Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Cultivating Growth: Email Marketing for Horticulture
63 Plays2 months ago
In this episode, we dive deep into the world of email marketing and its application to the horticulture industry. Discover how to create effective email campaigns that nurture customer relationships, drive sales, and promote your horticultural products.
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: [email protected]
Recommended
Transcript
Weather Changes in Kentucky
00:00:17
Alexis
What is up, people of the plant world? How are we all doing today?
00:00:20
Brett
Not much done pretty good.
00:00:20
atack2010
Here we are.
00:00:21
Jessica
Hey.
00:00:22
atack2010
Good.
00:00:23
Alexis
Yeah?
00:00:23
Jessica
Doing good.
00:00:24
Alexis
Yeah, i'm feeling it.
00:00:24
atack2010
Good.
00:00:24
Jessica
and
00:00:25
Alexis
Enjoying this cool weather we've got going on here.
00:00:27
Jessica
ah
00:00:28
Alexis
i'm not I don't want to like die every time I walk outside into a hellscape.
00:00:29
atack2010
It's been nice.
00:00:32
Jessica
Yeah, because it it had been like.
00:00:32
atack2010
It's quite a turnaround from historic highs to historic lows in Kentucky.
00:00:36
Jessica
Yeah, it had been terrible and now it feels wonderful.
00:00:36
atack2010
Wow.
00:00:36
Alexis
and
00:00:40
Alexis
it was It was miserable. like I was like, what is going on here? Has it always been this hot?
00:00:44
Jessica
What do they have? They have like the seasons of Kentucky listed, you know, where they're like, Oh, you were in fake fall and now you're back on like Hills front porch and now you're back in real fall and wait.
00:00:52
atack2010
Yes. Yes.
00:00:56
Alexis
yeah
00:00:58
Jessica
Winter's not here yet because it's going to get warm again.
00:01:00
Alexis
yeah
00:01:00
Jessica
Right.
00:01:01
atack2010
It's the wannabe winter.
00:01:01
Alexis
yeah
00:01:01
Jessica
So.
00:01:01
Alexis
yeah
00:01:02
Brett
So which one are which one is it? what are we What are we in?
00:01:04
atack2010
I think we're in fake fall.
00:01:06
Brett
Oh, no, Ray.
00:01:06
Alexis
like and where we
00:01:08
Brett
Don't say that.
00:01:09
atack2010
I know. I don't want to believe it. I just don't trust
98 Degrees vs Backstreet Boys Mix-up
00:01:13
atack2010
at this beautiful weather we've been having.
00:01:13
Brett
as the chief as As the chief PSL advocate among us, you should be encouraging fall.
00:01:14
Jessica
And.
00:01:19
atack2010
ah Literally anything under 98 degrees not the band but the temperature anything under 98 degrees is PSL weather for me in September oh Yes.
00:01:20
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:24
Jessica
Oh, 98 degrees.
00:01:28
atack2010
Yes, indeed.
00:01:30
Brett
Was that the like, was that that I'll never break. you Was that Backstreet Boys?
00:01:36
atack2010
Oh Gosh do not quiz me on this even if I knew I would say I did not
00:01:36
Alexis
uh no no it's not backstreet boys yeah jessica and i definitely bought tickets uh to go see them together and uh covid rope yeah yeah it got moved to like december 2020 or no it was ah wasn't it like october
00:01:37
Jessica
That is not Backstreet Boys.
00:01:38
Brett
Is it 98 degrees?
00:01:40
Jessica
No, and know the Backstreet Boys, but in in the month of February 2020, so can you imagine what happened?
00:01:53
Jessica
Yeah.
00:01:58
Jessica
It was like two years later.
00:02:00
atack2010
I think the universe was conspiring against them.
00:02:00
Alexis
ah yeah I just remember, yeah, I remember you were like, I'm gonna be very pregnant, so I don't think I should go to this concert.
00:02:04
Jessica
It was in September of 2022 at the like mid-month and I had my son like a week later so we didn't go.
Spooky Shirt Banter
00:02:14
Alexis
Brett's got a spooky shirt on right now, I can see.
00:02:14
Brett
What's up?
00:02:16
Jessica
Yeah.
00:02:17
Brett
Oh, wow. It's really looking. Yeah. I was really pointed right at my belly.
00:02:20
atack2010
Yeah. yeah
00:02:22
Brett
Whoa there.
00:02:23
Alexis
He's got a skeleton on his shirt, and I was like, oh, Brett, do you are you aware?
00:02:24
Brett
Yeah. He'd be Bridgers. Spooky season.
00:02:28
atack2010
It is spooky season that's a cool shirt bread, we can see each other on here so yeah.
00:02:29
Jessica
It is.
00:02:29
Alexis
Koki! Yeah.
00:02:31
Brett
Well, so a spooky season fall always makes me think of like ah eating. Well, I guess all the seasons sort of made me think of eating, but
00:02:39
atack2010
Same bread
Breakfast Carbohydrate Debate
00:02:40
atack2010
honestly same yeah.
00:02:40
Brett
particularly.
00:02:40
Jessica
Right.
00:02:41
Brett
So question. So you' I'm imagining primarily a breakfast context here.
00:02:46
atack2010
Okay.
00:02:46
Alexis
Okay.
00:02:47
Brett
If you had to rate and you can, you could just pick the top three or we can do a full rundown. The following carbohydrate side item for breakfast.
00:02:57
Alexis
Okay.
00:02:58
Brett
Biscuit, bagel, toast, cornbread, English muffins, tortilla.
00:03:05
Alexis
Oh, that's a lot.
00:03:06
Jessica
Oh, can we say all of the above?
00:03:07
Alexis
My number one my number one is based is bagel, and everybody else is just...
00:03:07
atack2010
Biscuits number one automatically Mmm biscuit bagel and everything else for me.
00:03:14
Brett
You're saying bagel number one.
00:03:14
atack2010
Yeah I'm biscuits for this guy though.
00:03:15
Alexis
Bagel's number one for me.
00:03:18
Jessica
i oh okay um I think I would say bagel because they
00:03:18
atack2010
Number one biscuits You threw me for a cornbread there Brett, I know it's a versatile food but I mean you threw me a little bit I
00:03:26
Alexis
Yeah, I don't think normally think of it as a and said breakfast, but I mean, when is it not applicable?
00:03:31
atack2010
could freestyle some cornbread though that's fine cream cheese
00:03:35
Jessica
They're so diverse.
00:03:35
Brett
So cany can we do a top, can we do a top three? I mean, is that is that allowed?
00:03:38
Alexis
Mine would be bagel English muffin biscuit.
00:03:44
Brett
English muffin number two.
00:03:45
Alexis
I actually have an English muffin for breakfast like almost every day.
00:03:49
Brett
Oh my gosh.
00:03:49
atack2010
Mine would be exactly
The Bagel Dilemma
00:03:50
atack2010
the opposite. Mine would be biscuit, bagel, English muffin.
00:03:51
Brett
Wow. Biscuit bagel, English muffin.
00:03:55
Jessica
I again wanted to say all of the above because I like carbs.
00:03:57
Alexis
Jessica's like, there's no carb that's beneath another.
00:03:59
Jessica
um Right.
00:04:01
Brett
am my good
00:04:01
Jessica
um But I would say probably a bagel. a biscuit and it's really hard to use the next one, toast or tortilla.
00:04:08
atack2010
ah It is, number three is hard.
00:04:11
Jessica
I can't say it, tortilla.
00:04:12
Alexis
or tail
00:04:13
Jessica
Yeah, tortillas.
00:04:13
atack2010
Cartillas.
00:04:15
Jessica
You know, with like your scrambled eggs and wrap it up and have a little breakfast burrito.
00:04:15
atack2010
But now,
00:04:17
Alexis
Yeah, the breakfast burrito hits man, but we have those for dinner, so.
00:04:20
atack2010
well um for you for you bagel lovers what if you eliminated cream cheese and all toppings would you still choose a bagel is it just the vehicle to deliver the taste of your mouth no okay okay okay okay okay I like the sweet but I like the raisins somewhat sort of
00:04:20
Jessica
Mmm.
00:04:26
Alexis
Yeah.
00:04:29
Brett
No, it's quite quite the opposite, actually.
00:04:31
Jessica
yeah You can get an everything bagel for savory or you can get like a cinnamon raisin one for sweet.
00:04:32
Alexis
Yeah.
00:04:39
Jessica
So many different options.
00:04:39
Alexis
It's limitless.
00:04:40
Brett
i'm not as I'm not a big sweet bagel guy.
00:04:43
Alexis
I'm a savory breakfast person like 90% of the time has to be savory.
00:04:50
atack2010
Do you eat like fried potatoes for breakfast sometimes?
00:04:52
Brett
So do we, we had, do we have biscuit with biscuit?
00:04:52
atack2010
I do.
00:04:55
Brett
And or so my my top three are, I think this was the, my order that I posted in the chat on here so that we could take a look. The order I read them in was the order that I chose.
00:05:06
Brett
So biscuit, bagel, toasted. Did all of us have biscuit in our top three?
00:05:09
Alexis
Yes.
00:05:09
Jessica
I think so.
00:05:10
Brett
Did all of us have bagel in our top three?
00:05:10
Alexis
and Yeah.
00:05:11
atack2010
Yes.
00:05:12
Alexis
Yeah.
00:05:12
atack2010
Yes.
00:05:13
Jessica
Yeah.
00:05:13
Brett
Wow.
00:05:14
Jessica
We're set. Good.
00:05:16
atack2010
Two out of three is not bad, folks. Two out of three.
00:05:19
Brett
And Alexis had English muffin at number two.
00:05:19
atack2010
Homogenized.
Donuts: A Carb or Not?
00:05:22
Brett
wildcard and Ray had English muffin at number three.
00:05:22
atack2010
Hmm.
00:05:25
atack2010
Mm-hmm.
00:05:26
Brett
I love that.
00:05:26
atack2010
I doodla.
00:05:26
Brett
Well, I just recently got some English muffins for the first time in like five years probably. And, oh, I did make, I did make some a while ago, but I, no, I just got them.
00:05:32
Alexis
You didn't make them? I feel like that would be something you would like be making.
00:05:36
atack2010
Mm.
00:05:38
Brett
I just got them. Who am I, Jessica?
00:05:41
Jessica
I don't make English muffins.
00:05:42
Alexis
Making.
00:05:43
Jessica
I haven't made those yet.
00:05:45
Brett
Well, there's time.
00:05:46
Alexis
Next on the list.
00:05:47
Jessica
There's time.
00:05:48
Brett
oh Yeah, I had some and I,
00:05:48
Jessica
I didn't make biscuits.
00:05:49
atack2010
And there's a big difference in English muffins. I mean, there's a big, there's a wide range of English muffin qualities.
00:05:55
Brett
You know, it's not it's not biscuits and bagels and and whatnot, but ah in the world of donuts, just to open up another.
00:06:02
Jessica
Wait, we left off donuts.
00:06:04
Brett
Yeah, I feel like donuts, it's a standalone thing.
00:06:04
Alexis
donuts like aren't Don't count as a card to me.
00:06:07
Brett
Then we have to get into pastries and scones.
00:06:07
Jessica
But if you
00:06:08
Alexis
Yeah.
00:06:08
Jessica
Yeah, I was going to say, if you get into that, then you're like Danishes and all sorts of things just keeps going.
00:06:11
Brett
so slippery It's a slippery, slippery slope, Jessica.
00:06:14
atack2010
We go from donuts to danishes to just dough. We're like, okay, yes, no.
00:06:17
Brett
Yeah.
00:06:19
atack2010
Just we like dough.
00:06:19
Jessica
No.
00:06:20
Brett
Sometimes I just just get brown sugar and just eat handfuls of it.
00:06:23
atack2010
Yes. Yes.
00:06:25
Brett
ah
00:06:25
atack2010
and
00:06:26
Brett
Well, there's a yeah, or adult, you know, either way.
00:06:26
Jessica
I mean, I mean, everybody, everybody do that as a kid when you had the opportunity or adult.
00:06:32
atack2010
Yeah, of course.
00:06:33
Alexis
Whatever.
Email vs Social Media
00:06:34
Brett
Uh, but anyway, so that this, this local donut company does some really fun.
00:06:34
atack2010
Or just melt it in a pan and take a spoon like a cultivated human.
00:06:35
Alexis
Over my kitchen sink, that's fine.
00:06:43
Brett
Um, they do a March madness thing where they have donuts play against each other in the tournament, like the basketball and, and I'm always struck.
00:06:48
Alexis
Mmhmm, love it.
00:06:50
Jessica
Nice.
00:06:52
Brett
by their approach to marketing of the of their products. And they sort of stay in my mind ah more more than donuts stay in my mind naturally through there their marketing efforts.
00:07:03
Alexis
Which, you know, saying something.
00:07:03
atack2010
rent free, rent free.
00:07:06
Brett
And I literally almost never see them on social media. They don't have any billboards around town. they I occasionally go by and see the place.
00:07:17
Brett
The one main way that they stay in my orbit is through email marketing.
00:07:23
Alexis
ah
00:07:24
Jessica
Mmm.
00:07:24
Brett
And then I started thinking about how like as a, I mean i don't know if I'm an elder millennial, maybe a middle millennial,
00:07:33
Alexis
You are a millennial, just the millennial.
00:07:35
Brett
a millennial, but like vibe wise, elder, mid, I don't know.
00:07:38
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:07:42
Brett
I have a certain, I've i've i've developed a certain distaste, jadedness, whatever for social media.
00:07:47
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:07:48
Brett
And I, I myself have pulled back from social media to some extent. And so as, if I'm a customer of a business, I've also pulled back from that ability of businesses to reach me through social media.
00:07:59
Brett
And yet I still check my email.
Email's Effectiveness
00:08:01
Brett
I still opt in and opt out and unsubscribe and all that kind of stuff. And so I thought it might be a fun topic to talk about email marketing. How's that transition from biscuit, bagel, toast, donut, donut,
00:08:09
atack2010
I like it. That was smooth.
00:08:11
Alexis
and never ceases to amaze.
00:08:11
Jessica
That was good.
00:08:14
atack2010
We went from biscuit bagel to email blast. I like it.
00:08:16
Brett
Do not, do not unsubscribe email marketing.
00:08:17
atack2010
I like it. Ooh, yeah.
00:08:19
Jessica
Oh.
00:08:21
atack2010
I like that.
00:08:21
Brett
I've been riding the high for an entire week from Ray's Pawpaw, Pawpawlooza, Pawpawlooza, pun.
00:08:22
Jessica
Nice.
00:08:27
atack2010
Papa loser.
00:08:29
Jessica
He's on a roll with that.
00:08:29
atack2010
That just, but I just popped off on that. I just popped off on the Papa.
00:08:31
Brett
Last week's, it was, yeah, seeing, just seeing raw talent out in the, in the environment. It's oof.
00:08:37
Jessica
I'm still just thinking about those really concerned raccoons. making sure that Ray has all his like vaccines up to date before wrestling for some pop-ups.
00:08:42
atack2010
Yeah.
00:08:43
Alexis
shots, the veterinarian you can ask for his papers.
00:08:45
Brett
Yeah. i've I've seen this guy eat out of the garbage. I want to see papers.
00:08:50
Jessica
yeah
00:08:51
atack2010
Yes, ah the raccoons fear me.
00:08:52
Alexis
We'll need some records, some vaccination records please from your vet.
00:08:55
atack2010
They fear my health record, so more than they do, actually, me, so.
00:08:59
Brett
So when you hear when you hear email marketing, but as as a customer or as a business person,
Email Formatting vs Social Media
00:09:04
Brett
what comes to mind for you all?
00:09:07
atack2010
Uh, you know, yeah it's interesting that you differentiated between, uh, email and social media. That's really interesting to me. You know, just backing up to that, that comment that you made, and I have more than one friend, you know, for whatever reason that they're limiting, uh, their social media time, but yet they do not classify for the most part email into social media. And that's interesting because now with HTML formatting and advanced formatting in modern email platforms,
00:09:37
atack2010
I mean, emails can be a form of social media. They went well beyond plain text years ago into this robust platform of their own. And yet people don't include email in with their social media.
00:09:49
atack2010
So that's, that's pretty, that's an interesting point there. You started off right away with Graham.
00:09:54
Jessica
I.
00:09:54
Alexis
I think I think I don't necessarily include it because it's something that's mine very similar to like the way a website is mine.
00:10:02
atack2010
Oh, like targeted to you yeah because it's your identity it's coming towards.
00:10:02
Alexis
Um, Well, it's not sort of, but it's not. I'm not, I mean, if you're using like a certain platform, like a MailChimp or a Constant Contact, maybe a little bit, but mostly it's that um I, those people, I'm not going to lose those people if Facebook deactivates or somebody, you know, takes over my account or there are certain restrictions to, you know, ah how many photos I can post.
00:10:29
Brett
So you're saying like on the marketer side, you think of it as ah as a an outlet that you have more control and agency and ownership over than say a Facebook profile or an Instagram profile.
00:10:31
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:36
Alexis
Right, right. I lump it in. Yeah, I lump it in more with like my website as far as like the way I think of its kind of use and um how, um how important it is to not leave it out of your, you know, marketing as I, as a marketer often do.
00:10:56
Jessica
I think about it as a person receiving them. If you're just to say, like what do you think of when you receive a ah you know these emails from one of these businesses? I think of it two ways. Depending on what type of business it is, right it's either something that's like, hey, we have these sales going on and this is what's going on. We're just like advertising a certain product versus like if you're following following
Personal Touch of Emails
00:11:18
Jessica
and you know our realm, what we're talking about, a specific farm or something like that, you get to learn a little more about that grower, right?
00:11:27
Jessica
It's more of that personal touch to it versus just like their general Facebook post which you know some people put a lot of great detail into that versus this ah email like letter that comes to you where you get all that extra detail.
00:11:33
Alexis
storytelling.
00:11:41
Jessica
You learn a little more about the grower. You learn a little more like what's happening on the farm at that time. um Things that you might not just see in a single picture, right?
00:11:51
Jessica
Or things you might They might not go into detail about on Facebook of like, Oh, we lost this crop or these different changes that are happening on our farm at that time. So they're a little more, they can be more personal, personal.
00:12:03
Jessica
Well, I think I can't talk to today.
00:12:04
Alexis
I love that you called it a letter that feels like that really resent like resonates with me of like, it's a letter to your customers of just, um, that could include a lot of different things, but that, that resonates.
00:12:07
Jessica
Right.
00:12:16
Jessica
It's like a little more personal.
00:12:18
Alexis
Yeah.
00:12:19
atack2010
Now, when you guys are making these statements, are you talking about ah things you have signed up for or unsolicited things that you have no idea the company that's sending this in? Hey, Jessica, would you like to buy our water heater or whatever? I mean, does that make a difference? How does that play into all of this, too?
00:12:37
Jessica
Yeah, I like to be able to just sign up for them because sometimes I get very, as it is known now, I'm the least techy person on this podcast and I get very frustrated when things are like, you want to sign up to receive like 20 of our emails a day.
00:12:50
Jessica
I don't, I don't like that, right?
00:12:52
atack2010
and Yeah.
00:12:53
Jessica
I like want to automatically like opt out of that. Um, so I appreciate it. Like when it's a smaller business or something, you're really, you know, not like one time purchase, right?
00:13:04
Jessica
And now you're going to get like, multiple emails about this business.
00:13:12
Brett
Are you all
Unsubscribing and Inbox Management
00:13:13
Brett
are you all ah ruthless unsubscribers or do you tend to let it go on and on, let it drag on after you should have?
00:13:17
Alexis
Yes.
00:13:21
Jessica
Use that power to unsubscribe.
00:13:23
atack2010
to unsubscribe, and if that doesn't work, the block and spam and phishing, however I can report the the list. Yes, I do tend to aggressively try to make ah a little bit of effort when I get stuff that's totally uncalled for, unsolicited, or or if the frequency's not right for me, sometimes I can be overwhelming. I will unsubscribe or I will try to you know block that somehow.
00:13:46
Brett
yeah i think I think for me, the idea of control goes both directions with email marketing in a way that it doesn't with some of the other social media platforms in that you, as the subscriber, you also have more control over whether or not you want to hear from this person any anymore. um And you can cultivate and curate your your feed, so to speak, within your email inbox much more effectively than you can your feed on a broader social media platform.
00:14:16
Brett
I mean, you can, but you're kind of always going to be pushing back against dollars that are spent for advertisement. You're going to be pushing back against the these algorithmic efficiencies that are trying to get you to stay on the platform as long as possible so that you can be exposed to more ads and you can be exposed to more content and spend more and more of your time on there.
00:14:25
Alexis
algorithm.
00:14:34
atack2010
You're the product, yeah.
00:14:37
Brett
Yeah. and im i'm not I'm not saying that you should not social media market, but the number of people that I come across in my work who have a social media platform or a presence of some sort, whether that be Facebook or Instagram, and in some cases spend a non-trivial amount of time on it and have not looked to explore email marketing is pretty wild because i i in my estimation, especially once you've gathered a um gathered a sufficient you know ah a following basically, a number of email addresses, whatever.
Email Marketing ROI
00:15:11
Brett
It it often is the the greatest bang for buck time spent marketing platform that we that you you see. I mean, there are ah various materials or some good stuff from Penn State ah University or Penn State University about the efficiency of email marketing. And I think in particular, I've seen this, I've said this before,
00:15:35
Brett
I think email mark, um how many times am I going to say email marketing on this? I think in general, the email EM is...
00:15:40
Alexis
BM!
00:15:46
Brett
the most similar to the word of mouth, direct relationship driven, direct marketing approach that um many of us, many of the producers in our state and the you know businesses in our state take in their day-to-day business.
00:15:48
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:15:58
atack2010
Uh-huh.
00:16:01
Brett
That it's more of this cultivated personal relationship rather than the the marketplace of Facebook posts or the marketplace of Instagram posts or the you know build billboards.
00:16:05
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:16:10
Brett
and advertisements and papers and on TV and everything else. um It's a little bit more of that personal connection, and yet it's something that also you see a ton of large brands lean into to the extent that you can see.
00:16:21
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:16:23
Brett
I always say, like we talk about ah offering samples, you know tasting samples, it works.
00:16:25
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:16:29
Brett
If it did not work, places like Costco and Sam's Club would not do it.
00:16:30
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:16:34
Jessica
Great.
00:16:34
Brett
Similarly, if a brand says you get 15% off your first purchase, if you sign up for our email, if you give an email address, they're doing it because they know the efficacy of having that direct point of contact into your in your mailbox.
00:16:46
atack2010
Yeah.
00:16:47
Brett
And so you can learn some some lessons from that. and so Yeah, that's just like my kind of my long winded reasoning for it. It
Storytelling in Emails
00:16:55
Brett
all it also just if like I like the fact that's that someone can tell me that they don't want to hear from me anymore, just like in a like ethical consent.
00:17:03
Alexis
non-confrontational way.
00:17:04
atack2010
Yeah.
00:17:05
Brett
Yeah. Well, just consent.
00:17:06
atack2010
And subscribe. um
00:17:07
Brett
I don't want to keep spamming you and sending you stuff that you don't want to hear. We get that on the CCD newsletter. Sometimes people will be like, can you unsubscribe me? And I'm like, it like all caps. I'm like, yeah, that's not a problem at all.
00:17:18
Brett
We don't want to send you anything you don't want to hear. um so So how long have you have you been doing email marketing yourself, Alexis?
00:17:28
Alexis
Um, I would, I think three years and not very well. The first two. And one of my goals was this year to do be a little bit more diligent about it.
00:17:41
atack2010
Thank you.
00:17:41
Alexis
And, uh, I think it i mean i can look back and i'll have like data in front of me but that's the beauty of using. A platform is that you are able to and with ccd we use a platform and you're able to to look a little bit more i mean it's not a perfect system by far but,
00:18:00
Alexis
ah look a little bit more into, you know, who's opening your things, you know, what are they clicking on? um You know, if you're sending a sale for something, you know, you can see who was who clicked it, how many times did they click it? ah You know, did you actually make Now they'll even tell you, you know, did you make any sales from that email, which is kind of cool because, you know, it's helpful to know if it's worth your time and in that way. And, you know, we have all the data in the world that says it's worth your time, but when you see it and your actual efforts have made a difference. I think that's really important to do as well. And so, so yeah, I've tried to use it more of.
00:18:41
Alexis
I was previously using it more of like a sales outlet for the most part. And one of my goals was to use it more to to kind of tell our farm story and to make it more of like that letter that Jessica talked about of just like, this is what we're up to. And so and also not spam people too much. ah So, you know, my goal is all like a monthly one, you know, of sort of updates on the farm, what's going on, which is probably not often enough if you look at the data, but it's what I have time for as a farmer. um And then having it as an outlet for
00:19:12
Alexis
you know, a CSA sale or something along those lines, which might be once a month, just kind of depends on the year. So that was sort of my thought process for it. And i I feel like I want to make sure to tell people because it can be so overwhelming when you're trying to keep up with all of the things you're farming, you know, you've got a family, maybe you've got an off site job as well. It's hard enough to keep up with all those things and to add like an email on ah can be really hard, but you know,
00:19:41
Alexis
do what you're capable of and something is better than nothing, I think.
00:19:47
Brett
So what can you talk about the the ah why? You're talking about telling your story. Why? Why do that?
00:19:55
Alexis
I think I've said this before on the podcast, but ah when I first became an agent, ah a seasoned agent told me, and I was having trouble getting people to classes, and it was like the first year I was there. I was brand new to the community. And um she told me, you know, people people can get information a lot of places. They come to your classes because ah it's you teaching it.
00:20:23
Alexis
um And yeah, they come for the info. They want to know about strawberries, but they want to know about strawberries from you because they know you in some way. And so I have kind of taken that in a lot of ways and a lot of things that I've done in one way was, you know, a business aspect is like they can buy a product from lots of different places. Why buy it from me? Yeah, I can say my stuff is fresher or I have things that somebody else doesn't have. But when it comes down to it, I think people buy from us because they know our story and the added benefit of you know having a product that lasts um and those types of things is just kind of the icing on the cake. And that's just been my my experience and kind of how I've looked at it.
00:21:11
Brett
Yeah. you you Go ahead, Ray.
00:21:12
atack2010
And I was just going to say, and I hear you guys ah using a lot of verbiage and words that indicate to me that you've grown organically or one-on-one
Growing Email Lists Organically
00:21:23
atack2010
these email lists.
00:21:23
atack2010
It's not like you are working with lists that you've purchased, which is fine.
00:21:27
Alexis
Right, right.
00:21:28
atack2010
I mean, if you're a large corporation, you may not develop a list one-on-one, you know, you may purchase a preexisting list from a pool of addresses. You're talking about, you know, real relationships that translated to an email contact.
00:21:41
atack2010
And that, that lets me think that kind of mirror social media and that if you, let's say you've got 10,000 friends that are just not, you know, you may have met somebody once and you add them, you know, on social media, or if you're on and one of the apps that you're just looking at a group of people, you may not have a lot of interaction with those people ever.
00:21:59
atack2010
But in the case of what you're talking about, you do probably have a higher engagement level because it's people that know you and you are communicating with them. You had a real authentic experience or relationship with them.
00:22:14
atack2010
So that that to me is significantly different than like just advertising to social media. That may be just a demographic region or ah just a random group of people.
00:22:25
atack2010
that That's a different thing. um They know you and you're communicating.
00:22:27
Alexis
yeah it kind of Yeah, it kind of goes back to um you know what Brett was saying of of being almost like a formal word of mouth, very similar to that can be social media, but ah you know it's something easily somebody can forward to someone.
00:22:36
atack2010
Mmhmm
00:22:41
Alexis
you know I have a decent amount of people who are probably not ever going to buy something from me ah because they like physically are not in a location that's close by. um But they have maybe some sort of tie to the area, which is how they, you know, saw me at a market or, you know, their sister used, you know, my product for something. and And so that in itself, you know, can be like word of mouth where they're sharing that. And ah so I think there is, you know, some ability, you'll have people a lot of people who are
00:23:16
Alexis
not necessarily your customer, but um as far as them getting to you, but they often will share your good news ah around in places. So I think that that's beneficial as well.
00:23:31
atack2010
One of the things with the email campaigns I've struggled with, some in the past, is scope and scale. In extension, I'm going to use our office just as an example, even though we're talking more about producers here.
Targeting Audiences in Email Campaigns
00:23:44
atack2010
You know, we're an office made up of four primary programs. And when I send out an email blast, do I send it out to people that have shown specific indirect interest in home gardening? Or do I send it to 4-H and Family and Consumer Sciences and Ag and Natural Resources? Well, I found in the past that if I can target that to folks, their specific interests that they've shown.
00:24:07
atack2010
I do better in that my soybean farmer may not nestler necessarily want to know ah about pumpkins. So the the more information I can get on folks, when I sign people up and narrow that scope and scale down, the more effective I've been.
00:24:19
Alexis
Hmm.
00:24:27
atack2010
in email campaigns. And I don't want to burden people when I have them sign up. But we have multiple email lists at the office now, even within horticulture. We have folks that love home lawns. We have folks that are only interested in home gardens. We have commercial producers. So I have it at least broken down into commercial or homeowner.
00:24:46
atack2010
And from each one of those categories, I break it down 15 different ways from there. And sometimes if it's something that's broad in scope, like a home and garden show or home and garden expo, I'll send that to my entire horticulture list.
00:24:59
atack2010
But if it's a ah an event for home orchard growers, then that's much more targeted. So scope and scale is very important to me in email campaigns.
00:25:06
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:25:09
atack2010
And and I'm still wrangle with that sometimes. of how broadly do I cast the net or do I refine that to a specific group. So I'm always thinking about scope and scale with it my email efforts. And you know the key thing there is you have to know your audience. I guess I have to have them answer a few basic questions. If it's a program participant, and I'll ask them, hey, do you want to be on our email list?
00:25:32
atack2010
I have learned to ask like a little set of questions and jot to get that information somehow. Jot that down or have a sign up form or something that says I'm interested in this and this and this. And I imagine probably Brett, wouldn't that apply to like a big commercial farming operation too? That if you grow soybeans and corn, you also have an apple orchard and you know, do pumpkins and all that. Wouldn't that apply there too then?
00:25:55
Brett
yeah I mean kind of what you're getting at is the idea of like a ah customer
Building Email Lists from Scratch
00:26:00
Brett
segmentation that you have.
00:26:00
atack2010
Mm-hmm, yes.
00:26:01
Brett
You have these segments of your customer base that are that are distinct. And if you feel like your customer base is this is ah divided enough ah ah you know around interests, a big bulk email list may not be the best way to reach out to all of them.
00:26:20
Brett
And so you could think about having separate you know separate emails. It could also, you may also find that within each segment they have a different preferred method of contact that's, you know, some people are, they they just want to be called or they want to be texted.
00:26:29
atack2010
Hmm Yeah, wow, yeah ah texting is something's different yeah, that's good good point
00:26:34
Brett
And so that's a whole other, the text based marketing is a whole other ah avenue.
00:26:36
Jessica
Mm-hmm
00:26:40
Brett
ah But the um I think for you know if we're talking mostly to people who are just getting started or just trying to figure things out, I think targeting a a group that does have kind of a similar shared interest, central interest, whether that be ah for they love your products and they wanna know about product updates and sales and that kind of stuff.
00:26:51
Alexis
Thank you.
00:27:02
Brett
And maybe they can buy it a online or they can buy it you know in person or something like that. Or maybe they're just into it more for the, products or the farm story and the connection to you and they get their updates about the product somewhere else or they just know that they're going to come and see you on a certain day or you know they know how to get to you where you are. um To me, the the first real step, and this is something we've hinted hinted at here,
00:27:30
Brett
is getting the emails, getting that process of collection started and and also committing to it for enough of a period period of time that you don't feel silly writing an email once a month to 12 people for two years.
00:27:36
atack2010
Mm hmm.
00:27:47
Brett
you know You want to maybe build that up to 50 or 60 or 100 or you know whatever that target is for you. And having, I know a lot of our examples here,
00:27:58
Brett
I've been from some of our experiences with extension, but I think that some of them really do carrie carry over. So we had, when I started ah in with the the CCD back in 2015, I think we had maybe like three or 400 email subscribers. And our solution to build them up was to go to all these conferences and every conference that we went to, we had an on ah or in person, what do they call it?
00:28:31
Brett
A clipboard where people could write their email address and write their name.
00:28:32
Alexis
This is.
00:28:34
Brett
And then we go back to the office, we'd add them. And the other thing we did was we added in a way to be able to subscribe online. And we just, but but the name of the game was promoting it making sure people knew to sign up making sure asking people if they wanted to sign up telling them they could unsubscribe and really pushing and promoting it and so you're you're like promoting the products yes but you're also promoting the list itself as a mechanism for connecting with the products and um it's I'm making it sound like
Benefits of Email Marketing
00:29:05
Brett
a lot of work.
00:29:05
Brett
It can be as simple and as as streamlined as you want it to be. But that first step of really starting, and people are actually really chill about giving over an email address a lot of times because they know they can unsubscribe.
00:29:19
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:29:19
Brett
It's not a big deal. And in many cases, they probably like you and they want to hear from you, but more from you and less about their expiring Kohl's cash or whatever else.
00:29:29
Alexis
It was so specific.
00:29:31
Jessica
Right.
00:29:32
Brett
is flooding them.
00:29:32
atack2010
I don't know, man, that cold sketch is good stuff.
00:29:34
Brett
Yeah.
00:29:35
atack2010
Yeah. It sounds like you have a very specific scenario you're dealing with there.
00:29:38
Brett
Oh, you know I don't let any any of that expire. My khakis stay fresh.
00:29:45
atack2010
Every month, every month.
00:29:47
Brett
um But yeah, i think I do think that, and there there are downsides to doing this, right? there It's not like, oh, this is 100% awesome, and there's no downsides.
00:29:58
Brett
There is time. I mean, Jessica, you can talk a little bit about you know why why you haven't gone down the rabbit hole of of doing the email marketing stuff, aside from the tech.
00:30:07
Jessica
Well, yeah, like I said, like the tech stuff, like both my husband and I should not be tech challenged, uh, because of our ages, our age and everything, but we are like, he's far worse than I am. Um, but just finding the time, like balancing real, real, real jobs.
Balancing Email Marketing with Other Tasks
00:30:29
Jessica
Not that farming is not a real job.
00:30:31
Jessica
But in our situation, you know our careers, our farm life that we have, family, all of that, and trying to balance doing that kind of like social media and you know other things of marketing. right So for us, it's just been a big challenge to do like at least two, maybe three post weekly right now on our Facebook page right um to advertise stuff during season. And you wouldn't think it would be that hard, but time you do all those other things to remember to do that. So yes, like, you know, as you guys are talking, I'm sitting here in my mind, I'm like, Oh, I can do that. I could do an email like, you know, send out. But then it's just like making sure to balance that time. Can I really do that along with all the other things that are happening behind the scenes um to make the season go smoothly? Beside besides the growing, harvesting, selling all the other business aspects that go into, you know,
00:31:30
Jessica
running a farm business and stuff. Just trying to find the time for it.
00:31:34
Brett
Yeah, we actually have a a web series that are our friend and colleague at the Center for Crop Diversification did called Producer Voices. And one of the Producer Voices ah topics, it was it's going around the state and asking producers about some aspect of their operation and just letting their voice speak.
00:31:54
Brett
And so ah one of them, the topic was making time for marketing, just because we hear so much that, that kind of that ongoing refrain.
00:32:01
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:32:03
Brett
And I mean, it's, it's also like making time for appropriate spray timing and, you know, making time to harvest in a timely way and, you know, get it making time to all those things do take time and they kind of, you know, build on each other.
00:32:15
Brett
And and then sometimes the. the marketing gets dropped, but I think, yeah, I think it's ah it's a common thing. I would say personally that if, and not not to you, Jessica, but to the people out there listening that if if the tech side of it is what you're worried about, don't let that stop you because it has gotten so much simpler than it used to be to do it really well.
00:32:35
Alexis
Mmhmm. Mmhmm.
00:32:40
Brett
But at the very base level, I mean, if you're talking like maybe you collect 15 names, you could just send an email to 15 people. You know, you put it in there, you put the addresses in, you send the email and then you just can just reply all to that or whatever.
00:32:56
Brett
ah You maybe use a blind carbon copy so people don't feel like you're sharing out their emails to everybody. But ah it can be as simple and straightforward as that. But they also something I think we've we've talked, we've touched on a little bit is this the platform idea that there's a platform to do this.
00:33:10
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:33:11
Brett
So in the same way that 20 years ago, it was ah ah it was wild internet magic to make your own website.
User-Friendly Email Platforms
00:33:22
Brett
Nowadays, it is not that crazy of a process. It's the same way with this kind of, to have a really sleek, nice, polished email going out. It's not it's not that crazy and there's some some different platforms. If you all come across platforms, do you use them now?
00:33:41
Alexis
Male chimp is a really big one. A lot of people are familiar with.
00:33:46
atack2010
Yeah, it's just like what you said, Brett, it's ah investing in the time, but not nearly as much time as in the past, because a lot of these sites, these specific commercial sites have made it ah art and science, and they know, they do their research ah for the most part, and they make it as easy as possible for you. You no longer have to know the formatting necessary for mobile devices.
00:34:08
Alexis
and
00:34:09
atack2010
You just choose that as an option that if it's going to I mean a lot of these will be native mobile devices because that's how people check their email. You don't have to know that anymore. It'll just be formatted properly. The photos and everything are going to be of the such of a size that it's not going to cause issues. So you're absolutely correct that.
00:34:28
atack2010
If you are interested in these things, the barrier is much less now than it used to be as far as the knowledge up front that you have to have. It's it's way easier now. It's just a more than anything, you have to have that purpose and drive and interest in getting started. You have to take the first step. And whatever motivation you know is heavy enough to make you do that, that's all it takes.
00:34:51
Brett
and I mean, I think organizing the thoughts, putting something together that feels cohesive, like conceptually, is the heaviest lift of the whole process. The actual putting it together in the in the system used to take ah it could take a really long time to put something together that was formatted nice or put together a PDF or something.
00:35:01
atack2010
Yeah.
00:35:07
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:35:07
atack2010
Yeah, yeah.
00:35:09
Brett
But ultimately, still, you have to have You have to have the energy and time and brain cells to rub together to make the thing happen and then go in and do it.
00:35:14
atack2010
Yeah.
00:35:17
Brett
And then on top of that building a list and everything else. but ah So that that's that's all to say. it it does Good marketing does take time and often takes money, whether in the form of time or otherwise.
00:35:28
Brett
But I think that if you haven't looked into the tech side of it in a while, maybe give it a look because it is shockingly simple and straightforward to use.
00:35:38
Alexis
Mhmm.
00:35:41
Brett
um And in some cases you may be able to use some of these platforms for free if you don't have a very large distribution list.
00:35:43
Alexis
Mhmm.
00:35:48
Brett
And you you can send, you know, if yeah if you have 100 people on your list, you could very, very likely get away with this, you know, just the cost of your time to do it.
00:35:51
atack2010
Yeah.
00:35:58
Alexis
Yeah, I usually use like the down winter downtime as one sort of I did that and I basically made um
Utilizing Email Templates
00:36:06
Alexis
templates. So I made like kind of two main templates, ah you know, one for like my my newsletter, and then one for more for like sales.
00:36:16
Alexis
And then all basically it's every, you know, you go in with your logo, you kind of make something that looks nice to you. And at that point, it's sort of a plug and chug of a new photo, a new paragraph on what's been going on at the farm, you know, and and then most everything else like auto kind of auto populates.
00:36:36
Alexis
And that being said, I still forget. Like I didn't even, I didn't do an August one. Like it just flew by. Like, I don't know where August went, but usually I do an end of the month, like update farm update and I didn't do one. And I've decided not to be hard on myself about it. So if you, if if that's also you don't be hard on it, you know, so I'll send one here shortly.
00:36:57
Alexis
ah with updates and ah usually I just take that as an opportunity to kind of share how busy we might have been or all the cool things we've been doing. It just s slipped my mind. No one's going to hold it against you if that's you know sort of the way you want to do things. you know Some people are very diligent. It goes out every Friday. I'm subscribed to some great farm newsletters that go out every Friday and they keep it short and sweet. I rather do like one that's a little bit longer.
00:37:25
Alexis
And so it really just depends on your personality as well. And ah if you can sit down for 30 minutes every Monday, and that's the task you do, or if you're the type of person who wants to spend 40 minutes, if that, depending on what you're doing. But you can take the opportunity you know as we approach winter here to maybe think about, is that something you want to try?
00:37:48
Alexis
or you can hire somebody to put those templates together and then you're just plugging and chugging from there but it really isn't isn't a hard thing to get set up. um The tech part is the easy part.
00:38:01
Alexis
It's the monthly reminder.
00:38:02
Jessica
the time. Yeah.
00:38:03
Alexis
Yeah, it's a monthly reminder to just write something and sometimes, you know, I'm thinking back in a whole month and I know we did a ton of things and I have all these photos, but like putting together coherent sentences is overwhelming sometimes.
00:38:17
Jessica
Or if you do it at one time, if you do it like at night, and then you need to go back and check the next morning, what you actually put, I've i've been known to do that.
00:38:17
Alexis
um Yeah.
00:38:23
atack2010
Yeah.
00:38:23
Alexis
Yeah.
00:38:24
Jessica
And I'm like, that makes no sense. But I wrote like at 11 o'clock last night.
00:38:29
atack2010
I think you've ah also said something really, really important sandwiched in there.
00:38:29
Alexis
Yeah.
00:38:35
atack2010
And that is you have to have have the the good strong concept of your purpose of why you're emailing your folks.
00:38:41
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:38:42
atack2010
And I heard the that there's two different things there. One was sales had to do with sales.
00:38:45
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:38:48
atack2010
You're very explicit about that. The other is farm updates. And do you send those separately ah when you're as far as purpose driven emails?
00:38:55
Alexis
um For me, sometimes it's a little bit of a mix. So if I have a CSA opening, ah that's, you know, part of the farm update, right?
00:38:59
atack2010
okay
00:39:03
Alexis
So it's, our you know, our CSA is opening, but I still kind of have a focus on the email. So the the focus is either ah sales or, a you know, newsletter type thing, but they do overlap a little bit because I think that's just kind of the nature of of farming is that, you know,
00:39:21
atack2010
Yeah.
00:39:22
Alexis
to have a product to sell, you have to grow it and you had to and vice versa.
00:39:25
atack2010
Yeah.
00:39:26
Alexis
so ah But yes, I do kind of have two, and those are those two separate templates because like they're delivering different messages, right? So it makes sense for them to look a little bit different in that way.
00:39:35
atack2010
Um, yeah, sure. It seems like, um, you know, I've noticed some, we have therefore, you know, rather large, well-organized farm stores in
Crafting a Clear Call to Action
00:39:45
atack2010
the county. And, and I noticed them more and more that they do that.
00:39:48
atack2010
Sometimes they tell their story and sometimes they tell you what's on sale that week.
00:39:50
Jessica
Mm
00:39:53
Alexis
Mhmm.
00:39:53
atack2010
And the more I talk to them, the more I find out that.
00:39:53
Jessica
hmm.
00:39:57
atack2010
When they convey information about what's for sale that week and the prices, it's very to the point. It's a more simplified format. But when they have their farm to table dinners or when they're telling their story or talking about their kids working on the farm, they're telling a um a more flowing narrative. And it's interesting that they switch back and forth almost between two formats. And I started catching on to that and I asked them and they were deliberate about that. They said, you know, when people want to know the drop-off points or the CSA drop-off points or cell prices, we're very to the point. But everything else is, they're telling their story and they'll be more narrative as they have time.
00:40:34
atack2010
and be more graphically driven. So it's interesting that they're I'm starting to see that out in the field with these folks. It's pretty cool to see that. But but they're doing it ah consciously, ah making those choices.
00:40:46
Brett
Yeah. I think ah the buzzword that would maybe fit into what you're talking about here. And that this is something that we, you know, you talk about in social media and any sort of advertising or marketing is the notion of a call to action of some sort.
00:41:01
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:41:02
Brett
And it doesn't have to be, you know, like a real intense call to action. Like I want you, it can be, I want you to do X, Y, or Z thing. The call to action could just be. engage with me and my story.
00:41:13
Brett
that's the That's the action that I'm calling you to, which means I'd like for you to open this.
00:41:15
atack2010
I don't have any.
00:41:18
Brett
I would like for you to stay on it long enough that you can get some content out of it that, you know, maybe improves or strengthens the relationship that you and I have as ah a business and a customer.
00:41:30
Brett
um And in in order to do that, it has to be pleasant, easy to read, nice images, pretty, not frustratingly you know worded with too big of words or too many typos or feel careless or whatever. But there's other calls to action too where like exactly what you're talking about. And in I think one of the, as I heard you talk Alexis about templates,
00:41:55
Brett
I think one of the things that i I have said it many times, and I will continue to say it many times, people tend to think that marketing and sales is like this artful, charismatic, almost like a God-given talent, or like, it's that good marketing, the but behind the scenes of good marketing is like some of the most boring stuff that you can imagine.
00:42:21
Alexis
It's consistency.
00:42:21
Brett
it
00:42:21
atack2010
Analytics.
00:42:23
Brett
It's consistently done.
00:42:23
Jessica
Yeah.
00:42:24
Brett
It's done with, with a lot of planning and a lot of thought and a lot of extremely boring decision-making data feeding into it. But at its heart, it's about preparation and it's about but exactly what you said, consistency.
00:42:36
Brett
And I think that that like with the, on the email stuff, like using, and using the template, don't get in the way of your, like, don't get too fancy with it. And, and you can do this, you know, you don't have to be some hotshot madmen kind of, you know,
00:42:52
Brett
it's toasted.
00:42:53
Alexis
yeah
00:42:53
Brett
You know, ah that doesn't have to be the way that you approach approach doing this, but you do kind of have to Think about what the purpose is of what you're doing, which is what Ray was exactly talking about. like don't You're not just sending emails to people for like, hey, just thought we'd say hello. ah That is frustrating to you. It's frustrating to them as well. And so ah depending on what your business is like, your call to action might be getting people to come to the farmer's market by telling them what's going to be available, reminding them of what the hours are.
00:43:26
Brett
If you sell things online, it could be you're trying to get them to click through to your website and you know go on there and take a look at what you're offering. Alexis remember mentioned the relationship builder kind of thing. I think another aspect of ah a lot of modern businesses in the in the landscape that we work in is this kind of like, what
Educational Email Marketing Strategy
00:43:50
Brett
would you call it? like a
00:43:53
Brett
edu, edutizement. It's like education and advertisement at the same time where you're like, here's, you know, here's three steps, simple steps to making a great bouquet.
00:43:58
Alexis
Uh-huh. Yeah. yeah
00:44:06
Brett
And it's like, you can buy buckets, like you're trying to move a bunch of product and you you can buy, you know, DIY buckets or
00:44:10
Alexis
Yeah. no
00:44:14
Brett
you know, three important reasons you might want to have fresh flowers in your house and you have some sort of, you know, bring it in some study or something almost like that type of informational or it like it could be trying to get the person to do something or think about doing something with your product.
00:44:32
Brett
um And so the the content can take lots of different shapes and it just depends on what you're what you're selling and how you're trying to sell it.
00:44:35
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:44:37
Brett
But I totally agree with that like orientation to purpose and really thinking, what is what is the reason that I'm doing this? and And some people forget to do anything except selling so that every time you hear from them, they're trying to get you to buy something.
00:44:54
Alexis
Mm
00:44:55
Brett
And then there's some people who forget to ever ask someone to buy something. Sort of like here's his information here's his education here's this great stuff and it's like oh by the way i also sell stuff that maybe fits in with this and so trying to strike the balance of those two i think in your social media and also in your email marketing is is important and helpful.
00:45:14
Brett
ah Because that's that's and like if you were if you just want to sell commodity products, then you have to beat them on price, and you have to beat them on quality, and you're never going to out-advertise a large commodity operation.
00:45:21
Alexis
-hmm.
00:45:30
Brett
And so you have to differentiate yourself. How do you differentiate yourself? Let me count the ways. Many different opportunities there.
00:45:36
Alexis
I heard, um, there's a podcast I listened to called the dirt on flowers. Uh, so shout out to them and they use, I don't remember exactly the tears, kind of like the buckets necessarily that they use, but, uh, ones as an example, and this might be the ones they use, I don't know, but she, she divides her social media and her emails out into these kinds of buckets. And so she says she has like an education bucket.
00:46:01
Alexis
So she'll have one social media or email that's just education, all about, you know, dahlias, how to grow and blah, blah, blah, one that's selling. And so maybe the next post, the next email is a marketing type email. And then the third one ah was like,
00:46:17
Alexis
social like about the farm social you know sort of thing and so she had these three buckets and that made it easy for her and her the way kind of her brain thinks of like what do I post about this week um or today or what email should I send and so she just kind of rotated through those and would just kind of come up with some general ideas you know in some downtime of like ah you know it's much easier to come up with in like a brainstorming session you know with people you work with on the farm or a partner or whatever that is um kind of coming up with this like big bank of ideas and then when it's july and it's hot and you're miserable and you're not sure what to talk about because you hate that you're even having to do this in the first place you can just kind of pull out of that hat from one of these buckets based on you know kind of what's going on and what you're what you're feeling or what's in the rotation. And that has been really helpful from a social media standpoint for me. And I i need to adapt that to email. I haven't yet ah in that exact way, but my brain really registered with that if that's helpful for anyone.
00:47:21
atack2010
You guys talk about being busy. I mean, automation. Any of you guys done anything with automation when you can anticipate?
00:47:27
Alexis
I want to.
00:47:28
atack2010
I mean, that would be amazing if you know you're going to be harvesting at this time and you've been doing whatever you're doing for a long enough period of time that you can look ahead and say, I know it's going to be hot, sweaty work, and I'm not going to have time to do it.
00:47:28
Alexis
Yeah, that's so cool.
00:47:41
atack2010
I mean, that seems like a cool feature of email marketing is that you can automate some of these things on a scale.
00:47:46
Alexis
There's some cool AI stuff going on with that.
00:47:47
Jessica
And.
00:47:49
atack2010
Yeah.
00:47:50
Alexis
Um, like speaking of platforms, uh, I've been listening to some podcasts where they've had some guests on who the platform has like an AI base on it. And so they know that a lot of farmers like don't have internet access and they don't like doing stuff.
00:48:05
Alexis
And so you can like, it's almost like you, you like text the platform so you could say make up a email about this cucumber that I have extra cucumbers you can find them at the market on Saturday the 8th and so like literally the text goes then like AI will form like create something and of course you want to go in and look at it but like that's something they can like text from the field and then they can just make quick little edits and it goes out to their email blast or like
00:48:25
Jessica
Proof it, yeah.
00:48:32
Alexis
when csa stuff is it's wild the stuff that's coming out which is you know getting into the technical crazy but like there is i think a future where people are thinking about how busy you know farmers are and they're creating ways to make specifically farmers and the way they market a little bit more accessible ah via email. And I am like, I'm here for that. Cause if I can just like send a text message in the field about like, Hey, your CSA pickup, don't forget, or it starts next week and it's just kind of already done. And I have to just skim it and hit send. I'm here for that.
00:49:05
atack2010
I like the reports.
00:49:05
Brett
Yeah, even on a more, on a more basic level of automation, like I i use like schedule send, schedule posts, schedule stuff, all for all kinds of stuff.
00:49:13
Jessica
that's yeah
00:49:14
atack2010
Yeah.
00:49:15
Brett
ah
00:49:15
Jessica
That's wonderful during like the down season, like when it's a little slower, because like I can schedule a bunch of things out.
00:49:19
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:49:23
Jessica
because things aren't Not that they're not happening as quickly, but like right like more in the summer it's like, oh Well, we suddenly have tons of blackberries, right?
00:49:33
Alexis
Yeah.
00:49:33
Jessica
So like now I need to like do something, you know, post it.
00:49:35
Alexis
Go, go, go. Yeah.
00:49:36
Jessica
Go, go, go. Right? Versus in the winter, it's like, oh, here's a cute picture of a cow in the snow. Here is, you know, like you can schedule those out because there's not as much variability.
00:49:43
Alexis
Yeah. When your CSAC is going to happen and you can schedule
00:49:48
Jessica
Right? Yeah. Like those things. And that works. That's such a nice feature to have because then you can do it and then not worry about it.
00:49:51
Alexis
Yeah.
00:49:53
atack2010
and Well,
00:49:55
Jessica
And it's just magically there.
00:49:56
Alexis
To be clear, I don't think AI is going to like save the world or anything, but I can see how great that would be for something like that to be available um down the line if it's affordable and all that kind of stuff.
00:50:08
Alexis
But yeah, there's definitely simple ways to automate the ones I'm.
00:50:11
Brett
Well, that's what I, when I heard automation, that's what I, I thought of it like, you know, that, that way.
00:50:13
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah. The the one I think is really cool that I have yet to set up because it's a paid um on the platform I am, it's a paid thing and I'm in the free one still and i I need to just bite the bullet and do it but like that might be a winner task for me but it's like as soon as somebody signs up for an email they get an email from you introducing your farm and all those things or like as soon as they purchase a CSA they get an email about with like reiterating the information so something searchable in their email and like
00:50:34
atack2010
The welcome email. Yeah.
00:50:49
Alexis
that's really awesome or a way to collect those emails where like um learn about uh get my recipe for tomato pie and to get that recipe you have to input your email address and then as soon as you input your email address you get the email from from me on tomato pie in your email inbox and all of those are animations and I think that that's like such a great way to get involved with people.
00:51:17
Alexis
um But usually it is like a paid part, which, you know, sometimes you just got to do it.
00:51:20
atack2010
Hmm.
00:51:23
Alexis
It's worth it.
00:51:24
atack2010
Yeah, I love those triggers when you get a new email that you can set a trigger to do this, this and this and it's stock.
00:51:24
Brett
spend money to make money.
00:51:28
Alexis
Yeah.
00:51:30
atack2010
It's not like you're creating that response.
00:51:31
Alexis
Right. You make it once.
00:51:32
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:51:33
atack2010
Yeah, it's pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah.
00:51:38
Brett
Well, so hopefully we've covered enough ground on this to maybe make you get you to think about doing some email marketing.
00:51:38
Alexis
Well.
00:51:47
atack2010
That's the call to action, isn't it today?
00:51:48
Brett
Yeah, our call to action is to for you to please like us, be like be it like us, please, think we're cool, um but also to maybe look into that.
00:51:49
atack2010
Yeah.
00:51:57
Brett
And um yeah, we we recently, it's funny, I saw this old, ah you know, the memories where it's like 41 years ago, you said this on Facebook, and it was from 2017, and I was had posted something about thinking about doing switching over to MailChimp for our work email and we just are our work email list.
00:52:19
Alexis
Yeah.
00:52:22
Brett
we We just recently changed over to MailChimp and it's been a really fun process to kind of figure out what that platform looks like and be able to use it and also be able to talk to people more about our experiences with it um in a very different format.
00:52:36
Brett
but Yeah, and whether you use a platform or you're just collecting a simple old email list, old old OG style, I think it can really pay off ah when it comes time to to communicate important information or let people know that you're going to be ah if you're not going to be there, a farmer's market or something like that. It's just a little more direct line of kind of communication to your customers.
00:53:00
Brett
And in direct marketing, that is our primary advantage, is that we are able the person who's operating the business is able to have a direct relationship with the customer. And so the more we can take advantage of that, ah the better. But I think, you know, we if you all want to hear more about other you know marketing techniques or or approaches, we can definitely do that, pull in some fun guests and do stuff like that. But as always, let us know. ill i'll I won't do the outro. We had to deal do it without Alexis a couple of weeks ago, and I was almost kicked off the podcast for my failed outro.
00:53:38
atack2010
You're welcome. See you next week.
00:53:40
Brett
but
00:53:40
Alexis
And no one knew to cue the music.
00:53:40
Brett
Yeah, thank me later.
00:53:41
Jessica
you see okay bye
00:53:44
atack2010
Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:46
Alexis
like Instant freak out. What am I supposed to say now? Yes, if you want to hear more about marketing, absolutely you can shoot us an email, hortculturepodcast.l.uky.edu. It is in the show notes. You can also follow us on Instagram.
00:54:01
Alexis
at Hort Culture podcast. You can leave us a review and say this is super helpful or, you know, X platform link is the devil and I will never use it again, but you give us five stars.
00:54:04
Jessica
Okay, bye.
00:54:13
Alexis
That's great. It helps other people find us and then they can learn that the email platform you use was the devil, but you gave this podcast five stars. so ah that That is always super helpful for us.
00:54:23
Alexis
But yeah, please feel free to reach out. We've had some people reach out lately. um We will get back to you. We promise we've seen your email ah and and where it's in the queue. So if you if you sent one, you're in my queue.
00:54:35
Brett
You may have already heard heard from us by the time you hear this.
00:54:37
Alexis
You may have already heard from us. Please feel free to reach out. That's what we're here for, an extension, is to kind of give you give you some help. so
00:54:45
Brett
And we are we did get all of those ah headshots, Alexis's headshots printed that you we have a lot of people requesting signed headshots.
00:54:45
Alexis
ah
00:54:53
Brett
We got a little backup on the printer, but we should have those out, yeah.
00:54:53
Jessica
Whoa.
00:54:56
Alexis
skinning there. they They tried to ship us mat instead of glossy and it was a whole ordeal, but we hope that as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us and that you'll join us next week for something new and fresh.
00:55:00
Brett
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.