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Investing in Marketing for Future Sales with Dan & Debbie’s Creamery
653 Plays9 months ago
In this week's episode, Janelle meets with Josie Rozum from Dan & Debbie's Creamery in Iowa. With a marketing background on a 3rd generation dairy Farm, learn how Josie thinks about investing in marketing today for future sales, and how to streamline marketing efforts in just one hourly ‘meeting’ a week.
Learn how Barn2Door can help support your Farm marketing efforts and more: http://barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introducing the Independent Farmer Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go-to podcast for do-it-yourself farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman, and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn to Door, the number one business tool for independent farmers to manage their business, promote their brand, and sell online and in person. Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
Meet Janelle and Guest Josie Rosen
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to the Independent Farmer podcast. I'm Janelle CEO of Varn to door and your host for today's episode. I'm happy to speak with Josie Rosen from Dan and Debbie's Creamery in Iowa today. I'm excited to talk to you about how you have successfully promoted your farms brand in person and online.
00:01:01
Speaker
which is key when you're selling direct. I think sometimes people forget that if you're a farmer who wants to remove the middleman and sell direct, you take on the responsibility and need to promote your farm and farm products directly to existing and potential buyers and ongoing, obviously. I'm excited to talk to Josie about all the different ways she promotes Dan and Debbie's brand. Welcome, Josie. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here today.
00:01:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for this time as we're diving in. It's great to talk about farm brand. There's so many nuances and pieces and moving parts to it. And I want farms listening today to feel like, okay, I've got another idea for how to continue to, or better promote my brand or promoted in a new way. So excited to dig in. But before we do, why don't we grab a little bit of a history of your farm?
History of Dan and Debbie's Creamery
00:01:51
Speaker
Sure, so my parents are Dan and Debbie who the Creamery is named after and they are first generation dairy farmers. They started milking over 25 years ago and I had the luxury of growing up on the dairy farm. Growing up on it, I swore I would never ever come back. I wanted to get as far away from the farm as possible.
00:02:11
Speaker
But I think like many other farm kids we realize it's not so bad once we grow up and so I kind of realized I wanted to come back to the farm and I'm one of six kids and four out of six of us are involved in the operation. So seven years ago we actually opened up the creamery and that's when we started taking the milk from our family farm and turning it into different dairy products. So we make ice cream, cheese, butter,
00:02:36
Speaker
And then we do bottled milk as well. So we've been at it for seven years, approaching eight. Wow. Definitely learned a lot in the process, but it's been really, really fun to connect with consumers and be able to sell directly to them.
00:02:50
Speaker
What's your main responsibility if you're one of four siblings manning the
Josie's Role and Passion for Marketing
00:02:55
Speaker
farm? And that's a great story by the way. I love it. Yeah. So I actually oversee all of the marketing sales and operations at the creamery. So just making sure we're selling product that we're making and making sure everybody knows what they need to do each week. That's kind of my role. I actually went to school for marketing.
00:03:16
Speaker
I've always had a passion for marketing and stuff like that. And so to be able to come back to my family's farm and tell their story has been just the ultimate dream job for me. Wow.
00:03:28
Speaker
That's great. I'm really excited then for today's listeners. You literally have gone to school for this. You grew up on the farm and then you added a creamery seven years ago. Is there a why behind why you added the creamery seven years ago?
Sustainability and Product Control
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I think it's really just been all about sustainability for us.
00:03:46
Speaker
Anybody who knows anything about the dairy industry, it's kind of a roller coaster to be a dairy farmer and really any farmer to not have control over your sales is really challenging. And so my dad really had the dream of let's try to take control over all aspects of our business and really develop a product that we're really proud of and that we can stand behind. So sustainability for us is our why for sure. Wow. That's awesome.
00:04:13
Speaker
So when you opened up the creamer, it sounds like you also then opened up a store on your farm. Is that correct?
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah so our creamery is actually four miles from our family farm. We are located in rural Iowa and our farm is basically out in the middle of nowhere like many other farms and so it was really important for us to have an accessible location where customers could come and shop with us. So our production facility where we make all of the dairy products actually has a storefront as well
00:04:43
Speaker
So people can come in and shop, not only our products, we also sell a lot of other local goods, honey, jam, other frozen meats. So we partner with a lot of other local farmers and we're really just trying to celebrate all of the things that farmers are trying to do to sell direct to consumer and stuff like that. So the location thing in town is really, really great. And we love being able to have a storefront where we can see customers come in every day. OK, so the creamery is actually in town.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Got it. Okay. Fantastic. I was going to say rural is common, honestly, among many farmers, obviously, and for different distances from any given town, some are very close. Some are further away, but regardless
00:05:27
Speaker
It is probably top of mind to get the word out locally into your community. Like, Hey, we exist first of all, right? And here's our brand. Here's what we're about. And then to essentially grow a customer base, because not only obviously do you need to get the word out, but then you need to keep people coming back for more. So that's constant engagement, which I know that you have been working on for years now.
00:05:51
Speaker
So, if I am one of your buyers, just so the folks out listening know, the options for me to buy from your farm are the store, the creamery in town and how else do I hear about or purchase your items from
Expanding Delivery and Branding
00:06:07
Speaker
your farm.
00:06:07
Speaker
So 4 years ago, we rolled out a home delivery service. So we primarily use Barned Adore for that platform. It handles and manages all of our home deliveries. We deliver 3 days a week to different customers and we deliver to anywhere from 50 to 100 customers every single week.
00:06:27
Speaker
And then obviously we have our storefront and then we also deliver to businesses. So some of our larger customers are coffee shops who need milk and cream in their beverages. We partner with a great deal of restaurants using our fresh dairy in their kitchens and then local grocery stores. We deliver to those each week. So there's lots of ways to get Dan and Debbie's if you're in Eastern Iowa for sure.
00:06:52
Speaker
That is great. Okay. So you are delivering to wholesale and retail, it sounds like. And when you say deliveries, you're talking door to door to consumers, Benson, obviously all of those wholesale accounts. Do you, I have to ask, so do you have a van, like with your logo on the side?
00:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's a bigger deal than people realize. Do you want to speak to that? I feel like it's like a branding machine driving around. For sure. Our vehicles are definitely an extension of our brand. It's really important that people, first of all,
00:07:22
Speaker
know who we are when we pull up, but then also our branding on our vehicles, very simple, not bright and colorful. Like a lot of dairy industry vehicles, it's black and white, and that's meant to bring back that nostalgic milkman. So again, when we're talking about brand today, everything from the color of our branding to just the way things look, the simplicity is really what we're trying to exude to our customers. And I think a lot of people see that in our delivery vehicles.
00:07:52
Speaker
Got it. And then how long have you had an online
Online Presence Growth Post-COVID
00:07:55
Speaker
presence? Because all of those consumers who are receiving direct deliveries are ordering online, correct? Yeah. So we wouldn't have been able to even wrap our brains around how to do home delivery if it weren't for Barn to Door, just because spreadsheets would not have worked for us because we've already got a wholesale business. We've already got our retail store. We needed something that was really going to just be easy.
00:08:17
Speaker
And so four years ago is when we dabbled into rolling out several zip codes. Now we deliver to about 18 different zip codes in our area. And we have plans to grow that and we're really, really excited. It has taken off over the last few years. I thought maybe it was going to die after COVID, but it's still going strong. People are still very excited to support local and engage in the milkman.
00:08:44
Speaker
Oh, I love it. That is great. I have a thousand questions in my brain, but let's back up a little bit. Let me just get to the basics of how would you describe your
Brand Identity and Tradition
00:08:52
Speaker
brand? Obviously as a marketer and as part of somebody who owns that dairy business, before you talk about your brand or promote it visually or with messages, you have to actually define it. Wouldn't you say you have to know what you're going to say consistently?
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So I think first and foremost, our brand at the Creamery is really rooted in farming. And it's one that's really truly dedicated to crafting an exceptional dairy experience. So from how we care about our cows, the things that we're doing that's unique to raise and grow our animals,
00:09:28
Speaker
to our simple approach in how we craft our products at the Creamery. I think that every step from our farm to table process really just reflects our commitment to the tradition of wholesome dairy products, the quality dairy, and then really just the sustainability. Like I mentioned before, we're looking for a way, a business that can last for generations
00:09:53
Speaker
And I think being able to do everything from farm to table is really, really important. And I think our brand really exudes all of those things. Yeah. And then how do you communicate that, right?
Communication Channels and Consistency
00:10:05
Speaker
Here's the brand story. Here are the sort of key values that we're trying to communicate out to the market with a variety of customers. Where are you communicating that and how are you communicating that? Those are two sort of big questions. So maybe where.
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah. In terms of where do we share our story, share our brand, social media is probably the most common place. We focus heavily on Instagram and Facebook just because those are the two most widely used platforms out there and they're user friendly. Even farmers can use those and have great success.
00:10:46
Speaker
When we're talking about online presence email is also a huge thing for us we do a lot of email marketing and in all of our email marketing you'll see our brand come through whether that be the colors or our voice or tone things like that are all really important.
00:11:03
Speaker
But there's also our in-person brand. We're doing deliveries multiple days a week and how our drivers present themselves, how they talk, the experience people get when they're ordering. It all falls under kind of that traditional sustainable family oriented business.
00:11:23
Speaker
which are really, really important. And then of course our store, the brand in our store, you'll see the similar colors to what represents our brand. So our brand leads through every sort of medium that we touch. How important do you think that visual consistency is, right? I think you touched on it already. You've touched on there's a visual aspect that you're really intentional, sort of the nostalgia of the black and white. And then obviously you're sending out emails so that people are seeing
00:11:50
Speaker
And then the next one is obviously the message and the story. And then the third one that you actually mentioned, which we can dig into is the experience of your brand. But let's start a little bit on the visual side. Like how important is that? And when you say visual, maybe you should explain what does even that mean to people?
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, you can take McDonald's or Pepsi or any huge massive brands and you can look at their logo and you don't need to see Pepsi or McDonald's associated with either of those logos, yet you know it's Pepsi. I think there's a board game actually out there where you can play the logo game and you have to guess what the logo is. People, they
00:12:31
Speaker
remember especially kids so when you're trying to build a brand you have to have something that people are going to remember and part of that is design part of that is color part of that is just the overall fonts and things like that they're very important in not only drawing people in but making people feel something so our logo is actually a boy and a girl a little boy and a girl
00:12:56
Speaker
The girl is holding a bucket. The boy has an ice cream cone. It's a flat image. It's not 2D or 3D. It's just very, very simple. But when people look at that, they sort of feel simpler times. And that's something that we're trying to have everybody who eats our products feel. We want them to feel like they're just getting an ice cream cone and life is good and our problems and worries go away. And so your logo, just in the most simple form, you want that to speak.
00:13:26
Speaker
how you want people to feel when they experience your products. I love it. Thank you for that example. Yeah, the look and the feel.
00:13:33
Speaker
And you've touched on, okay, sure, if you're online, you're gonna have a website and your store and your logo and social media is gonna have the same look and feel. So they have that experience even when they're purchasing online and to your point, if they're getting emails or newsletters. So you have this consistent brand look and feel with logos and colors. Talk to me about what that looks like offline. So certainly they have the truck, but then beyond that, where are the opportunities from a look and feel perspective for your brand to be recognized, which is,
00:14:03
Speaker
It sounds to me like a very trusted brand in the community. Yeah, for sure. I think one mistake that especially is fairly common amongst farmers is we forget about our branding opportunities through packaging.
Packaging as a Branding Tool
00:14:18
Speaker
I like that.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, I love the branding opportunities. I love that. Go ahead. Yeah, so our packaging sometimes we're just throwing everything together and putting it out there where we don't really think about how do we get that logo on there or how do we incorporate some of our colors, because
00:14:34
Speaker
Everybody knows when we go in the store, our eyes lock into something that's more eye catching versus something that's more simple. And so I think it's really important that we use those opportunities through our product packaging to really exude our brand, whether that be having your logo on there or whether that be incorporating some of those colors. I think that's going to be really, really important for customers to be able to see and identify this is a Dan and Debbie's product.
00:15:03
Speaker
Love it. I appreciate that. Do you have shirts and hats and stickers and all of the works too? We do. We had so many requests early on. We're like, we've got to do it. So we've got hats. Sure. That's great. I'm also big. I don't like, I don't love Chachki items that people are going to toss, but I do try to get branded things that work really nicely with our products. So the latest product that we just got branded was an ice cream spade. So a scoop.
00:15:29
Speaker
And it's got our Dean and Debbie's logo on it. And that fits with our ice cream. So yeah. And then they put it in their kitchen drawer and then every time they use it, voila. Oh, I love that.
00:15:40
Speaker
Very smart. Okay. And then you also mentioned, and again, this is just sort of a brand to talk, if you will, that in your store, and I says, maybe on your deliveries, I'm not sure you'll have to answer that. You do incorporate some partner items. I think you said honey. So in addition to Dan and Debbie's products, you will sometimes pull in other farmers, producers, artisans in the community and some of their products. Do you care about their brands?
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think we care less about their brands because I understand not every farmer is at a point where they feel like they can invest or have the knowledge to invest in their brand. I'm here telling everybody I think they should invest in their brand because it's good, but they've got to come across this podcast to know that. They've got to come across a website or another podcast that's going to give them the, okay, this really is an important step in my business.
00:16:34
Speaker
What I do care about businesses that we select is their values and creating a good brand starts with what are your core values as a business? What's important to you? What do you stand for? So I look more at that.
00:16:51
Speaker
And I know that those businesses who understand what's important to them and what they stand for and who they are, their brand is going to come naturally and they'll develop because when we first started, our brand wasn't perfect. But I've been able to hone in on my skills. I've been able to gain confidence in who we are as a business and as a family. And I feel like I've been able to do a much better job. And I believe that all of the products that we bring into our store are going to get that as well.
00:17:20
Speaker
You know, I love that. So it sounds to me like when you're bringing in other farms, regardless of their look and feel part of their brand, it's about the values and the messaging. And if that is a shared, if you're sharing values and messaging, you're like, check the box. That's wonderful. Yeah.
00:17:38
Speaker
Janelle, that for me is the foundation for a good brand. If you don't understand your values, it's hard to build a brand off of that. So you've got to start from the base and you've got to build what's important to you, what you stand for, what you want your voice, how you want people to feel about you, because that's just going to allow you to really develop an authentic brand that people are going to resonate with and want to support.
00:18:04
Speaker
If I'm a new farmer. This one's always coming your way. Right. If I'm a new farmer and I'm like, I have to figure out my core values of my brand. First of all, is that you're saying that's the first thing they should do right before even the look the feel before you even put pen to paper.
00:18:23
Speaker
So how do you, what would you recommend to farmers who are either A, just getting started or B, they're obviously weighted into it. They've been a farmer for a while, like you said, but maybe they haven't had the time to focus on their brand, but they're like, you know what, I think it's time to upgrade our logo, our look and feel, our website. But before we do that, let's boil it down to what we're about. How would they go about doing that?
Building a Brand: Mission, Vision, and Values
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think the simplest thing would be to start by working on a mission statement and a vision statement and then list out your core values and core values don't have to be complicated. It's what's important to you. It's not what's important to other people. This is what is important to you as a farmer. What's important for your farm because consumers are going to come and go. You're going to gain consumers. You're going to lose a few throughout, but
00:19:16
Speaker
Why you're doing what you're doing is always gonna be there and you're the one who has to show up every day So I think if you can start with those three things You're really going to be able to start to identify some really cool things I heard this quote from Simon Sinek and I just love Simon Sinek He's just the best but one of his quotes was people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it Yeah, and that is a quote that I have
00:19:46
Speaker
Up in my office, I think about daily. Every post I create, I'm thinking about sharing our why somehow. Even if it's the silliest post, I want to make sure that it has emotion behind the post because people connect with emotion and that's ultimately what drives people's buying habits.
00:20:05
Speaker
I love it. Yes. Simon Sinek, I think his book that's most famous is the power of why or know your wife, one of those. Very good point. So I don't want to put you on the spot, but not every farmer will know. Like if you say mission and vision.
00:20:19
Speaker
Those are often used as two different things. And I know as a marketer, you're more familiar with those terms. So if I'm a farmer trying to identify a mission versus a vision, do you have pointers for them on what those two different things might be and why they're both important?
00:20:36
Speaker
And I think why, right? It feeds into the why. Yeah. Yeah. So a mission statement is going to be basically why you're doing what you're doing. It is our mission to provide our region with farm fresh dairy products, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. I mean, you're answering a question. Yeah. A vision statement is what is your long term vision for the future? So as a dairy farmer, we are looking for
00:21:05
Speaker
the ability to be able to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You see where I'm saying, you're answering different questions. One is more long-term, one is more our why. In terms of core values, again, those are just the things that you stand for. So we stand for animal care. We stand for honesty, integrity, natural products. Those are all things that can be really, really important. My recommendation would be to select three.
00:21:32
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna ask you that next. Like, do you do three? Do you do five? And would you say, because what you said was animal care, what was the other one that you said? Sustainability would be another one. Okay, and then these are nouns.
00:21:48
Speaker
A lot of times I know when I'm interviewing somebody, I'm like, hey, what are three adjectives to describe you, right? And I think maybe an exercise for farms are, hey, what are three adjectives that might describe your farm? Can you get away with it being either or, adjective, noun, whatever, but you're really looking for three key words.
00:22:05
Speaker
For sure. Yes. You can definitely go either, or again, each one is individual and it's based on what's important to you because I think a lot of just entrepreneurs in general, we lose sight of why we started what we started. And so to be able to have a solid mission statement, vision statement, and those core values to refer back to.
00:22:25
Speaker
I think are going to be really important, especially when you get to the point where you're growing and you're becoming so successful and you're like, do I want to embark on this next step, this growth step? You can refer to your core values and does this still support the reason why I started this? And I think that's really important. So it really becomes a decision-making matrix, if you will. So it keeps it honest. Yep.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate that. Okay. So hopefully that's quite helpful. I suspect it will be to folks. If you were to list off the top of your head, five or six, not necessarily Dan and Debbie's, but if I'm a farmer, maybe I'm a grass fed
Core Values for Farmers
00:23:04
Speaker
beef farmer. Maybe I'm doing farm fresh eggs. Maybe I'm doing produce. What are some examples of words that I might choose? Yeah. Fresh. I think that's a really, really popular, like we are never going to sacrifice.
00:23:19
Speaker
product. We want them to be fresh and that's something you stand for and you will always stand by. It's a core value of yours that your products are fresh. I think stewardship, whether that be animal stewardship or land stewardship or just being a good steward of your job, your career is really important. I think that's a good one. We have that in our core values because we want customers to know that we're doing everything we can to care for
00:23:49
Speaker
the things that were given to us in terms of land and animals and things like that. And that really resonates with people. Other ones might be trust. A core value could be trust, whether that be internal as a team or external as we want our customers to trust us. Integrity.
00:24:07
Speaker
is another one, teamwork, I think is a great one. Consumers too value businesses that have great teams. They really, really do. And they want to support those. And so I think teamwork could ultimately be an outside the box. You might not think of it in terms of a consumer wanting that, but it really does. And it makes the world go round, right? Cause we need a team to be able to do what we do. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think that's important too.
00:24:34
Speaker
Oh, those are such good answers. Thank you. In fact, when you mentioned it was a stewardship and then fresh, I love that because I feel like those are also a springboard to your messaging, right? If you're looking at those core values before you're writing down a newsletter or social media post or providing customer service, right? You're thinking about the values that you're committed to and they sometimes require the extra step or going the extra mile.
00:25:00
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and that's exactly what a brand is, is when you look at those core values and you can all of a sudden start to see them bleed into an email or a social media post. Going back to the teamwork example, we love posting pictures of our team at work doing different things. I mean, and again, it's a core value. So as you sit down and start to develop
00:25:23
Speaker
those things that we talked about, start to like see them come to life in different posts because this is where it starts to get fun because all of the things that are really important to you, you now get to share with consumers. I love it. We have core values that burn to door and we also have sort of themes that we focus on. And one of the recent ones we did was human. It's the same thing. It's sort of like, Hey, businesses are human too.
00:25:48
Speaker
You know, people trying to help people is really at the end of the day, what like our company, we're trying to help farmers. And so we show human posts, we call them, but it is of our team. Like we're over here working hard and more people too. And it's just such a good reminder because we value those relationships, right? And we value the opportunity to help in one-on-one opportunities, even with farmers. I love that.
00:26:10
Speaker
So before I forget, can you please stay out loud your Instagram and Facebook handle so that people can go look them up to see great examples, share those and then we can repeat them again at the end. Yeah. So ours is just at Dan and Debbie's Creamery for Instagram and Facebook. So pretty straightforward. Okay. Dan and Debbie's Creamery spelled out. Okay. People look that up. Do you remember a few of the recent posts that you've done on either Instagram or Facebook that you can share?
00:26:39
Speaker
Yeah. Cause you were saying you just remind yourself, you're literally like, I'm trying to keep in front of your mind the brand, the messaging and what you stand for and want to issue to your customers. So what are some good examples? Yeah. One thing that we've done over the last year is we've tried to do some more longer form content.
00:26:59
Speaker
And we've really tried to grow our blog and our recipes. So a lot of the traditional nostalgic, old time, old fashioned feel that we're trying to put out, we're trying to incorporate into our content as well. And so we've incorporated a weekly recipe that we put into a reel and that's been really, really fun and really well received. So usually they're like recipes that grandma would make. Like it's not super modern.
00:27:29
Speaker
And I think it, it really hits people in a spot where they're just like, I gotta make that cause I'm missing grams and just things like that, which is really, really special. So I love those posts. We post a lot about our animals, just pictures of them. Cows are adorable. So anytime we can do that, we do, but today we actually posted a new ice cream flavor. We love new ice cream flavors.
00:27:55
Speaker
And that is peanut butter and chocolate, and it is just delicious. That's amazing! Yes, yep. Is that chunky or creamy? I kind of need to know now. It's actually a creamy chocolate ice cream with this crunchy peanut butter. Not crunchy like peanuts, it just hardens in there. It is absolutely delicious. I love a good texture in an ice cream. That sounds amazing. For sure.
00:28:18
Speaker
Very fun. That's great. So different things on your social media. I love the reels. It's like you're committed to that. And you keep talking about the nostalgia piece, right? And trying to weave that in to your story, which is fantastic. And then have you found successful ways through your social media to engage customers? Like any tips there?
00:28:40
Speaker
For sure, for sure. I think one thing that's important for anybody's brand, especially if you're in the farming industry and you're selling direct to consumer, is to build a relationship.
Engagement Strategies for Social Media
00:28:52
Speaker
Your goal should always be to build a relationship. And I give this analogy every once in a while where if you go out on a date and you text the person after the date, like had so much fun, can't wait till next time, and they don't respond to you, how does that make you feel? You're like super bummed out, right?
00:29:10
Speaker
Well, people kind of expect that response on social media. So if your customers or audience are asking questions in the comments or they're sending you direct messages, it's really, really important. The best thing you can do to engage with them is to respond.
00:29:27
Speaker
Otherwise they feel a little ghosted, if you will. And so I think to boost engagement, you want to respond because that's going to build relationships. People are going to feel like they have a personal connection with you, which is then going to encourage them to buy things. I also find that some of my most successful posts are posts that include call to actions, which are basically posts that are asking something of the person reading it.
00:29:55
Speaker
So you might ask them a question. It might say, what's your favorite ice cream flavor, monster cookie or cookies and cream. And so I'm asking them to respond. It might also be read the blog. I'm asking them to act on this link and go and read my blog. Call to actions are really great ways to encourage people to basically take another step with you. Again, it's that relationship, that new relationship that you're in with them, if you will.
00:30:23
Speaker
I love that. I think a lot of times, I would say there's certainly some farms we work with that just would like an email list of customers and then not have to think about it again. But that's not the reality when you sell direct. You have to keep engaging and like you said, even build relationships with those customers. How do you think about that and include in your answer how often you are on social media sending emails? What is your strategy around?
00:30:50
Speaker
continual engagement because part of that is at the end of the day about sales. Yep. A couple of different thoughts. First and foremost, I think social media is something that everybody should be doing first of all.
00:31:06
Speaker
how often and how much time you dedicate to it is totally up to each person. You could hire a full-time person and spend 40 hours a week doing it, but I think a reasonable amount for farmers would be to dedicate a couple of hours every week to this. This is ultimately
00:31:24
Speaker
Not only is it going to generate sales, but it builds loyalty among customers. And in the long run, it makes it that much easier to sell in future years. It's like investing in cover crops. We do that because we're investing in the future. Investing time in our marketing is really about building relationships and getting those loyal customers to make it easier in the future for us. And so I think a couple hours a week dedicated to social media is really important.
00:31:52
Speaker
In terms of email marketing, we usually send out one to two emails a week and we've actually gone from sending it to our mass list to really targeting some of our audiences. And again, I don't want to keep talking about relationships, but that's really what brand is all about. If you want to build a relationship, you have to target your message. So it really hits them in a place where they're like, I want to support this business or I want to buy from them or.
00:32:20
Speaker
I'm going to choose this local farm over that grocery store meat. That's what's super important. And what I think a lot of people, they're just like, I'll get to it when I get to it. I'll get to that email next week. I'll skip this week. And it doesn't work that way. You've got to put in the time week after week in order to see the benefit down the road. I think that's great advice. And I love your analogy of it's like a cover crop. You're doing this as a gift to build up your soil essentially for future harvest and the same way
00:32:50
Speaker
engaging customers today is future sales and future loyalty. There was one firm I spoke to recently and she was like, sometimes it's more important that I sit down and write a newsletter than go do weedy. Like literally, which is, I think for some farms, that just sounds upside down. Yeah.
00:33:08
Speaker
Yeah. And I think to a lot of farmers, marketing and branding and all of this stuff doesn't necessarily come easy to them. So they find themselves going and doing what they know, which is the pulling of the weeds and the milking of the cow and all of those things. But not doing marketing isn't going to solve any of their problems down the road. You have to just start and you have to commit because it gets easier over time.
00:33:34
Speaker
Practice, you will develop a voice in your brand and in your marketing. That's so neat. And then all of a sudden things just flow. Words and captions flow out of your fingertips as you're typing them. Where I know early on I would struggle. How do I even find the words? I can't even think of a tasteful phrase or whatever. But as you practice and as you talk and develop things more, the words start to come out of you and you're just speaking from a really authentic
Proactive Marketing and Organization
00:34:03
Speaker
place and that really hits home to a lot of customers. That is wonderful to hear. It's nice to hear that it gets easier as you practice. I guess it's like any skill, isn't it? If you're spending a few hours a week, especially thinking about social media and newsletters, do you plan ahead? Like how much do you accomplish or is it always like for tomorrow or for today? Yeah. So what's really important for me
00:34:30
Speaker
because I wear many different hats in our organization is I schedule an hour on my calendar every Friday and it's a meeting with myself. I'm marketing and I'm not going to cancel on myself because I wouldn't cancel on any other business meeting. And so I just make it a point to every Friday, knock out whatever I need for Saturday through the following Friday.
00:34:55
Speaker
Okay, I work on a week basis. Now I also schedule some time about 30 to 45 minutes monthly to look at the month as a whole. So I can start to wrap my brain around that many holidays coming up. Are there any large events? Are there any products that I really need to hammer and promote? I also use that as an opportunity to take photos in advance.
00:35:16
Speaker
So that way we haven't talked about photos. Oh, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. I just don't want to get to a point where I'm like, Oh, I need to talk about this. I don't have a photo and I'm scrounging and then I'm wasting more time. So I think setting time aside actually is more efficient than just trying to fly by the seat of your pants. Again, you want to be proactive with your marketing and your branding strategy instead of reacting to whatever's happening throughout the day.
00:35:46
Speaker
Okay. So how often do you post on social and how often do you send an email or newsletter? Yep. So we try to create at least one post a day. Okay. I would say out of the seven days in the week, um, we try to have
00:36:01
Speaker
six of those scheduled, at least six of those scheduled. And then we still do authentic in the moment posts throughout the week as well, because I can't schedule when a cow is going to have a calf. And I want to get that picture. You need to have those really organic moments throughout the week, but I try to schedule like my sales posts and my posts that I can do in advance.
00:36:23
Speaker
So once a day, and then in terms of email, we're sending about two emails a week, but two different targeted audiences. So nobody's getting two emails a week from us. It's usually a very small segment. So of our 2,700 emails that we have, one email might just go to 250 and it's very targeted. And then typically you'll have once a week. Like if I'm your customer, I'm going to get a reminder of you and your existence and all your amazing products about once a week. Yep.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yep, exactly. And then because you use the word targeted, I can't help myself. So when you're writing targeted emails, can you give some examples of that and why you do that?
00:37:03
Speaker
Yeah. So we actually did a fun exercise, if you will, with our team. And we talked about buyer personas. So we basically named this person, local lover Lily was her name. And we dove into all of her demographics. So she's a middle-aged woman with a younger family. She likes to support local. She always looks for local when she can, all of these different things.
00:37:30
Speaker
And so when I created those buyer personas, when I'm drafting a targeted email, I write it as though I'm talking to Lily and it makes it a lot easier for me because I feel like I can be more conversational in my writing when I have somebody that I know that's going to receive my emails. So that helps me feel a little bit less like I'm a robot just sending an email to whoever. I think that's really, really helpful.
00:37:57
Speaker
And then when you're sending it to just part of your email list, is it a different email or are you just rotating through to make sure everybody gets one once a week?
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah. So a lot of times we choose segments that are very, very different. And once we've already sent one, we usually make sure we deduct them. You can automatically take anybody that you sent from a previous campaign that week, which is really awesome about MailChimp. So we're making sure we also space them out enough to where if a customer did get to, they're not back to back. It's spaced out enough to where they wouldn't care.
00:38:32
Speaker
And the really cool thing about email is everybody has subscribed to get your stuff, which means they want to get your stuff. And so generally they're not going to be too upset if they got those two emails that week, as long as the content is really, really good and you're not just sending repeat things out, haven't had anybody complain about it. So yeah, I'm hearing it a pretty common theme of one to two emails a week, which I think is highly valuable. I heard somebody once.
00:39:00
Speaker
explain, I actually love this, explain people's inbox like a Twitter feed. If it pops to the top and you just sent an email, great. But once it sinks below, like forget it, they're not going to open it. So don't worry about sending too many emails because honestly, their inbox is treated today.
00:39:19
Speaker
much more like a Twitter feed than anything else. And also, if they know and love your farm and buy from you regularly, they know that they're going to get another one. So if they miss one, it's not the end of the world, right? You are their reminder, right to purchase from them.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yep. And a lot of our content that we use, whether it be an email or social media, we are like integrating like a spider web. So a lot of the stuff that's going out in our newsletter is also going out in a different form on our social media page.
00:39:49
Speaker
and also posted on our website in a different way. So recipes, it's a video on our social media. It's a link in the newsletter and it goes in the recipe page on the website. So recycled content is really- Recycled content.
00:40:04
Speaker
So that way if they don't get that email or if it falls to their span or wherever, they're still able to see stuff in different mediums because everybody receives things differently. Yeah. And I think that's something a lot of people don't talk about is your customers are going to have a favorite place to consume information. They might hate email and love Instagram.
00:40:25
Speaker
Right. Or they might only open newsletters and not even have Facebook. Right. And so there's different ways that people consume information, but digital sure is a great way to stay top of mind. Yeah. There's no shortage of mediums. That's for sure. Yeah. And it's good to hit them all, including in person. I think that one's really, really important. So.
00:40:46
Speaker
We need to circle back to photos because you mentioned photos. I love that you schedule meetings for yourself that you keep to make sure that you're ahead of the game in terms of the social media and the email newsletters that you're sending out. But when do you take photos and then how do you keep them organized? Yeah. So I.
00:41:07
Speaker
learn this very early on that if you want to post frequently, you really need to make sure you have a stockpile of photographs. And so when I am down in the production room and they're making cheese, I'm taking
00:41:21
Speaker
25 to 30 pictures all on the same day that I'm using throughout the year. In fact, you probably will see pictures on my social media that I took a few years ago that are still applicable. I obviously don't want them to be outdated to the point where they're not even making that product anymore and I'm posting it.
00:41:38
Speaker
But I do make sure that I have a lot of photo stockpiles. So that way when I do sit down on Fridays, I'm able to actually start to apply what I need to, to the next week. So in terms of how I organize my photos, I actually keep most of them on my phone. I also use Dropbox. So on my phone, I have different folders that I sort by kind of category. So cows, production, field stuff.
00:42:07
Speaker
products, all of those different things. So that way when I'm looking for something, I can find it a lot better or a lot quicker. I also have a Dropbox where I put a lot of other high resolution photos. So
00:42:20
Speaker
If farms have it in their budget to hire a professional photographer, even if it's just for two hours to go out there and take pictures, I think that's one of the... It's not a bad idea, honestly. No, because then they have photos for the year and you can likely find a high school person who's in a photography class that can still take really great pictures, or perhaps there's some kind of a trade that you could do.
00:42:45
Speaker
that is another great way if you're like photos aren't my thing or if you don't have a modern phone and you're still using the flip phones which I know some people still have and that's totally fine this would be a great way to at least get some photographs so that way you can do your due diligence in marketing because photos are what draw them in and so it is really important that we have photographs that represent our business in a really good light represent our brand in a really good light
Leveraging Local Resources for Photography
00:43:13
Speaker
I love that suggestion because I do feel like some farmers would say, I am not a photographer. It might even be intimidating or they take photos and it's just not their, it's just not their skill and that's okay. But I love your idea of an inexpensive
00:43:29
Speaker
local photographer or even one or two to kind of just to set you up, even like I just need that to get me started. So it's not overwhelming and then still keep practicing taking your own. Right. Because when that, like you said, especially the authentic in the real time moments of, wow, the cow is getting out or making the cutest face or we have a new ice cream flavor, then you're going to want to take those yourself. But to have your own quote unquote stockpile is certainly important.
00:43:58
Speaker
Yeah. I think creatively, think outside the box. Maybe there's a local 4-H chapter that would be willing to come take photos. Young kids, they could even take it with their phone, but maybe that could be a project. Don't be afraid to find a local organization that you could maybe partner with. 4-H groups are always looking for projects. And I think that would be a great way for farmers to connect with their local 4-H chapters too.
00:44:22
Speaker
Well, and if you were eight or 10 or 12 year old in a four-age class and you won the best photo of the day, how good would you feel? Right. Right. For sure. Yeah. That's great. I love that idea. And then there's this one other thing I want to talk about and that is the brand experience. So your customers, they experience your brand. It's not just visual.
00:44:44
Speaker
It's not what they see. It's not just what they hear, but it's truly what they experience. I think this is where farms have a huge leg up in terms of building loyalty from a taste of product perspective. But let's walk through if I'm a customer of yours, all the different ways.
00:45:00
Speaker
that I experience your brand and then we can land on how good the quality of the food is and how that's just a game changer. But if I'm going to buy from you from the second I decide I want to buy from your farm, what is my experience of Dan and Debbie's Creamery all the way through getting your items into my mouth, basically.
Customer Journey and In-Store Experience
00:45:21
Speaker
Yeah, we're like walking through the sales funnel, right? First it starts with like, Janelle, if you lived in Iowa and you're trying to figure out, I really want to support local farmers, I'm looking for a dairy producer, you're probably going to go to Google and start searching. And your first experience is going to be going to our website or going to our Facebook page. And so people
00:45:41
Speaker
are going to go there and they're going to see that we do everything from farm to table. They're going to start to see our mission statement, our vision. They're going to be able to read about our family's story, why we started. I go back to the people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. So our website has that. Then they might want to see more information about you. They go to your Facebook page to see what's happening in the now.
00:46:04
Speaker
And they're able to see your new flavors. Oh, I really want that peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. I've got to head over there. And then they learn where you're located. They head to your store and they're still going to walk in and they're going to see that small town charm that you've curated. Yeah, exactly. I curated.
00:46:26
Speaker
curated. I like that word. Yeah. They're going to be able to experience the quality of our products, which was talked about on our website, which was showcased on our social media through the pictures. The pictures look like quality ice cream. So when they come in and taste it, they're going to get that same experience just with how we train our staff for those farmers that are getting ready to hire people. It's really important that in those interviews, your
00:46:54
Speaker
asking questions to understand what their values are as well, and to see if they can represent you and your brand and your business in a really positive light. And so when we hire people, we want to make sure they exude the kindness that we do and the appreciation that we do. And so you walk into our store, you get our ice cream, you're greeted with that small town smile, that charm from the employee.
00:47:19
Speaker
Really asking if you need anything and then you get to see all of the local products. So in our store, other branded things that we have are our signage. So our signage is that black and white, our pricing, our packaging. It all breathes the Dan and Debbie's brand. Amazing. That was actually a really good summary of people experiencing your brand. And my favorite too, when you're talking about locally produced, obviously sustainably
00:47:50
Speaker
raised and cared for food, whether that's animals or produce or anything else. The flavor is just, it's just a game changer. One of my favorite things is when we have farms that we work with and their customers get to taste those tomatoes or that grass that be for the first time compared to the grocery store and no offense to grocery stores, but like the personal connection and the quality difference is remarkable.
00:48:17
Speaker
when people are buying direct from farmers. And I feel like it just builds positively. It's like a net positive for a farmer's brand.
Passion and Freedom in Farming
00:48:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think the one thing that all of us farmers have on our side is the ability to be able to connect with consumers again, because for so long, the processor was doing that, which is totally fine. But when you really want people to understand why you're doing things and what you stand for,
00:48:46
Speaker
you've got to build that connection with them and you've got to bridge that gap and you've got to let them know how and why you raise certain things and all of the practices that you're implementing and i just feel like social media is such a great tool you just got to make sure every post
00:49:05
Speaker
breathes out your brand. I always say when somebody looks at a picture, I want them to know it's Dan and Debbie's photo without even seeing our name on it. So that might be just the style of the photo. It might be the angle. It might have to do with if you start to incorporate your logo into some graphics. And I know Barn to Door does a great job with this. You know a Barn to Door post when you see it because it has their color scheme. And that's how we can start to incorporate more
00:49:33
Speaker
branding and messaging and stuff into our posts. Amazing. It's interesting. You were mentioning people first discovering Dan and Debbie's Creamery and coming to your website, right? Cause they're going to search our designers. I don't know if people listening know this, but our designers build websites for farmers as part of helping farmers create and promote their brand who are independent farmers, obviously selling direct.
00:49:57
Speaker
And the website really matters. And I wish I had read a recent study, but I think it's less than four seconds, I believe, when somebody comes to your website and makes a decision whether they're gonna stay or not. And these are the kind of things that our designers think about when they're creating a site for a farmer, right? Which is like the draw you in photo that screams the brand, you know, as sort of that landing photo
00:50:21
Speaker
And then makes them want to just click on the about us and learn more. And to your point, click over to social media, but that experience, like it or not, people are making very quick decisions online on social and in websites. That's sort of the catch. That's where you sort of hook the attention and draw them into your story, into your product.
00:50:42
Speaker
And then that social media is so wonderful because then you can build those relationships too, right? Social media and email are so good for relationship building. So I love that you said that. And I also want to just shout out that you're an independent dairy farmer. That is not an easy task. This is kind of an interesting time for dairy farmers in general. And I think a lot of dairy farmers struggle if they're in the commodity side of business. I don't know if you want to give any advice or anything to folks doing that, but would you trade it?
00:51:12
Speaker
Our farm probably wouldn't still exist. My parents are first generation, so they started from nothing. They had to buy all of the land, all of the cows, put in the facilities. And so we're still working to pay off that original debt.
00:51:25
Speaker
that a lot of third generation may have had it paid off. And I'm not trying to put down anybody. Dairy farmers are like the most amazing people ever and they're so dedicated and devout and it's just, they're remarkable. So for us to be able to have the creamery, it's been such a blessing because our farm has been able to survive the rocky times, which is really, really great.
00:51:50
Speaker
And I would encourage anybody who's kind of considering, do I sell direct to consumer? Do I explore the creamery mindset? I think it's worth anybody exploring if they have the passion. As long as you have the passion and the drive, I think this is a really good path forward. It's no easy task. It's a lot of work. And anybody, any farmer who's trying to do it all, sell their product, grow their product, it's hard work.
00:52:19
Speaker
I think everybody who does what we do, they're so passionate. It's like a burning passion that I can't even explain to where they just want to see their farm be successful and do what they love. And they're likely thinking about this in terms of generations. I want to give my kids something and their kids something. And that's really, really special. I have so much affection for dairy farmers. My grandfather was a dairy farmer. So I spent a ton of time in the milk parlor and on the farm and
00:52:48
Speaker
people tease me that I am used to all the smells of the farm too, right? Because you have affection for all of that. So very appreciative. And also dairy farming, you can't just take holidays necessarily either. Like you're in it, those cows are milking every single day. I'm hoping you have some good backup, thanks to your family being all involved so you can cover for each other. But would you say there's a sense of beyond all the passion
00:53:13
Speaker
and obviously vision to make it as a dairy farm, is there a sense through all of that hard work of some freedom of being your own business owners?
00:53:22
Speaker
Oh yeah. For us, I can't speak to other dairy farmers, but for us, the milk was getting picked up by a truck and it was so long and that was it.
Family Cooperation and Business Control
00:53:31
Speaker
And so for us to be able to see the product through the entire process is really, really cool. And it also has given us a voice as dairy farmers to better educate consumers. Our slogan is spilled milk you'd cry over. Um,
00:53:49
Speaker
I love that. I'm so glad you shared that. Yeah, and it really is because we work so hard for our milk that any that gets wasted we're tearful about because we put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into making everything happen.
00:54:05
Speaker
We're doing this all to help feed our community. And just being able to have that drive us is really, really cool. And it gives us a little bit more freedom to do unique things. We also feel more confident about the revenue streams and stuff coming in. We're not dictated by market prices so much. So we don't worry. Now we have the risk of if we don't sell our products, we're kind of in trouble.
00:54:30
Speaker
But as a family, we all trust each other and we're really supportive of each other and we know that together as a family, we can do anything. And so that's kind of our mindset and that's what pushes us through every day.
00:54:43
Speaker
I love it. Thank you so much for all that you're doing and hopefully inspiring other dairy farmers out there, right? Hey, we can do it. Cause I know there are dairy farmers out there who are like, I want to shift to what you were doing and sell direct and own those relationships and own the pricing. I'm hoping you have some subscriptions too, because that can give you some peace of mind of people who are in the bucket of recurring sales from your farm. I know that's a big one for a lot of dairies we work with.
00:55:11
Speaker
It's a big deal and it's been great to talk to you about all of the branding exercise, but I love that you boiled it down into a very digestible few hours a week to really put the effort in for those near-term and long-term sales. Any final words of advice on just branding? I know we've covered so much, so it's probably not fair to say that, but anything else top of mind outside of your amazing tagline that we should share out to the world and to the farmers listening today.
00:55:40
Speaker
You know, I think the one thing I'll just add is for farmers, I think so many of them are just humble individuals that talking about themselves on social media or celebrating all of their accomplishments or telling consumers pick mine over this one is very hard for them.
00:56:05
Speaker
But I think that with a really well built brand, you can still be humble and sell your products and get your messages across. And that's going to just speak volumes to consumers. They just have to realize consumers want to support all of the humble farmers out there. They just need to share their story. And I think that anybody who wants to do direct to consumer sales is going to be really successful.
00:56:34
Speaker
I love it. I'm actually really glad you said that it's almost like permission to take photos of yourself or share a little more of yourself. I did food blogging for about 10 years back when blogging became a thing. That was a long time ago in my opinion, but it was before I was doing that sharing recipes and tips and tricks from the kitchen, but it was about seven years into it. I hadn't even posted a photo of myself. So I relate to,
00:57:01
Speaker
I don't want to be in front of the camera. This isn't about me. I'm just trying to share recipes. And I remember going to some food blogger conferences. They were like, no, you are the brand. That's why they follow. That's why they do your recipes. They love your voice. You have to put your face on the screen. And it took me probably another year to get up the courage to be like, okay, fine. But they were right.
00:57:27
Speaker
Which is at the end of the day, you're like, I don't want it to be about me, but it's more that your customers actually want to see who they're building a relationship with because it's back to what you said it is a relationship. And so it's not like, okay, you're putting your face on the screen. You're creating your brand. You're just putting a face to the messages to the products and you're bringing it back to the human factor.
00:57:51
Speaker
of relatable and it doesn't reduce the humility. It doesn't mean that you're being prideful or anything like that. It's the relationship building aspect. There's the warm people in photos are just warmer than a picture of a field. It just is what it is. And so that's a great reminder to
00:58:08
Speaker
not be afraid to bring your own self and other people on the farm who are comfortable into the relationship, even through newsletters and social media, etc. So good, good reminder. Thank you for that. I want to extend a big thank you to Josie for joining us on today's Independent Farmer podcast episode. You can check out more of Dan and Debbie's Farm brand on their Instagram. Please pause and listen.
00:58:33
Speaker
at Dan and Debbie's Creamery on Instagram and Facebook, get some good ideas on how she's showcasing her brand and values on social media. And frankly, probably subscribe to your newsletter if they can, because they'll get good ideas that way too. If you're an independent farmer who is just getting started or transitioning to selling direct, or if you've been at it a while and want help creating and promoting your brand, selling online and in person.
00:58:57
Speaker
or you're looking to save time managing your business, it's pain-free to take a few minutes to go to barn2door.com backslash learn more. Thank you for tuning in today. We look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer podcast. Thank you so much, Josie. It was great hanging out with you today and for all of your rich advice to the many farmers out there.
00:59:24
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn to Door, we are passionate about empowering independent farmers to build a thriving business. To all the farmers out there, thank you for all you do to grow amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities. You are the backbone of our country. For free farm resources or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barntodoor.com backslash resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.