Build a marketing strategy for your business
A six part online workshop for members of The Long Road Co-op, running Wednesday evenings from 14 October.
What will I learn?
This course will teach you how to build a marketing strategy and turn it into a workable communications plan. Using the Long Road Olive Co-op’s foundational documents including the Vision, Mission and Values and key messages, we’ll determine your key audiences, what they need from your business and how and when to reach them.
If you also sell under your own brand, you’ll learn how to create these foundational documents for your brand, and how to position your brand within the cooperative to reach values aligned customers.
We'll then look at what is better done together than separately, sharing skills and resources and splitting costs with other members, so you are promoting your business and raising the profile of small scale olive production at the same time.
Why do I need a marketing strategy?
An effective marketing strategy does not mean posting on social media every day.
An effective marketing strategy is defining why your business exists, who it serves and why that matters. It’s understanding your customers, what they require, how you meet their needs and where and when should that message.
For small food and agricultural businesses, effective marketing strategies are essential for reaching the consumers who appreciate your proximity to the land, the crops and the products you produce. These customers need to understand the who, what, when and most importantly, why of your company. They need to understand your values and how they align with their own, values like small scale and local production, quality and taste, care and craftsmanship and generational knowledge.
Who is it for?
Anyone with a product to sell
You do not need any marketing experience, a website, a logo or a social media account to do this course. If you have all of these things however, this course will teach you the most effective way to use the tools, resources and channels you have available to reach your customers with the right message at the right time.
The only prerequisite for participation is that you have a business with a product to sell. That may be olive oil, table olives, olive products and/or other farm products. Each week participants will work on their own business marketing strategy until the final class when they will complete their marketing plan.
Places are limited to twelve so that everyone has time for their own work and individual attention.
The course schedule
Wednesday October 14:
Why your business exists
This session is about why you started, what you are here to do and what you will not compromise on. Those things are your vision, mission and values. Once on paper, they guide not only your marketing and communications, but every decision your business makes.
Wednesday October 21:
Who you serve
Your customers are a diverse group who need different things, and what they need might not be what you think you’re selling them. We’ll sort them into a handful of groups, called segments, and work out what each group actually wants. That answer decides what you say to them, where you say it and when.
Wednesday Oct 28:
Clinic
This is a workshop on the marketing strategy you have drafted so far. Together we’ll collaboratively develop your draft strategies and seek input from your cohort, those who understand the industry you are working in best.
Wednesday November 11:
Message, channel, moment
What to say, where to say it and when to say it. We follow the road a customer travels from never having heard of you to buying from you again, and we work out which channels do which job along the way.
Wednesday November 18:
Collective opportunities
As a cooperative, you work collectively. This collaborative session will determine where this cohort might split costs, share skills and limit the burden based on your draft marketing strategies.
Wednesday November 25:
Clinic
Everyone presents their plan to the group. You’ll learn from the collective wisdom of your cohort and from their solutions to unique and shared problems. We finish by confirming what the group is going to share and who is going to look after each piece of it.
What you’ll take away from this course
A two-page marketing plan for your business
Page 1 outlines your vision, mission and values.
Page 2 defines your customers, what those people want, what to say to them and where to reach them.
Cost
$50 for members. $150 for non members. Course fees will be donated to the Long Road Olive Co-op.
This is a pilot to help me adapt a course I developed for aspiring hospitality entrepreneurs to an educational program that serves existing food and ag business owners. The price of the course is considerably lower than the what I will eventually charge participants, but has a value to confirm your commitment to the six week program.
What I’m asking of you
In return for the opportunity to take this course at a discounted price, I’m asking a few things of you:
Come to all six sessions. They build on each other so attendance is essential for you to create a full marketing strategy for your business.
Do the work between sessions. You’ll have short homework assignments between classes to help you take what you have learned and apply it to your context.
Fill in the feedback form at the end.
Let me use your finished plan as a teaching example in later courses. I will keep it anonymous or credit you if you are happy to be named.
About me
I’m Suzie Hoban and I work with food and agriculture businesses, consulting on brand and marketing strategy. I spent fifteen years in specialty coffee and fine cacao, including running my own chocolate business in Colombia.
I’ve worked with Market Lane Coffee, STREAT, Leading Harvest and Long Road Olive Coop, helping them define what they stand for so customers who share those values can find them, understand what goes into their products and pay what they are actually worth.
Sign up
Places are limited. Applications close Oct 2.