Archive for Agritourism Marketing
Corn Mazes, Pumpkin Patches & More on Family Farms!
The first day of October and time to plan your trip to the local pumpkin patch. I have recently spent time in both Alberta and Ontario and pleased to report that fall season offerings have grown across North America to become a favorite family weekend activity. Of course, there are many agritourism farms that still have plenty of apples ripe for picking.
Corn mazes, pig races and pumpkin cannons continue to dominate fall festivals on agritourism farms. It appears that farmers today are truly enjoying coming up with new attractions to delight their guests. Other activities that I have seen on farms this year include: duck races, tube swing, maze in an orange grove, jumping pillow, zip line, underground slide, parrot feeding, animal shows, barrrel rides, gem mining, silo climbing, kids karaoke, evening haunted hayrides, flashlight mazes, bonfires and many more.
It is time to plan your trip now to go apple picking and pumpkin picking before time gets away from you. For a listing of farms in your area that offer great fall season experiences just go to www.ruralbounty.com to find farms near you.
USA Today names TOP 10 Apple Picking Farms
Wow! I’m impressed that USA Today recently came out with a list of the TOP 10 Apple Pick Your Farms and that I know three of them. Congrats to Huber Orchard & Winery, Tougas Family Farm and Hollabaugh Brothers Fruit Farm for this special recognition. I sure hope that this article translates into more customers to these local farms as well as to all the great apple pick your own farms here in the U.S.
The key message to the public – local apples are ready and it’s time to go apple picking! Apple season does not last long and it’s easy to miss out on favorite varieties if you wait too long. I encourage everyone to check out the USA Today list or visit Rural Bounty to find apple orchards in your area.
Agritourism Offers More Haunting Experiences
A quick visit with Jeff Alsup, owner of Honeysuckle Hill Farm and Scream Creek in Springfield, Tennessee.
I just returned from a trip to Tennessee and took the time to visit one of our friends Jeff Alsup at Honeysuckle Hill Farm outside of Nashville. Jeff gave me a walking tour of his farm and it was truly amazing how in just a few short years Jeff has developed his agritourism farm to be one of the best fall family experiences in Tennessee.
It’s interesting that Jeff’s background had been as a CPA but he was drawn to life on the farm and developing a fall season business because it just looked like fun. Honeysuckle Hill offers both a small and large corn maze, duck pond, pig races, pedal tractors, jumping pillow, large playground, a beautiful pond to feed the fish plus plenty of space to enjoy the beauty of his farm.
Just two years ago Jeff decided to go into the nighttime business of providing a Halloween “haunting experience.” The new effort is called ScreamCreek that incorporates both wagon rides and walking through a haunted forest. He hires actors to provide the truly scarey and frightful experiences. Scream Creek is geared toward the teen and young adult that doesn’t mind the dark and some pretty loud noises.
The admission is a reasonable $15 but Jeff came up with an even better idea. The $20 priced ticket gains you entrance to the “VIP” lounge with comfortable seating, free concessions and front of the line entrance to board the wagons.
With October just a little over a month away, I know all of the fall season farms are getting ready to provide their customers the best of the fall including plenty of pumpkins and decorations. As children are now returning to school we know that apples and pumpkins are sure to follow.
E-Mail newsletters provide agritourism farms best ROI
Just in case you have not heard of ROI before it stands for Return on Investment. It’s been substantiated that e-newsletters have become the marketing method of choice for not only big companies but also for the small companies. Why? Because it is the most cost effective method to stay in touch with your best customers.
While marketing statistics by email providers such as Constant Contact tell us that an average “open rate” of an e-newsletter is between 12 – 19%, I have found farms getting as high as a 40% open rate. As agritourism operators, we have a very close connection to our customers and they want to know – what we are picking today, what will we be picking tomorrow, what events do we have planned for this weekend etc.
Further research by Epsilon in 2008 tells us that 57% of consumers feel they have a more positive impression of companies when they receive email from them. I know farms that still aren’t utilizing this marketing tool as they should and frankly I don’t understand.
The time to start gathering email addresses is now. Whether you post a sign at the front of your market or add a box on your website for sign-ups – it’s time to begin.
E-Mail sign up table
Farm Zoning Ordinance Passed by County Commission
I am often contacted by farmers frustrated by their County Commissioners not wanting to allow them to conduct certain agritourism activities on their properties. It seems that it is easier for these commissions to want to take land out of agricultural production and hand it over to the developers rather than work with the farmers to create a sustainable farm business.
Take a look at this recent article about the Minnehaha County Commission in Oregon who unanimously passed an amendment to include provisions to make it easier for people to apply for ag related zoning uses, such as developing a corn maze, petting farm, winery etc.
As the types of agritourism enterprises expand, we often go beyond selling our crops to providing experiences for our urban friends to enjoy. From hunting, fishing, company picnics, farm lodging and even weddings, people are coming to our farms to get out of the city and enjoy our land and the beautiful scenery and habitat we own.
I certainly hope that as farmers we will educate those folks on our County Commissions about the value of keeping farm land (they call it “green space” on the east coast) in their county and in our country. Because in order to keep some family farms viable, agritourism activities have become their only option. What do you think?
Home Food Canning is On the Rise
The home food canning industry reports that the sale of Ball and Kerr canning supplies is already 50% more than 2008. This particular trend is great news for farm producers of fruits and vegetables. As agritourism farm operators who sell farm products direct to the public, it is important we understand what is happening with the “buy local” food movement and how we can capitalize on the publics desire to preserve their own food.
- People now taste the difference of homegrown food picked at the peak of ripeness
- People want to meet the farmer who grows their food
- People want to preserve the homegrown flavors and serve them year round
While many people have an interest in preserving food at home most people have never done it before. I encourage you to offer classes at your farm on canning and freezing when you are in the midst of harvest. (Often your local extension agents will assist you with these classes.) I just read about a community kitchen in San Francisco www.yeswecanfood.com where 80 people showed up to preserve local foods. Many other cities now have community kitchens where you could host your own classes if you don’t want to have them on the farm.
Sell the canning supplies, pectin, fruit fresh and other products people will need for home canning. You might want to check out www.freshpreserving.com to get more ideas about the “how to” and recipes. Educating people learn how to preserve their own foods will help you sell more product and strengthen your connection with your customers.
Agritourism Farm Marketing Ontario Report – Customer Insights
I was just reviewing the On-Farm Marketing study which was completed in Ontario, Canada during the fall of 2008 for the Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association. Here are some interesting facts from their research and my responses that I would like to share with my farm friends.
#1. 63% of customers spend from $16 to over $100 per visit at a farm market. (It is important to monitor your average customer sale and to set goals to increase this amount every year. If you don’t, it’s easy to fall behind.)
#2. 95% of customers are “extremely likely” or “likely” to recommend the on-farm market to friends. (As we often hear, word of mouth marketing is our best marketing strategy. What are you doing to impact “praise” for your business?)
#3. 76% of customers take less than 30 minutes to drive to the on-farm market. (For many farms, this means that you might need to expand your marketing reach beyond your own town.)
#4. 30% visit the market at least once per month. (Don’t forget to reward these customers with loyalty programs, coupons, classes, festivals or special V.I.P events. What can you do to get them to make just one more visit per month? I offer 25 of these marketing strategies & how to implement them in my book Fresh Grown Promotions.)
“Family fun, freshness of product and tradition are prime motivators for customers visiting on-farm markets.” We are beginning to come into harvest season and it’s always good to remember the basics and train your employees to do the same.
In order to find agritourism operators in North America, go to the Rural Bounty website.
Organic Food Sales Continue to Soar – Join a local CSA!
As a farmer’s daughter raised on traditional production agriculture, I had a hard time a few year’s ago understanding the total organic food movement. Now, I realize it’s all about choice!
My mission in life is to help family farms succeed and grow their businesses through direct sales, and more specifically, by inviting the public to their farms to purchase their products and engage in on-farm activities. The word for this specialized type of producer is an “agritourism” operator.
Many conventional and organic producers today engage in agritourism, as well as those selling their products direct through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription program such as Tangerinis Farm in Massachusetts or Family Farm Fresh in Visalia, California. Therefore, whether consumers make a choice of organic production versus conventionally grown, they are always supporting local farmers.
Once the public takes this to the next step and realizes that purchasing locally produced fresh food is better for both them and the environment than the “shipped in” fruits and vegetables – we all win! The Organic Trade Association just reported that sales of organic food rose by 15.8% in 2008. This continues a double digit growth for organic food sales for over the past decade.
Often the biggest challenges for consumers is to find these local food producers–whether they sell on farm, at a farmer’s market or direct through a CSA. I’d like to suggest two websites that will help you find local producers as well as agritourism providers. Local Harvest is an online database directory helping you find organic producers anywhere in the United States. Rural Bounty is an online North American database directory that features both types of farm producers, as well as an easy way to find those offering agritourism activities.
The bottom line – by supporting your local family farms you are helping them sustain themselves. The choice is yours!
Farm Garden Centers capture “Back Yard” Garden Customers
April is National Gardening month. It’s no surprise that the media has paid attention to MIchelle Obama’s newest project – The While House garden. In a recent interview with Oprah, Michelle Obama wants to use the garden as “point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet.”
I believe all of this great media news, and increased consumer interest in local and fresh foods will translate into increased sales at the retail garden centers located on so many of our North American agritourism farms. Recently, I’ve visited a few farm garden centers across the country and found that sales of seeds, vegetable plants and gardening supplies are increasing over 2008.
In 2008, per the National Gardening Association, the number of people growing vegetables increased 10 percent over previous years and they anticipate that the number will increase by 20% in 2009.
So, if you have a farm garden center – please don’t ignore this category of purchaser. While the number of back yard food gardeners may be growing, we certainly know as farmer’s that they will still need our expertise in how to grow a good crop.
This spring, I believe farm market garden centers have a tremendous advantage over the “box store” garden centers because we do know how to grow fruits and vegetables and we have plenty of these types of plants for sale. Use your specialized knowledge to help your customers plan their own back yard garden and your garden center sales should soar!
