Just in case you were wondering...all is still quite well on the raw milk front. I just sent off another article to Graze Magazine on the topic, which will be printed soon. (Special thanks to Joel McNair) It focuses on the change in new customer demographic we've been seeing, specifically the customer who has NEVER had raw milk before but is eager to give it a try.
In fact, the other day we calculated estimated servings of raw milk sold. Based on an 8 oz glass and there being over 16 glasses in one gallon and the fact that we have sold approximately 200 gallons of milk per month for the last 17 years (not so much in the first five years, even more in the last 2 years) we estimated we sold 40,800 gallons or of milk to our raw milk customers or 652, 800 SERVINGS of raw milk.
I'm not bragging, we are a small farm and a larger raw milk dairy would have much bigger numbers...I am just saying, People really do love raw milk. And we, are happy to be producing it for them and their families.
Last month, we decided to discontinue the raw milk ads in the local newspapers, they weren't reaching that many folks or at least when we asked new customers how they found us, it wasn't the news ads they cited.
Number one best source of advertising is still word of mouth...as it should be. I know I am much more prone to use a restaurant or stop in a shop if someone I trust has reccomended it. After that it is "The Internet" in general. Sometimes folks will be more specific and can list one of the farm sites we love, Eat Wild.Com (which by the way if you have a farm and sell farm products you will absolutely get your $50 worth to list your farm on this site) or they will state "your blog" and "Facebook."
But, at least 70 % of the time, they come to us because their mother's Aunt Bertha's son, the one she had with her second husband Luther, yeah THAT guy, what was his name ? Yeah, he told them about our farm.
Thank you Luther.
Yeah...nothing to do with milk, but you know how I love to make soap.
Word of mouth is how I sell most of my goats now.. I had to list a few this year but it lasted maybe a day tops.. I could sell all extra milk too but I prefer to keep most of it and use it here. But I am not big time like others..
ReplyDeleteLol at the soap pic!
'Word of mouth' every time. By the way, how did you find my photo?
ReplyDeleteOk, you know I will be having swigs of your milk in between the beekeeping, right?
ReplyDeleteYour husband is looking mighty spry in the last photo, by the way ;)
All kinds of inappropriate thoughts rolling through my head now that I've seen the last photo....thoughts about soap and cleaning up and ..... is this a family site?
ReplyDeleteWord of mouth IS where it's at, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteIn other news...I have no idea who that is in the last photo there. He's a cutie, though. Yep, I am totally out of it. I admit it freely.
I tell ya .... you can advertise all you want and people will come to you when they hear about you from a friend.
ReplyDeleteKnow about you ... Like you ... Trust you. That's when they come to see you.
And when you have a hottie like that making soap with you!!!!
Word of mouth beats everything else most of the time. You astonish me with how much you can find time to do and blog about it all as well!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the sales are going well! I think word of mouth works because folks tend to trust information from another customer rather than a sales ad. I'm sure Luther would agree.
ReplyDelete