Take my 5-Day CSA Startup Challenge - Are you looking for help setting up your first season of CSA? Then join my CSA Starter Challenge. Over the course of 5 days, I walk you through the first 5 key decisions you need to make as you set up the groundwork of your CSA. Each day you receive an email with a teaching video and a small bite-size homework assignment that gets you started on your CSA creation journey! A few months ago, I booked a room on AirBnB for a vacation home in Washington D.C. I was struck by how powerful the product listing was in helping me make my decision on which home to book. It occurred to me that these home owners created an "offer" in their listing, and I was looking for certain information over others to help me make my choice. We can learn a lot about how to create compelling offers from AirBnB... If you're a CSA farmer having trouble selling your CSA shares to new customers, perhaps the issue is that you haven't created a compelling enough offer. Building a clear and irresistible CSA membership package is tough at first! What do you talk about? What features do you bring up? In today's episode, I share a recording of one of my workshops from the 5-Day CSA Startup Challenge I ran in January, 2023. This training taught what elements to include in your CSA package, and what to talk about in your CSA's product description of your store. It was so good and densely packed with value, that I decided to repurpose it on this podcast. If you're a brand-new CSA farmer, use this training to help you write out your CSA description and map out what's included in the CSA membership package. If you're NOT a CSA farmer, you can use this content to help you optimize your product listing for your other products. 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 Some of the resources mentioned in this episode: Join my free email list! I have a great "email onboarding sequence" 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.  Register for my webinar called “The 3 Mistakes CSA Rookie Farmers Make (And How to Avoid Them).” You can register at www.mydigitalfarmer.com/rmasterclass — and select from the time options available each week. This is a free webinar, designed to help “new” CSA farmers learn the framework for a profitable and resilient CSA.     

196 How to Create A Compelling CSA Membership Offer & Product Description

A website header is the first thing that visitors see when they visit a site, and it appears on every page of the site. How does yours look? I liken the header to the front page of a newspaper. Customers will make split-second decisions about whether to keep researching your business, based on the information in your header. Clients are often looking for key information in your header. We want to make it easy for them to find this stuff so they don't abandon your site (and you lose the sale). In today's episode, I share the 8 key elements that help website headers convert. Many of these are simple tweaks. I want you to tune in, and do a quick audit of your own website, to see how you score. Then, later today, go to your website and make ONE change based on what you heard today. Join my free 5-Day CSA Startup Challenge. Running live January 16-22, 2023, I'm sharing a different CSA startup concept each day, coaching you through what key decisions you need to make on the front end, to set you up for success. Use this challenge to get you unlocked, and start your first CSA the right way! This challenge will be something you can join ANYTIME -- not just during the live launch. When you subscribe, you'll get an email every day for 5 days, to drip out the recording of the training and homework challenge assignment. Join my CSA Academy membership - For $19 a month, you get access to all the digital resources, cheatsheets, and tools I share with my CSA members to help them become "masters" fast. You can download the guides and use them as your own for as long as you're a paying member. Try out your first month for $1 using the coupon code TRIAL.

194 What Should Be in Your Website Header

Fresh cut flowers and meat? It's an interesting product mix for a farm business! In today's episode, I introduce you to Farmer Anna Hankins of Over the Moon Flowers, who shares how she targets these two distinct buyers into her sales funnel, and gets them to buy. We cover what marketing channel gives her the most punch, how she uses Shopify to sell her products, as well as her excellent website messaging. She's got LOADS of marketing ideas you can apply to your own farm business -- whether you're doing flowers, meat, or veggies. 

193 Marketing a Flower and Meat Farm with Anna Hankins

Need help starting a vegetable CSA? Register for my free CSA webinar "The Three Mistakes Rookie CSA Farmers Make (And How to Avoid Them)" at www.mydigitalfarmer.com/masterclass When you're a brand-new farm business, it's hard to break into the market. You can't just throw your product onto a website and hope people will buy it. First, you have to make people aware you exist, get them to take a second look, build a relationship so they trust you, get them on your email list, and finally serve them up an initial offer that's compelling enough. So how do you make people aware you exist? Today's guest is a long-time farmer who is making the switch from wholesale to direct-to-consumer markets, and he is working through ALL the things a "new" business goes through trying to establish brand awareness. This podcast is part interview/ part consulting call, where you get to listen behind the scenes as we talk around this question: How do you get the word out to the world that you exist?  This podcast brings up so many good marketing points -- especially if you're a new business. My guest also shares a couple of gems that I've never explored that could be REALLY effective in your marketing.  Tyler mentions a tool called Bonjoro, which allows you embed video testimonials into your website. (VERY COOL IDEA!) Check out all the show notes at www.mydigitalfarmer.com/195

195 How to Build Brand Awareness as a New Farm Business

With all the ideas you hear from this podcast and other marketing gurus, you may be feeling overwhelmed as you try to find time to build your own marketing system. You might be thinking: "There's no way I can do that!" If you're not careful, you can easily start to feel like a failure when your strategy seems insufficient or imperfect compared to what you hear "other people" doing. But what if imperfect and incomplete is "good enough?" I share with you the concept of "minimal viable marketing." Is there such a thing? How can you stop the comparison trap and find your "good enough"? Are you a rookie CSA farmer looking for wisdom to set up your first CSA the right way? Register for my free webinar "The 3 Mistakes Rookie CSA Farms Make And How to Avoid Them" this week! There are time options every day, and a replay if you miss it! Register here.

[Rebroadcast] Good Enough Marketing

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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline It's the end of the year, and that means it's time for the end of year evaluation and goal setting retreat! Crickets. Wait... you don't DO an end-of-year evaluation or goal setting?.... LOL. If not, I SO get it. Don't beat yourself up. But today, I'm going to inspire you to give it another try. I used to avoid this process too -- partly because I didn't have a good process that worked for me. That all changed when I found these evaluation questions. And in today's podcast, I'm going to share them with you. I basically use a series of 12 questions. (I share 9 of them with you today). I spend two separate days journaling on them for about two hours each time. That's a total of 4 hours. (Don't worry... if journaling isn't your thing, I suggest another way to do it in the show). In this episode, I walk you through 9 questions and flesh out examples of what kinds of answers you're looking for. By the time you've really worked through these, I PROMISE YOU that the answers to question #7 "What are your goals for next year" will be pretty clear to you. I love how these questions bring up so many discoveries, limiting beliefs, desires, direction, and clarity for me. I hope it works for you too. I encourage you to listen to my episode in its entirety. Then book some time this week to work through the questions -- make the process your own. See what comes up for you. Then tell me what you came up with! I'd love to hear one idea... email me or shoot me a DM @mydigitalfarmer on Instagram. Here are the questions I journal through: PART 1 - do these on day one (2 hours)  List everything that has happened to you in the last 12 months related to your business? What are the lessons from those experiences that you can take into next year? What do you want to do more of? What do you want to do less of? What are you still holding onto from last year that is taking up space? And what will there be room for when you let that go? (Think physically, relationally, feelings, possessions, time sucks, mindsets and limiting beliefs) What are your 5% revenue generating activities?  PART 2 -- do these on day two (2 hours)  What do you want? (Think outside your business. What else do you want for your life?) What are your goals for next year? What results do you want to produce? (This could include elements of your personal life too). What specific measure will you use to know that your objective has been realized? What new habits will you have to adopt to win your game? (Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?)  Some of the resources mentioned in this epi

191 Evaluating Your Year & Setting New Goals for Your Business (My Process)

Ever wonder how to incorporate text messaging into your farm business? This question comes up a LOT from farmers who are trying to find a way to attract new clients AND get them to buy from their store on a regular basis. With open rates of text messages being so high, an SMS app can be a great investment for your marketing budget. In today's episode, I interview Aubrey Seiler from BetterTogetherFarm.com. She shares exactly how she attracts new customers to her business using an SMS texting app called Community. You'll hear examples of the kinds of messages she sends to connect with her clients and get them to buy within an hour each week. She also breaks down her website messaging, as well as her e-commerce platform features that matter most. Who is Aubrey Seiler? Aubrey helps run the family farm business started by her younger brother 10 years ago. BetterTogetherFarm.com is located in south-central Oklahoma. They grow around 30 vegetable varieties on 3 acres using intensive growing practices, and are certified organic. Their farm provides produce for families in their local communities and wholesale accounts in Oklahoma City.  Community Texting App -- Aubrey uses this SMS texting app to manage her customers. 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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

190 Using Text Messaging to Drive Online Sales - Interview with Aubrey Seiler

In this week's episode, I wanted to share a very cool Thanksgiving project we did last year called "Feed the Need" bags. It served as a way for us to donate our produce to people in need, but USE OUR CUSTOMERS as the vehicle to do so. We found that this initiative created so much momentum and positive goodwill in our community. We were going to give the food away anyway.... but to invite our customers to be the ones who personally gave it away, and to see them get energized and generous -- that was powerful!      It actually ended up creating a lot of revenue for us too -- although that was not the goal. It drove people to the store to claim a bag. Then while they were there, they ended up buying other things. I was reminded of the principle that when you are generous, the blessing comes back to you ten-fold. This was definitely the case. Take a listen to hear how it works, and I challenge you to find a way to use this idea in our own business. Multiply your generosity by channeling the power of your customers!    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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline    This podcast was sponsored by my free CSA webinar called “The 3 Mistakes CSA Rookie Farmers Make (And How to Avoid Them).”You can register at www.mydigitalfarmer.com/rookie — and select from multiple time options available each week. This is a free webinar, designed to help “new” CSA farmers learn the framework for a profitable and resilient CSA.    

Multiplying Your Farm's Generosity: My Feed the Need Bag Project

So many farms fail to be profitable simply because they don't have a good handle on their finances. To be a profitable business, you need to know how to build a budget, keep track of your numbers, and be able to pivot your business to meet your revenue goals. But what numbers matter? Oftentimes, a new farmer has no idea how to make sense of a financial report. What benchmarks should we be aiming for when it comes to expenses? What percentages are industry standards? How do I know if I'm way off "the norm"? Today's podcast guest is Taylor Bridges from Bridging the Gap Financial Services. She helps farmers with the overwhelming task of book-keeping. I ask her the powerful money questions we're all wanting to know -- like how to read financial reports, what data to be measuring, and how to make the numbers show a profit. She answers questions like, "What percent of your farm budget should be going towards rent/mortgage?" What common mistakes are farmers making when setting up their books and financials? How can we get rid of the financial anxiety of "not knowing our numbers" that leads to bad business decision? 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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

Farm Accounting ~ Knowing the Numbers that Matter with Taylor Bridges

How do you get someone to buy your product? Well, it all starts with a "good offer." What does that mean? "Crafting the offer" gets its own module in marketing school, because it's THAT important. There are strategies for what goes into an offer that makes people convert. And in today's episode, we dissect those elements in details. My guest is Michael Kilpatrick, host of the Thriving Farmer podcast, and he is a MASTER at creating offers. He's interviewed hundreds of farmers and consulted with dozens of farms in his lifetime -- he's seen so many examples of irresistible offers at work. He's also in the process of building out his own micro-enterprises on his own new-ish farm, Farm on Central. I ask him to break down his marketing strategy, and you'll learn a lot of cutting-edge ideas he's using right now to grow his own new farm business to $1 million in revenue. 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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline   Join me December 1-4, for Thriving Farmer's FREE annual Online Farm Summit. Every year, Michael Kilpatrick's team at GrowingFarmers.com puts together an awesome lineup of guests for a 3-day summit. This year's topic focus is all about "Adding Income to your Farm" -- creative ways to bring in more revenue -- including a focus on Value-Added products.  You’ll learn from 37+ different speakers innovative ways of working less and profiting more from your farm enterprise!  This virtual conference is free, as long as you watch it live. (You'll be given a chance to pre-purchase an all-access pass which gives you "forever access" to the recording of the whole event for a low price!)  Reserve your free pass to this virtual event here: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/summit     

The Elements of an Irresistible Offer - Interview with Michael Kilpatrick

Every year, I run an "early renewal" promotion to my CSA members, to try and get as many of them as possible to sign up for next summer's CSA season. Getting them locked in early gives me a sense of security and peace of mind -- not to mention enough cash flow for the spring. But how do I do it?  In this week's podcast, I perform an audit of this year's CSA Early Renewal Campaign that I launched this fall. It ran for 8 days from October 15-22, 2022, and got 85% of my members to renew (and pay) for 2023. I'm sharing the marketing principles that were at play in making this one of my most successful promotions to date. You'll learn why I'm now so confident that I can generate these sales -- even with an $80 price increase! Whether you're a CSA farmer or not, there are some gems hiding inside this episode, that can help you get your customer to buy when you want them to. 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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

The Marketing Principles Behind My CSA Early Renewal Campaign

A few months ago, I made a HUGE leap and decided to invest in a leadership coach. I had gotten to a point in my business where I felt like what was holding me back most was my mindset. I kept hearing my mentors say things like, "Mindset is everything." But how do you find a life coach who will actually get results, when I'm not even sure what results I want? Enter Rebekah Zimmerman. Rebekah is the coach at TrailBlazersgrowth.com. I got on a discovery call with her, and 2 days later, I hired her. In the last 4 months since I started working with her, I have manifested so many impossible goals. I'm now a big believer in "mindset coaching." In this episode today, you get to be a fly on the wall and listen in on one of my coaching sessions with Rebekah. If you've ever wondered what goes on in a coaching call, this is your chance to see one in action. You'll see what fears I struggle with in a real-life scenario I am working on in my business. Afterwards, I also interview Rebekah, and we talk through what coaching is, how it's structured, and how the coach-client relationship works to get results. Learn more about Rebekah or book a discovery call at www.trailblazersgrowth.com Listen to Rebekah's podcast: Trailblazing Growth 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: DIGITALFARMER2022. Head to this special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline

185 Inside a Coaching Session with MY Leadership Coach

Here's a powerful marketing principle: The more you say something, the more likely your customer will remember it (and believe it). For example: What is GEICO known for?... If you've ever seen one of their commercials, you know the answer: it's car insurance. But interestingly, GEICO also sells all kinds of other insurance too. But it only promotes the car insurance messaging. It keeps things simple and clear. And it beats that drum so we associate them with car insurance. The next time I'm shopping for car insurance, I'll think of GEICO... and that's the goal. Repetition is a very popular (and powerful) marketing technique. Brands use it all the time because it's based on psychology and brain science, and because it works. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to use repetitive messages to guide your customer to where you want them to go and what you want them to believe. What if it's just as simple as being a broken record for a few key messages?... What would yours be?

184 Using the Power of Repetition in Your Marketing

Does your website need a makeover? Or maybe you don't have one at all?! Then this episode is for you! If you own a farm business, you need a website. But many farmers feel overwhelmed when it comes to building one from scratch. What do you need to think about before you start the process of writing, rewriting or restructuring the messaging and look? Where do you start? My guest today is Tricia Phelps from Taste the Local Difference. She is the CEO of a marketing agency for farmers, and her staff builds websites all the time. She is sharing her 3 best tips for building a better website. How do you choose the platform? Should you do it yourself? How much does it cost if you outsource it? What elements should be on your website? How do you write the words on the page? What do you say? How do you make it beautiful? And how do you keep the tech from overwhelming you? We cover these questions in more! Take a listen!

183 How to Give Your Farm Website a Makeover with Tricia Phelps of Taste the Local Difference

I love interviewing other CSA farmers and learning their sales secrets. Today I introduce you to Karin Velez from Wolf Creek Family Farm. Karin has been farming for 15 years as a CSA farm, and she somehow manages to keep her members coming back over and over -- so much so that she doesn't even offer open enrollment anymore. You can only get in if you're on a wait list. What are her secrets to finding these kinds of loyal clients and making them superfans? Her story is inspiring, and you'll hear tried-and-true principles that you can use for your own business. What if we're making our marketing more complicated than it needs to be? Tune in for her wisdom!

182 Meet a CSA That's Always Sold Out - Interview with Karin Velez

In this episode, I announce the release of my new Small Group Coaching program for farmers called Acclerator. Think of it like "marketing school meets group coaching." I'm taking 5-15 growth-mindset farmers who are ready to build their marketing assets one by one, one month at a time. This experience will last for 3 months this winter (Nov, Jan, Feb). It's made up of virtual teaching workshops, group coaching hot seats, resource drops, incredible farmers, and mastermind sessions... I made this podcast to explain how it works, so I can send future interested parties here. If you want to join this incredible group of farmers and work closely with me this winter to upgrade your marketing assets, listen to this episode. I walk through it ALL. Enroll now at www.mydigitalfarmer.com/coaching -- while there's still room. Enrollment closes October 15.

181 What is Accelerator? My Small Group Coaching Program!

I get this question a lot from farmers... "What should I focus on first in my marketing strategy?" After 15 years of running a farm business (and learning this stuff the hard way), I feel like I can offer a pretty solid "list" of the marketing "assets" that pack the biggest punch.  In this episode, I share what they are. It's not a short list. The goal of this episode is not to intimidate you or overwhelm you. (I didn't make all these in one year either!) But having the checklist will give you clarity and direction! You'll know what things to start working on.  Remember: Slow and steady wins the race. Build these a few at a time, and one day you'll wake up and notice that your sales system is humming like a well-oiled machine.  I share a LOT of links to past episodes in this podcast too, so you can follow up on the marketing asset of your choice and go dive in deep.  Get your checklist and marching order in this episode! Ready?... Let's go!

180 The Most Important Marketing Assets to Build in Your Business

What if there were a Farm Marketing "Bible" that spelled out all the best practices to help market to your customers online? Farmers are expected to know everything about how to run a business - including sales and marketing. But knowing where to start can be overwhelming -- especially if you're not trained in this skill set. Enter Nina Galle from Local Line. In her role as the Content Creator at the leading e-commerce platform for farmers, she began to see common themes among the 'successful' farm accounts using their software system. She began to ask the question, "What if I could take the lessons from these successful farms and put them into a marketing handbook?" The result was an amazing new book called Ready Farmer One -- a comprehensive A to Z guide on how farmers should market to their customers. I call it the Farm Marketing Bible. In this podcast, I interview the co-author of  Ready Farmer One: The Farmer's Guide to create, Design, and Market an Online Farm Store. This is a resource that farmers can pick up any time to learn the different key  marketing elements that need to be optimized in your farm marketing machine. Rather than reading it from front to back, it's actually designed to be more of a "pick and choose" guide. Need help on how to master email marketing?... find the chapter about how to do email marketing the right way. The best part of the book are the transcripts of actual interviews with the farmers that were interviewed during the research phase. These stories will inspire you to see how you can take the principles of the book and put them into practice in a real-world business. I HIGHLY recommend this book for every farmer doing direct marketing.  Grab it here!

179 Meet the Author of Ready Farmer One ~ My Farm Marketing Bible

What is the secret behind my CSA's incredibly loyal fan base? How are we scoring a 93% retention rate every year? What if it's not about the vegetables? In today's episode, I interview my MVP, Cadie Jardin. Cadie is a member of my farm team. We call her our "CSA Coach," and her job is to make sure my CSA members feel supported in their quest to become successful foodies and local eaters. She also manages our CSA's private Facebook group, and creates weekly video training content for my tribe, as well as recipes. In this interview, we peel back the layers of customer support in our CSA. We talk through the challenges that new CSA rookies face and how we guide them through the 3-year journey to mastery. We talk about the power of the membership community in helping them along. And we give specifics on what kind of content will move the needle forward for your customers. This conversation will give you a new perspective on what your customer is thinking, what they NEED, and what they actually WANT from you.  Want some help building your CSA Early Renewal Sign-Up Promotion so that your members renew their share when you want them to?... Sign up for my online course: "CSA Early Bird Campaigns that Convert" I'll teach you how to build an irresistible offer for your members that gets them running to the online store to renew their membership when you want them to....

178 The Secret Behind My CSA Customer Success: I Interview my CSA Coach Cadie Jardin

Somebody buys your product. Then what happens?...  Many business owners think that the work of sales and marketing is now over. The customer bought the product, and now we're done. Wrong. In today's episode, I talk about the VERY important phase of the sales process called "product fulfillment." I share lots of examples of what this can look like, and why spending just a few hours optimizing your workflow in this area can lead to WAY more profits. Sometimes it can take a while for your product to deliver its promise. You need to be there guiding the way, to make sure it happens. If your product consistently delivers quality results, your customers will come back again and again... AND they'll refer new clients to you. That translates to more profits. Sometimes the fastest way to grow your revenue is just to make sure you're delivering a quality result every time. This episode will help you think through this process. WORTH EVERY SECOND. Listen now.

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