My Digital Farmer Podcast

Last week, I shared 3 ways to increase the average amount a customer spends in a transaction with you.  One of those suggestions was to create an "order minimum."  But how do you decide what that order minimum should be? Well... you look at the numbers. Which numbers? That's what this episode is all about. I share 5 key metrics you should review to help you figure out your order minimum, AND I sha...

July 3, 2024 Recently, I've been looking for ways to increase our weekly online store revenue in our Local Line store. I noticed that we had a LOT of 1 or 2 item purchases last year. Those are quite frankly a real drag to pack. The amount of time it takes me to print the pack slip, pack the order, pay for the bag it goes into, and hand deliver it -- begs the question, "Am I making any money on thi...

I still remember the first day of our first week of CSA this season.  It felt electric! I woke up with so much excitement. I had a big to-do list, and not enough time. But I was excited to get started. My crew was out harvesting super early that morning, and with so many different things to harvest, I had a chance to tell so many visual stories in my CSA Facebook group, on IG stories, and newslett...

Today's episode is inspired by an email I received from a farmer and podcast subscriber. It was a question about how many emails to send each week when you have different segments of audiences? This farmer has three different "groups" of clients -- the 2024 CSA buyers, the 2023 CSA buyers who still haven't renewed, and the "cold" audience (people from previous years).  Do you write weekly emails t...

This podcast is for all of you who go to farmer's markets!! Do you want to walk away from the market feeling like you did everything you could to maximize sales that day? Here's a fact: You're going to sell more at the farmer's market if you do a little bit of preparation in the sales strategy department. In this episode, I'm sharing my checklist of "things to make sure you do" before you hop into...

This episode is PART TWO of a series all about "ways to use coupon codes in your online store." If you have an online store, these are a great way to entice your customers to come on over and buy. I also love that i can run a report of my coupon codes and see how they performed. This gives me the ability to TAG clients who use certain coupon codes, RETARGET them, and EVALUATE how effective my offe...

A few days ago, I had a spontaneous idea...  I needed to set up my coupon codes in my e-commerce store. ( Local Line  recently announced that they were adding coupon codes as a free feature to the platform). But I was dragging my feet to get it done. "I know!" I said.  "I'll create a challenge for farmers. That will make me do it!" And thus, the 4-Week Coupon Code Challenge was born.  The goal of...

COUPON CODES!!  Are you using them? If you have an online store, these are a great way to entice your customers to come on over and buy. They're also a great way to turn prospects into buyers.  I recently heard from Local Line (my ecommerce platform) that they would adding coupon codes as a basic feature at the end of May. This made me jump for joy and throw a party. AND it made me research differ...

May 22, 2024 Are you using SMS in your  marketing? SMS is "code" for text messaging. It stands for short message service. And in today's podcast, my guest, Ari Memar, is going to give us a basic tutorial in how we can be using texting in our farm marketing strategy. Turns out there is a LOT of money to be made when we leverage this tool, because the open rates are ridiculously high. But it can als...

Raise your hand if you want to find more farm clients... I often hear farmers lamenting that they can't find enough customers. Maybe the people you are attracting don't live in your local area, or they DO live in your area, but they aren't buying. You have an attraction problem. If you're a new or younger farm business, this is one of the earliest challenges you will face -- growing your audience....

May 8, 2024 This week, I have two farm projects that feel like a heavy lift. And because these decisions feel hard, I'm not taking action.... (Does this sound familiar?) I feel like I need more information. I'm worried I'll make the WRONG decision that will upset clients. And finding a solution would require several hours of time that I don't have right now. I want it to be the BEST solution possi...

When I first started learning about farm marketing years ago, there was SO MUCH. I felt overwhelmed. I really wanted a framework to help me stitch it all together and give it a rhyme and a reason. Then, one of my mentors shared an acronym that I found really helpful. That acronym was: TLC. Here's what it stands for: T = Traffic L = Leads C = Conversion I later added the letter "F" for Fulfillment...

April 24, 2024 As life would have it, I've been in a season of long-term illness this winter. These health issues have been so distracting, that I've had to pare down my farm marketing to the absolute bare bones. What's interesting is that I haven't noticed a huge difference! I'm often asked by farmers, "If I only have 2 hours of time a week for marketing, what should I be doing with it?" I feel l...

Is your online store confusing? Last month, I was doing a one to one coaching call with one of my farmer Accelerator members. They came to me with a problem: "Help us figure out why hardly anyone is buying from the online store." They had recently received a boost in traffic to their website thanks to some free media/press. They had hoped it would translate to many new buyers and sales. Unfortunat...

Every one of your farm products has a conversion rate. The question is: do you know what it is? I used to scream and rail and raise my fists to the heavens in frustration, when I couldn't get more people to buy my CSA box. What was wrong with me? Maybe nothing... It just has a lower conversion rate. Today, I want to introduce you to the concept of the conversion rate, and I want you to start TRACK...

April 3, 2024 Do you have a customer retention problem? If so, I bet I know one of the major factors behind it. In this podcast, we take a deep look at the critical customer management system that should be firiing RIGHT AFTER a person buys . It's called "customer onboarding." I know. Not very sexy. But if you're missing this piece, a lot of confusion is happening for your customer as they get you...

Today it's time to review the marketing basics. When I was a volleyball coach years ago, I used to say, "We spend 80% of our time focusing on the basics." If you can't serve a ball over the net, you'll never score points. If you can't bump the serve into the air to pass to the setter, you'll never score a point. The basics matter. The same is true in farm marketing. There is a FRAMEWORK on which A...

How do you market a flower subscription CSA? That's the topic of today's podcast, which is actually a recording from ANOTHER show I was on last week. I was interviewed for the Dirt on Flowers podcast, and the episode turned out SO good that I asked if I could share the recording of the episode with MY podcast audience.  Tune in as co-hosts Shannon Allen from Bloomfield Farm and Lyndsay Biehl of Wi...

Have you ever thought about offering a Spring Plant Sale to your customers? You grow veggie startup plants for them for their garden. They pre-order them in early March, you get the revenue in the bag, and then deliver them when they're ready? This has been one of our most popular promotions and offers every year. I've gotten several requests from farmers to "show them how we do it." So this episo...

March 6, 2024 Have you ever thought about monetizing your farm's YouTube Channel? If you already have subscribers and videos on your channel -- this may as easy as 15 minutes to set up. I recently flipped the switch to make monetize my channel, and it's SO COOL to see passive revenue coming into my business every month. In this podcast, I share my journey on YouTube, including how I used the platf...

February 28, 2024 In today's episode, I share a case study of one pasture-based livestock farmer, who has spent the last 9 years slowly scaling her business in a way that hasn't required her to take on debt, while also having time to homeschool her two kids. I ask her: "How'd you get here?"  Dana shares the transition process and lessons she's learned along the way. She discusses how she markets h...

February 21, 2024 Are you a farm business that uses social media to sell your product? Then today's podcast is a  must-listen. One of the delicate balances of posting on social media is making sure you also honor the rules of the platform. I'm constantly reminding myself that people aren't coming to Facebook or Instagram to shop for my stuff. They're there to engage with friends and family. So how...

Today, we talk about the importance of creating habits around your product.  This month, I saw a sign at my local meat/butcher in town. It showed the Daily Lunch Deal for each day for the next 3 weeks.  It was new, so it captured my attention. Tanks Meats hopes that by showing me the "schedule" of daily lunch meals, they will draw me back multiple times in a week -- increasing my frequency of purc...

February 7, 2024 Do you have a signature product you're trying to get your customers to buy?  I often ask farmers: "Where are you taking people?" Your Answer: All roads in your business lead to ___________? If you answered something like "CSA membership," subscription, side of beef, or some other big ticket item, then I want to introduce you to a powerful marketing asset called the "email sales se...

January 31, 2024 In today's episode, you're going to hear from a flower farmer who used the "early bird launch sales method" to help her presell 60% of next summer's subscriptions in just 7 days. Megan reached out to me a few weeks after her promotion campaign ended to say, "It worked!!!" (Multiple exclamation points). I use this exact same process to presell about 400 CSA vegetable shares every f...