Marketing 101

Effectively marketing small farm products can allow you to reach future customers you wouldn’t be able to reach in an everyday setting. When marketing your farm products be sure to differentiate yourself from others, travel to farm-related events, and network with current and prospective buyers. 

Below are some questions to ask when developing your marketing plan. 

What is your product?
How do you need to promote the business/product? 
Who is your target audience? 
What social media outlets would be most beneficial to your business/product? 
Who are your competitors? 
What goals do you want to achieve when marketing your business/product? 

Along with the questions listed above, here are some key marketing tactics that you need to understand to be successful and should incorporate into your marketing plan. 

1)    Content Marketing 
Content marketing is forming creative content that will inform your audience. With creative content that works, you will build an audience and establish the needs of your audience. 
Coke’s “Share a Coke” campaign is a great example of content marketing. Coke took popular names of people and put them on coke cans/bottles. People loved it and everyone began to talk about Coke. 

2)    Social Media Marketing 
Social media marketing is using social media outlets to collect an organic reach. By using social media you are able to create brand awareness, create a “community” and get your product in front of someone by just sharing something on social media. 
Examples of social media marketing are using user-generated content, humor, cross-channel marketing, videos, and visual and eye-appealing graphics. 

3)    Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a skill that improves your website’s search rankings and drives traffic to your website. 
An example of search engine optimization is googling keywords such as “farming, loans, rural homes, and Central Florida. By googling these keywords Farm Credit of Central Florida will come up when those words are searched. SEO can allow you to be more frequent in people’s searches. 

4)    Public Relations 
Active public relations efforts allow you to build relationships with customers online and in person. Effective public relations efforts will ensure that what people think about your business and products are all or mostly positive.
Building public relations could be simply reaching out to customers with a small gift or responding to a comment/message that was left on a social media post. Making that person feel like you have an interest or care for them will make them want to share their experience with others. Responding also allows others to see you being involved.  

5)    Influencer Marketing 
Influencer marketing is word of mouth from previous customers. Meaning your business/product is good enough that others promote it for you. 
Pepsi did a campaign involving emojis and saying the #SayItWithPepsi hashtag. With this campaign, they targeted millennials for social media engagements. 

Marketing is an important aspect of owning and running a business. Without marketing, you are unable to find new customers as well as sell your product.