What Farmers Know About Successful Direct Marketing

As I continue to grow as a copywriter, I continue to gather evidence each day that sales are often the result of something larger... something more inspirational to people... and these growing lessons come weekly by observing farmers engaged in direct marketing at my local farmers’ market, and I’ll admit.

As social-media writer for the market, I was initially amazed that the farmers could sell so well each week. After all, there were cheaper and easier foods available in grocery stores. Were customers spending more each week at the market just because the foods were cleaner and richer in healthy nutrients?

Those were certainly consumer features. Yet features typically aren’t enough on their own to sway sales. So what was it? Moreover, what kept farmers coming back to the market year after year when their products were labor-intensive and often yielded slim profit margins?

What kept them so motivated for the long game?

In speaking with farmers, I discovered that most of them operated on a higher level. It wasn’t about rising at dawn each day to work until the sun went down. That was simply the mechanics of farming. Their motivation to farm came from a grounded philosophy about living that fed their spirits, even when crops failed, their backs ached or the rains failed to fall...

...and that’s why people returned each week to the market to spend more on locally produced food than cheaper options at the grocery store.

It wasn’t just about healthy nutrition.

And it wasn’t just about social conscience and making sure farmers earned enough to return home with enough money to plant next year’s crop.

It was the chance for people to touch and taste tangible proof of trust... to experience evidence of faith from those who followed it... to nourish themselves in a way that few supermarket foods offered... and replenish themselves on a deeper level called the soul.

Is your product or service inspiring people on a deeper level?

If not, I’d recommend speaking with a farmer.

Said another way: When it comes to “boots-on-the-ground” marketing, they’re the ones walking the furrows.