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00:00:01
Busting Farm Marketing Myths
439 Plays1 month ago
In this week’s episode, Janelle (Barn2Door CEO) and Cory (Farmer Success Team) discuss marketing myths (misconceptions) that can negatively impact Farmers' sales outcomes. If you are an Independent Farmer selling direct --- this is a must listen, to avoid and/or overcome marketing pitfalls! And discover GREAT tips for Farmers on successful marketing for successful, recurring sales.
For more Farm resources, visit: https://www.barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction to Barn to Door and Marketing Strategies for Farmers
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.
00:00:20
Speaker
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.
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm Janelle, CEO of Barn to Door and your host for today's episode. As many of our listeners may be aware, Barn to Door offers an all-in-one business solution for independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman, taking control of their business, selling under their own brand, and making sure their customers can purchase from them online and in person.
Why is Marketing Essential for Farmers?
00:01:03
Speaker
In today's conversations, we're tackling marketing. As independent farmers and business owners know, if you're cutting out the middleman and selling direct, You cannot just grow a food or have a farm. You need customers who regularly buy your products.
00:01:15
Speaker
Just like other business owners from hairdressers to dentists to nail salons to gyms and restaurants, it isn't enough to build it. You need to find customers and keep them engaged so they keep returning. While marketing may not be an independent business owner's favorite thing, it is necessary for the business to be successful.
00:01:32
Speaker
Having worked with thousands of farms across the country for over 10 years, who successfully have cut out the middleman and marketed and sold directly to retail and wholesale customers, we've watched, learned, and now recommend best practices for farmers who are marketing their brand well and products to the communities near their farms.
00:01:49
Speaker
Today I'm happy to welcome back Corey from our success team and account manager. Corey has worked with hundreds of farmers helping them implement best practices to run a successful farm business including successfully marketing their farms to grow sales and grow their customer base.
00:02:05
Speaker
Today he's going to help us break it down.
Fundamental Marketing Elements for Farmers
00:02:07
Speaker
Welcome Corey. Thank you. Very excited to be back here. Love doing the podcast and love sharing our podcast with some of our farmers. So I feel like it's a cheat bringing you on because you talked to hundreds of farms and help all these farms, and now we can cut to the chase and sort of get best practices and everything that you've learned or give advice on.
00:02:27
Speaker
So eager to dig into it today. Exactly. Okay. So in terms of marketing, I think we should probably start way back at the beginning. Obviously, we want to dig into some of the myths of marketing, the challenges.
00:02:42
Speaker
You and I discussed earlier some of the overwhelm sometimes farmers' experience. but then dig into obtainable goals and small habits that can then lead to success. But let's start with really what is marketing?
00:02:54
Speaker
When you think about it from a general sense of when you're talking to your farmers, if you're to break it down, what is it? What are sort of the basic elements of marketing? Yeah, it's a great question. Good place to start because, you know,
00:03:09
Speaker
Again, we're going to discuss this a lot, but the word marketing can be very overwhelming. But if we're just to break it down to the basics, marketing, especially for farms, is going to be building your customer list, which is collecting customer information, especially email addresses.
00:03:27
Speaker
It's going to be consistency. So whether that's posting on social media, that's sending emails, whatever course of action you take, consistency is probably one the most important thing or high on that list, it's branding, which I know the word branding, especially in today's age with social media and everybody trying to have their own brand
Consumer Preferences and Local Market Focus
00:03:49
Speaker
can also be a little scary to some farms that I've spoken to, but you are building your own brand and then it's also convenience.
00:03:59
Speaker
So making your farm food readily available, building awareness to your customer base and letting them know that at the end of the day, you exist. And how they can access you.
00:04:10
Speaker
That you exist. That's fair. I appreciate that. I was speaking to a farmer the other day and he was like, oh, I'm terrible at marketing. And and then we talked about what he does. Like, oh, you have an email list and I email everybody regularly. I'm like, well, you're crushing it, right? It's just, you're sort of separating out the word of maybe that word is ah a bit of a faux pas, but the activities are, you have to have a list of customers and their emails so that you can communicate regularly. And I love that.
00:04:36
Speaker
I do think sometimes people miss that last point that you said, which is convenience. I mean, we can send emails and engage customers all day long, but if it's not easy for them to get your food, there has to be an element of, it's sort of like a one-two punch. Like you have customers that email, but it also actually has to be easy to get their food or to get your farm products. So does that mean a local pickup or delivery or something? Because...
00:05:01
Speaker
Consumers, interesting, and Corey, you know this, nine in 10 consumers want local food. Like the demand is just palpable, but sometimes the missing factor, even if you have a great brand, is it's not easy enough to get your food or your product. And so then people just don't bother. And so convenience to shop and get your food is actually truly an element of marketing, right? It's access and convenience and sort of meeting the customers where they're at.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's extremely true. And it's probably the biggest challenge facing most of the farms I speak with. You know, a lot of farms, that convenience factor may be something they haven't put a ton of thought into, or maybe it's just they're at the first point in their business where they're trying to expand their reach and access more customers.
00:05:49
Speaker
Well, if you are looking to access more customers, making that convenience outside of just pick up on your farm is essential. Like unless you're looking to specifically just market to your neighbors, you're probably going to need to look at some different fulfillment options than just on-farm pickup.
00:06:08
Speaker
I was going to say that reminds me because we did ah survey once. We sent it out to, I think, 30,000 buyers and we were asking, hey, how far would you drive for farm food? And the more approximate that the food was to the person, the more likely they were to buy. And so if it was delivered to their door, they would buy.
00:06:25
Speaker
Right. And then, you know, still maybe eight out of 10, if it was to within five miles, like they had to pick it up. And then the further the buyer had to travel, the less likely they were to purchase. It was a really interesting survey. So I do appreciate that.
00:06:39
Speaker
Okay, I want to dig into a little bit of your experience talking to so many farms. You did mention that in some cases, it feels like farmers might be allergic to marketing or overwhelmed at that concept.
00:06:50
Speaker
What does that look like? I mean, are they overwhelmed to find customers? And you you mentioned convenience too, but what about the whole, like, where do I begin piece?
How Can Farmers Tap into Growing Consumer Demand?
00:06:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think the word marketing can just mean so many different things.
00:07:05
Speaker
Like for a farm, it just may not mean the same thing as it would to, you know, like another major corporation, right? Because a lot of times, and for the majority of times, our farms are most successful concentrating on their local loop on, you know, areas within an hour, maybe two hours of driving distance.
00:07:27
Speaker
right? Most of our farms are not trying to cast nationwide nets because at the end of the day, the buzzword is local. That's the whole deal with the people who want to buy from farms. The benefits is knowing where your food came from.
00:07:39
Speaker
So, I mean, that's just the huge part of it is not getting overwhelmed by just the word marketing and knowing that there's some very basic tactics that you can take to expand your reach. But, you know, this is going to be the theme for me and the theme of so many of my conversations with farmers is the best news for you. And the great news is especially where we're at today.
00:08:02
Speaker
People want your products and what you're providing. People want to purchase directly from farms. There's a growing education as to all the benefits that come with buying from a farm. And, you know, if all things were the same, 99 out of 100 people, if you ask them, would you rather purchase from a farm than a grocery store?
00:08:21
Speaker
Those people are going to say, oh well, yeah, I'd would rather purchase from a farm. I'd rather go to a farm to table restaurant, right? The issue is they just don't know how to access that food. If you ask them the same question of, Hey, where would you go to get that farm food?
00:08:37
Speaker
Well, and if you're a farmer, Corey, how do I tap into all that demand? If I'm near a city, even if it's 20 minutes or an hour away, clearly there's an untapped market opportunity.
00:08:48
Speaker
If nine plus out of 10 people want to buy farm food, then if I'm a farmer, how do I tap into
Building Connections through Farmers Markets and Partnerships
00:08:54
Speaker
that? So there's a number of ways. And if you ask some of our farm advisors in Connect, which is a very common question, and even Alex, who leads our grassroots marketing academy, he will always start at You know, the simplest option is the farmer's market, right?
00:09:11
Speaker
The farmer's market allows you an opportunity, not just to generate sales, of course, but the farmer's market allows you to meet people face-to-face.
00:09:22
Speaker
It allows you the ability to collect email addresses, educate people to the fact that you do have a farm store and, you know, continually grow that email list and build your brand. Like people are able to see that you exist,
00:09:36
Speaker
able to meet you, interact, and get a sampling of your farm food. That's a great piece of advice. Start at the farmer's market. It's just sort of a low-hanging fruit in terms of engaging a local community, gathering their emails. I know we hound that whenever you're at a farmer's market.
00:09:52
Speaker
Don't waste the time that you're there. Double up. Make sure you're gathering email the entire time yeah because that email list is gold. It literally becomes your customer list. And then Corey, I know that you also work with farmers who don't go to a farmer's markets and you have had some great recommendations around partner opportunities.
00:10:10
Speaker
Can you share a little bit about that? Again, tapping into that massive demand for local food in nearby cities, how a farmer might go about that if they're not going to a farmer market?
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah. And there's a lot of farms who come to us who are working full-time jobs. You know, outside they have families, they have little kids, they're busy with sports on the weekends, they're working full-time jobs. committing to eight hours of a farmer's market on a Saturday might not be in the cards, even if they're absolutely, they want to do it, they understand the benefits, but maybe that's not in the cards. Okay, let's look at other ways to collect email addresses, which Janelle, you mentioned email addresses are like gold, right? And if you start thinking out about it, that there's a monetary value, like Tom Bennett, another one of our farm advisors will pay
00:10:56
Speaker
his employees at farmers markets, a dollar for every email address they've collected, which I've had a number of farms start to yeah starting to implement. Still worth it. But so farmers markets off the table for you, maybe in the future, but right now you're juggling other things. So one thing I've talked to a number of farms about, let's identify businesses that could be great partnerships, but more specifically businesses where you would have the best chance of identifying customers who would be ideal customers for your farm food.
00:11:31
Speaker
One huge example of that that I talk about quite a bit is gyms. Gyms where, and specifically, i want to be clear here, there's a big difference between like your big chain gyms or local gyms independently owned where you have a better chance of actually talking to the decision maker.
00:11:51
Speaker
You have that point of contact, but also a place where you have a consistent customer base who you know, are spending a lot because they care about taking care of their bodies. And in turn, they're probably more likely to want to spend extra dollars than your average customer on the food.
00:12:09
Speaker
So I've had farms that as simple as putting your QR code, making a nice flyer, just a little outline of who you are, what you guys do. Maybe some of your products available, they have a QR code to go to your signup form within MailChimp, which, you know,
00:12:25
Speaker
sign up for them, ask the enter name and email address, which will immediately go into your barn to door account. hit But even I've had farms reach for deeper opportunities within those gyms as well, where they're all of a sudden they're talking to that point of contact and,
00:12:40
Speaker
they get equally excited. That gym owner, they're excited to be able to offer this new partnership for their customers. Yeah. You just had a farmer the other day you were telling me about. Tell us a little bit about that fun, very recent story. Yeah. i'd brought up the gym conversation with one of my farms and he was intrigued, which a lot of farms, oh, you know, start to think about that. And we'll even pull up Google maps in my meetings, start to look at, you know, all the gyms in your area. Cause you'll be shocked at how many gyms generally there are, but He ended up meeting with a local gym owner and this guy was so excited to have this farm who was supplying farm fresh grass fed beef and he got so excited. Not only did he offer to have the gym as a pickup location, but he's even going to install refrigerator space so the farmer can leave their bundle box orders.
00:13:27
Speaker
So there's going to be a shop online button included in that gym's newsletters on their website. So When you're going in, because you know those customers are already making, if not daily, at least weekly trips to that gym.
00:13:41
Speaker
They can pick up their order, knock out, eliminate a trip to the grocery store, and now they've got the best quality protein that their money can buy. We love that. I have so many questions, but in that same vein, when you and I were talking before, you talked a bit about what we call here at Barns-O-Dor ICPs, which is your ideal customer profile. Really what we're talking about is when you're talking about a gym, you've just locked in on pretty obvious buyer example of somebody who wants to eat healthy local meat, right? And so tapping into gems, like farmers markets are the same thing, right? You know that people go to a farmers market because they really want to support local farmers and eat healthy.
00:14:21
Speaker
Gyms, same thing. People are trying to work out. They're being sensitive about what they're putting in their body. So ah that's just another great example of, hey, these are pretty likely buyers. So it's a good target audience.
00:14:34
Speaker
You want to add to that in terms of farmers thinking about where are my buyers that I can then tap into?
Identifying and Targeting Ideal Customer Profiles
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah. And it's a really powerful exercise to take the time to go through that ideal customer profile.
00:14:48
Speaker
Who has been historically my best customer? Who do I think would be my best customer? And so the gym person, that's a very obvious example that we've already hit on. Another one that's very common is what we refer to as your suburban Sally.
00:15:04
Speaker
Your mom with kids who enjoys cooking and providing the best possible nutrition for her family is willing to spend, you know, maybe that extra dollars to buy directly from a farm. But most importantly with that is That's the kind of customer who wants to share with other people that they're purchasing from a farm, which that word of mouth can be the strongest marketing a farm can have. If you have other people who have experienced your products and really enjoyed it, they're going to be excited. I mean, I know from my own conversations with friends, family, if people buy food directly from farm, like no one, you know, says they got great steaks from the grocery store, right?
00:15:43
Speaker
But if they get great steaks from a farmer's market or directly from a farm, they want to tell everyone about that. Agreed. Right. So that can just be an awesome exercise. Okay. Or maybe I'm going after Allergy Allen, right?
00:15:57
Speaker
You know, the folks who have to eat a certain way, you know, they're on a high protein carnivore diet, keto, which is becoming increasingly more common. So they want the best quality of protein available to them. How do I identify them?
00:16:13
Speaker
So it's not just gyms, but, you know, where does Suburban Salat go? Schools, churches, coffee shops, bakeries. These are all businesses kind of in your local loop that you can start to identify.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, well, you've said so many rich things there. I think you mentioned if there are particular trends or buzzwords in sort of the dietary health conscious eating realm, whether it's keto, paleo, whether people want non-GMO or whether they are soy-free, corn-free,
00:16:44
Speaker
We definitely have farmers that are promoting soy-free, corn-free eggs and being able to charge a premium for that. So thinking of trends is kind of a whole other layer. But when we're getting back to, you said, sort of the profiles of people, we have people who go to the farmer market. We have people who go to the gym.
00:17:00
Speaker
I loved your local loop, you know, people that are going to the bakery, the coffee shop, the school. Can you say a little more about what you mean when you say the word local loop in terms of accessing local buyers? Yeah.
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah, so local loop, meaning places where customers who, again, would be ideal customers for you would likely also visit, right? And so identifying those and what we talked about, okay, getting a QR code, a signup form. and Again, by QR code, this is a QR code that will go directly to a signup form. So all someone would have to do is pull out their phone, scan that QR code,
00:17:37
Speaker
They're entering in their name and email address and you are immediately getting notified that you have that information and then you can you know follow up with marketing emails. But yes, like your local loop, I named those examples, schools, churches.
00:17:51
Speaker
Another big one is, all right, who else would be a sufficient partner? Local grocery stores and not chain grocery stores, but we have a lot of farms who have identified like independently owned grocery stores that maybe have a bigger focus.
00:18:07
Speaker
on health or organic products or sustainably raised and produced products that have a similar customer base. So there is a partnership there where we've had farms who have used refrigerator space at maybe an independent grocery store for drop-offs of their bundle boxes or CSAs.
00:18:27
Speaker
In exchange for that refrigerator space, you're bringing in customers and foot traffic through the door that already making this decision to buy from you they're probably more likely to want to shop at that grocery store than versus, you know, your big chain Walmart or something like that.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good reminder if you're thinking through potential local partnerships to have us pick up locations or drop sites or meet up locations to think about the smaller businesses that are similar to a farm running a business, but who can make a more thoughtful, quick decision to support and partner.
00:19:02
Speaker
Sometimes if you're doing the big box, like huge national gyms or national chains or whatnot, there's so many hoops to go through for them to even potentially get permission for something like that.
00:19:13
Speaker
And, you know, in many cases, sometimes they'll have different priorities as well. So it's good to be thinking about those ideal partners. It's funny you say that, Corey, you just made me remember, but probably ah decadeck decade eight or two ago, I used to pick up farm boxes, bundle boxes at a local urban farm store, because I had backyard chickens, and I bought my feed there. But that didn't mean I had grass fed beef or pork or produce, etc. So I was happy to pick up additional farm food from an eating perspective beyond my own backyard chickens. So yeah, all of those are great opportunities.
00:19:46
Speaker
And we sometimes say local loop when we're hanging around talking about marketing and farmers at Barn to Door. Because it's sort of synonymous with, hey, if you were going to go drive a loop in your neighborhood, you know, or in a neighborhood in a city near you in order to deliver and offer pickups, etc.
00:20:04
Speaker
Where could that loop be that works for you as a farmer and create some efficiency from a delivery and pickup perspective? But that is made up of these ideal partners to meet your ideal customers. yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
Really, really powerful. I have to double click on, you mentioned Suburban Sally. It's kind of a way to help farmers. I know in many of our academy classes, or if you're meeting with Corey or one of our other account managers, they might speak about, you know, who are your ideal customers? Is it, you know, the mom that lives in a suburban enclave? Is it people in a high rise in a city? Is it the folks who are going to the gym or church, et cetera? But in the case of Suburban Sally, Corey's right.
00:20:44
Speaker
If you have moms with children who are often the decision maker when it comes to food in a family, you can hook into their school sometimes, or if you hook into deliveries in a really tight, specific neighborhood, you can be really efficient with your deliveries and they will talk
Effective Customer Engagement and Word-of-Mouth Strategy
00:21:01
Speaker
about food. I mean, if you go to Instagram,
00:21:03
Speaker
What are you going to see pictures of? People are taking photos of food. Like if food is the most, I think, pictured or photographed or shared item through social media, like talk about an advantage for an industry and sharing to other friends in the neighborhood, et cetera. Like there's a real opportunity for that sort of online word of mouth that can be really rapid fire. Do you see some of that, Cori?
00:21:27
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Those are my interests. I'm involved in that world. I'm you know huge on looking at food content. But again, and that word of mouth is probably the most powerful marketing tactic you have, because it's one thing for me to just read a flyer or you know see an advertisement. But if someone I trust is directly telling me, you have to try this. I ordered this bundle box. I got It was the freshest, you know, most tender steaks or the best chicken or man.
00:21:58
Speaker
You buy eggs directly from a farm. You can tell the difference. I'm telling you, right? When you hear that directly from someone you trust, that's a much more powerful marketing tactic and way more persuasive than any other form of advertising.
00:22:13
Speaker
And so that's something I also encourage farms to do is, you know, because all this comes down to like, especially a lot of the newer farms, like I'm not giving you all these tactics where you're going to have to spend you know thousands of dollars on marketing. So let's look at some low cost or even free ways we can spread that word. So when someone does order from you, ask them, you know hey, it would mean a ton if you posted your order on social media or you know maybe if you cooked with it and shared that content.
00:22:43
Speaker
Because again, people want to support you as a farmer. No one has a negative perception of farmers. They're purchasing from you because They value all those things we've talked about, the sustainability, the care for animals, the quality.
00:22:58
Speaker
So it's not going to hurt like asking for that support. Hey, it means so much that you order from us. If you could tell a friend or post your order on social media, mean the world. And people generally respond to that. I've seen farms have a lot of success with just asking things from their customers and those customers showing their appreciation for their farmer and responding in that way.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah, totally agree. And then tagging the farmer when they're doing that. And they people do that naturally. And I know when farmers get set up on Barn to Door, the onboarding manager makes sure that they have their Instagram, like so you can click and go shop from them, whether you're they're going to Instagram or Facebook or through a newsletter.
00:23:36
Speaker
You even mentioned MailChimp once. So Barn to Door, for those of those who might not know who are listening, Barn to Door has a full integration with MailChimp, which means to Corey's point, if you have a QR code or you're gathering emails online,
00:23:50
Speaker
That's both populating into MailChimp and to your bar-to-door account, which also includes every customer who's ever purchased from you. So really powerful to just, you if you just set these things up once, then sort of all roads lead to Rome, right? They all lead to that farm store.
00:24:06
Speaker
including through all those digital pathways. So really important to do that. Yeah. Those moms, those suburban moms want to feed their kids chemical free food last I checked. And so they get excited and guess what? Then they have their neighbors over for dinner and then they're putting a steak on the grill and they're like Oh my gosh, this is amazing. And then what are they going to say every single time?
00:24:24
Speaker
It's from the farmer, right? Because it's so good. And so it just is a natural part of sharing and conversation and Really, once you start with those door-to-door deliveries or local pickups and people start to share, that's where we have farmers come in all the time like, wow, you know, I got this going.
00:24:40
Speaker
You know, it takes a minute. You have to keep at it from a consistency and a habit perspective. But over time, you'll hear farmers saying, wow, I had like three new people or 10 new people buy from me this week that I didn't even know.
00:24:52
Speaker
And so you have to kind of give time for that word of mouth. But it's pretty incredible to see that build up. Corey, in terms of building up emails, so we talked about gathering emails at farmer's markets, because again, that email list is your customer list. So you want to be building it at all times and then sending emails to communicate.
00:25:11
Speaker
So you can get in farmer's markets, you're going to have your QR codes or sign up sheets at the gym or anywhere where you're partnering online. How are we gathering emails online, right? That's another place like, so maybe I'm just getting started. and I need to start getting emails online. How do I do that?
00:25:28
Speaker
So I referenced several times the QR code, which is a physical form of marketing, right? That's something you're putting on a flyer and I'm scanning on my cell phone and that's going to a sign up form.
00:25:40
Speaker
Same thing in MailChimp. There's a way to share that form via online. And so in your MailChimp account, you can work with your farm account manager to access that. But being able to Post that link directly on like your Facebook or putting it in your Instagram bio and using a link tree on Instagram since only lets you have one link and we want to have your website store and sign up for them in there.
00:26:03
Speaker
But people click on that, enter their name and email address. Now, going a little bit deeper, getting creative with marketing. I have seen a ton of success with farms doing fun, entertaining things.
00:26:18
Speaker
to incentivize people to sign up for their email list because we all get asked to subscribe to various email lists. But I've had farms that'll post their signup form on their Facebook and do, hey, by the end of the month, we're going to be giving away 10 pounds of farm fresh ground beef and a couple of steaks to two new signups by the end of the month.
00:26:40
Speaker
And so doing little giveaways or raffle, I mean, I've even had farms that do bulk beef, to big giveaways like freezer giveaways in exchange for email addresses. And so, yes, you're giving away essentially product, right? Which has value to it, but we already referenced email addresses. And if you start to view those email addresses as having dollar values to them, you know, that exchange for the product is going to be more than worth it.
00:27:09
Speaker
If you're, you know, setting goals and starting to achieve that consistent email collection. That's awesome. I love all the examples of collecting emails. And there's so much to talk about here.
00:27:20
Speaker
First, I want to talk about some of the myths, because I know that that's an interesting piece. When farmers come to you and there's things that are like, hey, this is what I think is true. And the answer is like, actually, it might not be exactly like that. Let's think about that differently.
Dispelling Common Marketing Myths
00:27:33
Speaker
I kind of want to run through some quote unquote myths. And then want to make sure at the end, before we sort of quote unquote, hang up the phone that we talk about consistency, because I know that you talk a lot about consistency with farmers as well, in terms of really building that crescendo of customer loyalty, regular purchasing and marketing for success.
00:27:52
Speaker
But first let's dig into myths. I'll throw some out of you and you can give me your commentary because I know you have all these conversations daily. Is the website enough? Myth number one, if I have a website, they will come.
00:28:06
Speaker
Unfortunately not. I wish it was. It's a great place for people to learn about you. But in today's world, especially where AI has kind of taken the place of ah SEO, which is having a website out there, not always enough. Much more success just actually driving people to your store and promoting your store and trying to directly tell people where to go.
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah, a website is literally a needle in a haystack if you think about how many websites are online and how would somebody even know it was there. It's sort of like if you want them to find the needle, you need a bright red thread that you hang out of the haystack that somebody grabs onto. And that might be through an email or through social media comment or post. And then they follow it and do find your needles.
00:28:50
Speaker
but it's there for them to go to, but you have to put the work in to get them there. And what are some of the ways that sort of top of mind, Corey, if I have a website built, how am going to drive people there?
00:29:01
Speaker
So including your website on pretty much everything, going back to the branding conversation. I mean, you want all your online channels to drive people, whether back to your Facebook or your website, but all of them interconnected. So I'm going to have a link to my Website and store on my Facebook, on my Instagram. If I do TikTok or any other social channels, going to have my Facebook on my website.
00:29:26
Speaker
So everything's kind of circling back to each other. But, you know, going from your packaging to business cards to postcards, having your website there. If you are a farmer that's doing a farmer's market, you have your QR code to your signup form. You have it very clear that you have a website where customers can go.
00:29:47
Speaker
So yeah, getting your website out in as many places as possible, because again, it's going to be very difficult for people to just find it on their own. Randomly find it. Yeah. And I think the important thing to shout out here is when we say quote unquote website, we really mean store. Right.
00:30:04
Speaker
Right. I mean, the whole point of marketing is to drive sales. So the whole point of marketing, we used to say, because a lot of times farmers will come to us knowing and being told by friends, like get a website. And it's like,
00:30:17
Speaker
But if there's no way to buy from you, what's the point? I think internally, we sometimes call that the billboard to nowhere. Like i have a big billboard, but I can't shop from you. So then you've lost that engaged customer because there's no call to action. There's no way to actually transact.
00:30:29
Speaker
And so the whole point of driving everybody to your website is actually to drive them to your store. to then make a purchase right when they're hot and interested and looking and reading and learning about your farm.
00:30:41
Speaker
That's the ideal time for them to make that first transaction or to find you or to get added to the email list so they can buy. Absolutely. And people have very short attention spans online. yeah So posting directly to the store link and getting them there.
00:30:57
Speaker
Again, there's a reason Amazon doesn't have a ton of other things going on on their website. Like it's very focused on Going there, making it easy to purchase byproducts because people have a very short attention span and can exit out and get buyer fatigue pretty quickly.
00:31:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting you say that when you go to Amazon, you're not going through a landing page to then go click to their store. You're just going straight to the store every time, right? And I think when farmers are sending out newsletters, especially because we have that integration with MailChimp, is they are adding items from their store right into those newsletters. They're not going to the website first. They're just going to go shop, right? So they're literally skipping the website and just going straight to the store in many, many cases, especially Once they know you as a farm, it's just like, I'm going straight to the store. And and if I want to see lovely pictures of your farm, they'll probably see that on social media.
00:31:47
Speaker
But it is important to have that branding landing page or billboard, if you will, for especially first timers who are showing interest in your farm. Okay. I have another myth. Okay. Website is enough was myth number one.
00:32:00
Speaker
Myth number two, on-farm pickup is enough. Again, unfortunately going to say that is a myth as well. Unless, again, unless you're totally cool. And you live in an amazing neighborhood and your farm smack dab in the middle of a bustling metropolitan area with a lot of neighbors.
00:32:18
Speaker
But yeah, for most farmers, your buyers are out there, but a lot of them just don't even have the ability or the time to get to your farm to pick up their food. They
Enhancing Customer Convenience for Increased Sales
00:32:28
Speaker
want it. Yeah. Even if they are good intention. Yeah, exactly. Like maybe they would love to come to your farm And they probably would, but they just do not have the time.
00:32:36
Speaker
I'm a perfect example. As are you, Janelle, we work full-time jobs. I would love to spend more time at farms and going to pick up food. I want that food, but I'm at a desk all day.
00:32:47
Speaker
I will pay you money to bring it to me because I want the food so bad. I will pay you 10 or 15 or $20 to deliver it all day, every day, because I know how valuable it is. And unfortunately, but a lot of times too, you talk about frequency, right? Like if on-farm pickup is the only option, I probably, even when I was a young mother with little kids running around,
00:33:06
Speaker
you know Maybe once or twice a month I would do that. right Whereas if it's weekly delivery, I'm buying every single week. Or I'm subscribing to the eggs or the milk or the beef or the pork because it's consistent. I need it that often. I'd rather buy from you than the grocery store. I don't want to backfill at the grocery store.
00:33:22
Speaker
I want to buy from the farmer every single time, not just on the rare occasion I can go to the farm. So... Interestingly, statistically, it absolutely increases sales when you are offering pickup or delivery directly in communities versus only on farm as the option. Well, it also gives you the ability to get more brand awareness out there. That's fair. Right.
00:33:43
Speaker
And, you know, you leave the farm, whether you're doing deliveries and maybe even have your farm logo on your truck. A lot of our farms will even have their QR on their truck or You're leaving boxes on doorsteps or doing pickups and people are seeing those boxes and being like, what's my neighbor getting? That looks awesome. It is awesome. get a box of food on their doorstep. So yeah, not just the convenience factor, but it's a great opportunity to just, you know, get some brand visibility out there.
00:34:10
Speaker
You are so spot on. Yes. Neighbors can create FOMO. And when I see somebody else getting farm eggs or getting chickens from a farmer, I want that too. Okay, I have another myth, if you will, just because we run into these a lot and it's good to discuss.
00:34:25
Speaker
And so I guess really when it comes to fulfillments in some cases, I know you talk a lot about this, but farmers saying, hey, customers are just like me. I know you have sort of that opposite conversation at times. Like, you know, customers want what I want.
00:34:37
Speaker
Right. Yeah. It's a very common thing I share with some of my farmers that you're not your own ideal customer. So when it comes to convenience, you know, i will have this conversation with farmers quite a bit.
00:34:48
Speaker
hey, how often are you ordering food? a lot of times for those farmers, it's almost never. For myself who lives in a city, I have neighbors who order food every single night and they're paying 50% of their total check in delivery fees and tips. So a meal that would cost them $15 to pick up, even if it's right around the corner, they're paying $30 to get it directly to their door.
00:35:12
Speaker
So that's a huge example. Like I promise you, There's people out there who want your products who will pay the increased price. The reason they're not buying from you is not because of price. I can assure you that they are willing to pay that charge. Can we say that again?
00:35:27
Speaker
Say that again. The reason people are not purchasing from you is not because of price I think that's astonishing to a lot of farmers, to be fair. And I agree in some ways, right? Like it's ridiculous that we would pay $15, including delivery and tip, to get my $15 dinner delivered, which is the example you gave.
00:35:47
Speaker
But to your point, quote unquote, money is not the issue for folks. And these are the people that want to buy farm food. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And we've talked about emails and MailChimp where so many industries are driven by click now, 50% off, flash sale, buy one, get one free.
00:36:04
Speaker
That is not the marketing I've seen be successful with farms. Because again, it's not a price driven decision for customers. They're buying, they are consciously knowing that if they purchase from a farm, they're probably going to be spending more and want to spend more than they would if they were going directly to the grocery store, because they're paying for quality. They're paying for products that were sustainably raised, where the animals were cared for, you know, and has all these beneficial impacts on the environment and the nutrition aspects of it. So there's a reason the nicest, most renowned restaurants in this country are farm to table restaurants and people are wanting that product. and it's not because of price. so that's not influencing their buying decisions as much as we may think.
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah. Happy to pay just has to be easy, right? Yep, exactly. Exactly. Okay, next mess. Wow, we had a list of these, Corey, going into this conversation. I have to ship because there aren't enough customers near me.
00:36:58
Speaker
I think we're on myth number four, that I have to ship. Yeah, I can breeze through this one. it is not the case. Not the case. A lot of times yeah farms can look into shipping and find out pretty quickly. It's just not the best solution for their farm.
00:37:14
Speaker
One, unless you're ready to market, you know, marketing on a local level is, difficult enough. And we've shared some of the things you can do, but you may need to be prepared to market on a nationwide level if you're looking to.
00:37:30
Speaker
Where do you even start? Exactly. Yeah. From a shipping perspective, that's just a whole nut to crack. There are whole companies that are still trying to figure out how to market nationally. That is just crazy to think about.
00:37:41
Speaker
So yeah, start small, start local. But I think importantly, and it's not that shipping's bad. i mean, we have farms that certainly ship in addition to local delivery pickup. And frankly, a lot of those people who do ship, they already know the buyer on the other end. So that's just sort of an extension of what they already do.
00:37:57
Speaker
But there are true costs associated with shipping that are worth considering. And that's probably a different podcast for another time in terms of you know, what it means to be in the shipping business.
00:38:07
Speaker
But if we pull it back to, I have to ship because there's not enough customers near me. i think you were giving an example the other day of Will Harris. What was that? Yeah. And the Will Harris example resonated with me and just hit me very hard when I was listening to his book.
00:38:24
Speaker
And, you know, at this point, Will Harris is one of the most recognizable independent farms in this country, right? He's been a major influencer for regenerative farming, And he used the example that if he were to dedicate all of his production, which is huge, huge. I mean, his ground beef is in the Publix here in Nashville. He's had partnerships with Whole Foods.
00:38:48
Speaker
And if all his production went to a set group of people, he could sustain about 16,000 families, right? 16,000 families. That's a lot.
00:38:59
Speaker
But at the end of the day, like if you think about it town of 16,000? Consider a you know relatively small or maybe mid-sized town, not even considered a city.
00:39:10
Speaker
So again, I think a lot of farms can look at the fact like, well, I don't live near a major city or I'm three hours away from the nearest major city. I can assure you everybody eats your town of you know even 10,000 or 50,000 is more than enough customers.
00:39:29
Speaker
You can be extremely successful you know, sectioning off just a little portion of that. Yeah, it's really good to think about, like the customers are there locally and whether you're trying to market locally or nationally, it's all it's a marketing exercise and actually starting by focusing local, you're actually quote unquote starting small. You're actually starting very focused in terms of where you're going to market, where you might do pickups or deliveries or where your partnerships may be. So it can be a pretty focused exercise to get started for farmers.
Consistency in Marketing Efforts
00:40:01
Speaker
Let's talk a little bit then about consistency and small steps because I know You often speak to this in terms of farms, like, hey, let's just you know move the overwhelm aside. Let's start small.
00:40:12
Speaker
I think we had a conversation the other day the word consistency came up multiple times. So speak to that and how you're talking to farms, especially if they're exercising that muscle for the first time or getting comfortable with marketing locally and how to begin and then grow that.
00:40:27
Speaker
Consistency such a key thing. And it's the simplest thing you could do, but also... one of the most important things you could do, whether that's consistently posting on Facebook or social media or sending out that weekly email.
00:40:43
Speaker
I use the example, I could be on Facebook and be on a page that has 50,000 followers. If they haven't posted in a year and a half, I'm not even going to be positive they're still in business. I'm going to be extremely hesitant to place an order and probably not going to.
00:40:59
Speaker
I go to a page that has 50 followers, They're posting every day or every other day. They're posting pictures. It's clearly written by someone. I can tell there's someone behind it and they're clearly directing me where I can place my order and how I'm going to get my order. i'm much more likely to purchase from that business than the one with 50,000 followers and not posting.
00:41:20
Speaker
But same thing, consistency with emails. I have farms that will tell me like, they'll ask, well, how often do you send these newsletters? And I'll tell them, well, You know, we recommend our farms that see the best results send weekly newsletters.
00:41:34
Speaker
And for them, which is I understand, like they feel like that can be, they're inundating customers. That's too much. Again, goes back to you're not your own ideal customer. I understand as a farmer, you're out all day. You may only check your email once in the morning or once in the evening.
00:41:51
Speaker
But again, there's a lot of customers like myself who are on a computer. They have their email inbox open all day. The best way to communicate with them is via email address or sending emails.
00:42:02
Speaker
I'm just, I'm laughing because I, at some point along the way, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think email inboxes became like a Twitter feed, right? If a farmer's emailing their customer list once a week and they don't see it that day or within a couple of days, they're not going to ever see that one.
00:42:18
Speaker
But if you email again the week later, maybe they'll happen to check their inbox at the right time and see the email. right It's sort of like what's at the top of the inbox because if it's 100 emails below, it's not getting looked at. right I mean, it's like if you are emailing them the once a week, they're not going to open every single one. It's just being up in front of them and staying top of mind for that time that they will go check it. It's just like Instagram or Twitter. you know When you open it up, you're just seeing what's at the top.
00:42:43
Speaker
100%. And it's also important on that note, Janelle, for farmers not to get discouraged. consistency also means that, you know, if you're not seeing that immediate results, it doesn't mean you give up, right? And I'll use this example because on top of MailChimp, in barn to door, you have the ability to set automated order reminders.
00:43:03
Speaker
So set it and forget it weekly reminder with just a button and a little message to drive your customers into the store. Because again, average American shops twice a week for groceries. So I promise you're not inundating them with that, but order reminders, MailChimp, if you don't have lines in the water, you're not going to get a bite.
00:43:22
Speaker
So it's extremely important to be consistent with that. Yeah, I appreciate that. Consistency is important. I remember a few years back talking with a farmer and like we kind of pulled teeth actually to have him do a pickup drop or like a meetup drop. And he did it one time and he's like, nope, there weren't enough people. i'm not going to do it again.
00:43:38
Speaker
and I just wanted to kind of beat my head against a wall because He's right. Like one time isn't enough when you're offering a pickup or a delivery. And part of that is because you have to build the consistency for people to then lock hook into that habit.
00:43:54
Speaker
Right. So if a neighbor's buying from you, it might take the next neighbor a couple of weeks and the next neighbor a couple of weeks, but pretty soon it builds up over time. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, once a month I get my poultry for my farmer and it becomes their routine.
00:44:07
Speaker
But you have to provide the routine for the customers to then sort of hook into. I don't know if you speak to that with farmers, but I know that consistency is a big deal. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, and that's a tough thing when it comes to like deliveries where farms, it's kind of the chicken and the egg.
00:44:24
Speaker
Do I offer delivery first or can I get 20 customers to commit to before I offer delivery? Cause I don't want to just do one delivery and I get it. That's a really tough challenge, but you know,
00:44:35
Speaker
It's not foreign to other businesses as well. Sometimes you got to start small and really build up that routine and habit and it'll come, but it may take some time. Yeah. And I think the important thing to note there is, you know, start with the pickup location. It might only be three people, but with the goal of, hey, I want to grow to 10 and then I want to grow to 20.
00:44:57
Speaker
And if you're leaning into that and you're asking those three people to share or you're, you know, collecting emails in that area whatever else, then you're growing it. So, Yes, it might not, quote unquote, feel worse at the first few times, right? Or the first couple of weeks or deliveries or whatever else.
00:45:13
Speaker
But it is because you're actually investing in the long-term goal. Exactly. Awesome. Okay.
Best Practices for Social Media and Email Marketing
00:45:20
Speaker
So what does success look like across, like if I'm a farmer, I come into you and you're like, okay, here's the best practices across a variety of marketing mechanisms.
00:45:29
Speaker
If I'm a farmer, what does success look like on social? What would you recommend? Like how often do I post? Do I have to post? My baseline for success on social media is posting three to four times per week.
00:45:43
Speaker
We use something in especially talked about in our actual social media academy that we offer but the three e's entertain educate e-commerce so you have a really great blend of providing social media content just about the farm because people love seeing pictures of just the animals or the day-to-day people are interested in what goes on at farms most people are very interested in seeing that so having that content with a mixture of actually promoting your store. But if a farm is doing consistently three to four posts per week, and I have some farms that are posting every single day, sometimes even twice a day, which is awesome. But if you can just set yourself a little goal, like three to four posts a week, I think that's a great baseline to start seeing some results.
00:46:31
Speaker
Well, and you don't have to be a design specialist or a media specialist or a marketing guru to just snap a photo on your farm. The interesting thing is, i don't know if many listeners know, if you're one of our farmers, you probably do, but we offer a marketing toolkit, which is essentially a monthly marketing packet for farmers that includes 50 plus graphic designs that are beautifully done by our design team for social media. it includes four to six pre-made seasonal MailChimp newsletters,
00:46:59
Speaker
and draft content for the newsletters and for social media posts. So it's sort of like it's the marketing kit. But at the end of the day, even with that kit, and we try to do like 90% of it, we can't be there to take a picture of when the cow was born, right? Or when you're starting a brand new project or literally creating a new greenhouse or starting a new plant, like trying to grow a new variety of something.
00:47:22
Speaker
Those are the pieces that draw your local customers to you and make it about you and your firm and your brand. That's unique. That's so important. And people love it and can delight in it, but it doesn't have to be fancy. It can be casual.
00:47:35
Speaker
And even if it's once or twice a week, just make sure your social media has a heartbeat, right? Or, you know, get our toolkit because it's amazing. And that can just help you get there in terms of minimizing the time required to do that.
00:47:47
Speaker
But yeah, social media is good. Did you have a final word on that? Yeah, just that you don't need to stress yourself out trying to come up. you know No one's expecting you to be this incredible social media marketer doing all your own design content. I have so many farmers who are saving so much time posting the stuff off the marketing toolkit as well as just you know taking a fun video of what's going on with the cows or the baby lambs. Mix it up. you know I have farms that like some of my favorite posts are just when farms do spread out all the packaged meat, what would be in a quarter cow. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's such a good post. you
00:48:24
Speaker
You're educating buyers, letting them know exactly how much beef's in a quarter. It's fun to look at. It gets them excited, encourages people to buy. So some simple things like that can be so effective.
00:48:36
Speaker
Absolutely. I love it when people lay out the CSA box. Dirty Girl in California does such a good job of that with his produce. It's beautiful. Okay. And then emails, you said once a week, do they need to be long?
00:48:47
Speaker
No. No, email length can be totally at your own discretion. Like we have some farms that will send lengthy emails and they'll almost use it as a journal to build a brand connection or just a connection with their customers. Well, they'll lay out what's going on with their family on the farm, what they did. They'll share the great things and they'll also share the hardships of being a farmer so people can start to connect with them because there are a lot of challenges that go on with the farm and some farms are super transparent.
00:49:15
Speaker
And then we have some farms that, you know, can be equally successful. Hey, here's a couple of fun facts that happened on the farm, or here's a couple of cool nutritional facts, or this is how much protein's in a pack of my primal ground beef. And then they'll include, you know, they banked two or three photos from that week, and then they're including two products or so to link in with a couple store buttons. So if you're spending hours upon hours doing your one email a week,
00:49:42
Speaker
I would encourage you to meet with us or take a look at the marketing toolkit or come to office hours because, you know, you don't have the time being a farmer to be spending, you know, four or five hours a week on one email.
00:49:54
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. And no, it shouldn't take that much time. So shorter and sweeter can be fine if you want to throw in a longer one and every so often great. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with farms who started with once month newsletters and then quickly shifted to once a week. And that consistency again in communicating with the buyers has been a game changer.
00:50:15
Speaker
They refuse even miss once a week because it literally brings in sales every single time. I think two other best practices, have an online store and have some local pickup or delivery options.
00:50:26
Speaker
Any thought on that?
Converting Efforts into Sales and Setting Realistic Goals
00:50:27
Speaker
Online store, absolutely. Absolutely. At the end of the day, we want a place to direct all our marketing efforts, right? All our marketing efforts are pointing people to go to the online store.
00:50:38
Speaker
That's the end goal, whether it's all the things we've talked about, flyers, posting on social media, newsletters. The finish line is the online store. And getting all these efforts are to get people to go into your store, add stuff to the cart and check out.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yep. It's a game changer. We've seen it change so many farm businesses for the better. It's incredible. Awesome. Okay. Anything else, Corey, before we peel off? I know we've talked about so many good things.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah. i mean, I think if there's one big takeaway for me, you know, it is the consistency, social media, newsletters, every farm's going to have different results, but if you're not doing anything, you know, you're not going to see the results. You're That's fair.
00:51:25
Speaker
You know, again, it's not enough to have a website and store. Having a bar-to-door store is an incredible thing. But, you know, you have to take the tactics to let people know that you do have that online store.
00:51:38
Speaker
So just being consistent with it and persevering and, you know, relying on all these tools that are here for you. Yeah, i I love what you're saying. There is a little bit of what you put into it is what you get out of it. And we didn't even brush by a sort of paid social. You and I talked about that earlier, but if you just look back on the entire podcast, we didn't even talk about paid social. We literally talked about all of the marketing efforts through social media, email, newsletter, local partners, you know local business partners, QR codes, farmers markets, et cetera, all of which are primarily free, organic, you know, grassroots marketing truly, which is really exciting. And and the majority of farms don't do paid and are having thriving great success if they're just putting many of these tactics in place.
00:52:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great point. But I just want to say, like, I know a lot of this is a lot of information. It can be a little overwhelming, but start where you can start. I talk to farms all the time. Hey, set a benchmark for yourself that you can achieve.
00:52:37
Speaker
Like, even if that's five emails, 10 emails a month, That's awesome. That's going to accumulate over time. Don't put all this pressure on yourself that you have to have a thousand followers in a month. Or if you don't have 250 emails in a couple of weeks, you're not doing well.
00:52:53
Speaker
You're a busy farmer. Celebrate the wins. Like you get five email addresses in a week. That's awesome. That's five potential customers. So give yourself some credit.
00:53:04
Speaker
There's places you can start and start, you know, building the foundation. I love that. I love it when you say celebrate the wins because it is make small achievable goals and then celebrate, right? It's a long game. It's not a short game, right? I guess is another way to think about it, but start putting that one foot in front of the other.
00:53:20
Speaker
The other thing you mentioned, and I just want to say right before we peel off is you did mention Academy and frankly office
Resources and Support Offered by Barn to Door
00:53:26
Speaker
hours. So for farmers who are using Barn to Door or even thinking about using Barn to Door, it's good to know from a resource perspective You can meet with Corey and other account managers similar to him in office hours. We literally offer twice a day, any day of the week, so that you can meet directly with folks who, like Corey, talk to farms all day, every day, and are literally swapping ideas with farmers to help with the whole goal of helping farmers be successful, driving sales and building loyalty in their local communities. So really powerful. Again, that's one-on-one office hours. so
00:53:59
Speaker
And then separately, we mentioned a few times, academy classes. Yes, Barn to Door offers academy classes for everything from grassroots marketing to social media, email marketing, and more. Interestingly, we're going to have a podcast on that in the next couple of weeks with Alex from Chucktown Acres, who teaches our grassroots academy class.
00:54:16
Speaker
So listen to that one if you want to learn more information on the academy classes. They're short and sweet, but really high value with typically 25 plus other farmers and just very rich conversations.
00:54:26
Speaker
So with that in mind, I want to extend my thanks to Corey for joining us on this week's podcast episode and for sharing what he's learned ah and coached across hundreds of now very successful farmers.
00:54:37
Speaker
Again, if you want to meet with members of the Barn to Door success team like Corey, daily office hours twice a day, Monday through Friday, any day of the week. Here Barn to Door, we're humbled to support thousands of independent farmers across the country. We're delighted to offer services and tools to help farmers access more customers, increase sales, crush marketing, and save time for their business.
00:54:56
Speaker
If you're an independent farmer just getting started transitioning to selling direct, or if you've been at it a while and want to simplify your business, check out barn2door.com backslash learn more. Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
00:55:20
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.
00:55:35
Speaker
You are the backbone of our country. For free farm resources or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barntodore.com backslash resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.