This website serves Farmers and Ranchers in the Kansas AgriTourism Industry.For family outings, go to http://www.travelks.comWelcome to Kansas AgriTourism!This website has been developed specifically for Kansas farmers and ranchers involved in AgriTourism, rural properties where the traveler has an opportunity to experience farm and country life far from the hustle of the city.The site is a project of the Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council, working in cooperation with:the Kansas Agriculture Marketing Division and the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Commerceand with financial assistance from Frontier Farm Credit.We invite you to explore this website to find a variety of articles and resources that will help you succeed in agritourism.If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Commerce, Travel and Tourism Division, and ask for the Agritourism Liaison.
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Kansas AgriTourism News
Customer Information Leads to Better Farm Marketingby Jane Eckert
If you really don't know who your customers are, there's a good chance that you can increase your farm income significantly by finding out. Every farm business needs to be collecting names, addresses and email addresses of your customers. Now, I know some farmers are hesitant to get too nosey; it's not in our nature to go poking around in other folks' business. However, if you use the information in the right way, you will be helping your customer, and helping yourself. So if you haven't been doing it, start now collecting a database of information about your customers. Targeting Your Audience Knowing your target audience helps you know where to invest your time and money. Now you can select newspapers, TV, or radio in the same geographic region of your customers. The same is true when you purchase a flyer in the large coupon packets, advertise at specific movie theatres, or purchase door hangars in the target neighborhoods. Here are just a few reasons why you should know where your customers are coming from, and how to contact them: 1. Have a better idea of what your customers want to see, do, and buy. Knowing where they are from (which you learn from the city or zip code) helps you anticipate what they want. If most of your guests are from out-of-state, they aren't likely to have a way to refrigerate your delicious, dairy-fresh, hand packed ice cream. Switch to bags of fresh fruit, homemade bakery goods, farm toys, and other things that travel well. 2. Know where to invest your advertising efforts. Knowing where your customers are from will help you better target your advertising dollar, as well as your efforts in promotion and publicity. Most urban areas have weekly papers that go to different communities within the city. Matching the zip codes of your customers with the right papers will let you sow your advertising dollars in the most fertile fields. Likewise, if your database shows that most of your visitors come in off the interstate, they likely will never see your advertisement in the local newspaper. The out-of-town zip codes would indicate that you might better invest your advertising dollar in a website that will be seen when the customers are planning their trip. 3. Communicate more frequently with your best customers. It has been proven time and time again that the cost to acquire a new customer is very expensive, but the cost to lose one is even higher. In marketing, we speak of the "lifetime value" of a customer. A happy, informed customer will keep coming back, bringing her kids, and her grandkids, and so on, so the lifetime value of one good customer can be measured in terms of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Customers need to be reminded who you are, when you are open, what fun they can have at the farm, what you sell, when your fruit or vegetable is ready to harvest, and so on. You want to be their friend, and find effective ways to say "Hi friend, we're having a lot fun this week. Come on out and join us!" Here are just a few ideas of how to contact your customers:
How to Collect the Information Guest Table If you have multiple enterprises, you might even ask them to sign up about exactly what they'd like to know more about. That way you can often tailor your message content to what they want to hear about and just mail them based on their request. For example:
If you'd like to see a sample sign up slip just go to this address on my website: http://www.eckertagrimarketing.com/articles/samplesignup.doc. You can download this slip for easy customization with your own name and logo. Subscribe Buttons Carry Sign Up Slips With You It's a new season. If you are not collecting names, addresses, and email addresses, it's time to start. Even if you don't have email, you should begin collecting this information. Remember, your best customers are those who visit you more frequently. Let's build their loyalty by regular communications. Next month we're going to talk about using these names to create an e-newsletter; using email in the right way to benefit your customers. Jane Eckert, a national speaker, author, and agritourism expert, received the North American Farmers' Direct Market Association's 2005 Leadership Award. She is the principal of Eckert AgriMarketing (www.eckertagrimarketing.com), which provides public speaking, consultation with state and regional agencies, workshops, site visits, books, tapes, and website design services. Jane can be reached by phone 314-862-6288 or at jane@eckertagrimarketing.com. AgClusters: Working Together Results in Big Harvests of Touristsby Jane Eckert Teamwork Makes It Happen The same is true in AgriMarketing, the work of attracting tourists to your farm or ranch, and I am seeing more and more harvest teams coming together to reap bigger rewards. Called “Ag Clusters”, these are teams of neighboring farms, bed and breakfasts, wineries and local restaurants and lodging businesses, including those who are friendly competitors, pooling their resources to create a cluster of attractions. The cluster invites potential guests to enjoy not one, but several attractions, all in the same region or area thus increasing the likelihood that the guest will stay longer. More attractions increase the likelihood that the guests will choose your area to visit. Deliver the best guest experience Click here for the rest of this article, looking at four successful examples of ag clusters.
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One of the most important questions I ask farmers is "Who are your customers?" Too frequently, the answer is something like:
Attraction clustering is nothing new to the tourism industry. For example, if you are looking for information about a theme park, you’ll likely find that the literature or website also tells you about nearby lodging, restaurants, and other tourist attractions. As more farms enter the AgriTourism industry, clustering is becoming a practical and profitable way to promote agricultural areas. By combining your marketing dollars you have more resources for brochures, websites and perhaps even a part time publicist to attract the media.
New Website: Farmers Market Coalition
