June 2024 Farm Marketing News
Exciting changes are in the air, and we’re here to help you stay ahead! This month, we’re diving into major Shopify updates and showing you exactly how to navigate them without a hitch. We’ve also packed in some farm marketing tips to keep your business flourishing, and we'll break down a crucial Google rollback (and future re-rollout) and what it means for you.
Let’s jump into these updates and make the most of this vibrant season together!
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New Shopify Checkout Customizations for All Plans
There have been several significant updates to Shopify in the past month, particularly for checkout! The largest of these is Shopify’s new Checkout Editor, which was released on May 21 and allows for more customization on the checkout, order status, and thank you pages — both for you and for the developers of any eligible apps you use.
While some of the more advanced features are only available for Shopify Plus, standard features are available for the Basic plan and up.
Here’s what this means for you:
You now have more options to edit your Checkout, Thank You, and Order Status pages in the Theme Editor.
You will now see a new Customizations section on the Settings > Checkout page.
Here, you may see an alert to update your pages — especially if you use third-party apps that apply customizations to these pages. If you feel comfortable with it, you can update them yourself, or reach out to Grapevine to help!
In this section, you can create draft configurations for your checkout before publishing them to your live site.
You may see prompts to upgrade to the new checkout. You can do this yourself following these helpful instructions.
Be extra careful if you have any customizations or apps on these pages because it likely will break them! However, you should be able to roll it back if needed.
Keep an eye on your checkout pages for the next few weeks! With new changes like this, there’s always a chance things will break.
We’re happy to help with navigating the checkout changes in Shopify. Get in touch with your Grapevine contact or respond to this email to start the process.
We hope with this change, we’ll begin to see progress towards better customization options for Shopify’s checkout, both built-in to the platform and through apps.
In the same vein, Shopify announced on June 3rd that they’ve also improved how subscription shipping options show up at checkout. If you sell items with subscriptions, keep an eye on your checkout pages to make sure they’re still working as intended.
More Farm Marketing News + Tips
Here’s the best time to post, according to the latest from Sprout Social
You don’t have to guess the best time to post — the latest report from Sprout Social has the latest recommendations for you. If you already have a posting schedule that’s getting great engagement, we recommend you continue to use that!
But if you’re looking to start posting on a new platform or haven’t figured out the optimal times, you can use these as a starting point:
Facebook: Weekdays from 9am to noon
Instagram: Weekdays from 9am to 2pm
LinkedIn: Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10am to noon
Twitter: Weekdays from 9am to 3pm
TikTok: Weekdays from 2pm to 6pm
Pinterest: Tuesdays to Fridays at 1am
Remember that this is only a guide, and peak posting times can vary from business to business. You always should block out time in your calendar to review your social media metrics. This can be weekly or monthly, whatever works best with your schedule. If you notice higher engagement at specific days or times, implement that into your social media strategy for future posts.
Google rolls back its AI Overview feature
If you’ve Googled a question recently, you might’ve noticed an AI-generated response taking the top search spot. However, these AI responses have mostly disappeared due to complaints of inaccuracies and misleading answers. Google has announced a rollback of its AI Overviews and promised to resolve these issues before fully rolling them out again.
What does this mean for you? AI Overviews give quick, detailed answers at a glance. This means searchers will get the information they need directly on the search results page instead of clicking to an external site. While the feature is (mostly) on hold for now, a full rollout (which is most likely going to happen this year) could mean fewer direct clicks from Google to your website.
The rollback has bought website owners more time. But in the meantime, if you depend on Google for traffic, it’s crucial to capture attention right at the top of the page, beyond the standard search results. Updating your free Google Business Profile (formerly known as a Google My Business profile or Google Listing) is more important than ever, and Grapevine is happy to help navigate the setup or optimize your profile if you need assistance.
Local Food Marketplace (LFM) product update highlights
The latest version of LFM is live! Here are the product updates at a glance:
Recurring orders for specific products
A “Subscription Distribution Calendar” that allows customers to see when they’re scheduled to receive subscription item(s)
Four new ways to customize customer holds
New support for a SNAP Match customizable discount model
If you’d like to read more about the LFM updates, head over to LFM’s in-depth guide.
What We've Been Up To
We teamed up with Kingdom Oaks Farm & Ranch, a grass-fed, pastured meat farm in Waller, Texas, to create a custom-designed GrazeCart website and implement Drip email and SMS marketing.
We set up online ordering options for local pickup at the farm, the market, and other designated pickup points. The site also offers information about the farm, shopping options, and the latest news.
Additionally, we fully configured Drip, including email template design, copywriting, automated email workflows, and SMS text message marketing.
We provided training to make it easy for the farm to manage orders and update their website, emails, and SMS as needed.
"Thank you for all that you do as well as your patience as we figured everything out that was required on our end. I am loving the ease of editing inventory and processing orders thus far."
— Fonda Lewis, Kingdom Oaks Farm & Ranch
Want to Work With Us?
Great news! Our waitlist is shorter during the summer. Now’s the time to reserve your spot for August! Currently, we have availability for marketing strategy, email/SMS marketing, advertising, and website projects.
To get started, you can download our latest pricing guide, which also includes a link to schedule a call.
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