274 Scaling Your Marketing: What Farms Do Differently at Each Level - Interview with Andrew from Local Line
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Release Date: 08/14/2024
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Local Line is 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 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: MDF2025. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: If your marketing to-do list is starting to...
info_outlineMy Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Podcast Sponsors: Local Line is 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 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: MDF2025. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: If...
info_outlineMy Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
If your farm sells bulk meat, you’ve probably experienced this challenge: a customer places their deposit… and then has to wait 4–6 months before pickup. That’s a long time to keep someone excited, informed, and connected. But what if that “dead zone” in your customer journey could actually become your secret weapon for building loyalty, reducing buyer’s remorse, and increasing repeat purchases? In this week’s episode, I sit down with Breann Detweiler, a pastured meat farmer in my Farm Marketing School. During a private 1:1 call, we workshop how to build a...
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Last week we mapped out what your farm’s VIP program could look like. This week, it’s time to bring it to life. How do you structure it? Communicate it? Track it? And… what if someone loses VIP status? If you've ever wanted a loyal sub-group of "superfans" who promote your farm, buy regularly, and feel deeply connected to your brand—this episode gives you the blueprint to build that community on purpose. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The 4 different ways to structure a VIP system (and how to choose the right one) Simple methods to track VIP customer behavior without fancy...
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Have you ever walked into a place so often that the staff knew your name—and your order? There’s something magical about being recognized and treated like a regular. It creates loyalty. That’s the idea behind a VIP strategy—and your farm needs one. In today’s episode, I kick off a 2-part series that helps you create a plan to identify, reward, and retain your farm’s most valuable customers. Part 1 is all about figuring out who those people are, and what kind of behavior you want to encourage more of. You’ll learn: Why your business needs a VIP strategy What behaviors to track...
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Have you every wished for a fun excuse to surprise your customers, build some goodwill, and boost mid-season sales? Well, what if I told you that July 14th is National Give Something Away Day—and it might just be the perfect opportunity to try something new, spark some joy, and get people buzzing about your farm? In this episode, I show you how to use this quirky, under-the-radar holiday to your advantage—with a list of 8 creative giveaway ideas you can steal, tweak, or flat-out copy. Whether you want to build customer loyalty, generate excitement on social, or increase traffic to...
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What would happen if you merged a grocery store and a farmers market—and gave small farms a seven-day-a-week sales channel that actually pays them what they’re worth? In today’s episode, I interview Alex Blume, Marketing Manager for , a mission-driven retail concept based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that’s redefining how local food gets sold. Their innovative “farm stop” model helps small and mid-sized farms grow by giving them access to retail space 7 days a week—without the staffing or wholesale markups. Alex shares how the consignment model works, how they support over 250...
info_outlineMy Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Local Line is 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 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: MDF2025. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: Marketing doesn’t have to feel...
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Back in high school, I was that kid—the one who planned elaborate treasure hunt parties for my friends. I loved the thrill of creating a roadmap and leading them from clue to clue, always pointing to the next step. And honestly? That’s what a great thank you page does, too. A wise mentor once told me, "You're always taking your people somewhere..." In this episode, we’re talking about the most underutilized page in farm marketing—your thank you page. Whether it appears after someone signs up for your email list or buys your product, your thank you page isn’t just a...
info_outlineMy Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Have you ever had a big idea for your farm business—but you didn’t act on it because it felt too overwhelming or risky? That was me. Until my coach said five simple words that completely shifted my thinking: “Just put a container around it.” In this episode, I share how we beta tested our new Chef’s Line of prepared foods—and how using the concept of a beta test gave us the freedom to move forward without fear or perfectionism. If you’ve been sitting on an idea because it feels “too big,” this episode will show you how to test it, refine it, and build momentum with less...
info_outlineToday we're talking scaling.
I've always wondered "What does an established farm do differently than a beginner farm --when it comes to marketing and sales?"
If you could break up the development of a farm business into stages, what would be the key identifiers? How do those business owners practice business differently? Do they think differently? Do they believe certain things that are hard to believe early on? Are they doing certain things that they didn't do in an earlier level? If being an entrepreneur means breaking a glass ceiling every now and then, what does that ceiling look like?
As I've matured as a farm entrepreneur, I can look back at my early years and see how far I've come. I can see the progress, the systems I learned to build, the key decisive moments where things shifted, the actions that really mattered.
THAT's what this podcast episode is all about -- sharing these insights to help you transition and grow into your next phase. How long does it take? What do you need to do? How do you get there?
To get to this data, I called in a favor from my podcast sponsor Local Line. I asked them if I could talk to someone who would be able to look inside the thousands of Local Line accounts, analyze the patterns and trends and simplify a few key principles to help us grow through each stage.
In this episode, Andrew Meehan is sharing the three "levels" of farms he sees, the identifying markers of each, and what behaviors and mindsets those farms manifest while in that stage. I think this is a helpful conversation, because you'll be able to identify where YOU land, and what you need to do, think, and be to graduate to the next level.
Remember, if you need help building this piece into your marketing system, you can take my testimonial project inside of Farm Marketing School. I coach you through the process of finding 5 quality testimonials and tell you where to put them in your farm sales messaging sequence.
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: Andrew Meehan:
Andrew has worked in agriculture for the past decade, operating a market garden for seven years and more recently working as a sales rep at Local Line. In his role at Local Line, Andrew collaborates with farms and food hubs to optimize their sales process by integrating scale and industry appropriate software solutions.
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.
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