Recap of the Direct 2021 Farm Conference
On Tuesday, August 3rd, Barn2Door was delighted to host hundreds of Farmers from across the country who tuned in for the Direct 2021 Farm Conference. This free, virtual event brought together distinguished Farmers and industry experts to share best practices, tactical advice, and insights to Grow and Manage a direct-to-market Farm business.
Keynote speakers from the official Conference Partners - Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and Avalara offered valuable advice and wisdom based on their experience working with a wide array of small businesses. Featured Farmers provided tactical guidance and suggestions based on their practical experience, and Barn2Door team members shared best practices Farmers from serving 1000’s of Farmers across all 50 states.
Here are some of the key takeaways from each presentation. If you’d like to watch any of the sessions in full, you can freely access the recordings online on the conference website: Direct 2021 Farm Conference Video Archive.
GROW
Why Farmers Need a Simple Email Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Business
Deana Thornton, Mailchimp’s Director of Commerce Marketing
As an official Direct 2021 Conference Partner, Deana Thornton from Mailchimp shared how email is one of the most effective channels to deliver an ROI for your Farm business. Deana explained how leveraging the Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration to embed product recommendations, send personalized emails, and use automated order reminders are key tactics to building an effective marketing strategy. Farms leveraging these tools experience a 30% increase in their average order size.
Growing Your Farm Business with Convenience
Josie Rozum of Dan and Debbie’s Creamery, Iowa
Josie Rozum joined us from Dan and Debbie’s Creamery (IA) to share the tactics they’ve used to scale their operations and cater to Buyers’ expectations of convenient local delivery.
By doubling down on email marketing and leveraging the Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration, Josie regularly uses these automations to personalize add-on suggestions, targeted at specific audiences (driving more orders and increasing sales). This has allowed Dan and Debbie’s Creamery to expand its delivery program from 2 to 15 zip codes in one year.
5 Tactics to Save Time & Drive Farm Conversions with Email Marketing
Miranda and Alessandro, Barn2Door
In this session, Barn2Door Team members shared how Farmers can save time and stay top-of-mind with Mailchimp’s advanced capabilities. From utilizing Customer Journeys to automating welcome emails or tactics to re-engage Customers, email is the best way to build brand loyalty and fuel Farm sales.
MANAGE
Manage your Business and Improve your Margins with QuickBooks Online
Matt Jacocks and Jacint Tumacder, QuickBooks
As another Direct 2021 Conference Partner, speakers from QuickBooks Online kicked off the discussion regarding best practices to Manage your Farm business. With three decades of combined experience at Quickbooks, Matt Jacocks and Jacint Tumacder shared the importance of having accounting software to organize your money and save time managing the books. Sharing that 80% of small businesses fail due to a lack of visibility into cash flow, Matt and Jacint explained how the direct integration between Barn2Door and QuickBooks Online gives Farmers the power to make faster and more accurate business decisions to improve margins and better manage operations.
Starting with a Commitment to Sustainable Management & Practices
Will and Amy Campbell of Old Rich Valley Farm, Virginia
Showcasing what a family-run Farm business is truly like, Will and Amy Campbell joined us from Old Rich Valley Farm (VA). With a faithful commitment to sustainable Farm practices and Quality products, Will shared how Subscriptions have been a game-changer for selling direct-to-market. Subscriptions have helped Will and Amy plan their inventory for the future (arranging processing dates months in advance) and gain peace of mind with recurring monthly cash flow.
Simplifying Tax Compliance for your Farm
Matt Hammond, Avalara
Matt Hammond of Avalara joined us to share how much tax rates can vary based on boundaries, counties, and state lines. In the presentation, Matt shared an example of how honey is taxed from one state to another. This showed how valuable a tax solution like AvaTax is for helping Farmers navigate complicated tax districts, ensure tax compliance, and gain peace of mind knowing that each product’s taxability is accurate.
Best Practices for Managing Your Money & Saving Time
Jessica Evans of Evans Family Farm, North Carolina
With an entrepreneurial background, Jessica Evans of Evans Family Farm (NC) discussed the importance of managing your money to operate a thriving Farm business. Jessica highlighted that time is her most important asset, and she intends to spend most of her time on revenue-generating tasks. Whereas, leveraging accounting software, a tax solution and a professional accountant, can help her stay on top of financial goals and make better informed business decisions for the future.
5 Metrics Every Farmer Needs to Know
Cade and Meet, Barn2Door
Aggregating millions of lines of data from across 1000’s of Farms, Barn2Door Team members explained the importance of which metrics Farmers should be aware of on a daily basis. From sales volume, order trends, top-selling items, and top Customers, understanding how these factors impact the business are essential to Farm growth. With Barn2Door’s advanced reporting tools, your Farm now has access to the right tools to gather better insight to your Farm’s performance and growth trajectory.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The day concluded with the CEO of Barn2Door, Janelle Maiocco, sharing some exciting announcements!
FFA Partnership: We are delighted to announce our partnership with Future Farmers of America! Barn2Door is excited to work alongside FFA and invest in the education of our future Farmers.
Student Tier on Barn2Door: We are thrilled to share a new Barn2Door tier geared towards young Farmers. The Student Plan is perfect for “Do it yourself” Farmers eager to jump in and learn best practices to grow and manage a direct Farm business.
Also, we encourage you to dive into data-backed insights and strategies gathered from Farmers across the country on how your Farm can build an efficient and effective delivery service with our latest eBook:
At Barn2Door, we provide the software and the services to help Farmers grow and manage direct sales. If you’re curious how we can serve your Farm in building a thriving direct-to-market business, watch this 5-minute video.