How Farms can Define their Target Market
When beginning your Farm business or updating your go-to-market (GTM) strategy, it’s essential to define your target buyers and where to find them. Your target buyers refer to the group of people that are most likely interested in your products, narrowed down to specific locations. To find them, you need to determine a handful of information, including their demographic details (age, gender, household size, employment, and income), interests, and buying behavior.
Why is defining your target audience so important? Knowing the group of people who are likely to engage with your Farm makes it easier to solidify your brand voice and communicate in a manner that underscores your values. When you know who you’re talking to (on social media, in your emails, or on your website), you can develop messaging that truly resonates with your target buyers to build stronger personal connections and earn their loyalty.
Read: The Importance of Owning Your Customer Base for Long-Term Success
Watch: 5 Steps to Building an Iconic Local Brand
Analyze The Local Market Opportunity
So, who should you include in your target market? Are they a soccer mom, an older family, or a single millennial committed to buying local food? Whoever they are, don’t overwhelm yourself with targeting too many buyers. Recognize your Farm brand is not likely to appeal to all people. Our most successful Farmers focus on 3 or 4 different target buyers, maximum. The first step is to analyze your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
To get started, grab a piece of paper and list the characteristics and attributes of the buyers you would like to build a relationship with – including the following details:
Demographics: age, gender, household size, employment, education, and income
Interests: activities, hobbies, social, entertainment, media/books, and influencers
Buying Behaviors: online, in-person, frequency, subscriber, or one-time-purchaser
Additionally, are your target buyers a mix of retail consumers and wholesale customers? In the past 12 months, what was the actual make-up of your target buyers (versus your desired outcome this coming year)?
By defining your ICP, you can make better, more informed decisions about improvements to your go-to-market efforts this coming year.
Read: 5 Ways the Next Generation of Farmers Can Build a Resilient Business
Listen: Balancing Retail & Wholesale Markets with Joe from Dirty Girl Produce
Choose Your Target Geographical Area to Service
The next step is to focus on the target market or Geographical Area you wish to serve. Is it a nearby metropolitan city, sleepy suburb, or rural area with a handful of residents? Depending on your Farm’s location and distance from your target market, decide if you need to focus on one or multiple markets, a diversity of pick-up locations, or direct delivery to grow your business. Note: it is best to identify where and how you intend to serve your target buyers in specific locations to improve conversion (avoid taking a shotgun approach).
Many Farmers are 3+ hours from metropolitan areas; nevertheless, they have built thriving direct-to-market businesses by concentrating their efforts on a narrow set of specific geographic areas. Consider researching available data online to better understand where your target buyers live (see www.census.gov for free resources).
People are creatures of habit, so when Farms insert their business into their buyers’ routines, they drive more frequent sales. The Local Loop is the weekly routine that buyers engage in out of habit - work, school, activities, events, church or synagogue. When Farms make accessing their products convenient for pick-up or delivery in the Local Loop of your target buyers, then you minimize excuses and make it easier to buy from you! Locations in your buyers’ loop can vary based on your ICP, but typically include places they attend frequently (on a weekly basis). This makes it easier to recognize where your Farm should be present, and how to best serve buyers in your target geographical area.
Generally, Farmers have a market-awareness problem (not a fulfillment problem). Focus on building upon a base of your existing customers where you have the most density and can concentrate fulfillment efforts. Targeting specific geographies will pay dividends versus a shotgun approach.
Read: 5 Tips for Farms to Sell Out Before Next Season
Read: How to Start Your First Farm Pickup
Find More Details About your Target Market
Once you define your ideal buyers and understand where your Farm can succeed, then you must develop a GTM plan to interact, engage, and increase awareness about your business. You won’t grow a strong base of loyal buyers if you don’t take the time to align your go-to-market strategy to satisfy the needs and preferences.
Here are 3 ways to find more information about your Target Audience:
Social Media Insights. Look at the details of those following and engaging your social media profiles. Facebook Insights and Instagram Analytics are two tools to check regularly - to gain information about your followers’ interests and how you can spur more engagement (and sales).
Google Analytics. If you currently have a Farm website, Google Analytics will provide insights into your audience’s demographics, interests, location, and timeline of online activity. This can help you narrow in on who is interested in your products and the best time of day to prompt more activity (and sales).
U.S. Census Data. A wealth of free data is available from the U.S. Census Bureau for you to research and better understand the attributes and location of your target buyers. Data narrowed down to specific townships and census tracts can help you turbo-charge your go-to-market efforts.
The moment you define your ideal customer profiles (ICP) and pick your target geographic areas (down to the specific zip code), the sooner you can develop and execute a go-to-market strategy to increase traffic to your Farm and boost revenues for your business.
Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution to grow and manage your Farm business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farms run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.