Rogers Online Business Management for the Agriculture Community

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

A blog is a must for every Farm; whether you have a website for your Farm, your Farm is just another place in the Country, or if your Farm-related business is only on the Internet. If you are in any type of Agriculture business at all, you need a blog.

Blogging has become the way to drive new traffic to your Farm, whether the Farm-related business is on the Internet or in the Country. This is because people connect personally to you through your blog, even if it is a blog about your Farm.

Through writing blog posts your readers, subscribers and customers get to know a little bit about the person behind the Farm. And as long as you’re posting quality, trustworthy content your readers will come to trust you. Therefore, they will then begin to purchase your products or retain services that you offer.

Your blog should reveal a little about the person behind the Farm, but it should never be too personal. Having an “About” page on your blog is a good place to display a little about your personal life, but not too much. Keep it professional, but let your audience know who you are as a business person, as well as a Farmer. The “About” page is also a great place to display your qualifications, merits and credentials.

Once your blog is up and running, you will then use it to connect with people on the Internet through stories, talking about promotions or sales, and letting the public know your Farm exists. Having a blog is the most important marketing tool your Farm should have. If you don’t have a blog yet, and don’t even know where to begin, hire a virtual assistant to start one for you. A VA could even then maintain and manage it for you if you feel you don’t have the time. But, by doing whatever it takes to get a blog started now, soon you will see an increase in your Farm traffic and more traffic means more sales.

We offer a number of different packages for your blog setup to enhance your marketing campaign here at Rogers Executive Administrative Services. Contact us at information@easmyworkload.com with your questions about getting started.

Social network marketing is becoming the way to market in this day and age of the Internet. With the Internet, businesses are able to reach people throughout the world with their products and services and social networking is the key to reaching more and more people.

If you are not familiar with social networking on the Internet, here is a little explanation. Social networking is basically interacting with other people on the Internet through various sites and platforms.

How to make social networking work for you consists of a few key elements. When you incorporate them into your farm marketing plan your farm traffic will increase and more traffic means more sales.

First of all, you need to know which social networks are popular and join them. Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious and Stumble Upon are all huge right now with millions of members each from all over the world. Obviously you don’t want to, and won’t be able to, reach all of them, so you will want to target specific groups or persons; basically you want to reach all of the people who are going to be interested in what you have to sell or offer. Which brings me to my next point.

Next you will need to know your target market. Is your target market farmers, industries, mother’s, dad’s, cattle ranchers, etc? Once you know your target market, begin connecting with them by adding them as a friend or follower. It helps to know one person in your target market who is already a member of the social network to introduce you to new people in your niche.

One thing you will find about social networks is there are millions of people. You will get people adding you that will never buy from you or become regular readers of yours, but they may be a friend or follower of someone else who will. But don’t add people simply to have a huge number of friends or followers. If that is your goal, then that is all you will have. The idea is to build relationships with these friends and followers so they get to know you and trust you and then perhaps they will become regular subscribers to your blog.

Ever have trouble talking to potential customers about what you do, and why they should buy from you?

You may not want to hear it but choosing a niche is one of the simplest (and least expensive) ways to grow your farm business. It’s easy to know what to say and how to say it when you know who you’re talking to.

Here’s why: Marketing is about 2 things – communication and creating a relationship. And the way we approach those 2 activities varies, depending on whom we’re dealing with and the topic of our conversation.

I define niche to mean not only the type of people you work with, but also what you do for them. So “picking a niche” is the way to get really clear on who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about.

First, identify your Core Customer. Ask yourself, “What group/kind of people are interested in what I have to offer?” Next, clarify your Core Solution. Ask, “What challenge is my Core Customer facing that I can help with?”

Then fuse the two answers together to identify the niche you occupy.

Did you know that the week of October 11 through the 17 is Getting the World to Beat a path to Your Door Week?

Well here’s a great marketing idea to make that happen and promote your business…Personalized Stamps!

Personalized stamps are a great way to get noticed. Have stamps of your farm logo, your products, or even yourself made and use the stamps for promotional mailings. It’s a very creative way to catch someone’s eye and make a lasting impression. You could also have them made for your best clients and use as a thank you gift for referrals and their business.

Make your mail memorable with PhotoStamps: the exciting new way to turn photos into real US postage!

There is no better way to market yourself than excellent customer service. Be easy to work with. Go above and beyond. Appreciate what your customers do for your success.

I recently stopped at a local Farmer’s Market and I have to tell you how disappointed I was in how the vendors were marketing their products. Well actually let me re-phrase that–how they were not marketing their products.

What do I mean by that? Well, as I walked around the market I had no idea what farms were being represented. There was only one booth that had a banner on the front of it’s table and that was a local restaurant. No other table had a name attached to it and even more crazy, only one had prices on the produce.

I really don’t like the idea that I have to go from table to table and ask the same question over and over again. I don’t buy my produce on price alone so it really doesn’t matter to me if you’re going to have the best price or not. But in these tough times many families are pinching pennies and price does matter. You need to have your prices visible for your customers. And please don’t just write them out on a piece of paper and plop it in front of the produce. Take the time to print the price list out on your computer. If you don’t have a computer at home then find a friend who can do it for you. Appearance is everything and that hand-written piece of scrap paper just isn’t that appealing to any one.

Now lets get back to the sign for your business. You don’t need to have a big banner running across the front of your table. Just go to your local office supply store and purchase a table top sign display. Print off a colorful flyer with your farms name and proudly display it on top of your table. And don’t forget to print off some business cards with the information on how the customer can reach you if they have any questions for you…like maybe they want to know if your going to be back next week so they can buy some more snap peas from you.

So all I’m suggesting is just take a little bit of time and represent your farm in a positive way. People notice the little details and sometimes that’s what makes their decision for them of whom their going to buy from. You put a lot of time, money and effort in order to get your product this far so don’t stop now when this could be a very profitable moment for you.

Online forums and discussion groups are an excellent way to build visibility on the Internet and drive traffic back to your website. There are forums and discussion groups of every description. Regardless of your area of interest there is most likely a group or groups you can join.

To find forum groups do a simple Google search using the following key words: online forums + “your topic”.

Be sure to participate in the dialogue of the forum once you have been reading posts for a few days. Pay close attention to the topics being discussed. If the topic is something you have a lot of knowledge in, offer helpful suggestions and show your expertise.

Make sure you pay close attention to the rules of the forum as well. Some have no problems with blatant self promotional marketing, while others absolutely forbid it.

Many restaurants have built their foot traffic by having a vendor booth at professional gatherings. Contact some of your local restaurants and ask if you can provide them with your products from your farm for their next booth. Be sure that you will be allowed to add your business brochures and cards on their display table.

You may also want to see if they will allow you to set up a display to have a drawing for a free breakfast, lunch or dinner basket Food Sampler Give-A-Way. This allows you to build your database for backend marketing.

A great way to gain visibility within your market and promoting your business is to write articles. You can easily post your articles on your website. Give them away rather than charge in order for people to sample your expertise.

Let people know the articles can be downloaded and used elsewhere as long as you are given full credit with a link back to your website.

The more visibility you gain from your articles the more likely you will be to have magazine and newsletter editors asking to publish your works in their publications. Often they do not pay, but it is great free advertising for you.

Be sure to include at the end of your article a byline that contains key information about yourself and business. It can also help in your marketing by directing people to your website to access further information or to sign up for something.

Here is a sample byline:

Sue Rogers is a partner of the Agriculture Industry Partnership that was formed on behalf of the Northwest Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board and the Regional Center for Workforce Excellence. This partnership was formed to identify a plan of action to assist the agriculture community in providing the necessary workforce, economic developments, and education/training supports necessary for retention and growth within Pennsylvania. To get more tips on how to ease your workload visit http://agriculture.easmyworkload.com.

Through the years I have assembled tons of tips from my research, reading, and by helping my clients with their marketing plans. And today I’m going to share three of them with you.

These tips are cost-effective ways to market your business so you can get more clients, increase sales, and increase your wealth!

1. My first tip is very very important and should not be taken lightly. You need to spend 1-hour everyday doing marketing activities. This can be in the form of planning activities and promotions, or actually implementing your plan. If you’re saying to yourself right now how can you fit one more hour into your already busy day…then you need to outsource this activity to your online business manager or virtual assistant–it’s that important!
2. This second tip is as important as the first one and many farmers don’t think it’s necessary in this industry. But let me tell you right now—-You must have a Website! When it comes to today’s consumers we first look to the Internet for information.

   In my everyday travels I may see a small sign or fruit stand alongside the road and quickly record the farm name into the memo feature on my cell phone. Later in the day when I’m reviewing my memos, I start searching the Internet for anything I can find on that Farm. And what do you think happens? Well, the majority of the time I find nothing. Nothing!!!

   Do you know how disappointing that is for me? I saw your sign but couldn’t stop right at that moment. So now I can’t even get a hold of you to find out what type of products you’re selling or if I can even place an order to pick up later. I may never pass your sign again for weeks or maybe months. So guess what…you just lost the sale. How many other sales might you be losing this way?

   It does not have to cost you a thing to get a website up. You don’t need to have all the fancy bells and whistles at first. You just need to get your name and some basic information up on the Internet so people can get a hold of you. I would suggest that you actually start out with a blog design for your website. There are three blog platforms that are easy to set up and use, and affordable. My first recommendation is WordPress.com. This very site is a WordPress site and I love how easy it is to use, and it’s free. My second recommendation is Blogger.com. This platform is also free. Now if you want just a little bit more without having to work hard at setting it up, you can always use TypePad Blogs – Get a 14 Day Free Trial! After your trial the plans start as low as $4.95 per month. You get one-click integration with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, plus built-in search engine optimization.

3. Now my third and last tip for today is one that I love. Post your farm on your vehicle. All you need to do is get a pair of magnetic signs either at your local sign shop or take advantage right now from VistaPrint and get a Free Car Door Custom Magnet. Include your farm name, phone number, website, or maybe even a special seasonal offer by ordering many different signs that you can change throughout the year.

If you need help with accomplishing any of these three tips, my staff at Rogers Executive Administrative Services can put together a package that is right for your budget. Just contact us at agriculture@easmyworkload.com or make a consultation appointment right now that is convenient for you by going to our online Appointment Scheduler.

If you feel that you just can’t seem to come up with enough information to write an actual Ebook on a subject for your Information Product that you want to sell then why not write a Workbook instead.

Workbooks are a great thing to do for your marketing because you can help people by walking them through those decisions that they need to make. Putting your expertise and working formula in a workbook format would be great for your customers who may not be able to afford you coaching them one on one, or who may not be able to dedicate a junk of time to learning a new method. The workbook would allow them to work at their own pace.

The key is to help more people in the least amount of time whether it’s with case studies, doing workbooks where you write them out once and sell them time and again or group/single coaching as well.