Consistent marketing, whether managed in-house or with outside help, pays off through steady growth and loyal customers
When a consumer buys from a farmer, they’re buying the illusion of knowing you. Yes, they physically get your products, but they’re paying for the “relationship with their farmer” and the ability to say they know where their food came from.
I put relationship with the farmer in quotes because this is a transactional relationship. Obviously, you’re telling the truth about your growing practices, but you’re probably not calling your customers in excitement when your seedlings come up or your cows calf. Customers see a filtered view of life on the farm, and marketing directly to customers is an exercise in finding a balance between sharing everything that’s going on (“Y’know, my hemorrhoids sure make sitting on this tractor painful…”) and not sharing anything. And then it’s holding that balance week in, week out, for years.
Two months ago, we talked about how marketing is a slow burn, and how the results were disappointing for Love Is Love Cooperative Farm’s seedling sale. We may not have seen a boost in on-farm foot traffic and sales for the seedling sale, but one area where they have seen steady growth has been their CSA subscriptions.
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