Attracting & Retaining Buyers with Long Lane Farm
In this week's episode, Janelle talks with Camille from Long Lane Farm in Rhode Island. Camille discusses how their Farm attracts and retains Buyers for their products.
Building a Farm brand enables you to better serve Buyers in your local community. Understanding buying habits, ideal package sizing and consistent communication with customers builds a strong base.
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Janelle Maiocco: Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Janelle, CEO of Barn2Door and your host for today's episode. As many of our listeners may be aware, Barn2Door offers an all in one business solution for Farmers selling direct, online and in person.
I'm happy to speak with Camille from Long Lane Farm in Rhode Island today. Camille is a part of our Farm Advisor Network and has success in offering subscriptions and more, to buyers in her area. Welcome, Camille.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Thanks for having me. I think this is the third podcast, so.
Janelle Maiocco: Is it the third?
That's [00:01:00] great. Well, good. Then people can go back to our resources page and find more podcasts or wherever they listen to podcasts, they can just look you up and listen to the other two. Before we start, because I think it'll really be helpful to our listeners to get a little bit of a sense of where you're at in your farming journey, because it's been an interesting one, if that's fair to say.
And you, in particular, correct me if I'm wrong, Camille, but you started, with a business partner friend, but you had two parcels that were quite far apart. And so, you got to the point recently where you're like, these should maybe be two separate farms because life driving between was just too much.
And then, really you had to quote unquote start over then and then do rebranding and sort of build from scratch and that was pretty recently.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, it was this season that it happened. So, this was our first season farming as Long Lane Farm. Before that, I was farming under Little River Farm and we started that in 2013.
I started that [00:02:00] as a business partner and then in 2020 we were able to purchase land and before that, we were just on rented land, so our plan was, "yeah, we'll just manage both", then the reality of, sitting an hour and a half in rush hour traffic each way, and also just the bringing supplies back and forth, it was like, "okay, I gotta bring this down there and then these vegetables up there".
So, it was around this time last year that I really came to the realization that if I wanted to be able to not only keep going, but also just keep my passion for farming, I needed to make a change and just simplify my life. So, this year was the first year I just got to farm where I live.
Janelle Maiocco: Whoa, that's big.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: It was really big, just walking out my door and being able to go to work was huge. It was definitely a building year. We had to put in a well, build a fence, upgrade electricity. [00:03:00] We're putting in high tunnels, planting all the beds for the first time. So, it definitely feels like starting over again.
But, the nice part is I have all the knowledge from starting over, from starting the first time. So, now I know what to do and what not to do a little bit more.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, I think most farmers who are just getting started would trade their right arm for 10 years of prior farming experience, right? Going into it, but still a ton of work.
You do such a nice job on Instagram. Like giving tips to people, you're like, "here's the tips, "to do this well and to do this well and to do this well".
And I love that. But I also noticed, and I think it was almost a year ago. You said you hit a wall and you were just like, I kind of hit a wall. Like, in terms of like farming and regrouping and getting your passion back, what would you attribute to getting over that hump?
Because I feel like, you're there again.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, definitely just being able to regroup and get some of my time back, and also [00:04:00] my stress level was so high so it was really just improving my quality of life. I knew that I wanted to keep farming, but it wasn't working in its current sense, so really this year just one not having to drive was huge but, able also to cultivate what I want as a farm, which is really being a community place. We have a farm stand here. We do a plant sale. We have a lot of orders and CSA pickups here. So, it's definitely my dream with my wife that we can just make this farm an amazing place for people to come and to be part of the community.
So, being able to really start seeing that dream through has definitely been a huge part of getting it back.
Janelle Maiocco: And kudos to you. I mean, I think it's so awesome and important for people to realize and, you know, like, "hey, I love this, but my stress is too high and there's things logistically not working".
And the fact that you're like, "how can I fix it? How can I change that? Because, [00:05:00] I do love farming and I do want to do this". And it was really wise of you to take a deep, hard look. And it sounded like it was very hard to do, but worth it.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, usually I find, the hardest things to do make you better and happier after doing it.
But, to take that step to make any type of change, even just a change to your fulfillments or not going to market something you know is just going to help you, but may really disappoint some of your favorite customers, like even those things are so hard to do sometimes.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, I really appreciate that.
I think a lot of farms also probably would appreciate that advice, right? Like it's okay to say no, and it's okay to make a change. And in the end, it'll be good, it'll be good for everyone, yourself and your customers, which is good.
I have a question. Would you say you're restarting a Farm, are you moving from like hobby? You're full time farming, right?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yes, yes.
Janelle Maiocco: Okay, so it's full, full time. And then what are your goals for your farm? It's one year in, [00:06:00] if you're gonna fast forward two or three years, what does that look like?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, we're really trying to grow our farm stand business.
We're trying to grow our CSA on our farm, doing it with some you pick, adding in flowers, which is something I've said I wanted to do for a while and just have never done it because I don't know much about it. So, finally giving that a try. And then, cultivate a farm that can be an example for other farmers in our region and be able to host workshops and we do a very big plant sale.
So, continue to not only increase how many people are coming to plant sale, but start building out courses as well for that. Maybe online, maybe in person, maybe a combination, but definitely just trying to pair being a farmer with also being, kind of a teacher for other farmers as well as people in our community, while also being profitable.
That's definitely something [00:07:00] I think a lot about. When I think about people who get to go to work for someone else, like the one thing, the main thing that they have that I don't is like a 401k and all these things, I'm gonna be 34, which isn't that old, but I know it's the point of time that I also have to say, I really have to make this farm work financially and be able to save for my future because I know I can't forever.
Janelle Maiocco: Way to be focused. Wow, that's wonderful. Thank you for sharing that, by the way. I also love that you're so keen on helping other potential farmers be successful. I know there's a lot of hunger out there for that as well. And I know that's extra over and above everything else that you're doing.
Thank you for all of those future farmers that you're going to help. That's wonderful and very inspirational. And I think, in that vein, you have this great lens of hindsight, but also having just restarted. And I do know there are many farms out there that are trying to move to full time, or are wanting to get [00:08:00] started, or are successful and would love some great tips.
And I know you have them, because you also have 10 years under your belt. So, I'm hoping to just dig into a little bit of the nitty gritty. So, the other farmers out there listening to this can come away with, Hey, these, wow, those are some good ideas. I can maybe apply some of those to my farm or make the changes I need to make or try something new.
And sometimes, we run through the different P's. There's P's that, you know, we love letters, right? So, a couple of things that start with a P that keeps us in the rails in terms of our conversation, but really basic is products, right? I mean, tell the world out there what you grow.
You mentioned plant sale, obviously, and I think you have some high tunnels and you have some acreage outside. But, tell the folks here, in case they might be able to relate directly, and or want to be trying something new. What products it is that you're good at and growing right now.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, so we're a pretty small farm. We only have about an acre and a half. [00:09:00] We do have four pretty large high tunnels, so we focus a lot of our vegetable growing in there. So, we're growing all organic vegetables and then microgreens as well. And our main products are leafy greens, so salad, spinach, arugula, and then really focus on tomatoes as well as our main crops.
And then, we try to have enough diversity to supply our farm stand and our CSA. But, because we're so small and we're not that mechanized, we're a no-till farm. We have steered away from doing those heavier storage crops that take a lot of acreage and space and heavy lifting, like squash, potatoes. So, that kind of stuff I'm just pairing with other farms, buying it in and selling it online in the farm stand and then to CSA.
So, really a lot of baby greens, looking for that stuff.
Janelle Maiocco: Greens are great, but they also, you need to move that product, right? There's a bit of a shelf life there that we're talking about, right? [00:10:00] Any tidbits on that, in terms of, how to make sure that those are coming off the shelf in a timely fashion?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, we usually have two harvest days, if not three a week, just so we're really keeping those fresh. So, if we're doing a Tuesday delivery or CSA pack up, it's harvested Monday. So, definitely shelf life, just giving it to them as fresh as possible helps. Out of the field, how you treat it, is really important.
But, the third step is following your sales trends, somehow. Also, following how much are you getting out of a bed when, because that can change with the different seasons, especially with greens that hate the heat, but love the cold, but everybody wants to eat them when it's hot out.
So, you have to track all these different things and reduce your waste and hit the spots where you need to have them, more of them and less of them.
Janelle Maiocco: Do you sell a lot of microgreens, and do you sell just to consumer or do [00:11:00] you also sell to chefs and other businesses?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I've definitely done both.
I would say about two years ago we were up to 300 trays a week and we were selling to mostly small grocery stores, was one of our main accounts for those. And then, we currently have some customers who come to our stand and who order online, who just love microgreens. They're not a product for everybody, so it's not really something that I put too much in the CSA of, because I just know some people love them, some people just don't get the point of them.
So this year, we know it's something we want to expand again, so for 2024, we've already started reaching out to grocery stores, to see what they can use on a weekly basis for those.
Janelle Maiocco: Awesome, it sounds like locking in some commitments there helps. Is it primarily subscriptions then, that folks are buying from you?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: For the microgreens, not so much. I did try to sell a microgreen [00:12:00] CSA and I just didn't get a ton of interest, but I also didn't market it that hard. But with the grocery stores, I am trying to get them on a more subscription or pre order level. Because, the thing with microgreens is they're really profitable, but if you start throwing them away, you're just wasting a lot of money and time and resources, because they take a lot of soil and seeds and, we have to sanitize all the trays to make sure they don't get diseased, so I'm trying to move more to a subscription model all around with them, there's less waste.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, I would think that consistency would be helpful, especially for planning. Right? And that sounds like a pretty intensive planning situation, which is awesome. Okay, so the next P is packaging. So, packaging, and one of the ways people think about this from just a marketing perspective is, you're not going to sell 400 different items, you might not just sell one, because in both cases, you might overwhelm your buyers if there's too many things [00:13:00] to choose from, but also if you have a limited amount, they might want something different than you offer, right?
So, how do you think about keeping good options for your buyers to choose from and the right amount, right? The right mix. Also, you probably have some people who are single or a couple, you probably have families. Do you think about that when you're thinking about size of the units and mix of product in your packaging?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I definitely think of our retail customers, people come to our stand or order online; there's two kind of customers, the one who just wants a small amount. So, we do usually a half pound bag for the baby greens. And then a little bit smaller for the microgreens, because those you don't need as much.
But then, I noticed online we were having some customers who were buying five of those bags. So, I put up a family size bag, I call it, that's one pound. Also get a discounted price on that. So for [00:14:00] those customers, that seems to work. And then, when it goes to wholesale, if we're doing bulk, it's usually more like a three pound bag or a case of something, and with those, with the baby greens, I do try to match the size of what the big farms that are in grocery stores are usually doing. So, usually that's a five ounce.
Janelle Maiocco: That's smart.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah. If you're so lucky, you're like, I want to look as, as much like that. And then, I think it helps the grocery stores too, cause we can all be priced more or less the same.
Obviously, ours is going to be a little more expensive, but I think it can help just make sales for them and for us by doing that.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, it's fun when you're watching how grocers or even other farms do it, but especially a grocery store, if they're doing certain packaging and pricing, they've certainly done a lot of research, right?
So, they're probably headed in the right direction and definitely a good benchmark or, something to compare to in terms of unit sizes. I love the [00:15:00] bulk bags, because I was immediately like, oh, I love spinach. I would totally buy like the larger quantity of spinach, because once you saute that down, it goes pretty small, right?
But it's such a powerhouse, from a nutrition perspective. And so it's great, like if it was me buying, I'd probably, my favorite ones, I'd buy larger quantities, but I'd also want a mix of greens.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I'm actually amazed how many greens some of our customers eat. They're ordering, seven or eight one pound bags every week.
And it makes me feel bad about what I'm eating because I'm like, I think I eat a lot of vegetables, but I'm not eating that many greens, not even close. So.
Janelle Maiocco: That's awesome. Do you ever ask them what they do with all those greens?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: In my head, I do. I'm like, are they sharing or are they just living off salad? And if so, this person is so absolutely healthy and set.
Janelle Maiocco: I love that. I love that. That's good. Okay, so in your CSAs, you have [00:16:00] other vegetables besides just greens, though, that you're pulling into your CSAs, or is it mostly greens?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Oh no, we do a wide variety. So, in addition to what I said already, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, beets, radishes.
Those are just more of the items that I know I can't scale to a wholesale level. My focus with the CSA is continue to make it as diverse and great for these customers. If you say you're gonna get these items that nobody else is getting because we're growing them just for you.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah. And so, those are primarily consumers and you offer multiple sizes of CSA boxes?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: This year I just offered one, but I just put out a survey and one of the questions I asked was, how would you rate the size of the bag? Were you finishing it? Did you need more? Most people said just right, but there were some people who could use a bigger share.
So, I'm going to make, like a family size, much bigger share that they [00:17:00] can get. And then, there's also some people who are like, I'm just one person. If I could get a smaller share, or just get it bi weekly, that would be great. So, I think instead of making three sizes, I'm gonna just make a bi weekly option.
I'll probably keep it a little more limited than our main one, it does make your numbers change back and forth a little bit more, so there's some room for that. But, yeah, just trying to get feedback and make it as good as possible.
Janelle Maiocco: I love that. I'm going to repeat this because it was a great piece of advice in case anybody missed it, which is put a survey out to your buyers.
If you really want to know, hey, is this working? Are these sizes working? Is this cadence working? And you're willing to make some slight changes to accommodate even a greater number of buyers, it doesn't hurt to ask them. Was it an email or a form? How did you do that?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I just did it through Google form.
And then, just with my weekly newsletter to my CSA, I just put it in there [00:18:00] and we have 65 members. I got 35 responses, which is a really good amount.
Janelle Maiocco: Wow. Every marketing department across the country is now jealous.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: This was great.
Janelle Maiocco: That's awesome. That's called a loyal customer.
That's amazing. It makes me very happy. So continuing on again, all these great tidbits. Thank you for that. Payments. People do love, I mean, we're kind of trained by the online, you know, like subscribing, we subscribe and we're done. We have saved credit cards, we love to buy that way.
It's super easy, which is good. Right? If you can be the supplier of that, it's wonderful. But part of it in today's age is we find, and I suspect you'll agree, is that people have different buying habits in how they like to pay. So, sometimes they love the saved credit card. And I think, don't you, with your CSA offer, you offer a lot of different options for people to pay, whether it's credit card, cash and check.
Right? And even upfront or at pay as [00:19:00] you go, are these some of the options? If I'm a buyer from you, where am I buying? You've mentioned a couple of times, online or in person, all of the above, but then what are the different ways I can pay?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah. So we do an upfront, and then a reoccurring payment, and this seems to really capture the different type of people who are out there. So for the upfront, I do give a slight discount. Because, definitely when we start selling these subscriptions in January, having some upfront payments is really great. But then, I know there's also people who paying that $600 or $500 at once is too much. So, they're just set up on the weekly payment. And it's pretty nice with that too, because every week you look at your bank account and you know, okay, I at least have this baseline of payments. Right now, I think I just have it set up as credit card payments. As much as I think it would be great to get it all through checks and not have to pay the [00:20:00] processing fee, I'm pretty aware of the world that we live in and chasing people down for all that stuff or I don't even know if people all still have checkbooks. So...
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, many do not. We've done polls and I will say the younger set of generations rarely have a checkbook, and even the middle aged folks like myself, thank you very much, like we're like, where is the checkbook?
I haven't used it in years, so even though we know how to use one properly, however, and I think it's interesting because a cash and check can be fabulous. Like in person, you're getting it and you don't have to chase it down.
Right? And so, there's something about not having to chase it down. That's going to be an extra amount of stress and time, like talk about keeping stress down. I would say people paying you up front or having automated recurring payments probably reduces stress.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: It definitely does, and I've honestly found because there's the tips, or you can label it [00:21:00] as help cover fees now, a lot of people opt into that, so maybe the prospect if they pay up front is, $20 on the $600 share, but then they're giving a $30 tip to the farmer, so it all seems to equal out.
And yes, not having to worry about who's paid, and who hasn't, and track all that manually is worth it for me.
Janelle Maiocco: Oh, that's so great to hear. And thanks for a mention, I have to shout out because I remember when our product manager was putting together the experience of what the engineers would build so that, through the platform, you can offer like for your buyer to do tips, but changing the words was a really neat idea, for farmers to instead of saying tips, because that can be uncomfortable, it can say things like, what did you say, help cover fees?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, there was a new one, I think I just saw it a few months ago and I was like, yes, I'm definitely going to change to that. And yeah, we do do a donation program.
So it does [00:22:00] help with stuff like that. Our delivery driver is getting paid what he needs on top of the delivery fee, it's great.
Janelle Maiocco: That's awesome. And then the other thing that farms probably think about or wonder about, too, is procurement. In other words, if I'm your buyer, how do I buy your food and how do I get your food, right?
Which, it sounds silly. But it actually matters to buyers, how easy is it for me to buy from your farm, right? And that's a big deal. There's different ways to get your food in front of people or to, in many cases, some people do door to door delivery. And, are you doing farmer market right now?
How are buyers getting your food all up? Because I know not everybody does farmer's markets.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, we definitely chose not to do farmers markets at one point, with Little River Farm, we were doing three a week and it just really took a toll on me, so I knew I didn't want that. I wanted my weekends free, so right now you order online, we have about 65 subscriptions, I'd say about 40 of them do get delivered, [00:23:00] so it's definitely something that we continually think about because the delivery is incredibly popular.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah. That doesn't surprise me. I'm the worst. I'm like, but do they deliver? If they deliver, done. I don't even care if it costs me extra money for a delivery fee. I'm that buyer. That's for sure.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, definitely. That was one question on the survey, only get the CSA if it's delivered.
And a lot of people said yes. So, definitely something we're looking at for next year. I think our radius is still a little bit too big, especially because, our other farm was in a whole different part of the state. So, we have a lot of customers who are still supporting us, but we're kind of like, can we go this far for forever? We had this amazing delivery driver this year who just never missed the day. And we feel like we got spoiled by that as well.
Janelle Maiocco: That's awesome. And I would suspect, I think a lot of people, a lot of farms, like farmer's [00:24:00] markets or go to them or go to them for a while, but were you nervous when you were like, okay, we're not going to do that because it is a big time commitment, right? And so, were you able to replace that revenue, right? If not immediately, and it might be over time, right? So how do you think about that?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I'd say every farmer, I think location makes a really big difference.
So, we were lucky to buy a farm on the outskirts of city. It's suburban, mostly. So, our farm is right in these neighborhoods on the way down to this huge beach community. So, we have a farm stand and that gets a lot of business. So, we have that ability to say, why would we drive anywhere with our products and have to do that on our Saturdays when we can just go out to the farm stand.
So for me, that really helped making that decision, and I think I would have anyways, but I can understand if some farms, if they're a lot [00:25:00] more rural, maybe going to a farmer's market for a little bit at least is helpful. I will say having those farmer's markets in the beginning years was helpful just to let people know about us, and some of our most loyal customers were farmer's market customers.
So, I think they can be good in the beginning, but if you get to the point where it's just really not serving you or making you happy, then you can look at other things as well.
Janelle Maiocco: Once you've established yourself, it's definitely a theme that we've heard from many farms that we work with that, especially at the beginning when you're there, you're in your community and you can collect emails.
Right, which then later is literally you're building up your customer list. So if you're collecting emails, you're building up a customer list. You're also gaining that loyalty of some face time, you're putting that face time in. And then, with that group of customers, especially even online, you can build on that through social media, right?
And in your community, so it plants a lot of seeds. And we definitely have [00:26:00] farms who are like, okay, after a few years I want to maybe not do as many farmer markets. But, they've gotten enough of a foothold in a community where it's enough and they can really take on and build on it.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I think that's all really great advice. And, I think for us, one thing we really pride ourselves on is quality, so just being able to set up this beautiful market stand with the colorful vegetables, and have people come see those with their eyes in the beginning was really helpful to gain that following.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, I believe it. I totally appreciate that. So ,let's talk a little bit about promotion, which is another P, because we're having fun. You are a new brand this year. This is a really big deal. How do you do that? How do you promote your brand out of the gate?
How do you think about that in terms of engaging your customers? Maybe you have some tips for folks on that too, because you have certainly the benefit not only of hindsight, but almost hindsight twice.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, definitely, I would say year one of starting my farm, I was not thinking about [00:27:00] marketing at all, was not thinking about building a customer list, definitely started thinking about that, maybe year five, year six.
Much later than I wish I had, but...
Janelle Maiocco: Good advice.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah. Yeah. Being able to have that list then when we did make the transition to being two separate farms, and starting over was so valuable because we could tell everyone the journey. So, I've really just been trying to be very open with people on social media and in the emails, just really taking on our journey.
I see the best response to those type of emails where I am a little bit more vulnerable and personable. So, I try to make that a part of it. And then, definitely my goals of this winter is like to take my email marketing to a whole other step, and try to just really collect a lot of emails through attractive offers and do a lot more campaigns.
So, that's where I'm at, is really go all in on [00:28:00] that email marketing and really try to voice it as much to the ideal customer. And, I think that's something we all have to realize. And it's the marketing 101 is you're not trying to sell to everybody. Not everyone wants what you have.
Janelle Maiocco: Find them and keep them, right?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, exactly.
Janelle Maiocco: That's good. I think you're really onto something here with the email marketing. Email marketing is a big deal and it's not something you can ignore necessarily if you want to have persistent sales and independent farmers own their business, right?
And that means, do you have customers? What would you recommend in terms of tips of obviously attracting those emails, and then what does it look like in terms of the cadence of continuing to engage? Because those are two things: one is attracting, like getting customers, and then number two is keeping them.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, the keeping them, I think that's where really knowing your ideal customer comes into play. For example, this year with my CSA, [00:29:00] I want to really start engaging them 10 weeks before they're even going to get a box of vegetables this year. So, that's going to look like, "oh, hey, here's some tips to be successful in the CSA".
Learn how to freeze things, to can things, or here's recipes, and then just keep letting them hear from me. And I'm trying to use that with all aspects. Also, doing that with our plant sale, trying to incorporate some type of free resource that they can click on and then start them down the journey, definitely if they're a new customer who's never bought from us.
So, thinking a lot about all those things. I'm doing a course this winter with another digital farmer who's really good at it, just to really learn, like, what are the marketing basics beyond what I know? Because, farmers, we have to realize like big companies have full departments that do this all day long and you can spend all your time with it.
So, I think to actually take a [00:30:00] course isn't a bad idea at all. You're going to learn a skill, you pay for it, but it's going to pay you back in the long run.
Janelle Maiocco: I appreciate that. It's interesting, we introduced the grassroots marketing academy class through Barn2Door only like four months ago.
And when we started, we were going to do it every other month, but it filled up so quickly that we had to start doing it every month. And, we might even have to do it more because it's exactly that, right? It's grassroots marketing. You have to know the basics. And then, we have an email marketing one, and then we also have one on social media and setting up campaigns on social media. So, next level stuff. But that being said, you don't have necessarily tons of time to market, to do marketing, right?
But you need some. So, would you recommend doing more in this off season? Are you doing more now than you normally would, to set yourself up for success?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I'm gonna try to plan out a lot more content and really lean into those automated Customer Journeys as much as I can.
[00:31:00] So, if I do get a new customer, they're going to be engaged in six weeks of emails for me without me having to do anything in the summer when I've put in the work in the winter. Also, just have an idea list going. I think that's so helpful.
There's so many times where I'm out in the field where I'm like, hey, I should post this or here's a great idea for an email and then I forget. So, just trying to have a list I can just go to. I always love just subscribing to other farms or other small businesses I think do great ideas with newsletters.
So then, I'm getting them in my inbox and I'm grabbing ideas and seeing what they're promoting at different times. I definitely think that's a great idea, just follow the places, the farms, the other businesses that are doing really well.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah. And you'll start picking up on so many good ideas. That's great.
So, finding time to put some extra time in and plan and get organized is a good idea. If you set yourself up for [00:32:00] success, when you're busy and you're in the middle of your season, what's the sort of minimum, what do you try to do each week, week over week from a marketing perspective?
And what does that include?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I try to show up somehow every day on social media, obviously posts and reels are going to be the best, but if it's just some stories throughout the day, that's fine, so just try to be there every day, and then, with my newsletters, at least trying to send them out to my CSA on a weekly basis.
And then, with the online order reminders, I'm usually doing that once or twice a week for the rest of our customers. So ideally, I'm just sending a weekly one out to everybody, but for now, focusing on just making that CSA communication the best it can be.
Janelle Maiocco: Yeah, I love that. You're like, okay, get in front of it by 10 plus weeks before anything begins.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Exactly.
Janelle Maiocco: Get ready. And social media constantly, but then a weekly email, and [00:33:00] then probably two other touches a week of just the order reminders.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, exactly.
Janelle Maiocco: Is about what you're doing. And it sounds like it's working.
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah, I definitely notice every time I send something out, that's when the emails start coming in that I got an order.
So, you can see exactly how it works. And once you see those results, then you want to find the time to do it. It doesn't feel like a burden. You're like, I need to get a newsletter out with this information because I know it's going to bring me a return on the investment of my time, maybe more than going and weeding or doing something outside on the farm is going to do.
Janelle Maiocco: I appreciate that. I'm actually really glad that you said that there's a return and you're seeing the results, because we've talked a lot about the effort of putting in on marketing. So, it's nice for you to be like, no, this really works. It brings in orders and people respond. So, that's great. Okay, we're towards the end of wrapping up.
But before we go, I want to make sure that you [00:34:00] have a chance to share with folks a tip or two about the off season. We've already sort of covered, take a break if you can, right?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: Yeah.
Janelle Maiocco: But also, do some planning, what is the thing you need to work on, from a marketing planning perspective to set yourself up for success when you have less time?
But, is there another tip or two that you do in the off season to set yourself up for success?
Camille Abdel-Nabi: There's obviously the crop planning, nursery seating planning. I think that's kind of a given just try to do that as much as possible. But, our focus this year is like really hiring early and finding a really great crew.
And part of that is making really good job descriptions. So, that's our goal of this winter. Because, we were a little late last season and it was not quite what we needed to take the farm where it needed to be. After that, like I said, taking a break and just feeling okay that you're taking a break.
I know I have a really hard time with that. I just feel like I just have to [00:35:00] be productive to kind of have worth. So, just also saying our jobs are incredibly hard. There's no other job like this, so taking a day to just actually not work is okay.
Janelle Maiocco: I love that advice. Farmers are a productive group of individuals and business owners.
And when you own your own business, you're doing all the parts, not just farming, to your point. So, I love that permission to take a break and regroup and recharge is awesome.
I want to extend my thanks to Camille for joining us on this week's podcast episode.
At Barn2Door, we're humbled to support thousands of farms across the country that sell to more than a million buyers. We're delighted to streamline the farm sales processes, including subscriptions, that Camille uses. If you're eager to sell your farm products direct, online, or in person, and want to learn more about subscriptions, other sales options offered by Barn2Door, You can always go to our website, Barn2Door. com.
Also important, [00:36:00] if you want to check out Camille on Long Lane on Instagram, because why not follow her? She's got great ideas too, at instagram.com/LongLane_Farm.
Thank you again for tuning in today. We look forward to having you join in our next conversation on the Direct Farm podcast.