Farm Customer List Building Strategy
When selling direct-to-consumer, it is crucial to build an ever-growing customer list to maintain a strong base of loyal Buyers. A dependable email list can help ensure that Buyers will consistently shop from your Farm and maintain steady, recurring revenue. By better understanding customer preferences, your Farm can better provide product mixes, box sizes and fulfillment options that will fit their needs and encourage repeat purchases. Survey Buyers to gather feedback on what will help your store perform better within the local community, attract more customers and connect you with potential partners.
Engage your Farm customer list with a regular newsletter, and collect email addresses online and in-person to build an ongoing relationship among your Buyers. If you fail to consistently communicate with prospective Buyers on your list, they may take their business elsewhere. Learn the best practices for growing your Farm customer list and staying top-of-mind:
Collecting Emails In-Person
Growing your email list in-person allows you to personally interact with new and existing Buyers to explain your mission and practices. At Farmers’ Markets, consider putting up a banner or handing out flyers with a link to your website or a QR code with a direct link to sign-up for your email list. Many successful Farms will hire friendly and conversational staff that carry around clipboards and collect emails at the market. Some Farms pay their staffers $1 for every validated email that is collected at the market to spur friendly competition. It pays off.
At the Farmers’ Market, community events or your on-Farm store, use the Barn2Door’s POS to streamline your in-person sales and sync with your online store. The POS also allows you to prompt customers to put in their email addresses at checkout without asking. Entice Buyers to sign-up for your list by offering a discount in their first Farm newsletter, a free recipe, or a raffle for new sign-ups (for free Farm food!) when they enter their email address.
Be certain your Farm brand and QR code to join your email list is visible on every touchpoint with your business - including all packaging (bags, boxes and labels), all vehicles (trucks, vans, cars and tractors) and all signage (banners, tents, business cards, flyers and letterhead). Buyers spend 43% more with brands they trust. Many Farmers acquire dozens of new email sign-ups every time they drive around town to make deliveries or drop off products at local pick-ups.
Collecting Emails Online
There are various opportunities to collect emails from potential Buyers through your online profiles, store and website. Include a pop-up on your website home page with a prompt to enter their contact information (spark interest by adding a sentence about receiving a promo in their first email or “Get Updates from the Farm!”). The pop-up will be one of the first things viewers see on your website, making it quick to gather their information (note, this ordinary course at online retailers). You can also add a dedicated newsletter sign-up on your Farm website to better explain what subscribers can expect from your emails. On the subpages of your website, add a call-to-action at the bottom to enter their email address for updates on new Farm products.
On social media, link to a sign-up page in your social media profile (bio), link-tree, or in posts to capture more email addresses. It is wise to give Buyers an incentive to sign-up, such as a new subscriber discount. When requesting sign-ups, market exclusive content such as on-farm dinners, seasonal recipes, farming practices and tips, access to Pre-Orders, or new products. When you regularly mention signing-up for your email, and the benefits your Buyers can have through your newsletter, you will attract new contacts that can be routed to your online store.
How to Market to your Customer List
As mentioned, incentives to sign-up for your email list will entice Buyers who may be on the fence about giving you their information. Everyone loves a free recipe, a promo code for products and exclusive access to the products they love. The “Fear-Of-Missing-Out” (FOMO) is a healthy motivator for many customers to subscribe to your newsletter. Make it obvious that they will miss out on special Farm offerings if they are not on your email list.
Once a customer is added to your list, automate an introductory welcome email, sharing more about your Farm story, products and practices - including a promo for their first order. In subsequent email campaigns, feature Bundle Box and Farm Subscriptions to push high-value, recurring orders. Within your newsletter, you can explain what Buyers can expect from these purchases, including fresh, seasonal items, access to your best product mixes, and peace-of-mind (food security). Your local customers will become more loyal when they feel a personal connection to your Farm. Share stories about what is happening on the Farm, the history of your business, and any updates about your commitment to serving sustainable products to your local community.
Make your newsletters interesting and interactive by encouraging Buyers to respond with their questions and stories, sharing photos from the Farm and funny stories from your day-to-day life. Buyers will be interested in how you raise the food they are purchasing, recipes using items from your Farm and “how-to” place an order from your store (selecting fulfillments, choosing a Subscription, etc.). Successful Farmers use the 3 E’s (entertain, educate and eCommerce) to write their emails, ensuring each newsletter is interesting for Buyers to read, helps them understand why they should shop locally, and makes it easy to purchase your products anywhere, anytime.
Retaining your Farm Buyers
To keep Buyers engaged and spur ongoing purchases, you must make them feel valued and interested in your email content. Send targeted communications to Buyers related to their past orders and habits. With Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration, the purchase history of your customers, contact details and product catalog are directly integrated with email software to automatically target buyers intelligently by customer groups (aka audience). As a result, your Farm can segment Buyers into different lists and organize marketing campaigns based on their purchase habits, order frequency, and/or customer tenure. When communications are targeted and cater to the specific needs of Buyers, they will be more likely to open and engage with your emails.
Use tactics that are proven to spark customer interest, including FOMO campaigns to drive Pre-Orders (e.g. “Only X amount of time to sign-up!”), or send best-selling products exclusively to members of your loyal Subscribers list who are the first to know about new items. You can also send Buyers automatic order reminders to regularly encourage purchases in the background (e.g. every Monday morning), reminding them that new product inventory has been re-stocked.
Give exclusive access to high-demand products and value-added goods to your email Subscriber list (via a private locked store). When Buyers know that they can only access exclusive products through an email link, they will sign-up to join your customer list. Send promos to returning customers who may have not made a purchase in a while, to keep them engaged with your store. Consider having seasonal promotions only available to email Subscribers. Regularly engage your customers on socials and in email to keep them interested in your Farm, and to keep your brand and products top-of-mind. It is not enough to simply grow your customer list, you always want to engage them and lead them to make a purchase on your online store.
Conclusion
Build your customer list to create a loyal base of Buyers that you can engage via email and lead to make a purchase on your online store. There are in-person and online efforts you can use to attract community members to share their email addresses with you to communicate about Farm stories, products and promos. Entice Buyers with a welcome offer, exclusive access to high-demand products and a look into what life is like on the Farm. Grow your customer list to build a healthy base of loyal Buyers and recurring revenue.
Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to create and promote their brand, sell online and in-person, and save time managing their business. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.