Crealanta Magazine

9 Ways The Market Gardener Institute Gained an International Viewing

Jul 22, 2024

Market Gardener Institute Market Gardener Institute is on the mission of helping individuals learn about organic farming so that they can develop into successful market gardeners.

The institute was founded with the founding of Quebec and was established in the year 2000 by Jean-Martin Fortier, an organic farmer, who has been regarded as a trail-blazer in the field of human-scale regenerative agriculture. Fortier has dedicated his entire life to sharing the gospel about sustainable agriculture through the online courses he runs that now has students from over 90 different countries across the globe.

The most popular course, The Market Gardener Masterclass began in the year 2017--five years after Fortier created his novel, The Market Gardener, which has since been published in nine (soon to become 10) languages and sold over 230,000 copies. Fortier made the decision to translate the book's principles into a course to reach the largest number of people. It took him five years to write down every strategy employed in the book to prepare over 45 veggies and, when the course first was launched, it had 600 students who signed up. Now, the team has added 7 more classes to the site which has more than 7,000 learners around the world.

We sat down Frederic Senez, the institute's director of partnerships, to discuss the details of how The Market Gardener has created an international audience and helped students to cultivate food in a responsible way on a large scale, without using machinery or chemical substances.

Skip ahead:

They developed audience personas

The institution grew organically up to 2021, when they went from offering one class to eight --all delivered on . A big part of the growth was due to having the right people on board and 10 employees were recruited to help structure and create an sustainable model for business which would allow market gardeners to take interest in the course.

In order to expand their business, the team wanted to know more about the people who they serve. Together, they defined three audience personas: the young generation between 16 to 25; those between the ages of 25 to 45 who farm for a living; and those that are in a career transition--typically between 35 to 55--who are now buying a farm to grow food for their community.

"We spend a lot of effort into understanding our customer lifecycles for every one of our groups," explains Senez. "They're not alike as they do not have the same goals and needs ."

"The worst thing you can do is propose the wrong content to the wrong audience," says Senez. "You'll be unable to reach your target audience and require between five and seven times the effort to recover someone you've lost than to start introducing them, and keep and grow the relationship ."

While developing a profound comprehension of their target audience, they delivered their course to suit their target audience.

Most of the course content is written in both a written and video format. The students are also able to put their headphones in and listen to the material while working in the field. In two of their courses including The Market Gardener Masterclass and the The Flower Farm courses, they use a cohort model. It allows them to mix in live components into the curriculum so that participants can ask questions and engage with other students. The rest of the classes are taught in a perpetual design.

When learners complete a course, they're suggested an alternative based on what the team thinks will be beneficial to them.

They set out to reach an international audience

The institute's team was intentional when they came up with an international strategy for marketing. Senez advises that other creators approach the task in the same way. "Most online companies want to target everyone--internationally," explains Senez. "The reality is that for many countries, there are particular cultural issues that shouldn't be ignored. We had to make sure that we understood those culture and found partners in those places that could help us ."

The author calls these the cultural aspects 'agricultural realities.'

"Based upon your position around the globe, certain veggies won't be growing, even if methods and principles are usually universal." says Senez.

They are also attentive to how they speak. "We pay attention to how we talk about profit and managing teams, the design of one's farm, and the government resources available from local authorities that are made available to help small-scale farmers, since all countries differ by this point," he continues. "Even the kind of questions asked by students indicate that they are going through different realities, sometimes even within the same nation ."

For example, those living in the northern and the southern US experience vastly different realities. "Nature doesn't express itself the same way all over the world," he says. "In some areas, there are the season of fire, while there are flood season in other regions. The effect of this is direct on agricultural. The weather is probably the most important factor to take into account for farmers around the world. ."

Although the business has grown organically to 91 different counties, it's preoccupied with their main market which covers the following regions: Canada as well as Canada, the US, West and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand. One of the challenges faced by the team when establishing their international plan was coming to an agreement on what they'd make use of English and French in their content, as they're based in Quebec. "We consider language extremely important", he says. "Obviously English is an international language, however we wish to help the French-speaking communities of France, Belgium, Switzerland, regions of Africa, and Canada ."

They tested their efforts close to the home

In response to a question about how other creators are able to be more deliberate in reaching an international audience, Senez recommends that they begin by focusing on their home market. "Test your communication close to home to see how it's connecting with the people you're trying to reach, and if your products and services are gaining traction," he advises.

Smaller steps give people the chance to overcome smaller issues, before moving to a more global audience, as per Senez.

"Early adopters can assist you to push your boundaries and think about things that you obviously never thought about," he shares. "We've done a lot of corrections on in how we present our content based upon the opinions of our audience ."

They formed strategic alliances

Once creators expand to their global audience It is crucial to work with organizations that share the same principles, according to Senez.

In The Market Gardener's case The team formed alliances with municipal authorities, schools and equipment manufacturers, as well as nonprofit organizations and organizations that are directly associated in organic farming. "We are looking to work with private and public institutions across the globe to provide education content available to all," shares Senez.

They provide support to many of their partners using  its affiliate tools that allow the company to grow. There are more than 150 partners they're working with every day in different ways.

"We don't have to be on our own in this journey and we never want to be," says Senez. "We are looking to join forces with other individuals that share the same values as us and are situated in places that we're not in order to make us stronger together ."

They were mindful about what they would use for their technology

As for technology, Senez says that the institute was fortunate to have found an integration platform that works with various other applications they utilize, such as Active Campaign, Stripe and Circle.

" enabled us to continue to create, especially in terms of scaling and content packaging to our target audience. Without it, we could have potentially had a alternative story" the CEO adds.

Senez describes the procedure of selecting technology similar to the process of working with plants.

"Plants symbolize a period of change," the scientist explains. "They're capable of surviving, but when they're exposed to changes in their environment too quickly, this can cause a chain reaction which very often can be extreme. Either they grow like they've never grown before, or they end up dying in a short ."

"I would dare to compare the same thing in terms of technology" He adds, "where certain technology can make your company a victim of its own, whether because you misuse it or the price is above your budget capacities."

They used each social media platform differently

To establish them as an innovator in education on market gardening they strategically utilized social media platforms to help get the word out.

They mostly lean heavily on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. They recently launched TikTok. Further, they're soon launching Podcasts, which Senez says will allow they to partner with experts from different organizations to assist in the worldwide movement around healthy eating, food security and assisting one another.

His team has a unique audience for each social media platform, since each audience differs slightly. He utilizes Facebook for sharing information, events or the power of thought, Instagram to share short stories and inspiration, YouTube for sharing longer format details that are linked to their course and books along with TikTok to post short videos.

Senez advises course makers to be aware of their target audience in developing their social media strategy. Having a deep sense of who they are as people and the things they're seeking can help to create the most targeted. Then, he suggests creators encourage their audience to participate in the journey.

"Don't simply post something on social media without demands for action," says Senez. "Offer little surveys or ask them to give an thoughts about some topic. This will help create rich conversations, and provide you with diverse material and, often, a deeper comprehension of the various phenomenon ."

The author also suggests that they talk about things beyond their courses--for example, the team frequently talks about subjects like the mental health and selling products, since these are important subjects for the entire community.

They focused on sales, without being 'salesy'

According to Senez the moment someone becomes interested in any of their courses and courses, they can either sign up for an open workshop for free, sign up to their newsletter or visit their website. Based on the person's interest or interest, the institute's team may suggest a book or a course that aligns with what they believe they're looking for. "It's nothing more complex than that," he says. "We take a keen eye on what we can offer our users based on where they are in their journey. We are very mindful of their experience as a user ."

"In times of financial difficulty or adversity it is usually education that's the first area that is cut," he continues. "We're striving to assist people prioritize education in the customer journey by guiding customers to the appropriate actions to start their journey in market gardening ."

In fact, he believes that a focus on education will make a business more successful for the long term. "The issue with marketing gardening lies in the fact that if you do make a mistake during one year, it could cost you the entire year" the author says. "We believe that people will save three to five years of their lives by using our information as we've created it using a scientific, technique-driven way ."

They gave their customers a range of prices

In order to cater to three different audiences The team provides a variety of courses at different price points.

For example, The Market Gardener Masterclass will cost $2,250 USD. market Gardening Organic Farming and Market Gardening for Beginners is only $129 USD. "We are aware of the fact that different people face diverse budgets," He states, "and most of all they are in different phases of their learning journey ."

To help those who have financial barriers, the team launched several support programs to help the future generation of farmers including students, or NPO. The team also offers an annual scholarship program to support those who need it. "We would like to be able to help the needs of as many people as possible from a financial perspective," says Senez. "We aren't looking for money to be an obstacle ."

According to Senez that the team would like to continue developing courses and books with different partners that aren't just geared toward semi-professional and professional market gardeners, but to everyone who must eat daily.

They taught something they mastered

When asked for advice for first-time online course creators, Senez has some words of wisdom to offer. "Create something that you have learned," he says. "Don't pretend."

Today, anyone is able to position themselves as an 'expert on the internet. However, Senez stresses that the cost associated with this is very high.

"If you make improvised decisions, you could be creating misinformation," he warns. "If you come up with something be sure to not make it appear fake, because you could negatively impact your community ."

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