Okay, picture this with me for a second.

You’ve been cooking all week. You’ve prepped, you’ve packaged, you’ve loaded up your coolers with all the amazing food you made.

You show up to your usual spot – the farmer’s market, your food truck location, wherever – and then… crickets. Like, NOBODY shows up.

Hours pass. You’re staring at your coolers thinking “okay, now what?” and realizing you’re about to go home with half of what you brought in the first place.

Which basically wipes out all of your profit for the day.

Have you been there? Because I bet you have. I definitely have. And honestly? A LOT of local food businesses have been there.

Why Social Media Is Stunting Your Local Sales Growth

Here’s what I’m seeing with cottage bakeries, food trucks, and farmers market vendors everywhere – they’re relying entirely on Facebook to reach customers.

They make a post on Facebook and then they’re just kind of shouting into the void, hoping that it works.

But it often doesn’t.

Want to know why? When you make a post on Facebook, you’ll reach anywhere from 3% to 8% of the people that follow you.

THREE TO EIGHT PERCENT. That’s it. That’s horrible. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Sometimes it works great because the right person comments on it, and then that makes Facebook show it to some other people, and then it becomes a commenting frenzy, and then suddenly you’re reaching more eyes. That’s awesome!

But you can’t count on that.

And sometimes what happens is none of the right people see it. The first people that Facebook chooses to show it to aren’t very responsive.

And then you might get like… hardly anything.

There’s a local business I work with, and the owner said to me, “Man, I feel like I upset somebody. Did I hurt my customers somehow?” Because one week they just didn’t hardly come out.

We went into his social media and looked at the statistics. I said, “Look though – look at how many people you normally reach. But THIS one reached maybe 15 people.”

This is somebody who has about a thousand followers. A THOUSAND followers and it reached 15 people.

That’s exactly why local food businesses need email marketing.

Hi, I’m Bethany (And I’m Here to Help You Fix Your Food Business Marketing)

I teach digital marketing to local food sellers. I’m a cottage food baker myself, but I’m also a former six-figure online business owner.

And here’s the thing – I learned SO much about online marketing building that business. Stuff that I’m now translating into my own bakery.

There are techniques I use that I’m really not seeing very many local food businesses use out there. And that’s exactly what this podcast (and this blog) is for.

I’m here to help you learn how to use internet and digital tools to actually market your food business.

Look, I started my bakery because I love baking. I love it so much that I’d probably be about 500 pounds if I didn’t sell it. (That’s what I tell everybody all the time – I HAVE to sell, I don’t really have another choice!)

But even more than I love baking? I love helping people succeed.

Why “On Your Terms” Matters So Much

There’s a very special meaning behind the name of this podcast.

“On Your Terms” is hugely important to me personally because I am DRIVEN. I have a very, very strong resistance to anything other than living life on my own terms.

Being able to do what I want, when I wanna do it. Go where I wanna go, when I wanna go. (Within reason, of course – we’re all adults and we have lives to live.)

But what it comes down to is freedom.

And if you’re reading this, you probably have a local food business of some sort. Maybe you’re a cottage baker, or you have a food truck, or maybe you’re a popup vendor operating under a tent at events.

There’s probably a reason why you started doing that, right? And I would hazard a guess it probably has a little bit something to do with independence.

The kind of independence where we wanna provide a better life for our family. And that doesn’t always mean loads and loads of money.

Sometimes that just means our presence. Being there with our family. Having the flexibility to take our kids to the dentist when we need to without asking anybody for permission.

Why I’m Qualified to Talk About This (And Why I’m Broke While Doing It)

So here’s my story real quick.

I had a digital online graphics business selling SVG files to crafters. I grew it to six figures within three years using email marketing, Pinterest, SEO, systems, and automation.

It taught me SO much. I learned everything about digital marketing by actually doing it and making it work.

You’re probably wondering – well, why aren’t you still doing that?

Couple reasons. One was a decline in the industry. When COVID hit, it dropped my income by about 80% because a lot of my customers could no longer afford to buy the files.

That never actually went back up after COVID was over. There was just this general overall decline in the industry.

But also? I was really burned out.

And here’s the ridiculous thing – my intuition told me at the time I needed to start teaching. I needed to make that my main focus.

But I didn’t. Even though I didn’t really have it in me anymore, I kept just trying to make the old thing work, and the old thing did NOT wanna work.

I kept trying and trying. It just wasn’t working.

And here I was completely ignoring my intuition, because my passion is to teach people.

The sad thing is, if I had moved on sooner, I wouldn’t be in the spot that I am. I mean, to be honest, I’m pretty much broke as I’m recording this and I’m kind of limping along until I can sell my house and get my life back in order.

But I’ve decided that’s not gonna stop me from doing what I love, which is teaching.

I guess the lesson there is sometimes you have to hit a wall before you change directions. Maybe if you’re stubborn like I am.

Email Marketing for Local Food Businesses: Your Secret Weapon

Not everybody’s gonna open the email, but at least you get it there.

It’s like showing up at their front door, knocking, and saying “Hey! Guess what? I’m gonna be serving this at the farmer’s market on Friday. I hope you join us!”

Instead of, you know, taking out a billboard by their house and hoping they drive by and see it. You know what I mean?

Email marketing is kind of timeless. I built my six-figure business on it before, and that’s what I’m doing now with my cottage bakery.

Industry standard for email open rates is about 25% maybe. For the food industry, I generally get between 40% and 50% open rate.

Right now I’m warming up a new audience for my bakery (I’ve just recently started getting this going), so I’m still looking at about 30-40%. But either way? That’s WAY better than social media’s 3-8% reach.

You can communicate a decent amount of information at once. You can send pictures, you can do all the things.

It’s just a much better way to reach people.

In my old business I used to get about 50% open rates, and I know I can get back to that. There’s just little tweaks and stuff you have to do over time.

Every single marketing effort that I make has one goal and one goal only: I wanna get people on my list.

Even when I make Facebook posts announcing what I have, really what I need to be doing is using Facebook to get people to opt into my list so I can send them the emails.

It’s Just a Numbers Game (And That’s Actually Good News)

Here’s the beautiful thing about email marketing for cottage bakeries and food trucks – it becomes a numbers game.

You’ll figure out that for every so many people you have on your list, you’ll get a certain amount of orders.

For example, on my text message list (I’ve been using HotPlate to take pre-orders, and they have a text messaging feature which is massively helpful), I figured out that for every 15-20 people on my list, I would get one pre-order.

So when I had about 20 people on my list, I’d get one pre-order that week. When I grew my list to about 40 people, I started getting a couple every week.

It’s a numbers game. You just get that many more people.

Now obviously not just anybody – you have to get the RIGHT people. But once you do, it’s just math.

At the end of a year, you can look back and say “You know what? I made about X amount of money per subscriber.”

(And yes, even if you don’t take pre-orders, there are ways to track how effective your emails are for increasing farmers market sales. We’ll go into that another time.)

It’s crucial for building relationships. It makes it SO easy to build relationships with your customers, which creates so much loyalty.

They feel like they really know you, and they start to care about you. And then they’re gonna come out every week to see you.

Plus, it automates some of it. Which is important because as a food business owner, your time is your single greatest expense.

It is the one thing you cannot get more of. You can’t multiply it, you can’t hire it out, you can’t buy more of it, you can’t outsource it.

If you set up an automated sequence of emails to send out once somebody joins your list, that means you’re making contact with these people over a period of time – but it happens while you sleep.

You Need to Be Searchable (Like, Yesterday)

Another real problem I see with a lot of cottage bakeries and food trucks? We’re not searchable.

If you go onto Google, Google doesn’t even know you exist.

And as time goes on, more and more people are gonna be using online tools to find local businesses. (This might be more applicable if you’re in a city versus a small town, but either way – you need to be found.)

Here’s a quick illustration. There’s a food truck I work with here in town.

I went on ChatGPT and asked, “What’s the best [their cuisine] in my town?” And ChatGPT was like, “Well, there isn’t any. You’re gonna have to go to this city that is two hours away.”

I’m thinking NO. But their only marketing is on Facebook. They don’t have a website or anything.

So I set up a Google Business Profile for them. Just very basic info. It sat there for about three weeks.

Then a customer came up to their truck, ordered food, loved it, and left a Google review about two hours later.

I went back to ChatGPT and asked the same question. Guess who it recommended?

This all happened very quickly. Now pretty much anybody searching for that type of cuisine in our town is gonna find them.

All because of a Google Business Profile.

Your Assignment: Ask AI About Your Food Business

Right now, go to your favorite AI and ask about your product.

I sell cookies. So I asked ChatGPT, “Who sells the best cookies in my area?”

At first it didn’t say anything about me. Because I hadn’t finished my website yet.

Now I’ve made some adaptations, made a basic website, done a couple things – and now it’s recommending me for some things.

Not everything I wanna be listed for yet, but I’ll get there. It’s just a matter of time.

Right now in 2026, everything is still really evolving. But within a year or two, Google’s probably gonna pull the regular search and it’s all just gonna be based on AI.

When that happens, you wanna be the one listed.

If you’re reading this after that shift has already happened? It’s not hopeless. It’s just gonna be a little bit harder for you to get ranked.

But you still can. Right now is just a very easy time to do it.

Your Time is Your Most Expensive Ingredient

Your time is your single biggest expense. You can’t multiply it, you can’t hire it out, you can’t buy more of it.

I cannot stress this enough: Your time is your single biggest expense.

You have to utilize it very wisely.

I have seen food businesses (and I’m not gonna say I’m innocent here – I’m guilty of it too) where we’re so excited and eager to grow that we’ll go through all kinds of hoops.

I have seen people drive 20 minutes to deliver a $5 order. Do not do that. It costs you more in time and gas than you made on the order.

Don’t offer free deliveries. Don’t try to offer everything on the menu – like everything you can possibly think of.

There’s a lot of things we need to simplify.

Create systems and workflows. Be efficient. Because these small efficiencies? They compound into freedom.

And freedom is what “on your terms” is all about.

The Four Pillars of Local Food Business Marketing

I’m gonna teach you a lot of things on the On Your Terms podcast, and we’re gonna focus on four main pillars:

Email & Text Message Marketing (obviously – it’s the backbone of everything)

Searchability (getting found on Google AND by AI)

Systems and Automation (because your time is too valuable to waste)

Mindset (because we’re not building a business that runs our life – we’re building one that serves it)

These aren’t theories. I’m right here in the trenches with you.

Yes, I built a six-figure business and I know this stuff. But I’m also pretty new to the cottage bakery thing – I just started it back up about four months ago after having to stop for a while.

We’re not just talking about theories. We’re looking at actual things that will help you reclaim your peace and increase your profit.

It can be SO exhausting to spin your wheels and feel like you’re not getting anywhere with your farmers market sales or food truck business. I just want you to know it doesn’t have to be that way.

There are ways to make it simpler, more efficient, and increase your customer reach so you’re not going home with half your food still in your coolers.

Your Two Action Steps to Better Local Food Business Marketing

Okay, I have two assignments for you.

Assignment #1: I went on a lot about email marketing, and you’re probably like “Oh my gosh, I don’t even know where to get started.”

Don’t worry – I’ve got you covered.

I have a quick free download that goes over the whole process of getting your email list set up and started. I show you how to create opt-in forms, and it even covers how to create your own email address with your .com if you don’t have one already.

It’s not complicated. It’s actually really, really simple.

Head over to bethanyarcher.com/start and download the Local Food Marketing Starter Pack. That’ll get you going, and then when you follow along with the rest of my content, you’ll be able to actually DO the things I’m teaching.

Assignment #2: Throughout your week as you’re going through production, I want you to pay attention.

Look at what’s actually slowing you down and stressing you out the most.

Is it having to wake up at 3 AM to prep ingredients? Are you making way too many trips to the store? Staying up way too late to finish orders? (I’ve been known to do that a few times myself. )

Write those things down.

If you have people helping you, interview them. Ask “What are the frustrations you have? What feels annoying or slow?”

Then I want you to brainstorm one to three ways to make those things easier.

For example – let’s say you’re a taco truck and you’re trying to plop sour cream out of the container with a scoop onto a taco. That’s gonna be hard and annoying, and that’s gonna be a bottleneck.

Get yourself one of those squeeze bottles, dilute the sour cream a little bit with some milk, and squeeze it on there. Problem solved.

A lot of the time we just go through the motions and we don’t even think about it.

So pay attention this week. Where are you getting frustrated? Write it down.

Then grab a cup of coffee, sit down, and look at your list. Ask yourself: “What are some solutions here to make this easier?”

Even just a few minutes saved here and there can make a HUGE difference, especially if it’s on the production line when you’ve got people waiting for their food.

Every little system you fix buys you a little bit of time. And that time is what buys you more freedom.

The Bottom Line on Marketing Your Local Food Business

You don’t necessarily need to be doing MORE.

You just need to be focusing on doing what works and making those things more efficient.

Whether it’s marketing or your production systems or whatever it might be – save your time as much as you can.

Be efficient with what you do. Do not be shouting into the void. Do not trust the algorithms.

Focus on moving the needle, because that’s gonna create the freedom and independence. That’s what “on your terms” is all about.

Building freedom and a life that works for you, because you have a business that works for you.

So you can live your life on your terms.

Ready to stop coming home with leftovers? Download the free Local Food Marketing Starter Pack at bethanyarcher.com/start and let’s get your email list set up!

And if you haven’t already, subscribe to the On Your Terms podcast so you don’t miss the next episode. Share it with your food producer friends too – it’ll help them AND help me get this ship off the ground. Thank you so much for being here. I really, really appreciate you.

The post Here’s Why Your Local Food Business Marketing Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It) appeared first on Bethany Archer | Digital Marketing Strategy.