263 Interview with Farmhand: 101 Guide to Using SMS Texting in Your Farm Marketing Strategy
May 22, 2024
Are you using SMS in your marketing? SMS is “code” for text messaging. It stands for short message service.
And in today’s podcast, my guest, Ari Memar, is going to give us a basic tutorial in how we can be using texting in our farm marketing strategy.
Turns out there is a LOT of money to be made when we leverage this tool, because the open rates are ridiculously high. But it can also be used for customer support and onboarding. Ari is the founder of Farmhand, an e-commerce platform for CSA farms, that kind of operates like a virtual assistant! It’s pretty cool!. And one of the tools it offers his customers is texting. Ari shares how Farmhand uses this feature to guide new clients to buy and help his farmer clients make money.
This conversation made me want to go out and buy a texting app!! (He recommends Twillio and Text Magic by the way).
Podcast Guest: Who is Ari Memar?
As a hobby farmer in Sebastopol, CA, Ari Memar knows farming is more than just a job–it’s a way of life. As stewards of our nature and local community, small farms are critical to our local community and food system but often overmatched by the resources available — technology, equipment, sales & marketing teams, back office staff — to larger farms. So, in partnership with local family farmers,, Ari founded Farmhand to equip farmers with the technology and services they need to win back local share of the food dollar, and support a thriving local food system.
To learn more about Farmhand, click here.
This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, my preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can’t recommend it enough. Easy to use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise, Local Line should definitely be one of the e-commerce solutions you consider as you switch. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline
This podcast was sponsored by Farm Marketing School – my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important marketing elements in your farm business like: building a promotion calendar, setting up your Google Business Profile, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work. Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside, watch my new Email Marketing Course, or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Start and cancel your membership anytime.
Hit play and let’s get started!
- Listen to this episode on Stitcher.
- Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts
- Listen to this episode on Google Play
- Listen to this episode on Spotify.
Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:
Join my free email list! I have a great “Crash Course in farm marketing” that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you’ll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better. Subscribe at https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/subscribe
Join my CSA Academy and learn how to support your CSA members Use my resources!! Try it out for the first month for $1 using coupon code TRIAL. (After that, the price increases to $19/month). Go to www.mydigitalfarmer.com/academy to see what’s included with the monthly membership. You’ll get access to the ENTIRE resource library I use to help support my CSA members and get them to CSA mastery fast! Use the templates inside to help you build your own customer onboarding and/or training curriculum this summer. This is a MAJOR shortcut to figuring out your onboarding process!! So valuable! Cancel your membership anytime. https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/academy
Beginner’s Guide to CSA Guide — Use my Canva template and share it with your CSA members in your fulfillment process. This quick read guide shares the quick tips from my CSA master members, for how to be successful as a new CSA member. https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/csasuccess
Get my A to Z Vegetable Storage Guide and use it as a lead magnet — This is my MOST successful lead magnet ever. I’ve used it for 5 years. I’m sharing the Canva template with you, and you have full rights to use it as-is, or change it for your farm. https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/atozguide
Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!
Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer
Subscribe and Review in Apple Podcast
I’d love for you to subscribe to my podcast! I don’t want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe in Apple Podcasts!
Now if you’re feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on Apple Podcast, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!
My hope is to feature guests periodically on the show. If you know someone who is innovating in the area of marketing as a farmer, please send me an email at mydigitalfarmers@gmail.com.
Right click and save as to download this episode to your computer.