The Number 1 Datapoint Proven to Drive Farm Sales
With 100’s of Millions of dollars in transactions across 1000’s of Farms in all 50 States, at Barn2Door we’re well aware of the attributes of successful Farmers and Ranchers. There are a consistent set of tactics employed by our most successful Farms to capitalize on Buyer demand for local Products.
No Silver Bullet
With a Success Team at Barn2Door, we talk with 100’s of Farmers every week. And, we know that every Farm is different. What works well for one Farmer, may or may not work well in another market. Buyers are fickle and market dynamics are often localized. Each Farmer needs to “test and learn” which tactics work best for their business (and desired outcomes).
There is no Silver Bullet with respect to which tactic(s) will help fuel your Farm growth. It could be revamping your Product mix, offering Subscriptions, or Direct Delivery to the doorstep of your Buyers. Or, it could be 5-7 other tactics that help you increase your Sales and average order value. There are many business tactics to explore for your Farm business.
One Single Datapoint
While there is no single tactic to accelerate your Farm revenue growth, there is one consistent datapoint that correlates directly to the success of your Farm business. That single datapoint is the size of your customer email list.
Regardless of a Farm’s go-to-market strategy when building a direct-to-market business, the size and diversity of your email list corresponds directly to a Farm’s Monthly Farm Sales. So, whether your Farm aspires to $10k, $25k, $50k or $100k in Monthly Farm Sales, your email list will need to be similarly aligned with your ambitions (at least that’s what the data tell us with 99% confidence, +/- 3% points).
Now, perhaps your Farm is the 1% anomaly. Good for you! We’ve omitted the 1% Farmers from our data analysis, below. Here’s the breakdown on the email list size to achieve your desired Monthly Farm Sales Goals:
Note, the above data is copyrighted to Barn2Door, and may not be reproduced or referenced without our written permission. Any individual, student, faculty or not-for-profit, however, may share a link to this Blog freely.
Registered Buyer Accounts
A similarly related and correlated datapoint is the number of Registered Buyer Accounts for your given Farm — meaning those Buyers who have created an Account and saved their Credit Card on file. For many ecommerce sites, Registered Buyer Accounts are even more important.
Note, given the prevalence of “Guest Checkout” transactions, however, Registered Buyer Accounts may be misleading. The relative importance of Registered Buyer Accounts may be more or less important to your Farm business depending on your go-to-market and sales strategy.
For instance, to sign-up for a Subscription with a Farm (powered by Barn2Door), requires the creation of a Registered Buyer Account with a Credit Card for recurring payments. If your Farm is focused on growing a recurring base of Subscription revenue, then Registered Buyer Accounts may be an even more important datapoint.
Grow your Email List
Arguably, one of the single most important calls-to-action to achieve your Farm’s financial goals then is to grow your email list. And, given that Americans move once every 7 years, that means you need to grow your email list at least 14.3% every year just to stay constant (with normal turnover in your serviceable area).
In commercial sectors, the typical value of an email address is $10. In fact, if you go to any billion dollar ecommerce website (e.g. Cabela’s, Tractor Supply), they’ll offer a splash screen with $10 or 10% off your first purchase if you register your email. Try it on all your favorite ecommerce sites, it is an industry standard because email marketing works.
Our most successful Farms at Barn2Door have shared several creative tactics to collect emails, including:
Include a QR Code on the side of all your Delivery vehicles and signage at Markets and business cards
Pay your Farm staff $1 for every qualified email sign-up at the local Market
Incentivize your Staff to post Email Sign-up sheets at local Churches, Schools and Businesses
Create a “paid” clip-board competition for your Farm staff to collect the most Email sign-ups at an upcoming local Event, Parade or Fair
Offer a $10 promo to every new Buyer who signs up online for Email newsletter
Access special products only by signing up for Email newsletter
Avoid “purchasing” an email list from a third party. Such lists are often low quality, unaudited, and unauthenticated. Candidly, email list sales are often illegal (selling someone else's data without their consent).
POS Email Capture
Easily collect Buyer email addresses in-person for free with Barn2Door’s POS Email Capture. At checkout, unknown Buyers will be automatically prompted to provide their email address for your marketing efforts (synced to your Mailchimp account). Your Farm can toggle the feature ‘on’ and ‘off’, and Buyers who are not in your existing customer list, will be prompted to enter their email address. This feature is freely available to all Farmers using the Barn2Door Point of Sale Application - at no additional cost.
Email Marketing Best Practices
With a growing email list, it is important for your Farm to build a persistent email marketing strategy to actively engage your audience. Communicate with your target Buyers at least 1x per week (and certainly no less than 2x per month).
Segment your audiences between New Buyers, Loyal Buyers, and Laggard Buyers, so that your communications can be tailored to each group accordingly. Your email campaigns, the information and details for each audience should be different based on their needs.
Conclusion
There is no silver bullet when it comes to the Farm tactics to fuel the growth of your business. However, there is a direct correlation between the size of your Farm customer email list and your Monthly Farm Sales.
Invest in always growing your email list and consider creative tactics to incentivize your Farm team to compete for acquiring more emails. Your Farm’s email communications offer the opportunity to actively engage your Buyers in their Inbox, whereas Social Media is passive (in a feed). 7 out of 10 Buyers prefer to receive communications from their local Farmer by email.
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.