Guest Blog by Ashley Pierce
Marketing is a challenge for even the most sophisticated business. Holistic marketing is unique in that it takes your context and future vision into account, as well as financial planning. The Flockery, run by Kate Batchelder in Cherry Valley, New York direct markets lamb, mutton, wool products, eggs, and poultry. Products are sold from a farm stand on the property, via word of mouth, and from social media marketing. Although the farm does sell all their product eventually, it is often a slow and arduous process. They wanted to improve this, have more communication with customers, more options for selling products, and to better communicate their story.
Kate and her husband had real need to improve their marketing. They were finding that they had inventory left at the end of the season, and with two young children and recently purchasing a large tract of adjoining land, they needed to take action to reach their goals. Kate felt comfortable with the production aspect and was solid in both the resource and product conversion, but her weak link in her chain of production was market conversion.
When I first met with Kate, we began with a check of the holistic goal and future vision, key elements to planning anything holistically. We discussed her resource base, which included not only her farm resources like land and infrastructure, but also who in her network she could lean on or learn from. Although the farm does have an Instagram and Facebook page, both were underutilized, mostly because of a dislike of using these platforms.
Because of this dislike, we first talked about other ways that she could market that were more in-line with her desired approach. Could farmers markets, festivals, flyers, posters, or an ad in the newspaper better serve the farm? Discussing these options further, Kate concluded that although some of these options would be easier for her, they would not likely help her reach her target market.
Identifying Your Customer
Prior to our meeting, I had asked Kate to take some time to think about her target customer and work through an ideal customer worksheet. In this she identified a few key things about her customer, which included a person who is:
35-50 years old
Have a family
Be either male or female
Focusing on the areas of Schoharie, Otsego, and Cooperstown, NY
They would ideally purchase her product weekly
She would like to market to them at a farmer’s market or festival or at her farmstand, or her home
The hobbies or interests they have include:
Cooking
Outdoor activities
Climate activism
Art
Purchase meat on the weekend
Purchase seasonally: June-September, November
Cultural values include a disagreement with how conventional food is raised/produced
Her ideal customer is a person who wants to cook food with quality ingredients and is eager to invest in local food
Identifying Distribution Channels
Now that she knew who she was marketing to, she had to think about how to reach this customer. After more thought, she realized that although an ad in the paper, flyers, etc. may draw their attention, they would likely be easiest to reach via social media. Kate renewed her interest in and the importance of activity on various platforms.
Now that we had a plan in place and foundation to build from, we talked about modelling successful pages or accounts that were like what she had in mind for her farm. Kate should not copy these accounts, but can use them as inspiration for her work, to view what works and what doesn’t on other pages, the style of phots, videos, and writing used, and conversely what she didn’t like. The next step would be setting goals for outreach, how often she would post, what outcome she wanted from posts (mostly sales, to engage with customers, to gain a larger following, etc.), and then to reevaluate on a regular basis.
Articulating Your Story
Kate also spent time to identify the story she wanted to tell customers. How would she set herself apart from those she may be modeling on social media, from those in the community, and from cheaper and potentially easier to access products? To work through this process, we completed a value proposition worksheet. The Flockery’s key identifiers and the story they want to relay include:
We believe we are meeting these needs/wants for customers:
Animal had an excellent life
Produce high quality animal protein
Fair price
We are really in the business of:
Demonstrating that regen ag can create delicious meat
Grassfed is delicious pasture-based meat
Giving our animals the best life possible
Improving our land
Supporting local businesses
We absolutely promise these benefits to our customers:
I’m not getting rich
Taste is superior
Animals impact actually improved soil, plant, and local wildlife
SWOT Analysis
Kate also completed a SWOT analysis, or a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis. Strengths and weaknesses are those things that are found within a person or organization. Where is the farm already succeeding and how can that be leveraged? Where can they use more work, where is the weak link? The opportunities and threats section is relating to those things that are external to the business. An opportunity in her case is the acquisition of new property, that a state agricultural college is a nearby source of farm labor, and that the area is very wealthy. Threats for the farm included that there are others in the area who are selling the same products for less money, that grocery stores can almost always beat her prices, and that there are more established farms in the area who already have a strong market presence. This analysis is meant as a fact finding and thought-provoking process that helps you to better understand your business and where you lie in the competitive field, as well as where you can improve, where you are doing well.
The Flockery has one last obstacle: confidence in their social media presence. This is a more difficult issue to address directly. The internet and social media are potentially intimidating places. With a firm plan in place and having her “why” active and in the forefront of her mind, Kate did leave feeling more confident in her ability to get things done and being more active in her marketing. It has been several weeks since the meeting and she has turned a 180 in her presence on social media, posting excellent pictures, videos, and written content on a regular basis, as well as interacting with potential and current customers.
Creating a plan, committing to that plan, as well as evaluation and replanning are all now her in wheelhouse, and items she feels comfortable with. We also spent time talking about this being a process—things will go wrong, but learning from those mistakes and adjusting for the future are key! Safe to fail is also a concept we talked about. We came up with some ideas that would present little risk, but give her an idea of whether the model or idea would be successful in the future. In a safe to fail trial, it is exactly that, safe to fail! These concepts all helped give her more confidence going forward with an increased marketing presence.
Ashley Pierce is a HMI Whole Farm/Ranch Trainer. If you are interested in improving your marketing and business planning holistically, join the next HMI Online Marketing/Business Planning course.