Farm Marketing Tips: How To Get Great Reviews For Your Farm's Products That Drive Sales

No matter if you sell eggs, wool, hemp, pickles, or beef - you need reviews for your farm’s products. Why? Because a review is what we marketers call “social proof.” Having a well written review about one of your farm’s products gives website visitors or your social media followers proof that spending their money with you is worth it. 

A glowing review proves to a potential customer that the investment they make in buying your products is a good and trustworthy one - even if it is for a $5 bar of goats milk soap! Seeing reviews is a psychological tipping point when someone is considering purchasing a product. They think, “If this person did it and they liked it, then I will most likely be happy with my purchase too.”

So why have an influencer write you a review for your farm’s products? Reaching out to a local influencer for a farm product feature is like the mother of all reviews. Typically an influencer will have a healthy-sized following that trusts them and their opinion on products.

Influencers also maximize your farm’s exposure when they write a review. They have the ability to do an Instagram post, Instagram story series, send out an email to their list, post to their Facebook Page, and even do a blog post - all for your farm. 

How do you find an influencer who would be a good fit for your farm’s products?

First, you need to decide if you want to reach out to a local influencer or one that’s more universal. 

If you only sell locally, say at an  on-farm store, farmers market, or you have a CSA box - then you should definitely find a local influencer to reach out to so their following reflects your mutual local customer base.

How to find a local influencer if you don’t know of any? Here’s a fun Instagram project for you! Choose the closest major city to you and search the hashtag #cityinfluencer or #cityinfluencers (plural). So in my case, it would be #Milwaukeeinfluencers. Although the search only brings up a couple of hundred posts, there are so many great influencers to weed through to find the right fit. Be open to asking around too if anyone else knows of a local blogger or influencer that would be a good fit for your farm’s products. 

If you have a shippable farm product, then I highly recommend reaching out to any influencer whose values are in line with that of your farms. What I mean is don’t reach out to a vegan influencer about your grass-fed beef! Find someone who is living the lifestyle that is similar to your perfect customer. Don’t quite know how to pin down who your perfect customer is? Then push pause on this article and head over to The Cultivating Capital Course. The course teaches you everything you need to know about properly profiling your farm’s perfect customer.

How do you ask an influencer to review your farm’s products?

First, I recommend reaching out via email. That way your message doesn’t get lost in the many DMs of Instagram or Facebook. It also shows that you went the extra mile to find their contact information.

So what exactly do you write in an email to an influencer to ask them about doing a review?

1. Compliment their work. This means you need to learn about them, what they post about, and what they like. Yay good karma!
2. Share your story. Why do your products matter? How are they different? What do you do as a farmer that is special?
3. Tell them you’d love to offer up a product for a review if they are open to it. Tell them about the product and what you’d be willing to compensate them for their time.
4. *Optional* If they are local to you, get out that local pride. They’re local, you're local, be proud!
5. Offer up links to your website and social media accounts so they can research and properly vet you to see if you are a good fit for them. No website or social media presence yet? No problem, click here to enroll in the Cultivating Capital Course and get your farm online and on track in for 2020.

You both can negotiate the terms of what you want and expect, and be sure to be upfront about your ability to compensate them. Some influencers are okay to do a product-for-post agreement (meaning they simply get the product for free in exchange for the post) this is especially helpful if you are a small farm just starting out. 

Some influencers will expect to be paid for their time, which is perfectly okay. As someone with a decent sized following, I always require compensation for my time writing a post and I don’t do product-for-post anymore because of how much time it truly takes to write a good review. 

Here’s the thing to remember: you can both negotiate the terms. Bartering additional products and services are acceptable to make up for the time the influencer will spend writing you a great feature.

If an influencer says no, that’s okay! Feel free to follow up with them and request recommendations for influencers who may be a better fit. There’s no harm in asking for help.

Before I leave you, I have a call to action for you and your farm. Within the next seven days, I want you to identify one local influencer who you could reach out to about your farm and a farm product. That’s it. Just do your research and find that one people. You don’t have to reach out to them, just identify them and do some digging on their work.

If you feel emboldened to follow my steps and do a pitch, that is amazing. Let me know how it goes if you do. I want you to understand that you have the power to put your farm on the map.

Go forth and be your farm’s biggest fan!

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