farm marketing?

[bibliophile birds]

ok, so i'm trying to figure out some marketing strategies. at the Organic Crops Day last week, i had several people ask for my information and it would have been a LOT easier to give them a business card. which really got me thinking about my marketing strategy in general.

for now, i was hoping to tap into a lot of free resources, at least until this business venture finds it's feet. there are lots of options for free business cards, but the pickings sure are pathetic. especially when you start looking into their "agriculture" themes: most don't even have agriculture listed as an industry, your closest bet is "food & bev." VistaPrint is the only one i've found that does have an Ag theme, but they don't offer any of those designs for free... naturally.

and then there is the small matter of a farm logo... the free services are completely useless if you want ANYTHING that isn't basically a super plain clip art file. it would help if i was the least bit artistic, but i'm not. maybe it's time to hit up some of my artsy friends...

is anyone else working on farm marketing? are you having any luck? any resources you would suggest?

Wifey- could i bribe you to make me a flash logo?

 

[Wifezilla]

I can make logos, but I am flash-challenged

As for business cards, I am open for trading.

 

[bibliophile birds]

well, i love your farm logo from your blog.

and by flash i simply meant impressive... but, of course, how could you make anything else?

 

[Wifezilla]

Oh! I thought you meant flash as in FLASH software flash. LOLOLOL

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, you could have always gone with plain ones, no logos, to start out. If I ever get around to that, it's probably what I'll end up doing. I'm artistically challenged to say the least. I can't really even put up a pretty website. I can put my basic information in there, I know HTML, but I can't put a layout on there or anything for the life of me. I couldn't do it if I took 20 years and was paid $20 million, prepaid, lol.

 

[me&thegals]

Yeah, I was shocked my first year at the farmer's market at how many people requested business cards. It wasn't something I had even considered. Since I don't actually want to grow my business, or can't quite yet, I haven't gotten cards, letterhead or a website.

However, I do need labels for soap and lip balm. I'd see if you can hit up your friends for art help! My sweet cousin painted the background for my label and transferred it to a computer file, which I had made into labels. I pay her back with product.

Word of mouth is a huge boost. I don't know anything about setting up websites, but could you consider this? I don't have a clue on effort or cost, but again you probably have some computer literate friend in the bunch who could do it for you for ongoing eggs, meat or veggies.

Barter!

 

[Beekissed]

Joel Salatin's books have some excellent marketing suggestions and I think his success in this area pretty much assures you that he knows of which he speaks. You could read on how he has increased his marketing prowess...he has some great tips you may not have thought of. Great common sense suggestions that he has tried and found to be good.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Wifey- that's what i thought you thought... haha. i'm not needing to be THAT technologically advanced!

as for websites, there are several good services that help you make a basic site and host it for a couple bucks a month. i'm pretty HTML challenged (i should start a list: art, HTML...) so i'd go with one of those for now probably, on top of my blogs.

word-of-mouth is pretty much what i've got going on now, and it's working pretty well, especially since the vast majority of my customers are related to me! finally having a huge family has come in handy! and i've been giving cartons for eggs away as "thank yous" to various people- the farm vet, the feed store guy, the lady at the plant nursery- which has gotten me a few repeat customers.

 

[tortoise]

A blog is a neat (FREE) way to set up a website. blogger/blogspot let you set up static pages as well, so it can function as both website and blog. Use lots of photos!

Here is my rabbit website: http://www.penelopesrabbitry.blogspot.com

It is linked into my flickr account that I only use for rabbit photos, plus I add feature blog posts - with photos - whenever I have something to say that would IMPROVE the blog. I tag carefully to come up in Google search results. I don't have a hit counter or analystics on the blog (haven't figured that out yet), but I do see the number of views per photo rising on my flickr photos. I can also see which photos are most interesting to visitors. You can share directly to Facebook or Twitter to increase views to the site.

I prefer the blog format because templates are set up as-is and are simple to modify. The free "template" websites look like crap! Cheap crap!

I really like farm blogs that give frequent reports on what is going on. Whether it is putting in a fence, chatting about the sick chicken, I love it! (Assuming it comes with photos).

Also Local Harvest is a nice site that comes up pretty high in Google search results.

As does Hoobly, Kijiji, Agriseek, Elitefarmer. I believe Agriseek requires a fee. But if you get your name high on the search results list, people can google your exact name and find your blog or site.

If you want your own site, it is remarkably NOT hard to do. Just very labor-intensive to learn the code. My other website is set up in complicated frames, so I had a hard time figuring it out. Now I have my code set up with labels and I have a template page to make editing it easier. By being able to set up my own tags and control what appear in Google search, I've been able to get nice Google search results. I used to have #1 search results, which was awesome, but at least I'm still on the first page! Coding and HTP software are available free. I pay for my domain name and hosting service through a local company (a client of mine) so that I always have help if I get stuck. My website costs $10 per month for everything - even a real business email, rather than the ...@hotmail.com which is likely to go to a client's spam folder. Google analytics is free and gives a lot of valuable information about the site's performance!

Here is my real website that I built: http://www.canine-command.com

If you are on Facebook AND have a lot of friends, starting a business page is helpful. They have some cool analytics tools to help you track your post quality and interactions. My facebook page for Canine Command scored 100 fans that keep track of what I am doing. Sweet!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php...ile#!/pages/Canine-Command/52818934311?ref=ts

The MOST important thing is to remember your brand image and not post extra things. If you have a dog site, don't post your grandkids, unless they are doing something directly with the dogs (and the photo includes the dogs.) Same for a farm site, except those are generally more personal and cover a wider area. Be selective about what you post and include keywords IN YOUR TEXT that will result in more "hits."

Etsy has has good search results on Google as well AND they DO allow sales of food! Flickr has EXCELLENT search results, and you can post a URL to your page in your profile.

I think I am done for now.

 

[curly_kate]

Getting a Facebook page is a great idea. You could have your contact info there & also post any relevant info that people might want (what's in season, etc.) You can even put pictures of your products/produce. If you're not already on FB, you will be surprised at the number of people and businesses who are. Most of the businesses in my little podunk town have Facebook pages. It's all free and extremely simple to use.

As far as design, is there a college around that has an art/design program? I know even our local community college has one. You might be able to find some students who would design your logo for free as a way to build their portfolio. I have some friends who are graphic designers who had many different projects where they had to design things for real businesses (that's how I got the logo for the organization I run). And at this point, the college doesn't even really need to be very close. Since I'm sure you'd just want a digital version, they could just email it to you.

ETA: You can also print your own business cards. Avery, the people who make all the labels, sell business card sheets with a template you can download from their website. Not super-professional, but a great way to start.