006_Messaging Hierarchy: The Order of the Message Matters

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 platform to help me build brand awareness, grow my email list, educate my potential clients, and support my CSA members with a CSA Success path. We'll cover YouTube basics, what is required to monetize, and my recommended first steps for getting started on the platform.

See my YouTube channels for both Shared Legacy Farms and My Digital Farmer. You can scroll those channels to see what content I've created, and see what's been getting more views than anything else. (Get some inspiration for content you could create, too!)

https://www.youtube,com/sharedlegacyfarms <== my farm's YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/mydigitalfarmer <== Please subscribe and help me get over my 1000 subscriber hump!

This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, my preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy to use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise, Local Line should definitely be one of the e-commerce solutions you consider as you switch.  Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

This podcast was sponsored by Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, setting up your Google Business Profile, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work.Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms  Start and cancel your membership anytime.

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better. Subscribe at https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/subscribe

Join my CSA Academy and fast-track your farm customers to CSA success. Try it out for the first month for $1 using coupon code TRIAL. Go to www.mydigitalfarmer.com/academy to enroll. You'll get access to the entire resource library I give to my CSA members to support them as they learn how to become a home chef! Watch cooking tutorial videos for every vegetable. See the catalog of "cooking exit strategies" we teach to our members. Download my veggie e-guides, worksheets, and use them with your own customers. Or just scroll the table of contents for inspiration on how you can build your own Sucess Path for your farm clients. It's a goldmine of information and a shortcut to content creation each week. Cancel your membership anytime.

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

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 her product each week to attract new customers and get her current ones to buy more. We talk about the strategies that are doing most of the heavy lifting. We talk about the mindset work she's had to do to help her take risks and not give up. And we talk about the deep commitment we both have to running a fun business that doesn't kill our body, mind or spirit. If you're starting out your business, there are some really great gems inside of here.

This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, the leading e-commerce platform for the local food system. Try Local Line for your farm today! Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

Meet My Guest: Dana Workman Stacy

Today’s podcast guest is Dana Workman Stacy. Dana and her husband Jesse along with daughters Eliza and Brynn operate Grass Powered Poultry & Meats, a pasture-based livestock farm in Highland County, Ohio. Over the past 9 years their farm has grown from a few chickens in the front yard to fill their own freezer to raising lots more pasture-raised chicken, pastured pork and grass-finished beef. In 2019, Dana left her career in agricultural lending to focus on the farm and her family and hasn’t looked back. As a first-generation farmer, building a profitable and sustainable farm business hasn’t been easy, but the journey has been incredible. In addition to raising amazing food, Dana is passionate about building community and supporting the growth and success of rural businesses.

Visit her website: GrassPoweredPoultry.com

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

Join Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work.Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

Find my Facebook group for farmers!

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

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 do we post our content without it feeling like an "intrusion" into their world?

The answer is the indirect post. In this episode, I share the difference between "indirect" and "direct" posts on social media, how they're both necessary, and how to craft them so they BOTH get you traction. I'll give you some examples of what they look like in practice. 

This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, the leading e-commerce platform for the local food system. Try Local Line for your farm today! Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

This podcast was sponsored by Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers.

You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work. Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms  Cancel your membership anytime.

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

Get my Social Media post templates - Looking for ideas on the "categories" of posts you could create on your social channel? This guide will give you 20 different examples of post styles, from the "question" post, to the FAQ post, to the Lead Magnet post. Use this to break the logjam when you're racking your brain over what to talk about on social!

Find my Facebook group for farmers!

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

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 purchase.

If I'm already the type of person who buys lunch out 1x per week, I can look ahead and "plan" to come back to Tanks on Wednesday, too, since I love Reubens. Now I've just increased my customer value by a factor of two.

Tanks can also follow the sales data from this after a few months, and figure out which meals are making the most money. Then optimize their menu.

In today's episode, I want to show you the importance of creating buying habits around your product. Sometimes that means you need to create a "rhythm" and pattern that your customers will come to know and expect. I cover all kinds of examples of what this can look like. It's full of practical examples. One small tweak might mean a big shift in revenue for you.

Are you showing up at the "trigger moment" for your customer to make them think about your product?

This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, the leading e-commerce platform for the local food system. Try Local Line for your farm today! Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

This podcast was sponsored by Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

Subscribe and Review in Apple Podcast

I’d love for you to subscribe to my podcast! I don’t want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe in Apple Podcasts!

Now if you’re feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on Apple Podcast, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

My hope is to feature guests periodically on the show. If you know someone who is innovating in the area of marketing as a farmer, please send me an email at mydigitalfarmers@gmail.com.

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 sequence." 

This is a series of emails you write in advance and load up into your email provider as an automation. It "drips" out to a subscriber once a certain trigger fires (like downloading a specific lead magnet or after completing a nurture email sequence), and it PITCHES YOUR PRODUCT. I built one of these to pitch my CSA membership many years ago, and every year, I tweak it and make it better. Between this asset, my regular social media, one formal promo launch to my wait list (and a few referrals and word of mouth), I sell 400 CSA memberships a year. It's a work horse for me.

What's great about these is that you spend the time to build them ONCE, and then they keep working for you on auto-pilot behind the scenes, pulling in new customers. And even if they don't pull in customers the first time, you can re-use the same sequence once or twice a year "live" as you broadcast your email list.

I'm often asked, "But what do you talk about in them?!!" 

That's what this podcast episode is all about. I share the 6 email "topic map" you can use as a general guide when you build your own sales sequence. Use it as a framework to get started. And if you need more step by step help with building this, join my Farm Marketing School membership for a month and take the "Promotional Email Sequence" Project Build. (When you take that project, I also share my own CSA promo sequence with you so you can see the framework in action).

Be forewarned: your first attempt at writing this sequence will still feel weird. That's normal. Do it anyway. It's your fear of being sales-y coming out. Put it out into the world, see what happens, then commit to tweaking it. It will take several iterations before you feel good about it, but you have to take the first step and get something out there. I promise: the world will not end. In fact, you may find that you create a pipeline for ongoing sales in your business that takes some major time (and stress) off your plate. 

This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, the leading e-commerce platform for the local food system. Try Local Line for your farm today! Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

This podcast was sponsored by CSAWeek and the CSAInnovationNetwork -- Mark your calendars: CSA Week is February 19-25, 2024! Imagine a week dedicated to empowering farmers with the latest strategies, tools, and ideas to enhance their CSA and kickstart the CSA season.  From February 19-25, 2024, join the CSA Innovation Network in this week-long celebration dedicated to promoting CSA, supporting local agriculture, and fostering a stronger connection between farmers and their communities. Get your free CSAWeek Promotion Pack from CSAInnovationNetwork by subscribing at csainnovationnetwork.org/csa-week It includes Canva templates for social media posts, sample emails, press release, customizable CSA infographics, and even a social content calendar guide.

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

This podcast was sponsored by Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work.Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

Get my Social Media post templates - Looking for ideas on the "categories" of posts you could create on your social channel? This guide will give you 20 different examples of post styles, from the "question" post, to the FAQ post, to the Lead Magnet post. Use this to break the logjam when you're racking your brain over what to talk about on social!

Find my Facebook group for farmers!

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

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 fall, and I usually get about 75-80% of my folks to sign on the dotted line.

I asked Megan onto the show to share her story, because I know how important it is to show you that this stuff works for other farmers! She'll share how she modified my strategy to build an irresistible offer to her clients, how she created hype and buzz, and what advice she found most helpful when she was in the thick of the launch. There's also a really good tip in here about how to capture testimonials from flower subscription clients....

This podcast was sponsored by Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work.Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

Interview Guest: Meet Megan Rudroff

Megan Rudroff started Rudy Lane Flower Farm in 2019 with the intention of solely growing peonies as an added enterprise on their traditional cattle and row crop farm in the heart of Missouri.  However, since peonies take a few years before they can be harvested, she planted a few hundred dahlias to cash-flow for more peony plants.  Then, throw in a world-wide pandemic and an unforeseen addiction to dahlias and now Megan grows 600 peonies, 800 dahlias, thousands of tulips and too many annuals to count that she sells primarily retail via her subscription program and farmstand.  

Though Megan is the primary flower farmer, her husband Layne, and their three daughters all play a part in the flower business.  Layne does all the equipment operation and flower deliveries, and their girls, ages 8, 6 and 3, help with planting, harvesting and, their favorite, deadheading spent blooms.  

Megan believes that growing flowers is the easy part, it’s selling those flowers that is truly the hard part.  Megan’s full-time career is in natural resource conservation… not marketing! Because of that, she credits podcasts like My Digital Farmer for helping her flower business being successful from the start.

Learn more about Rudy Lane Flower Farm

Instagram: @OnRudyLane

Facebook: www.facebook.com/RudyLaneFlowerFarm

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

Episode 235 of the My Digital Farmer Podcast: CSA Renewal Promotion Process: Step by Step - Megan used this episode to help her build her own strategy.

Episode 120 of the My Digital Farmer Podcast: How My "CSA Giveaway Challenge" Experiment Built Some Major Brand Identity - Megan referenced this episode as inspiration for her giveaway element in her offer.

Sign up for Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. And new content is being added every month. You get to chose what you want to study each month. I’ve taken the recordings of just the teaching sessions of each project inside of my high-end coaching program (Accelerator) and made them available to everyone. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work.Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

 

Farm website updates.

Ugh. If you're like most farmers, you cringe at the thought of working on your website. It feels overwhelming, time consuming and ultra confusing. What do you say? How do you set it up technically?  How do you even get started?!

In today's episode, I interview an actual website designer who works specifically with farmers to design or rebuild farm websites. She has seen it all. We talk through the 3 most important elements that need to be on your farm's website home page, and what's at stake if you get them wrong!! 

You'll hear great conversation around the importance of visuals, CTA buttons, navigation, testimonials, knowing your customer, and creating clarity for the potential buyer. We also talk through the process for finding and hiring a website designer, so that you get someone who will deliver a great end product and set you up to maintain it easily after they're done. If you're thinking about building or refreshing your farm website, this is a MUST-LISTEN to guide your plan of action.

Today's Podcast Guest: Jean-Marie Merkle

Meet Jean-Marie Merkle: an extroverted maximalist with a passion for branding, project management, and regenerative agriculture. After working at design and advertising agencies in New York and Philadelphia for over a decade, burnout hit, and she moved to Tennessee to throw herself into farming. A car crash, the pandemic, and some cosmic alignment led to her forming her own agency, Dig Digital. Now she lives in Lancaster County, PA collaborating with farmers and food businesses to improve their digital presence through design and marketing. 

Learn more about Jean-Marie's services on her website: www.dig-digital.com

Follow her on Instagram @dig__digital

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

Top 10 Website Mistakes Farmers Make -- Want to know why your website isn't working? I've audited a lot of farm websites over the years, and I see the SAME issues over and over. I put together the most common website mistakes in this multi-page guide Want to know what they are? Download my PDF and use it as a checklist to audit your own farm website and make some quick adjustments that could be stopping your website from converting.

Sign up for Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

We reference the Chrome Extension Go Full Page. This tool will allow you to take full screenshots of individual URL pages, so you can reference them as templates later. 

Find my Facebook group for farmers!

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

I'm willing to bet that if you're in business, you have some big dreams and goals you want to hit. How do you make sure you reach them? Over the last 3 years especially, I've made some pretty incredible things happen. One day this past year, I was reflecting on the art of "manifesting big things." I decided to catalog a list of things that I would consider "big goals" I had manifested. And then I asked the question in my journal: What do all of these things have in common? Did I see any patterns in how I experienced them, or in how they came to be? I wrote down 5 observations. And then, I did something I've never done... I photocopied this page in my journal, and I put it in my podcast folder. (That means I was impressed with what I came up with).

I stumbled upon this photocopy last week as I was looking for a podcast topic. I re-read my reflection and thought, "I've got to talk about this."

The more I work with my own coach, the more I realize how powerful our thoughts and beliefs shape our feelings, actions, and (ultimately) our destiny. I have a feeling that some of your hangups when it comes to creating your dream might be all in your head. If you have an audacious sales goal or life quest, and you're interested in exploring "how to manifest," then this podcast is for you.

As you listen to this episode, I'm going to ask you you to think about a achievement you manifested in your past. Then I want you to think about your big, audacious goal/desire that you are chasing right now. Take the principles I share from today and see if they ring true foryou. Did you need to hear one of these "lessons" today? Lean into them as you move towards manifesting your dream.

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/subscribe Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better. 

Sign up for Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: a promotion calendar, a sales funnel audit, home page of your website, an email nurture sequence, and your latest best-selling offers. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing machine piece by piece.  To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

Follow me on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/mydigitalfarmer for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer

January 10, 2024

Today we do one of my favorite things: we interview a farmer and audit their sales funnel.

In today's episode, you'll hear from Adam Henson of Shady Brook Farm. Adam joined my Accelerator program this fall to build out his email nurture sequence and sales sequence for his meat sales. As you listen, I want you to hear how simple his sales funnel is. Sometimes we think that we have to have a lot of irons in the fire, but in reality, in the early years of setting up your business sales flow, you're just layering in the main players: the website, the weekly email, the nurture sequence, the product ladder, the attraction strategy and message.

Although Adam will tell you he isn't at his finish line yet, I wanted to show you a farm that is well on its way. Listen for some of the strategies that are working well for him. Notice the importance of the buyer's journey at the point of sale, and knowing your customer's pain points. I'm sure you'll find some marketing gems in this episode!

This podcast was sponsored by: The Thriving Farmer Podcast.  In this top-rated farm podcast, you'll learn the latest tricks and strategies of successful farmers, strategize with in-depth interviews with leaders in the industry, and connect with stories of farmers just like you. In our interviews, we focus on building farms that last, on setting up systems, knowing your customers, building your team, and creating a work/family/life balance. With over 15 years of farming background, your host Michael Kilpatrick has the experience and authority to bring you practical advice, ask the hard questions, tease out the gold nuggets, and help share what it’s really like to build a profitable, sustainable farm.

Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts or visit: https://www.thrivingfarmerpodcast.com/

Today's Podcast Guest:

Today’s podcast guest is Adam Henson of Shady Brook Farm in Canton, NC. 

Adam is a fourth generation cattle farmer running a cow/calf operation in a grass based production model along side his wife Jada. his dad and grandmother are stake holders in the operation as land owners and in having a small interest in the cow herd. In 2012 Adam made the switch from the commodity system to a direct to consumer model offering grass fed and finished beef under their own label. Since then they have added pasture raised eggs in 2013 and pasture raised chickens in 2015. In 2022 they switched their laying hens and meat chickens to an organic/soy free feed.

They sell at a local farmer’s market on Saturdays, maintain an online store connected to their website, publish a weekly email to push customers to the online store and farmer’s market, as well as offer some small scale subscription services.

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/subscribe I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

Sign up for Farm Marketing School at https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/fms - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms  Cancel your membership anytime.

How do you make more money in your farm business?

Answer: make more offers.

In our early years as a CSA farm, we struggled to increase revenue because we only had the one thing to sell: our 18-week CSA membership. That's it! Once you paid for that, you weren't asked to buy anything again until the next year, when we asked to renew the membership.

Looking back, that was a mistake.

In order to maximize profits, your farm will want to sell multiple things to the same customer all year long. That means you will need to have enough products in your product suite to sell.

You need a "product ladder."

In today's episode, you'll learn how the product ladder works, how to build one, and how to USE it to make more money. This may involve making new products!!

Your homework is to identify your product ladder and map out the different key categories, products, or promotions that fall into it. This is your key step to increasing your revenue as a farmer.

This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, the leading e-commerce platform for the local food system. Try Local Line for your farm today! Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2023. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

This podcast was sponsored by: The Thriving Farmer Podcast.  In this top-rated farm podcast, you'll learn the latest tricks and strategies of successful farmers, strategize with in-depth interviews with leaders in the industry, and connect with stories of farmers just like you. In our interviews, we focus on building farms that last, on setting up systems, knowing your customers, building your team, and creating a work/family/life balance. With over 15 years of farming background, your host Michael Kilpatrick has the experience and authority to bring you practical advice, ask the hard questions, tease out the gold nuggets, and help share what it’s really like to build a profitable, sustainable farm.

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Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better.

Sign up for Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. And new content is being added every month. You get to chose what you want to study each month. I’ve taken the recordings of just the teaching sessions of each project inside of my high-end coaching program (Accelerator) and made them available to everyone. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work.Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Cancel your membership anytime.

ConvertKit - I mention my email service provider of choice. If you decide to try this ESP out, use my affiliate code here and I get a small commission.

Flitetest.com -- this is the RC airplane brand that got my kids hooked on aviation!

Find my Facebook group for farmers!

Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer