243 Building Your Farm's Product Ladder to Increase Sales
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Release Date: 01/03/2024
318 How Farmers Can Use July 14 to Create Buzz and Sales
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
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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317 The Farm Stop Model: How This Ann Arbor Store Sells Local Food 7 Days a Week
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
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...
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316 Why Your Middle-Priced Product Sells Best: The Compromise Effect Explained
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: Marketing doesn’t have to feel...
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315 What's a Thank You Page in Farm Marketing?
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
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...
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314 The Power of a Beta Test in Marketing
My 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...
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313 Building Systems and Automations into Your Farm Business Using Zapier
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
What if you could reclaim hours of your time each week—just by documenting and automating the simple tasks you’re already doing? In this episode, I sit down with Glen Young of Cold Springs Organics, a Farm Marketing School member and automation-building wizard, to talk about how he’s using Zapier + AI to automate processes in his farm business—from order management to email marketing, lead tagging, customer onboarding, and even abandoned cart follow-ups. Glen shares how he went from juggling everything manually to building smart, scalable workflows that save him time and create a...
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312 How a Homesteader Turned Her Side Hustle into a Growing Farm Business
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
What happens when a total city girl decides to go all-in on the homesteading life… and ends up building a full-blown farm business from scratch? Here's the link to her homesteading membership: 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...
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311 How Stacie Edwards Became a Confident, Profitable Meat Marketer (and You Can Too!)
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
May 7, 2025 Ever wonder what it really takes to sell premium farm products with confidence—and actually make money doing it? This week, I sit down with Stacie Edwards, a Farm Marketing School member who once felt nervous about charging “too much” for her meats. Today? She knows her numbers, prices for profit, and runs her business with the mindset of a CEO. But that transformation didn’t happen overnight. Stacie’s journey is full of hard-won lessons: from hiring her first coach, to outsourcing hog production, to finally letting go of the fear that held her back from charging what her...
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310 Selling Flowers to Florists with Abundant Blooms Flower Farm
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
When Ruth Ann Majauskas first launched her flower farm in 2020, she tried a little bit of everything—farmers markets, retail, subscriptions. But the magic happened when she shifted her focus entirely to wholesale… selling flowers directly to florists. What started as trial and error quickly evolved into a streamlined system with loyal buyers, consistent orders, and a workflow she could count on. Now, Ruth Ann runs a thriving wholesale flower farm business—and she’s helping other flower farmers learn how to do the same. In today’s episode, she shares how she built her...
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309 Starting a UPick from Scratch Inside a FMS Coaching Call with David Heeks
My Digital Farmer | Marketing Strategies for Farmers
Imagine launching a brand-new U-Pick strawberry business... with only a few months to get everything in place. No website. No email list. No customer base. That’s exactly the challenge David Heeks faced this spring—and in this episode, you’ll hear how we mapped out his entire sales funnel during a live Farm Marketing School coaching call. David had just completed the Farm Marketing School (FMS) project on "Auditing Your Sales Funnel," and came prepared to share his homework. We walked through every stage of the customer value journey, from building awareness and engagement all the way to...
info_outlineHow do you make more money in your farm business?
Answer: make more offers.
In our early years as a CSA farm, we struggled to increase revenue because we only had the one thing to sell: our 18-week CSA membership. That's it! Once you paid for that, you weren't asked to buy anything again until the next year, when we asked to renew the membership.
Looking back, that was a mistake.
In order to maximize profits, your farm will want to sell multiple things to the same customer all year long. That means you will need to have enough products in your product suite to sell.
You need a "product ladder."
In today's episode, you'll learn how the product ladder works, how to build one, and how to USE it to make more money. This may involve making new products!!
Your homework is to identify your product ladder and map out the different key categories, products, or promotions that fall into it. This is your key step to increasing your revenue as a farmer.
This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, the leading e-commerce platform for the local food system. Try Local Line for your farm today! 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: MDF2023. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline
This podcast was sponsored by: The Thriving Farmer Podcast. In this top-rated farm podcast, you'll learn the latest tricks and strategies of successful farmers, strategize with in-depth interviews with leaders in the industry, and connect with stories of farmers just like you. In our interviews, we focus on building farms that last, on setting up systems, knowing your customers, building your team, and creating a work/family/life balance. With over 15 years of farming background, your host Michael Kilpatrick has the experience and authority to bring you practical advice, ask the hard questions, tease out the gold nuggets, and help share what it’s really like to build a profitable, sustainable farm.
Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts or visit: https://www.thrivingfarmerpodcast.com/
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.
Sign up for 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, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. And new content is being added every month. You get to chose what you want to study each month. I’ve taken the recordings of just the teaching sessions of each project inside of my high-end coaching program (Accelerator) and made them available to everyone. 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, watch my new Email Marketing Course, 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 Cancel your membership anytime.
ConvertKit - I mention my email service provider of choice. If you decide to try this ESP out, use my affiliate code here and I get a small commission.
Flitetest.com -- this is the RC airplane brand that got my kids hooked on aviation!
Find my Facebook group for farmers!
Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer