3 Successful Strategies to Market your Farm
The most successful Farms on Barn2Door are regularly focused on new ways to grow their brand and expand their network across digital and in-person channels. They work to understand buyer expectations and attract new customers who appreciate the value of their products. The best Farmers promote themselves through email, social media, and in-person activities to foster personal connections within their community to help grow their business and expand operations.
While“Farming” and “Marketing” may not seem to go hand-in-hand, building brand awareness and engaging in activities to attract an audience is important to scaling any business (whether you’re a farmer, barber, or contractor). Here are three ways Farms are successfully marketing their business to increase sales and access more customers:
1. Email
Successful Farms consistently engage buyers in the one area they look at every day - their email inbox. They send weekly newsletters to update buyers on Farm activities and promote new products in their online store. In fact, Farmers have seen up to 80% of their weekly orders come through a single newsletter!
We find that Farmers who leverage the Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration to send automated welcome emails and order reminders spur up to +30% higher in average order revenue.
A Produce Farmer from California uses customer journeys (aka drip campaigns) to engage buyers who haven’t purchased in the past 90 days. With consistent re-engagement emails offering small product discounts, this Produce Farmer has seen upwards of 35% in sales from a single email. Remember, if you don’t remain top of mind, buyers can forget to place an order, or may take their business elsewhere.
Watch: 5 Tactics to Save Time & Drive Farm Conversions with Email Marketing
Listen: Direct Farm Tactics #1: Barn2Door + Mailchimp Customer Journeys
2. Social Media
Leveraging social media is key to staying top of mind with buyers. Successful Farmers focus on promoting Facebook and Instagram, building their social media posts around the three E’s: educate, entertain, and eCommerce.
One Pastured Proteins Farmer posts on Instagram 2-3 times a week but uses different Instagram functions to give followers various ways to engage with the Farm. This Farmer leverages stories to give her followers snippets of a Farmer’s daily life, and reels help promote fun, short videos that entertain buyers with silly videos of the animals. Her Instagram followers have grown, but more importantly, so have sales of her Pastured Proteins.
In another instance, a Dairy Farmer has found success with a different approach on Facebook. Creating a Facebook group to include Subscription and Delivery buyers, she fosters a community within a community, promoting her Farm, available products, and special perks, including first access to specialty items. Through this Facebook group, she has created a large network of loyal customers, fueled FOMO (the fear-of-missing-out), and increased her average order size.
3. In-Person
Many successful Farms still market themselves in person. How? By engaging buyers at the farmer’s market, at pick-up locations, partnering with local businesses, and hosting on-farm events.
One Pastured Proteins Farmer views the farmer’s market as an in-person marketing campaign, using his time to sell products and gather emails from buyers to direct them to his online store. In fact, this Farmer pays each of his employees $1 for every email collected at the Market. Why? Because he can convert a one-time $20 order at the market to an $88 order online thereafter (with 40% of those online orders as a Subscription, too!).
Another Produce Farmer uses the farmer’s market to promote upcoming products and prompt visits to his online store. He has specialty products that buyers always crave, even when they aren’t in season! As such, this Produce Farmer directs his buyers to pre-order the products months in advance, get a promo with a newsletter sign-up, and secure their commitment to his Farm, guaranteeing he’ll see them again in the future.
Lastly, many Farmers also use farmer’s markets as pick-up locations to speak with online buyers in person and build a relationship. This is a great avenue to simplify delivery, ensure you move more products at the market while also avoiding costly market fees (after 10%+ on gross sales).
Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution for Farmers to grow and manage their business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farms run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.