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.
The original concept of a CSA was that members receive a true share — if 10 people bought in, they’d get a tenth of the harvest, whether it was an overabundance of tomatoes or a complete absence of cantaloupe. The idea has taken on many forms since, from a completely customizable weekly box to a set amount of product each week, farmer’s choice.
Love Is Love offers a middle ground — their box is a set amount of produce, farmer’s choice, but they’ve partnered with a few other farmers to offer add-on items such as flowers, eggs, meat and grains. The cooperative iteration of Love Is Love definitely benefits from the foundation that worker owners Joe and Judith bring to the table — 13 years of building a thriving CSA under the original Love Is Love brand in Atlanta. When the farm moved to its new location and shifted into a cooperative ownership model, there were 175 customers that came along for the ride. Now, four years later, there are 450.
How does that growth happen? Marketing is a slow burn.
Prior to this year, Judith came up with weekly newsletter content to send out to the CSA customers. Each newsletter had pictures from the farm, recipe ideas, blurbs about the fruits and vegetables in that week’s share, and stories that offered a glimpse into what was happening during that week. Then there were social media posts, moderating the Facebook group with CSA members and advertisements to target and bring in new customers. It’s easily 10-20 hours of work a week — which is why many farmers skimp on this type of marketing. After all, it doesn’t provide an immediate return, and there’s always something more urgent to do.
This year, Good Agriculture has been helping take some of this work off Judith’s plate. Bringing in help for this sort of marketing work relies on having a brand kit, a clear brand voice and realistic expectations. We’ve not yet reached the level of technology where one can pull knowledge straight from the brain and pass it to someone else with 100 percent understanding (not sure we’d want that, either… I’d rather struggle to make myself understood, wouldn’t you?). It’s taken time to reach a cadence of regular check ins and comfort on the part of both Good Agriculture and Judith with the work that’s being done by each party.
After some back and forth, we’ve landed on Good Agriculture handling the Facebook group and working to increase the member activities in the group. We comment, encourage folks to share how they use their produce, and try to be present to encourage others to interact. Very few people are comfortable enough to be the first to do something, so we make a point of being that first person. And in doing so, we gain an understanding of why the CSA members value their shares. That then informs our efforts to find new members. Good Agriculture is also handling the farm’s social media — featuring member recipes, events on the farm, features of farm partners and advertising for new members using the understanding we’re gaining from the Facebook group.
Judith hasn’t fully handed off the CSA marketing — nor would we expect her to. It’s hard to hand off your baby to someone else, and the process of landing on the current division of labor hasn’t been without its bumps. She’s still doing the weekly newsletters to members reminding them about their pickups, and she still organizes the on-farm events for CSA members. She also handles a lot of the admin for Love Is Love — sending invoices, staying on top of paperwork and grant requirements, managing employees and payroll, etc. — so her days are more than full!
After our last marketing article, you might have concluded that marketing isn’t worth the effort. But Love Is Love’s story shows us otherwise: consistent marketing, whether managed in-house or with outside help, pays off through steady growth and loyal customers. The key is maintaining that slow burn, even when other farm tasks feel more urgent. The results may not be immediate, but they will come.
Kirsten Simmons is the co-founder and Chief Farming Officer for Good Agriculture (goodagriculture.com), a company dedicated to helping farmers find funding, manage finances, reach new customers and get certified. She also farms at Ecosystem Farm in Atlanta (ecosystemfarm.com).
