Ask any branding expert about business storytelling and they will almost say it’s as important as what you sell. In a lot of ways consumers buy your products because they relate to you, because they’re inspired by what you do more than what you offer. They don’t buy products, they buy your business story. It’s a marketing approach that is often ignored by merchants, but not by Little Seed Farm.
Little Seed, is a startup farm by James and Eileen. A couple who opted to pack their bags and move from the hustle and bustle of New York city to a small town in Tennessee to start a sustainable and humane farming business and an online store to compliment it. Their courage is truly inspiring. Not many actually succeed in such a life changing move, but they seem to be on the right track in building a great brand, and they’ve got a motivating story behind it. We had a chat with James last week, and this is how it went…
1. Tell us how Little Seed Farm came about.
The idea for Little Seed came about when we lived in NYC and wanted to do something different with our lives. We were very interested in food and food production, so we researched small-scale farming and decided to move to Tennessee to start a sustainable and humane goat dairy.
We’ve been at the farm for a little over a year now and we’ve never looked back. It’s a lot of very hard work and long days, but it’s incredibly rewarding and we’ve learned a lot
There’s a bunch of fun stories about the transition and our ups and downs on our blog at www.littleseedfarm.com/to-be-a-farmer-blog/.
2. We absolutely love your Farmstead Milk Soap and Herbal Lip Salves packaging and branding, can you explain how you thought of this and how you managed to create a product that you can sell?
Thanks! Eileen’s prior career was in the design and fashion world. Our packaging and branding is a direct result of her experience in the fashion industry and her incredible talent that was honed at design school in Milan, Italy. We’re very lucky to have her skills and passion for creating beautiful things.
3. What other products can we find in your store and who would benefit?
Our online store primarily highlights the Farmstead Milk Soaps and the Herbal Lip Salves, but we also offer some fun Notecards featuring photos taken at our farm. You can also get a little bit of everything in our gift sets.
We’ll soon be offering t-shirts, so keep on the lookout!
4. How long have you been selling online, and what sort of obstacles did you face since and how did you manage to overcome them?
We started selling about 8 months ago. The primary hurdle was infrastructure and managing our growth. We didn’t know how many soaps we would actually sell, so going from zero to a few thousand in less than a year was a big leap. We’re all settled now and can absorb the growth a little better now, but at first it was tough to keep up!
The other issue was the fact that we don’t live in a city, so we have to plan specific days to ship, purchase materials, and make sure we make the most of every visit to town.
5. What sort of tools do you use to market your products and business online?
We’re probably most active on Instagram and Facebook, but our Pinterest and Twitter feeds also do well. Definitely the most engagement is on Instagram and Facebook, which is why we focus most of our energy on those platforms. We love our social media followers. It helps us feel connected despite living in the middle of nowhere.
6. Do you have any advice that you can share with others selling online?
Keep at it and have patience. It took us a long time to build an audience and we still have a long way to go.
7. What’s next for Little Seed Farm? Anything new coming our way?
Well, Eileen is due with our first child in September, so that’s the next big thing that we’re preparing for!
We’d like to congratulate James and Eileen on their up and coming parenthood, and mostly on their brave move. Their story inspired us to showcase them, and we hope you’d visit their great site and blog to see how they effectively market with storytelling.
“Wanna get featured on our blog? Send us an email with your story to “hello @wazala.com”.
