Author: James Barnes

In today’s digital age, where 87 percent of consumers turn to Google to discover and assess local businesses (Paget, 2023), it’s evident that such an online presence as a website plays a pivotal role in shaping consumer purchase decisions. The process mirrors this trend when seeking information about a local farmers’ market: potential visitors will likely “Google it” and then carefully assess the market’s website. The website experience becomes a decisive factor, influencing consumers’ choices on whether to make the trip or explore alternatives. Like businesses, farmers’ markets need to recognize the profound impact of their online representation, understanding that consumers’ evaluations of farmer’s markets often begin with a visit to their digital storefronts.

Having evaluated small business, agribusiness, non-profit, and personal brand websites for more than a decade through the Bricks-to-Clicks Marketing Program, it is apparent that specific elements are crucial in persuading consumers to engage. For farmers’ markets, where 8,720 establishments in the U.S. connect growers directly with consumers, the importance of a well-designed website becomes even more pronounced. 

According to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, the total annual sales at farmers’ markets are estimated at $1 billion. This raises a critical question: could growers increase sales if farmers’ market websites were more effective at attracting consumers? A compelling online presence could be the key to unlocking more significant sales potential for growers and farmers’ market organizers. Here are seven elements a farmers’ market website should include to attract customers. 

Element One

An effective website should include an easy-to-understand tagline. Look at this example from Elgin, Texas: https://www.elginfarmersmarket.com/. The tagline is “Buy Local, Eat Fresh.” The purpose of the tagline is to communicate the value of buying at the market quickly. With this tagline, it’s easy to understand that buying local, fresh food is the main message. 

Element Two

Visually display the success customers will experience when they visit your market. What are the benefits of visiting your farmers’ market? If access to fresh food is essential, use high-quality images showing people interacting with growers to entice customers to visit. Look at this example from Wichita Falls, Texas: https://farmersmarketwichitafalls.com/. It’s easy to see many consumers enjoying their experience. The same applies to this example from San Francisco, California: https://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/farmers-market/. The ideal visual display also includes images of happy, smiling people enjoying the market. 

Element Three

Provide bite-sized categories to explain the products sold at your farmers’ market. Retake a look at the San Francisco, California site: https://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/farmers-market/. Scroll down, and you’ll see bite-sized examples of what’s available at their market, including Tuesdays and Saturdays. For a farmers’ market, it’s more straightforward to communicate what happens each day of the week when the market is open. But the main thing is to be clear about the products sold at the market in easy-to-understand terms. Otherwise, consumers get confused, and they won’t visit the market. 

Element Four

Showcase when your farmers’ market is open. Every farmers’ market is different regarding the days and hours it is open, which means clearly communicating available days and hours is critical to success. This information should appear in the header section of your farmers’ market website. The header is the first section of website content. Look at this example from Starkville, Mississippi: https://starkville.org/things-to-do/starkville-community-market/. The website header displays when the farmers’ market is open clearly and concisely.

Element Five

Use call-to-action buttons to engage consumers and vendors. When consumers visit a farmers’ market website, it is critical to call them to action to show the experience they can have. For example, a clear call to action button in the header section of the website might be “Plan Your Visit” or “Virtual Tour.” The virtual tour button could provide a short, high-quality video showing consumers enjoying their visit at a farmers’ market. The Plan Your Visit button could list vendors, upcoming events, lodging, restaurants, and more. The idea is to invite consumers to take a step toward planning a visit to their local farmers’ market. 

A call-to-action button should also be present so vendors can easily apply to sell at the market. A simple button could be labeled “Become A Vendor.” This button could lead growers to an online application to sell at the market. A website programmer could easily build a website to feature both buttons side-by-side in the header of a farmers’ market website. Here is an example of a local food business in Tennessee that uses a two-button design in its website header: https://brownbagnow.com. 

Element Six

Build an email list. An effective farmers’ market website should also help build an email list that a farmers’ market manager could use throughout the year to promote upcoming market activities. Lead generators often appear on websites to capture visitor email addresses. A lead generator is content offered freely on websites to encourage consumers to share their email addresses to download the content. Building an email list requires presenting an effective lead generator to pique consumer curiosity and promote downloading free content. The idea is to offer consumers enough value in the free content that they want to exchange their email addresses for access. 

A practical method of offering a lead generator on a website is to activate a site’s pop-up feature. When a consumer visits a farmers’ market website, a pop-up could be made to appear after a specified amount of time (usually 5-10 seconds) and offer access to the lead generator. If the consumer provides an email address, she gains immediate access to the lead generator.

As for creating lead generators, many options exist. A market could offer a coupon for 10% off any item or access to a monthly newsletter update of market vendors and seasonal activities. Also, some farmers’ markets may want to develop a free PDF document with the main benefits or attractions available for immediate download. Here is a list of three potential lead generators for the Starkville Farmers’ Market in Mississippi, but each of these could be adapted for any farmers’ market. These include:

• Win a Bounty Bag of Fresh Delights: Download Now and Enter Our Drawing for a Chance to Taste Starkville’s Farmers’ Market.

• Craving Local Delights? Here Are 5 Things You Need to Know About Starkville’s Farmers’ Market. 

• Sip, Shop, and Savor: 3 Reasons Starkville’s Market Is a Culinary Haven.

Element Seven

Keep them in the loop. If a lead generator does its job, a farmers’ market will gain access to new email addresses. The problem is most may do this part and fail to remember to engage with these new email subscribers during the year. Instead, develop a set of automated emails explaining the market’s main attractions, seasonal activities, entertainment, and food options throughout the year. Include some emails featuring testimonials. Here are five automated emails that can keep your farmers’ market customers informed:

• Deliver the lead generator. Send a short email and give consumers the lead generator you promised. Keep it short and sweet. 

• Feature why your market is unique. Send a short email about the main reason your market is unique. Your tagline on your website should summarize this, but in this email, explain the details of it. People want to know “why” they should visit one market versus others.

• Explain seasonal activities. Send a short email explaining the seasonal activities you deliver at the market. Include one testimonial in this email as well. 

• The behind-the-scenes tour. Send a short email this time that includes a short video of a farmers’ market manager working with vendors at the market, welcoming visitors, and so on. Make this a guided tour featuring the farmers’ market manager as the spokesperson. 

• Feature three testimonials. Send a short email to three people who have given you positive testimonials about why they love visiting the market. These can be quotes or videos. 

Seven Elements Checklist

Use this list to evaluate if your farmers’ market website is prepared to attract customers. 

• Does your website have an easy-to-understand tagline? 
• Does your website visually display the success customers will experience when they visit the market?
• Does your website provide bite-sized categories to explain the products sold at the market?
• Does your website showcase when the market is open? 
• Does your website feature call-to-action buttons to engage consumers (e.g., Plan Your Visit, Virtual Tour) and producers (e.g., Become A Vendor)? 
• Does your website offer a lead generator to build your email list? 
• Do you deliver automated emails after consumers download your lead generator to keep them in the loop? 

In the era of digital search, farmers’ markets must recognize that the first impression is often a digital one. That’s why it’s imperative for farmer’s markets to understand the pivotal role websites play in shaping perceptions and driving engagement. Remember: A click on a farmers’ market website is the modern-day visit, and a well-crafted farmers’ market website serves as the virtual gateway to the vibrant world of fresh, locally produced foods, connecting growers with a broader consumer audience eager to embrace sustainable living. By effectively integrating these seven elements, your farmers’ market website can showcase the diverse range of locally sourced products available, helping attract more consumers and increase grower and market revenues.

If you are ready to develop a farmers’ market website that attracts customers, enroll in the Bricks-to-Clicks Marketing Program’s Master Your Marketing Online Course at Mississippi State University. Dr. Barnes teaches this live one-day marketing workshop where you will learn how to develop a farmers’ market website, lead generator, and email series to attract consumers to your farmers’ market. The next class starts on February 6, 2024. To be notified when registration opens, complete this form.

References

Paget, S. (2023). Local consumer review survey. Available at https://shorturl.at/kBFLU.  

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Barnes, James. “Seven Elements Your Farmers’ Market Website Should Include to Attract Consumers.” Southern Ag Today 4(3.5). January 19, 2024. Permalink

Too many agribusiness owners struggle to convert website visits into sales. The first step is to answer three critical questions in less than ten seconds with the content in the header section of your website. 

To demonstrate the use of these three questions, we reviewed the Palo Blanco Farms website and gave them suggestions for their website. 

What Do You Offer?

Palo Blanco Farms first noted that they sold healthy and sustainable food in the header section of their website, which was vague. We learned that they earn 70% of their revenue from selling organic microgreens, so this main product should be featured in the header. Also, we suggested they add details about what microgreens are. Microgreens are a nutritious and natural way to add veggies to your diet. These details tell their customers what they are selling. 

Why Do I Want It?

Palo Blanco Farms could state that microgreens are a healthier, safer alternative to nutritional supplements. They could also explain that consuming microgreens brings health benefits from essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

How Do I Get It?

The primary call to action is to buy now. We suggested: (1) Buy the product; (2) Receive the Greens; and (3) Live Well, Be Healthy. Since Palo Blanco focuses primarily on subscription deliveries in Laredo, we suggested they design a buy-now experience that minimizes clicks – as Amazon does. 

Want to learn more about how you can convert more of your website visitors into sales? Visit http://brickstoclicks.extension.msstate.edu/ to watch the free Website Mini-Masterclass video series or enroll now in the Master Your Marketing course coming in April 2023. 

Data from Gallup, OECD, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Image from https://www.paloblancofarmandranch.com/.

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Barnes, James and Rebekka Dudensing. “Curiosity to Cash: Successful Web Marketing.” Southern Ag Today 3(5.5). February 3, 2023. Permalink

Using social media content to grow an agribusiness should not be a mystery, but for most, it is. Often, the problem is that the content produced does not grab followers’ attention. When that happens, followers ignore the content. 

But recent research shows how to create social media content to get attention and engagement. The solution is to avoid critical mistakes when creating content (Barnes, 2020). 

One common mistake is agribusiness companies don’t explain that they solve a specific problem for customers. How do you write this type of content? Here’s an example post from a Mississippi agribusiness company called HogEye Trap Cameras. This Facebook post reached more than 10 million followers: 

            Are you frustrated because you can’t stop feral hogs from destroying          

            your land, property, and habitat? 

Now let’s see why the post attracted attention and engagement. [Frustrated] is the negative feeling landowners have. {Can’t stop feral hogs} is the problem. [Destroying your land, property, and habitat] are the economic losses. In a few words, this post asks landowners if they have this problem. If they do, they will keep reading. The rest of the post highlighted the solution this company sells and the savings that will accrue if customers buy, namely the economic value of stopping feral hog damages. 

Talk about the problem you solve for your customers. It’s the easiest way to hook followers’ attention.

Want to learn how to avoid more mistakes and create social media content to grab your followers’ attention? Access the marketing resources provided by the Bricks-To-Clicks^® Marketing Extension Program at Mississippi State University, including Dr. James Barnes’ new book and courses, or listen to the podcast. Get more customized help here. 

References

Barnes, J. 2020. 5 Social Media Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid: A Step-By-Step Guide to Help You Grow Your Business [Amazon Kindle & Audible]. Mississippi State University Extension.

Barnes, James. “How to Create Attention-Grabbing Content to Grow Your Agribusiness with Social Media“. Southern Ag Today 2(34.5). August 19, 2022. Permalink