Most people who start farms do so because they enjoy growing food, working outside, or creating with their hands. Most aren't in it to sell stuff. The problem with that is that we need to sell stuff in order to create a business rather than a large, exhausting hobby. It takes a lot of bunches of kale to pay a mortgage, people! Making a marketing plan to help sell those kale bunches can be an even harder ask on a farmer. It makes sense to build a budget and crop plan, but a marketing plan? When I read "Marketing Plan" it evokes thoughts of designing brochures, sending weekly emails that will get passed over or deleted, and giving away free things to convince people to sign up for my CSA. I've tried those things and they haven't worked for me, maybe because I did them halfheartedly and ineffectively. Or maybe because I was sending them to the wrong people, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way. Instead of telling you how to create an effective email marketing plan, today we're going to do an exercise like we did with our "Ideal Farm". In this step we're going to dream up our "Ideal Customer". Then we're going to sell them kale. This step relies on the idea of the Pareto Principle (according to Wikipedia this principle is also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity). It means that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In business it means that 80% of our sales typically come from 20% of our customers. Follow the steps below to determine who those 20% are, how to give them "sticky fingers", and how to prioritize them without offending the other 80% of your customers. In this step you will need Your "ideal farm" description if you have one Any numbers on your customers that you have (wholesale sales records, CSA evaluations, etc) If you like drawing you can grab some fun pens for this step Paper or a blank word document The goal of this step To identify your target customers, set your prices, and identify marketing priorities for the year. Time needed 60 + minutes (more if you're doing this for the first time) Process First, remember that you've already imagined your Ideal Farm. That's the farm that you are going to describe below. If your business is newer and doesn't quite match your ideal yet, that's ok. This is what you are working towards. If you've been in business for a while, try to answer the questions truthfully to the business that you want to run, not the one you think you should because of your customers. It's entirely possible that you may go through this process and realize that the customers you are trying to please aren't your 20%. That's ok too. That's what happened to us the first time we did this exercise. Ok here we go! Get some paper and answer the following questions: (I'll give some fictitious examples to get you thinking)
Final thoughts: The steps above require that you pay attention to your customers, and that can take time. I have a document called "things people say" that I keep in my google drive and on my phone. I try to notice what words people use to describe our produce and their experience as our customers. I drive my social media posts towards those words, or phrases. I notice when people struggle with our CSA set up or website and I quickly make changes to make things easier. I also try to learn peoples names. A final, final thought about providing a consistent customer experience, which comes from the book The E-Myth. In the book the author relates a story of going to get a haircut. Please enjoy it below. I think it's a good lesson. "I went to a barber who, in our first meeting, gave me one of the best haircuts I had ever had. He was a master with the scissors and used them exclusively, never resorting to electric shears as so many others do. Before cutting my hair, he insisted on washing it, explaining that the washing made cutting easier. During the haircut, one of his assistants kept my cup of coffee fresh. In all, the experience was delightful, so I made an appointment to return. When I returned, however, everything had changed. Instead of using the scissors exclusively, he used the shears about 50 percent of the time. He not only didn’t wash my hair but never even mentioned it. The assistant did bring me a cup of coffee, but only once, never to return. Nonetheless, the haircut was again excellent. Several weeks later, I returned for a third appointment. This time, the barber did wash my hair, but after cutting it, preliminary to a final trim. This time he again used the scissors exclusively, but, unlike the first two times, no coffee was served, although he did ask if I would like a glass of wine. At first I thought it might be the assistant’s day off, but she soon appeared, busily working with the inventory near the front of the shop. As I left, something in me decided not to go back. It certainly wasn’t the haircut—he did an excellent job. It wasn’t the barber. He was pleasant, affable, seemed to know his business. It was something more essential than that. There was absolutely no consistency to the experience. The expectations created at the first meeting were violated at each subsequent visit. I wasn’t sure what to expect. And something in me wanted to be sure. I wanted an experience I could repeat by making the choice to return. The unpredictability said nothing about the barber, other than that he was constantly—and arbitrarily —changing my experience for me. He was in control of my experience, not I. And he demonstrated little sensitivity to the impact of his behavior on me. He was running the business for him, not for me. And by doing so, he was depriving me of the experience of making a decision to patronize his business for my own reasons, whatever they might have been. It didn’t matter what I wanted. It didn’t matter that I enjoyed the sound of the scissors and somehow equated them with a professional haircut. It didn’t matter that I enjoyed being waited on by his assistant. It didn’t matter that I enjoyed the experience of having my hair washed before he set to work and that I actually believed it would improve the quality of the haircut. I would have been embarrassed to ask for these things, let alone to give my reasons for wanting them. They were all so totally emotional, so illogical. How could I have explained them, or justified them, without appearing to be a boob? What the barber did was to give me a delightful experience and then take it away."
1 Comment
6/28/2023 12:29:02 pm
Great blog! The content was insightful, well-researched, and presented in a clear and engaging manner. I really enjoyed reading it and gained valuable knowledge from your perspective. Keep up the excellent work!
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AuthorTaylor Mendell. I grow things for people to eat. Archives
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