This Farmer Hates Marketing: Fall #5 – 11/20/18

This Farmer Hates Marketing

Okay, I just have to admit, I really don’t like marketing. If there’s one part of my job as a farmer that I dislike, it’s the part where I don’t get to farm. Sitting in the office trying to come up with click baity ways to get members to open emails to renew their memberships. As Mike’s mom always says, “It’s the pits.”

However, marketing is a necessary evil of any small business, including farms. There’s a saying that goes around most farming conferences we attend that usually goes something like this: “It does nobody any good to learn how to grow all this food without learning how to sell it.” Typically a multitude of groans is heard after this. But it’s true. To make a living as farmers we have to be skilled at both of these things.

Many of us were drawn to small-scale organic farming because we see it as a way to buck the trend of corporate capitalism. Nothing like having to market CSA shares reminds me that as much as we’d like to be completely disconnected from that system, we aren’t.

Corinna Bench is a farmer out of Ohio that has coined herself as the ‘digital farmer.’ Through free Facebook video postings, she shares with farmers what she knows about marketing and how to apply it to the CSA model. She’s amazing at marketing her farm. Sometimes I watch a video or two of hers and am inspired to try something, but inevitably I feel like I’m wearing a dress that I wish I felt comfortable in, but just don’t.

I hate trying to think about the psychology of a customer and how to massage words to make a connection between their needs and our product. Sigh.

I mean no disrespect to any of you talented marketers out there. I just don’t enjoy this part of running a business. I stare at blank screens and often feel like I have to be somebody I’m not.  Marketing doesn’t allow me to be my genuine self.

I’m not sure if this is an appropriate space to vent, so apologies if you find this week’s post off topic too much. But man does it feel good to just write in my own voice after 10 days of marketing for next summer’s season!

With gratitude,
Farmer Cassie

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