Maximize Your Microgreens Profits with These Simple Tips

The small but mighty microgreen trend is here to stay. If you want tips to build relationships, market your micros, and earn a steady income from them, we can help.

So why is your marketing strategy a critical factor to focus on? The trend is growing. More and more farmers are growing microgreens. An effective plan will keep you ahead of the “other guys” so you can become and remain one of the top microgreens producers in your community. 

In this article, we’ll help you stay on top of your microgreen game. You’ll also spot blind spots and areas for improvement and get insider information from microgreen farmer Shawna of Mission Microgreen Farm in Florida. 

Understanding Your Market

Before you order microgreen seeds or get automated vertical propagation racks, think about who will buy your product. Is there a local niche you might fit into? 

Who Buys Microgreens?

The typical microgreens customers are health-conscious people and creative chefs looking to add local flair and flavors to their dishes. Here are some places you should target for sales: 

• Restaurants, chefs, and bartenders

• Health-conscious consumers

• Grocery stores and specialty markets

• Farmers’ markets and local food co-ops

A lot of farm marketing involves telling consumers what they want. What’s great about your product, and why should they try it? 

Shawna primarily sells her products to restaurants and local grocery stores. She drops samples of new products she’s trialing when she delivers her orders, which helps her expand her offerings and keep chefs interested in her business. She’s also willing to create specialty blends and grow specific varieties for customers upon request. 

Bootstrap Tip: Check state and county regulations to ensure you have proper permits and licenses before selling your product to avoid fines and penalties. 

Identifying Your Microgreen Niche

It's important to consider regional demand for microgreens, your price point, and what people are looking for. Meet with potential customers with sample in hand, during off-peak hours. The results of these meetings will guide your seed order and growing plans.

If you’re new to growing microgreens, start with more straightforward varieties and work up to the more challenging types. Doing so will allow you to produce consistently high-quality products, which will help you build trusting relationships with your customers. 

Shawna believes her edible flowers and willingness to try new varieties and types of microgreens help set her apart from other micro growers in the area. Ask around in your area about interest in edible flowers. Target bakeries and mixologists. 

Developing Your Brand as a Microgreens Grower

A strong brand identity allows customers to recognize you, whether online, on a local menu, or with your logo on a clamshell at the local food co-op. Let’s discuss how to build brand identity and an online presence and why that’s important for your business. 

Craft a Strong Brand Identity

When starting your business, you might not have the funds to afford a professionally designed logo. However, you should consider what you can do because brand recognition quickly becomes crucial to success. 

If you haven’t decided on a business name yet, professional consultants can help you do so. Check if the domain and social media handles are available before picking a business name. If they're not, your online presence may become confusing right from the start. There may be some local grants available that help pay for consulting, technical assistance, and marketing.

Now, find someone local to create a personalized logo to bring your passion and vision to life. Graphic designers know what colors, fonts, and sizes of logos grab customers’ attention and keep it, so trust their input. Before meeting with them, have a few values and keywords in mind to use in the brainstorming session. Your business name should be meaningful, catchy, and easy to remember, but you should also love it! 

Bootstrap Tip: Search your state’s business directory for names you’re considering. If existing businesses in good standing are similar to yours, pick a different name. Check the USPTO for trademarks and make sure your brand isn't already a trademarked term.

Build an Online Presence

Many people only trust companies with a website. Legitimize your business by purchasing a domain, registering your business with your state, and creating a simple website. There are many trustworthy, inexpensive, and easy-to-use build-your-own-website companies. Add the online store feature to keep everything in one tidy spot for quick sharing, tracking, and analysis. 

Get a free or paid version of a design program to help you design templates for consistent branding online. This allows you to create a brand kit, save templates, and schedule reels on social media platforms. Using a design program keeps your messaging and brand clean, consistent, and straightforward. 

If you’re having trouble deciding on topics for posts, consider some of these to help you connect to your customers: 

• Your favorite recipes using the product you are promoting

• Suggestions for flavor combinations to create their own recipes

• Nutritional benefits of various microgreens (Read our FAQ below before making nutritional claims)

• A how-to tutorial to encourage followers to grow their own at home.
  
  Related: Learn How to Grow Microgreens at Home: a Step-By-Step Guide

Start by utilizing the social media platform you personally enjoy using the most. After you build an audience there, expand to other platforms. Each has a different type of audience, allowing you to post various photos and content topics. 

Strategies for Selling Microgreens

Let’s explore where to sell your micros, how to price them effectively, and why building customer relationships will influence your success. 

Where to Sell Microgreens

Farmers’ markets provide a place for community, fresh, local food, diversity, and education and are the first outlet for many new farmers’ sales. The challenge of farmers' markets is the time commitment and the unpredictability of weather, timing, and local events.

Getting your product into local restaurants and/or grocery stores is a logical next step in sales. These outlets allow you to consistently move large quantities of your product, giving you more time to work on other parts of your business.

Consider selling chefs live trays grown on hemp mats so they can cut them as needed, giving them the freshest product possible. Use 1020 microgreen trays with 5X5 shallow microgreen trays for greater variety and easy transport.

Combining an online store with your website makes it easily accessible to customers and keeps your revenue in one place. Add the link to your online store to social media posts, stories, and a Linktr.ee account so it’s always present when people need to grab it. Shawna says she focuses on Instagram and saves stories highlighting each of her products so she can quickly direct a new potential customer there for more details. 

Fresh microgreens delivered fresh weekly? The idea practically sells itself. You can also take a page from the CSA model and offer a weekly subscription that is picked up by the customer. 

Related: Truck Farming and Mobile CSAs

Pricing Your Microgreens

Microgreens are a quick-maturing product, but growers should take into consideration the following when setting their prices not to undersell their value:

Production cost

• The time it took you to grow the product, including seeding, watering, harvesting, and transporting 

• Overhead costs like electricity, microgreen trays, grow racks, record-keeping apps, and insurance 

• Cost of seeds

Market rates in your region 

• Look at co-ops for comparable products, such as compostable versus plastic packaging, labels, net weight, and markup. You want to be competitive but don’t outprice your customers. 

• Review online prices, but they may not offer an accurate comparison. 

• Each variety can be priced differently based on timing, seed cost, and “extras” required to produce it, such as humidity domes, stacking, or blackout periods. 

Customers’ perceived value 

• Many busy families and individuals perceive value in convenience 

• Exclusivity makes products seem more valuable 

• Seasonal items help keep customers interested and excited about the following product 

Expect pricing to fluctuate with the time of year, variety, popularity, and competition. Experiment with bundling new products to attract customers, introduce a new item, or toss samples in with repeat or subscription customers.

Remember that chefs and retail buyers for grocery stores can buy microgreens from a big box chain delivery. Show them how a high-quality, locally grown product is more flavorful and has a longer shelf-life, which makes up for its slightly higher price point. 

Shawna’s customers have entirely switched to her product because of her consistency in communication and product, the ability to call her in a pinch, and her wide-range of selections.

Building Relationships

Take advantage of networking events at farmers’ markets, local food co-ops, or trade expos. Any chance you have to get in front of new customers is free or low-cost marketing you’ll want to tap into.

People at these events are interested in health and wellness, so they’re already your customer niche! Have a 30-second elevator pitch ready, lots of business cards, and a smile. You might know why microgreens are amazing, but don’t assume they know what you do.

Once you land customers, being consistent with your product, communication, delivery, and honesty helps build strong relationships. You never want your customers to wonder if their delivery is coming, so be on time, especially when working with busy chefs and restaurants. Customers of Mission Microgreens Farm appreciate Shawna’s on-time weekly deliveries as much as the high-quality products they receive. 

Bootstrap Tip: If an issue arises with your product, take swift and generous action. Customers will remember that you took the time to remedy the situation and value their business. Be transparent, but don’t make excuses. We’re all humans, and things will sometimes go wrong. It’s how you handle them as a business owner that matters. 

Marketing Tactics That Work

Ways to successfully market your business include the ever-evolving social media platforms, content marketing, and hosting educational workshops.

Social Media Marketing

A crucial factor in marketing success is consistency. You'll naturally get better at taking photos, building your brand, and reaching the right audience, but none of that matters without consistency. Post regularly to stay relevant and increase your visibility. 

People love deals, special edition items, new, trendy things, and promotions, so play into that. If you’re running a week-long deal, share it often to keep the interest up. Time-sensitive posts will drive urgency.

For example, if you’re doing a buy one get one half off deal or giving away a $10 gift card when customers spend $30, your followers want to know about it! A lot is happening online, so don’t assume they saw it the first or second time you posted about it.

Engage with customers using polls to increase engagement. View insights on these engagements to see what types of posts resonated with your followers. 

Find the best hashtags to match your brand so social media platforms can organize and show your content to the right people. Hashtags like #microgreens, #healthyeating, and #localfood will put you into a “bucket,” so when customers search for these terms, you’ll show up. Be sure to include location relevant hashtags #shop(your town name).

Bootstrap Tip: Connect with a local food blogger or popular chef who use your microgreens and ask them to collaborate on posts to increase impact and expand reach. Give them key speaking points that align with your brand’s focus. 

Content Marketing

A blog may seem unnecessary if you’re writing meaningful and informative social media posts, but many prefer reading a longer blog. Some people aren’t on every social media platform, so we recommend writing blogs and adding them to your weekly or monthly newsletter. Providing a link to your work allows people to read it at their leisure, and then want to follow you on other platforms.

Blogs offer more freedom and space to provide in-depth information, stories, quips, additional photos, and more thoughtful ideas. Think of a blog as the extended version of your social media posts.

For example, you snap a picture of freshly harvested broccoli microgreens and ask your followers, “How do you use your microgreens? Share for a chance to win a $25 gift card to ABC Farmers’ Market!” Use your blog to share your favorite recipes, the nutritional value of broccoli microgreens, and why they should try them. 

Blog posts can also be more intimate, especially if you love sharing lots of personal photos on social media. Take a short video or a photo shoot of yourself or your family preparing meals using your homegrown microgreens for another opportunity for customers to imagine your product in their homes. 

Educational Workshops

If you love cooking and are comfortable around people, consider hosting a class on growing microgreens at home or preparing your favorite dishes using micros. To create yet another partnership, partner with a local gathering hub or yoga studio to host.

Drive registration and engagement with free samples, educational resources to take home, or discounts when they attend the workshop. Here are some ways to create excitement about your event: 

• Bring a friend for a chance to win a logo hat. 

• Post tagged photos of you at our workshop to be featured on social media. 

• Share how you grow microgreens at home and encourage friends and family to do the same! 

As an introvert, Shawna loves reaching a broad audience from behind the camera to engage with her customers on live social media. She allows her followers to drive what she posts and reacts to their engagement on specific topics. Education is one of Shawna’s passions, and she believes that helping others trying to start a microgreen farm will raise awareness of the importance of these nutrient-dense greens and ultimately help us all succeed in this business. 

Measuring Your Success

How will you know if your microgreen business is successful? Let’s discuss practical ways of tracking your sales.

Track Your Microgreen Sales

Tracking across various platforms and sales channels will help guide where you continue spending time marketing. For example, if farmers’ markets are no longer making the income you need to make it worth your time, stop attending so you can focus elsewhere. Direct customers to your online store and share with followers what grocery stores carry your product. 

Don’t be afraid to price your products differently at various venues. Farmers’ market customers may value microgreens differently than nearby Italian restaurant chefs. Do not undersell your product, but adjusting the price tag is an appropriate marketing tactic. 

Online Engagement Metrics

Ensure you have business social media accounts to access insights and track follower engagement. Share stories and posts that encourage engagement and increase your visibility. If you notice a post is shared often, create more content like that because your followers are into it. 

Use the analytics on your website to track when viewers transition into customers, how many visits you’re getting and where they’re coming from, and bounce rates. A “bouncer” leaves your page after only visiting one page. A high bounce rate indicates you need to engage your visitors differently. Your page should make them want to stay awhile, shop around, and make a purchase. 

Collect Feedback

Few things are more valuable than direct feedback from consumers. Positive reviews will help drive sales and encourage new sales. If the reviews indicate an area needing improvement, alter your process to improve your product. Offer a special small gift or promotional item in exchange for feedback on your website or social media pages. 

If you’re new to shipping, try sending your product to yourself or a friend out of town or state. Note how the product arrives and adjust packaging, carrier, and timing if needed. 

FAQs

How do I know what the nutritional content of my microgreens is?

There are many great scientific studies that have been published on the possible nutritional content of microgreens. Most of them make it clear that growing media has a significant impact on the eventual health benefits of your greens. Our article Top 5 Best Growing Mediums for Microgreens goes into this topic more in depth. 

If you are interested in learning more about the nutritional options we highly recommend reviewing a few of the articles listed below. 

Microgreens—A Comprehensive Review of Bioactive Molecules and Health Benefits

Nutritional quality and health benefits of microgreens, a crop of modern agriculture

Assessment of Vitamin and Carotenoid Concentrations of Emerging Food Products: Edible Microgreens

What are the most profitable microgreens to grow and sell?

The quicker a microgreen matures, the more trays you can grow and the income you can bring in. Start with brassicas, radishes, greens mixes, and pea shoots or sunflower sprouts. Remember that your profit will be zero if it’s not sold.

Instead of growing trays upon trays of greens and then scrambling to sell them, only grow what you know is in demand or that someone has ordered. Take into account your production cost before deciding if a microgreen is profitable. 

Check out our article, Top Ten Microgreens to Grow, if you’re still struggling with which microgreen seeds to add to your cart. 

How do I start selling microgreens at farmers' markets?

Reach out to local farmers’ market presidents or board members and ask to discuss their market needs. Avoid joining a market that is already overrun with greens and has filled the microgreen slot unless there seems to be a greater demand than what the other vendor can fill. 

Visit the markets you’re considering to see the flow of customers and ensure the day and time work with your schedule. Don’t force it. 

What should I look for in a reliable packaging supplier?

Pricing, sustainability, high-quality materials, free shipping, and good reviews are some of the basics to look for. If your customers request compostable materials, select a company that offers them. However, the extra cost might not be worth it if they are not in high demand. 

Shawna uses black clamshell containers for her restaurant customers and thinks the lack of light from walk-in cooler fluorescent lights helps extend their shelf life. Clear packaging works best for farmers' market and grocery store sales, as the customer can see the product. 

What are the top strategies for promoting microgreens on social media?

Take different photos of microgreens to make your posts more interesting. Keep your content focus, but expand your scope. Add pictures of your grow room, your seeding setup, and greens in their trays. Include shots of cut greens in your hand and dishes with your microgreens. 

Collaborate with chef partners and grocers. Ask customers to share pictures of your product and how they used it at home to help bring it to life. Show potential customers how they might use your micros on their favorite dishes at home. 

Remember, social media posts should first grab people’s attention visually. If you can’t get them to stop scrolling, what you write or say in the post is meaningless. Mix up your posts. Include ways for the audience to engage. Share educational content. Also, promote special deals.

How do I differentiate my microgreens from competitors in my area?

Your logo and branding are the first and perhaps the most important thing to attract consumers in a retail situation. If you create memorable, eye-catching packaging that people will remember, you’re already ahead of the competition.

What’s inside is also extremely important. If your packaging causes them to remember your company, but the product isn’t excellent, they’ll remember that, too. 

When selling your product to a restaurant, the relationships you build and maintain with your contacts will be the most important way to differentiate your company. Be honest, provide a good product, and be yourself!