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market-farming - RE: Market customer attendance falling off?

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Robert Farr <rbfarr AT erols.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Market customer attendance falling off?
  • Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 08:04:38 -0400


We very successfully use e-mail marketing to market our farm and Chile
Man products, so I highly recommend building an e-mail database. There
are nearly 4,000 customers and prospects on our e-database.

I send messages once a week, sometimes once every other week. The
messages tell first about our farm and what's going on in our lives.
They talk about the issues which affect the farm - our on-going drought
in the mid-Atlantic, how development is affecting the farm and the
surrounding environment, how the rain has helped, etc. I ask for help -
this week, for example, we asked for help picking a bumper crop of
chiles (we have nearly 2,000 plants out there!). And we get lots of
response - two people showed up yesterday, with more on the way.

I also make sure to answer *every* message I receive, even to just say
thanks for writing. Some days, I get more than 50 Chile Man msgs.!

You're all welcome to subscribe to the site - our URL is at the bottom
of this msg. Just log-on to the Chile Man site; there's a subscription
box on the front page.

We do actively gather customer/prospect names at our events (we'll
participate in 38 fairs this year, 8 on the farm and 30 off - beer
fests, wine fest, craft fairs, etc.). And we encourage people - through
the distribution of brochures - to visit our site and subscribe.

The most important thing I've found is to be personal. Be yourself! I
keep the promotion limited, just talk about what's going on.

I'll be happy to answer any other questions about what we're doing.
Send them my way!

Good luck to all of you with this. It's a great way to stay in touch
with your customers and prospects! And it's pretty inexpensive, too.

--
Robert Farr
(540) 668-7160
The Chile Man

* An organic farm producing hot sauce marinades, salsas,
mustards, and barbecue.
* Subscribe to our online newsletter at http://www.thechileman.com

* Check out this article about us from The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/food/A8659-2001Jul17.html

* Open Houses and Farm Tours throughout the year. See web site for
details!






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