a non profit farmers market leverages AI //

Artificial intelligence , also known as generative, is not only for enterprises. Not just agencies, publishers or others in the content-creation business. Smartly used, it can save the day for managers in small businesses and non-profits.

Take Williamsburg Farmers Market, in Virginia. The market is open every Saturday, from 8 am to noon. It has one full-time and three part-time employees, as well as some student volunteers, on the management side.

Tracy Frey is the full-time employee. See how busy she’s been.

Operation, vendor support and community outreach

Frey explained that we are a non-profit farmers’ market. “I am responsible for most of the operations at the farmers’ market. This includes recruiting vendors, assisting with their businesses, and connecting them to other vendors if necessary. “They have to have insurance, and I help them with that.

Frey sees herself as an incubator of the vendors’ businesses. We visit each farm and food-processing operation before they join our market. We ask about their dreams, goals, and hopes and try to help them achieve them. For example, we might support a small bakery that wants to move from selling at the market to opening up a coffee shop or bakery.

Frey’s responsibilities include outreach to community members and stakeholders, in addition to working with vendors. Frey spends a lot of time networking, whether that’s through the Chamber of Commerce, leadership classes, or other venues. She also coordinates all of the programming, including a children’s programme, a music show, and a chef tent, where participants can learn to cook the fruits of the garden.

Frey, in addition to collaborating with vendors and community members, is also responsible for forming partnerships with sponsors. We don’t actively raise money, but we have partners and sponsors like the City of Williamsburg Merchants Square Colonial Williamsburg and the Historic Virginia Land Conservancy. We collect data in case Insights touches.

Then there is marketing

Frey finds that it’s funny that she is not only the manager of the market, but also its marketing manager. “I do that too.” I also do our web design. We need to have really good data. I study and analyze data. “I can tell you what the weather was like from our first market to last Saturday.”

A weekly newsletter has been the main marketing tool for the Farmers Market. “We know the demographics of Williamsburg – there is still a group that enjoys reading magazines and newspapers, and newsletters.”

Email lists are not purchased but grown organically. They currently have thousands of subscribers. Around 2006 or 2007, the market grew beyond its previous email platform. Frey had to send multiple emails because of the limitation on the number that could be sent at once. Constant Contact, a digital and email platform, was the solution.

It seemed like a good use of that money to invest in newsletter software. This money seemed like a good investment to make in newsletter software.

Constant Contact offers more than email distribution. Frey said, “I like bells and whistles if they can make my job easier or help me reach more people.” Frey cherished the feature that helped her create templates. “That’s something I don’t have the skills for or want to spend much time on. I know it’s important, but I’m not going to do that.” It’s perfect if I can streamline the process and still feel like I am doing a great job.

The average open rate of the weekly newsletter is a whopping 50%. It’s worth it for the thousands and thousands of people that receive it, she says. She uses Constant contact to schedule publication on social media. We’re also “dipping our toes in Reels” which has been fun. Student volunteers create multiple video clips to post throughout the week.

Dig deeper:

Two affordable AI

Writing

Assistants in Action

The AI and its applications

Constant Contact has recently released an AI Content Generator to create emails and other marketing materials. Frey wasn’t slow to adopt the technology.

She explained, “At every beginning of my weekly newsletter, I write about why you should visit the market on Saturday.” “I do this 52 weeks a yea and it’s hard to think of something new every time. The AI allows me to say things like “There are strawberries this week and come visit us at our market” and have it sound intelligent and fun.

The AI will also add information about local attractions, like Colonial Williamsburg. It takes a very short prompt and transforms it into something I always find funny and that makes me smile. I hope other people will feel the same. It saves me the effort of trying to think up a way to express what I’m feeling.

Frey said that the AI was also very good at converting prompts into call-to-action.

Constant Contact’s Content Generator incorporates ChatGPT, but it enhances this model by using proprietary data and algorithms tailored to the specific needs of Constant Contact customers. Why use Constant Contact’s version of ChatGPT when OpenAI has made it widely available?

Answer: It’s simple. It’s great that everything is in the same location where I create my newsletter. “If I can send my newsletter five minutes earlier, that’s amazing.”

Frey, can you believe that an non-profit farmers’ market uses AI to enhance its marketing? She said, “I’m mesmerized every day by that.”

The post How an non-profit farmers’ market is leveraging AI first appeared on MarTech.