CRUSH IT - With Passion !

Wanna know PASSION ?

Passion is what made Stonyfield farms so successful ! HOW ?

Read their story ..

There once was a little farming school

They started on a farm in Wilton, New Hampshire in 1983. They began as a

Farming school that taught sustainable agricultural practices. Their

goals were to help family farms survive and to help protect the

Environment.

Samuel Kaymen, one of the country’s early authorities on organic and

bio-dynamic agriculture, was their school’s founder and chairman. Gary

Hirshberg, their current president and CE-Yo, was an environmental

activist, windmill-maker, author and noted entrepreneur when he joined

Samuel on the farm.

At first, they sold yogurt only to fund their school. They had a leaky barn

and just a few Jersey cows, but also a great recipe for scrumptious

yogurt. Samuel and Gary did most of the work back then. They milked

the cows, made the yogurt, made sales calls and even delivered the

yogurt.

And the school became a yogurt company

As their business grew, they realized a successful yogurt company could

make a bigger difference for family farms and the environment than their

school could, so they decided to run with yogurt. In 1988, they moved 30

miles east of Wilton to their custom-designed Yogurt Works in

Londonderry, NH, where they remain to this day.

Now their organic business helps to support hundreds of family farms and

keep over 180,000 agricultural acres free of persistent pesticides and

other chemicals commonly used on nonorganic farms and known to

contaminate soil, drinking water, air and food.

Their pure, delicious organic yogurts, smoothies, soy yogurts, ice cream

and milk are sold in supermarkets, natural food stores and colleges

across the country.

They didn’t stop there !

Stonyfield does a great job of staying true to their brand by creating

a targeted theme within their blog. As you can see from the image

below, they use a barnyard as their home page backdrop, and include

pictures of healthy families and articles about healthy living. All of

these components reinforce their theme of family and healthy living.

Plus, notice how they say “Let’s Be Friends,” a much friendlier,

warmer way to encourage people to connect with you on your social

sites.

They also use video in a very genuine, behind-the-scenes kind of way.

Just like their blog’s theme of family and farming, their videos are

not professionally done, but with real people living the lifestyle

they personify. Many of their videos come from the farm of an organic

dairy farmer in Vermont, who supplies milk for their products. You

can’t get much more behind-the-scenes than that!

Also they hav added a FARM CAM , where These video postcards from Guy show what farm life is really like.

Staying true to your theme, as Stonyfield has done with their videos,

allows your audience to know, like and trust you. This is key to

building a solid blogging foundation.

Another thing they do very well is their use of soft sales messages

contextualized in value-added content. For example, they may write an

article about the importance of eating organic fruit, but weave in the

idea of mixing Stonyfield yogurt in with your fruit for an extra dose

of nutrients. There’s nothing wrong with promoting your products on

your blog; just remember that the most successful blogs place added

value before selling.

The Stonyfield Farm blog is a great example of a big brand using their

blog to build community and educate their readers about their market.

CRUSH IT - With Passion !