Farmer Spotlight: Evans Family Farm 1 Year Later
In January 2020, we spoke with Jessica Evans of Evans Family Farm to learn more about her experience transitioning their Farm to online direct-to-market sales. Our initial conversation occurred well ahead of the pandemic. Recently, we caught up with Jessica to get the scoop on how her Farm business has navigated the past year.
Evans Family Farm began in southern California, with a garden and some chickens. Now, the North Carolina-based family Farm has found success with direct home delivery and thoughtful marketing tactics for their pasture-raised poultry, pork, grass-fed beef, and lamb.
“We originally started a hobby farm in Southern California, where we had a small homestead raising food for ourselves. That's where we got the farming bug. We then had this dream of starting a new farm and always wanted to leave Southern California.
We ended up in central North Carolina and bought our farm here in 2016 and we've been running it as a business ever since. We're in Mount Ulla, North Carolina, so a little tiny dot on the map in central North Carolina. Our focus is definitely on non-GMO humanely raised animals and food.”
Evans Family Farm has a passion to raise everything, not just sustainably, but regeneratively. Jessica manages her Farm with the goal of healing the landscape. She regularly tracks improvements in the soil and grass year-over-year.
2020: An Unprecedented Year
“Then came 2020, and as everybody experienced, there was a huge shift. I had to figure out how to pivot, since our farmer's market was not opening on schedule and it created a big delay.
Fortunately, we had already decided to pilot home delivery and a shipping program in early 2020. So, we had kind of put many of those pieces in place and were already working through all the logistics to make it scale.
At the time of the pandemic, we were sitting on a ton of product trying to figure out how we were going to get inventory moving again. Luckily we had a new system in place with Barn2Door to organize sales, organize our delivery routes, and with the high demand for local food we were able to phase out our wholesale side of the business.”
Jessica recognized the change in the market and made the quick decision to lean into online sales paired with delivery options. As Buyers flocked online to source food Jessica was able to address the needs of hungry local customers. Barn2Door was able to provide the tools she needed to quickly ramp up her delivery program.
Convenience: “What Would Amazon Do?”
“Convenience really became a highlight this past year, where everybody was looking to order food online. Amazon has created a culture where customers can just go online to order things in a few clicks and get it delivered to their doorstep in a couple of days. People definitely started having that same expectation towards our food system. Buyers wanted local food, meat counters were empty at grocery stores and people started to panic. As result, there was a flood of Buyer demand towards the local food scene, which was great for Farmers who were already online.”
Expanding with Barn2Door
Jessica identified the shift in the behavior of Buyers and quickly seized the opportunity. By doubling down on convenience she made her products more accessible for Buyers who were cooped up in their homes wondering how to get food on the dinner table. Providing an excellent purchasing experience kept customers coming back, business was booming.
“We needed to make delivery or pickup super easy for customers to select through a streamlined website experience, and keep those options simple. Instead of having 10 pickup locations, we have 3, they can pick up at the market or they can pick up on the farm, or sometimes we'd have organized stops in a central location where we knew had a lot of customers. Everyone values convenience in a different way. I have customers who are within driving distance, but they prefer to pay for shipping. It’s convenient for them, so we like to have the options to meet their needs too.”
“As things got busier this year, our website definitely needed a freshening up. As a busy Farmer, my time is better spent not trying to program a website, it's just not my forte. I'd rather be out in the field. We had Barn2Door refresh our entire website, for us it was really needed. It added a professional layer to our online experience where we're getting a lot higher traffic.”
Buyer experience is an important part of managing any direct to consumer business. By making the checkout process easy and enjoyable, Evans Family Farm made it more likely for customers to come back and recommend buying from her Farm to friends and family.
Staying Connected with Mailchimp
“MailChimp is something we also started to use to connect with customers. Outside of order reminders, we send regular newsletters through MailChimp to share our story and experiences with our Buyers on a regular basis.
With it we can track our analytics to see who's opening emails, who's not opening emails, our open rate and demographic information as well. Overall, Mailchimp gives you a lot of feedback on who to target in your marketing campaigns.”
Just like any relationship, consistent communication with Buyers is key. A direct integration between Barn2Door and Mailchimp ensures all contacts stay in sync, and provides direct access to the Evans Family Farm product catalog through email marketing. With a regular cadence of newsletters and social media posts, Jessica fosters personal connections with her Buyers by simply sharing her experiences. In the long run, building personal connections with Buyers grows a base of loyal customers who are more likely to commit to subscriptions and make regular purchases.
Saving Time with Barn2Door Integrations
Being a small business owner means wearing lots of hats - from sales to marketing or human resources to quality control. “Managing our business in one place makes it simpler to grow the operation. The Barn2Door and Tax Jar integration is amazing because I can never remember to file my sales taxes on time. It’s one of those things that when you’re knee deep in Farm work, the last thing you’ll remember to do is calculate your sales taxes. The new QuickBooks Online integration has been very helpful too. It’s just one less step I have to take when it automatically syncs my data from Barn2Door.”
We know how important it is to provide Farmers with the right solutions to grow their businesses. Between saving time with automatic data syncs or gaining peace of mind knowing your taxes will be paid on time, we strive to make it easy for Farmer’s to manage their operation.
The Outcomes for Evans Family Farm
“In hindsight, 2020 was a great year. It was really a profitable year for our Farm. We streamlined our operations and achieved several goals in 2020, which we were hoping to accomplish long-term. We rolled out several new programs, including a Subscription program.
In 2021 I'd like to continue to grow our based of Subscription bundles to increase recurring cash flow. It's like a meat CSA. We have a monthly and a biweekly option for customers. 2020 was huge for us and want to keep that momentum going in 2021. We're going to keep sharing our story through email marketing campaigns and through social media. Both have been very effective for us.”
Delivery was a game changer for Evans Family Farm in 2020, we’re excited to follow Jessica and her growing Subscription program in 2021. We are delighted and honored to support Jessica in her mission to promote sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices.
To learn more about how Barn2Door could help you grow Subscriptions for your Farm products and increase recurring cash flow, watch this 5-min video.
