3 Lessons In Content Marketing From Farmers’ Markets

3 Lessons In Content Marketing From The Farmers’ Market

Three Lessons in Content Marketing.

Just a few blocks from home, we have a great farmers’ market on Sunday mornings. The market’s growing fast; it’s twice as large as last year.

I found 3 lessons for content marketers at our farmers’ market.

1. Listen to the intent behind customers’ questions.

Last year’s market had one bread baker; now we have many. I tried a new bread baker. Their bread’s good, so I went back.

I had a question for the woman working the stand, “I see on the label that your bakery’s on Plum Street. Do you have a retail store there?”

“No,” she said. End of conversation.

A week later, a different woman waited on me. I said, “I know you sell your bread here and at the farmers’ market up the road. Do you sell anywhere else?”

“Yes. During the winter, you can buy our bread at that coffee shop,” she said, pointing up the street. “Just place your order in advance.”

“Do you have a business card?” I asked.

“No, but here’s a sticker with our name. Come and look at our page on Facebook.”

Twice, I’d asked the same question, more or less: where to buy the product. But only one seller listened to the question well enough to address it fully.

Does your content marketing address basic customer questions, such as where to buy? On your website, how easy is it to contact sales or distributors?

2. When they’re ready to buy, help customers choose the right product.

I love fresh melon. But picking out a ripe cantaloupe is tough. If I bring home a green one, it never seems to ripen.

It’s hard (for me) to tell which ones are ripe … unless I shake them and hear loose seeds inside. But, vendors have scolded me for shaking their cantaloupes.

So I asked a woman at a produce stand, “How do you tell when a cantaloupe is ripe?”

“First I go by the color,” she said.

“That’s a problem, since I’m a bit color-blind.”

“Here, let me pick one for you.”

Guess where I always buy cantaloupes?

Does your content marketing help customers figure out which product to buy? Does it offer clear choices?

3. Add unexpected value.

For years, I’ve bought olives from the same fellow. His olives are absolutely the best, especially his black Moroccan olives. So I always go to him.

Now I have another reason to be his customer: I’m a new French student, and he’s a Frenchman. He’s offered to speak French with me as he works his stand on Sunday mornings. C’est magnifique!

Last night, we served some of his olives before dinner. When guests asked about the olives – yes, they’re that good – I tell them who to buy from. And I say, he’s helping me learn French. This little story helps people remember him, and his olives.

How does your content marketing add unexpected value? How does your content spread a story?

Retail experiences, including farmers’ markets, can teach us how to make content marketing even more successful.

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