Have You Heard About CSA Week?
In 2015, Small Farm Central coined “CSA Day” to recognize that February is the most popular time of the year to join a CSA (aka Community Supported Agriculture). Since then, the CSA Innovation Network has expanded this day into a full week in February dedicated to supporting and promoting Community Supported Agriculture. Please check our the CSA Innovation Network’s CSA Week page to learn more! There, you can sing up for the The CSA Innovation Network’s free toolkit, and add your farm/organization to the CSA Week Participants Map.
Start Here: Free Guides to Help You Retain CSA Customers and Sell More
One of the benefits of local food for the consumer is forming a relationship with their food
producers. By focusing on these customer relationships, you can create lifelong farm share subscribers. Check out the guides below for expert advice and proven strategies to retain customers and increase the value of these relationships.
1. Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention
2. Increasing Average Order Size: A Farmer & Food Hub’s Guide
Resources from CSA Innovation Network
CSA Day was first started by Small Farm Central. The CSA Innovation Network has gone one step further to promote a full CSA Week. Check out their site for a free digital toolkit to help you promote your CSA.
CSA Success Stories
Learn how farmers and food hubs are running their farm shares.
Creating Customizable CSAs with Fiddlehead Farm
Check out Heather Coffey’s step-by-step guide to using technology to sell fully customizable CSAs.
“Customizable subscriptions are a no-brainer for me,” says Heather. “[Fiddlehead Farm’s members] are making the commitment to local and the commitment to eating what’s in season, so I can at least give them the choice of everything that’s in the garden.”
Flexible CSA Payment Options with Upswing Farm
“We use our LFM-powered site to offer our CSA on a sliding scale at three price points. I think this brings awareness to the fact that everyone deserves access to fresh food. And if the total isn’t in balance at the end of the year, we use funds from the community support tier to donate extra CSAs to food pantries. This way we are deliberately donating high-quality, varied produce that we could have sold for a profit — not just the stuff we grew too much of.”
Expanding Sales Channels with Blue Sky Organic Farms
Today, Blue Sky Organic Farms operates a large farm share program, participates in four weekly farmers markets, sells to a large wholesale client base, and runs an on-site farm store full of local food and products from other Arizona-based producers.
“Before we implemented LFM, only CSA customers could buy online. Now, anyone can pick up an order. And since LFM accommodates our whole inventory, we could expand our other product offerings to customers.”
How Do I Market My CSA?
If you’re getting ready to sign up farm share customers this February, you’ll want to harness your website and social media to tell your store. Check out these blog posts for some marketing tips to help you promote your farm share effectively.
1. Social Media Strategies to Maximize your Online Store
2. How to Use Press Releases to Promote Your Online Store
3. Farms and Facebook Pixels
4. MailChimp Integration for Powerful Marketing
5. How Quality Photos Drive Sales
How Do I Chose CSA Software?
Running a CSA requires incredible attention to detail and organization. If you’re like many farmers, you’ve managed to do everything with Excel, QuickBooks, and email so far — but sometimes managing everything this way can feel like more trouble than it’s worth. Technology can help lighten that load.
Schedule your free Demo!Winter is the perfect time to onboard a new system that can help you stay organized, increase sales, manage data, and grow your business. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to LFM to schedule a demo to see our software in action and learn how we can help your business. In the meantime, read on to learn about how software can help you manage your farm share.
1. New Feature – “Subscription Builder” for Farm Shares
2. Evaluating Online Sales Platforms
What Tools do I Need to Run a Successful Farm Share?
✔ A user-friendly website
✔ A way to manage deliveries or pickups
✔ Flexibility and customization options for customers
✔ Easy inventory management
✔ Email communication with customers
Local Food Marketplace offers all of these tools in one single platform. And we’ve even added new features especially for those farms and food hubs that offer farm shares and subscriptions.
Want to see LFM’s Subscription Builder in action?
Watch the Video Preview!
If you have any questions about how LFM can help you to set up your farm shares for success, just click here to set up a free demo call.
