How to Build Relationships with your Customers with Valarie from Grassfed Cattle Co
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we're delighted to host Valerie Luhman with Grass Fed Cattle Co. Listen as Valerie shares how her experience in Agriculture and marketing shape their strategy on communicating with their customers to build strong relationships within their community.
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Allyssa: 0:26
Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. We've got a terrific conversation for you today with one of our Marketing development experts, Valerie Luhman from Grass Fed Cattle Co. Welcome, Valerie.
Valerie: 0:38
Thanks so much!
Allyssa: 0:40
So great to have you here, just to get started, I guess, why don't you take a minute to introduce yourself, how you got into farming and selling direct online.
Valerie: 0:50
I'm Valerie Luhman I farm with my husband, Jared, just outside of Goodhue, Minnesota. So the Southeastern corner and we farm with his dad, John. Jared and I are expecting our first baby this summer. So we're really excited about that. But we're the owners of the Grass Fed Cattle Company. Jared I both grew up on farms actually, and both really loved it. So we're looking forward to raising our kids on a farm someday, too. So, I guess just growing up in Ag, that's how I got into it. And I got really involved in 4H and FFA growing up absolutely loved being on the farm with my family, but also getting to connect with people who maybe didn't necessarily grow up on a farm and kind of share that story. So, got really into, especially FFA throughout high school and went to the University of Minnesota and studied Agricultural Communications and Marketing. And continued that passion of telling the story of Ag while still be being involved in the farm. That kind of led to where I'm at today. Jared and I were already doing some Direct Marketing when we heard of the Grass Fed Cattle Company. Another couple had started at eight years prior. And so we actually purchased the company from them after we got married. And we purchased it back in 2019. And they were already selling beef and pork in bulk. And so we purchased the business, their customer lists they had a freezer space and a few other things set up for us already, which was so nice. And since then, we've just made it our own. We've added a few things and done some different marketing than what the previous owners had, but have continued kind of the base model where we have customers from the twin cities pick up from us, we get to talk to each of them, which is a lot of fun. And then we do some deliveries um, and added pastured chicken too. So it's a busy time on the farm with a spring. We have calving and we have chickens that just got here. But we absolutely love it and are just so thankful for Barn2Door and just all the great things you guys provide for our farm.
Allyssa: 2:45
That's wonderful. Well, first and foremost, congratulations on baby number one, that's exciting news. And just like you mentioned, to be able to, you know, raise a family on the farm and to have that unique experience and to also share that story with your buyers as well. So maybe if you want to touch on a little bit more about the buyers you serve, as well as how you took a business, an existing farm, and kind of made it your own.
Valerie: 3:09
Yeah. Like I said, we farm with Jared's dad here in Goodhue. And so we are really thankful for that opportunity and right away, we started. Buying some of the product that we sell through Grass Fed Cattle Company from our farm, and we sell all grass fed and grass-finished beef, and then it's pastured pork and pastured chicken. And right away when we purchased the business, we sent out a survey and, you know, introduced ourselves um, and ask customers what they'd like to see us add or do differently. And the first thing that people said loud and clear was that they wanted us to add chicken. So we have ran with that and added chicken right away. And that's kind of been our model throughout is we really try to listen to our customers and what they want. And continue to mold the business into what serves our customers best while still working for our farm and our family. Obviously that is important to to be able to continue and, be sustainable as a business. So, our customers are all retail customers in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, we do a little bit in some of North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, but for the most part the vast majority of our customers are in the Twin Cities and, can either choose pickup or delivery for our products we sell anywhere from a pound of ground beef or a few steaks to a half beef share if someone wanted to buy in bulk. So that's been a lot of fun and just great to continue to hear from our customers and continue to mold and you know, just change our path as they tell us what their family needs.
Allyssa: 4:41
And I think you bring up a great point of listening to your buyers and how that. Enabled you, or, you know, empowered you guys to grow at scale and to reach more consumers because you're able to take in that feedback. So walk us through this past year. I know last year you presented at our first Direct Conference and since then you've experienced a significant amount of growth.
Valerie: 5:03
Yeah. So really throughout the last year, the biggest struggle has been supply and demand. And just trying to keep up with the increase in demand that happened. So suddenly when grass fed and finished beef, especially takes a while to finish on pasture. So that's probably been the biggest struggle, but really just keeping our customers that we already have. Keeping them happy. I'm trying to keep up with that demand on the supply side, on our farm. And then just continuing to communicate with them, I think was so important. I think what's important to our customers is that they are supporting a local family. Who's using sustainable And regenerative practices. And so we've really just tried to continue to communicate with them, even if, I mean, I think there was a time last year where we had about four months where we didn't have any beef in stock just cause. One, the supply wasn't there. And two processing was so difficult to get for our farm. And I know lots of others across the country to who might be listening to this, but you know, we kept communicating with our customers and they were willing to wait and stick around for us, which is awesome. And we're so thankful cause we keep seeing them come back. But otherwise we did do a lot more delivery last year, starting in COVID, especially for people who are being really careful. You know, we changed some of the things we did during delivery to make sure it was really safe. And things like just sending them a quick text after the boxes were dropped off versus, you know, touching their doorbell or doing any of that kind of thing, unless they requested it. But other than that, just
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 6:33
adding subscription model and some of the other things that we had set up before, like delivery really worked well during COVID and we just saw those subscriptions and deliveries and anything that offered convenience
Valerie: 6:45
will having a couple of clear options
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 6:48
seem to be really popular, especially during that time.
Valerie: 6:50
And even now as kind of COVID continues and settles a little bit, but people are still continuing to use those. So that was probably the big highlights of COVID. But we're thankful for it in a way, because it did uh, help our sales And and help us get new customers and develop those relationships with them.
Allyssa: 7:09
And I think touching on communication, especially when you're implementing delivery, you're also adding a subscriptions, other options for your buyers. You want to make sure that it's convenient for you as a farmer, but also for your buyers. So tell us a little bit more about that decision and how you've been able to. Increase sales, but also save time by adding in delivery and subscriptions.
Valerie: 7:30
Yeah. So, I guess for delivery we started implementing two different charges, one for boxes delivered closer to our Edina freezer space, and then one that was a little bit further out so that people could still order from us. They just had to pay a bit more for it, that delivery. I think it's at $15 and then $20 for a further out delivery. So that, that really made it worth our time. Especially when someone is just getting, you know, a small box or something, then if they really want delivery, they still have that option, but it makes it worth it for us to make that trip out there. On the other hand with subscription boxes we really learned the hard way on that one, how to make it also convenient and efficient for us. When I originally listed them we had two different ones, a meat club that consisted of beef, pork, and chicken, and then a beef club that was just um, our grass-finished beef and it was very specific what people got in each box and found that was pretty tedious, for us on the inventory side of things, just because we had to make sure we had each of those items every time. Whereas right now I have it listed and it's pretty open-ended you get a certain number of steaks, a certain number of roasts, ground beef, you know, that kind of thing.
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 8:47
And so it makes it a lot simpler on our end. Just as an inventory standpoint and when I'm packaging the boxes I don't have to be quite as planned out for what's going to go in those boxes. I can give them whatever high quality cuts of meat that we have already in the freezer.
Valerie: 9:02
So. Definitely important on that side of things. I was ready to say, okay, maybe not to this subscription box. And then I actually listened to one of the presentations on the direct conference and I listened to it like three times and it was like, tell me how to do this better. And it helps so much to go back and kind of do a, take two. We sent out a survey to all the people who had signed up for the subscription boxes and asked for some feedback. So we made some additional changes based on what our customers said as well. And then just sent out an email, like you said, communicating the changes and did a little sale and got some more subscriptions that are just going great. And people love them and we love putting the boxes together and seeing those sales is awesome too.
Allyssa: 9:47
That's great to hear that was able to reveal some evidence to you that maybe you didn't know what they were looking for. And also what would make sense for you as a business owner as well. Flipping on to I would say the brand side of things, how do you engage with your buyers and prospective buyers online?
Valerie: 10:03
I would say the biggest ways are through our email, our blog, and then also through. Or social media accounts beyond just our online store that we have through barn door people, I think. you know, use different channels differently. but I think the biggest one for us has been email. Trying to get those emails out weekly and we, you know, run sales or just update customers on inventory. We'll have a blog and send out an update that way. We try to send out quarterly longer newsletters using the barn. Two-door outline for that, which customers really enjoy getting a full update on the farm, and, and what's available from our store and sharing some fun recipes, any of that kind of thing. People really do love it to get those updates and just have a reminder that we're here and that they can order from us. So, that's always fun to communicate through the email. And then, like I said, we do try to do a blog. And send that out on the email as well. And then just with social media, doing updates on our stories that are a little more casual doing some posts on our feed. And then we do try to go live. We've tried out a few reels now all the different things on Facebook and Instagram primarily. And then we do have a few videos on YouTube that we've sent out on social media, and then also on email. So, we try our best to keep consistent and you know, it's Not always perfect, but we do our best as as a kind of a one-man show or a woman show, I guess I should say to keep everybody updated and communicated with. But the biggest thing is just. The biggest thing, I guess that keeps us going on. That side of things is just knowing how much our customers appreciate it. Last week, during my pickup time in the cities with our customers, a few people said, I'm so excited about your chicken grant you got. Cause I got a grant to do some research and they had read, I think every word of my email I sent out, which is so encouraging to know that, you know, through these emails, It's not just a number at the bottom that we see on that MailChimp report. It's actual people that are excited and reading them and building a relationship with our business and brand. So that's a lot of fun for me to know that people really care and are paying attention and just know that we are farmers that care about them and their families and serving them the best that we can.
Allyssa: 12:20
I think storytelling is something that you do really well. Individually, but also, you know, for the farm, just talking about, you know, your brand voice and how important that is to have and how it transcends from one platform to the next. So whether you're on MailChimp, you're sending out an email, or if you're on social media, you want to make sure that it's consistent. Not only the communication itself is consistent, but that the messaging and the brand, the voice is consistent as well. So speaking of brand we have the Barn2Door Academy, which Valerie is one of our instructors. She shares incredible insights from her own experience, working with Grass Fed Cattle Co, and also being able to speak to. I have social media. I have a Facebook account or Instagram, and I have a MailChimp account as well. How can I use these platforms to interact with my buyers? So from your experience, teaching other farmers, maybe for those listening on the call, what are some best practices or tactics that you would recommend they implement right now? If they're not already doing so.
Valerie: 13:19
The biggest thing I would say is start sending out some emails, even if. You know, everything isn't quite perfectly lined up or you don't feel like you're quite ready, start with one email and get your first sale from it. And you will be motivated to continue sending them and continue molding them into what you want. Hopefully
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 13:37
everyone has a great email outline already created from Barn2Door
Valerie: 13:42
and the team that onboarded you,
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 13:45
I just think they are such a powerful tool and you can put so many personal touches to them. I know that's one of the big things for our customers is just continuing to send those emails and connect with them that way.
Valerie: 13:55
And then beyond that, an email, one of my absolute favorite things that we did pretty early on in the business is set up an onboarding series. So it's essentially a series of emails that customers get when they sign up for our newsletter. Right away, when they push subscribe, they get an email saying hello from Jared and Valerie and the Grassfed Cattle Company. It tells them all about our business and what our dream is behind. It kind of welcomes them to. Become part of our dream and and join us on the journey essentially. And then a few days later they get another email, just letting them know what they would see if they drove down our driveway and saw our cattle and our farm and explaining the practices that. we use and why we use them. And then the last email gives them promo code.
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 14:40
Tells them how they can shop what the options are and really gives them a run through of how everything works at the Grass Fed Cattle Company. Just because we know it's a lot different than going to a grocery store and
Valerie: 14:50
that, Oh, I just looked at the number the other day. I don't remember what it was, but I know that like,
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 14:56
Thousands of people have received
Valerie: 14:58
all three of
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 14:59
those emails. And I wish I could remember the dollar amount, but it was a crazy number that we have seen in revenue just from those emails.
Valerie: 15:07
And people will respond to them directly because we ask them questions throughout that they can respond to and, and truly people are getting to know us through this email series that did take us. Quite a bit of time to set up and just create to make sure it was what we wanted. But now that we have that it is a great tool. So one that I highly recommend and that we teach on the Barn2Door Academy. Beyond that, I think just using social media in any kind of communication, again, to build a relationship and make sure that you're genuine, that you're doing your best to show your personality and your farms key messages and just everything that you're about. To your customers in a, in an authentic way. The other day when I was at a pickup again one of our customers usually brings her two little girls with when she picks up her subscription box and they weren't with this time, but she said, my girls wanted to say hi to their farmers. And I just thought it was the cutest thing that we are their farmers and that they wanted to say hi to us even at a young age. So just continue to, I think, treat any communication, whether it's email or online or a text message or whatever as a chance to get to know your customers and connect with them and show them who you're, who you are and what your farm is all about.
Allyssa: 16:22
I love that. And it's something so simple, you know, something that doesn't have to be complicated. So maybe touch on. I know we have. The three E's I'd love for you to touch a little bit more on that kind of pulling it back, starting with the why.
Valerie: 16:35
Definitely having those key messages written out is really helpful. I know Barn2Door has a brand basics worksheet that I helped create. That's really helpful for really nailing down those key messages and being able to use them on social media or through your emails, or even just through, you know, day-to-day communication with customers. Like you said, every simple message counts. So being able to use those key messages throughout is really important. And then once you have those. I think it's, it's so fun to just be able to run with it. The three E's is one of the things that I love about the Barn2Door Academy and that we can use it on any platform. It's essentially a way to categorize types of content that you can share. The three E's being E-commerce. Entertainment and Education. So obviously E-commerce is just any kind of a sales or inventory update sort of communication might be a post of a steak with a promo code or just an update on inventory. The entertainment might be, you know, a fun recipe, a silly photo from the farm, a blog with some kind of a farm update that maybe isn't as serious. And then lastly, education, what is unique about your product? What is going on in the farm? Any other kind of educational pieces? I know we've done a lot of partnerships with other dieticians or Influencers for educational purposes on our accounts or on our email. And so I think just being able to use those three E's to, first of all, make sure you have some diversity of your content. And then second. making sure You kind of use those, maybe not in the exact order, but just to split up and keep those customers coming back for your communication and not just saying the exact same thing in each post or each email. So we try to split up our content on all of our platforms into thirds using the three E's.
Allyssa: 18:29
As an instructor for the Academy, is there a success story in mind that you have from one of the past cohorts of a farm that you have worked with where you seen them grow, or you've seen them learn from some of these best practices, either on the social media side or on the MailChimp side of things?
Valerie: 18:45
Yeah, there's so many, I wish I could share them all. But one of my favorites is a Farmer that was in our MailChimp account or our MailChimp classes. And he had never sent an email out. He had his outline, but hadn't actually put anything together. And so the first after the first class, when we go through kind of the basics of how to send out an email, he did that. He completed his email sent it out and he got his first order. And so he came back the following week and we were just so excited about that one order which , I was so excited for him and everybody in the class was congratulating him. And I just think that sometimes you need that little bit of push to get started. And I think it was awesome that the other Farmers were so encouraging and, you know, willing to. Wherever they were at continue to take those next steps to improve. One of my favorites from the social media side is a farm that started doing live Facebook videos after the second class, when we talk about those and they were really popular. So they started kind of a series where every week they do a Facebook live, I think it's on, Thursday, evenings. Maybe after they put their kids to bed or something and they share, you know, updates about their business or about their farm and their customers love it because they know when to expect it. They know there's going to be some kind of a promo or a giveaway or some kind of a fun announcement. And that actually became part of our best practices we share because of that farm, trying that out and having so much success with that. So, those are some of my favorites. But the sky's the limit. Every class, I feel like we have farms that take things away. And even if it's a little tip or trick that another farmer shared people are just able to continue marketing and growing. And, and that's why I love being part of it. And, why we created it in the first place. So, the Academy has been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to continuing it.
Allyssa: 20:36
For sure. What would you say be your favorite part or your favorite aspect about teaching the classes?
Valerie: 20:42
I think just the, relationships farmers build together and that they come together and share their, their best practices with one another. I love teaching what I've learned, but it's been really fun to learn from other farmers, myself and get, to hear them share, you know, their experiences and their ideas with other farmers and just. Grow together and really have a chance to talk to other people who are like-minded doing similar things I think is so refreshing. When sometimes as a farmer, it can be a bit isolating and a bit hard to find people who are doing things similarly to you So that's one of my favorite parts is just being able to kind of facilitate a environment that people can bond and share their ideas and really grow together.
Allyssa: 21:30
That's great. And I think you touched on, I mean, the learning aspect of it, not only can you teach others people with your own experience, you can learn so much by other farmers as well, so maybe share with us a little bit more about your experience as an FFA member.
Valerie: 21:45
Yeah. Well, I know there's lots of other farmers who were members as well, but for anyone who wasn't, FFA is a student led organization based on agricultural education at the local schools. And then there's leadership opportunities and just opportunities to learn about all things, agriculture. And so I'm really thankful for my time in FFA and would really credit the just even being here, talking on this, I feel like if I didn't have the experiences in FFA I had, I would probably be very nervous and stuttering more than I am. But I am just so thankful for the experience having those Ag classes and being part of all those leadership opportunities. I got to be a chapter, region, state and national officer for the organization. I just met so many awesome people. I learned so much about agriculture and about leadership and just, couldn't be more thankful for my experiences in the organization.
Allyssa: 22:41
Great, tell us a little bit more about your experience as a national officer.
Valerie: 22:45
During my time as a national officer, I was a sophomore in college. So you can actually be a member around that sophomore year of college. And I was able to travel with my five other teammates from across the United States to over 30 States and the Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. We went to Japan for 10 days and got to learn about FFJ, future farmers of Japan and just do lots of different things throughout the year on those travels, including meeting with members speaking. Teaching workshops, meeting with our agricultural partners and supporters and helping to get new supporters, things like that. And then just learning about agriculture through those visits and just seeing all of the technology and strides that are being made in agriculture. So it was just a amazing year. We got to end the year by running the national convention and seeing all the students there. There's over 600,000 members in the organization in all 50 States. It was quite the experience and I definitely wouldn't trade it for the world. Just all the lifelong friendships I made and everything. I learned about myself, about agriculture and about the organization itself. So, it was a lot of fun and would definitely encourage anyone who has young kids or who maybe is looking into getting into FFA themselves to do it because it's definitely worth it.
Allyssa: 24:12
What would you say would be your biggest takeaway with your experience in FFA?
Valerie: 24:17
Hmm. That's a tough one. Probably the skill too take every opportunity to grow and learn something new. One of my national officer teammates always said that every person you run into knows something that you might not. And so whenever we would go and do visits, especially with members, keeping that in mind was so important. Going into it realizing that this is an opportunity not only for us to serve as role models, but for also for us to just learn and build those relationships and get to know members or partners, whether it was, you know, an eighth grade member who was super shy trying to kind of get them to grow out of their shell. Or I actually got the chance to meet the president of the United States. And, you know, you have something to learn from every person. And so, I think that was one of the biggest takeaways was just to take every opportunity to grow and learn wherever I'm at, whether that's through the Academy classes now becoming a new mom or, or, any of the other things that life throws my way.
Allyssa: 25:20
Yeah, I think that's great life advice in general of, you know, just being open-minded and knowing that we can learn from each other in that. So what would you say would be your final piece of advice for farmers who are looking to, sell direct to consumers?
Valerie: 25:33
I think just to take that next step. I always try to end the Academy classes with a bit of encouragement in case anyone is overwhelmed because we do share a lot of different strategies. But I think just in general, for farmers
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 25:46
wanting to sell direct is to take that next step wherever you're at. Whether you have sold $0 in product, and you're just starting to send out that first newsletter or make that first social media post
Valerie: 25:59
or whether you're really established farm to maybe set up one of the new MailChimp offerings through the integration, or to really go forward and run some ads on social media,
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 26:10
whatever that next step looks like.
Valerie: 26:12
Continue to work on that and,
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 26:13
just do your best to communicate in an authentic way with your customers, because people always appreciate getting to know others
Valerie: 26:20
and,
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 26:21
and hearing from you.
Valerie: 26:22
So I think that would be
Valarie, Grassfed Cattle Company: 26:23
my biggest piece of advice for any farmer
Valerie: 26:26
who is selling direct.
Allyssa: 26:28
And I think that's great advice that any farmer can take that step right now. They can send out that email, they can make that blog post or that Facebook post, and it just takes the one. And then you ride the momentum from there. So implementing those small changes, I think is that's a great point for sure. What's next for Grass Fed Cattle Co.
Valerie: 26:46
Like I said that next step I think for us is to keep trying to reach new customers while serving the ones that we have wanting to continue communicating during this time when obviously that's going to be changing for our family with adding a new baby. So trying to get ready for that and have some communication ready to go and send out. But as far as products we're kind of continuing on and just trying to continue to serve our customers. We have added some new subscription boxes, including like a ground beef subscription box, people get monthly. And so just continuing to add things like that as customers ask us. Besides that for Grass Fed Cattle Company, we are really excited about some grants that we got on our farm to do research on our pastured chickens. So we have been expanding that enterprise and we'll have a lot more of that to sell for our customers, which is great because last summer we would sell out of each batch in like, 12 hours. And I felt so bad when people didn't get everything they wanted. So that'll be a big thing for this summer that we have been working hard on. And then we're also going to try to do a customer appreciation day on the farm pending COVID rules and regulations that are still in place are not in place anymore. So we're excited about those things and everything that is to come this summer.
Allyssa: 28:07
Lots of good changes, but a lot of things are happening. So I'm excited for you just to see where the rest of these year goes and your family and the farm and everything to come. So thank you so much for joining us.
Valerie: 28:20
Well, thanks for having me, Alyssa.
Allyssa: 28:21
I want to extend my thanks again to Valerie and the entire team at the Grass fed cattle Company. They are near and dear to our hearts, and they are very active with all things Barn2Door Academy. So we are very grateful for them and their time and all the expertise and knowledge they share with farmers through our Academy courses. So here at Barn2Door, we are delighted to support thousands of farmers across the country, including farmers like Valerie. And for more information on Grassfed Cattle Co, you can visit their website, www.GrassFedCattleCo.com. And to learn more about Barn2Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm, you can go to www.Barn2Door.com/Resources. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next time.