Category: Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #7: Next Level Facebook Marketing – Leveraging Post Boosts, Ads, and Going Live

CFA Admin

Next Level Facebook Marketing – Leveraging Post Boosts, Ads, and Going Live

Kati Bowman, Marketing and Communications Specialist with the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development

Facebook – it’s one of the best free tools you have to promote your market and reach current and new customers.  It’s also constantly changing. In 2018, Facebook changed their algorithm used to show posts on users’ news feeds to make it more community oriented. What does this mean? It means that Facebook prioritizes content that stimulates conversations between friends and penalizes content that asks for shares/likes/comments (is more forced).

With the new changes, how can you bring awareness to your market while promoting content? Leverage Facebook’s post boosts, ads, and the ability to go live to help you reach audiences that might not be aware of your market and help “advertise” your market to new customers.

Below are 5 tips to help to leverage more functions Facebook has to offer.

  1. Go LIVE! Choose an event, demonstration, or significant market day to go live. It will give your viewers a “right then” feel for the market, enhance engagement in posts, and encourage comments and questions. Be sure to respond to questions and comments in the comment section to boost your Facebook rating for that post.

 

  1. Broadcast when you will be going Live. When you go live on Facebook, your video gets six times more engagement than a regular post, so make sure you are sharing when you will be going live so your followers can tune in. Also, be sure to save your live videos so those who cannot tune into the live broadcast can watch when it is most convenient for them.

 

  1. Boost a Post. Not all posts are “boost-worthy”. Choose a post that is getting better than average organic reach and then expand your target market. You are trying to reach those who might not see your posts regularly with a boosted post, so don’t narrow your target market too much.To boost a post, go to the post you have created on your page, then click “Boost Post” in the lower right corner. You will be asked to choose your audience – you can target a specific demographic based on age, location, or interests. Next you will set your budget based on how many people you want to reach and how long you’d like your boost to run (a day, a week or until you manually turn it off). You can boost a post for as little as $1 per day. This budget will be for the total campaign, not your daily budget. The more you pay the more people you will reach. For each budget level and target audience, Facebook will provide you with an estimated reach. Once you’ve chosed your budget, you are ready to launch! To launch it, click “Boost Post”. You can check the status of your boosted posts at any time by looking at the Delivery column of your Ads Manager.

 

  1. Create an Ad Campaign. As with all ads, who you are targeting and what you are promoting are key. Some ideas of what to use for an ad campaign are: a paid event (farm to table dinner), a themed market day, or start or end of season. These can all be promoted to those who might not be aware of your market. You can target users based on their interests, demographics, location, and even on what pages they like. This is a great way to get new page likes and increase awareness for your market.Before you create an ad on Facebook, you will need to know the following pieces: the goal of the ad (the reason you’re running the ad); who you want to reach; a daily or lifetime budget for your ad; and, photos or videos to feature in your ad. To create an ad, go to your Ads Manager page on Facebook. Click “Create an Ad”. Choose your objective. Ask yourself “what’s the most important outcome I want from this ad?” to help determine your objective. Next, choose your audience. You can pick your audience based on demographics, location, interests, and behaviors. You will then choose where you run your ad. Facebook ads can be ran on Facebook, Instagram, or the apps and websites in the Audience Network. You can also choose to run ads on certain mobile devices. Once you’ve decided on the who, what, and where, you will need to know how much, aka your budget. Enter your daily or lifetime budget and the time period during which you want your ads to run. Now you can begin designing your ad! You can choose to show a single image or video or multiple images and videos in your ad. This is the most important part of your ad… as it is what people see. Once your ad is done, you’re ready to launch your ad. Once you submit your ad, it goes to Facebook’s ad auction which helps get it to the right people. The work isn’t over here… You need to manage your ad. Once your ad is running, you can track performance and edit your campaign in Facebook Ads Manager, Power Editor or Business Manager. Within those tools you can see if one version of your ad is working better than another, or if your ad isn’t being delivered efficiently, and adjust it accordingly.

 

  1. Manage your Budget. Your budget for your Facebook marketing should align with your market’s marketing budget. Test the waters with a boost or an ad and start with a small amount of money. Facebook allows you to choose how your it is spent and at what level (yearly vs. daily). If it works, then increase your budget for that particular boost/ad. If not, try something else.

The Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD) can help markets develop budgets and social media marketing plans.  Give us a call at 859-550-3972 or email us at kbowman@kcard.info for more information.

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #6: Leveraging National Farmers Market Week

CFA Admin

In just a few weeks’ time, the 19th National Farmers Market Week will be upon us! This year, NFMW will be celebrated between August 5th-11th, 2018 – so mark your calendars!

Sponsored by the USDA in an attempt to raise awareness about the impact Farmers Markets can have on local communities, NFMW is a time to highlight what it is that makes your Market an important piece of your region. Though participating in NFMW is an exciting opportunity to promote your market, it can also be a daunting task when trying to plan special events and promotions during one of the busiest times of summer.

CFA is here to help make this years NFMW a fun success without the stress. We hope that the information, resources, and tips below will make this a blast, as we ought to enjoy this week!

Why You Should Participate in NFMW

Farmers Markets have become increasingly significant to local communities, having positive effects on both economic and physical health.

Did you know?

  • Growers that sell locally create 10 more jobs per million dollars in revenue than those who sell outside their local markets
  • There are over 8,600 Farmers Markets officially registered with the USDA
  • Over $3-billion was spent at Markets across the country in 2016
  • Over $20-million in SNAP benefits were redeemed at Farmers Markets in 2017

This information, as reported by the FDA, is concrete evidence that your farmers market is having an impact. The local foods movement is working – and that means it’s more important than ever to grow your message and increase the impact in your community. NFMW is the perfect vehicle for this as it gives your Market a national marketing opportunity to tap into and spotlight your towns, cities, and communities.

By the looks of this year’s Farm Bill, the greater awareness we can create for the family farmer and the positive influence they have in their communities, the more success we will have in protecting the positive, healthy change you have worked so hard to create. This year’s NFMW provides an opportunity to sway popular opinion in favor of the Kentucky Farmer, which potentially influences future votes on other farm and food policy issues.

For those who may not yet be familiar with the farm bill, here are some links that can fill you in:

Community Farm Alliance on the Farm Bill (Morning Ag Clips)
2018 Farm Bill and Legislative Principles  (United States Department of Agriculture)
What Is the Farm Bill (National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition)
The 2018 Farm Bill (National Association of State Departments of Agriculture)

How To Take Advantage of NFMW

There are many resources provided by the USDA, CFA, and Farmers Market Coalition, with lots of marketing strategies geared at NFMW. Here are some of our favorite ideas:

Make a Proclamation

Work with your local government to make a proclamation designating August 5th -11th officially Farmers Market Week in your town. Invite the mayor or other city officials to attend the Market and publicize the event through local news outlets, newspapers, radio stations, etc. Attract attention to your Market through an official ceremony and event.

Courtesy the Farmers Market Coalition, you can find templates for inviting elected officials to your Farmers Market as well as a template for declaring Farmers Market Week in your locality. There is also a 5 part video series on how to communicate with local government and elected officials! This could be a useful resource beyond NFMW.

Plan a Special Market

Make this market different than the rest of your Markets. Highlight what it is that makes your market special to the community. Plan special events, invite local musicians to perform, or plan fun kids activities. You could hold giveaways, raffles, and even market vouchers or coupons to be used during NFMW.  Some markets have tasting competitions, such as jams and salsas for the public. The USDA has farmers market coloring pages available on its website.

Following CFA’s model, you could create a Thank a Farmer Station, where children and adults can color or write a sweet message for their favorite local farmer.

There are many ways to make this market stand out and taking advantage of local history and culture can also be really useful.

Promote Promote Promote

Hopefully by now you have several activity ideas, visions of piles of produce and local value added products, and maybe even have a drafted letter requesting the Mayor’s attendance for a photo-op. These ideas are all great – but how do you make sure the community will show up in support? Marketing and promotion.

Funding is often limited for most Markets, but there are some simple, low-cost things you can do to drive up interest!

  • start a NFMW countdown on social media pages highlighting your local farmers and vendors (complete with eye-catching pictures and memorable descriptions)
  • recruit an NFMW Promotion Street Team and have key market/community leaders use their social media networks to share and hype up your event
  • create fun hashtags that you and community members can use to create some buzz, as well as the hashtags #KYFarmersMarketWeek and #NationalFarmersMarketWeek
  • partner with a local food/farm business and have them sponsor a table at your NFMW event in exchange for promoting your special market day in their store
  • if you applied for and received the CFA Marketing Mini Grant, this would be the perfect time to use those funds to increase visibility to your Farmers Market

NFMW is an opportunity for you and your market to highlight the importance of your work within your local community, while spreading awareness of your farmers’ hard work and dedication to the local food system. Farmers, maybe like you or I, work and plan year-round to fulfill a life’s promise to the land; NFMW is a great opportunity to give those dedicated farmers the spotlight and love they have so earned. While we work to spread our own message, we also give the public a chance to show their support to the farmers their dinner tables depend on.

Ultimately, an effective NFMW across Kentucky and the nation will result in increased sales for our KY farmers, increased awareness of local food systems, and ultimately a healthier state for generations to come.

 

More Helpful Links and Resources

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service offers a plethora of free marketing materials including fonts and poster templates that can be customized to your specific market. They have templates that are perfect for creating buttons, stickers or refrigerator style magnets, as well as ideas for social media posts and physical posters.

The Farmers Market Coalition was fundamental in the formation of NFMW and is one of the most useful resources you’ll find. From the link above, you can find a lot of useful material and data that will be important in your NFMW plans, and has also been used in the creation of this blog post. There are infographics, marketing images, NFMW branding, and countless demonstrations and tutorials.  FMC has put in a lot of work, along with the USDA, to create a successful National Farmers Market Week.

Community Farm Alliance’s branding webinar, which featured  branding and marketing professional Natalie Biesel, can help you craft the message you want to project during this year’s NFMW. As well as being useful during that special week in August, the information in this webinar will be useful in day-to-day operations of your farmers market.

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #5: Benefits of Farmers Markets & Community Partnerships

CFA Admin

By Jann Knappage Food System Specialist

University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Nutrition Education Program

While investigating the idea of how farmers markets can create quality community partnerships, I interviewed representatives from three different markets: Berea Farmers Market, Floyd County Farmers Market and Perry County Farmers Market. The following suggestions and ideas come from those conversations, as well as my personal experience selling at farmers markets and working with farmers market producers.

Our Kentucky food system is a dynamic and complex system that effects each of us individually, every single day. Cornell University defines a community food system as, “food production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal to enhance the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of a particular place.” Our farmers markets are one piece of the food system pie in our communities. At first glance, farmers markets are a place where producers can directly sell their farm products to individuals and families in their community. Farmers markets are also a venue for community development. When farmers markets prioritize community partnership development, they are solidifying the markets place within the community as a space for economic vitality, food access, relationship building and general prosperity.

“Fostering connections with community supporters and utilizing the nutrient-rich market space to seed relationships among community groups intensifies the role of the market within the community.  This partnership building is beneficial to market sustainability, which is necessary for the wellbeing of farmers and consumers.” –Cristina Sandolo, Project Co-Director, Nourishing Neighborhoods for Wholesome Wave

How to Engage a Community Partner:

Good communication is key to beginning any partnership. Expressing hopes, wants and needs is essential to understanding if a partnership between organizations is a good fit for both entities.

Conversations between farmers markets and community partners can start a variety of ways: face-to-face, by phone call, or e-mail. This will vary greatly based on a variety of factors, such as how you were introduced to the partner, accessibility to partner and/or time allotment for these types of conversations. The biggest thing to remember is in order to know if a partnership is possible, you need to ask! Don’t be afraid to start a conversation and see where it leads.

“In thousands of communities across the country this summer, farmers markets are more than simply a place to buy locally grown fruits and vegetables. They are hubs for information and home to thousands of innovative partnerships that teach skills and expand knowledge about food, health, and agriculture.” – Elizabeth Comiskey, Farmers Market Coalition

Things to remember when starting a conversation:

  • Introduce yourself > who are you, how are you associated with the farmers market
  • Introduce the farmers market > share details such as: location, vendor details, times of operation, goals and objectives…etc.
  • How you heard about this particular community partner > through a friend, flyer, social media or other?
  • Propose idea for partnership > What activity or program will happen because of this partnership? What is the time commitment? Will this happen once or be reoccurring?
  • Ask if the potential partner has any questions/concerns/comments
  • Ask if your goals and objectives align
  • If a partnerships seems likely > schedule a time to meet and include other market members to begin planning.

Each of the farmers markets interviewed agreed that many of their successful community partnerships occurred when the community partner approached the market first. This showed to the markets that the potential partner was proactive and interested enough that they initiated a conversation. This made the markets feel secure and created initial trust between the market and potential partner. Without the initial partner enthusiasm, markets were still willing to collaborate, but feared the partnership would end up being one sided and add more work for the market manager and/or market producers.

Markets agreed that the partnerships that felt the most natural were always the most successful. Things that lead to this natural flow were: mission’s aligning, common food access goals, mutualistic promotion, and shared enthusiasm for programming. The interviewed markets agreed that any collaborations that felt forced or one sided were never successful. Members agreed that when this happened, they forfeited their efforts and moved on with no hard feelings, but positive other partnerships can be made.

Listed below are examples of ways community partners are currently being utilized in Kentucky farmers markets.

Educational Programming:

  • Summer Food Service Program site at the farmers market
  • Daycare centers hosting programming (fun for kids & center gets free advertisement)
  • Save the Children Book Donations
  • Children’s authors doing story time at the farmers market

Exercise:

  • Zumba, yoga, etc. gyms doing a demonstration class at the farmers market
  • Having dance groups from around the county perform at the farmers market
  • Kids on the Move– providing Carrot Cash and hosting field day at the farmers market (Perry County)

Extension Involvement:

  • Food sampling
  • Cooking demonstrations
  • Distribution of educational materials
  • Distribution of Plate it Up Kentucky Proud recipe cards
  • Advisement at farmers market meetings
  • Soil sampling for farmers market producers

Faith-based Organizations:

  • Providing grants for double dollar incentive programs for SNAP, WIC & SFMNP

Health Department:

  • WIC farmers market vouchers
  • Grants offered through health department
  • Walking club that has the farmers market on route
  • Distribute special vouchers that promote spending at the farmers market (~$5-10)

Hospitals/Clinics:

  • Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation: Farmacy Program
  • Help provide double dollars for nutrition assistance programs (ex. SNAP, WIC, SFMNP, Kids Bucks, Veggie Bucks…etc.)
  • 1x $5-10 farmers market vouchers for health screenings

Library:

  • Provision of free meeting space for farmer workshops
  • Book mobile
  • Coordination of children’s events on market days

Local Government:

  • Financial support
  • Provision of farmers market permanent structure
  • Space for pop-up markets in town center
  • Advertisement and promotion

Local Musicians:

Several KY farmers markets host local musicians at their markets. This draws people to the market, as well as promotes the musician. It can create a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere for market participants.

Nonprofits:

Rotary:

Has been known to provide fiscal sponsorship to their local farmers market in several Kentucky communities.

Senior Center:

  • Pop-up market at senior centers
  • Provides transportation for seniors to attend the market and use their SFMNP Vouchers

Tourism:

  • Farmers Market promotion in tourism brochures, magazines and social media posts
  • Inviting market vendors to set-up at special city/county events

As emphasized above community partnerships can take many forms and are unique to each farmers market. Community partnerships are essential when the goal is to make the farmers market a vibrant and successful entity that promotes “economic vitality, food access, relationship building and general prosperity.” Get creative and engage a variety or individuals and organizations from healthcare centers to summer feeding sites to fitness groups. When looking for community partnerships, the sky is the limit. I challenge you and your farmers market to make one (if not more) community partnership(s) this market season!

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #4: Discovering Your Brand

CFA Admin

By James Cochran, Farmers Market Support Program Manager

Photo by Kaboompics.com from Pexels

Branding is an oft-confused term.  Many immediately think branding consists of making a new logo and once the logo is made, the job is done.  Logos are only a small part of the equation, and they’re not nearly as important as you may think. Branding, in our specific world of farmers markets, also means understanding our values and standards while ensuring that we are communicating those effectively to the world. When promoting our market, it takes figuring out the who, what, when, how, and, why. These elements must be projected out to our audiences.  When farmers’ markets have their brand figured out, it helps sets the standard for vendors. Additionally, when a market is well branded, new customers will find it easily, return customers will appreciate the consistency, and partners will understand your “why”.

Now, branding is not rocket science, but it is definitely nuanced.  There’s a lot of meta-speak in this kind of work.  However if you do a few exercises we lay out for you, and stick to the outcomes as your best practices and references, you’ll find that your messaging will improve, and your customers and partners will develop a deeper understanding of your market. First let’s talk about what branding is and isn’t:

Your brand is more than just a logo, font type, color, and your company name. Brands are also not one size fits all. They highlight and include:

    • Your unique story, history and perspective
    • The why you do what you do
    • The message you want to share
    • The value you want to add and the feelings you want to emit
    • The energy around what you are about

These elements partnered with consistent copy and visuals, will build a successful brand platform.

Let’s get started!

Know Your History

In order to know where you’re going, you’ll need to look at where you’ve been. Begin your branding strategy by examining the past. In the case of the farmers markets we work with history can mean many things: a 30 plus year market history, or the history of the community, or the history of market ties to a specific industry.  We have a number of markets that either brand new efforts or revive a dormant market. So, when examining our place in the history of our communities, we cannot simply examine the history of a 3 year-old market.  We need to look back to what makes a particular community special, and why we want to be a part of its history.

Exercise 1: Take a deep reflective dive with other community members and explore the following questions.

      • What is the history of your community in the realm of local foods and agriculture? Is your community known for producing something specific?
      • What is the history of your farmers market? Location? Success? Variety of vendors?
      • What is unique about your community or farmers market history? Do you have a special event that community members take pride in?

These questions may feel mundane, or even unimportant to some of you.  However, they’re an important cornerstone of your brand, and will help you shape your message to a maximal effect within your community.  Knowing your history will help you plan for the future and overall create a more sustainable market.

Tell Your Story

What is the market’s place in your community?

Now that we’ve discussed the past, it’s time to focus on the present.  In this section of the branding exercise, we want to explore how your market stands out in your community.  By doing so, you will be differentiating your work, by setting the stage to show your values, your importance and worth to your community

Exercise 2: Thinking about the WHY

      • What does your market do that is unique to your community?
      • How do you do business differently?
      • What frustrates you about the market/competition you’re in?
      • How does your organization try to do it differently?
      • Why did the market start?
      • Why is it still in operation?
      • Who do you serve?
      • Why do your regular customers come back?

Establishing a greater understanding of the present workings of your market will prepare you to tell your markets story in an appealing way. You will also gain knowledge of your current audience and recognize what keeps your market moving.

Share Your Message

It’s time to work out your market’s values!

A great part of branding, that often is forgotten is common language. While you do not want folks to be robots, it’s good to lay a foundation and come up with an elevator pitch that is the example. Typically, and elevator pitch shares, briefly, the reason others should care about your farmers market.

If you have been following the exercises above, you have been through your market’s history and know the pieces of the story. Additionally, many of you have already discussed what “kind of farmers market” you want to be. Now, it is time to frame that in a way that can be explained effectively in a few sentences.

Exercise 3: Discovering your market values, and creating an elevator pitch. Take a few moments to revisit the answers to Exercises 1 and 2. Then respond to the following questions:

      1. What is most important to your market? Is it quality? Is it community? Is it events?
      2. What makes your market unique?
      3. What is better about your market than elsewhere in your community?
      4. What do you want to change in your community through the farmers market?
      5. Why do you do what you believe in the farmers market?
      6. Why does it matter?

The question list could go on and on when trying to sculpt an elevator pitch, but remember to always think about who you are talking to when you are delivering it. Bringing your audience to the forefront will allow you to tailor each message and will increase overall impact.

Lastly, Presentation Matters

This is where things get creative.  For some of us, we know that creativity isn’t our strong suit.  After all, many of us have found our greatest satisfaction in tangible tasks where progress can be monitored through the entire process.  Branding, typically, seems to be all objective.  Nevertheless, in direct marketing settings like farmers markets, it is impossible to ignore the importance of the “first impression”.

How many of you have seen customer walk within 30 feet of your booth, size up your offerings, move right along and never explore what’s for sale?

Most of you have been guilty of doing that a time or two. And we’ve all seen booths (especially messy ones) suffer from that first impression.  We’re using this point to illustrate this:  How we present ourselves matters. The energy, vibe, feel we emit really makes a difference in how we are received in the mind of a customer, both consciously and subconsciously.

Exercise 4 will focus on how we want customers to feel when they think about our markets.

      1. How do you want people to feel about your market? Other than “happy”, Describe three feelings you’d like to evoke.
      2. What kind of aesthetic can be applied to these feelings? Are there design examples or markets you have visited that have the vibe you are looking for?
      3. Design some visuals with the feelings/aesthetics that convey your market’s atmosphere or the atmosphere you are seeking to show. Canva is a great FREE online tool that has some basic templates you can manipulate for this.
      4. Test It: choose your favorite pairings and use them on social media or display them at the market to see what kind of public response you get.
      5. Put it all to use. Once you’ve got a handle on the image you want to put out as a market, keep the visuals consistent and update them regularly.

Now, you have explored your history, told your story, shared your message, and thought about your first impression. Armed with these four key elements, you can now your exercise responses for reference when creating new promotions, events, materials, signage, and even a logo, color scheme, and more! Always remember, your brand speaks for you before you ever say a word. Building and cultivating that silent spokesperson will keep your market moving.

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #3: Know Yourself, Know Your Market, Have a Plan

CFA Admin

By Brett Wolff, Center for Crop Diversification

If you are sitting down to write your first Marketing Plan, the process may seem intimidating or confusing. Your plan can be as complicated or simple as you’d like to make it, but your approach to marketing will boil down to a few key processes, which I have outlined below. Spend some time thinking about these before you start a marketing plan and reflecting on them regularly as you change and refine your approach.

Know Yourself & Your Products

If you haven’t thought much about it before, defining your product or service can be challenging. It may seem that the value or traits of your product are obvious or self-evident. You may think that you are “not a marketer” and shy away from telling your story, hoping the product will sell itself. Direct marketing—and the premiums it frequently brings—is often based on differentiating yourself or your product. In other words, farmers markets allow you to tell the customer more about your product than other marketing channels do. If you don’t have a clear vision of who you are as a business and why your product is particularly valuable, how can you share that message with your customer?

Start by sketching out some of the things that make your product special or valuable. This may feel like an exercise in vanity, but you are in the best position to tell others why your product is great. Some ideas may be:

  • High Quality
  • Freshness
  • Product Safety
  • “Localness” (“[Insert County] Grown,” KY Proud, “Grown 6 miles from here,” etc.)
  • Variety
  • Transparency about production practices
  • Supporting Local Economy

When considering the value of your product, you will also need to consider the cost to the consumer. Price, convenience, and time commitment all factor in. If the benefits outweigh the costs, then you’ll have a much easier time marketing your product. Ultimately we are working toward brand identity, and a “Value Proposition” for your business or product, but that really just means .

Know Your Market & Customers

We can see some general trends in local food consumers. This report from the USDA does a good job of summarizing some of these. But not all consumers and markets value the same things. Once you have identified the strengths of your product or your market, you’ll need to figure out whether they fit with the customers you are targeting. Who are your potential customers? Do your customers care that the product is local? Do labels like Certified Organic, grass fed, or Appalachia Proud matter to your customers? They may only care about the highest quality and/or the best price. Investing lots of time and money into attributes that your customers don’t care about can get costly.

The process of figuring this out is broadly referred to as “Market Research.” In-depth market research is beyond the scope of this post, but I would strongly encourage you to get in touch with the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD) and/or the Kentucky Small Business Development Center (KYSBDC) for help in conducting research for your market(s). Even if you aren’t ready to jump into these kind of analyses, there are some things you can do for informal market research:

Typically, we meet people when they have already started a venture and are exploring ways to market their products. The best approach is typically to identify gaps and needs in the market and then to build a production system to satisfy those needs. As you expand your business and consider adding new products or services, consider this approach.

Make a Plan

At its most basic, your plan will include a) your message and b) how you want to promote that message. Your message may be based on a specific product or service or it may focus on who you are as a business including your vision or mission statement and identity. Most successful plans will include elements of both. There are a wide variety of channels you can use to promote the message(s) you choose. Channels may include:

  • Advertisements
    • Social Media or Online
    • Radio
    • TV
    • Paper
  • Social Media Posts
  • Social Media Page
  • Website
  • Signs
  • Paper Flyers/Business Cards

The outlets you choose will be based on the customers you hope to reach as well as your budget. Sometimes small businesses are resistant to spending money on marketing, but small investments in the right advertisement can pay for themselves quickly. As a rough guide, consider spending 5-10% of your total expected sales on marketing expenses. If you expect to do $2000 in sales for a market season, spending $100-$200 on marketing would be a good starting target. This may be too much or too little, and tracking your revenue over time will allow you to determine if the investment is worth it. Working as a group to market together can be an efficient way for individuals to spend their marketing budgets. Social media advertisement also offers opportunities to spend a small amounts of money for (relatively) big impacts.

Set, Track. and Revise your Goals

How will you know if your marketing efforts are successful? Setting some goals and tracking them across time is an important on-going part of any plans you make in your business. You may have a mix of goals including online metrics, customer numbers, or sales targets. Your goals will almost certainly change through the life of your business as you are building/maintaining/growing a customer base, expanding your product line, or growing into new market opportunities. In the era of Facebook Insights and Google Analytics, it is easy to get overwhelmed by information or draw faulty conclusions. Make sure your goals—and the way you track them—reflect the priorities of your business, and revisit them regularly to make sure they reflect your values. Examples of good goals might be:

  • Increase sales 10% for the 2018-19 growing season.
  • Increase attendance at market by 17 percent in July 2018 vs. July 2017
  • 100 transactions per month
  • Average 10 engagements per Facebook post during the marketing season
  • Average revenue of $15 per customer

Note that some of these goals directly reference how much money you are making, while relate to your visibility and engagement. Certain goals will make more sense for one business than another, and as your business plan and marketing approach develop, you’ll constantly learn new things about how you want to approach business.

 

I have included a few resources below that do a good job of walking through the process of developing  a full marketing plan. These kinds of guides are wonderful, but I would highly encourage you to take advantage of the high caliber, direct support services we have available in Kentucky from KCARD, SBDC, and Community Farm Alliance. Establishing a strong relationship with your local Cooperative Extension office is another way to access tons of great resources and support.

 

If you are interested in marketing trainings, the Center for Crop Diversification is offering a new set of marketing classes entitled Marketing for All. Marketing for All is an adaptable marketing training program available through the Center for Crop Diversification. We offer 11 modules aimed at beginning and intermediate experience levels with a focus in direct marketing. Groups can choose which modules work best for their group. We are happy to schedule directly with grower groups or through extension offices. This program is made possible through the support of the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Learn more here.

 

The Center for Crop Diversification also offers other marketing resources including

 

If your market is interested in reporting prices this year, please contact Brett Wolff (brett.wolff@uky.edu) for more information.

 

Additional Resources:

Developing a Marketing Plan (Miss. St. University)

Eight Steps to Developing A Simple Marketing Plan (U. of Florida)

Opening and Marketing (Santa Clara University, MyOwnBusiness Institute)