Five Marys Ranch isn’t a typical food brand. It’s a family-run, direct-to-consumer cattle ranch in Northern California, founded by Brian and Mary Heffernan and named after Mary and their four daughters, all named Mary.
Everything they do is built on quality, transparency, and connection. From raising cattle to processing and shipping beef straight to consumers, the entire operation happens on their USDA-inspected ranch. The only ranch in the country with an on-property Temple Grandin-designed harvest facility. No middlemen, no distributors. Just real food from a real family.
Challenge
As the business grew, so did the challenge: How do you scale a deeply personal brand without losing what makes it special?
Before Community, Five Marys Ranch relied on email and social media to communicate with customers. While useful for reach, those channels created real limitations:
- Social content was filtered by algorithms
- Email open rates were declining
- Time-sensitive updates, like product drops and flash sales, were often missed
- There was no reliable way to reach their most loyal customers directly
For a business where timing and trust directly impacted revenue, this created friction.
“We’re not a big corporation. We’re a family ranch. We needed a way to communicate that felt just as personal.”
— Mary Heffernan
Solution
Five Marys Ranch implemented Community to create a direct, owned channel that matched the authenticity of their brand.
Instead of using text as a broadcast tool, they built a strategy around segmentation, relevance, and relationship.
Segmentation
Using subcommunities to segment members of their audience, they tailored communications to their interests:
- M5 Meat Club (VIP customers): early access and exclusive content
- General Subscribers: product updates, ranch news, and promos
- The Cowboy Way: daily texts delivering character-building lessons for teens
Time-Sensitive Campaigns
The Five Marys team also lean into SMS for moments where speed matters most: flash sales, new product drops, and early access for club members.
For example, after building anticipation for a new skin tallow product, they sent a single text to their audience and 3,000 units were sold almost instantly.
Mission-Driven Engagement
Beyond commerce, they use Community to deepen their connection with a subset of their audience through The Cowboy Way, a daily text program delivering life lessons to teens.
This goes beyond selling products. They are proudly building a value-driven community.
Impact
Community quickly became one of the key channels for the Five Marys Ranch’s marketing team.
“My expectation was that Community would be a useful tool. What I found is that it's become one of the most valuable parts of our entire marketing strategy. That exceeded what I expected.”
—Mary Heffernan
Immediate Engagement and Revenue
- 16x ROI, generating significant revenue impact for the business.
- 9,000+ active Community members
- 15-20% click-through rates, far exceeding email benchmarks
- Sales often generated within minutes of sending a text
Stronger Customer Loyalty
- VIP customers receive early access and exclusive content
- Increased retention rate through custom experiences
- Personalized messaging that builds long-term relationships
Full Ownership of the Customer Relationship
- Direct, opt-in audience with no algorithm interference
- First- and zero-party data enabling segmentation and deeper personalization
- Greater control over communication and brand experience
Expanded Community Beyond Commerce
- Daily youth engagement at scale, run exclusively by text
- A two-way channel to connect around mission, not just products
Five Marys Ranch proves that text messaging isn’t just about reach, but about relevance and relationship.
By combining thoughtful segmentation, personal, authentic messaging, and time-sensitive campaigns, they’ve turned SMS into a channel that drives both revenue and long-term loyalty. All without compromising what makes their brand unique.
