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Attracting Local Buyers to your Online Farm Store
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In this week’s episode, Ryan from the Barn2Door Success Team (who talks all day everyday with Independent Farmers!) discusses tips for Farmers' online store(s). Hear what he recommends for Farmers selling direct into their local communities.
For more Farm resources, visit: barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction to the 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.
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.
Business Tools for Farmers
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm James, the Chief Operating Officer at Barnador and your host for today's episode. As many of our listeners are aware, Barnador offers an all-in-one business solution for independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman and taking control of their business, selling under their brand,
00:00:58
Speaker
and making sure their customers can purchase easily online and in-person. In today's conversation, we're going to be getting into the best practices for your farm storefront. How do you make it easy for buyers to purchase from your farm?
00:01:11
Speaker
And today I'm happy to welcome Brian Grace, one of our account managers on the success team. Brian works with farms all across the country to ensure that they have a successful business and implement the best practices to spur growth while streamlining their operations.
00:01:25
Speaker
So we're going to dive in real quickly here and get started with Ryan and talk about auditing farm storefronts to ensure that they're convenient.
Role of an Account Manager
00:01:31
Speaker
Welcome back, Ryan. It's great to see you. Thanks so much, James. It's pleasure be here.
00:01:36
Speaker
Well, before we dive in on this topic, Ryan, let's hear a little bit more about yourself. You've been at Barn to Door now almost for one year. I think two weeks from now is your one-year anniversary. Congratulations. Yeah, it's coming up. It's been awesome.
00:01:47
Speaker
It's definitely been a ah great learning lesson and Man, it's been really rewarding seeing some of the farms I started off with and where they're at today. So I love it. That's awesome. Well, tell us little bit about your experience working at Barnador culturally. Like, how have you enjoyed working with your team? i know you've got a great team over there the success team.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I've worked in a lot of industries and being able to come in here, Barnador has been incredible. The team, I've been great friends to me. And even with the farmers, I mean, there's few better things than being able to work with the farm.
00:02:17
Speaker
and watch what we do really help change their life has been one of the more fulfilling jobs I've had. So it's something that I know a lot of us here at Barnador are passionate about. When you get to see it firsthand and see some of these life-changing things that take place, it's it's really special.
00:02:32
Speaker
It is a really special experience. Like you said, you know, there's a lot of ways to make money, but to do something that's so tangible, like you said, and life-changing, that's a really great way to describe it, to hear the impacts that this can have for farmers. It's a big deal.
00:02:45
Speaker
Well, for listeners who don't know what your role is at Barnador, why don't you share a little bit more about what an account manager does at Barnador? After a farm gets onboarded, what's it look like? Yeah, we like to describe ourselves as a guide per se. So being able to work with hundreds of farmers across the country,
00:03:02
Speaker
We get a lot of really great insight and data on what works well for our farms, what consumers are looking for. So part of our job is to share some of those resources, right? Be a guiding hand to those farms who are looking for best practice recommendations to be able to give some case studies and showcase, hey, this is a farm I have in your area in a similar circumstance.
00:03:24
Speaker
This is how we're able to scale their business. This is how we're able to get them from a hobby farm into a full-time farm. So That's a lot of what we do. And then on top of it, like on today's topic, it's a lot of store auditing. I think there's always room for growth. There's always room for reflection and looking back and seeing, are there ways that we can streamline things or are there ways that we can grow our business?
00:03:44
Speaker
Well, let's dive in because you've worked with, like you said, hundreds of farms now at this point.
Farm Storefronts vs. E-commerce Giants
00:03:49
Speaker
And I'm sure you've really not only been able to look at the data, but really get to see the tangible outcomes for many of the farms that you support.
00:03:57
Speaker
Let's start with the customer store itself. Like when we talk about the customer facing store experience for a farm offers their buyers, you know, I think many times people think about their experience shopping on Amazon, which is, you know, true. That's a one type of experience, but that's a very different experience. It's a huge multi-billion dollar I should say that you should say a trillion dollar brand.
00:04:17
Speaker
We're talking about a small business, right? A very different set of expectations that buyers have. So when you're talking with farmers about setting up their storefront, what are some of the best practices that you recommend to communicate, you know, a realistic set of expectations, both in terms of the experience, but also in terms of the purchase expectations of the buyer?
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah. One of the first things I'm doing before meeting with the farm for these audits is just taking a look at the inventory items they have, right? You want to make sure you're focusing on your top revenue drivers. You want those to be front and center. That's where 60% your sales are going to come from on that first page. So really making sure that you highlight those, that those are very easy for the customers to purchase so they don't have to scroll too far.
00:04:59
Speaker
Decision and fatigue is a real thing. Buyers ah want things to be simple. And for you, you want to focus on those revenue drivers because you don't want the first thing people see you when they look at your store to be chicken feet. So we really focus in on some of those top items. So putting together some bundles and boxes, making sure that those are highlighted up front and center, pinned as priority items.
00:05:21
Speaker
That's one of the first steps I'm doing when I'm looking at a store. Well, will say, you know, I love chicken feet because i know they make really good stock. But the vast majority of consumers and buyers really have no understanding of what use of chicken feet or chicken eggs have on the store. It doesn't mean you can't offer them. Like you said, maybe offer them in a stock pocket or something like that. But very, very different experience for 95% of buyers who are looking to just buy a whole chicken or what have you.
00:05:46
Speaker
well A lot of our farms you know have a whole variety of different products, but you know I imagine they drive most of revenue for a shorter list, right? how How should a farm manage the vast inventory that they may have to offer? i mean, should they put everything up on their storefront or should they narrow down to a short list? What's a good number that you see?
Inventory Management Tips
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah. What we shoot for is you're looking for five to 10 items pinned to the top of your store and then less than 100 items total. Again, going back to that decision fatigue. And just for yourself as a farm to be able to manage your inventory well, a Farmer's Choice bundle box or a Farmer's Choice subscription is going to be your best friend.
00:06:23
Speaker
It helps you move some of those harder to move items, helps you move more items at once, and it makes it a little more worth it when you are going to do a pickup or a drop off for those customers to where you're not dropping off one pound of ground beef.
00:06:35
Speaker
So if you can build that into a bundle and make it a little more worthwhile, the consumer is going to appreciate that. and and And tell me a little bit about some like look and feel, what expectations are, should farmers be offering promos and all these other types of things? Like, you know, what other types of announcements should people be thinking about in terms of trying to drive buyers to their storefront?
Enhancing Customer Engagement
00:06:55
Speaker
Yeah, there are a lot of great tools within the Barnador platform that can help with that. So the banner the top of your store is a great way to announce new products. It's a great way to engage with your customer base.
00:07:06
Speaker
Highlight some of the promos that you've built out. Get that to where people can see that front and center. Take advantage of those. Because you're really just trying to entice them into that first purchase. You're getting them hooked into the products you have. So there's consistency there.
00:07:18
Speaker
Another major part, James, is building in the photos. You want those to be professional. You want them to look really nice. have a few farms I work with that will even, they order some cutting boards with their brand on it. So they have their brand, their logo.
00:07:32
Speaker
with their nice products listed on top of that. People are visual. They want to see a nice representation of what they're going to get. So those go a long way as opposed to just using stock images or things like that with their site.
00:07:44
Speaker
and I know we we offer a litany of beautiful stock images that many farmers do use, and conversion still looks fantastic there. But the more personalized, like you said, I love the cutting board examples where people put a steak, you know, or and some produce in a box with their farm brand on it, or eggs that are, you know, with their branded egg carton.
00:08:05
Speaker
All those things just make it that much more, again, brand reaffirming, right? And I know many of our top performing farmers, that's kind of like, like you said, it's a worthwhile investment to either hire somebody to come and do it or just take some time yourself. i mean, do you see many farmers taking some of these photos themselves? I mean, I know a lot of like the cameras on the new iPhones and Android devices are quite good.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, mean, that's a beautiful part with these new phones. As a photographer myself, you can do a lot of great things. So giving some best pointers when it comes to shooting those images, using good lighting is important, but it doesn't take a lot of work to get really, really great quality photos.
00:08:42
Speaker
And to your point with the cutting boards too, that's ah also another great selling point. So if you're selling a meat bundle and you can build into that cost one of those cutting boards, now you have a branded item in that person's home as they're cutting up the nice steaks that they got from you.
00:08:56
Speaker
So it's just another way to build in ah some of that brand consistency. Well, let's shift gears a little bit. So let's say I go onto the store, I find an item. i Like I said, I don't get exhausted because I'm not not looking through hundreds of items. i Let's say I'm looking through 25 to 50 items.
00:09:13
Speaker
Now I want to make a purchase. How easy does it need to be for me as a buyer to have a high degree of
Balancing Product Delivery and Pickup
00:09:20
Speaker
conversion, right? Because I know all farmers would probably just love to have it be simple and easy for them, right? And At the same time, you know every buyer would probably like everything to show up on their doorstep or frankly, right on their kitchen countertop. right So there's kind of a ah degree of convenience of what works for the farmer versus what works for the buyer. like Where do you see success you know when you think about fulfillment expectations that farmers should set up?
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, convenience is king. Amazon's made this more relevant than ever. It's the most important piece, in my opinion, in getting your products to your customer base. In the last podcast we hosted with Phil, if y'all the chance to listen to that one, he brought up a great point just talking about how nine out of 10 consumers, they want to buy from local farms. So part of your job is removing any of those barriers to purchase, which the biggest part is that convenience factor.
00:10:11
Speaker
So you want to take that into consideration when you're setting up your pickup locations, when you're setting up your delivery zones. So think about that everyday consumer, think about who your ideal customer is and how can you get your products in front of them without all those barriers without the distractions, without them having to come, go out of their way or lose time.
00:10:30
Speaker
So that's something we're taking a look at when we're diving into the fulfillments. We want to make sure that the schedules are taking into consideration that ideal customer. You're thinking about that mom that works a nine to five and you're putting that in place. Maybe it's a school pickup, after school pickup or after church pickup.
00:10:47
Speaker
Partnering with local gyms and fitness centers we've seen be highly successful. So these are all things you want to take into consideration when you are building ah these fulfillments and these ways for your customers to get their products.
00:10:58
Speaker
So when you think about schedules, let's use a few examples like you just said. So you're thinking if you're selling to a group of school moms, right, then you're thinking about like after school pickups or locations that are convenient for them and, you know, picking the kids up or dropping kids off to school or or to practice, that type of thing, right?
00:11:16
Speaker
And then I would assume also too for, like you said, if you're going to do the gyms, you know, are people doing like super early morning or they doing kind of the evening gym workout crowd? How do they handle pickups at gyms and CrossFit studios, that type of thing?
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, with the gyms, you're seeing, i mean, you got to think about the customer who's going to go home after that. If they're going to work out in the morning and then go into their workplace, probably not going to want to carry a a monthly meat box with them. So you're thinking about those later afternoon um slots where they can pick that up, take it home.
00:11:44
Speaker
So that's where I've seen the most success with those. And it's a win-win for both. The gyms love it. It's a great way for them to sell and to advertise to their customer base saying, hey, we actually partner with a local farm who brings us locally sourced protein, the best protein you're going to get.
00:12:00
Speaker
and they drop it off right here at the gym. That's awesome. What I imagine too, you have expectations on the wholesale side of the business too, right? Like talk to me a little bit about farmers who are delivering to restaurants, right? Or to grocers. Like what are the expectations you see there in terms of fulfillment? Because I assume they expect delivery directly to the door, correct?
00:12:19
Speaker
Yep. Yep. So again, making it easy for them, but also making sure you're protecting yourself as a farm too. So putting in clear expectations on when those orders need to be placed when you can go and deliver those. So having order cut off date is really crucial for a lot of our farms and managing their time, but also making it convenient for the wholesaler.
00:12:38
Speaker
And it couldn't be easier for them to go in, see what products you have, place their order, know when they can expect it. So you're setting in very clear, consistent parameters for them, which helps the farmer and helps the restaurant or the wholesaler.
00:12:50
Speaker
That's a really great point, right? The more consistency you have for the purchaser also can lead to more consistency in terms of your farm operations as well. Like, hey, all right, my pit crew always goes out on this day and I run my deliveries to restaurants on these two days, right? But that consistency is really key, right?
00:13:08
Speaker
Save yourself time and streamline your labor costs. If I'm a farmer that's only done pickups or markets, And I'm thinking about getting into delivery. What are you know one or two best practices you see there in terms of getting started with that as a fulfillment option?
Product Bundling and Subscription Strategies
00:13:23
Speaker
Because that can be pretty intimidating, I would think, for a lot of farmers to think about. Definitely. I think start local. So start in places that you know you're visiting frequently already. If you're making a trip into town once a week, build a delivery route around that. So find some zip codes that are near there that you'd be comfortable delivering out to Build in, which is one of the great features within our platform, is being able to add in a delivery fee.
00:13:45
Speaker
So you have a delivery fee, so you're getting paid for that time. And then as you scale, so if you're doing $10 per delivery, well, now you can outsource that. You can hire a farmhand who can help do with those deliveries, pay them out using the delivery fee.
00:13:58
Speaker
They're doing 20 of those deliveries. They're making 200 bucks. That's a really great earning for, I mean, that's more than I made in the restaurant industry, serving at a restaurant. So it's a great value add and helps you scale.
00:14:10
Speaker
your operations. I know that's a fantastic way that many of our farmers hire a lot of local high school and college students too, who are like, man, they're happy to go run deliveries in the evenings. That would have been my dream job. Absolutely. Well, it's funny you say that because Janelle and myself, mean, we have, I think, five different farm box subscriptions here in Nashville.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I know our protein box is delivered once a month and we pay $15 for that to be delivered. To your point, like convenience is king, right? Like I don't want to go to a pickup. I'm willing to pay 15 bucks for a $200 meat box. laying on my doorstep once a month.
00:14:42
Speaker
And sure enough, it's a high school kid that drops it off, right? So every once in while, we'll see the farmer, maybe, but usually it's a high school kid, right? Which is great. But like I said, that's a lot of money for a high school kid to get paid. So.
00:14:53
Speaker
Let's go back to the topic of inventory because you made a mention of a farmer's choice bundle box, right? For farmers who are unaware of what that might mean or for people who have been thinking about a farmer's choice bundle box, can you describe for our listeners kind of like what that should entail and maybe just use an example both of meat and maybe like produce as maybe two options?
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah. So farmer's choice is what it sounds like. It's you putting together a box. So you're setting the parameters. Maybe you're doing a 10-pound bundle where putting in various cuts. So if we're talking about the protein farm, one that I see do really well, you can do a meat and eggs subscription or bundle.
00:15:31
Speaker
Think about the cuts that are really easy to prepare because who you're trying to target, you want to think about that person who's trying to save time. They don't need some really difficult cuts like your oxtail or some of those that are still really great, still very valuable.
00:15:44
Speaker
They want something that's going to be easier to prepare. So you think about two to three pounds ah a ground beef, maybe a couple other various cuts, chuck roast or two. with some eggs. That's a great protein bundle.
00:15:55
Speaker
And you can just switch that up each month. It's actually a selling point to be able to have it a farmer's choice. When you can communicate, like this is handpicked by me, the farmer, each week it adds a personal touch, allows you to move inventory the way you need to, like I said earlier.
00:16:08
Speaker
And for produce, similar thing. It's not always going to have the same things in season. So you want something that's seasonal, that's fresh, that's the best way to eat. It's the healthiest for our bodies. It's what we crave. And so being able to offer that in a box where you get a variety of what's freshest, what's most in season is a great way to move the inventory that you need to.
00:16:28
Speaker
now Talk to me about how much I should put into a box, right? Like I mentioned earlier that I get a 20 pound box once a month. You mentioned a 10 pound box. If I'm a farmer, how do I know what size box I should be preparing? 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 40 pounds. what's What's the optimal size or should I offer a range of sizes? what What do you see as a good best practice?
00:16:48
Speaker
Yeah, I would say you want to think about each consumer type, right? So you have different family styles. You have larger families. I grew up in a very large family where we would crush a 10 pound box.
00:16:59
Speaker
in a day. it would It would not last long in my family growing up. So having different options for those households. So you think of your one to two household, have a box that could feed them for the month and then expanding that out to maybe four to six family household and starting there. And if you have families that are even bigger, they can always just double up on those subscriptions. And that's a good way to have it simplified in your inventory where you don't have too many items, but you still have a nice variety of product sizes for the different consumer types.
00:17:28
Speaker
Got it. And so for buyers who haven't bought a bundle box before, what's, you know, I know we encourage a lot of farmers to offer subscriptions, but should they only offer subscriptions? Should they offer like a one-time purchase option as well? Like what's the mix that you should offer there, right? i mean, or do you only offer things as one-time purchase? What do you typically see?
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, subscriptions are great. They bring consistent revenue. Having a ah one-time purchase sampler bundle, is one of the best ways to get people introduced the idea of those subscription boxes.
00:18:03
Speaker
So I recommend anybody who's going to farmer's markets, put together a little $50 farmer market bundle that you can advertise to introduce people to the idea of what you offer as far as subscriptions go.
00:18:14
Speaker
Have that in your farm store as well where they can come pick it up at the farm. So if they're trying to get an idea of what they can expect, if they want to know what your products are like, you can have that bundle ready to go as a one-time purchase as well as the subscription.
00:18:28
Speaker
Well, I know for myself, that was definitely a selling point because I buy my beef from a different producer than produces my pork, right? Ironically, both of those farms offer beef and pork.
00:18:41
Speaker
However, I found one of them has much better beef and the other one has much better. and And of course, with my wife being a chef, we're going to buy the best product period. Right. But we did sign up for a subscription from both of them, but on a single product.
00:18:54
Speaker
I do know though many farms offer like mixed meat bundle boxes as well. Kind of like the same thing you see with mixed produce. Right. Do you see that be successful as well for some farms? We do. Yeah. Especially like when you're thinking about what your goal is, which is to be the source, the local source for your community.
00:19:11
Speaker
being able to save them those trips to the grocery store. And if you can provide all those grocery list items for them, you're really putting yourself in a great spot ah for your community and for yourself. So those are things you're to want um take a look at.
00:19:24
Speaker
So if you can add in chicken, you can add in beef. Those varieties do really well. I have some farms that have learned over time that they're customer based because every customer base is going a little bit different. They've learned that maybe there's a more demand for just a chicken only box or just a pork only in their area. So That is something you have the flexibility of doing, but I think a variety box is great.
00:19:45
Speaker
Those are awesome. One last question before moving on to the next topic here. Tell me a little bit about value add, right? Because I've seen some people will have a bundle box, but they'll also throw the seasoning in, or maybe they throw some time in or some herbs, et cetera.
00:19:57
Speaker
Do you see that that adds value? I mean, will people opt into that almost like ah a meal ready kit in a box type of thing? Yes, exactly. It's a great way to move some of those additional products you carry.
00:20:09
Speaker
right now even tallow on the rise. People are all about tallow. So being able to offer that into your boxes as a way to to cook the meats that you got, or even just soaps or conditioners. So being able to do those value adds in addition to your bundles is a great way to one, increase that average order value and to move a lot of those additional products.
00:20:31
Speaker
Got Well, let's shift gears a little bit, talk about management, right? Because, you know, Assuming that you've got these best practices implemented, you've got your inventory set up, you've got a variety of different types of one-time purchase and subscription items available.
Managing Increased Sales
00:20:45
Speaker
And maybe you start offering pickups and you step into deliveries, because I know farmers who do deliveries tend to make twice as much more. as farmers that don't offer delivery, right? Delivery works.
00:20:55
Speaker
So let's say I take the plunge and I try to do that and I start getting, you know, a ton of new sales. What are some of the best practices that you see in terms of being able to manage the volume of sales that come from some of these best practices?
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah. Your pick and pack lists are such a great resource within the barn to door platform. It saves. I know Taggy Lacey at Taggy's Famous Fruits talks all the time about how that saved her hours and hours within her management of getting her CSAs ready.
00:21:25
Speaker
So being able to go in, you can filter it by your pickup location. You can filter it by the delivery zone you're doing. And you can see exactly what orders you have to get ready, what days they need to be ready for.
00:21:36
Speaker
And you can even break it down by the pick list. you can go through, filter your pick list, see what days, what items you need to pick, how many of them you need in total. And so it's just a really great, efficient way for our farmers to manage those orders as they're coming in.
00:21:50
Speaker
with the contact details on there. So if you need to reach out to the customer, you can do that easily as well. What about order reminders? I know this is a topic that a lot of farmers will use from time to time as well.
00:22:01
Speaker
Some farmers use them extensively. Other farmers don't use them at all, right? What do you see as like a general best practice? Because, you know, I'm sure many farmers don't want to be perceived as quote unquote nagging customers to place an order.
00:22:14
Speaker
Well, that's where the customer, I mean, They want to see farmer content in their inbox. You're helping them out. Those who are living very busy lives sometimes need those additional reminders. Hey, don't forget we're doing deliveries on this Saturday.
00:22:28
Speaker
Get your add-ons in ahead of time if you want some fresh sourdough bread or some of our local honey that we have that we're promoting this week. So it's a great way to stay consistent without having to go in and continually try to remember yourself as a farm when you're already managing so much what you need to get sent out. So Some of the best practices, one of the things I do when I'm looking at a store audit, I'm going through to see with all their customer emails, do they have order reminders turned on?
00:22:54
Speaker
Are they using their groups to set those order reminders? Because you can have it going to anybody who's ordered at the farmer's market. You can tag them a farmer market customer and send the order reminders out. If you're doing that on Saturday, maybe you're sending that out on Thursday, letting them know, hey, we're going to be there Saturday. Get your orders in today.
00:23:11
Speaker
If you want any add-ons to make sure you're getting the products that we have available before we sell out, because we're going to sell out, place your order today. I love that. So you're creating a little bit of FOMO, fear of missing out with that order reminder.
00:23:22
Speaker
And to your point too, it's like, it's only going to help the buyer, right? Because we're all busy and I hate to say but I think sometimes farmers get a little too concerned that they're going to, quote unquote, be perceived as spam to their customers. But that's nothing further from the truth. Like you said, we all need that nudge.
00:23:39
Speaker
Many people treat their email inbox like a social feed, almost like today, right? So you just you're looking for that reminder. Whatever's at the top of the inbox is what's going to be top of mind. Yep.
00:23:49
Speaker
And you can make it fun for your customers, too, if you're mixing it up. I have a farm who uses their dog, who's kind of their mascot of their farm. And so when they were doing their order reminders, it's all coming from Piper at this farm. And so it's just a fun way to engage the customer base. And it's kind of breaks some of those barriers down too.
00:24:06
Speaker
That's fantastic. What a great suggestion. Let's wrap things up because i want to be respectful of your time. And I know our farmers are busy too. We're listening to this podcast today. Are there any other tips that you see that, you know, helped farmers really, again, take their business to the next level when thinking about setting up the best practices to grow their customer base?
Community Engagement and Sales Enhancement
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah. At the end of the day, we provide all kinds of great online resources and can guide you with all of the things that we've seen work for our farms. But one of the most important things is getting boots on the ground.
00:24:36
Speaker
So it's getting in front of your community, finding a way to get face-to-face with some of these customers, whether it's at the farmer's market. And that's where one of the things to look at, it's ah a huge tool for a lot of my farms, is the POS.
00:24:48
Speaker
So they have the ability to do cash card transactions on the go that sync with your inventory, that add customers to your customer list, that are checking off all these other time-saving boxes that help you sell down the road.
00:25:00
Speaker
So those are other things that I would highly recommend taking a look at. Thinking about the businesses in your area, your existing network, your friends and family, what do they do for work? Would you be able to partner with them?
00:25:12
Speaker
Are there other local businesses that service your ideal customer that you could partner with? So those farms that are utilizing those practices and are putting those boots on the ground and having those conversations find a lot more success and they see the traction start to build over time. So it's really rewarding when I just got off the call right before this with one of my farms that doing just this. And it's it's really cool to see ah his progress, him living out his dream, getting to the point where he's going to be able to do this full time pretty soon. So I love it.
00:25:42
Speaker
That's awesome. Well, I know many of our farmers too have really kind of leaned into making sure they're building a strong brand, right? Putting that QR code on everything that they touch on their signage, on their car, on their business card, make it easy for you to just hand out, get people to scan and sign up for your email newsletter or go directly to your store.
00:26:02
Speaker
Just make it easy, right? You know, because buyers are, like you said, I think you said at the beginning, convenience is king, right? And we just have to make it easy for buyers. One last question before we we shift gears and sign off.
00:26:15
Speaker
I'd love to hear from you, like how often should a farmer be revisiting and examining how they've got their store set up? I mean, I imagine you can't be tweaking it all the time, right? You got to kind of set it, measure and improve it over time.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i would recommend a quarterly audit, I think is a healthy way to Take a step back, examine things, see what's working well, see what your customer base is really driving towards, and even invite your customers to be a part of that journey with you.
00:26:42
Speaker
think that's a great way to build that community, to ask them, like, hey, what other products would you like to see us have? If we were able to deliver out to this area, would anyone be interested in that?
00:26:53
Speaker
And so bring them in to be a part of your community, i think is really helpful. And then the other piece of the audit that we didn't talk in here as far as inventory or fulfillment But it's just going through and seeing if your why messaging is coming across in what you're posting, in what's on your social media, in what's in your newsletters.
00:27:11
Speaker
Your why is one of the most important parts of what you do. And so being able to take a step back and say, hey, did I communicate this to my customers? Why I wake up every day and do the hard work that a farmer does.
00:27:22
Speaker
Can that messaging and branding be seen in my website, in my posts, in my emails? So I think when you can do that quarterly and have that reflection to be able to go back and all right, let's reevaluate, see what works and dive in from there.
00:27:34
Speaker
That's awesome. Great feedback from Ryan here at Barnador. Thank you so much for your time. I know you're super busy. So again, really appreciate all your hands-on attention that you give to our farmers.
Resources and Support for Farmers
00:27:45
Speaker
And for those listening to us, you can talk to Ryan and other account managers like him anytime, Monday through Friday at barnador.com backslash office hours, where you can ask Ryan open-ended Q&A questions and his colleagues as well, and learn other tips and tricks that they've seen work for farmers like yourself.
00:28:02
Speaker
Here at Barnador, we are humbled to support thousands of farmers all across the country and delighted offer software and tools to help farmers access more customers, to increase sales, and save time. If you're an independent farmer who's just getting started or transitioning to SoundDirect, or if you've been at it for a while, just simply looking to save time and streamline your business, please visit barnador.com backslash learn more.
00:28:23
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in today. We look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
00:28:38
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.
00:28:53
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.