Tips on how marketing your maple business can bring in the dough
By Yelena Tischenko
You’ve spent countless hours tapping trees and facing the frigid Northeast air for your maple syrup. You collected your sap, but what comes next?
With all the new technology now, it’s hard to figure out what works and what doesn’t in regard to marketing your maple business. Social media and the online world can lead you down a rabbit hole but all you have to do is know how to navigate it and use it to your advantage.
Basics of Marketing
After collecting your sap, test it according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) classification standards and grade, according to the Penn State Extension. For example, if the producer lives in Pennsylvania, then they will most likely be examined by a department inspector.
When selling, the grade level must be visible on the container along with the business name and contact information.
Dwayne Hill is the Catskill Delegate in the Executive and Legislative Committee of the New York Maple Producers Association and owner of Shaver-Hill Farms in Harpersfield, New York.
According to Hill, the first step of marketing your maple syrup is to produce a good quality product that has been processed in a very sanitary facility and bottled in attractive containers.
“The Association tries to educate consumers on why maple syrup is better than table syrup,” Hill said. “We have booths at fairs and expositions such as the New York State Fair.”
Hill said that ever since real maple syrup was named a super food in February, it had boosted their sales.
“Our biggest obstacle would be the cost of shipping,” Hill said. “We ship by weight and maple syrup is very heavy.”
What are my marketing options?
Marketing via social media or your own business website can help exponentially. Using social media can be a little tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are people that specialize in social media marketing.
Using websites like Facebook and Twitter can increase your chances of being found. People can “like” your page and subscribe to your posts, giving you a following and therefore more exposure.
If Facebook proves helpful, an option to promote each post and putting in a few dollars can boost sales. You are able to target a specific audience whether it’s a certain age group or location. This can help increase your reach.
A lot of marketing was done by word-of-mouth at Shaver-Hill Farms.
“We then got a webpage and started advertising on Facebook,” Hill said. “My daughter is a website designer and she helped us out immensely.”
Business has improved because of social media and online marketing, according to Hill. He makes sure to be consistent with his posting because it keeps people coming back and interested in the business.
“We see a lot of online orders from all over the world. You wouldn’t get those orders advertising locally,” Hill said.