FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“FRESH GROWN CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS” BUILDS LOYALTY

Agritourism Customer Communications experts, Jane Eckert, CEO of Eckert AgriMarketing, and Bill Mauk, Senior Marketing Director

If you want guests to return season after season, your customer communications has to create a passion for the farm experience, says Jane Eckert, a nationally known farm expert. Eckert’s two new books, co-authored with writer and web designer Bill Mauk, are loaded with creative customer communications that motivate guests to visit the farm often. The books also detail the nuts and bolts of preparing effective direct mail, brochures, printed newsletters, electronic newsletters, and websites that help you target your specific customers with just the right message.

The companion books, Fresh Grown Customer Communications In Print and Fresh Grown Customer Communications On The World Wide Web, show you how to apply basic marketing skills to learn more about your customers, and then how to use your website, newsletters, and direct mail to keep your guests coming back often!

“A key factor in the kind of success our agritourism farms are now enjoying is the customer communications,” said Eckert. “ We want our guests to think of the farm as one of their special family traditions, and so we keep in touch, and keep it homey. When the apples are ripe, we drop them a postcard or send a short e-newsletter that reminds them it’s time to return to the farm and make more family memories.” Eckert is a consultant and CEO of Eckert AgriMarketing, and was presented this year’s Outstanding Leadership award by the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association.

“The books are written so that a farmer or rancher with little or no marketing experience can follow these simple guidelines and have a significant impact on their revenue in just a matter of months,” according to Mauk. “We cover everything from tips about writing and photography, to how to collect and build a database of customers, and then go on to walk the reader through the major steps in creating their own direct mail pieces, printed and electronic newsletters, and even the basics of creating an effective website.”

Fresh Grown Customer Communications In Print starts with the Eckert Farm Marketing Pie™, which shows you how to create an effective marketing program even if you have little or no marketing budget. Customer Communications is a major piece of this pie, and the remainder of the book explores the customer communications tools in print: how and when to use postcards or flyers, what to put in your newsletters, how to plan your brochures, how to contact your customers, how to find more customers like them, and much, much more.

Fresh Grown Customer Communications On The World Wide Web is packed with specific information and detail to introduce you to the terms and techniques of these new electronic tools. Recognizing that at least 75% of all North American tourists now use the Internet to plan their travels, the book helps the farmer learn to communicate his “rural experience” in a way that his online customers can find and appreciate it!

This book shows how to set up an electronic newsletter, how to maintain the data base, and what precautions must be taken in order to comply with the federal regulations on email newsletters and Spam. The book also explores the registration, creation, content and design for effective websites, and provides the information needed to plan a website, whether or not the farm plans to hire a professional, or do it themselves.

Fresh Grown Customer Communications In Print and Fresh Grown Customer Communications On The World Wide Web can be ordered on the website, www.eckertagrimarketing.com, or by sending a check for $39.95 per book plus $5 for shipping and handling to Eckert AgriMarketing, 8054 Teasdale Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63130. For more information, visit the website at www.eckertagrimarketing.com, or call 314-862-6288.

Other books and materials in the “Fresh Grown” series include the books, Fresh Grown Publicity and Fresh Grown Promotions, and CDs on “Increase Profits in the Fall Farm Season,” “How to Motivate Teen Workers,” “Harvesting Travel Dollars Through Agritourism,” and “Making the Money Connection, Farms and the Tourism Industry.”