Webinar: Selling Meat at Farmers Markets

Farmers markets offer a unique opportunity for local farmers and producers to connect directly with consumers, showcasing their products and building relationships within the community.

In a recent webinar featuring experienced farmers market vendors, Teresa from West Forty Market and Victoria from Farm Marketing Mentor share insightful strategies on maximizing success and boosting sales at farmers markets. 

Watch the recording below or scroll down for a summary and full transcript.

Maximizing Product Visibility and Sales at Farmers Markets

One crucial aspect highlighted by both Teresa and Victoria is the importance of effective product presentation to attract customers and drive sales. Utilizing equipment like freezers and refrigerators to keep products fresh, using eye-catching displays with visual aids like pictures and samples, and creating accessible product layouts all contribute to maximizing product visibility and increasing sales.

Effective Farmers Market Marketing Strategies:

The power of social media in marketing cannot be overstated, as reinforced by the experts. From posting about specials and engaging with customers through live videos to maintaining a consistent social media presence, leveraging platforms like Facebook and email marketing can significantly boost customer engagement and drive sales. Implementing a fear of missing out strategy, offering samples, and providing recipe cards are also effective tactics recommended by Teresa to attract and retain customers.

Choosing the Right Farmers Market:

Selecting the appropriate farmers market to participate in can significantly impact sales success. It is essential to consider factors such as market size, vendor support, and the potential for customer engagement when deciding where to showcase products. Instead of attending multiple markets, focusing on a few and excelling in those can lead to better results, as emphasized by the speakers.

Innovative Display Techniques:

Creating visually appealing displays that engage customers and highlight products is key to standing out at farmers markets. Strategies such as adding height to displays using wooden crates, using rustic and unique items for attention, and simplifying the bulk buying process for customers can all contribute to drawing in potential buyers and increasing sales.

Utilizing Online Platforms to Supplement your Farmers Market Sales:

Post-pandemic, online sales have become increasingly prevalent in the agricultural industry. Setting up an online store through platforms like ChopLocal can provide convenience for customers and expand market reach. Starting small and gradually scaling up, focusing on building relationships with customers, and utilizing online platforms for marketing needs were all noted as valuable strategies by the speakers.

Maintaining Farmers Market Customer Relationships:

Building and sustaining relationships with customers is essential for long-term success at farmers markets. Implementing loyalty programs, offering personalized customer service, and staying connected through email marketing and social media help foster customer loyalty and drive repeat business.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, succeeding at farmers markets requires a combination of innovative strategies, effective marketing techniques, and a focus on customer engagement. By leveraging expert advice and implementing actionable tips like maximizing product visibility, choosing the right market, and utilizing online platforms, farmers and producers can enhance their sales and build a loyal customer base. With dedication, creativity, and a customer-centric approach, success at farmers markets is within reach for all aspiring vendors.

Full Transcript:

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:00:00]:
Thanks so much for joining us today. We're excited to be hosting another webinar with two really knowledgeable folks in our field, Theresa and Victoria. And we'll give them a chance to introduce themselves here in a second. But first, we always like to share a little bit about chop local and what we're about. So Chop Local is an online farmers market specifically for meat. And so if you are interested in developing an online store for your small farm or locker butcher shop, we'd love to be able to help you with that. If you're interested in this, we encourage you to visit our website for farmers and those that are interested in selling at sell dot choplocal.com and fill out our vendor inquiry form. And we'll go ahead and get in contact with you and talk to you about what it's like to be a vendor on chop Local.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:01:00]:
In addition to that, we also encourage you to sign up for our emails at Cell dot choplocal.com. and if you haven't been able to view some of our previous webinars, you can find the recordings for those as well on our website. So encourage you to check that out and always reach out if you have any questions. But with that, we kind of want to get right into it and introduce you to our two speakers. And I'm actually going to let them talk a little bit about themselves and their experience with farmers markets and knowledge that they have in that area. So first off, we'll let Victoria go ahead and introduce herself and tell us a little bit about what she knows about farmers markets.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:01:41]:
Sure.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:01:42]:
Yeah.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:01:42]:
Thanks, Sydney. So my name is Victoria. Thanks for having me today. I come from the on farm market and agri tourism side of the world. Of course, starting out, we did farmers markets and things like that as well. So in the beginning, I was with this farm for about eight years. And I say that past tense because I've sent separated from the operation and now am a coach for small farms that sell direct to consumers. So same niche, just a little bit of a different role.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:02:12]:
But the farm operation was very heavy on getting people to the farm. When we first started out, I was, you know, two years out of high school, so farmers markets were our go to. And we started that way because we didn't really have a storefront, didn't have a place. So we did the weekend traveling, the setup, the tear down, the whole nine yards. And then we eventually transitioned and realized that, you know, we wanted a home base, we wanted a brick and mortar. And so our farm was a two car garage that we turned into a storefront. And it just, over the years, grew and grew and grew. So, eventually, we transitioned from farmers markets in that environment to being on farm, which is super cool and comes with a whole nother realm of things.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:02:58]:
But farmers market really is our core. So eight years of doing that, and now I'm in the space, still connected with small farms, still an ag, just as a coach to help other people, other farmers, with their marketing and kind of everything, farm to consumer, because it is so niche. Awesome.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:03:21]:
And, Teresa, share a little bit about yourself as well.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:03:25]:
Yeah, absolutely. It's really fun to see my old farmer's market tent right there. So my name is Theresa Davis. Thank you so much for having me. I own western 40 market in Ankeny, Iowa, and I have a little bit of a different background as well. Kind of like Victoria. Some of it might have been just accidental for. For both of us, the way we stumbled into things.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:03:44]:
But, um, I grew up on a farm, um, my parents farm. And it was just a hobby farm at the time. And so when I graduated from high school, I came down to Des Moines, um, and I just slowly started to kind of get into sharing it with my friends, all of that, and decided in about 2015 to do the Des Moines farmers market. So that was kind of my intro to farmers markets. Had absolutely no idea what I was doing. But I did that for going on five seasons before the pandemic hit. And so I would sell all of our individual cuts of beef there specifically, so just a small little stand like you see there in that picture. And then the entire time, I was working a corporate job.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:04:22]:
So this was not my full time job by any means. It was just kind of a little side hustle on the weekends to hopefully build into what I'm actually doing now. So, pandemic hit, and I unfortunately got laid off from my, or maybe fortunately got laid off from my corporate job, um, and decided that it was just kind of my push out the door to start something else. And so I built or started a actual brick and mortar shop where people can come in and they can shop individual cuts of meat. So I've got beef, pork, chicken, bison, lamb, turkey. It's all raised in Iowa, um, depending on the time of year support, between five and seven Iowa farmers here in our store. And then we have over a dozen other local businesses in Iowa that we support with honeys and jams and sauces and rubs and all sorts of other things that we carry here, even produce in the summertime. And so for me, like, I said, I had a 16 year corporate job and just kind of did the farmers market on the side, but learned a lot and learned a lot to be able to kind of transition into an actual retail storefront, which is what Im doing now.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:05:22]:
So I have a lot of passion with the farmers markets because its obviously how I got started. And then I also still do farmers markets. So we have some events this summer that we're going to be part of, and then we do the Ankeny farmers market as well, where we have a booth every Saturday.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:05:36]:
So awesome. Well, thank you both so much for joining us. I know you both have a lot of collective experiences that'll really provide a lot of great ideas for our participants here today. So with that, we'll kind of get into the q and a portion of today's webinar. I know with Q and A's we can kind of, you know, sometimes veer in a different direction. So if that happens, I think we're all completely good with that. So feel free to just put your questions in the chat, and we'll kind of lead this in whatever direction is most beneficial to the participants. So the first question here, Teresa, we'll kind of start with you.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:06:21]:
So you sold frozen meat at the farmer's market, um, kind of by yourself, so. And you did the setup and tear down just, just with a team of one, really. So can you share more about how you manage that?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:06:34]:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I did, yeah, it was just me. Um, I get everything prepared on Friday nights. Um, I have a little like a promaster van. I should have sent you guys a picture maybe to pop up there, but it's actually got, uh, it's got a little Tommy gate on the back. A lift, basically, is what it is. And so I would fill my chest freezer full. That, and I had somebody, um, put wheels on the bottom of it for me that were welded in really, really good so it could, it could constantly be moving with hundreds of pounds of meat inside.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:07:04]:
And I literally just rolled that thing right up and put it in the van, would secure it in there, and everything else that you saw there in that previous picture would go into that van. So I'd load up at about 430, quarter to five every Saturday morning, head down to the market and unload, set up it. You know, obviously it took a couple of times to kind of really get the hang of things, but I tried to simplify stuff as much as possible. So all the meat was in, you know, the freezer, and I didn't have multiple different coolers um, I tried to have just my setup be very simple and to the point of what I was. What I was trying to get across, and that helped me just be able to do it all on my own as well, too. So, um, yeah, that's. That's kind of how I. How I did it.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:07:46]:
I feel like I'm still tired after all those years ago, but it's a lot of work. I see some setups now. Sorry to cut you off. I see some setups now that, like, multiple coolers and even, like, those pull behind trailers, like those more industrial, I don't know, like a glorified almost wagon, basically, that people use to kind of pull those. And that works just great, too. But I felt like the freezer was wonderful because I was able to also plug that in. So the Des Moines farmers market, I had a cute little generator that was pretty quiet that sat behind me that I plugged the deep freeze into. The current market that I'm at has an actual electrical outlet for me to use, which is great.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:08:20]:
So that actually stays plugged in the entire time and keeps everything nice and cold, especially in the hot summer days. And then I can serve it out of there, get it out of there for the customer to take with them.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:08:30]:
Yeah, perfect. And if. If you didn't catch this on the last slide, here was Victoria's setup, and you can also see her little freezer up here. So it is kind of nice that your. Your customers could see in the freezer. So, yeah, I just wanted to point that out.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:08:47]:
My little guy was an actual cooler, a reach in a grab and go cooler that I had set up for customers that just had, like, three or four shelves on it. So all the main items are really popular items I would put in there, like the steaks and the ground beef, because it would get really, really busy sometimes. And so a lot of customers, especially once they became regulars, really liked the option of just let me grab what I need, and I'll stand in line then and wait to check out. But then they didn't have to wait for me to pull out of the freezer what. What they wanted and stuff like that, too. So that was really helpful, too. And that was kind of a later on down the line when I got that little refrigerator, but that was really helpful to have that.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:09:22]:
Awesome.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:09:22]:
Theresa, did you find that you would sell more products of what people could see in the glass?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:09:29]:
Yep. Yeah, I did. And I actually went to in the summertime, and I still do it here at my store. I vacuum seal all the steaks. I don't usually do it year round because it's expensive, but I would vacuum seal all the steaks so that they could actually see the cuts that they were getting and. Yes, absolutely. So, like I said, when I, you know, I would make sure all the really popular cuts, most of the steaks and stuff like that were in there, because to your point, Victoria, people could see that. And that also, for some reason, having that little fridge right there that lit up, just draw.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:09:58]:
It drew a lot of attention to, you know, people would be like, oh, what's in there? And they could actually just stand there and kind of look at it, and then they'd reach in and grab what they wanted. So.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:10:07]:
Awesome. That's great. And so, Victoria, what did you talk about what you sold at farmers markets and how maybe your transportation and setup was different than Teresa's?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:10:19]:
Yeah.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:10:20]:
So when I started out at farmers markets, we did a lot of, like, spring and fall markets. So a lot more of, like, the bedding plants and the hanging baskets, light produce to start out. So we actually used our cattle trailer, of course, cleaned out, but that's how we would haul everything in it, and then that's what people would be able to go into to, like, shop, per se. So that way, like, we didn't really have to unload everything. It was just in the trailer. You could, you know, pull down a hanging basket, the plants, whatever you needed. Of course, we'd put stuff on the outside as well. So it was nice because, you know, our trailer had the, like, ramp so people could just go straight up.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:10:59]:
And so same thing. Like, just trying to be that really efficient, like, not having to unload crate after crate after crate and things like that. But the trailer worked well for us because starting out, it was something that we had. We didn't have to go buy a landscaping trailer or something else to haul. So just in the beginning stages, it was very much like, okay, we don't have the money to go and buy something fancy or do it. Like, we need to get there. We need to use what we have. And honestly, people loved it because a lot of our customers.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:11:34]:
I'm in an area where we could be a half hour to a fairly large city, of course, farm in a rural area. But stepping outside of our bubble was people who had never seen a cattle trailer before. So going to these markets with that simple to us, but brand new to these people, it was like, oh, what's that? It's something different. Kind of like the cooler lighting up. Like, it's just that one little thing that's like, oh, let's check that out. That's different. So we never really did the transporting of meats and things like that. By the time we got to selling meats, we knew that we were transitioning to the brick and mortar.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:12:11]:
So not a lot of experience on my end from, like, transporting meats back and forth, but the efficiency, 100%, ten out of ten, if you can travel with it and use whatever you're hauling to display, that's the way to go.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:12:28]:
Yeah. So transitioning into the next question leading up to the market, in the day of the market itself, how did you both use social media to enhance your farmers market preference?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:12:44]:
Victoria, you want to go first? You want me to? Sure.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:12:47]:
Yeah, might as well. So I always put emphasis on social media and that part of marketing towards the end of the week. So Thursday, I would start talking about kind of any bundles or specials or whatever that looked like anything special for that weekend. I would start talking about it on Thursday. Fridays, I would do a live video, which is really scary for some people who are starting out on social media, because putting your face on camera is scary, talking is scary. So it's kind of a little bit of a hurdle that a lot of farmers have. But the live videos were actually a huge success for us, and it was especially successful during COVID because people were stuck at home. And every video that I would do, I would be blown away by the amount of people that would actually watch and tune in because I'm sitting there thinking, I don't have this free time.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:13:39]:
Like, I'm scrambling. Can barely do this video. But our customers and people buying from us did have that free time. They were sitting there waiting kind of, for that update to see what we had for the weekend. So posting Thursday about what was coming for the weekend, a live video on Friday, talking about the same exact things. Just actually seeing a person and talking really kind of connects with your customers on a different level. And then, of course, Saturday, Sunday, actual, like, sales days, always reminding people of, hey, here's when we're open today. Hey, here's what we have.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:14:17]:
Here's the specials. Like, very much repetitive Thursday through Sunday. And then the beginning of the week for socials is just more of, like, your fun, random content to keep people engaged, but definitely heavy focused on kind of sales availability when and where people could buy. Thursday through Sunday, pretty much, yeah, absolutely.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:14:40]:
I would agree with that. And I. The only thing I'll add to that, too, is as we kind of talk through this is the. I do a lot of the FoMo things. So on Sunday or Monday, I'll post pictures of, like, the empty freezer or the fact that we ran out of this one item, you know, or something like that, because a lot of people see that and then they're like, oh, wow. So a lot of people buy from her, or a lot of people really, you know, really like what they have. So not to say, not to scare people away necessarily that you ran out of something, but, you know, hey, don't worry. We're restocking right now.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:15:10]:
We're busy with it. But you guys, you know, sold us out of these three items or something like that. So I would really tout that a lot after the fact. And I agree with all of Victoria's points, you know, really leading up to it, I will be perfectly honest and say I did not realize the, how wonderful social media was and the impact it had until after I no longer did farmers markets and I had my storefront, and then I really started using social media a lot more when I, before I started, before I opened my storefront and leading up to, like, my grand opening and stuff like that, I used Facebook a ton. I'm still, I'm still really digging into Instagram and kind of figuring that piece out and growing my audience there. But Facebook just really blew up, and I used it a lot. I put the actual events out there. I recommend doing that.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:15:53]:
So if it's kickoff to the farmers market season, actually create an event for your customers to join and say, I'm going, yep, I'm going. I can't wait. And create a lot of enthusiasm, because when your customers do that, especially if they have public profiles on social media, their followers and their friends see that as well. They see that they're going to these events. Or if you have, you know, a handful of people that shop from you and that are huge supporters, simply ask them to share it. Ask them to share it on their social media page. I've gotten just a ton of traction from what I call influencers, which a lot of them are just my friends or people that I've met through my business that support me. And I say, hey, in exchange for maybe 10% off, you know, your, your cuts of meat when you come in, will you always share when you're at my store? Will you always share during the week when you're cooking with whatever you just bought? And then their followers and their audience sees that, and it just kind of snowballs from that standpoint.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:16:47]:
So, yeah, I mean, I know that it's scary. And I'm still learning a lot. There's a lot of pointers that even Victor, I've learned off of Victoria by following her in the last six to eight months. But it is, it's crucial, I think, that you utilize social media and get out there and really kind of put yourself out there a little bit because it can just do wonders for your business.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:17:08]:
So another kind of avenue that people can use is email marketing. So what tips do you have there to kind of create that traction for farmers market sales with your emails?

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:17:22]:
For this one, I always, whenever I talk to farmers about this one, they're like, oh, not another thing. Not another thing to do. And that's always the pushback, is there's never enough time. So what I tell everyone is one email a week. Make one list, send one email a week. Literally, just put exactly what you're talking about on social media in email format and put it out there. Don't overthink it, don't complicate it. Just exactly the same thing.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:17:48]:
Where can someone buy from you? What can they buy? How can they buy what's on special, what's on sale? And this is especially important if you have multiple locations, have a farmers market and a storefront, go to multiple markets, are doing multiple events in a week, you can share your schedule. So email marketing is another great touch point. It's just another great way to stay in touch. And if you're at this point of like, oh, not another thing to do, challenge yourself to do one email a week. If that's too much, start with one a month. Do just a monthly update. Here's our monthly schedule. And once you kind of layer into what you're already doing, it'll get easier, I promise.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:18:30]:
It's just adding those little things, but it's just another form of communication to stay in touch with your customers, especially during these slower summer months when we know things are slower because people are traveling and schedules are different and routines are different, so they need these little email reminders and social media reminders to keep showing up because they get busy. And when they get busy, you're out of their mind. So the email marketing and social media just put you back at that forefront.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:19:02]:
Yeah, I would agree. And continue to build that audience for the kind of the down season. Right. So, you know, when you're not at farmers markets, if that's, if that's the only, really the only outlet or, you know, way for people to get ahold of you, how do you stay in touch with them during the wintertime? And keep them excited and maybe even still buying from you. Right. Can you figure out a way that you can still meet? And I always used to meet people in parking lots. That's my thing, parking lots. It seemed like always, you know, in the night and people would be questioning what we were doing, but, you know, keeping, keeping them informed.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:19:32]:
And I'll say that, you know, email has been really hard for me and it keep, seems to always have been that thing that just kind of kept getting pushed down the list of important things. And to Victoria's point, I would agree, it's huge. Whenever I send an email out, I get people that come in the store and they're like, I saw your email. Or if I haven't sent one out for a little while, I'll have people come in and say, I haven't seen an email lately. Is there one? You know, do you have any deals going on? So they're almost looking for it and it's not a bombarding them and they like that. Right. It's, again, to Victoria's point, it's just kind of a gentle reminder of, I'm here, here's what we got going on. And one thing that I'll recommend that I admittedly did was I hired somebody to set up all of that for me because I knew I didn't have time, but I knew it was important.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:20:13]:
And so dropping $100, maybe even $200 on a marketing expert, that could at least get the foundation set for me. So get like, you know, the whole system set up and get kind of, I don't know what I want to say. Like the form set up on, you know, for the email and then that way for you, it's just a quick, easy plug and play every month. But somebody's kind of done all the work to at least get you started and get you going. And there's a lot of really great local marketing places that will do just those one or two odd jobs for you. You don't have to pay them to do all your marketing. It can be, hey, I just need help with setting up my website or getting my website kind of cleaned up or getting my email, you know, marketing list off the, off the ground. I also rely a lot on chop Local.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:20:55]:
I use chop local to sell all of my, all of my meat. And so they send out emails. And that works great for me because I tell people to not only sign up for their email because they get a discount on their first, their first order, but then shop local is kind of that person that helps to keep my customers a little bit informed of what's going on online and I don't have to do it. So that's been really great with using shop local as well is just the fact that they send out newsletters a lot more frequently than I do.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:21:22]:
Yeah. So a few things here, kind of like Theresa mentioned at shop local, we can help you with those marketing needs that you might have. If it's just one more thing that I don't know you just don't have time for, we are here to help you with that. Another thing. Well, and I will mention this question that came in here. So what email format do you recommend? Um, I'll talk a little bit from the chap local end, but you two both feel free to chime in if you have any other recommendations. We use Mailchimp. We, we think it's very user friendly and compatible with a lot of things.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:22:00]:
But Victoria, do you have recommendations to use? Something different?

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:22:06]:
I always recommend to my farmers about, you know, first place is to look at your POS system. Like whatever you're processing credit cards with. Start there because you probably already have an email list and you don't even know it. And most of the time, since you're already using that company for checking out, either upgrading to their email marketing is a small fee or it just will link better to kind of what you're selling, especially if you have an online store. So I'd say start there and then if that's not an option for you or you only do cash or something like that. Mailchimp is what I recommend. It's free for up to, I think, 2000 people in your email list. So you can live in that realm for free for a while.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:22:51]:
Just knowing that if you ever do cross that threshold of getting more than 2000 people in your list, you'll have to upgrade and pay for a paid plan, whatever that is, per month. But starting out, especially small scale, is a really good way to go.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:23:06]:
Yeah, for sure.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:23:08]:
I would agree with that. And I think just to emphasize the point that she made you your point of sale system, you probably don't realize that you actually have a decent amount of contacts already. Email addresses that you can literally just push an email out to all those customers because when they swipe their card and use their card, it's a lot of that times it's storing it in there. Or if they've chosen to give you their email address, it's already in your system. So you've probably already got a great book of business in there that you can start to contact and reach out to. And then. I agree, Mailchimp. I kind of go back and forth between the two.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:23:37]:
My point of sale system that already has it kind of all in there, and I've dabbled a little bit in mailchimp. So I'm kind of, I kind of use both, depending on my mood or how I'm feeling, but both very user friendly. So.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:23:49]:
Perfect. Okay, we'll jump into the next question here. So again, this is kind of all tying together. How did you guys, either of you, use an online store when you were at farmers markets? And now, how can farmers use their online store to boost farmers market sales, whether that be pre orders or orders in the off season? Talk a little bit about that.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:24:16]:
Yeah, so I did not, I used a little bit of an online store, so it was my own. I set it up through, I used square when I first did the farmers market. And so I had kind of an online store set up through them at the time. It worked. It wasn't very fancy. I didn't put a ton of time into it. And so I did a little bit of work there as far as, you know, people being able to order, but it really didn't take off and I didn't really push it a lot, admittedly, because I wasn't comfortable with how it was set up. And so I was like, I kind of want you to shop there, but I don't really want you to shop there.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:24:50]:
But I would have, honestly, I'd have a lot of customers that just would reach out to me, call me. A lot of people still, I mean, they had my phone number, so they'd text me or something like that. And they'd be like, hey, I'll be at the market on Saturday, can you bring me x, Y and z? Or, hey, I know you're not at market this weekend, or maybe it's December and there isn't a farmer's market, but I'm low on ground beef. Can we meet up? You know, and I'd literally just take orders that way. They'd message me, email me, text me, call me, whatever it was. I will say that now, having the online store, especially through chop local, and I was one that drugged my feet for an entire year with Katie, you know, and Mark following up with me with chop local. And I wouldn't do it. And I wouldn't do it because I had my own store and I had it all figured out right.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:25:28]:
And I finally did transition to chop local for a variety of reasons. But I, it has been an amazing extension of my store. So I will say if you can put forth the effort to get an online store set up, it will, it will help your business tremendously. So I have a lot of customers, even with my brick and mortar here, where they can come in and shop, they love the fact that they can just do it online quick at 09:00, 10:00 at night and swing in in the morning and pick up their order and it's ready to go. And then, of course, we ship nationwide as well, too. But the online store, I think, is just crucial. If I could go back to the farmer's market days and know then what I know now, I think I would have been ten times more successful with the tools and the resources that I, that I have now. So I highly recommend having an online store.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:26:13]:
Obviously, chop local is fantastic and they do all the work for you, so it's really great. You don't really have to, have to do a whole lot there. So I would highly recommend definitely getting an online store going.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:26:24]:
So, Teresa, this is, might be a little bit off topic question, but if someone is thinking about starting an online store, was there a certain, like, volume where you were like, okay, I have three steers in the freezer, I'm ready to ship online. Like, was there a recommended or like, what do you recommend that someone should, like, have on hand to be prepared to go into setting up an online store?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:26:48]:
I honestly, I think you can do it with anything, right? Any, any amount. And that's kind of how mine was. I kind of said, okay, I'm going to start off small because I not only, not only did I not have a ton of products, but I was, it was scary for me, right? It was a big jump and I didn't really know how to manage it. So I was like, I'm not going to throw everything online and then fall flat on my face. I'm just going to put maybe a handful of my really top, my top sellers on there and get going with that and really get people started to use it and get myself used to using the online store and then grow it that way. I did the same thing with chop local, too. I started off with just a small amount of product on there, and then as I became more comfortable and, you know, with the encouragement of the team, there it was, hey, we know you've got more stuff in your store. Let's help you add it onto here and really grow that.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:27:32]:
And so then it kind of, it kind of grew into everything that I have here in the store about 95% of it is all online, too, and people can access it. So I really don't. I don't think you need to have. I would say just start wherever you got it. You know, if you want to pop an online store and just put four or five things on there, I'd say go for it and get yourself going, and then you can always add to it. Add to it later. So cool.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:27:58]:
Awesome. That's just what came to mind. And, Sydney, I guess this would be a question for you, just as we're on this topic. Have you seen that farmers are turning to online stores more since COVID Like, post Covid, they're like, all right, online's a thing. We got to compete with the local grocery stores. Like, have you seen a bigger influx since then?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:28:17]:
Yeah.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:28:18]:
And Katie, if you want to jump in here, too, you can. I would say we definitely have, and we're actually doing a survey right now, and I certainly think the trends are. Are going towards that. So, you know, just finding a way to differentiate, differentiate yourself, making sure you have inventory in stock, like, being on top of those kind of things once you have an online store, is really important. And I think. I don't know, I almost think it's something you have to have at this point just to stay in the game. So if you want to add anything else, Katie, you can. But that's kind of my quick plug there.

Katie - ChopLocal [00:28:57]:
No, I think you're completely right. And what we've seen, especially since the pandemic, is that people are so much more familiar with online shopping, and even for things like produce and meat, that maybe before the pandemic, they were buying some of their shelf stable goods online, but they were a little bit more nervous about that. Those things that they like to pick out at the store themselves or look at themselves, but they become so much more comfortable with that. And along with that, our e commerce platforms have had to evolve to give them the type of shopping experience that they're used to on. You know, I do a lot of closed shopping online or things for my kids, and so people want that same type of experience that they're used to having from other major online retailers. And that's something to keep in mind that they want product description pages. We're getting off topic here a little bit, aren't we? But they want product description pages that really show them about the product. Maybe multiple photos, maybe ideas on how to use the product.

Katie - ChopLocal [00:30:00]:
They want to know their shipping cost up front. That's really important if you are going to ship or what the pickup options are, we could do a whole other webinar on this topic, but I'll stop there.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:30:12]:
All right. So to kind of get off the online store thing, and if people have more questions about that, we can certainly expand a little bit later. But to kind of go into a marketing type of discussion here, Victoria, you've mentioned, you know, you kind of branded your farmers market booth. So what are some maybe inexpensive ideas? I know we're just in the middle of the season. So at this point, what are some inexpensive ideas that you have for branding and really drawing attention to your booth?

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:30:41]:
Yeah, absolutely. This is a tough one, because, you know, a lot of times when you go to your farmers market, there's multiple people selling the same things. So what I love to recommend people is picture frames. That's one of my, like, favorite go tos. It's so simple, but it allows you to put your price sheet in a picture frame and pop it up. Then that way, it's not blowing in the wind or if it's a rainy market, the paper isn't curled up. And it also gives that kind of look of what you're going for. So you can use a rustic wood picture frame and just adds to that farm feel of your booth.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:31:16]:
If you sell eggs and don't have the refrigerator option, bring a couple empty egg cartons and stack them up and put a sign in front of them that says eggs for sale so that people can actually see what you have for sale, even if it has to be refrigerated. And same thing. If you sell milk, bring one of your milk jugs with water in it and sit it on your table. If you can't display it, kind of find a workaround. Use things that are already on your farm in your circle, that can still show what your product is without it having to be refrigerated or kept in coolers, things like that. So those are a few of my favorite things.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:31:56]:
Yeah. Teresa, anything to add here?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:32:00]:
What kept kept coming to mind was, I have this beautiful black cow hide. He was on my table for some reason, as kind of weird as that might be, like, it just draws a lot of attention. It's really pretty. But. And then I've had some people be like, oh, I want to buy one of those. So that that's worked out really well. But I will say I've also found that. And this is kind of a new find for me, but I use staples for a lot of my print items.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:32:23]:
Um, I will echo everything that Victoria said. I think the frames and all that kind of stuff is fantastic. However, you can kind of make it feel homey and kind of give them some, you know, kind of a little bit of what your life is like on the farm a little bit. But staples is amazing if you've got access to one to not only quickly print out really nice color, even eight by ten. So if you want to put, you know, change out your frames or have a nice list of maybe your items and you want it on something like that and they're like seventy cents and they do same day stuff and it's, it's perfect. You can do it all on your computer and literally submit it to staples.com. i'm kind of touting staples here a little bit, but I also have used them to make my big a frame sign, my big cardboard sign. You can, you can have them print you those big huge cardboard pieces that go inside of those a frames.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:33:08]:
And I'm talking like the big ones that actually stand, you know, stand up on the ground and you can have them print those. So if you wanted to swap out your menu a couple times a season or something like that, you can have them do that and print those out for you. They look really, really sharp, very clean and crisp and it's easy for people to read them. And then if you're ever sold out of something, I just have little sold out signs printed that I just keep with me when I travel with the farmers market. And then if I sell out of something I just slap that on there so people can still see that I have the item or that something I usually carry. But I just happen to be sold out that day. So it's super easy to kind of use that way. But, and also very, it's not very expensive at all to print those out.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:33:47]:
So, so I'd recommend that using some of your local resources if you can, printing facilities that do stuff like that just to make things look a little bit more crisp and clear for your customers to read.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:33:58]:
Yeah, I love that. Oh, sorry, Sydney. Yeah, I think there's a part of like there's a place for handwritten tags to give that homey feel, but there's also a place for the printed and the more professional look as well. So it's a very fine line and it comes back to like the feel I guess you want for your business. But if you're going for that sophisticated professional like we have it together look, I love the idea of printing because then you're not scrambling with, you know, your chalk markers or whatever the morning of. So yeah, definitely gives that this booth knows what they're doing. Look to it.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:34:39]:
Yeah, sorry, my slides were getting a little bit ahead of me here, so going on to the next one. I know it might be a little bit late in the season to discuss this, but looking towards the future, when you're thinking about what market you want to attend, and maybe, Theresa, you can talk to this. What consideration should you keep in mind when you're deciding which farmers market is right for you to attend? You know, just thinking about how they can support you and if it's a good fit?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:35:11]:
Yeah, um, I. This is a good question, and I. I feel like I sometimes have a hard time answering it. Um, I will. I'll use an example. So I. I obviously got started at the Des Moines farmers market, and I was super excited about it because it was. It's like the third largest farmers market in the United States, right? So I was like, jackpot.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:35:29]:
Like, this is going to be awesome. And. And it was awesome. So I. This is absolutely nothing against the Des Moines farmers market, but the idea that it was a huge market and they draw in such a huge crowd, and I'm talking, like, tens of thousands of people. From a sales standpoint, it really wasn't huge for me. And I can say that confidently because I'm now part of the ankeny farmers market, which is like a third of the size of the Des Moines farmers market. And I have higher sales here at the Ankeny farmers market than I.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:35:54]:
Than I did the Des Moines. So I think that that's maybe something to just keep in mind that just because it's a big, popular market doesn't always mean that it's going to be successful for you. I think that you make it successful. But I also think just maybe looking at, when you go to the market, look at the excitement that's around it, look at maybe what that market does as far as really getting it out there on social media and helping to promote your business, or at least to promote the market itself, I found that that's really huge. I think the enkeny farmers market does really well with that. The Des Moines farmers market did really well with that. During the pandemic, when they were pushing all of their thousands of followers to all of our pages for people to shop online and to still help support us and be able to access us. I saw a huge boost in business when I wasn't even showing up for the big Des Moines farmers market.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:36:46]:
So I think it's hard to say that there's really maybe something that you should be looking for. But I think, keep in mind that it's not necessarily the size of the market. It's, look at, how are they supporting, what does their social media look like? How are they supporting all of their vendors that are showing up every day and paying the money to be there? Look at, you know, maybe go talk to some of the other vendors. What do you guys like and not like about this market and kind of talk through it that way and then also just go into it with the idea of knowing that it also is what you make it. You know, use your social media platform to drive people there, to direct people to where you're at. I love to share other vendors that are at markets that I'm at, and then they share it to their page. Um, and I do it because I also look at it like, if, if we're not all successful, none of us are going to be successful at that market. Um, so it's, how can you really work and get the excitement going, um, to showcase everybody else that's at that market, not just you.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:37:44]:
Um, when you're, when you're kind of figuring out, you know, which ones you want to be a part of and do a couple of them and maybe do them well, I I have never been one that likes to do multiple farmers markets, mostly just because my sanity and my brain can't handle it. Um, but, you know, I know some people that just do just like to just spread themselves really thin and do as many markets as possible. And that's not, that doesn't always equate to being successful. I think just, you know, picking a couple of them and doing them really well and kind of honing in what your setup looks like and how you really get people there for you and then maybe start to grow out a little bit more. So that's probably a really long winded answer to that question, but I feel like it's kind of a hard one to answer because there's multiple ways to look at it, and, um, it's. It's a tough decision. Right. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:38:29]:
Don't do it next year. Um, you know, if that's the case, you can always get into it and be maybe an occasional market vendor, test out the waters a little bit and see if you like it. And if you don't, that's okay. Just, you know, go and move on to a different one.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:38:40]:
Yeah, I'll elaborate on that as well. Kind of same thing, knowing that, like, where we're at in the year. If you're considering a different market or something new for next year, go visit that market now. Um, I think being able to feel the vibe and see the people and stuff there in person will be able to tell you, all right, this is worth it. This is worth my time. Oh, maybe not. Maybe their social media makes them look great, but they only had 20 people. So go take that time, take that morning, and check it out for yourself.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:39:10]:
See it in person. And then the other thing that I always recommend is make sure that it's really going to work for you. And what I mean by that is, are you going to make that commute every week? Are you going to commit to showing up? Sometimes we'll look at these big, huge markets and be like, oh, I'm going to travel that hour and a half because they're the biggest farmers market around. And then you get a month in and you're like, man, I'm tired. I don't like this drive anymore. I don't want to do it. And then what happens? You flake out. So be real with yourself and be like, am I seriously committing to this? Because I see a lot of farms fall flat just because we're excited at the beginning of the season, and then we get tired and we lose steam, or it's not going as great as we wanted it to go, so then we stop showing up, and that doesn't do anybody any good.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:39:57]:
Big picture.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:39:59]:
Yeah, I think those are some great things to consider and really great points. So the next question, and this is really, by far, like, the most frequently asked question that we got in the registrations, is, how can I stand out among vendors who are selling similar products as me? And I know, Victoria, you kind of have a story about how you made your booth stand out with this ice chicken story. So maybe share a little bit about that and then other ideas to help make your booth unique and attractive to customers.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:40:33]:
Yeah. So the ice chicken, we, our farm signed up for a. It was like a winter event. It was an ice festival. So you paid your vendor fee. You got to set up, sell whatever you wanted to sell, but with your vendor fee, you also got an ice sculpture. This company carved it for you. You sent them a picture.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:40:51]:
This is what I want it to look like. So literally, when you showed up to this event that day, you got your table and your ice sculpture, which was really cool. So we actually did an ice chicken because we were promoting our chicken CSA, and it turned out that the kids loved it because they were like, oh, chicken. And it was like kid height. Like, it was only probably like two and a half, 3ft tall. So they were all for it. So everyone ended up, you know, taking pictures of their kids with this ice chicken. And then they would tag us online, which was super cool.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:41:25]:
So then the other thing we did that day, we did a giveaway, like a, like us on Facebook and get this free grab bag. Now, in this bag, it was literally like a craft brown paper lunch bag. And it had a teeny, tiny single, like, one slice of bread jam, very tiny. And a pamphlet about our farm. So they would come up to our table, pull up their phone, show us that they liked us on Facebook. They got this bag. Now, they didn't know it was in the bag, but it was just the idea that they got something for free from us, just for liking us on Facebook. So simple.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:41:59]:
But such a huge influx of people from this one event. And like Teresa was saying earlier, it snowballs. It's kind of like a spider web effect. Once one of your friends likes your page, then their friends see it, then their friends see it. So that's really what happened. And that really kind of skyrocketed our social media presence just because someone was able to get a free mini jam, 100% worth it, ten times over. Now, I know your farmer's market, not everyone's going to have an ice chicken, right? So looking at things that you can do differently, can you do a giveaway of something like that? Can you sample a product? Can you sample a different flavor of cheese every week? Or beef sticks, whatever that looks like? If you have something for someone, I think it'll be a good way to encourage people to be like, okay, what are they sampling this week? What can I get this week? It has to be about your customer and not necessarily about you. And that's the hardest shift.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:43:02]:
That's the hardest piece to figure out. How will your customer benefit from coming to your table that week?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:43:10]:
Yeah, I would agree with all of those. And I think it's hard to really pinpoint that. And it's so easy. I'm in this process right now of as soon as somebody else pops up doing something similar to you, you panic, right? You're like, oh, my gosh, I have to win this battle. I have to come out ahead. How do I set myself apart? How dare they come into my market? That's what I'm experiencing right now. How dare you? So it's hard to stay true to yourself, and I think that you've got to remind yourself of you're doing a really great thing. Stick to who you are.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:43:44]:
Don't try to change everything up just because they're doing something a little different. If they've got maybe some ideas that you're like, oh, my gosh, that's a really great idea that they did that, then maybe take some of that, right. And take, kind of take it back and say, how can I incorporate that? But I think not. Don't feel like you have to change everything just because somebody else is doing something similar to you. I always maintain there's plenty of mouths to feed. So to Victoria's point, like, how do you maybe just set yourself apart a little bit or maybe draw more attention to yourself? The samples are huge for us. We usually do, like, beef stick samples and jerky samples, something super easy. Toothpicks, people just pick them out.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:44:17]:
But there's usually a line of people, um, wanting to get their samples that morning. And, I mean, nine times out of ten, they buy something, right. Um, or at least it draws them to your table, and then they start looking at your menu, and you can give them information. You can just kind of start talking to them. Um, the other idea to kind of throw out there from a sample standpoint, we have done, like, crock pots full of, um, like, we did a shredded beef. So, you know, if we're talking kind of an audience of meat lovers here, meat sellers here, um, we just did a brisket tip and a super simple recipe. Shredded it up in a crock pot and had it there. Just was handing it out in little containers.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:44:54]:
Um, and people loved it. I mean, just went crazy over it, and it was a super simple. Didn't take long to throw it together. Easy to have in a crock pot and keep it warm right there. Um, but we like to do those a lot of times, even in the store on the weekends, because it just draws in a lot of extra people, and they get super excited, and then they either buy the product or I've had people come back, you know, the next week and be like, hey, that was really good, and I'd love to try some of that, or they'll order it online after the fact. So, um, yeah, the sample thing is, is huge for, for us specifically.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:45:23]:
So, yeah, I think those are some great ideas. And did you ever, um, like, give out recipe cards in those types of situations or, you know, give recipe ideas for your customers?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:45:37]:
Yeah, that's a great point. So we would print out the recipe on, like, an eight by ten, put it in a, in a framed thing, and put it next to the sample so people could take a picture of it. Um, and then we'd also like, if we ever do bundles sometimes, um, we include the recipe card in there, and then we'll post it to our social media page, too, multiple times, um, especially leading up to it, we'll be like, hey, we've got samples this week. You know, they're this weekend. Here's the recipe. Um, come in and try it. You know, screenshot this recipe or save it. And then if you like it, you can, you know, get the products you need to actually make it and then, um, do it that way.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:46:08]:
So. Yeah, that's, that's a great point. I didn't mention that. But the, the recipe is huge, and especially if it's a super simple recipe. People like very simple, easy things. I know I do. And so I like to stick to that as much as possible of this. You know, it's a chunk of meat and maybe two ingredients that you probably have in your counter or in your pantry and throw it all together, and there you go.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:46:26]:
So perfect.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:46:30]:
So talk a little bit about finding new customers at these, at these markets. I know that kind of relates to, you know, standing out and attracting people, but is there any other advice that you have about getting new customers to your booth?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:46:47]:
That's, that's a good one. I I think the, the sample thing is huge for us because it just attracts more people. But, um, you know, I've, I've gone out before when I've had somebody there with me. I've, like, actually stepped out into the crowd and walked amongst the crowd and handed out, um, like, either my card or, like, a dollar off on the back of my card. It'll be a dollar off and it'll be, hey, go visit us. We're at third, you know, third and quarter, whatever it is. Here's a dollar off for your purchase today, and we've got some great samples. So I'll, like, actually go out and kind of market myself a little bit and walk around if I, if you have capacity to do that or even send, you know, gosh, have a friend that shows up at the market, you know, and say, hey, for a package of rib eyes, you know, will you go walk around for a while and hand out these cards and tell people about us? I think farmers markets, for me, being a vendor especially, I always noticed when people were walking around with, like, either the same thing in their hand or, like, there were some booze that always gave out stickers and said, you know, like, for some reason, it sticks in my head.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:47:44]:
There was one that you. You ate crickets and people had a sticker that said, I ate a cricket. And so when I was the first versus first offender there, I was like, what? What are these people eating here? Like, what. What have I gotten myself into? But everybody had a cricket sticker. And it was like the cool thing, because then people started to ask and say, where'd you get that? Or, what do you mean you ate a cricket? And they would. I mean, it was. They were promoting themselves by just putting a sticker on someone's shirt when they had a sample at their booth. Right.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:48:09]:
So something like that, I think, is really great, too, of how can you make sure they walk away with something that people are going to be noticing and they're going to want to know where they got that from, even if it's a specific bag. You know, I've put forth a little bit of extra money into having specific bags with my stamp on it versus just a plastic bag, because then I stand out. Right? It's not just a plastic bag that who knows what's in there? It's a West 40 bag with the big label and everything on the front of it that people can kind of see. So those are just some. Some of my ideas, at least from past experiences.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:48:44]:
Yeah, those are a lot of really good ideas for in person. And I think what I like to remind a lot of farmers is that, you know, it's not the farmer's market responsibility to get people to your table. So that's where your own marketing comes into play. So I know I'm a huge social media fan. I've just seen huge results from it. And I know that it's really is such a great way to kind of introduce yourself to new people online. So really getting people to your booth starts even before you set up. So turning to the online world and figuring out how and where you can connect with customers, there is a big part of it, too.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:49:25]:
Awesome.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:49:26]:
So the next question I'll add to yours as well. Or I have a question. Sorry, Sydney. No, I would assume when you post and stuff like that, you're always tagging, like, the market and tagging people in it, right? So that they can see. They can see that and then they're sharing it to their page. I think that's. I found a lot of success with that, too, of just, you know, if I'm. If I'm talking about the market or talking about a product I'm going to be having, and it's not mine, I'll I'll tag other people.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:49:49]:
Or like, if I post about shopping online, I'll tag chop local and chop local shares in on their page, you know, so I would assume that you, you do the same thing and you've probably seen success with that, too. But I think that's important to tag the people that are involved in the, in whatever you're doing so that they can see it and share it, too.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:50:04]:
Yeah, absolutely. 100%. And even if you don't have those tag connections, if your farmer's market doesn't have a page or you're not collaborating with anyone, still tag and check in at, like, your location. It doesn't have to be like, your exact address, but even just your town or your state. And that'll start allowing you to reach kind of your local audience if you're trying to stay within one area and not go online. So if you're like, oh, I don't have anyone to tag or work with, one, think about that. But two, at least at the minimum, do your location, because that's how you're going to start finding your local people instead of the big, wide world of the Internet.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:50:48]:
So our next question is kind of the opposite of this. What are ideas for retaining those repeat customers? Like, how do you encourage people to keep coming back to you and making purchases?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:51:04]:
Yeah, I think I've found I recently implemented a, like a punch card system, a loyalty card, which people have been loving. So that's kind of a little bit later on in the game. I would recommend doing that earlier. Again, I'm learning. I'm learning as I go here, and there's definitely things I do. So I think that's been really huge for me so far. My loyal customers that continue to come back love it. Like, they're just really, really thankful and it's really not that much.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:51:31]:
Right. But just the idea that I'm acknowledging the fact that they continue to shop with me has been huge for them and they really appreciate that. You know, if I've got regulars, too, I will, I'll throw in stuff every once in a while. I'll do like, I run specials or something like that just to kind of do something special for them. Specifically, I will say that, you know, for me, early on, especially with the farmers market, I did a lot of deliveries and I did them for free. You don't necessarily, I'm not saying that you have to do that, but I think that that went a long ways with my customers that I started to meet at the farmers markets. I would offer them that I'd say, hey, if you need me on Tuesday, Wednesday, and the market's not until Saturday, I can just drop it off to you. Don't worry.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:52:12]:
You know, I can bring it to you or whatever the case is. And I offered that service year round. So especially in the wintertime, I not only kept connected with them, you know, through the email, the newsletters, and stuff like that, but I had their phone numbers and I had their contact, and I would actually reach out to them and say, hey, Shelly, it's been a while. You know, just wanted to check in on your meat supply. Everything good? Do you need anything? And honestly, almost every single time, they'd be like, oh, my gosh, yes, I was thinking about you. And I need x, y, and z. And so I think as far as, like, retaining them, I really put a lot of effort in building a relationship with them. You know, talking with them, getting to know their kids when they stopped by the booth and, and remembering that they had an event last week and asking them how that event was.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:52:53]:
And I will say that it might sound silly, but that's just gone a long ways with my customers. And they are now ones that drive 30 minutes to get to my brick and mortar store. And I met them six, seven years ago at the farmer's market. But we've built such a relationship, and they, like, it's. They almost appreciate what I'm doing, which seems kind of crazy, but to the point where they're willing to go out of their way to continue to support me. And so that, for me, like, just, I guess maybe the simple customer service has been, has been huge for. For my business and always being very consistent with that. Very, very caring, very into my customers, listening to them, doing special orders.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:53:32]:
Right. If they want a special cut, I'll go and get it and I'll find it for them. That's been, that's been really big for retaining that, that base, and then they just share it with everybody. Right? So it's just that snowball effect that we've talked about many times of, um, they're all about, oh, my gosh, Teresa's great, you know, and the product's great. And then, you know, they start telling their friends, and it just kind of goes from there.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:53:52]:
So, yeah, a lot of that is so, so true. It really is about the relationship. Like, people really want to know you as their farmer, and, you know, they want to know about you as a person, too. Like, it's not just about, like, okay, I go here because they have good steak right? Like, yes, you need a quality product because you're charging a premium price, but that's also going to be what makes you different from the other vendors. Like, people want to know who you are as a person and how they can relate to you as a person. Is it that you both have kids or you went to the same high school or whatever that is? And those things come out from that conversation and that customer service. So if you have, like, say, you pay someone to do your farmers markets, make sure this is a person that's really going to serve your customers well because it's so easy to say, oh, Susie just graduated high school and she wants to do our farmers markets. But if Susie's afraid to talk to people, it's going to be really hard to build that connection and that community.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:54:56]:
So knowing that whether it's you at the face of your market or whoever you're paying to do it, that customer service really is a big deal. People want to know you as a farmer and you as a person, not just what you sell.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:55:12]:
Yeah.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:55:15]:
We'Ll keep moving through them here. I know we're getting a little bit closer to eleven, but we'll keep going. So one of another really commonly asked question, and I know Theresa, you talked about your grab and go cooler where people can kind of see the products, but are there any suggestions you have on making your display attractive when you can't see the products or their in coolers or any other ideas related to marketing these frozen products?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:55:45]:
Yeah, I've even, I've put pictures out. I used to have kind of a lookbook or a little flip book when I, when I first started that had pictures of the actual product so that people could see it from there. And like I said in the, I would vacuum seal, like the stakes in the summertime so people could still see those. I also would, I mean, literally just get my phone out. If somebody asked a question or, you know, said, well, what about this roast or what about this cut? I'd be like, let me show you a picture that a customer took the other day and sent to me. And I had an album literally on my phone and I'd show him my phone, right? I'd be like, here, look through these pictures of this that so and so, you know, just cooked up a couple days ago. So I think that that's helpful. Definitely having some pictures out is good.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:56:26]:
Being able to vacuum seal as much as you can. The beef sticks. I would also set out and I had kind of a, I don't know how to really explain it. But I had kind of a cooler system or an ice, kind of an ice bucket, and then a piece that would sit down on top that they. So they were kind of down in the ice. They would stay nice and cool, but they were right there on the table. So I had the samples, and then I literally had the beef sticks right there next to it in the jerky. So people could try the sample and be like, that's really good.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:56:50]:
And literally just grab the package of sticks right there. So I think as much as you can while being careful and following all the rules, um, of having it out for them to just be able to grab or to see for themselves is really important, versus just in coolers or in your freezer. I loved Victoria's idea about the eggs, right? Use an empty egg carton. Um, or I don't know, use maybe just sacrifice one dozen eggs or maybe not wash them quite that well and let them sit out, you know, but not have that one that you sell, but leave that sitting out so they can still, still see the product. I think that's a really good idea, too. So, um, it's hard when you're dealing with meat. Um, but I will say that once, if you can find something that people will just try. So even, like the beef sticks, if they love them, they're going to come back, and then they're going to be more comfortable trying something else.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:57:35]:
I use. Um, this is probably maybe a little bit off topic here, but I use my ground beef to, as my carrot that I dangle out in front of everybody. My ground beef is super cheap, and it's amazingly delicious. And so people love it, right? But it's that one thing they feel comfortable spending money on and trying. But as soon as they try it and they love that ground beef, they're going to come back, and then they start buying steak and they start buying roasts, and they start buying everything else. Right. So if you can find maybe a product like that, too, it's not necessarily along the display, the display question here, but if you can find a product that maybe is just really easy to get them to buy and at least try it, I think that's. That's really good to just at least get that out there and have them go home with something, and then they're going to hopefully come back.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:58:15]:
So, yeah, and I'll add, when you set up your farmers market booth, a lot of times, you know, add a little bit of height to your displays. So whether that's putting wood crates on your tables or you know, even if your wood crates are stacked and then you have things in the wood crates, whether that's just picture frames or you can't display me, a little bit of height really goes a long way because as people are scanning, you know, their eye changes and it has to slow down when it's looking at your booth, because it's not just looking at something that's just on a table. So using the wood crates, or if you have the apple peck baskets, the round ones, anything that has that farm feel is normal to us, but people eat that stuff up. Rustic tins, wood baskets, even the pine cork containers, people like that because then they get to take that home. So different things there. So really adding height to your display can be a game changer. Just in something, looking the part and giving people something to kind of look through instead of just at a flat, regular table.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:59:28]:
That's a good point.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:59:29]:
Yeah.

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:59:31]:
I'm going to take that tip from my farmers market this week, and I'm going to redo my table now.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [00:59:34]:
Okay. I know. So many ideas.

Sydney - ChopLocal [00:59:38]:
Yeah. One of the other questions we had is how do you encourage customers to buy in bulk and maybe increase the average order value? I know I had heard somebody say that they had handouts for information about buying in bulk. So do you guys have any suggestions there?

Teresa - West Forty Market [00:59:58]:
Yeah, I think. I think Victoria might have been the one that talked about the pamphlet earlier. I think that's a great idea. I will say that it can be daunting for people to buy in bulk and to understand the concept if they've never done it before. And I run into it every single day. So what I've done is I not only offer the in the bulk options, you know, when you work with the locker to actually customize the whole thing yourself, but I do smaller bulk options in store, and I will actually do like, you can see on my website that I have like an 8th of a beef and a quarter of a beef already set in stone with a price attached to it. So taking the guesswork out of it for you, here's what you get, here's how much money you give me, and I'll deliver it to your doorstep. That's what I offer.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:00:40]:
I'm not going to ship it because it's a lot, but. But I'll do. I'll kind of break it down like that. I've noticed that a lot of people just like it if you give them. Just tell me what I'm going to get and tell me the price, and then if they want to swap out a couple of items, then they can do some substitutions, but it just takes a lot of the guesswork out of it for them. I'll do smaller bundles as well. So I'll tell them, you know, come in the store and give me a list of items that you want and a budget, and I'll make it happen and I'll put the bundle together for you within the budget that you're looking for and you'll know the exact price you're going to pay because sometimes when you go to the locker and you customize them that way you can give them a range of what they can expect, but you never really know until the animal gets there and gets weighed. Right.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:01:19]:
And so I've kind of gone to that route where I'll do smaller bundles and they range anywhere from fifty dollars to nine hundred dollars. But it's set in stone for you. Here's what you're going to get. Here's how much you're going to pay. And I'll also do it from a pricing standpoint that makes sense along with what you would have gotten it from a locker. So it's actually a discounted price than buying all the individual pieces in my store. It still makes sense from a profit standpoint and it makes sense with what you would have paid if you would have gone through the locker. I'm just making it super easy for you and taking the guesswork out of it.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:01:49]:
So I think that's helpful. I've had some customers then come back six months later and say, okay, well, we want to actually customize it ourselves. Now we're feeling good about what we got. We like everything we got, but maybe there's a couple changes we want to make and it's like perfect. Let me walk you through how you actually work with the locker to do that. And then I sell them a quarter or a half a cow or something like that to kind of fill the freezer. So that's, that's been my experience and that's been really, really helpful for me to kind of encourage people to buy in more in bulk and make them feel comfortable about it.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:02:17]:
Yeah. And I think adding to that, like for some people we have to take a step back and realize that bulk to some people might be ten pounds. Like buying ten pounds of meat at one time might be a lot for them where bulk for us is like the whole cow. So it's a very different kind of perspective, but you really have to kind of put yourself in your customers shoes and be like, all right, is this an older couple that maybe only uses two pounds of ground beef a week? And bulk for them is ten pounds or whatever kind of going off of what Teresa said. I've had success with doing half hogs. We did a half hog set price. You did? It was a whole list. And really, the only thing they got to customize was the types of sausage that they picked out.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:03:01]:
So they knew they would get ten packs of bacon, two packs of ribs, whatever that case looked like. So then when they came in and they were like, I want to buy the half hog. I'm like, great, you need ten packs of sausage. Go pick out whatever flavors you want. Very straightforward, very easy to understand. No? Okay. It might be this price because we have to weigh it. Just there's definitely a learning and an education gap between people who I think are buying retail cuts and buying in bulk.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:03:31]:
So if you want to encourage it, you can collect emails and have an email list specifically with, like, information on bulk buying. Things like that you can have somewhere on your website of like, here's how to bulk buy. Frequently asked questions. So if someone is interested, you're not spending an hour trying to break it all down for them because there's a lot of education that comes with bulk buying. So just kind of thinking either how to simplify it by doing a set price, set item or how to easily provide that information so that way people truly understand what they're getting into when they are buying in bulk.

Sydney - ChopLocal [01:04:15]:
Perfect. So that was kind of all the pre submitted questions that we had there. I know one of the questions we had in here, and we're kind of running out of time, but I'll bring this up, Teresa, if you wouldn't mind sharing. Somebody asked what was the brand, if you remember, of that glass fridge that you had, some people are kind of interested in that. And so if you have any insight into where you found that or what you are looking for, go ahead and share that.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:04:48]:
I don't remember the brand, but I will say the website that I get most of my freezers refrigerators from is Katam Katom. I don't know exactly how you pronounce it. It's Katom. And I order them online and they just get shipped to my front door. They have a lot of different brands. I mean, it was probably a little bit of an off brand, to be honest with you. I've never been one that has bought freezers that are brand name and spent a lot of money. And if I did buy brand name, they were well used and by well used, I mean, like seven or eight years old.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:05:17]:
So I do not pump a lot of money into that part of my business. I try to be really strategic. Just because it's a brand name doesn't mean it's the best thing out there. So. But I will say if you can find a local business, a welding business, what I did with these freezers, and I would be happy to send pictures to Sydney and Katie at shop local, and they can maybe send it out to the people that are on this. If you guys want more information or you're welcome to reach out to me as well. There's my info on there. But I had them put, basically build a base for these freezers in this refrigerator and then weld wheels on the bottom.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:05:50]:
And so it was all one structure. So that that refrigerator and that freezer literally wheeled up onto my van and right off of my van. And then I could lock the wheel so it didn't move around while it was on display at the market and then wheel it right back up there. So that was super easy. There was no lifting. Obviously, I was a one woman show, and so that wouldn't have been feasible. So, yeah, I don't remember the brand name, but that katom.com website is fantastic for ordering freezers, refrigerators of all different sizes, shapes, honestly, if you can get out there on marketplace or even find a local auction, auction site, there's a couple here in Iowa I'd be happy to send. If you're in Iowa that I watch for auctions.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:06:29]:
You know, when restaurants shut down and stuff like that, they auction all that stuff off, all those freezers, refrigerators and stuff like that. And you can usually get some pretty good deals on some of those things. So that would be, that would be my recommendation.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:06:42]:
I have a random freezer that I absolutely loved. It was actually by sheets. And you could only get it like, when a sheets closed down. But it was a two tier freezer on wheels. It was made for ice cream, so it even had the little like, caddy dividers. Oh, my gosh. Loved it. I'll have to try to find a picture for you, but I love those things.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:07:04]:
I, like, looked for over the Internet to find them forever. And I ended up getting three and lined them on a wall and just, just to have little baskets of every single type of meat. And it was two tier, not like those big flat chest freezers, because you lose so much space in the bottom. That little freezer. Loved that thing. Couldn't tell you what the brand was. It was a sheets ice cream freezer and you couldn't really buy it. I think it was patented by sheets.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:07:32]:
So you have to, like, find it when a sheets or something is closing down. Completely random. But I swear by those freezers, and they're on wheels, too, so, yeah, those random fines really makes such a difference.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:07:44]:
Yep.

Sydney - ChopLocal [01:07:46]:
So I know we're running out of time here, but just to wrap things up before we close it out, would each of you just mind sharing the three most important things that you would share with somebody for farmers market success?

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:08:00]:
Only three? We'll be here for another hour. I feel like, you know, I think it's, it's, for me, I would go with just the social media, which I know is probably on Victoria's list, too. The social media is huge, especially looking back. I would have done so much more social media when I did the farmers market when I first started. So that would be the first key to success. Maybe connect with your customers, really get in there, get to know them, build relationships to keep them kind of coming back. I think that was huge for me. Um, and the third is just to be open and willing to evolve.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:08:39]:
Know that the day that the first day when you set up is not going to be exactly what that setup looks like. Even maybe four or five weeks into the farmers market, you're going to evolve. You're going to come up with new ideas, and that's great, and that's okay. Um, so don't feel like you have to have it perfect on the first try. Um, always be looking for other way, maybe way other people are doing things. Walk the market and look at the way other people have stuff set up, and you're probably going to get some really great ideas, things you never thought of. So be open to that and be willing to evolve and change as the market goes on. Even halfway through right now.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:09:09]:
Right. There's things you can do to implement right now that could drastically change the success of your, the rest of your market season, even though you're halfway through it. So I think being willing to, being open to evolving is really, really important.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:09:24]:
That's awesome. So I would say first things first, like, when it comes to your marketing, be super repetitive. Like, if you don't feel like you're super repetitive, saying about what you have for sale when you're open where people can find you, then I think you need to talk about it more. So you should feel like you're being super repetitive just because people need to hear it time and time and time again. I would also say kind of the second thing to success is to do a range of different tactics. I come from a marketing side of things. So, like, if you're on social media, instead of doing a post, try a reel, try showing up in stories, try sending an email. Different ways to connect, different ways to show up are all different ways to reach different people.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:10:12]:
So if you think that your marketing is stagnant and you've only been doing post well, it's time to switch it up, try something new. And then I'd say the third thing, the last thing is to try something unexpected that your customers aren't used to you doing. So if you've never done samples, give it a try. See how it goes. If you've never done a coupon code, give it to ten of your regulars next weekend and see how many of those people come back the following week. Trying to come up with something to, like, surprise or be unexpected to your customers in a positive way, I think is really just kind of a cool way to, you know, keep people on their toes and keep the excitement going. Even during, like, when we feel like summer is just dragging on little things, little surprises can make a big difference.

Sydney - ChopLocal [01:11:05]:
Yeah, I think those are six really great things. And, you know, to wrap it up, I hope that people have been able to take even just one or two things from this webinar that can help propel them into the second half of the season and continue to see success through that. So. So if anybody has questions, feel free to reach out to us here at chop local, or I know Victoria and Teresa would be happy to talk as well. So with that, thank you two so much for all of your expertise and thanks to everyone for joining us here today. I think it's been really helpful.

Teresa - West Forty Market [01:11:47]:
Yeah, thank you so much.

Victoria - Farm Marketing Mentor [01:11:48]:
Thanks for your time. It's been great conversation.

Sydney - ChopLocal [01:11:51]:
All right, thanks, guys.