May 2025 Farm Marketing News
This month’s news includes USDA grant information, new SMS support from Local Food Marketplace, a long-awaited inventory capability update from Shopify, an automated SMS text feature from Klaviyo that could lead to more efficient customer communications, and new email automation capabilities from Drip that could boost your GrazeCart customer outreach.
But first, check out a tip below to learn about a free tool from Google that you probably aren’t using to its greatest advantage.
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Does your farm have a Google Business Profile?
In a world where local food is not just a preference, but a movement, how do you make your farm stand out on Google?
Imagine you can turn every search into an opportunity, every click into a connection, and every review into a referral. Google Business Profiles allow you to do just that. The best part is that once you claim and optimize your profile, there’s minimal maintenance, setting the stage for you to find new customers and nurture repeat business long into the future.
It’s important to note that your Google Business Profile likely exists whether you claim it or not. If you haven’t taken ownership of it though, your profile might not display the most accurate information and definitely won’t work as effectively to engage your customers. This is especially important considering that your profile shows up on the search results page — before a potential customer has even clicked through to your site.
Check out our article to learn just how important your Google Business Profile is and what you can do to make sure this tool is leveraged to its fullest potential.
$50,000 - $100,000 Available for USDA Turnkey Marketing Projects
Good news! The USDA has released a Request for Applications for the Local Food and Farmers’ Market Promotion Programs. Applications are due June 27, 2025.
The 24-month Turnkey Marketing and Promotion grants are offered through both the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program (supporting direct-to-consumer efforts) and the Local Food Promotion Program (supporting food systems efforts that involve intermediaries, such as wholesale buyers and food hubs).
Turnkey Marketing and Promotion projects can range from $50,000-$100,000 to complete activities such as:
Developing or revising a marketing plan
Designing marketing and promotional media
Implementing a marketing plan
Evaluating marketing and promotion activities
We can help you with these things, and we are happy to provide you with a letter of support. The first step is reviewing our pricing guide and booking a call to talk through the details of what your project would entail.
Register for the "Strategies for Selling Meat Online" Webinar with Local Food Marketplace
High Country Food Hub and LFM will hold a free webinar to discuss:
How to leverage newsletters, social media, and other digital marketing tools to promote your store,
How to use LFM's variable weight feature to ensure you get paid for exactly what you sell,
How tools like the LFM List Builder can help you sell more products,
Promo strategies like holding a "fill your freezer" sale, and more valuable tips.
The webinar will be held Thursday, June 12 at 11 a.m. PT.
More Farm Marketing News + Tips
Use SMS Texts with Your Local Food Marketplace Customers
Local Food Marketplace is rolling out SMS text message capabilities so you can send marketing and transactional messages to your customers via text. This is a great way to remind your customers to sign up for a seasonal CSA, communicate pickup/delivery times, and share important deadlines. Implementation takes a few weeks, so sign up soon to start taking advantage of this useful new feature.
Seamlessly Manage Inventory Across Multiple Locations in Shopify
Shopify now allows you to fill orders across multiple pickup locations from a single inventory, preventing stock from zeroing out in one location when it’s available elsewhere.
Use SMS Text Automation to Engage Your Customers with Klaviyo
Klaviyo now allows you to set up automated text conversations with your SMS subscribers! This allows you to pre-set and automate text conversations with customers and send replies based on their responses. Use this feature to prompt your customers to take a text survey or give feedback on a recent order, add items to upcoming subscription orders, or to easily confirm processing dates or cut preferences for bulk orders.
Create Date-Based Email Automations with Drip + Grazecart
Use this brand new feature to trigger workflows and send emails to customers on specific dates! For instance, you could automatically send out birthday or purchase anniversary offers, or automate emails for other date-specific occurrences like farm events, bulk processing dates, and more.
What Our Clients Are Saying
"Working with Grapevine was such a great experience. Everyone on the team was super organized, friendly, and easy to reach whenever I had a question. The whole process — scheduling, communication, training — was really smooth and straightforward. The updates they made to our website looked amazing and were done right on time. Any little tweaks I needed were no problem at all. I’d definitely recommend them!"
— Tara Sullivan, Wanda Farms
Book Now to Work with Grapevine in 2025!
If you’re hoping to work with us this year, now is a great time to schedule a call, as our waitlist is shorter this time of year — we have appointments available as early as June 17! Reach out for help with marketing strategies, email/SMS, advertising, graphic design, Google, websites, and more.
To get started, you can download our latest pricing guide, which also includes a link to schedule a call. We can’t wait to work with you!
