but processing dates can hold people up too. So being able to have more of that money upfront, which kind of leads into the next question, but what is the benefit of doing pre-orders? Cause I know I'm sure you kind of run into sometimes farmers that are maybe a little timid about doing pre-orders. And so what are the benefits for farmers and for their customers with doing pre-orders?
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, they really are quite powerful and, you know, underused in many ways. I try and bring it up with all my farmers because, yeah, there's just in any business, especially in smaller businesses, there's downtime and so pre-order is just an advantage of that. The advantage for farms is that it allows the opportunity for that recurring income.
00:11:42
Speaker
It allows for produce farmers, for example, to secure income in the off-season, so during the winter and the spring, and secure that revenue, like I said earlier, before anything's even been picked. So the advantage for the customer is food security. The consumers now, we've noticed, are really focused on food security and making sure that they've got that food for
00:12:05
Speaker
You know set up for their family and this is a huge opportunity for farms to provide that service now more than ever Consumers are really looking to lock in their food planning for the year. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that's super nice It's a guarantee for the customer Obviously super great for the farmer to to be able to have that money kind of upfront. I was curious I'm sure like
00:12:25
Speaker
If I put on the farmer hat or I'm playing devil's advocate here, I'm sure there's a little bit of resistance around like the farmer being nervous. Well, what if we don't get much rain this year and those crops that I've already sold don't grow very well? Or what if some disease hits and I lose crops or I lose an animal that I was depending on? So what is kind of your response to that when farms are maybe bringing up those points?
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, sure. I think, you know, especially if you're doing it for the first time, you just want to try it out. So you don't want to overextend yourself. So for example, you might set up some subscriptions and this could you could do this for a protein farmer where they've got, say, in the next processing date isn't for three or four months. And of course, the produce farmers for the next season, but you don't have to overextend yourself. You could simply set up a few subscriptions.
00:13:11
Speaker
and just, you know, have a variety there and start selling them, but just limit the numbers initially so that you can at least protect yourself if things don't work out. And look, the other thing, of course, is that consumers are understanding as well. So if the worst thing happens, you can certainly get in touch with them and make arrangements based on what you do have when the season comes around. But I think just starting out, just starting it and just getting confident with it is really a great step in the right direction.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, it definitely starts small. I mean, I think Joe mentions in that podcast too that I think he started just doing tomatoes. And so, yeah, it's kind of a great way to do that. And now he's doing strawberries and he has so many subscriptions in his store and the vast majority of them he's doing in the pre-season and it's just...
00:13:53
Speaker
You know, Joe talks about how during that time he relies on a line of credit from the bank, right? To get him through. And now he's finding he's not so dependent on that because he's just got people year after year that just want to lock in those subscriptions. And again, it's well before the product's been picked. So for Joe, I think it's, it's just great to be out there picking, knowing that when the season comes around to know that, yeah, basically what you're picking is more or less being sold. So yeah, it's a good feeling.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. And I think too with dealing with customers, if something does go wrong, I feel like the worry with the stores that you go there and shelves are just empty. You don't know why you can't talk to anybody about that. It's just empty. But if you have your farmer, you know, you can explain that you can even do that through your social media, your email marketing and kind of walk people through like, Hey, we had a crop failure this year. This is what we're going to do about it.
00:14:40
Speaker
This is how we're going to compensate you or make up for it or push things back, move things around. So I think customers really actually appreciate being able to talk to their farmers through those types of things. A hundred percent. And that's the other thing. I mean, that you can even turn that into a positive situation because, you know, most consumers and they'll want to support your farm.
00:14:56
Speaker
Right? So whatever the situation is, let's just say you can't fulfill the subscription for the length of time that you'd initially set up in your store. You know, you just do what you can. And we've seen this before, you know, these things happen, right? Like weather's volatile, there's drought, there's floods, all sorts of things going on. But yeah, your consumers are really understanding and you'll find in those situations, they'll want to support you as best as they can.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah and we've kind of touched on this too and you mentioned like Joe being able to be picking products knowing that they've already been claimed or that they're spoken for. I know he also kind of uses it to help bankroll production. Could you maybe talk about how that is an added bonus of doing these pre-orders? Yeah absolutely and Joe is a great example of this and that's why you know one of the reasons why I find this particular podcast so powerful because his message is really when it comes to harvesting and there's labor costs and there's you know there's so many costs to consider around that time
00:15:44
Speaker
And he's already got the cashflow months and months before, before he's even out there. So it just allows him financially to have better planning and organization when it comes time to ramp up and, you know, whether it's paying the staff for deliveries and the picking and the, you know, standing at the farmer's market stalls. Yeah. So he works out to great advantage and it's, you know, it's just more money in your pocket so that things run more smoothly when, you know, when the selling season comes around.
00:16:10
Speaker
Cool. So Matt, do you work with a lot of farms that are currently doing pre-orders for their products? I do. Yes. And so what are some of the examples maybe that I know we've talked about kind of broadly like proteins or CSAs, but what are some of the other specifics that are really working well for people?
00:16:23
Speaker
I really like to focus on pre-orders and one thing that I really enjoy about them is helping farms set it up and them watching them succeed because often they're very surprised to see how effective they are. If I may give you an example, so I was working with a farmer down in Texas and it's just getting processing dates in his particular areas was absolutely terrible and he had two or three secured for the year and his next one wasn't coming up for three or four months.
00:16:48
Speaker
But he had quite a lot going in, so there was enough product there to set up some subscriptions, some six month monthly subscriptions. And so
Success Stories: Pre-Orders in Action
00:16:55
Speaker
we went ahead and did that. And for him, it didn't even make sense. It's like, why would someone pay all this money up front for something they're not going to get for three or four months? So there's really two parts to that. The first part is getting everything set up in the store, getting the timing right.
00:17:09
Speaker
The second part is getting the message out, right? And literally within a month of setting this up, he had sold out of most of that product that was going to come. So pretty much everything that he was taking into the processor in four months time was sold out in subscriptions. Wow, that's awesome. That's great to hear. Yeah, it definitely makes kind of balancing the hassle of processing a lot easier.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, and I think the point is there, it's just what we were talking about before, Rory, and it's just how consumers want to have that food security now because it is difficult times. And when people go into grocery stores and see empty shelves, that can be a really scary thing. And the best part is that the farmers are producing a much better product. It's a premium product and people are willing to pay a little bit more for that. And so they should.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And then as anything goes, especially like you and your team with success, I'm sure there's a lot of different ways implementation can go with a lot of these different strategies. So what are some of the challenges? What are some of the maybe successes that kind of come up when you're going through this process of implementing pre-orders?
00:18:07
Speaker
The way I look at it, I think there's two challenges. The first is you got to get the timing right. You know, you need a fair bit of time to market and, you know, get people used to the idea that this is what you're doing. And also in your marketing, whether that be on social media and certainly through your Mailchimp newsletters, you want to be emphasizing the advantages and the benefits of people purchasing in this way. So you need a fair bit of time to do that. So that's the first challenge is you want to be able to set this up a few months in advance.
00:18:34
Speaker
The other challenge is making sure that you have enough people to communicate with, right? And this is why we always stress and we're always talking about how important email addresses are, right? Like, I say to a lot of farms, I think of every email address you get, it's like a gold nugget. It's so important. And, you know, one email address could be a customer and continued revenue for years and years to come.
00:18:55
Speaker
So I guess that's the second challenge, especially if you're fairly new with Bunderdorn, you don't have a big email list. It just emphasizes the importance of growing your email list because when it comes to pre-ordering, you want to go out to as many people as possible. Yeah. Yeah. It's a tactic that you see across so many other industries. Like there's not many companies that are making product without the guarantee of that cashflow coming in.
00:19:17
Speaker
Absolutely and you know I think the model works so effectively if implemented properly for our farmers and just getting that consistent revenue throughout the year is just super exciting and it helps you to make the most of your subscription with Underdoor as well. Yeah and I know Tom Bennett's another farmer we have on a lot of the podcast and he always talks about too because he does subscriptions and he does protein subscriptions and that's kind of his way of
00:19:40
Speaker
He does a lot of markets in the summertime, but those markets close. And then he's like, before subscriptions, it was kind of feast or famine in terms of his income. And so being able to do pre-orders is a similar setup where you don't have to go those months without any way of getting your products out to people. You can still have some income. Yeah, you can fill in the gaps. Absolutely. You're not just relying on one market source for your income. Yeah. Well, so Matt, you've been a farm account manager here for a while. What is your favorite part about getting to work with farmers?
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah thanks Roy. You know I think for me I grew up in rural parts of Australia and it's interesting I think the plight of farmers there is similar to how it is here you know there's lots of weather challenges Australia well known for its droughts and floods and fires and you know it's not easy being a farmer. I think it takes a lot of courage to do it and so I think I grew up with that and I think I just really enjoy being in a position to help farms
00:20:34
Speaker
expand the way that they can do business, right? And I think that's, for me, that's what's so exciting about e-commerce and having an online store because it just provides you with so many different ways and so many opportunities to be creative in communicating with your customers and growing your customer list and in ways that you can't do without that kind of presence. And so, you know, there's a lot to take on when a farm joins Barn to Door,
00:20:57
Speaker
I always find that once people get into a routine, which is what, as account managers, we really work to get our farms to do, is just getting the routine of just focusing on all channels, keeping the messaging out there on Facebook, consistently sending out newsletters. It's all about keeping your product, keeping your store top of mind. And this is ultimately the challenge of all businesses, right?
00:21:19
Speaker
You know, as consumers, all of us, we're walking around and we've just got so much stimulation. There's so much going on and we're being hit from all angles with people trying to sell our stuff, but it's no different for farms and we all have to do that. So I guess to answer your question there, Rory, I just enjoy guiding people through that journey and then seeing their reaction when they start to get success. And it's like, oh wow, this actually really does work. And I think this particular podcast is great encouragement along those lines because
00:21:45
Speaker
Joe went through a lot of those growing pains, right? In fact, Joe says in the podcast, and I think it's such a powerful message that, you know, when he started out with Brian Deutsch, he's like, I was just a farmer. I didn't really know a lot about e-commerce or having an online store, marketing and, you know, consumer behavior. But he really leaned in and even now he says it doesn't necessarily come naturally, but he puts a lot of time into it and he follows the script and it works for him. And he is really very, very creative with that. And he's seeing the benefits.
00:22:12
Speaker
It really excites us to see farms succeed with the platform. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, Joe's great. I always love talking with Joe and having him on the podcast because he always is very honest about that, that it doesn't come natural. It's definitely not his forte or something he'd prefer to do. He always just wants to be out farming, but you know, it's kind of an essential part of the business. So he finds a way, he makes it work and he's doing really well with it.
00:22:34
Speaker
He does. Yeah. And I think it's like, you know, like all of us, we tend to resist things that create friction or things that we don't really want to do. Well, you know, it's sort of like you're out there and you're in the sun, you got things to do, you got deadlines, all this sort of stuff. But finding the time for this, and it doesn't even need to be a huge amount of time, but finding the time to, you know, work on emails, work on communicating with customers. It really, really pays dividends because at the end of the day, it just justifies all the work you're doing. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Matt, thanks so much for joining us.
00:23:01
Speaker
It's my pleasure. Awesome. Next up, we have Josh Smook. Welcome, Josh. To start out, could you tell us a little bit about what your role is at Barnadore as a fam?
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. One thing that we as fans get the opportunity to do is really connect with the people, the farms, and help them support their business. So as fans, it's twofold. One part being helping farmers leverage Barnador to manage their customer relationships and make sure that they're up to date on platform features and capabilities. Second part of that
00:23:35
Speaker
is helping them with their marketing. And I think that's probably the most fun part really, making sure that their email marketing platform is all set up the way it should be through MailChimp and making sure that their social media is really optimized. Awesome. Yeah, it's good. It definitely is like both those sides of it. What are some of the common areas that you like really focus on when you're meeting with farms? What are the things that are oftentimes the first priorities?
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah, myself personally, I really like to focus on like the power of their community. No pun intended, but really planting the seed for their business throughout that community and leveraging marketing to do that. And also like the old fashioned going out to markets, going out to different places to actually shake some hands.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think that's a really cool emphasis because I think a lot of times something I hear from you guys on the success team a lot is that farms come in and they're really looking to target a huge area of perhaps their whole state or even sell out of state. And for some farms, that does make sense. But a lot of times there's a lot more buyers than they maybe think right in their communities. They just need to tap into that more. So that's really cool that you guys really focus in on that. And that's always a priority for you.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So we're kind of going through the episodes here as this is the 100th episode of the direct farm podcast. So what is an episode that you find most helpful that you like to share with farms? If they're maybe starting up and just having a first couple meetings with you, what's like your go to episode that you share with farms?
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think in my opinion, one of the most powerful ones that I like to share with farmers is one by Chuck Town Acres.
Leveraging Social Media for Farm Marketing
00:25:12
Speaker
The farming student has become the master. Great title too, right? Yeah. Awesome. Well, so what's kind of the reasoning behind that? What are some of the topics that are covered in this podcast that you find are really applicable to other farms?
00:25:24
Speaker
It's hard to choose just like a couple, but Alex really honed in on the need of the use of social media. But he touched on like the learning curve of a bar into door. I think that's something that's really important for folks to know, especially starting up their business. It can be a grind and it can be a lot of work, but a lot of that work that you put into it will come out and be really beautiful in the end.
00:25:45
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I like the word learning curve. That's a great way of putting it just because it takes a little bit of investment and figuring some things out at the start, but you start to get it down. You take the training wheels off and then you're going. Yeah, absolutely. And like, that's one of the most rewarding things too is like when you almost take off those training wheels or when the farmers take off those training wheels and like they have all this power inside of them the entire time and they're able to do it. It's great.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Really cool. Well, so Josh, what do you like most about Alex's approach to social media? Is there anything that really like stands out about from that episode that you were like, Oh, that's the money talking point right there. Even when you share that to people, are you like, this is the part to really hone in on.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yeah, again, it comes into like so many different great things are like covered in the podcast. I like how Alex really honed in on the need of the use of social media with utilizing your community. One thing is midway through, he mentions like just doing it, right? Like just getting out there and doing it, no matter like how uncomfortable it could seem. Like one really great quote that I had like from the podcast is, when you're a new business, people are going to forget that you exist.
00:26:55
Speaker
you have to remind them that you exist. And I don't think that there's anything more powerful than that there.
00:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's so true. I mean, I feel like especially in the world of social media, I feel like every year you hear some statistic about how people's attention spans are getting shorter. And it's like you just have to keep on it. And I feel like that's probably a lesson that you would apply to a lot of different things or a lot of different elements of running a business is just stay at it, keep doing it. Would you say that's true? Or what are some of those other areas that you kind of are usually encouraging people like just keep it up, keep it going. I feel like email marketing is one that comes to mind for me, but
00:27:31
Speaker
Oh yeah, definitely email marketing kind of going back to the community side of things. I mean, getting involved in your local community, getting involved in local schools as school starts to ramp up. One thing that I've been trying to, uh, push people towards is doing like farm tours for students. And a lot of other farms have had really great success in doing that. And again, that kind of plants the seed for the next generation to get them more interested in farming and some really great products.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. That's really cool. Awesome. Well, thanks, Josh. Thanks for doing this. And thanks for coming on the podcast. Yeah, Rory. Thanks for having me.
00:28:07
Speaker
And last but certainly not least, we have Richard Weisberg. Welcome, Richard. Hey, thanks, Rory. I'm always happy to be here. Yeah. So, uh, your favorite episode, what's the one that you kind of go to the most and share with farms the most? Oh, okay. Easily would be a farmer's marketing campaign to growing faster online.
Boosting Online Sales through Farmer's Markets
00:28:24
Speaker
Tom Bennett's just got nugget of wisdom after nugget of wisdom and there's something for everybody there.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a little biased. I got to record this with Tom, but, uh, this is definitely one of my favorites for anybody that's doing markets or even just events and the ways to get all those customers who might be one time spotty buyers really locked into your online store and subscriptions and things like that. But as I kind of just, I guess, introduced there, this podcast covers a lot. So what are some of the key things that Tom shares in this episode that you really like to share with farms and help them implement as part of their business?
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You know, a lot of farms, when they get to the account management side of things and they get online, they kind of just hope maybe that customers start falling from the trees and are popping out of the woodworks. But unfortunately, reality doesn't always work like that. So Tom does a great job in this podcast outlining different ways that he's been able to leverage in-person communication, in-person sales, especially at the markets, to growing his online business, saving him time in the long run, increasing his sales, and just having access to more customers.
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's definitely a common thing. And I think Tom has even said that before too. He remembers turning on his online store and being like, oh man, are we going to even have enough supplies and things for tomorrow when all this is selling out like crazy? And he's like, that's not really how it works. You definitely have to work to get those customers kind of moved into your marketing and such. So Richard, for a farm whose business is maybe largely focused around farmer's markets, why is shifting customers to online, why is that an important thing to do?
00:29:55
Speaker
oh man i mean there's there's lots of different reasons so i'll just touch on kind of the first ones that come to mind but one keep in mind when people are going to the farmers markets they've usually withdrawn a set amount of money that they're going to sprinkle across the market so you know they might withdraw a hundred dollars and then spread that across five or six vendors
00:30:13
Speaker
Being online can allow you to increase the average sale that you have at the market just by opening up pickup. You've guaranteed sales even if it's just for a handful of customers, but they're more likely to spend more on your web store and on your products online than they are in person, especially at the market.
00:30:30
Speaker
That's definitely a great incentive to increase your sales there, but keep in mind, was it 1% of Americans can regularly attend a farmer's market? It's a great place to at least have an introduction, a handshake, some eye contact, but the likelihood of that person going back to the market week over week and creating regular sales for you there is...
00:30:51
Speaker
Slim to none and so being online makes it easy for them to purchase when it's convenient for them I think Tom mentions that a ton of his orders come between 10 p.m. And midnight as people are lying in bed thinking about what to have for dinner the next day They can't do that by going to the market. So online. There's just a huge convenience lever for your customers and for your business and
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, and you kind of touched on the pre-orders there too because you made me talk about like how you've worked with farms And like what that does because I know farmer's markets are always tough It's always kind of hard to know what inventory to bring and what to prioritize. So like what's been your experience there with farms? Yeah, you're hitting on a great Point of conversation as well because you know You only have so much space in your truck or the coolers you bring out to the market so
00:31:37
Speaker
For increasing sales, you can allow your customers to see more product that you have available online, and especially if they need to reserve some product or you have really hot sellers. Tom makes an allusion to someone who, I think, purchased 13 pounds of smoked pork chops, I think. If that customer just showed up out of the blue and was able to even get 13 pounds of smoked pork chops, for example, there would be none left for the rest of their customers.
00:32:05
Speaker
So being online allows your customers to really make sure that if they have some particular items they want, they can secure those, meet you at the market in a convenient place that they've had a relationship with you in the past. Yeah. And I think it's also a great way to kind of build a relationship, but also kind of build a little bit of exclusivity around it. Certainly.
00:32:24
Speaker
If you have that relationship with a customer and they know they can go on your online store and pre-order bacon and make sure that they get their bacon when they come to your stand, and maybe even they show up and you're like, oh yeah, I'll grab it from the back, you know, kind of make them feel like they're special and they got special products on hold for you. That goes a long way for customers, I think.
00:32:41
Speaker
Absolutely. And to that point as well, I have yet to meet a farmer that feels good when a customer wants a product that they no longer have available at the market. It's so much more convenient for the customer just to be like, hey, please reserve your products. We have it available, but maybe we sold out of the market and we didn't bring it this week. So to guarantee you're going to get your product, purchase it online and we'll see you here next week.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. That's a great move. And then also, like, I think something that I think I've heard you speak to before as well is that being a point to get people onto the online store, like that being a differentiator and maybe like a selling point for a customer that maybe they're really into the market experience. Yeah. But could you maybe speak to that as well and how having the online store and more options there could be a selling point?
00:33:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's not uncommon. I know in my own experience of shopping at farmer's markets, I'm having a good time. You know, I'll ask them if they have certain items available. Having a wider range of products online can help you drive traffic online just by saying, here's a flyer or here's a brochure. Here's how you can access our web store. You can see all of the products we have available or what we have available for this season.
00:33:48
Speaker
And so pushing folks online can certainly help with customer loyalty. You're serving them better. You're offering them more product availability than what you can typically bring to just the market. Definitely. And you touched on something there with flyers, and I know that's one way people kind of do what this next question kind of leads into, but this podcast and a lot of other podcasts really emphasize the importance of email collection. Why is that something that's important, especially if you're in a market setting trying to get people transitioned online?
00:34:18
Speaker
Yeah, great question. Email collection is something I focus a lot on with the farms that I work with. Farms that send out regular email communication, you know, three to four email touches a month on average, have about 30% more in monthly sales than farms that don't have that email communication.
00:34:34
Speaker
It works, and it works really, really well. It keeps your farm top of mind. Your customers are always aware of what's going on, even if it's just a monthly newsletter. And the last thing that farmers want to do is spam customers and be a nuisance and drive folks away. But folks
Engaging Customers with Regular Updates
00:34:49
Speaker
that subscribe to your newsletters, especially at the market, are doing so to stay in the loop. They want to know what's going on. They want to know what products are available. And they're eager to hear from these farms.
00:34:58
Speaker
Now, with some of the heatwaves we've been seeing across the country as well, you know, even markets that are in season for the summer are subject to sudden closures, right? And so having an email list, having email communication away the market to these customers, saying, hey, sorry, even though the market was closed down due a heatwave, you know, we're still running deliveries, or you can still meet us for pickup on this day. Yeah, definitely.
00:35:22
Speaker
So Richard, I know a lot of farms that sign up with Barnador, they might already be doing farmer's markets or maybe they're thinking about getting into those. And then over time, it's not uncommon to see farms start paring down their market attendance and either attending less markets or going to no markets. And they do that because their online sales have kind of either surpassed or are kind of taking the place of those markets. Why is that preferred by farms?
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. That mainly just comes down to time savings. Market sales are great, and some markets are of course better than others, but it always stings a little bit when you've got to pack the coolers back up, load up the truck, and you've got full coolers coming back to the farm.
00:36:04
Speaker
And so a lot of farms have been transitioning away from farmers markets once they have a really strong email list and their time is better spent elsewhere. They could turn a 4-hour market day with questionable or inconsistent sales into a 4-hour delivery day where they're running 30-40 deliveries.
00:36:24
Speaker
with guaranteed sales, guaranteed product that they're moving, and so it's just a better use for their time. And even Amazon charges for delivery fees and so they're making that time productive and increasing their margins as a result.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah. That's huge. I mean, if you have an employees, for example, you can have an employee sit at the market for five or six hours and then maybe they'll sell a lot and maybe it'll go really well, but that's not guaranteed. Whereas if you have the delivery fee covering those drivers wages, then you know that the labor cut part is already covered and then everything that else is just profit for you. So that's really great.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah. Bingo. You're touching on a really good point where, you know, if they do have employees at the markets and maybe they're going to multiple markets in a week, in a perfect world, say they flip those all to deliveries, not only can the delivery fees can pay for the wages, like you said, but the farm can turn profit. And so it's just kind of turning the whole profit opportunities on its head. Yeah.
00:37:16
Speaker
And another thing, too, is weekends. A lot of markets are centered around the weekends and deliveries you can kind of do on your own schedule. Have you worked with any farms that have kind of made that switch and kind of regained their weekends, at least maybe a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. I remember one farm that I worked with, it was, gosh, I mean, it was really profound what they said.
00:37:35
Speaker
They
Transitioning to Online Sales for Better Work-Life Balance
00:37:36
Speaker
ended up saving enough time by going online, doing more deliveries and streamlining their ordering system where for the first time in years, the farmer had at least one day a week that they could have dinner with their family. And it was a game changer for their family dynamic, their own sanity. And so having more control over their schedule and not being so reliant on farmer's markets and the weather in some cases, peace of mind and time for the farmers, huge. Especially in an industry where they don't have a lot of both.
00:38:04
Speaker
Seriously, that's really awesome to hear. Well, awesome. Thanks so much, Richard. Definitely, we want people to check this out. As a final question, Richard, what's your favorite part about working with farmers? Yeah, pretty easy question for me. I'm pretty talkative. Favorite part about working with farmers is just having relationships and the person to person aspect of it.
00:38:25
Speaker
I think it's a privilege to be able to chat with people and help them be successful, especially in this relatively underserved industry. And I would say an overwhelming majority of the folks I work with have been terrific. So I'd say the farmers make it the best part. That's great. That's great to hear. Richard, thanks so much. Definitely make sure to check out the episode, a farmer's marketing campaign to grow faster online. That one's with Tom Bennett. Perfect. Thank you, Rory. Thanks, Richard.
00:38:51
Speaker
I want to extend my thanks to Josh, Kevin, Matt, and Richard for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Here at Barnador, we're humbled to support thousands of farms across the country who implement sustainable agricultural practices and support their local communities. We're honored to get the opportunity to learn from our most successful farmers who share the tactics, resources, and tools they use to grow and manage their farm businesses.
00:39:13
Speaker
If you want to check out any of the podcast episodes the farm account managers discussed today, they will all be linked in this episode's podcast description. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time.
00:39:27
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in. For more free farm resources, tips, and tactics that are most successful farms use to grow and manage their business, visit barnadore.com slash resources. Also don't forget to subscribe to the Direct Farm podcast to automatically download our weekly episodes. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.