In a small village in the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala, a group of young farmers came together to start up a “Mercado Campesino”, or a farmer´s market where the only products sold were those grown and made by the farmers themselves. While most people in small towns and villages throughout Central America obtain their food from markets (instead of grocery stores), many of those markets are dominated by food shipped in from other parts of the country and from around the world. During many times of the year, apples from Chile compete with local apple varieties grown throughout the corn and bean fields of smallholder farmers.
The growing influence and pressure from the globalization of the agriculture and food markets led these small farmers to create a physical space where they could interact directly with their neighbors in order to offer fresh, organic, and culturally important foodstuffs without the competition from the globalized food supply system.
After several years of successfully establishing and growing the farmer´s market, many of the small farmer´s began looking for strategies to increase the profits from what they cultivated on their land. Young farmers with a couple of milk cows learned how to make artisanal yogurt as a value added product from the raw milk their cows supplied. Other farmers decided to set up food booths during market days to sell meals prepared from the produce grown on their farms. Farmers with peach and apple orchards ventured into the cider and wine industry, offering fresh pressed cider and aged country wines during market days.
As more farmers attempted to increase the offer of value added products alongside the fresh produce they sold, these farmers were looking for assurances that their products would find a steady and stable market. While fresh cow´s milk not sold during the market day can still be turned into cheese, yogurt that doesn´t sold is essentially lost. Similarly, apples can be sold for several weeks while fresh pressed apple cider that isn´t sold on market day quickly becomes vinegar.
In order to improve the stability, solidity, and constancy of their local market, several young farmers began to search for ways to engage with their clients via the internet. Facebook groups were created where small farmers could let their clients know what would be offered on market day and to ask them to share the availability of these products with their contacts. Other farmers came together to begin a collective email campaign where they sent out a catalogue of what they would be offering to their accumulated contacts.
After several months, the farmers who had ventured into value-added products marketed via email and social media, went to market day with the full assurance that the majority of the products they offered would be sold. This helped to reduce the risk and vulnerability sometimes associated with local markets, and helped these farmers increase engagement with those clients in order to provide them with most of their food needs.
While many of us might have the image of small farmers in Guatemala, many with limited access to formal education, as being forced to sell their crops at miserable prices to cunning middlemen, simple access to technology and a growing class of people who don´t make their living from the land allowed small farmers in a remote village to find a stable and secure market to increase their profit and improve their wellbeing.
If small farmers in Guatemala have been able to cash in on the opportunities provided by email marketing, the growing number of young people who yearn to make their way “back to the land” should take heed. Though most places in the United States and other developed countries no longer have the long-standing tradition of markets as the main source of food purchasing (farmers markets in the USA are still a niche market), technology certainly offers many opportunities.
In places like the state of Maine, where farmers under the age of 35 have increased by 40%, finding ways to meaningfully engage with local consumers is essential for the economic sustainability of small farms. The USDA reports that over 167,000 small farms sold their farm products through direct marketing practices. However, only 8 percent of those farms utilized online marketplaces to connect with potential customers.
Email marketing campaigns might not be associated with the selling of tomatoes and farm-fresh eggs. However, research has shown that email marketing is an effective way to engage with customers, keep them informed on the availability of certain products, and help maintain connections between business owners and consumers.
Simply hoping that new clients will stop by your local farmer´s market out of curiosity is not an efficacious marketing plan, especially for farmers whose timeframe for selling their produce is restricted by the reality of rotting tomatoes and sour milk. Rather, learning to connect with consumers via email marketing campaigns can help to reduce the susceptibility so often associated with farming economics. Instead of simply sending out a vague email to a hundred or so contacts, there are a number of email marketing tools that can help small farmers establish a dependable clientele.
Email Recon is an email validation service that helps companies and businesses of all sizes to make sure that they´re truly engaging with their customers via email marketing campaigns. Not only will this service help small farmers identify which email addresses are no longer in use by their holders, but it will also help recognize and detect high value users. From the perspective of small farmers trying to find a steady market for their goods via email marketing, this company can help them find customers with high response rates, and even distinguish clients who have the potential to bring in new customers.
Another great online tool for small farmers trying to increase their revenue flow via the internet is Shiftmail, a company specializing in email analytics. Instead of having the email you send out to potential customers be buried in their “spam” folder, this software will make sure that you get the highest possible engagement rates with customers. Shiftmail also records the amount of “read time” each user logs when they open your email. You can thus distinguish clients who are truly interested in what you have to offer from those who don´t take the time to read about what is currently in season. In addition, if an email includes links to other services or products offered such as a link to your Facebook page or the country cabins you´re offering on your farm via Air Bnb, you can measure the clicks on content links to gauge the engagement rate for the variety of services you offer.
Email marketing presents an opportunity for young farmers in the United States and other developed countries to establish a sound and steady customer base. The increased flow of direct communication between small famers and consumers will also allow small farmers to discern market tendencies and shift their production towards products that have the greatest acceptance rate from their steady clients. As more and more young people yearn to make a living from the land, utilizing email marketing software and services will be essential for their long-term economic sustainability.