Ecommerce is Always On - There is No "Pause" Online
When building your Farm’s online brand presence, we often remind Farmers to consider: “What Would Amazon Do?” Buyers are conditioned by billion-dollar brands and expect the same convenience of ordering from your Farm anytime, anywhere. Amazon has set the “gold standard” for point-and-click purchases, intuitive online ordering (no need to call, email, or text someone to ask questions), an easy check-out experience, and direct delivery where products conveniently arrive on your doorstep without any hassles.
The good news is that the “Amazon-experience” provides Farmers with a blueprint of Buyer expectations, how to stay top of mind, build brand loyalty and drive sales when your Farm Products are available (or unavailable) to purchase.
Always Available Online
Buyers expect your Farm to be online, even during the off-season. Your Customers are looking to engage with your Brand year-round and want to build a relationship with your Farm. Disappearing “offline” or pausing your Farm store (even for a short period) is no longer an option. Your customers will be solicited by other Farmers who are increasingly active year-round. Also, your website’s SEO that you spent so much time developing will lose its value.
On average, your Customers consume 6+ hours of content online every day. An online presence does not require your Farm to sell products during the off-season, but it does require you to stay engaged with your Customers. Here are some ways to keep your Farm top of mind:
Post on social media regularly. Sharing a photo on Facebook or Instagram 2 - 3x per week allows Customers to stay connected to your Farm. The majority of your Customers have no idea what living on a Farm is like. Share a photo or video educating viewers about an off-season chore!
Send monthly newsletters. Sharing what you’re up to on the Farm with email subscribers is a great way to engage Customers in the off-season. Educate, entertain, and share timelines surrounding product availability.
In the summer, it’s easy to interact with your Customers - at farmer’s markets, during deliveries, or at pick-up locations for CSA boxes. However, if you’re not consistently engaging them through all channels (web, mobile, social, and email) throughout the year, your customers will forget about you. Customers that connect with your Farm brand are 3x more likely to become a repeat customer. Using online channels to engage Buyers consistently will drive Farm sales when products become available.
Grow your Farm Brand in the Off-Season
At Barn2Door, we see that our most successful Farms sell year-round. With value-added products or on-Farm events to keep Customers engaged, you may be surprised at how many of your loyal Buyers would sign up for an off-season tour of your Farm. Heading into the holidays, Farm credits, gift cards, and pre-season deposits are popular items where we see several Orchards selling $10k+ in the off-season to secure recurring cash flow. Here are a few tactics we’ve seen Farms implement to build brand loyalty, driving Farm revenue in the Winter months:
Tom Bennett of Bennett Farms incentivizes employees to capture customer emails at farmer’s markets. Offering his employees $1 for every verified email address, Tom builds the number of email subscribers, which leads to captured pre-orders during the winter months.
Dan and Debbie’s Creamery partners with over 30 local growers, producers, and artisans in their home state of Iowa. The Creamery upsells their own dairy products alongside their partner’s specialty items through their online and retail stores. Dan and Debbie’s Creamery is able to create a “one-stop-shop” to satisfy all their customer’s needs, driving recurring cash flow year-round.
It’s important to note that there are real costs associated with any online service. Using the off-season to build your Brand and keeping your Customers engaged year-round will drive Farm orders, outweighing the costs associated with hosting your website and store.
Your Buyers want a relationship with your Farm. Use the off-season to get organized, plan ahead, and develop a strategy to build recurring cash flow. Your relationship will deepen through the seasons, so lean in to keep your Buyers engaged, increase loyalty to your Brand, and improve the stability of your Farm business year-round.
Barn2Door powers Farmers who sell direct, helping them increase sales, access more customers, and save time. If you’re curious how Barn2Door could help your Farm optimize SEO and build a thriving direct-to-market business, watch this 5-minute video.