5 Tips for the Off-Season from Successful Farms
The Off-Season is a critical time to prepare for success for your Harvest. Maintaining a social presence, planning ahead of the coming season, and having realistic goals will set you up for success once Harvest begins. Barn2Door asked our most successful Farms their tips for the Off-Season.
Here are 5 tips for the Off-Season from our most Successful Farmers:
1. Capture and Share Photos of your Farm
Photo credit: Christina Baldwin
Interact with Buyers during the Off-Season, post photos and share ongoing Farm updates. Even when you are not harvesting products, you want your Farm to remain top-of-mind. Your Buyers will appreciate the change of seasons, the investments you make during the Off-Season, and get excited ahead of the coming season.
Plan ahead, too, by collecting photos for social media and other marketing efforts in the coming months. Successful Farmers suggest taking photos of your products while cooking, not only for social media sharing, but to also entice and inspire Buyers.
Organizing photos in folders will save you time during the Busy Season, when searching for content to include in your marketing assets. Photos of holiday on-Farm events, or family and friends on the Farm will give your posts a personal touch.
2. Plan your marketing efforts
When Harvest Season arrives, it can be difficult to find time to assemble a thoughtful go-to-market strategy. Utilize the Off-Season to start planning ahead.
Our most Successful Farmers assemble a content marketing calendar to plan ahead months in advance. Think ahead to major events, market days, and any festivals where your Farm wants to make your Brand presence known.
By slowing down in the Off-Season, your Farm can reduce stress by figuring out your posts and scheduling consistent updates for Buyers. Many Successful Farmers plan ahead and draft emails and newsletters weeks or months ahead of time (with seasonal content, and photos ready to go).
Prepare and assemble original recipes for your Buyers (based on your products) to encourage creative meal planning, reduce friction for Buyers, and inspire customer loyalty. Marketing a ‘Recipes Included!’ with your Subscriptions is an additional enticement for Buyers considering a purchase from your Farm.
3. Align Upcoming Processing Dates with Buyer Commitments
Most Farmers book their processing dates well ahead of Harvest Season, without certainty of a purchase. However, our most Successful Farmers will seek opportunities to secure Deposits and Subscriptions during the Off-Season ahead of harvest for their animals. Then, your Farm can ensure to pack your processing schedule prior to harvest, with Buyers already on the books for pick-up.
Planning ahead of peak season will enable your Farm to streamline your operations. Line up Deposits and recurring Subscription orders to ensure your Products move directly from the processor to your Buyers the same day (and not into your freezer). No Protein Farmer wants to be in the freezer business.
Make it easy for your Buyers by offering convenient purchase, pick-up and delivery options. During the Off-Season, your Farm can also assemble value-added items to complement your Products throughout the next season.
Stocking your shelves with jams and preserves, salsas, and other canned, non-perishable food items can help you attract Buyers, and upsell Bundle Boxes. Preparing any value-added goods ahead of Harvest will save you time during the busy season, while also increasing your average order value.
4. Organize your Farm Schedule for the Next Season
A well organized Farm schedule is crucial to ensure your harvest, production and operations are efficient. To save time and improve your profit margins, you want to align your crop plans, harvest dates and Buyers schedules. Our most successful Farms choose to map out all the details for their Produce, Proteins or Dairy business.
Maintain all your inventory online to enable Buyers to secure orders well ahead of time, so you can meet the demands for your Farm Products. If you sell wholesale, reach out to those Buyers who may have specific requests or large orders; you’ll want to know those details before the season starts. Staying top-of-mind with your local Buyers during the Off-Season is important, to build loyalty and invite them into a close relationship with your Farm business.
If you source or aggregate products from other Farmers, it is also important to cultivate those relationships, too, during the Off-Season. Reach out to your partners, invest in those relationships, share your goals and priorities for next season, and build a plan together for your respective Farm businesses. Partnerships can be a great advantage when it comes to selling local Bundle Boxes, but they do require careful planning and consistent access to Products.
5. Set Realistic Goals
Set specific and realistic goals for your Farm business to succeed next season. Our most successful Farmers write down measurable goals (that are achievable each week or month), and then regularly revisit their progress, challenges and priorities. For example, commit 30 minutes each week to writing an email newsletter (and put it on your calendar), and/or 30 minutes each week to schedule your Social Media posts (for the next 1-2 weeks).
Steady and focused execution is the key for your Farm business to succeed long-term. Inconsistent spurts of “activity” does not work when it comes to building your Brand. You are competing for your Buyers’ attention, so your Farm Brand must be consistent, fresh and top-of-mind to build and attract a loyal base of customers.
During the Off-Season, revisit your financial performance and be strategic about setting your budget for next season. In addition to the operational expenses for your Farm business (feed, inputs, equipment, and facilities), you must be committed to a marketing budget for your Products. Growing and harvesting quality products is table stakes, but your Farm must be able to attract and sell to Buyers to turn a profit, which takes a commitment to marketing.
To increase revenue (and profits), our most successful Farms use the Off-Season to revisit their pricing and packaging strategy. Irrespective of your passion for a given Product, Buyers must be willing to pay a viable price for your Farm business to make a respectable profit. Be honest and objective when it comes to your prior outcomes, then invest in those areas of your business that are most consistent when it comes to Buyer demand, recurring revenues and healthy margins.
Conclusion
While many use the Off-Season to unplug, our most successful Farmers leverage their “downtime” for an honest retrospective, to plan ahead, and secure commitments for next season. Many things go into successfully planning for the Off-Season on your Farm. You know how much work goes into running a Farm everyday, and the labor never truly stops.
Setting aside time to plan ahead for next season’s production cycle, while marketing through-out the Off-Season, can help reduce stress in the upcoming season and set your Farm up for success.
Barn2Door is privileged to serve 1000’s of Farmers across the country. We have the experience and expertise to help support your efforts to run a successful Farm business, whether you’re in the midst of Harvest or in the Off-Season.
To learn more, watch this 5-min video.