by To stay competitive and delight customers, farms are finding creative ways to promote themselves. Loyalty programs are just one of the tools small businesses use to bring in new customers and entice existing customers back.
But just like no two farms are alike, no two loyalty programs should be either. To really wow your customers, your loyalty program should be as unique as you are.
While many farms are interested in offering a loyalty program, they aren’t sure where to get started. On a practical level, what does a farm loyalty program look like? How hard is it to set up?
In this article we’ll go over a few tools you can use and give you some ideas for farm loyalty programs that will drive repeat revenue, boost customer loyalty, and increase sales.
How Using Modern Technology Helps Farms Build Customer Loyalty
Farms that sell to local businesses or directly to consumers know that building a reputation for quality is paramount to success. With more people connecting with businesses online, farm owners have to adapt to marketing to customers digitally.
Luckily, a number of farm-specific technologies are available to help. They give farms convenient ways to display and sell their products in a user-friendly way that today’s customers expect.
By leveraging a user-friendly farm point of sale (POS) system or website builder, you can modernize your farm without having to outsource the technical side.
Driving Farm Business Success With Customer Engagement
In the digital age, shopping can feel a little impersonal. But it doesn’t have to.
In marketing terms, “customer engagement” refers to creating a connection between a brand and its customers. Put another way, customer engagement is what your farm uses to build relationships with your customers beyond transactions alone.
By pouring a little time and love into your marketing and loyalty efforts, you can give your customers more than discounts — you can show them your values and personality. Whether it’s a newsletter or a great website, it’s important to think about how to engage with customers beyond promotions and discounts alone.
Related Read: What is the Best Farm Website Builder? 5 Top Solutions
5 Ideas That Will Keep Your Customers Coming Back For More
The question isn’t if you should offer creative discounts and customer engagement, it’s how. Here are a few farm loyalty program ideas that will help drive sales and build customer relationships with your business.
1. Upsell + Drive Recurring Revenue with Subscriptions
Why buy once when you can get delicious, homegrown products on the regular? Subscriptions are an appealing and convenient option for customers and a great way for farms to drive repeat revenue.
If you are going to offer subscriptions, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Offer a discount: Subscriptions are most appealing when they offer added value to the customer. By offering a subscribe-and-save model, you can encourage repeat sales while helping customers save money.
- Make sure your tech supports it: Not all systems support subscriptions natively. Some online sales systems can’t do it at all while others can only do it by purchasing third-party plugins.
- Specify what is and isn’t available for subscription: Not all products are a good fit for subscriptions. Make sure you have the ability to enable a subscription option per item on your system.
- Ensure pricing is calculated correctly: If selling produce or meat that varies by weight, it’s important to charge the correct amount to customers at the point it’s shipped out or picked up. Look for a system that can collect customer payment details then charge an exact amount once it’s ready.
With built-in subscription support on your website, you can offer subscriptions as part of the normal online checkout process. This lets you upsell customers without any annoying popups or awkwardly placed buttons during checkout.
2. Build Customer Relationships With Newsletters
People prefer shopping at local farms because it’s more ethical, they get better quality, and they’re people-driven. A lot of farmers agree, and creating a newsletter to communicate with customers is a great way to put a personal face on your business.
Create a newsletter or use social media regularly to promote your farm. This is both beneficial for building your brand and sharing offers. Try to write posts that are personal but also leave some room to direct readers to your store.
Pointing out discounted items in your newsletters or social media posts is also a great way to convince an on-the-fence reader to buy.
3. Offer Memberships and Points
Everyone loves earning points, so why not add it to your farm’s online sales? A points system works in conjunction with a membership, giving members points for every purchase on your site. Those points can then be exchanged for various rewards.
Points are a popular way to keep customers coming back for more. After all, why buy somewhere else, when you’re just 10 points away from a freebie?
Additionally, if your website supports it, you can set membership tiers, with higher-tier members getting access to exclusive discounts and offers.
Related Read: What Is the Best Farm Store POS Software? 4 Top Options
4. Bring Back One-Time Customers With Targeted Promotions
With a modern online sales or POS system, you can collect customer information to understand their order history. You can then use this to send out targeted offers based on their preferences.
For instance, maybe you have customers that frequently buy bacon? Send out an email encouraging them to sign up for your subscribe-and-save offers for bacon. Or, let’s say you’re going to sell produce at a local farmers market. You could send emails out to people in that area to encourage them to visit.
Creating personalized offers is much more effective than blanket discounts because it feels more tailored to customers’ tastes. A POS system will track purchase history, customer emails, locations, and more – so get creative with your offers based on the various data points at your disposal.
5. Create Unique Product Bundles
In addition to options for selling by weight, modern POS systems also allow you to create custom products by bundling items together. This gives you the option to do things like setting up boxes for different types of meat, holiday offerings, recipe boxes with specific produce, and more.
For example, you could create a special grilling pack for July 4th by creating a mix of ground beef, steaks, and even sauces you’re selling in conjunction with another local business.
That’s just one idea, but having a flexible inventory system allows you to think of fun ways to entice customers without the headaches of pricing everything out individually.
Stay Competitive by Thinking Outside the Box
Making your small farm stand out against big groceries and large competitors isn’t easy. But it’s definitely not impossible.
Farm loyalty programs can benefit your farm in many ways, such as:
- Driving repeat sales with subscribe-and-save options
- Building brand awareness
- Understanding customer preferences
With a POS system built for the unique needs of farmers, starting a farm loyalty program is easy. GrazeCart comes with built-in features to help small farms drive repeat business, like an intuitive website builder, customizable subscriptions, email marketing, and more.
See what GrazeCart can do for your business by starting your free trial today.