Creating your Ideal Customer Profile for Farm Retail Buyers
In this week's episode, James and Kevin discuss how Farms can build their ideal Farm retail customer profiles to target marketing and products to Buyers in their community. Learn the steps to creating Buyer personas and building a Farm brand that attracts sales.
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Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go to podcast for do it yourself farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn2Door, the number one business tool for independent farmers to manage their business, promote their brand and sell online and in person.
Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
James Maiocco: Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm James, the Chief Operating Officer 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 independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman and taking control of their business, selling under their [00:01:00] brand and making sure their customers can purchase from their farm online and in person.
In today's conversation, we're going to get into the importance of farm brand for your business, and creating an ideal customer profile for retail buyers. Today I'm happy to welcome Kevin, the manager of our success team at Barn2Door. Kevin has worked with hundreds of farms across the country to ensure best practices are put in place to help their farm business thrive.
His work includes helping farmers target their ideal buyers to help them access more sales and target customers. I'm excited to talk with Kevin about creating your farm brand and most importantly targeting your ideal customer profile. Welcome Kevin, it's great to see you again.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, James, thanks for having me again.
I'm excited to be here. It's a great topic and a really important one. So I'm excited to dive in.
James Maiocco: Well, hey Kevin, it's great to see you again. And for all of our listeners who can't see Kevin in the booth like I can right now, he's got a wonderful hat on from Veterans Liberty Ranch, a farmer that we work with in North Texas.
[00:02:00] And, they've got a great brand. So let's talk about folks like Veterans Liberty Ranch and others. Why is brand so important for a farmer?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, yeah, I mean, you mentioned they have a great brand and they really take it to the next level because they have their brand everywhere.
They wear it on their sleeve even when they're not wearing a branded t shirt. And that's really what brand is, is it's the cumulative experience that your buyers, get when they go online or in person or they interact with your farm in any way. So, whether it's your website or your social media platforms, your email marketing, even your Google business profile, and what you're doing in person too, markets, events, packaging even, your merchandise. Your brand is what people experience on a day to day when they interact with your business.
And so, for farms in particular, the brand consistency and awareness is key to building customer loyalty. If we go, like, as a prospective buyer, if I go to a Facebook page and it has a different name than what's on the Google business profile and that's different than what's on the website, right away, I'm very confused.
First of all, is this the same business? And [00:03:00] second, now I'm starting to get concerned, is this someone I should actually be buying from? Is this someone I can trust? Is this who they say they are on Facebook versus on their website, is this the same material even, and those things add up and it really affects how buyers choose to purchase and what companies they choose to purchase from.
I think the other big aspect of brand that is really important and maybe not as obvious is to be able to develop a strong brand, it's really important to just understand the why behind what we do. So like, for farmers in particular, like figuring out why they do what they do is such a crucial aspect to help uncover your motivations and what your brand truly means and the messaging that you want to share.
So, whether that's what the products are that you grow, why you use certain practices, how you maintain relationships with your community, with your customers, with your family even. And really the history of the farm as well. Like all those apply to the why and that ultimately having a good clear understanding of why you're doing what you're doing will help build a strong, clear brand for your buyers as well.
James Maiocco: That's [00:04:00] really great feedback. And I certainly know that I connect with businesses all the time. And I am looking for consistency, just as you mentioned, right? Not just on their website, but on social media, Google profile, you know, on their email newsletters, etc. All of it just needs to look beautiful and consistent, right? And I know Veterans Liberty does a great job of that. Shenk Family Farms does a great job of that. I mean, we have many farms that are great examples of that. But you mentioned the word trust as well. That's a really big one because I know people spend, you know, 43 percent more with brands they trust, right?
So, that's a very big deal. Well, let's talk about farms that have built a great brand and why they're so successful. Many times they also really connect with a great buyer, right? How does brand relate to identifying that kind of ideal buyer or what people call the ideal customer profile?
Why is that such a big deal?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. Yeah. Great question, James. So like, ultimately this ideal customer profile is crucial. You'll see it abbreviated [00:05:00] through our materials, like an ICP. But ultimately, like your ideal customer profile is a persona of your buyers. So, we want to think about creating like an overall persona that would encompass a large percentage of your buyers, or who you want to be targeting as a farmer, and ultimately, understanding what that ideal customer profile looks like will influence potentially how you message your brand to them and many other factors as we'll get into here later today.
But ultimately, what's great about this ideal customer profile, is you can have multiple profiles, you can target them, and you can use this to your advantage. The more understanding you have of who that ideal customer is, the easier it is to sell your products to them.
James Maiocco: Yeah, there's a very big difference of marketing and selling to a teenybopper than there is to selling to somebody who's in their 60s, right?
They speak differently, they interact differently, they're on different mediums, they expect to be communicated differently. Right? You really need to understand, like you said, who you're [00:06:00] speaking to. So, let's dive into that. Like, why is it so important to create this ICP? And then, more importantly, how do we target them?
So, let's start with the why behind creating an ICP?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, the why is to make sure that you're targeting the right people, as you said, because like, as a local farmer and rancher, if you're spending marketing dollars and marketing efforts targeting buyers that are shopping from Walmart or another big box store that just want the cheapest possible prices, you're probably wasting marketing dollars and time, and going after the wrong people, right?
Those are generally not people that we're quickly convert over. Versus, knowing who to target, the people that are searching for local, sustainable products, the people that want more nutrient dense foods, the people that have the income to pay for it as well. Spending time and investing marketing dollars and energy in going after those people is much better spent and will generally see a much higher yield in return.
James Maiocco: [00:07:00] So by default, it sounds like effectively like by defining your ICP, your ideal customer, you're also defining who you're not targeting as well. Is that a fair statement?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, yeah, and you can use it to do exactly that. So, creating a couple different profiles of people that you want to target will help ensure that you're, yeah, not targeting the people that aren't going to be worth your time and effort.
James Maiocco: So how does that affect, like, messaging? You brought up messaging as an example.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, so you actually, you kind of mentioned it earlier, which was a really good analogy. It's like you're teeny boppers versus people that are a little bit older. Like, messaging when it comes to different ideal customer profiles can change across those different profiles.
Because some people want to hear different terminology. Some people want to be communicated with across a different medium. It might be a different social platform, or it might be email, or it might be in person. And so, really honing in on who that person is. And, if you currently have buyers that identify with that persona, that ideal customer profile, it's really great to talk to them because they can give you some insight into how they [00:08:00] view your farm, what they care about, in regards to your messaging. And that really will influence all of your assets. Whether it's the digital, the in person, your language, your images. All of that is crucial when it comes to connecting with these ideal customers.
James Maiocco: So you mentioned a variety of different avenues to improve visibility, you know, with your ideal customer profile.
Why is that such a big deal, right? Cause, I imagine again, farmers are really eager to grow their customer base, really eager to connect with their buyers. Why is visibility and being smart about where you're targeting your dollars, your efforts, why is that so crucial?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure, sure.
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, we look at today's world, there's so many different mediums you can communicate across and there's only so much time in the day, right? So it's not realistic to expect to communicate across all those mediums. If you're targeting someone like me, like I'm working a nine to five in an office, I want to buy from local farms.
First, you got to make it easy for me to get it right. Like if you're going to deliver to me or meet me somewhere that's the first step. But the second step is making sure you're [00:09:00] targeting me in a way that I like to communicate. So, I've always got email open. Literally, I have multiple monitors open and email is open and I'm constantly checking it.
I'm walking around in the office. I'm looking at email on my phone as well. Many of ideal customers for our farmers are doing the same thing. They're constantly monitoring their email. It's a really great way to get in front of them. Whereas if, a farmer, for example, maybe is marketing on TikTok. Sure, that's a great way to go viral maybe and get a huge following there.
But, if these are people that are not local and don't care about buying your products, that only does so much good for developing a customer base that's actually going to purchase your products.
James Maiocco: That's a great point because I know a lot of times, you know, people can spend a lot of time and energy in some of these platforms.
And as you said, you might get a lot of engagement, but it doesn't necessarily translate to a lot of purchases, right? You have to be really smart about what's going to drive the best ROI for your farm. So, if I'm a farmer listening to this episode right now, what are the steps to creating an ideal customer [00:10:00] profile?
What are the things should I be thinking about or asking myself in order to define that ICP?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure, sure. Great question. Yeah. So, we'll start with like, if you're a farmer or rancher that has a loyal customer base already, start with just surveying them. You can create surveys in a number of mediums.
We actually have an integration with MailChimp that fully integrates with the Barn2Door store and MailChimp provides ability to create free surveys there that you can send out to your customers. You can post it on social or send it via email as well. But getting more information from them will be, one of the great, first steps that you can take, just simple things like asking them how they would describe their experience with your farm, that will give you a lot of insight into what they care about.
Right. What's great as well, is like we look at, we talked about different mediums to be targeting, like email is obviously a crucial one, social media is another great one. The vast majority of our most successful farms are going to focus on free accounts like Instagram and Facebook in particular, because they can be linked together.
And they have a free meta business suite when creating [00:11:00] business profiles there. And that meta business suite gives access to a wide range of tools that also allow you to analyze the followers that are on your current platforms. So, you're able to see a lot of this demographic information , completely free.
And then, a great one that we offer, I think I alluded to it earlier, if not, it's the brand basics worksheet that we have here at Barn2Door. We have farmers that will literally come back to this every year. It provides like four guiding categories to help identify who that customer is, where to find them, what your values are in your messaging.
So, that can be found if you just go to Barn2Door.com/resources and search for a blog called How to Build a Strong Brand Presence for Your Farm. The worksheet will be linked in there. You can also reach out, if you're working with an account manager or joining office hours, we're happy to send that over as needed.
But it's one of the easiest resources, especially for people that don't have a current customer base to go to, but even those that do, it provides a really great platform to iron out who that ideal customer is.
James Maiocco: And that's a free resource for anyone, [00:12:00] regardless of whether or not you know, a listener is a Barn2Door customer.
They can just go to Barn2Door.com/resources. Go to our blogs and there they can, like you said, just search for brand basics worksheet. And then they're going to pull up that blog, How to Build a Strong Brand Presence for your Farm. And that kind of lays out some of these steps. And like you said, it gives them a worksheet they can print out, right, and fill out some of these things for themselves.
So, let's dive into some of those details. What are the things that farmers should be paying attention to when defining their ICP? Speaking to retail, like what other questions would come behind that for a retail customer?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure. Yeah. So, the next thing would just be like the geography. Where do they live? Are they in a suburban neighborhood? Are they in a more urban area? Getting an idea of their age range is crucial. As we discussed earlier, different people, different ages are on different platforms.
They communicate differently. Household size is another really important one. As that will impact the type of products that you're trying to sell to them, the packaging that you're wanting to put forward in front of them. Income level is crucial. Obviously you want to be targeting people that [00:13:00] can afford your products.
And then, education is another great one to look at. Those are a few of the factors. There's other ones you can look at as well. What's great is to create a persona of a couple different buyers that you want to be targeting. We have some farms here, teach some academies that will give them nice little nicknames, so they can easily remember who they are and how to communicate with them.
James Maiocco: And I know each one of those variables can weigh heavily or have dramatic impacts. Like you said, the product mix, the pricing, the packaging. I look at myself, you know, I'm in my 50s and an empty nester, right? So I'm only buying for a household of two, but I have more disposable income than perhaps someone in their 20s who's just out of college, even though they might have an affinity for local farms that just can't afford necessarily the food.
But I know many of our farms really target, those people in 30s and their 40s, people who have families with kids. Moms who care about nutrient dense food, like you said, and are willing to pay for it, right, and go above and beyond, to go out of the way to a pickup location, and many of them certainly appreciate [00:14:00] delivery and convenient stops nearby as well, but you can build a really strong base if you narrow in on those sets of buyers, right?
So, thinking about these attributes, Kevin, what do you find are some of the most important aspects to focus on for retail buyers specifically? Like, you know, let's say I'm a farmer. I go through this, I define three or four buyers. Maybe one of the buyers looks like me, you know, someone who's in the fifties, empty nester.
Maybe someone's like yourself, early thirties, married, upward mobile, very keen, also cares about their personal health and well being. So, let's say someone defines two or three, maybe four or five profiles. What do they do next?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure. Yeah. I mean, you already alluded to a couple of the really important ones, which is the household size is crucial because that's going to really impact the packaging and what types of products we're trying to sell them.
Right. If you're trying to sell a quarter cow to me, like there's no way I'm buying that. I have a regular fridge and freezer. I don't have the space and it's not possible for me to purchase that. Whereas if you're targeting me with a 20 pound meat bundle, that's much more up my alley. I put it in my freezer.
I [00:15:00] have enough protein for me and my wife for a month, right? And so, getting a good grasp of the household size of your ideal customer is a really crucial one. And when you have a really good profile ironed out, you can use that to determine where to find them, whether it's in person or digital. So, we've talked quite a lot about digital mediums up to this point.
So, let's talk a little bit more about the in person aspects, because that is a really crucial aspect. That's another important one, which would be is like how to make it convenient for people. Cause if you know where to find them, for example, if you're targeting people and you're able to meet them at, I'm thinking of Veterans Liberty Ranch with meat at Church now.
You're able to meet them at church before or after mass, right? If you know you can find them there and you're making it convenient for them, you're there in a parking lot for 15 minutes before or after mass. They're already there. You're making it easy for them to get your products and they're more likely to want to purchase from you because of those simple factors.
James Maiocco: Well, you get a lot of people I know, you know after church myself, I oftentimes will go run an errand and make us move by the grocery store.
If you're going to [00:16:00] make it much easier for me to just pick it up after church, like you said, boy, you're not only going to get me, but you're probably going to get other like minded people who also want to support local farmers and care about good stewardship. Right. So, that's a great way to raise visibility.
That's for sure.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, that's the great part about local businesses, churches, schools, like you get yourself in front of more people if you have a branded vehicle in particular or branded tote bags that people are taking. But, those places a lot of times have bulletin boards, they have newsletters, they allow people to come in and speak.
You can use them to establish partnerships. So they provide a lot of different ways to also expand your reach and get more like minded people that are already going to those same places.
James Maiocco: Yeah, let's talk about that one. Going in and speaking. I know we've got several farms. I can think of Tom Bennett as an example who goes and speaks at a local school and talks about how, you know, many times, teachers are looking for people to come in and speak and talk about business or supplement the curriculum, and finds it interesting, right?
How would I go [00:17:00] about something like that if I wanted to go in and work with a local school or what have you?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, it just starts with taking initiative and reaching out. Certainly, if you have kids that are in the school system, that provides a little bit of an easier in.
But even if you don't, teachers are hungry to provide alternative education methods for their students. And kids are hungry to learn in different ways, like a lot of kids are tired of sitting in a desk all day and what's great about getting in front of kids is it provides a lot of different ways to communicate with their parents as well, whether that's giving them handouts or giveaways that they can take back to their parents, or what some of our farms will do as well, is organize school field trips to the farm.
You get volunteers there, that are helping out with the field trip. So, information goes home to the parents about the upcoming field trip. Farms will leverage this at a really high level. Use a social media board at the end, where there's a little picture opportunity and people can tag each other about the farm that they visited.
And even allow for people to purchase products there on the farm as well, if you're doing a field trip. But ultimately, whether it's a local school, it's a church, it's a business, it's about taking that initiative and that leap to go and [00:18:00] communicate with other people and let them know who you are and what you're trying to accomplish, sharing your brand values and, sharing your why and opening the lines of communication to allow them to help you reach more people.
James Maiocco: So we've covered a bunch of great suggestions on what to do once you've defined your ICP. Are there any don'ts, Kevin? Anything you say like once you've defined your ICP, anything you shouldn't do?
Kevin Soncrant: I'd say one of the big don'ts is don't target too many ideal customers. You mentioned like, you know, one to three, maybe four or five. Once you start having, if you have like 10 or 20 profiles, it becomes very difficult to market to all those different groups of people. Especially if you're just a single person, but even if you have a full team, your efforts are generally much better spent focusing on 2, 3, 4, 5 profiles that really fit your ideal customer and spending a lot of marketing efforts there.
James Maiocco: That is great wisdom, Kevin. You know, you can't be all things to all people. And I think more importantly, you also can't appease everyone's product preferences either. It's [00:19:00] okay, you know, if you don't offer something that's going to suit one of 10 profiles. But like you said, if you can hone in on call it three to five profiles that you know are in your sweet spot, that is going to represent 80 to 90 percent of your revenue, you're probably going to see a lot greater return on your investment there, right?
Versus trying to focus on any edge cases. So.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, exactly.
James Maiocco: Hey, before we sign off, Kevin, any other final feedback that you'd like to share? Wisdom? I mean, you've talked with, like I said, hundreds of farms at the outset of this podcast. I know you've gained a lot of experience in learning from many of our most successful farms.
Anything else you want to share about ICPs?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, this is just one of the most important things you can do, especially if you're a new farm, but even if you've been in business for a long time, the farms that take this exercise seriously and really identify that ideal customer use this brand basics worksheet in particular to also target areas, identify their values, and hone in their messaging, they're the ones that generally, will have a much easier time of growing that customer base and [00:20:00] growing the customer base with people that are willing to pay for their products and support them through thick and thin.
I think that's kind of the last thing that we hadn't really hit on, which is that loyalty aspect we talked about at the very beginning. When you get people that care about your brand and want to support you because of who you are and what you do and really identify with your why, if you have to raise prices, generally, those people are understanding and happy to continue to support you, right?
If you're sold out of products and, you can't give them anything for that week, generally, they're going to come back the next week still and want to buy from you regardless. And that is really what this is all about, is finding those ideal customers that are going to be there and be loyal to you and your brand and want to support you through thick and thin.
James Maiocco: That is awesome feedback. Thank you so much, Kevin, for sharing your thoughts and the experience that you've gained working with so many of our farms. And just back to that resource you mentioned earlier, again, the Brand Basics Worksheet. For our listeners, you can go to Barn2Door.com/Resources.
The blog is called How to Build a Strong Brand Presence for your farm. On that [00:21:00] blog, there is a link to the Brand Basics Worksheet, which you can just download and print out. Eight and a half by eleven, it's perfect. So, it's nice and easy. You can fill it out with pen or pencil and have something that you can work with.
So, great feedback. Well, I want to extend my thanks to Kevin for joining us on this week's episode of the Independent Farmer Podcast. We're delighted and humbled to serve thousands of independent farmers all across the country. If you're an independent farmer who's just getting started or transitioning to selling directly, or if you've been at it for a while and simply want to learn how to simplify your business management, please visit us at Barn2Door.com/Learn-More. Thank you for tuning in today and we look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer podcast.
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn2Door, we are passionate about empowering independent farmers to build a thriving business. To all the farmers out there, [00:22:00] thank you for all you do to grow amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities. You are the backbone of our country.
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