Selling Your Products

The resources below offer guidance and ideas for marketing and selling your products.

Note: This list primarily includes resources for farm product marketing that apply to diverse regions and types of produce. We strongly encourage you to look for resources specific to your local context or product of choice.

BeginningFarmers.org:

This extensive website covers marketing strategies; finding farmers markets, grocery stores, and restaurants; marketing organic products; selling at farmers markets; software to manage farm sales and invoices; delivery and transport companies; setting up internet marketing and sales operations; and more.

USDA New Farmers:

This USDA site provides resources for farmers entering a new agricultural practice, including grants, directories of potential buyers and marketplaces, and local and organic food promotion programs.

Sustainable Agriculture and Resource Education Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers:

This 20-page bulletin presents many alternatives to marketing commodities through conventional channels. It spotlights innovative SARE-funded research into a range of marketing options, including farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, tourism, direct marketing, season extension, value-added goods, sales to restaurants, public campaigns, and the internet.

The Carrot Project

This organization offers a menu of support to help farmers build financial resilience. They provide value-added production webinars to support farmers looking to diversify their farm and profit potential. Priority is given to businesses in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut and offers free or subsidized support for those states. The program is open to farm businesses from outside states when space is available.

Community Alliance with Family Farmers The Farmers’ Marketing and Sales Notebook and CSA and Online Sales Resources for Farmers (California-based)

Selling in Online Marketplaces: “Selling Real Farm Products in a Virtual Marketplace” by Erica Frenay

“7 SEO Tips for Agricultural Businesses” by Laura Sutherly: This Agtivation blog post helps with search engine optimization (SEO) so your farm web page appears at the top of Google search results.

ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture Program Newsletter “Selling on the Internet and Through Wholesale Produce Distributors”

Digital Marketer offers free educational resources for online business marketing.

Hubspot Academy provides free online how-to lessons for starting marketing and creating successful Instagram, Facebook, video, e-commerce, and inbound-marketing strategies.
Setting the Right Prices for Your Products: University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Guide to Pricing: Long but thorough, this guide provides detailed pricing strategies and information on how to conduct a cost-sensitivity analysis.

Beginning Farmers Guide to Pricing: This conversational article gives insight into the key questions one should consider when setting product prices.

Penn State Extension Pricing Strategy Guide: This article offers tips on presenting prices so they seem more like a deal for customers.

Penn State Extension Article “Marketing Your Agritourism Business”

Business Planning: Farm Credit University: This university offers producer academy courses, which include Ag Biz Basics, Ag Biz Planner, and Farm Business Transition Workbook. These online courses are designed with farmer and rancher students in mind.

NxLeveL® for Agriculture Entrepreneurs: This course focuses on how to start agricultural ventures that are not tied to large-scale commodity-style production. Course materials are designed for pursuing innovative ideas and enhanced marketing opportunities in agriculture.

The Farm Labor Dashboard: The University of Vermont Extension created this dashboard of resources, which includes a labor readiness assessment, a purposeful-recordkeeping video for tracking labor on a diversified vegetable farm, an equipment cost recovery tool, and the Developing a Values-Based Vision for Your Farm workbook.