My Digital Farmer Podcast

What if you only needed 100 "true fans" to hit $100K in revenue? I remember in my early years of farming, I was just grasping for new clients -- whatever I could get! I wasn't looking at numbers, or data, or patterns. I didn't think about a "strategy" for how to hit revenue goals.  Today, I share the "Principle of the 100 True Fans," (well, actually it's called the Principle of the 1000 True Fans,...

How important are consistency and persistence in sales? Turns out, pretty important for Red Handle Farm. In today's episode, I interview Bridget McMillion, who shares her story of how she cultivated new florist clients for her cut flower product line by showing up EVERY week all summer long at the florists' shop with her product. After months of no sales, she finally got them to convert. And now t...

Do certain enterprises in your business feel a little stale? It's easy for that to happen, when you put things on auto-pilot and just do stuff the same way over and over again. The downside is that your clients can get bored, and YOU can get bored. That lack of energy translates to your customers. In 2017, I stumbled accidentally onto a path where I began creating "new" projects and content with m...

Over the years, I've had a lot of people come up to me and ask me, "What's this box of veggies all about?..." I used to take 5-10 minutes with EVERY person and dive deep into how a CSA worked, how to sign up, etc. I could tell some of them were interested, and some weren't, but it would take me a little longer to figure out if they'd be successful . Years later, I now  know how to shorten that pro...

June 28, 2023 by Corinna I'm often asked by farmers who are strapped for time: "Help! If I only have a few hours a week to devote to marketing, what should I be doing?" Last week, I talked about the top repetitive weekly tasks that drive results in my farm business. So be sure to check that one out too here. In today's podcast, I share the monthly and annual marketing tasks that repeat every year,...

I'm often asked by farmers who are strapped for time: "Help! If I only have a few hours a week to devote to marketing, what should I be doing?" Today's podcast answers that question. I share the top 5 tasks that I repeat every week in my main season to keep the flywheel spinning in my farm business, and to keep the revenue coming in. Creating a system for your marketing strategy is the key. When y...

In today's episode, meet my special guest Elizabeth Hopkins from Honeymoon Farm - the mushroom capital of the world. Since 2017, she's been marketing her gourmet mushrooms at a farmer's market, trying to educate a consumer who's only familiar with the cremini mushrooms you might buy at the store. How do you create interest, pique curiosity, and overcome the "outlier" factor that might keep a perso...

What if I told you that the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69%? OMG, yes. It's a big deal. This week, I was placing an online order for poly bags for our farm's pack shed. But as I was reading the product description, I couldn't tell if this was the "right bag." I went to look at the actual box in my pack shed to read the label. I copied down the product number, and all the...

May 31, 2023 by Corinna Wondering why more people aren't buying your product?... Well, it could be many things. But maybe your customers are confused about how to start doing business with you. Imagine a brand new potential client finds about your brand. They're curious enough to go check out your website or store. They might even scan the website all the way to the bottom! But they don't take act...

May 24, 2023 by Corinna In today's podcast, I interview Camilla Lombard, co-owner of SeaForager -- a community supported fishery located in the San Francisco Bay area. Camilla is doing a lot of things intrinsically right with her marketing. Her location is ideal for her product. As the author of a renowned seaforager's guide, her husband has authority in the fishing space which helps them attract...

Last month, I booked a massage with a new LMT that I found via Google. Thirty minutes before my appointment, I realized that she wasn't located in Oak Harbor, Ohio. She was located in Oak Harbor, WASHINGTON. Yeah. How did this happen? I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong. Did I type something wrong into Google? Why would Google give me a search result for somewhere on the west coast? Th...

Are customers experiencing success with your product? Or are they overwhelmed and confused once they get it in their kitchen? (Maybe they're not even using the product because they've given up on it!?) Yikes! As a marketer, our job is not just to get our customers to buy. We ALSO need to make sure they experience a "win" with the product! We want them to LOVE it, know how to use it, and feel like...

How important is it to inspire your customers with your business? In today's podcast, I dig into that question with flower farmer Lyndsay Biehl of Wildroot Flower Company. Over the last 6 years, she has slowly built an organic following of super-fans. And after our conversation, I have my suspicions that it's  not just because her flowers are beautiful.... Listen to Lyndsay's messaging, and you'll...

How are you leveraging word of mouth? It is still by far the #1 way that people hear about your product. So are you building any mechanisms to encourage this to happen more? And what if I told you that around 60% of word of mouth marketing for your brand is happening in offline conversations? When specifically is your product or brand coming to mind for your customer, so that they think to talk ab...

Do you have a product that isn't selling well in your online store?  In today's episode, I share a strategy you can try that may change your low-seller to a best-seller. And it only takes 5 minutes.  This idea was inspired by the breakfast buffet table at my women's Bible study last week.... Aren't you curious?... This podcast was sponsored by Local Line,  the leading e-commerce platform for the l...

A BONUS episode?!  That's right. I don't do these very often. But recently, Local Line released some big news for their platform, which have some exciting possibilities for farmers using their platform. This news was so big, that I wanted to make sure farmers heard about it NOW before the season gets intense -- in case they want to jump on board.  So I invited Local Line's founder, Cole Jones, to...

April 12, 2023 by Corinna What makes a person decide to buy themselves a bouquet of flowers? Knowing the answer to this question may be the key to selling more of them. In today's podcast, I interview flower farmer Kendra Kennedy of Dogwood Flower Farm in Wisconsin. Her goal is to build her entire farm business around the love of flowers. We talk at length about the kind of person she is attractin...

AI has now hit the marketing space. And if you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, I'm about to make a case that you should. In today's episode, I introduce you to "ChatGPT" -- a machine learning tool that is a cross between Google Search, Siri, and your own personal copywriter. I'm sharing how it works and walking through 10+ use cases where this tool can make the process of writing your marketi...

What if someone could give you a roadmap of "what to do" in your first 2 years to build your CSA business? In today's episode, I interview Farmer Glen Young -- a 2-year farmer who is hell-bent on building his new farm business to be profitable by year 5. Glen has made all of the mistakes possible in his first two seasons of organic market gardening as he has built up to a 40 member CSA and a once-...

Glamping on the farm? Is it for you? Today on the show, I'm inviting Kasey Marshall of 350 Farms in Alberta, Canada. In 2022, they branched out and began a glamping in canvas tents along a private trails system on their farm. It's now turned into the leading enterprise of their business! If you've ever wanted to get the 411 on how glamping works as a farm enterprise, THIS IS THE PODCAST TO LISTEN...

March 15, 2023 by Corinna How are you collecting new email subscribers? It's SO important as a business to grow your email list --  all year long. In today's episode, we're talking about one powerful strategy for doing this, called a "lead magnet." A lead magnet is some kind of value in advance that you offer for free in exchange for an email address. It could be "How to Fill Out a Cut List in 5 E...

What if you were just starting out your pastured meat business in a small town where there's no current market for it? How do you convince a new community to accept you, believe in you, and support you? Today, I interview my guest Kayla Gibbons from Sugar Butte Farms, who decided in 2019 to start their farm in the small town of Lowell, Ohio. Kayla harnessed the power of social media and some popul...

This winter, I decided I wanted to learn how to speak Spanish. I subscribed to the language app called Duolingo, and every day, I get a new lesson that builds on the last. They started with the basics like "how to say hello." Then I learned how to introduce myself to someone and tell them where I was from. Now I'm learning how to order coffee, ask for directions, or buy clothes from the store. The...

I love interviewing other farms to see how they're finding new customers and cultivating them into super-fans. This week, I interview Katie Farrar from Farrar Family Farms. Katie shares some of her marketing mojo that's moving major product in her business -- including (my favorite) email marketing as well as some creative use of "category names" in her online store that help funnel her clients to...

Do you struggle with asking people to buy your product because you're afraid of coming off as too sales-y? If so, you are not alone. I used to have it really bad. I worried about getting the "no." I would make it mean something really negative about ME in my head. "I'm not good enough. No one will buy this. You're an amateur. You don't belong here." Over time (and with some experience and coaching...