So you’ve had a great new business idea for your farm, ranch or agribusiness.
Perhaps you want to test a small local meat delivery service. Maybe you’re using you’re the workshop in your barn to make craft items which you plan to sell online. Or maybe something similar.
However, your funds are tight. And you’re unsure about how much demand there is for your new idea.
You might find you’re wanting to test your new business idea with minimal costs. And you may be wondering if you need a website for my new farming business idea?
The answer is: it depends.
You see, you don’t need to run out and hire a web designer for every new business idea you have for your farm. Q
Quite a few ideas can be tested using free or cheap methods. And that’s what this guide is going to show you.
The beauty of using some of the cheap/free marketing methods in this post is:
- You can keep your costs low.
- Some marketing methods are easy to use or implement.
- They’re quick to setup and use. Meaning you can test your ideas faster.
- Due to their low cost you can test your ideas for longer.
But they do have their downsides, which are:
- Free services often have a lot of competition – it can be hard to get noticed.
- Many free services will try to keep you on their platforms. They make it difficult (even impossible) for you to migrate or transfer your sales pages, pics, video, and other media to other platforms/services. It’s not in their interests to allow you to leave if you outgrow their site or get sick of their fees.
- Some services will push you to use their paid advert features.
- Some services/sites are more suitable than others for certain types of agribusiness ideas than others. Not all the sites in this post are suitable for all ideas or business types. Lack of flexibility.
- Unlike running your own website, you won’t have access to excellent free tools such as Google Webmaster tools and Google Analytics. At best, they’ll give you some basic analytic data which means it can be difficult to track goals, sales and other KPI (Key Performance Indicators).
So, let’s now take a look at some free/cheap way you can promote, test and examine your new farming idea.
Free ways you can test an agribusiness idea
There are a variety of free websites, apps, and service out there which allow farms or farming related business to advertise services or products. I’ve used a few of them myself to sell livestock, especially spare lambs during lambing time.
I’d just like to add that this list is aimed more for UK business (where I’m from). If you’re from another country, you should be able to find local alternatives with a bit of searching.
Here’s are a few sites I’ve used:
- eBay
- Facebook Marketplace
- Etsy
- Farming Forums & farm marketplaces
- Google Maps Places and Sites
- The Free Blog Websites
- Facebook pages
- Specialist directories
Let’s now look at the pros and cons of each, that way you can get an idea of what’s the best choice to test your new farming business venture.
eBay
eBay needs no introduction. It’s one of the oldest and biggest online marketplaces around.
The good:
eBay is great for anyone wanting to sell used agricultural machinery, parts, and spares. eBay is ideal for ‘item’ type farming business, so if you’re selling any kind of farming supplies it’s worth listing your goods on their sites. When I’m looking for machinery and spare for the farm it’s often the first place I look.
It’s also good for craft type business. So, if you’re thinking of using your farming workshop to produce unique furniture, metal work, or similar, you should consider listing items on eBay.
It’s also possible to sell some service types of business. I’ve seen agricultural transport/haulage services offered on there. The only trouble with eBay is that once someone has bought a service from you must relist your service.
The bad:
Livestock breeders, gun sellers (these were banned a years ago, although you can sell hunting supplies), Knives. For more details see eBay’s own policies at:
Things to watch out for:
Fee’s, scammers, bad customers, and rough treatment of sellers by eBay itself.
eBay’s fees are high especially when compared with alternative options, like running your own Ecommerce website, and taking payment with a service like Stripe, Square or PayPal.
eBay’s fee structure varies depending on the volume you sell. If you’re wondering how much it’s going to cost, you there are eBay fee calculators online which can help you work out your costs in advance.
Also, eBay has its fair share of professional scammers. The higher the price of your items the more likely someone will attempt to defraud you at some point. And, you don’t have to look far to find horror stories of sellers being swindled and eBay support being unhelpful.
See: https://old.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/aa3y48/what_is_everybodys_worst_ebay_experience_of_2018/
The trouble is, when selling on any platform/website which you don’t own, is that you’re always at the mercy of the Platform owner. eBay (like Amazon) tends to side with customers when issues arise.
It’s easy to find stories where eBay has simply sided with customers and ignored seller objections.
eBay is still a great place to test any new agribusiness ideas you have. It can work well for businesses which sell items and can even be used for service type farming businesses. But progress can be slow; sites like eBay are reliant on feedback from customers and reviews can take time to build up.
But be on your guard, especially if you’re selling expensive items. I recommend having a read of this FAQ’s section on Reddit as it’ll make you aware of some of the most important thing to watch out for:
https://old.reddit.com/r/eBaySellerAdvice/comments/qlto8x/faq_start_here_faq/
Lastly, you can access eBay sales data and perform product research by using a service like Terapeak:
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace was originally launched in 2007. But it didn’t really gain any traction until 2016. Since then it’s grown in popularity, any now rivals (or even surpasses) many of the other popular marketplace type website such eBay, Craigslist, and Preloved (UK site, see below for details)
So is this marketplace newcomer the best place to test selling items from your farm or agribusiness? The answer is: maybe.
The good:
Item type sales. Machinery and vehicles can all be sold on Facebook.
The bad:
Service type businesses, hunting equipment, livestock and animals cannot be sold on Facebook.
They do restrict certain things. For more details see:
https://www.facebook.com/help/130910837313345?helpref=uf_permalink
Facebook support seems poor when things go wrong.
Things to watch out for:
Firstly, before you start using the marketplace to advertise your farming business, you need to check if your customers use it. Before you start listing items try searching looking for similar products or items to the ones you’re planning to sell. This’ll help you assess demand.
It’s Facebook, so expect scammers, timewasters, and generally horrible people. You are dealing with the public so expect the worse.
Be careful when selling on Facebook, it’s a bit of a wild west. Not only will people try to defraud you out of money, but they will often try to solicit personal details from you for phishing, fraud and account takeover attempts. Also new Facebook marketing scams are happening all the time. Be sure to read the Facebook Marketplace FAQs on Reddit for an overview on the most popular frauds.
https://old.reddit.com/r/FacebookMarketplace/comments/qdk6as/scams_hacks_payment_methods_alert/
Summary
The Facebook Marketplace is a great place to start selling things like farming equipment, craft items and random items. It’s Facebook so the amount of people using this marketplace is huge.
Plus, you’re dealing with Facebook and public. And as we all know, Facebook is the pinnacle of moderation, rationale debate, and polite behaviour (sarcasm alert). So truthfully, because it’s Facebook, expect problems and disappointments.
And keep your eyes out for scams. Stay vigilant, trust no one, don’t give out personal details, don’t be scared to tell people ‘No’, and don’t be surprised if you encounter rude customers.
Etsy
Etsy is a marketplace which focuses on selling handmade, vintage or craft supplies. You can buy a wide range of items such including jewellery, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft supplies and tools.
The good:
Handmade, craft or vintage items. I know some farms who get their sheared wool cleaner/processed, get it carded, rove it, die it, and then it’s later sold on Etsy. They also make their own craft items from the wool and sell those on Etsy.
It’s a superb marketplace for the right type of items.
The bad:
Anything outside of the jewellery, bags, clothing, home décor, furniture, toys, art, craft, tools, and vintage market.
Things to watch out for:
Very popular marketplace. Lots of competition. You’re listing/store needs to be good.
Fees: As I write this article Etsy has hiked their fees up again resulting in some stores going on strike.
Remember, when you’re using someone else’s platform you’re always at their mercy.
Summary:
Esty is a brilliant marketplace for testing a craft type farming business venture. But your listings/shop need to be good – meaning decent photos, web copy (sales descriptions, and optimised titles and tags).
Lastly, be aware of their fees.
Many new businesses start on Etsy – and once their revenues and inventories have grown – then go on to open their own Ecommerce website (where their profits are greater). There’s nothing stopping you doing the same if you have a working business idea.
If you’re looking to get started on Etsy, here’s some helpful links:
- Basic Etsy How To’s
- Reddit Etsy Wiki
- And just having a browse of /r/Etsy on Reddit can be super helpful
Classified type websites (Preloved, FreeAds, Craigslist (USA), etc)
Classified type website includes sites like Craigslist (USA), and here in the UK we have equivalents like Preloved, FreeAds and Gumtree.
Often, it’s free to post a listing on these types of sites.
Classified type websites tend to make their money by offering premium memberships or advert boosts.
Buying either will often result in your ad becoming more visible in its chosen category, and thereby sending more inquiries/sales/leads your way.
The good:
Anything really, but each classified site often has their own restrictions on what can/can’t be sold. To find these just do search like “Preloved.co.uk site restrictions”, “what can’t I sell on FreeAds”, and “Craigslist guidelines”. Those types of searches should surface the sites term and conditions.
These types of websites can be a great choice for those with a small or non-existent business budget.
I’ve done well in previous years selling spare lambs during lambing time on these websites. I’ve also sold other types of livestock through them too.
Some of these websites also allow you to sell services too. But check their TOS and guidelines first.
The bad:
Like Facebook Marketplace you’re dealing with the public. So expect the odd inquiries from timewaster, idiots and fraudsters.
They’re free websites, many people use them, and the most obvious way to stand out is to have a lower price than your competition. This means that you might have to sell your products/services at low prices to gain business. Also, low prices often attract the worse types of customers.
Things to watch out for:
Apart from the bad customers, watch for out for scams. The following link is about Craigslist fruads, but much of the advice can be applied to any type of classified website:
https://old.reddit.com/r/craigslist/comments/3x5wqj/is_it_a_scam/
I will offer one tip which I learned the hard way. Don’t give out your mobile phone number in messages and allow sellers to contact you outside the platform. You want all sales messages (aside from maybe meetup instructions and directions), to happen using the sites communication services. That way, if things go wrong, or a seller starts later accusing you of mis-selling something, you will have a record of what’s been said. And this will allow you to submit conversations to moderators or mediators. It also stops you getting silly phone calls from sellers in the middle of the night.
Summary:
Cheap to use, can be great to test simple or new ideas, but these sites often attract the worst types of customer and scammers. Use them but stay vigilant.
You can’t rate sellers/buyers, so you really don’t know who or what you’re dealing with.
Forums & farm marketplaces
No matter what type of farm or agribusiness you are in you can often find an Internet forum which represents your industry. Many of these forums also have directories or marketplaces or sections where you can start to sell products, services, or goods.
The good:
Forums can be an ideal place to start if you’re new farming business idea is selling services or goods which are for another business (B2B sales, or business to business sales).
Because you are dealing with a specialist forum, and not dealing with a public forum like Facebook, the quality of customers or leads is often much higher. You’ll be dealing with like-minded individuals who are involved in your farming industry.
Many forums will require membership before you can start selling items or services. Some even require a minimum number of posts or messages on their boards before you can use their sales service. Restrictions like these improve the overall quality of retailers who use their services. And it also avoids the fly by night scammers attempting to use these sites for no good.
The bad:
It can be hard getting attention to your goods and services on these websites. Even though some of these websites have sales directories, sales categories and similar, those parts of the website might not be popular. And if you’re newcomer to the site few people might not trust you.
Because the quality of customers is generally pretty good when on forums many professional and well-established businesses will have a presence on them. And these agribusinesses may have been building up their profile for years. It can be difficult competing against established competitors in these areas.
Things to watch out for:
Make sure to read the rules and guidelines of any forum which you consider selling your goods and services on. Not all farming forums allow people to solicit business. So make sure you not breaking any rules before you start.
I also recommend that you don’t just start spamming your business links on these forums. Because the forum owners won’t appreciate it.
Summary:
The best way to get the best results out of an Internet forum is to get involved. Start conversing with the people on the forum, share your knowledge, and be honest. If people start to notice that you know what you’re talking about the start to trust you, you’ll sell more. The biggest problem selling anything online is trust, and trust is earned not bought. So you must put the effort in to forums, try helping people, and this can then be a viable way to gain more business.
Lastly, if you do get some business from Internet message boards or forums, encourage the members to leave your feedback and comments in the relevant sections. Again, this will help build up trust which will help your business in the future.
Google maps places and sites
If your agribusiness of farm is selling items locally make sure you have claimed your free Google Business Listing (officially known as Google Business Profile).
If you’re wondering what a Google Business Listing does let me explain.
If you’ve ever typed a business into Google and gotten a search result which contains a Google map with various related businesses (plus reviews), you are looking at a bunch of Google business listings and profiles.
Claiming or adding an agribusiness to Google maps is easy. Simply find the location of your business in Google maps (this is best done on a PC or laptop), and then either click the ‘own this business’ in the search results. Or just cursor over your farm’s location in Google maps, right click, and then click ‘add your business’. Then follow the instructions. Setup can take a few days depending on how you verify your business and its location.
Anyway, many businesses don’t realise that Google listing now have the ability to create a simple website using the Google listing information and images. These websites are very simple and lack many important features – you’ll basically be able to list some business info, images, reviews, opening times, and contact info. But for simple farming biz ideas this might be enough. Best of all they’re free to set up, use, and host.
One thing worth mentioning is that having a decent and accurate Google Business Listing is essential for local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation which targets local results/customers). Even if you have an established farming website, or you’re having a professional site built, you should claim your listing. Because it’ll improve the local visibility in the local Google search results.
And once you have your listing set up, make sure you ask your previous/new customers to place a Google review. You cannot have enough of them. And get enough of them and they will increase your business, and they improve your ranking in the local Google map packs.
The good:
Any business which is selling locally.
Basic business which only need a simple site for lead/enquiry generation
Collecting reviews and feedback for your business and appearing in the Google map results.
The bad:
Agribusinesses do not want to list their location.
Things to watch out for:
Now, just be aware that having a Google places listing for your business will give the public your exact address, phone number and location. And depending on the nature of your farming business this might not be wanted.
In recent years agribusiness like dairies, livestock farms, and slaughter houses have been the target of protesters. So letting people know your farm’s exact location might not be a good idea if this affects you.
If you fall into this category either use the above methods to test your new business idea and try to screen any enquires before handing out location information. Or you can build a website and simply not add your address or a map location to it.
Another point to consider is it can take months for a Google places listing to be removed or edited. So don’t go setting these up for every new business idea. I’d only set up a Google listing for serious ideas and business ventures.
And watch out for unwarranted reviews. I have a Google listing for JamesKippax.com (this site) and for a while I was receiving reviews for car garage nearby. Some of the reviews weren’t great either. It took time to get these reviews removed. It is possible to get undeserved reviews removed but Google’s support is notoriously slow.
The free blog websites
Free blog sites include the following:
- WordPress.com (not to be confused with their full CMS WordPress.org).
- Blogger
- Tumblr
- Wix
As Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”, and this is true when it comes to free website solutions. There’s always a catch.
The surprise in most cases is that the free websites solutions are severely limited in features, or they display ads (which you cannot turn off).
The good:
Simple information type business.
Farming or agricultural bloggers. If you want to get into writing these platforms are a great place to start.
The bad:
Not good for complex sites. You won’t be able to start an argi-Ecommerce site or similar using these free blog platforms.
If you don’t want adverts in your pages, look elsewhere and get a more professional solution made for your new business idea.
Things to watch out for:
Sites like Wix will try to lock you into their platform and push you to buy a premium account. For simple and small sites this might not be a problem, but if your site grows and starts to contain many pages it can be a pain to move these to an alternate website solution when the need arises.
If I had to recommend one, I would choose WordPress.com. Because you can upgrade your account to paid service, and thereby unlock all the features which come with the full version of the WordPress CMS. Meaning you’d have access to functions like Ecommerce plugins, payment gateways, newsletter signups, premium themes, and plugins. Lastly, once you have a fully paid WordPress account you can move your website to another hosting company if needed.
Facebook pages
A Facebook is a perfectly good way to test a new farming business venture. They’re free, easy to setup, and perfectly suited to certain types of business.
But it can also be a poor choice for some types of business. Let’s look why…
The good:
Easy to use and setup. If you’re already familiar with Facebook, then setting up a your own Facebook page is a trivial task.
Simple farming or agribusiness ideas which only have a small (or no) marketing budget.
Visual business which are heavily reliant on looks and images for promotion. An example of this could be farm who’s producing their woollen clothing from their own flock of sheep.
Facebook pages are great for frequent updates, day-to-day workings of your business (behind the scenes look) and helping people to get to know your company and how it’s run.
Promotions, sweepstakes, competitions, one-time events, and flash offers: it can be superb way to promote these types of things and have them shared/publicised to a wider audience.
The bad:
Complex types of business or websites including: any type of agribusiness with a large catalogue of items to sell. Ecommerce type websites.
Organic reach of Facebook page post has decreased over the years. Increasingly you must buy advertising, or used paid post promotions, if you want your announcements to reach most of your followers.
Bad for building up a brand. Your page looks the same as every other business page.
To make optimal use of Facebook you’ll need a continuous stream of posts. Infrequent posting often leads to people forgetting about your business and your posts performing poorly.
A Facebook page is awful at presenting longer-lasting information, also they’re completely unsuited for any kind of real design.
Are you customers on Facebook? An increasing number of people of all ages are leaving the platform.
Things to watch out for:
Like any other private platform, you are at the mercy of those who ultimately own and control page. Meaning, Facebook can make changes – or lock you out – at any minute and there’s nothing you can do.
Over the years they have made it much harder for pages to reach their followers of fans unless they pay or buy adverts.
Certain types of content performs better than others. Image heavy posts and video – at present – currently perform better than link style posts (where you simply add a link to an external website or location). At the end of the day, Facebook does not like sending people away from their website, so bear this you are trying to use the platform to drive people to elsewhere on the web.
Summary:
Great for certain types of new farming business ideas, but bad for others – especially more complex agribusinesses.
However, there’s nothing wrong with you using a Facebook page alongside any other marketing platform.
8. Specialist directories
Directory type website come in various shapes and forms.
You can get specialist directory websites which serve a specific task: TripAdvisor and Airbnb are two which cater to those wanting accommodation.
If you know anyone who has a rental property, bed, and breakfast, or run a camping/caravanning business on their farm, they will probably make use of these two websites.
However, you can get more dedicated directories too. Examples of this can an agricultural directory like the one provided by Farming UK: https://www.farminguk.com/agricultural-directory
And there are many other types of directories which sit in between the above examples.
The good:
Some specialist directories offer a full package of services. Example of this is site like Airbnb which allows customers to browse rentals in a specific area, check availability, and pay for a booking – all using their website.
Dedicated directories allow you a direct line to your specific type of customers. It’s more than likely anyone browsing the Farming UK business directory will likely be someone who works in agriculture who is looking for something specific, and not just random member of the public.
Some directory type sites allow you to collect reviews and feedback. Reviews and testimonials are critical for new businesses and business ideas. And depending on the platform the reviews can also turn up in Google search too. So these can be a great tool for soliciting those early crucial reviews for your fledgeling agribusiness idea.
The bad:
Fee’s – services like Airbnb are not free to use. They take a fee for every booking and transaction.
Competition can be significant; it can be hard to stand out.
Bad for branding – your listing often looks the same as all the others.
Some of the simple directories only allow simple listing. You cannot add much information about your business.
Certain directory sites will push you to use their advertising/premium services. This is how they make their money. Meaning you should expect pushy salespeople ringing up convincing you to pay for additional services, adverts, or premium features.
Summary
Specialist directories can be a great for certain types of farming enterprises, but a poor choice for others. It all depends on what you want to achieve, your target audience and what you are selling.
If you’re running an existing agricultural website, some of the simpler directories (like the Farming UK directory), are a quick and easy link which you can obtain for your site and business. The more quality links you point to your site the better your website will rank. So, this style of directories can be good for SEO.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it this far and read all the above, you should have a clear idea of some free ways to market a new farming business idea.
As you can probably tell not one platform offers a perfect solution. But these sites can be handy for when you want to start and test a new idea.
And once your idea is working, and you need a new website for your agribusiness, why not get in touch.
I’ve been building website for 10+ years, like you I work in agriculture, and I can help you market your business venture – so you’ll sell more, more often and at a higher price.
Why not get in touch now before you forget. It takes 30 seconds to send me a message, and my initial advice and thoughts are free.