by Erika | Mar 15, 2013
If you find navigating through the sea of online marketing tools daunting, you’re not alone. Even after working in marketing for ten years, I still struggle to keep up as new platforms are added and existing platforms change.
Some “marketing experts” believe the key to generating more sales is promoting through social media. But growing an audience on Facebook and Twitter can gobble up time, with no guarantee that it’ll actually bring in new customers.
If you’re interested in supplying local products to restaurants and institutions, social media is not the answer. I learned, while working with chefs and kitchen managers at Aramark, that they aren’t looking on Facebook when they need to order their spring greens for next week’s dinner service. They want to scan available inventories quickly and order with the confidence that the greens will arrive on time and in the quantity they ordered.
Local Orbit provides a set of integrated online marketing tools designed for the way restaurants and institutions order, while making it easy for a Market Manager to quickly update and send a notification in just a few clicks.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll dig deeper into understanding how these tools can help you communicate more effectively and increase sales. Each tool gives you the flexibility to customize a message that best fits your market, while saving you time to focus on developing stronger direct relationships with your customers.
- Fresh Sheets: These are the most valuable form of communications a chef or kitchen manager could hope to receive from you. Typically sent weekly by the Market Manager, the Fresh Sheet provides a list of products with available quantities. The chef can quickly review the email and then enter your Local Orbit powered market to place the order.
- Discount Codes: Often used as a way to move inventory quickly, discount codes are also an excellent tool for rewarding loyal customers or tracking the effectiveness of a particular marketing campaign.
- Newsletters: Sending a monthly newsletter is a great way to keep your customers informed of the latest news and information about your business. Market Managers can use the newsletter tool to promote upcoming events, note market updates or simply share what’s in season.
- Featured Promotions: A Featured Promotion is the best way to spotlight a particular seller or promote a particularly delicious product directly on the shop page. Highlight your featured items at the top of the page, so your buyers are sure to notice the product right away. It’s also a great way to highlight seasonal products that are in abundance and need to move quickly to maintain their freshness.
I’m curious: do you use any other integrated marketing services or suites of tools to promote your business?
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by Erika | Mar 12, 2013
This is a reposted excerpt originally published on the Design for Social Innovation blog and written by Josh Treuhaft. He does a nice job summarizing Erika’s recent talk at the School of Visual Arts, as part of Design for Social Innovation’s lecture series: All the Ways to Live a Good Life.
Do you ever wonder why local food tends to cost more even though the distance it has to travel is so much less than the global industrial system? Erika Block of Local Orbit – a one-stop shop for e-commerce and business management tools designed specifically to serve the needs of local food systems – knows some of the answers. And she’s doing what she can to change them.
A few weeks ago, on my way into the DSI studio, I made a quick stop at the Union Square Farmers Market. My intention was just to drop off some fruit and vegetable scraps for composting, but as I passed through, a stand overflowing with apples from a local farm caught my eye. I couldn’t resist the sample slices beckoning on the front of the table, so I tried a few and ended up buying four apples. Total Cost: about $5.00.
Six or seven blocks later, nearing the studio, I passed a Trader Joe’s and decided to pop in to pick up a few more things, including some almond butter to eat with the apples I’d just gotten. I noticed that the apples at Trader Joe’s, were selling for about 79 cents each, so four of them would have cost me a little more than $3.00.
Why is it that the apples at TJ’s were about 60% cheaper than the local ones at the farmers market?
I’m sure there are a plethora of reasons for this, most of which I don’t yet know, but after listening to an awe-inspiring keynote last week by Erika Block, founder of Local Orbit, I now understand one of the main ones: Supply Chain Efficiencies and Effective Information Flows.
Continue reading on the Design for Social Innovation blog.
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by Erika | Feb 10, 2013
Local Orbit Founder & CEO, Erika Block, is in New York this week. On Monday she’ll be talking about the transformative role of technology in local food economies at the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group’s Annual Conference. On Thursday she’ll be speaking as part of a new series of talks at the School of Visual Arts: “All the Ways to Live a Good Life.”
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG)
Monday, February 11 | Saratoga Springs, NY
Topic: Using Technology to Strengthen Regional Food Systems & Promote our Work
Presenters: Mari Pierce-Quinonez, NESAWG; Mallory Sustick, Plovgh; Erika Block, Local Orbit
Technology is transforming local food economies and markets around the world. This session will offer an overview of how technology is influencing a shift in the way we communicate, connect, collaborate and manage our work to grow local and regional food systems.
NESAWG is the umbrella network for New England and mid-Atlantic organizations working for change in local food systems and policy. More information about the NESAWG conference and agenda can be found here.
School of Visual Arts: All the Ways to Live a Good Life
Design for Social Innovation Program
Thursday, February 14, 5pm | New York, NY
‘All the Ways to Live a Good Life’ is SVA’s new speaker series featuring conversations with social innovators who have created lives with purpose. Erika will discuss her experience designing tools to support the entrepreneurs and organizations who are rebuilding regional food systems – and helping them build profitable businesses and healthier communities. She’ll also share her perspective on the process of designing the business itself.
SVA’s Design for Social Innovation is “the first program at the intersection of design, enterprise, social innovation and nature.”
The speaker series is open to the public. Learn more and register for Erika’s talk here.
