August 2024 Farm Marketing News
As we head into the peak of our busy season for many farms, we're focusing on tools that streamline your marketing efforts and strengthen connections with your customers.
From the best email and SMS platforms to the latest updates in digital advertising, our newsletter is packed with essential insights to help your farm flourish. Dive in as we guide you through optimizing your marketing strategy this season.
Want to be the first to find out about the latest in farm marketing news and updates from Grapevine? Sign up for our newsletter!
Field-Tested Email Tools to Boost Your Growth
Choosing the right email and SMS platform for your farm's marketing needs is crucial for nurturing relationships and converting leads to loyal customers — all while you focus on your farming.
Here’s a quick guide to help you decide based on the platform your website is built on:
If you use GrazeCart: We recommend Drip for email due to its advanced integration capabilities, though its SMS feature is currently unavailable. For SMS, YetiText is an excellent alternative.
If you use Shopify: Klaviyo is our top choice for its robust email automations and fully integrated SMS services.
If you use Square: While Square offers built-in email, Klaviyo provides more comprehensive features and integration.
If you use Squarespace: The choice between Mailchimp and Squarespace’s own email services will depend on your specific needs, with Mailchimp offering SMS capabilities.
For a deeper dive into how these platforms can enhance your farm's digital marketing and a comparison of pricing, read the full article.
If you’d like help setting up email and SMS, reach out!
More Farm Marketing News + Tips
It's the busiest time of year, and this month we've condensed our marketing tips even further so you can quickly grab the insights you need.
Google is going to start testing search and shopping ads inside of AI Overviews.
Google has also improved the quality of its AI Overview answers since the disastrous rollout we outlined last month.
What does this mean for you? Keep a close eye on clicks and conversions during this testing phase. If we’re managing your Google Ads account, we’ve got it covered. If you’d like help, reach out!
Klaviyo’s new report analyzed 143,000 brands to help you grow faster with email and SMS.
Here are some quick takeaways from the report:
Send at least one SMS text per week to accelerate growth.
Publish at least two forms on your site. This can include a newsletter signup popup and an embedded form.
Top-performing brands have at least 7 live flows, including a welcome series, browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, sunset, and price drop flows. Let us know if you’d like help setting up flows on Klaviyo or another email marketing platform.
Meta is rolling out a new feature for Instagram ads.
You can now showcase custom offers on your call-to-action buttons in your Instagram ads. For example, if you’re offering free shipping, the ad would show a “free shipping” label next to your call-to-action button.
Why does this matter? It could improve your ad click-through rates! If Grapevine is managing your ads, we’ll make recommendations about using this new feature.
What We've Been Up To
We enjoyed collaborating with Adena Farms, a grass-fed beef farm in Florida, to develop a custom Shopify website.
Here’s what we’ve rolled out:
Online Shopping Features: Now, customers can buy their favorite cuts, choose from flexible purchasing options like one-time orders and subscriptions, create their own bundles, and even order items like ribeye roasts that are cut to order and charged by the pound.
Tailored Design: We've tailored the website with custom HTML, CSS, and Liquid coding, to bring to life the design they had in mind but is also a breeze for the farm team to update.
SEO Optimized: With SEO best practices in place, it’s easier than ever for new customers to stumble upon Adena Farms through Google.
Enhanced Customer Experience: We've streamlined the site design to make navigating, shopping, and checking out as smooth as possible.
We're proud to help Adena Farms shine online and make their shopping experience better than ever.
Want to Work With Us?
Great news! Our waitlist is shortest in the summer months. If you'd like to work together this fall, now is the time to reserve your spot.
To get started, you can download our latest pricing guide, which also includes a link to schedule a call.
Get to Know Grapevine's Founder, Sarah
📍Where are you located? My sweetie & I have been nomadic since we sold our house in 2018. We travel as housesitters/petsitters & we typically spend 2-3 months in each place we visit. Right now we're in Spokane, WA.
✨What is your title & what do you do? As Grapevine's founder I do a little of everything! Boring stuff like accounting + fun stuff like coaching clients on SEO. I also collaborate with the team on client projects, & build out internal systems & documentation.
🍗 What’s your favorite thing to cook? I was raised vegetarian so I didn't learn to cook meat until I was in my late thirties, after I found a great local farm & started eating meat. Some of my specialties are whole chickens, turkeys, pork chops, & flank steaks.
🏋️♀️ What do you like to do in your free time? LOL! Grapevine has eliminated my free time over the last few years, but once upon a time I was an avid powerlifter. I also love cooking, gardening, & learning languages. I plan to find some work-life balance this year & be able to get back to my hobbies.
📚 What was the last good book you read? Right now I'm reading the Thursday Murder Club mystery series — very entertaining & perfect for unwinding!
🍽️ Who would be your ideal dinner guest? I think this might be cheating because it's more than one, but I just want my whole extended family over for dinner! We're all spread out all over the country & I see most of them several times a year, but I never get to see everyone all at once.
🎂 What’s your favorite holiday? Birthdays! I love baking cake, making homemade ice cream, & planning special dinners.
🐶 Do you have any furry co-workers at home? Our nomadic lifestyle means we can't have pets, but I wish I had a dog! Dogsitting is a good temporary solution, but I absolutely cannot wait to have dogs of my own again.
✨What’s your favorite thing about working for Grapevine? The people! My teammates are amazing — creative, talented, fun, & easy to build a healthy work environment with. And I love working with farmers & local food folks; our clients are the best & it is an honor to be able to play a tiny supporting role in the important work they do.
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