It’s only been more recently that us farmers have put more of a focus on utilizing online tools to grow their businesses and with that, sometimes we make some mistakes along the way. But that’s fair, the online space can be a steep learning curve at the best of times and often the teaching available doesn’t take into account the unique challenges faced by those in agriculture.

So with that in mind, here are five of the top mistakes I see from farmers online.

1: Not showing their face online

If there’s one tip you can take from me it’s this — Please show your face on social media, on your website, and in your email newsletters. Getting to feel connected to the farmers who produce their food is the number one reason so many people enjoy shopping at farmers markets, because they get to feel like they know the farmers.

Showing your face also helps people develop trust for you as a farmer and these days that’s really important.

It might be intimidating at first but the more you practice the more comfortable you get and as your revenue increases and you start getting positive feedback from your customers, you’ll be more motivated than ever to show up online.

2: Not having a website or having an old and outdated site

Even if you don’t plan to run an online store, having a website is a must. Websites give your company increased credibility and allows you to have ownership over a little corner of the internet. As we see more changes with social media algorithms it’s becoming more and more important to have some ownership of how your content and business show up on the internet.

Also, having a website greatly improves how you show up in search engines when potential customers are looking for places to purchase the products you sell. Google is a massive driver of business to our farm and without our website that wouldn’t be possible.

3. Not having an email newsletter list

Believe it or not, the number on regret when it comes to growing my business online was not starting an email list sooner. As mentioned above social media is becoming more difficult to get your content out to your customers but when it comes to email marketing, you own that list and can communicate with your customers much more effectively…

For real, typically only around 3-6% of your followers on social media see your content unless it’s a popular post where you’ll see a small improvement. When it comes to email marketing, on average over 40% of our customers open our email each week.

4. Not being consistent

If you need to take breaks from social media absolutely do what is best but if you’re only taking breaks because you’re discouraged that you’re not growing your account as fast as you’d like or not seeing the results that you expected, please know that this is a long-game not instant results. And lack of consistency will certainly not help with your growth.

I always think it’s important to include a disclaimer though that if you find your mental health suffering because you’re too busy and something needs to give, don’t put added pressure on yourself to show up every day if that’s too challenging. If you can, pick a set number of days per week and try to stay consistent with that.

5. Trying to do too much online

If you aren’t strong online, if you don’t love it, or you don’t have time for it, please don’t try to have a Facebook page, Instagram account, be blogging, podcasting, TikTok’ing… you get the idea.

Pick a platform, get it nailed down and then if or when you feel comfortable add another. Spreading yourself too thin causes burn out and ultimately if you’re overwhelmed you’re less likely to be consistent with any of it.

Now I’ve been guilty of some of these too (I’m looking at you number 5) so don’t stress if you fall into any or all of these. Let’s commit to working on improving in at least one of these areas.