Marketing for All Curriculum Development

Funded by a $48,200 Specialty Crop Block Grant, the Marketing for All curriculum was designed  to meet the highly diverse marketing education needs of scale-variable Kentucky specialty crop farms and businesses by developing new trainings and resources, while extending several existing programs. New materials included a 10 module beginning farmer-friendly curriculum spanning online and social media marketing, best practices for direct market vendors, self-evaluation, and basic market research skills. This project also supported the continuation of MarketReady advanced marketing trainings. Our project team held 57 independent workshops, covering one of the following topics:

• Marketing Basics
• Elements of Professional Web Design
• Social Media Basics
• Visual Merchandizing, Display, and Design
• Principles of Effective Market Signage
• Identifying and Exploring New Markets
• Understanding and Using Analytics
• Using Price Data to Make More Money
• Overview of Value Added Product Development
• How to Get Paid: Accepting More Than Just Cash

We administer point-of-training surveys as well as post-training follow up surveys. Response to post-surveys was very low due to survey fatigue and COVID disruptions. Data are then aggregated in Microsoft Excel.

 We have measured a handful of other metrics beyond those listed above for the Marketing for All program. Of the 392 participants surveyed:

99% indicated that they would probably (26%) or definitely (73%) recommend this program to others.

98% said the content was probably (24%) or definitely (74%) useful to their business.

Attendees rated the content 3.73 out of 4 and the presenters 3.85 out of 4, on average.  

The program won the 2022 Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals Outstanding Program Award.