Have you filed your CTA report yet? (Do you even know what that means?) This is a fairly "new" (and unknown) legal requirement and I'm discovering that a lot of farm business owners have no idea about it.  As a business, you may have to file a report, and you have until December 31, 2024, to do so (or face some big fines).

In this episode, I break down the Corporate Transparency Act and its implications for business owners, especially small farms. With insights from my lawyer Richard Chamberlain, we dive into the federal reporting requirements designed to identify your beneficial owners and prevent money laundering and fraud. Learn what your business needs to do to comply and avoid hefty penalties.

• What critical information must you report to the government by the fast-approaching deadline?
• Who exactly qualifies as a "beneficial owner," and why does it matter?
• The surprising exemptions to the Corporate Transparency Act—could your business be off the hook?
• How you could face daily fines or even jail time for missing a simple filing.
• Can you file on your own, or is a lawyer necessary to navigate this new law?

Tune in to find out how this law impacts your business and the steps you need to take before December 31, 2024! Your homework is to TAKE CARE OF THIS by the end of the year! It only takes 10 minutes. Do it this week!

Meet my Lawyer: Richard Chamberlain. Richard Chamberlain is the founder and managing attorney of Legacy Law Group in Perrysburg, Ohio. He is admitted to practice law in both Ohio and Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA in 1989 and his law degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL in 1992. After working at different law firms in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio, Richard founded the Legacy Law Group in 2007 and focuses primarily on serving clients in estate planning, legacy planning, asset protection and estate administration matters. Richard’s first book, Protecting your Family’s Future – All about Wills, Trusts & Probate, was published in September of 2020. Richard also hosts a podcast, Protecting Your Family’s Future, which is available on all major podcast platforms. Richard and his wife Kelly have been married for 30 years and they have 4 daughters and 1 granddaughter. They enjoy spending time together going to the lake, boating, hanging out with their dogs, watching movies, and traveling.   To learn more about Richard Chamberlain's law firm:  www.PlansThatWork.net   To get Richard's free ebook PDF about estate planning, wills, and probate to help you navigate this topic for your farm: https://plansthatwork.net/ep-book   Richard’s podcast, Protecting Your Family’s Future, is available on all major podcast platforms.   Podcast Sponsor:

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

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN): www.Fincen.gov/boi

FAQs on Beneficial Owners - https://fincen.gov/boi-faqs

The Small Entity Compliance Guide: https://fincen.gov/boi/small-entity-compliance-guide

Create a FinCEN ID - https://fincenid.fincen.gov/landing

Where to file your BOI report - https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/

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

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 parts of your marketing system: 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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, writing great weekly email promotions, nurture emails, onboarding emails, 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 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.

November 6, 2024 by Corinna

Do you know how much each lead is worth to your farm business? In this episode, we dive deep into the concept of Earnings Per Lead (EPL) and how it can transform the way you approach marketing for your farm. I’ll explain exactly what EPL is, how to calculate it for both paid and organic campaigns, and why this metric is critical to understanding the value of each lead. By tracking EPL, you'll learn how to make data-driven decisions to boost your farm’s revenue, whether you’re running a CSA, selling farm products, or hosting events. 

Listen in to discover:

• Why EPL is more than just a number—it’s a window into the value of your marketing efforts.
• How to calculate EPL even if you're not spending a penny on ads.
• The key difference between EPL and CPL (Cost Per Lead) and why both metrics matter for profitability.
• What to do with this EPL statistic once you have it

Podcast Sponsor:

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

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

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 parts of your marketing system. Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. Projects include: 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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, writing great weekly email promotions, nurture emails, onboarding emails, and practicing different types of offers. For the month of November, we are doing a 4-week live book study of "Building a Storybrand" by Donald Miller to help you write your farm's brandscript! And in January, I'll be releasing my "Farm Business Metrics" project to help you track the 5 most important farm metrics for your marketing and sales.

Each project is 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 in each project 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 www.mydigitalfarmer.com/fms  Start and cancel your membership anytime.

 

Are you creating value-added products and selling them in your farm business? After hearing this episode, you may decide to get started!

"Value-added" refers to any agricultural products that have been processed or enhanced in a way that increases their market value. This could involve transforming raw farm products into something more convenient, shelf-stable, or unique, thus making them more appealing to customers. For example, turning fresh vegetables into pickles, making jams from fruit, or creating bone broth from animal by-products are all considered value-added because they offer more convenience, flavor, or functionality compared to their raw form. These products often allow farmers to increase their profit margins and diversify their income streams.

In this episode, Kendall Ballantine from Central Park Farms dives into the world of value-added products and how they transformed her direct-to-consumer farm business into a thriving operation. Discover how these simple innovations can create new revenue streams, support business growth, and help farms stay afloat during the off-season.

Tune in to learn:

• How Kendall turned chicken bones into bone broth, chicken pot pie, and over 40 other freezer meals for her online store.
• Where to start with value-added products.
• How to come up with value added product ideas.
• Creative marketing tips to entice buyers to buy your value added products.
• Common mistakes farmers make when they first start out with value-added.
• How to price your value added so you remain profitable.

This conversation is packed with actionable insights to inspire your own farm business!

Today's Guest: Meet Kendall Ballantine. Kendall is a proud farmer and the business owner behind Central Park Farms in Langley, BC Canada. She grew the annual revenue of her small scale farm-to-table business well into the six figures, all through the power of digital marketing and without spending a dime on ads. After many failures, lots of learning, and a heck of a lot of successes, she is excited to share what she knows to help other farmers reach their ideal customers and grow their businesses online.

Follow Kendall's marketing tips at www.instagram.com/marketingforfarmers Her website: www.onlinemarketingforfarmers.com Workshop: Increasing Revenue with Value Added Products Workhorse Collective, Kendall's Coaching Program

Podcast Sponsor:

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

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

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 parts of your marketing system: 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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, writing great weekly email promotions, nurture emails, onboarding emails, 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 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.

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!

With the holidays coming, are you preparing any farm promotions to finish Q4 strong?

If not, this episode is for you. I've invited my friend Christina Marbury (the marketing director of Taste the Local Difference -- a marketing agency for farmers) to share her expertise in building holiday promotions that sell. Christina has the advantage of working with hundreds of farms across the Midwest on their marketing strategy, and she has seen the types of offers that work well for the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons.

Your consumer is "trained" to buy this time of year. Between gift giving and the big three holiday feasts (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years), there is ample opportunity for farms to pitch their products. In this episode, Christina will share what types of products and offers work well for this time of year. She also gives tips on how to set up your online store so that more people will buy those offers. AND, we talk through some marketing pointers so that your customers find out about those great offers living on your e-commerce platform.

My challenge for you is to listen to the episode with your key decision makers and then brainstorm a holiday offer (or two!) that you will pitch this season. Let us know how it goes!

Who is Christina Marbury? Marketing Director at Taste the Local Difference At Taste the Local Difference, Christina and her team support farms and other local food businesses to reach their goals with specialized marketing services designed just for those businesses. From website design and e-commerce system setup to graphic design to strategies and implementation for social media, email marketing and search engine optimization, TLD aims to make marketing work efficiently and effectively. Christina fell in love with local food while attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and has since spent her career working with and supporting local food businesses of all types. From farm work to bakeries, retail, and food service - she's been in the thick of it, which brings an understanding of these businesses to her work in marketing. When Christina isn’t working, you can find her in her garden, boiling maple syrup, baking up a storm, and soaking in the incredible waters and landscapes near her home in Leelanau County, Michigan.   Podcast Sponsor:

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

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

Download the Guide we mention in this episode: E-Commerce Optimization for Farms here. It's an overview of the key elements of this episode, put together by Christina for you!

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 parts of your marketing system: 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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, writing great weekly email promotions, nurture emails, onboarding emails, 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 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.

Early Bird Campaigns that Convert --  In this week's episode, I mentioned that I am currently in my final week of the CSA this season. In fact, I'm in the middle of my "early renewal promotion" to get my CSA members to sign up again. IF you want to learn my system for how I do this every year, I offer my step by step online course to help you get it done. This course will teach you how to build a compelling offer that gets your current members to decide to renew during your promo campaign. I show you the emails to write, the posts to create, and the ENERGY you need to generate in the week before you launch.

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!You'll find my video trainings for the Early Bird Challenge inside here for a few more days.

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

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!

Are you a CSA farmer that has to get their members to "renew" every year and it always feels like a STRUGGLE? I've got you, my friend, because in this episode, I share my process for setting up my CSA early sign "renewal" promotion every fall in the final week of my CSA. I give them only 7 days to make up their minds. I've used the same sales system for the last 7 years, and I consistently get 75-85% of them to renew. 

Here is an overview of the steps that I walk through in more detail in the episode. Use this as your checklist for running your own campaign:

1. Set the three key dates.
2. Review any changes you might want to make to next year's products/sites/fulfillment. Confirm with vendors and site hosts.
3. Build your irresistible offer.
4. Set up your online store/POS -- the tech!
5. Build the content strategy map. Map out the key messaging points on a calendar, day by day.
6. Write the email onboarding sequence.
7. Build social media post graphics.
8. Write the email marketing sequence.
9. Schedule the emails and social posts.
10. Build the "master checklist".
11. Test the funnel on 1-2 customers who are let in early to find any bugs.

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

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

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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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.

Join my CSA Academy Library -- this is my digital cooking resource library that I provide for my CSA members to help them learn how to become a better home chef and cook the CSA way. It includes a Beginner's Guide to CSA mini-course, Vegetable University (A to Z video tutorials for every veggie); Canning Club (canning videos); Exit Strategy videos; Instant Pot tutorial, and my Recipes and Resources pages (with weekly CSA box recipes and unboxing videos). Farmers can subscribe for a monthly fee to have access to these resources to help them support their own CSA members.

Early Bird Campaigns that Convert -- In this episode, I mentioned how I would be building my CSA Early Bird Renewal Promo campaign this month. IF you want to learn my system for how I do this every year, I offer my step by step online course to help you get it done. This course will teach you how to build a compelling offer that gets your current members to decide to renew during your promo campaign. I show you the emails to write, the posts to create, and the ENERGY you need to generate in the week before you launch.

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers! You'll find my video trainings for the Early Bird Challenge inside here for a few more days.

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

In this episode, we dive into the powerful psychology of consistency and how small commitments can lead to bigger, lasting customer actions. Inspired by Robert Cialdini’s principle of consistency from his book Influence, we explore how getting your customers to take small, meaningful steps—like participating in social media posts or attending a farm event—can prime them for bigger purchases down the line.

We’ll also discuss how this principle helps customers claim an identity and align their values with your farm, creating a loyal, committed base. Tune in to learn how to leverage this strategy to boost customer engagement and drive sales!

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

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

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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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.

Influence by Robert Cialdini - I reference this best-seller in the show. It teaches the psychology of sales. This is not an affiliate link.

Join my CSA Academy Library -- this is my digital cooking resource library that I provide for my CSA members to help them learn how to become a better home chef and cook the CSA way. It includes a Beginner's Guide to CSA mini-course, Vegetable University (A to Z video tutorials for every veggie); Canning Club (canning videos); Exit Strategy videos; Instant Pot tutorial, and my Recipes and Resources pages (with weekly CSA box recipes and unboxing videos). Farmers can subscribe for a monthly fee to have access to these resources to help them support their own CSA members.

Early Bird Campaigns that Convert -- In this episode, I mentioned how I would be building my CSA Early Bird Renewal Promo campaign this month. IF you want to learn my system for how I do this every year, I offer my step by step online course to help you get it done. This course will teach you how to build a compelling offer that gets your current members to decide to renew during your promo campaign. I show you the emails to write, the posts to create, and the ENERGY you need to generate in the week before you launch.

Episode 119 How My "CSA Giveaway Challenge" Experiment Built Some Major Brand Identity - listen to this challenge to get some ideas for questions you can use in a Daily Challenge, designed to build commitment!

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!

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

Fixed Price discounts. You've seen them. "Save $5 when you spend $25!!"

Percentage off discounts. You've seen those too: "Get 20% off when you spend $25 or more!"

But which one is more effective? If you were going to build a coupon code in your online store, or offer a promotion at your farm store -- which one will lead to more sales?

Well... it depends.

As it turns out, there are best practices surrounding the use of the fixed price v. the percentage off discount. And it all revolves around sales psychology. 

Our brains just "feel better" when we use one over the other -- in certain circumstances.

In this episode, I share with you what conventional marketing wisdom says about when to use a fixed price discount over a percentage off discount. Test these out in your farm marketing and see what works best.

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

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

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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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.

Join my CSA Academy Library -- this is my digital cooking resource library that I provide for my CSA members to help them learn how to become a better home chef and cook the CSA way. It includes a Beginner's Guide to CSA mini-course, Vegetable University (A to Z video tutorials for every veggie); Canning Club (canning videos); Exit Strategy videos; Instant Pot tutorial, and my Recipes and Resources pages (with weekly CSA box recipes and unboxing videos). Farmers can subscribe for a monthly fee to have access to these resources to help them support their own CSA members.

Early Bird Campaigns that Convert -- In this episode, I mentioned how I would be building my CSA Early Bird Renewal Promo campaign this month. IF you want to learn my system for how I do this every year, I offer my step by step online course to help you get it done. This course will teach you how to build a compelling offer that gets your current members to decide to renew during your promo campaign. I show you the emails to write, the posts to create, and the ENERGY you need to generate in the week before you launch.

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!

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

When it comes to selling raw milk to the public, farmers face legal and health challenges that make it really hard to provide this product. Luckily there is a work-around. It's called the "herdshare." The problem is, it's awfully hard to explain. In today's episode, I'm interviewing a second generation dairy farmer, who is moving her product line to raw milk. She has faced these communication and sales hurdles head-on, and she shares her unique sales strategy that is slowly but surely getting new customers in the door. We discuss:

• the public perception of raw milk
• the obstacles she has to overcome when it comes to messaging this product
• what types of customers want raw milk
• the unique questions she must answer in order to make someone ready to buy
• legal restrictions -- what you are and aren't allowed to do when it comes to selling raw milk
• how a herd share works
• her scrappy, brilliant sales method that closes the deal almost 100% of the time
• what she focuses on in her messaging to drive sales
• mistakes she's made along the way

Even if you  aren't ever going to sell raw milk (raising my hand here), you'll hear some great beginner-farmer marketing tactics. Katie may not realize it, but she has built a few pieces of a marketing machine that will eventually be able to scale. Come take a listen and see where you can find your story in hers.

Who is Katie Miller?

Katie Miller is the owner of Positively Grown Farm in the small town of Hopkins, Michigan. She’s a 4th generation Dairy farmer following in her dad’s footsteps who has been farming for 35 years. She is the first to pursue the Raw Dairy industry and have one successful year under her belt with no slowing down in sight. When she’s not milking cows she enjoys riding her Harley with friends, going to Festivals and being a mom to 4 Emus, a duck, 3 cats and her Lab/Pit Ruby

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

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

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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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.

Join my CSA Academy Library -- this is my digital cooking resource library that I provide for my CSA members to help them learn how to become a better home chef and cook the CSA way. It includes a Beginner's Guide to CSA mini-course, Vegetable University (A to Z video tutorials for every veggie); Canning Club (canning videos); Exit Strategy videos; Instant Pot tutorial, and my Recipes and Resources pages (with weekly CSA box recipes and unboxing videos). Farmers can subscribe for a monthly fee to have access to these resources to help them support their own CSA members.

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!

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

September 18, 2024

What if you could brainstorm your personal marketing strategy for a new enterprise in a 1:1 call with another farmer? Well, that's exactly what happens in today's podcast. You get to be a fly on the wall, listening in on my monthly Farm Marketing School Zoom call, that turned into a 1:1 coaching call with one of the members. This month, Allan Laird was in the hot seat, and he and I work out how to build up a clientele for his goat's milk soap line. This is a brand new enterprise for him and he wasn't sure how to get started. So we built out his short term game plan in under an hour, so he has clear marching orders. If you've ever wondered what should you be working on first, second, third -- this is an episode for you. You'll hear the familiar themes from this podcast showing up in this case study. It's also loaded with tons of little nuggets and ideas that you can surely apply to your farm enterprise.

By the way, I help farmers put these kinds of strategies together in Farm Marketing School. Join me inside my monthly membership this fall and winter as we decide what your strategy will look like, and then start buidiing the different parts of your machine so they all work together. Get your marketing machine DONE!

Podcast Guest: Who is Allan Laird?

Allan Laird returned to his farm roots after retiring from a 46-year career in public safety. Together with his wife, Sue, he now tends to 10 acres where they raise Highland cattle, various poultry, and maintain sustainable pasturelands. Committed to sustainable farming, they render fat by-products from their hogs into lard, which they use to craft goat milk soap. What began as a hobby for friends and family is now evolving into a promising business venture.

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

Hit play and let's get started!

• Listen to this episode on Stitcher.
• Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts
• Listen to this episode on Google Play
• Listen to this episode on Spotify.

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

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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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.

Join my CSA Academy Library -- this is my digital cooking resource library that I provide for my CSA members to help them learn how to become a better home chef and cook the CSA way. It includes a Beginner's Guide to CSA mini-course, Vegetable University (A to Z video tutorials for every veggie); Canning Club (canning videos); Exit Strategy videos; Instant Pot tutorial, and my Recipes and Resources pages (with weekly CSA box recipes and unboxing videos). Farmers can subscribe for a monthly fee to have access to these resources to help them support their own CSA members.

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!

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

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 [email protected].

Right click and save as to download this episode to your computer.

What do I post on social media? If you're a small farm in your first 3 years, you're likely spending a fair percentage of your "marketing time" doing social media.

But are you using that time wisely? Social media has its place in the marketing funnel, but only if it's strategic. In this episode, I share with you the 5 "goals" for social media, and I list of 10 different categories of post content that should regularly be in your monthly social media rotation.

If you're doing social, start off by scheduling these 10 styles of posts in your Business Suite, so you know they're covered. THIS is the "strategy." Then, use your discretionary time during the week to pop in additional "bonus" posts as inspiration strikes.

Sure to become a classic episode!

Grab my Social Media post ideas PDF guide here. It will give you other suggestions for the kinds of topics you can post about to drive traffic, and get leads.

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

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

Episode 274: Scaling Your Marketing: What Farms Do Differently at Each Level - Interview with Andrew from Local Line - Andrew and I discuss the three "levels" of farm business, and what farms do differently in each one. This is a great episode if you want to know what you should be working towards as you scale.

Episode 275: Tips for Using Video in Your Farm Marketing - Getting Started - This will show you ways you can use social media VIDEO in your marketing

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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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.

Join my CSA Academy Library -- this is my digital cooking resource library that I provide for my CSA members to help them learn how to become a better home chef and cook the CSA way. It includes a Beginner's Guide to CSA mini-course, Vegetable University (A to Z video tutorials for every veggie); Canning Club (canning videos); Exit Strategy videos; Instant Pot tutorial, and my Recipes and Resources pages (with weekly CSA box recipes and unboxing videos). Farmers can subscribe for a monthly fee to have access to these resources to help them support their own CSA members.

Early Bird Campaigns that Convert -- In this episode, I mentioned how I would be building my CSA Early Bird Renewal Promo campaign this month. IF you want to learn my system for how I do this every year, I offer my step by step online course to help you get it done. This course will teach you how to build a compelling offer that gets your current members to decide to renew during your promo campaign. I show you the emails to write, the posts to create, and the ENERGY you need to generate in the week before you launch. 

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!

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

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 [email protected].

September 4, 2024

 

Today's podcast guest Sue Miller shares her inspiring story of how she built a thriving farm business in rural Tennessee from growing simple hydroponic butterhead lettuce on her windowsill to serving hundreds of families in her community through CSA, farmers market, wholesale, and online store. And it all happened in just 5 years.

We cover marketing principles like:

• finding your unique niche
• identifying and leading with your gateway product
• cultivating vendor relationships to offer more products
• listening to your customer to build out your business
• sharing your passion
• creating community with your customers
• practicing patience as you coach your customers to new buying habits
• inspiring your customers to turn into VIPs and super buyers

Sue's strategy isn't full of bells and whistles. It's actually pretty simple and elegant. Learn how she does it, and what some of her "marketing lessons" were along the way.

Remember, if you need help building this piece into your marketing system, you can take over 10 marketing projects inside of Farm Marketing School. I coach you through the step by step process for how to create each piece of your marketing sales machine, from lead magnet creation to weekly emails, promotion planning, website home page design, testimonial pages, offer builds, and more.

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

Meet our Podcast Guest: Sue Miller

Sue Miller is the co-owner of Blackberry Pond Farm located in west TN that specializes in growing fresh and delicious vegetables hydroponically. They are in production year round and offer a CSA box quarterly. They are Organic Certified by OnMark Organic Certification with the USDA. The farm started in 2015 in the kitchen windowsill. This was a small hydroponic system to grow herbs and salad greens for Sue’s use in the kitchen. They expanded to the porch with 3 gallon buckets to grow cucumbers and lettuce. Eventually they built a greenhouse, followed by MORE greenhouses, and the rest is history.

Currently, they run a quarterly 100 member CSA from January-November, sell at the Martin Farmers market, wholesale to chefs and run a roadside stand from our 7 greenhouses and 2 fields of crops on 36 acres in Martin, TN.  We are involved in community education about the impact of food on health. The farm is truly a family affair! Drs. James and Sue Miller who own and started the farm are physicians. James is a full time hospitalist at the local hospital and designs and trouble shoots the hydroponic designs. Sue is a full time traveling ER physician who does all marketing, social media and customer service for the farm.  Much of the planting, transplanting, daily care harvesting and delivery is done by sons Chris and Junior and daughter in law Chelsea.

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

Farm Marketing School - Want to work with me? Join 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, acquiring and deploying testimonials, 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 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. New projects added regularly so we keep you up to date.

Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!

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