The ABCs of Social Media’s 3 E’s
In this episode, we sit down with Josie Rozum from Dan & Debbie’s Creamery to dive into the 3 E’s of Social Media – Educate, Entertain, and eCommerce.
Listen as Josie shares how she uses the 3 E’s to plan and implement her social media strategy – including her tactics, processes, and tips to engage followers, grow brand awareness, and increase sales.
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Rachele: Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rachele, your host for today's episode. We have a great conversation for you with one of our farm advisors, Josie Rozum, from Dan and Debbie's Creamery located in Iowa.
Welcome, Josie.
Josie Rozum: Thank you. It's great to be back.
Rachele: So I'm so excited because this is another episode that we have in a mini-series that we're doing on the Direct Farm podcast, the Barn2Door Social Media Tactic series. And so in this series we're talking with farm leaders like you, Josie, to hear tips and tricks to save [00:01:00] time, grow your social media following and drive sales on social platforms.
So today we're specifically going to be talking about the three E's of social media, which is something that we preach all the time here at Barn2Door, and Josie is one of, like I said, our Farm advisors, but also you're our marketing develop expert as well, leading the academies.
Josie Rozum: Yep. Yeah, I've been doing the academies.
Um, this'll be my third one that I get started here in, this month actually. So it feels really good to have a few under my belt, but I love, love, love the academy classes because it just really, I think, motivates other farmers to take their marketing to the next level.
Rachele: Yes, absolutely. And the Social Media Academy is one that we've been running since the beginning and so it's really cool to see how the curriculum itself has evolved cuz social platforms are constantly changing and the algorithms are changing.
So it's really cool to see how you guys are always on top of your social [00:02:00] media strategies and you're able to help then farmers stay on top of it too.
Josie Rozum: Absolutely. Yeah. Social media is super important, especially in today's society because it's one of the best ways that we can communicate with our potential buyers.
And, everybody is doing it. If you're not doing it, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to get more, to grow your audience and grow your customers, which ultimately grows sales.
Rachele: Yes, exactly. Well, good. So before we dive in, why don't you reintroduce yourself, Josie, and share your background.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, so, my name's Josie Rozum. My parents are first generation dairy farmers who have been milking cows for about 25 years. So together with my parents and then three of my brothers, we decided to take our raw milk commodity and turn it into a finished good and take it direct to market.
So we opened the creamery just over seven years ago as a way to add more sustainability to our family dairy farm, and give me and my siblings a path back to working on the farm.[00:03:00] So seven years and it finally feels like we're getting our feet under us. But two years ago we started with Barn2Door and embarked on the home delivery part of our business, which we absolutely love, and it just adds another layer of the nostalgic milkman home delivery service.
So, that's kind of our story. We're in eastern Iowa. And, wouldn't wanna be anywhere else doing anything else.
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I see that you even bring the, like the nostalgia of the milkman. I see that a lot on your social media channel too, so on your Instagram and on your Facebook, and I feel like that you've really been able to play that and incorporate it with your brand and your brand identity.
Josie Rozum: Yeah. One of the things that I always try to push in our social media strategy, in our marketing strategy and just overall our customer service strategy is, the experience that we provide customers. It's not just getting your gallon of milk because you can go anywhere and get a gallon of milk.
But it's the experience that you're getting when you buy our gallon of milk. [00:04:00] That's something that you're not gonna get by going to the grocery store. The local convenience shop. So, that nostalgia is really what I try to push to differentiate ourselves from everybody else.
Rachele: I love that. I love that.
And what's fun too is like, you guys have your delivery van that's all branded, and I see that consistency of branding across like your, website and then of your social channels too, which is so important. So it's like, whether you're online or in person, everyone who's accessing Dan and Debbie's creamery, they're familiar with the brand.
Josie Rozum: Oh yeah. I mean, brand identity is crucial. And it's amazing to me how consumers they learn brand identity from the very beginning. I mean from a very young age. So my kids, I've got a three year old and he knows the logo to Pepsi and he knows the logo to other big brands.
And, even though we're a small business and a small, farm to table dairy, we're still striving for what Pepsi has created with [00:05:00] that red, white, and blue logo. So having your brand everywhere and making it register with all consumers from the age of two to 92 is very important.
Rachele: Yes. Yeah. And I've even heard a statistic, it's like, people need to see something seven times in order to have that brand recognition too.
So the fact you guys have it on your delivery vehicles, it's very consistent online on all channels, social media, email. I also subscribe to your guys' newsletter, so I see it in your email all the time too. So just, yeah, like you said, brand consistency drives brand awareness.
Josie Rozum: Yep, for sure. And you know, our truck, for an example, it's out driving around every single day and somebody who might not be thinking about Dan and Debbie's comes across that truck and all of a sudden it's right in front of them and, oh yeah, I gotta go get milk, or I gotta go get ice cream, or whatever.
So it's, you know, you want people to see it those seven times because it takes them those seven times before they end up buy.
Rachele: Absolutely. Absolutely. I would love to hear what does your [00:06:00] social media process look like?
Like how do you approach social media for Dan and Debbie?
Josie Rozum: You know, I, I have a bit of a marketing background. I went to school for it. And so I recognize that when I'm, when I'm talking to a lot of farmers, they don't have that background. They're farmers first. And so marketing to them is a little bit of a foreign thing.
However, there are two components that I incorporate into my marketing strategy and social media strategy that I feel like are really achievable for other farmers or people who don't have any marketing experience. And the two kind of buckets, if you will, that I focus on in my strategy is content and then systems.
When I say systems, what I mean is you have to have a good system in place in order for your strategy to be obtainable or you're going to give up. And so some things that I do, when I'm working on my strategy is I time block. So I set aside one hour [00:07:00] every single week at the same time to dedicate it to social media and scheduling and doing all of that.
If you don't do that, life gets busy and it becomes a low priority and then all of a sudden you're a year, two years into business and you haven't really given the time or attention that you needed to building your brand. So time blocking is instrumental in a really solid social media.
The other one is batching. Batching content is important as well. We're not always gonna have the perfect sunlight and angle for photos but when you are in the moment and you have that perfect sunlight and a good opportunity to take photos, take a lot of photos and batch them for later. So that way you're not struggling throughout, your months of doing this and continuing to share your story.
The other thing that I do is I schedule things. So I recognize that as a farmer when, when it's nice [00:08:00] out, you have to be out in the fields harvesting. When it's springtime you have to be planting. And so one really good tip that I can give is schedule your posts out. So it can be on a pad of paper, just jotting down every day of the week and one post that you wanna post, and then during your hour of your time blocked away, go ahead and schedule all of those.
There are great tools out there that help you schedule your post. For me, I use the meta business suite where I can schedule across Facebook and Instagram, which makes things super easy and keeps me on top of it so I don't forget. And then the last thing is just planning ahead. Putting more thought behind that.
If you don't put thought behind your posts, you sort of start to lose the purpose behind. What you're trying to achieve. So my systems, again, time blocking, batching, scheduling, and planning.
Rachele: I love that. I love that. Those are amazing [00:09:00] and pieces of advice. A couple things I wanted to follow up on. So in terms of like batching, I feel like a lot of farmers can get overwhelmed quite easily. When we say here at Barn2Door, it's good to have social media. It's important to reach your audience and to reach customers, you know, in your local communities.
So when it comes to batching, so you're taking photos all at once, are you also maybe like writing captions all at once or like, what does that look like for you too?
Josie Rozum: Yeah, for me, I have a stockpile of photos. I go big on photos all the time. Any, any time I'm popping over and they're making cheese, I'm taking 10, 15, 20 photos that I can then use across the rest of my year really. Same way at the farm, when they're harvesting and they've got the tractors out, I'm capturing 30 to 50 photos that I just save in a folder on my desktop. So, at the beginning of every week when I sit down to do my content planning, I can just sit down and [00:10:00] pull photos from this folder that I've already taken.
I think a lot of people run into the problem where they are trying to take the picture, come up with the caption, schedule the post all at the same time, and they get stuck because they don't have the photo that they want. They don't have the thought, their mind isn't creative and thinking of, what do I wanna put here?
And they, they don't have access to a computer or a phone where they're, where they have the ability to do it. So, I think from a batching perspective, trying to just capture photographs and then use the, and then come up with the captions later is what works best for me, to do that.
Rachele: Yeah, and like you said, it really takes a certain mindset and a certain sense of creativity that you're not in all the time to be able to write those captions or like you said, to have the right lighting to take the photo.
So I think understanding that you don't have to tackle from, you know, creation or ideation of posts all the way to [00:11:00] publishing in one sitting. I think breaking it down into those separate points, it makes it more approachable and it saves you so much time.
Josie Rozum: Yep. Yeah, exactly. You're not running around trying to get pictures of different things.
You're just focused on, you know, content creation and you've got all of the photos at your fingertips. So that makes it really, really helpful.
Rachele: And I'm sure too, cuz there's always those moments where you wanna do that one off, that something that, just kind of happened and so it opens the door for those too, I'm sure.
Josie Rozum: Yeah. So my system is generally to schedule one post every single day. So I've got every single day covered. Now that's all using my batched method. But then I save the authentic in the moment opportunities that just come up on the farm like a baby calf being born or you know, a really sweet customer story.
I save those for those more like just in the moment things. But generally what happens in those in the moment [00:12:00] things is I have a really, my creative juices are flowing and I have the verbiage and the caption that I want right at my fingertips. I think that's helpful, too. You can do it both ways and they're both successful, but to have the variety so that way on the days where you're not feeling creative or you can't come up with content, then you have that to make those days easier, and it helps to build that consistency that you want in your strategy.
Rachele: Absolutely. Absolutely. And consistency really is the most important, especially even when getting started, but just trying to maintain that effort too. Like you said, having that planned out and consistent and something you can fall back on when you're not feeling creative is that's so useful.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, absolutely.
Rachele: You touched on something really briefly. I would love to hear how you leverage, like user-generated content and like when your customers are posting about your products or just taking a photo. Talk to me a little bit about that and how that's incorporated with your strategy.
Josie Rozum: Yeah. So when our [00:13:00] audience shares something about us and follows us, I really try to share as many of those as possible because I want other people to see what other people are saying, if that makes sense.
I think for any business, any farm that's trying to sell direct to market, word of mouth is going to be the most amazing marketing tool that they have because it builds this loyalty that you just cannot get from paid ads or anything like that. And so, sharing what other users are saying about you is basically word of mouth.
You're trusting, not the business themselves, but somebody who has actually experienced it. And I think that is a super special thing. So as you get those hashtags with your business name or people tagging you in post. Do what you can to share them, whether it's on your page or whether it's through your stories.
It just helps build that [00:14:00] loyalty and that organic growth that I think is really special that huge corporations don't get.
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely. I also think it creates a lot of FOMO too, for like potential customers, which is, that's the best I think for farm businesses too, a little bit of what people could potentially be missing out on and being able to repost that too, I think is huge.
Josie Rozum: Yeah. FOMO is so important. I mean, we are all guilty of feeling it at one point or another. And one way that, you know, I, I just recently shared this. I had somebody share a post of our delivery truck, in their driveway and they said, oh, lookie, the milkman's here with my grocery delivery for the week.
And, we shared that and the engagement on that post was "Where are you currently delivering to?" "What are the specifics about the delivery?" I mean, the questions and the engagement just starts because somebody's like, you got a milkman, I want one [00:15:00] too. And how do we build upon that? So it is really special.
Rachele: I love that. And it's like you just had to hit re-share. You just had to repost it to your story. Like that is so easy. That is like the golden ticket and that's where you want, that's the goal of getting it to where you wanna get it.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, exactly. I mean the thing about, other users posts they're very sincere generally, and they're very honest and they're coming from a place of just being very genuine.
And that's what we look for is like people who really believe in what you're doing. So utilize what they're putting out there and let other people know it too.
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely. And your customers can almost say it better than you can, if you know what I mean.
You can only promote yourself so much. But when you see other people doing it on your behalf, it's not only in the biggest form of flattery cuz they love your products so much, but it creates that fomo and that's exciting.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, I was listening to a podcast not too long ago about how it's really easy for businesses to talk about [00:16:00] how they do things and what they do. Like, it's simple. That's how everybody markets today, but they rarely talk about why they do it, and that's what sells the product. I mean, ultimately, is the why, because especially in what we're doing here, people want to support a certain cause.
And I think, like you said, sometimes our customers can tell us the why better than we can. Why they're choosing to support us and stuff like that. And so I think we can learn a lot from our customers and what they're saying.
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, okay, the three E's. So how, this is something again, like we preach at Barn2Door all the time, and I see it consistently through your social media channel.
What are the three E's? I'll have you explain them and I would love to hear how like breaking them each down, how you use each of them.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, so as I had mentioned in the beginning, systems was really important, but then content is equally important. So you have to have good systems in place to have a good marketing strategy [00:17:00] and a consistent marketing strategy, but you also need to have good content as well.
And with good content comes variety of content. You can't keep posting the same thing over and over, the same type of message over and over and expect to gain engagement and followers and stuff like that. So the three E's are really what help drive me to keep a variety in what I post. And so the three E's are to educate, to entertain, and then e-commerce.
Breaking those down - educate is educating our consumers. It's telling them why we do what we do, how we do what we do, why we're different, and all of those things. It's educating them on our processes and our practices, which is really, really important. Entertainment and entertaining our customers and our followers really comes down to those fun raw moments on the farm where, you can be a little goofy and show your personality.
We do [00:18:00] this thing every once in a while we'll have a picture of a calf with its tongue out, and cows have really long tongues and people go crazy over this stuff. It's entertaining. It's not, I'm not selling a calf. I'm not, trying to, to do anything but just show kind of our personality and I think that's what the Entertain E is all about is just having a little fun and showing some, some character.
And then of course, e-commerce, it's arguably the most important piece of it. It's generating sales from our content. Farmers are humble individuals, and so talking about money and sales isn't always the most comfortable thing, but ultimately, without e-commerce, without selling our product, then we're really not in business.
You know, there's no reason to be in business, and so I think e-commerce is just as important as the other two. But you gotta be able to put stuff out there, tell 'em what you're selling, what the price is, where to buy it, how to buy it. All of those things are really, really important. [00:19:00] And they have to be in balance with one another. So you're not just focused on one bucket or another.
Rachele: Exactly, exactly. I was gonna say, we also try to say like the 80 20 rule, so it's like 80% like educate and entertain and then 20% e-commerce. Cuz while e-commerce, like you said, is arguably the most important one, people don't like to feel like they're being sold to all the time.
And when you're constantly educating them about your products or entertaining them with other things that are happening on the farm, then that's when they're starting to build that loyalty and trust in your brand.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's especially important as you're just getting, starting started out to do those first two that educate and entertain because they are so important.
And you definitely wanna, don't wanna overlook those because, that is kind of the foundation of a good marketing strategy is just building that personal connection with people.
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely. When you are [00:20:00] doing your content planning and mapping, how are you trying to incorporate the three E's? Do you take more of like a relaxed way of approaching your social media?
Josie Rozum: So I try to at the very least, I need to hit on each of those buckets every week. And, or at least twice a week cuz I'm posting consistently one to two times per day. So I hit on those each two times per week and just make sure they're not back to back. It's more sporadic.
But for me, I love to kind of intertwine these two. And so what I, what I mean by that, our milk is non-homogenized, which is kind of a unique term for people. And so sometimes I'll do a blog post about what non-homogenized milk is that would fall in the, educate bucket, right?
But I also will include a link at the bottom of how to buy our milk, which is e-commerce. And the photo that I will use will be a [00:21:00] really cute one of my son holding a gallon of milk down in the processing room. So I like to make sure there's some overlap too, because I think sometimes those posts are probably the ones that sell the most product because they do feel authentic and they do have more of a personal connection.
So those are just some things that I try to incorporate when I'm doing stuff just to set myself apart from other places out there.
Rachele: Absolutely. I love that. And that's where that hour week comes in too, I feel like, is like when your creative juices are flowing and you have them overlap is really like the win-win situation.
Josie Rozum: Yep. Yeah, for sure. And With the three E's for me too, if I have, like, if it's the holiday time, I might be focused more on selling because I have a short timetable to sell holiday related products. So I might, my focus might be a little bit different depending on the time of year for a produce farmer [00:22:00] CSAs they have a short window where they have to sell their CSAs.
So, what I like to do is be a little bit more fluid with how I do things and not set so many parameters that I am not putting out really purposeful content. And I think that's something that, everybody should kind of like, you don't have to have such rigid guidelines that you lose track of what your goals are, whether it be sales or marketing.
Either way, it's important to just have a little bit of balance there and know that most of the time you can hit on all three of these, but there are gonna be a time and a place where you really do need to jive sales or you need to focus on that component and that's okay too.
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely.
And that's what I love about the three E's as well. It's like whether you're a farmer and you're just starting out or you have a really successful business, using them as guardrails and to help you keep moving forward and making it hopefully easy to come up with ideas of what you can be posting and [00:23:00] making sure you're hitting on a variety of posts like you were saying earlier.
Josie Rozum: Yep. Variety is key. And one other thing that I've found to be successful is after you post something, whether it be in the educate, entertain, or e-commerce bucket, pay attention to the engagement and the, energy that you're getting back from that post. And use those posts that are getting high traffic, high energy, high engagement, and mimic those.
So, if people are loving having your staff or your kids in pictures and you're willing to do stuff like that, because one previous post got so many likes and so many follows, I mean, follow what people are wanting and pay attention to the content that you're putting out. If you just took a picture of a product and posted it with a link to how to buy and it didn't get much traffic, didn't get much engage.
Try doing it from a different [00:24:00] approach so that way you can see what your, audience is really going to be interested in. Because at the end of the day, you want to have engagement on these posts. You want people to see it, you want them to like it, and you want it to build, build excitement.
And I think too it from from my perspective, I love it when people do that, like on the posts that don't get very much, I'm like, ah, dang it. Like, I gotta rethink this. I mean, it's a motivating thing for farmers and producers to get that, really good response. So follow what people are putting off on your social media too.
Rachele: Yeah. And it's so good to, like you said, just test a variety of things too. Like hitting what you think can work. And there's been so many times that it's like maybe there's something you think is really gonna land and it doesn't, and that's a learning thing for the future.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, everything is changing on a daily basis and so I think you have to be nimble and be able to, try different things and say, Hey, that didn't work out, but I'm gonna try it this way next time. And [00:25:00] that's the beauty of it is you can do whatever you want and if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter.
You just gotta keep going.
Rachele: Yes, and keeping that consistent posting schedule, like you were saying.
We actually just released a podcast episode about the meta business suite and how farmers can use that. I would love to learn a little bit more how you use it, not only for scheduling posts, cuz it is a, it's such a great free tool.
It's crazy cuz there's, you can spend like hundreds of dollars on like scheduling tools and tracking analytics and stuff but this is a, just a such a great free tool. So I would love to hear how you use the Meta Business Suite to either help you stay organized or schedule posts or even like track the engagement on your post too.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, so I think, a meta business suite is phenomenal. And like you said, the fact that it's free, it's like everybody, every business should be using this because it doesn't cost them anything and it makes their life a lot simpler. How I use it is strictly from just a planning perspective, and I do look at analytics as well.
But from a [00:26:00] planning perspective, it shows up in a calendar view, so I can view things out months, two months, three months in advance. So for farmers who are really driven by the weather, like if they've gotta be out in the fields or doing something when the sun is shining.
Well, their rainy days, they should try to schedule as many post as they possibly can, and the business suite allows them to do this not only on Facebook, it integrates with Instagram as well.
So when I post, I'm posting one thing to Facebook and Instagram. I type up my caption and I schedule it for the day that I want. It makes it so easy because before we were getting on Instagram posting something, then getting on Facebook, posting something. So it eliminates that duplicate process which is really, really helpful.
The other thing that I use the planner for is I can see my month in advance so I can kind of start to plug in where I want certain things further out than just the [00:27:00] day. Which is really nice.
Rachele: That's awesome. And that's nice that it has that view for you, so it's not like you're in, you know, an Excel spreadsheet or trying to keep track of all that yourself too.
And to save that time to be able to post to both platforms and instantaneously and see maybe on the calendar view, like the gaps of where you need to fill in. That's so helpful.
Josie Rozum: Yeah. And the one other thing, so I also utilize, a Facebook group for our home delivery. So it's called Dan and Debbie's Home Delivery.
And it's a private group that we have as a part of our Creamery page. And the nice thing about that is I can also from the meta business suite post to that group. So anything pertaining to delivery specifically, I can go ahead and incorporate that, which saves a ton of time. And the groups is a great way to really target, people that are utilizing a certain service or offering that you have.
Rachele: That's awesome. Do you find when you post to like a targeted group like that, do you find that when that post drops you [00:28:00] guys get like a little spike in sales?
Josie Rozum: Yes, absolutely. So the really great thing about Facebook groups is if you're a part of a group, you get a notification every single time a post is made within that group.
Whereas a Facebook page, you just have to stumble upon it based on the algorithm. And so the group, you can really hammer messages or new offerings or things like that. I think in marketing, we think in terms of like, oh, I have 15,000 people following. That's amazing. Like, that's, that's great, but are they engaged?
15,000 means nothing if they're not buying or engaged in the content that you're putting out. And the Facebook group, I feel like is a higher engaged audience because they have to intentionally add themselves to this group, they have to intentionally check as red in terms of getting the notification.
And I [00:29:00] just find that a more targeted audience tends to be a higher engaged and a higher sales turnover. So in my opinion, I think the groups is a great, great way to really target an audience that's gonna be a good, loyal customer to you.
Rachele: That's a great tactic. I guess I never put that together, that when you post to a group versus a page that they get that notification. So that's huge.
And like you said, when they're actively seeking out to join that group and to be a part of that group, like you said, their engagement's just gonna be higher than someone who would just stumble across a regular Instagram or Facebook post. That's a great tactic.
So I would love to hear what are your goals this year for your social profiles? I mean, you already have a system in place, so where do you take it from here?
Josie Rozum: You know, I think there are several different things that I would love to get in place. One of them is to do more video content. We, we do some video content, and we've recently, [00:30:00] I've recently started doing a lot more reels.
Which has been great and they've been very, very well received. But I just feel like video is kind of the next "big thing." People wanna see you, see what you have to offer. They wanna hear what you have to offer too. And so whether that's in a video or a reel or whatever, I'd like to do more of that content.
The next, goal that I wanna do is just, start to really polish my messaging and focus more on, really solid, thoughtful content. There was a time probably in the last couple of years where I was just pushing two, three posts out a day. I mean, I was like going big on information that I was putting out there, and I was getting good engagement, but I sort of came to a point where I'm like, okay, is this really translating or it something just felt like it was missing?
And so this year I kind of wanna dial it back and I, I think less, might be more in [00:31:00] this case, where I can post less, but spend more time like just putting in a lot more thought into the content or the caption that I'm putting in there.
Rachele: Yeah, I think that's why a lot of farmers can get overwhelmed.
It's like, I have to post every day and it has to be, you know, perfect and everything else. But scaling back and understanding like what's thoughtful, what are people actually gonna engage with, what's actually gonna, drive impressions or visits to the farm store, et cetera. Having that mentality just makes it more meaningful too, which I know the audience appreciate.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, I, I think so too. It's easy to just put a picture out there and put, one or two words that go with it. I mean, that's easy. But to really tell like the authentic story behind that picture, that takes a little bit more time, but you might get three times the amount of people really, really enjoying that content.
And so [00:32:00] there's a trade, right? I mean, you have to decide. And the one thing I think I just wanna point out is, those moments where you throw something just out there to throw it out there, it doesn't ever get lost. I mean, even if you put anything out there, it's not going to get lost. People are going to see it.
They might not engage with it, but they're, they are going to see it and it is going to help. So doing nothing is not an option. You have to do something. But for me, just at the stage that I'm at in my social media strategy and our business in general, I'd like to hone in on a little bit more intentional content.
Rachele: Well that's exciting. I'm excited to see where you take it cuz you guys already do such a great job. And I've seen your videos too, that you guys have been doing recently.
So I can't wait to see what's next for you guys.
Josie Rozum: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
I do have one piece of advice for farmers that I think will resonate. And the only reason I wanna share this is I share it with my family a lot. So one piece of advice [00:33:00] that I would give to farmers out there, is it's very easy for farmers to think of new equipment or new seeds or inputs or even cover crops as an investment in their operation. Like it's a no-brainer, right? I buy a new piece of equipment, I'm investing into my business.
But when you think of the time spent on marketing and social media, you. Most of the time aren't gonna think of that as an investment. But I would advise any farmer out there that's selling direct to consumer, direct to business, to think of their marketing strategy, the time that they spend marketing as, as an investment.
Because it is so important that you spend the time to tell your story and to build your audience, build your customer base, because ultimately that's what's gonna allow you to buy those pieces of equipment down the road. I mean, it is so important and [00:34:00] I just would love for farmers to change their way of how they think of marketing, because I think it can really change the direction and trajectory of their business.
Rachele: Absolutely. I think well when you choose to do a direct to market business that entails those direct marketing activities, cuz you're, you have to spread local awareness of your brand. You have to get your name out there cuz no one else is gonna do it for you.
You can't just, you know, have your website up and then expect the sales to come. So I think investing in being able to spread the word about yourself. Being consistent about it, then that will only lead to increased sales, increased engagement, and more customers.
Josie Rozum: Yeah, absolutely. That you just like ended this on a high note because that I couldn't have said it better myself.
Rachele: Well thank you so much Josie. That was just so wonderful to hear all the tactics you're using that has propelled your success on social media and I'm excited for the farmers listening to be able to try those [00:35:00] tactics, and hopefully they'll be able to save time too with those additional resources you provided.
Josie Rozum: Absolutely. Yeah. Biggest piece is, you know, you gotta get started and you gotta commit. Commitment and consistency are kind of the foundation to having a really good marketing strategy.
Rachele: Absolutely.
Well, I wanna thank Josie for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Join us next time as we continue the social media tactic series on the Direct Farm Podcast.
Here at Barn2Door, we're humbled to support thousands of farms across the country, including Dan and Debbie's Creamery. If you wanna connect with Josie and other farm advisors, you can attend Barn2Door Connect.
You can register for weekly sessions at barn2door.com/connect. And for more information on Dan and Debbie's Creamery, you can follow them @dananddebbiescreamery. Thank you for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.
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