5 Simple Tactics to Setup for Next Season
No matter the time of year, setting your Farm up for success is key to helping your Farm Business succeed. In this week’s episode we are joined by Sky, an Onboarding Manager at Barn2Door, as we break down the 5 simple tactics to help your Farm get setup for next season!
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James Maiocco: Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. We've got a great conversation for you today with one of my colleagues, Sky Hilliard, who is a Farm Onboarding Manager here at Barn2Door sky has literally helped hundreds of farms get started with Barn2Door prepping all their products for sale to prospective buyers across every channel, web, mobile, social, email, newsletters, and in-person with the new Barn2Door POS. Sky has worked with some of our most successful Farms that run their businesses on Barn2Door, so I'm looking forward to diving in today to our topic, which is [00:01:00] the top five tactics to prep for the coming season. So, regardless of your farm, there's some best practices that we're gonna learn today from Sky on getting set up for the coming season.
Welcome Sky. Thanks for
Sky Hilliard: joining me today. Yeah, thanks for inviting me in. Well, I'm
James Maiocco: really excited to dig in, cuz you've gained a, a ton of experience during your tenure here at Barn2Door. Maybe for those who are listening for the first time, it might be a little bit unfamiliar with, you know, Barn2Door, the concept of a Farm Onboarding Manager.
Mm-hmm. Can you kind of briefly describe your role and responsibilities? What is it that you actually do here at Barn2Door for Farmers?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah. Well, I think in a sentence, it is really, getting the store set up, right. Um, it is, it is introducing the platform, kind of walking people through the tools, how they're going to get more and more independent throughout the weeks of getting that store set up.
And that's really, I call it talking about the bread and butter, which is the inventory and the fulfillment schedules, right? How are people going to get their products? Yeah. And what are the products going to be? How are they priced? And then from there it is, kind of [00:02:00] talking about some more tertiary things like getting customers added in and how to do that on the platform.
And then walk through buyer experience, order management. And just so you have a good exposure to what it's gonna be like existing on that store every day. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of
James Maiocco: details there, right? Like, oh, yeah. You know, managing a lot of orders. I mean, we have Farms that do, tens or hundreds of orders.
We have Farms that do thousands of orders every week, right? Yeah. But there are probably a lot of consistency regardless of your size. During your tenure here at Barn2Door, I imagine you've worked with all kinds of types of Farms, right? Mm-hmm. Proteins, Produce, Dairy, etc. So I just got, like you said, that's kind of the bread and butter.
Yeah. Yeah. What's one of the most unique types of Farms
Sky Hilliard: that you've worked with? Yeah, so I actually just started working with a Farm that is doing a aquaponic setup, which is, which differs from a hydroponic setup. And, and I'd have to do some Wikipedia reading to figure out exactly what this is. Uh, but it incorporates fish into a hydroponic setup. Yeah. And, and I hadn't, uh, worked with anybody. [00:03:00] And, so he is, he's selling produce and fish and, even more interesting, he's, uh, working out of an old, World War II mill.
I guess that's awesome that they're rehabbing into a bunch of. Cool. Uh, like agricultural space. So,
James Maiocco: yeah. That's cool. I know aquaponic Farmers are, are quite interesting. Well, let's focus on kind of like we said, bread and butter, Proteins, Produce and Dairy Farms represent probably 90% of the customers that we mm-hmm.
Work with here in the country. Uh, certainly at represent most of what people consume on a daily or weekly basis, both as consumers and certainly as restaurants. Mm-hmm. And schools, those types of things. Let's, let's dive into some of the tactics here. Cause I presume with your wealth of experience, you.
There's some real common best practices. Yeah. So let's, let's, you've given me a breakdown here on the top five tactics to prep for the coming season. So let's start with this first tactic. You talked a little bit about store setup. That's the most important thing to get started. What does that actually entail? What does store setup mean when getting started as a Farmer for the season?
Sky Hilliard: Primarily it, starts with your [00:04:00] inventory, right? What is it you are going to be selling? We'll walk through that together and, um, kind of talk about, your quantities, your pricing, and just getting all of the fine details mm-hmm, nailed down for what it is you want to be selling. And, uh, of course, You know, in, in onboarding we always kind of want to be collaborators and are going to kind of help you through some of the best practices with, with inventory and, and everything else it follows. Got it. And so in then the inventory,
James Maiocco: I mean, Farmers have products that are available at different times of the season, so associated with the inventory. Right? What's next? Because obviously if you're growing produce mm-hmm. If you're a diversified operation, your produce might be on a different, you know, timing than perhaps Yeah. You're processing for your chickens or for your pigs.
Sky Hilliard: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's super important, especially for Produce Farms and which we're seeing a lot of now, and CSAs, which is, um, basically if you're unfamiliar with the term of CSA, it's just like a Subscription.
Right. People have different growth cycles and it's important that our scheduling system can kind [00:05:00] of, um, cater to all of those different growth cycles. This is available right now, but it's not gonna be available two months from now. Mm-hmm. And, our system does have the capacity to build that in so that you have to think about it once and set it up for the season basically, so.
Got
James Maiocco: it. So getting the inventory set up, getting schedules associated with those products. Yeah. And based on their availability. And then what else here? I see you've also got listed customers and order reminders. Obviously everyone understands what a customer is, but why is it so important to upload
Sky Hilliard: customers into the system?
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just really important to have people to email to remind them, Hey, you got our CSA, or you came and got some a la carte bundles from us last year, you enjoyed it, come back and, and keep buying from us. Right. Um, if they are already your customers, They've already enjoyed your products, they want to, see those reminders and they want to be reminded, um mm-hmm. To, to come back and purchase. So, uh, really important to be uploading those customers, just to have that customer base and then be sending out order reminders from there. [00:06:00] And oftentimes,
James Maiocco: I know people have data from their customers all over the place. Yeah. They might have it. You know, email inbox, and maybe they have it in some legacy POS device. Yeah. Uh, I know Google and Yahoo, Microsoft, they all automatically collect the data as well, right? Mm-hmm. For you. So there's ways to kind of export some of that data and pull it in. Correct?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah, for sure. And, it's really just gonna be that one time, you know, that growing pain of getting the store set up where you're pulling your customers from wherever you have them, right? A lot of people don't have the emails yet, they just need to convert phone numbers cuz they've been doing a lot of in-person. Yep. And kind of word of mouth sales, right? So converting those phone numbers into emails and doing one, batch import from wherever you have, contacts before and, then getting them uploaded into the system so they're ready to go. And, then from there it's easy to, to add new customers in one at a time and just be passively and automatically collecting customers.
Got
James Maiocco: it, got it. So get your store set up inventory, schedule, pulling your customers in and then setting up these [00:07:00] automated order reminders. So step two, you've got labeled here is kind of the basics for eCommerce. What are the basics? How do you think about the basics for eCommerce today and what buyers are looking for?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah. Well I think about it in a few different categories here, right? Um, , category one being packaging, and then we have pricing, subscriptions, and then point of sale. So, so just starting with the first one, packaging here, um, that, that's not just the packaging of your products, right?
Which, you should keep simple, keep that cost down. Um, uh, some people will future branding, which is always nice, but definitely don't get too fancy. Of course, unless you're shipping, you'll have include a little bit of packaging to make that mm-hmm. A possibility. But, um, but really when I talk about packaging is how are you going to be packaging and bundling your products?
Right? Maybe it's not the best idea to list a hundred different cuts of beef on your store. Maybe it's better to
James Maiocco: have a, I don't know if I can name a hundred cuts of beef, honestly. Right?
Sky Hilliard: See, [00:08:00] from time, sometimes it feels like I'll get there to being able to name a hundred, but I still see stuff that, that I don't recognize.
And um, and there's just a lot, right? And so if I'm being overwhelmed, When I'm looking at it, a buyer's gonna be overwhelmed by it. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Because I do this eight hours a day. Um, and, and so it is important we find to, be focusing on your revenue drivers, be featuring things that are, are really your key products at the top of your page, marking them as high priority, uh, and also try and make them bundles. Try and make 'em something that is, a 10 lbs variety box. And just build that in as kind of key items mm-hmm. That you want to focus on. Mm-hmm. So a good example of that. I
James Maiocco: know many times, uh, I'll use myself as an example. I don't know, a hundred cuts of beef . Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. But I certainly know what a, a ribeye is, right? Mm-hmm. And I definitely know I like a filet. Mm-hmm. So, do you suggest that they should be putting those up as individual products listing all these specialty products, or you mentioned bundles. Are those good things to en entice buyers [00:09:00] into buying a bundle? Do you feature those products as, Hey, you get a 10 pound box and then you'd get the ribeye or something like that?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah, yeah. Typically, I will say you want to feature that stuff inside of a bundle. Right. Got it. Um, you know, people do know the certain things that they're looking for and want and, it's always good to have those things scattered throughout. Right. But it's so often I'll talk to Farms that say, oh, well, we sold out of all of our ribeyes or all of our filets. Now we have all the stuff that people don't, quote unquote, want as much or know, or know as much is, is really what they're saying.
Um, yeah. So putting that into a bundle and putting those bundles into sizes that are digestible and makes sense to different household sizes mm-hmm. Makes a lot of sense for what we see works well at Barn2Door, so we always kind of incorporate that into the strategy of how we're gonna be selling our products.
James Maiocco: Yeah. You mentioned household sizes. Mm-hmm. I think that's a good one, right? Because I love all the, you know, Farm websites that we build out.
I was just looking at one yesterday, and of course, you know, the Farmer and his wife, they had six kids, right? Mm-hmm. And so they probably have a chest freezer, but you know, I know most [00:10:00] people in America don't have a chest freezer. Right, exactly. So tell me a little bit more about it. When you talk about different sizes, like what, what should a Farmer be thinking about in terms of the packaging
Sky Hilliard: sizes. Well, like you said, something that I always bring up is the chest freezer thing. So, if you can, sell to a, two person household, a three or four person household, Uh, and then maybe even a large household, you open yourself up to, just a much bigger market, right?
Than selling, um, in huge bulk quantities. Mm-hmm. Like a side of beef. Um, it's important to diversify a bit but also not be, um, just selling in, in huge quantities. Yeah. Yeah. I know a third
James Maiocco: of Americans live alone. Right. So Yeah. And all of those people who live alone probably just have a, a regular freeze or Right. So a 10 pound box is perfect, but they're probably not getting a
Sky Hilliard: 40 pound box. Yeah. And alongside of that, even if you did have a chest freezer, a lot of people, um, don't have the finances right, to, to be buying a massive quantity of, of a certain product. And also people's diets don't consist of [00:11:00] just a single thing, right?
Yes. They want to be able to not just buy beef, but also incorporate chicken and, their produce and Yep. And, and so, um, it's important to kind of think about that and meet your buyer where they're at, and kind of always consider their expectations as they're going into a purchase.
Good,
James Maiocco: good point. Tell me a little bit about pricing, mm-hmm. I know many Farmers today have products that might be, you know, variable on price. Mm-hmm. Right. And sell by weight. And I know those are key features that we have and we can support, but what do you see as a best practice for those mm-hmm. Farmers that have high volume with us? What are they doing today?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah. Well, the sell by weight feature is it's critical to have in the store. And, you know, because we're Built for Farms, it is, wonderful to have that as an option, but what we see, is convenience is king, right? And if you're charging flat prices, our fixed pricing model, makes a lot of sense. So, so for the majority of your products, I try to get people to go to that flat price model, and sell by weight is great, uh, in person, it makes a lot more sense. But, flat prices just makes it [00:12:00] easy at checkout for your buyer.
It makes it easy after checkout for you as the seller too, because you're not having to go into the system and charge a final wait for every individual cut you might be selling or, or whatever it is you're selling. Yeah. Um, and your buyer's not going to, be paying a deposit and then have to come back later and see another charge that came in through the email, right? Correct. Because they actually found out that the steak was 1.2 lbs rather than one pound.
James Maiocco: Yeah. It just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, even from a time and a labor perspective. Yeah. For the Farmer to have to go in and
Sky Hilliard: reconcile the difference versus if you're trying to grow and scale, definitely a fixed price makes more sense.
Yeah.
James Maiocco: Whereas if you're selling truly are selling quarter half or whole side of beef
Sky Hilliard: or pig, what have you, then it makes it. A ton of sense to be selling variable pricing. Yeah. Or, or high dollar per pound, or even per ounce items, like a, like a Wagyu beef might make more sense to do. Yes. Like, uh, variable pricing.
Right. Heritage turkeys too. I know we see
James Maiocco: this all the time too. Yeah. Right. Very, very pricey. Mm-hmm. People, [00:13:00] something that people are willing to pay a premium price for. Right. And of course, the Farmer wants to make every dollar they can to the ounce. Right. Um, let's talk a little bit about subscriptions.
Mm-hmm. You mentioned that. Um, it's kind of a really big topic. I know amongst many of the Farmers we chat with today and about a third of all of our volume today are subscriptions. Why are they such a big deal and why are buyers asking for
Sky Hilliard: them? Yeah. Well, buyers, they like subscriptions because their lives are busy. They like to set it and walk away and know that this, is taken care of, it's dealt with, it's gonna auto draw out of their account. And especially with food, um, people like to be able to secure their food, and I know the last few years that's kind of been in the consciousness, right?
Yeah. So, um, so being able to, uh, to set up a subscription for food and not just your entertainment or your music or whatever makes a lot of sense for people, uh, at, at a really increasing rate, I think.
James Maiocco: Yeah. And I don't think anybody's walked into a store and seen store shelves that are completely full. Right. In fact, just the opposite. Mm-hmm. I think we're all seeing some scarcity [00:14:00] on store shelves these days. Mm-hmm. Uh, and that creates a lot of concern around food security, food scarcity, uh. Mm-hmm. And you wanna make sure your family's fed right. I, I get it. Having those subscriptions has mm-hmm. Certainty, both in terms of. Availability and pricing. Right. Cuz we've also seen inflation hit some prices as
Sky Hilliard: well. Right. Yeah. And, and I would say that, you know, historically buying direct from a Farmer hasn't been the easiest prospect. Right. And if you are including subscriptions to make it easier for your buyers and, reduce the amount of friction for people, um, then it's just, it just makes it easier.
And less and less people are gonna have excuses to not be buying fresh, quality, healthy products. Right. That's,
James Maiocco: that's a, that's a great deal. Mm-hmm. And I know for Farmers, this helps them build recurring revenue. Everyone loves this idea of having certainty of Farm revenue coming in every month, but what if I'm a Farmer that doesn't have a product that's available year round? Right. I totally get it. You know, if you sell eggs or you've got pasture poultry and you know exactly what your grow and harvest time is, you know you can produce those items year round. But what if I'm a Produce Farmer, and I've only got products that are available for [00:15:00] four to six months of the year. Can, can we support something like that here at Barn2Door?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, ongoing is very simple, every fulfillment, it's gonna auto draw. But we have, uh, we have our. Seasonal subscription model that we can build in.
So for Produce Farms, we were just talking about, we have a lot of Produce Farms starting up and um, you know, your summer products are not gonna be like your fall products. And same with like Flower Farms and stuff like that. So, we have the ability to build in kind of a, a time gated- Hey, you're gonna get 10 months of this, or you're gonna get four months of this, right?
Uh, we have the ability to build in, subscriptions that have an
James Maiocco: expiration date basically. Yeah. There's a duration, right? Yeah. I love the Flower Farm example. I know. Uh, yeah. Last year I got my wife a, uh, flower subscription mm-hmm. For Mother's Day. That was a real hit, by the way. Yeah. Fresh Flowers Delivery every week. I'm sure I got that for 12 weeks. That was great. Great investment, I'm sure.
Uh, and then lastly, you mentioned Point of Sale, yeah. You know, um, why is Point of Sale such an important part to be thinking about? Uh, most Farmers today, when they're thinking about selling online, [00:16:00] typically view their online sales very different than their in-person sales. Mm-hmm. Tell, tell me a little bit more. I know we just debuted a Point of Sale, but why is this such a
Sky Hilliard: big deal for a Farmer? Yeah. Well the amazing thing about our Point of Sale, is if you're here with Barn2Door and you've already built your store out with one of us, uh, in the Onboarding side, um, then all of your inventory is gonna be built into the Point of Sale when you're at your farmer's market or your farm store, right?
Um, it's already gonna be there for you and inventory's gonna draw down, you don't have to have a separate merchant account, right? There's a lot of advantages to having the Point of Sale system through Barn2Door. And a it makes it easier to, do those variable weight mm-hmm. Uh, price per pound sales, um, at a farmer's market or your farm stand. it makes it a lot easier because you're just doing it right there and plugging in the final value. There's no eCommerce steps that make a little bit more friction there. Right. Yeah. So from what I
James Maiocco: understand, you literally could have a product that's fixed price online that somebody's buying a whole chicken, for instance, for Yeah. We call $30 for a medium sized chicken. Yeah. But if you're [00:17:00] in person, literally one toggle the button, you can immediately flip it over to charge to the ounce. Right. You could weigh the bird and charge 3.4 pounds or 4.2 pounds, and it'll
Sky Hilliard: just automatically calculate the price on Yeah.
Exactly whereas it makes sense on an eCommerce to not do all the extra steps that come with variable pricing. Um, right there in person, you can flip that toggle and just charge 'em by the pound because it makes sense to get an exact price in-person if it's, really no extra friction to it.
Yeah.
James Maiocco: Makes a ton of sense. And it's almost like the meat counter or the
Sky Hilliard: butcher experience when you Yeah, it's a lot more like that experience
James Maiocco: that people are, it make it very easy, familiar, but the best part about it all coming out of a single inventory, single merchant account.
Yeah. So one of the other big ones you, you laid out here, uh, was email collection. Yeah. I hear a lot about email, right? And sometimes Farmers get a little apprehensive about email. They don't like the idea of getting spammed or spamming their customers, what have you. Why is email such a big deal?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah.
Well, I think just to talk about they don't want to be bothered by emails, they don't like getting emails themselves. I mean, I think the difference is you [00:18:00] don't want to get emails from huge corporations that are spamming you all the time. Um, the difference is you are a local Farm in their community.
Mm-hmm. And it is just not the same. People want to hear about you, they wanna support you. , no matter who you are, it feels good to support a local business. It feels good to, um, be connected to your food too. So being able to keep up that contact with your buyers is, uh, you know, it's hugely important and your buyers actually want it.
It's a different thing than getting, spam marketing for, cheap clothing and stuff. Got it. Right. It,
James Maiocco: How do Farmers go out and collect emails? Right? Yeah. So we talked a little bit about sometimes they, can export things from mm-hmm. Their, their Google or Yahoo accounts that they may already have, but if they're meeting somebody for the first time at a, farmer's market, yeah. You know, stopping and actually writing down on a clipboards is kind of, takes some extra steps. Right. You know? Mm-hmm. Putting up a flyer and asking people to write their name on a flyer at a coffee shop or at a church or school takes work. Are there some, are there some tactics here that a Farmer can do to make it more turnkey?
Sky Hilliard: [00:19:00] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you could have a QR code. I mean, you can still have a sheet where people who are gonna wanna write their email addresses, you can have that there, and, then right next to that sheet, or on the same sheet even, you have a QR code that people can scan and then just jumps them right into a page that we've built.
Mm-hmm. So you can, you can get that , email added right into your list. So yeah, I mean, there's ways to, to go about it, and having a QR code set up at your farm stand or at the market, is just a great way to speed that along. I
James Maiocco: know, like you said, many folks really are , enthusiastic about supporting Local Farmers, right?
Yeah. And so this notion of who is my Local Farmer? Like you ask the average person on the street, and most people can't name five local Farms. Mm-hmm. They can all name five local micro breweries. Right? Yeah. And they're gonna prefer to buy from a local micro brewery Yeah. Versus buying a Budweiser. Mm-hmm.
You know? But you know, I, I think if people have greater awareness, like you said. Yeah. Right. And, and getting these types of flyers, getting things posted out and available, you know, wherever your local loop is mm-hmm. Is a big deal,
Sky Hilliard: [00:20:00] right? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Schools, churches, wherever you're going to on a regular basis, wherever your buyers are going to on a regular basis, it's important to kind of plug into those and, just kind of connect. And I know that's not a natural thing for a lot of Farms, but if, if you're really here to grow and, and start getting your, your business in, in good shape, then it's an important thing to be out there collecting those emails. And people, want that option, right?
It's, uh, it's something that everybody wants. They want to be more connected to their food and, they want to hear from you. They want to know that that option is out there. Um, I think thus far, it's just something that a lot of people don't know, they could be buying directly from Farms, right?
Big time, I know, and
James Maiocco: you, you can drive 45 miles outside pretty much any major city, and you can find a Farm, right? There are people that are there, but again, people in these urban and suburban areas, don't know those people like you said. Mm-hmm. It's, it's an awareness problem, not a demand problem.
Mm-hmm. So let's, let's say I'm a Farmer, I've taken your advice. I go through, I set these things up as part of getting ready for the season. Mm-hmm. Start capturing all these emails. [00:21:00] Now what, right. How, how often should I be emailing people like, , I know sometimes Farmers don't want to perceive that they're intruding on people.
Yeah. So like, should I be emailing every day once a month? Like what, what do you find is a happy
Sky Hilliard: medium? Yeah. Well, I, part of that is kind of up to you, right? How much do you want to be spending, uh, time doing this? But also it's important to be doing those regular check-ins, right?
You don't wanna overstimulate people and then, thus annoying them. Uh, but also you don't want to fall out of that top of mind, that coveted top of mind brand status. Mm-hmm. Right? Once a week, um, once every other week, we find to be a pretty good cadence and, , you can do any number of things with those emails too, right?
Um, these are the three E's that our Account Managers always talk about, Educate. Entertain and, and then, you know, redirect people to your eCommerce, right? Yeah. So, you can do a number of things, uh, with that newsletter and , it's hugely important because , 80% of their sales , is usually driven from a lot of that email marketing.
That's pretty
James Maiocco: amazing, [00:22:00] right? Yeah. I think it's, people have failed to realize that email today is an active form of marketing. Yeah, right. Social's more passive, right? It's kind of a lean back approach. In an email newsletter is really critical, right? Mm-hmm. People are looking for that because they don't know what to buy from your Farm. Yeah. If they're not aware of what's available. Right. So I imagine too that as, as part of that, you know, getting a, an email newsletter enables a Farmer to kind of keep them apprised of. You know, things that are happening on the Farm, like you said, like keeping them, uh, educated about what's happening.
Mm-hmm. But more importantly, calling their, calling their attention to the products that are now available for purchase. Right. Yeah. Because it's gonna be different in March. Right. Versus May or June or
Sky Hilliard: September. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. And, and you want those little eCommerce benefits to some of those newsletters.
Mm-hmm. Hey, here's a promo code. Hey you are the first people that are seen that we now have a restock of X, Y, or Z product, right? Mm-hmm. So, It's functionally important and it just helps you be more connected to that buyer and that buyer is more connected to you and [00:23:00] you, have that trustworthy brand status.
That's great. Yeah.
James Maiocco: And for the, for those of you again, who are listening who may not be a Barn2Door customer today, one thing that, uh, Sky and our Onboarding Managers do as well is, is they, they can link that QR code for, so the first time somebody signs up for your newsletter, that will automatically send them kind of a welcome newsletter, right?
Yeah. We see that to be pretty successful, don't
Sky Hilliard: we? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. just getting people those promo codes, getting that welcome email. Right. There's a reason that every website you ever go to does that, that email signup form 'em. Yep. Is because it's hugely important. And, and, uh, and the same thing goes here when we're you're selling direct.
So, yeah. Big time. Alright,
James Maiocco: well lastly, let's talk a little bit about social media. Well, I know we work with a lot of, you know, farms that have like some massive social media followers. Mm-hmm. You know, like tens of thousands of people. Most Farmers I perceive, you know, find social media be a little bit of a pain in the butt, right. You know, it's kind of a, a little bit of an afterthought or something they feel like they have to do. Like how important, first off, is it to have presence on social media? Mm-hmm. Uh, and what should, [00:24:00] what should it look like?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah. Well, you say social media is a more, um, kind of passive, form of things here.
Um, it, it's still important to not be neglecting any of these channels, right? Mm-hmm. So you want your website and you want it to look good on mobile, and you want your email newsletters to be going out, um, for, buyers who have found you already, right? But also it's important to be kind of findable on social mm-hmm.
Uh, as a business. So mm-hmm. You really don't want to neglect any of these channels and, uh, and, and it's good to at least have a presence there. Mm-hmm. Got it. So
James Maiocco: how, how often should people be posting on social media, and then are there some tactics that they can, they, they can do to simplify their social media engagement?
Because I, I, myself, you know, while I've got a Facebook and Instagram handle Yeah. It's like reality is, it's like I'm not some teenybopper that's on there four hours a day. Right. I don't have time. Right. Yeah, for sure. How, but I check in a few times a week, like how often should a Farmer be posting?
Sky Hilliard: Yeah. And, and, and it can feel cumbersome, I mean, you're a Farmer, you didn't necessarily sign up to [00:25:00] be, growing your brand on social media.
Right. But, but there are tools out there. if you have a Facebook and an Instagram for example, you know, probably two of the most important things to have. Mm-hmm. Uh, , we have the Meta Business Suite that which they just provide for you, that is, you can go in and schedule things in advance. So if you have a little bit of time during the week, you could go through and schedule, a whole couple weeks or a month's worth of posts really. Right? Um, so you can save time that way and just have it dealt with and out of the way. Um, and, just, kind of maintain that presence online.
That's,
James Maiocco: that's a great suggestion, right? Is just go through and just set aside 20- 30 minutes each week and just schedule your posts, right? Yeah. So that way they can just go and you can get back to focusing on
Sky Hilliard: farming, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and that's what people want to see too, is the farming, right?
A lot of people that I talk to are like, man, what do people wanna see for my social media feed? Right? And, and it's just like, well, it's whatever you're doing, right? Mm-hmm. Be if you're out there feeding and [00:26:00] you, you're covered in mud, right? Whatever it looks like. Um, the thing is, it might be, uh, banal to you, but it's, novel and it's humanizing to your buyers and, and they wanna see that.
Don't have to be that critical about, um, you know, putting the perfect thing on social media. That's not what this is. Yeah.
James Maiocco: Uh, absolutely. Uh, you know, farming can be dirty, right? Mm-hmm. And so getting to see the nitty gritty day-to-day, what it looks like. Mm-hmm. Uh, and, and also certainly some of those serene experiences too, right? Yeah. It's, there's both sides to it. People get into farming for a lot of reasons, but it's also valuable for buyers to feel connected to that experience, right? Mm-hmm. Like you said, absolutely. Well, hey, I, I wanna be respectful of everyone's time.
I know many of the Farmers who are listening today have, uh, Farm chores to go do themselves. Uh, so I really wanna first off say thank you, Sky for sharing your, your yeah, your wisdom and your experience. It's been great to learn more about the top five tactics to prep for the coming season. And I would just encourage any Farmer who wants to learn more, uh, to go to the Barn2Door website.
You can go to barn2door.com/resources. And you can [00:27:00] access a wealth of free assets and other best practices for your Farm. And so there's a whole litany of examples. If you're a Protein Farmer, a Produce Farmer, a Dairy Farmer, we have resources tailored for every type of farm that are available for you to read.
Secondly, I also want to call out our Connect program. We have a set of Farmers that are successful Farmers, six and seven figure Farmers. In those different practices who can also talk with you and share what they've done. Right, because there's no silver bullet. Each Farm is different.
Mm-hmm. Every Farm finds something that's gonna work for them, but oftentimes we find wisdom comes from many counselors having an opportunity to talk with other Farmers like yourself who can give you candid feedback. So thank you for your time today joining us on Direct Farm Podcast.
And we hope you tune in next time . Take care.