New Lead Generation and Nurturing Strategy

Looking to start building up your warm leads list but not sure where to start? Are you a new farm who needs some extra help with generating leads for future sales? This document will talk you through lead generation ideas, how to implement those ideas, and how to nurture the leads you receive. 

New Lead Generation Ideas 

First, we’ll talk about how to generate leads and the various places you can collect leads organically. Then, we’ll walk you through what to do with those leads once you’ve acquired them. 

Farmers Markets

Use the “How to promote farm shares at the Farmers Market” help doc to get you started. The farmers market is a great way to get one on one interaction with your potential market! 

There are a few different ways to increase your new leads list at the Farmers Market.  

• Email sign up list 
  • Incentivize this! Offer members a $5 off their farm share order in exchange for their email address. Have a coupon code available to hand to them once they sign up for your email list. 
• Offer a contest
  • Do a weekly drawing for an item 
  • Require name and email address to enter 
  • Add these entries to your email list 
• Supplemental outreach
• Some folks may not want to give their email address to you. That’s ok! For those folks, have a postcard or rack card with a trackable sign up link. If this lead signs up from that postcard, you know it came from a conversation you had at the Farmers Market! 
• Have a “Ask us about our farm shares” poster or banner at market to generate a conversation
• Have a postcard or rack card that goes in all customers bag. Offer a small discount and/or use a trackable sign up link on the postcard or rack card to track back sales to that event. 

Farmer Happy Hour/Farmer Meet and Greet

Do you have a delivery site that would make a great venue for a community outreach opportunity? For example - if you have a brewery as a delivery option, this is the perfect opportunity to work together to host a Farmer Happy Hour/Meet and Greet event! 

• Ask the owner if you can set up a tabling event during your pick up window 
• This may not always make sense depending on day and time! If this doesn’t work, find a different day/time that you can commit to 
• See if the brewery will offer any type of discounted tap beer for the event ex. “Come meet your farmers and get $1 off a pint!” 
• Come prepared with information such as rack cards or postcards, a laptop to take sign ups, and an optional small discount for signing up that day (Think $5 or $10, a member credit, or a tote bag, hat, shirt, etc.)
• Host Trivia (if you have a venue to do so)! See if you can host trivia to promote your farm and CSA (ex. All about CSAs, Farming, Local food systems, etc.)
• Come prepared with information such as rack cards or postcards, a laptop to take sign ups, and an optional small discount for signing up that day (Think $5 or $10, a member credit, or a tote bag, hat, shirt, etc.)

Lunch and Learn Presentation

Have a delivery location that will let you host a presentation on your CSA/Farm? Use our templates for promotion and slide creation here. To get started:

• Reach out to the wellness coordinator or HR representative, manager, etc. and ask if there are any opportunities to host a lunch and learn presentation for employees on site. Typically this doesn’t include lunch be provided, just that employees can use their lunch hour to sit in on a presentation. A lot of businesses offer a regular schedule of these types of events (Ex. Municipalities, colleges, mid size businesses) so they’ll likely be familiar with your request. 
• If they say yes, work with them to pick a date and time. Provide the representative with email copy (provided in the tool kit above) and a possible day of sign up incentive that can be promoted to staff. 
• Bring some samples like carrot sticks or some other easy product you have available at that time of the year. 
• Bring literature they can take with them with a trackable sign up link and/or small discount offer. 
• Collect email addresses for new leads. Offer a prize drawing in exchange for emails (example, a jar of jam, or a container of cherry tomatoes, tote, hat, shirt, etc. Keep it small and affordable but still valuable to the potential member)
• Use the sample slides in the tool kit above to create your presentation. Try to keep it brief (around 15-20 min) yet informative. Be sure to build in time for questions. The biggest things potential members want to know is 
• How much is it?
• How much / what stuff do i get? 

Tabling at community events 

Do you have a delivery site that has events such as employee wellness days?

How about expos such as:

• Women’s expos
• Holiday expos
• Health and Wellness expos
• Food related expos/festivals
• Harvest festivals 

How about local races that have pre/post race expo tables (think 5k or 10k’s where a lot of families might be)? 

All of these venues would provide a “like minded” potential audience! 

How to set up your booth:

• Have a logo table cloth (the ones that have the logo built into the table cloth work the easiest)
• Plates, cutting boards, knives, food gloves, disinfectant wipes, toothpicks, small paper cups, small trash can, napkins, etc. for sampling products
• Literature (brochures, rack cards, postcards, etc.)
• Contest giveaway to collect new leads 
• Laptop with a charger - can you run slides in the background with food pictures?
• Can you set up a space to take a selfie with a farmer as a “who is your farmer” or “know your farmer” social media campaign? It’s also just a fun thing to do. 
• Find out if there is internet so you can do same day sign ups. If not, then create a paper order form to capture those potential sales that day. 
• Banner for behind your table (if set up allows)
• Sample farm share box for the visual 
• A call to action somewhere on a poster - “ask me about our farm shares” or “join now” 
• Have a script ready for you and staff so everyone is on the same page about what to talk about
• Have pricing, payment plan, and other FAQ’s ready to go 
• Offer a same day bonus or discount for signing up ((example, an actual discount doe or member credit, a jar of jam, or a container of cherry tomatoes, tote, hat, shirt, etc. Keep it small and affordable but still valuable to the potential member)

Facebook or Instagram contest

Social media is a great place to collect leads! The most effective way we’ve found to generate leads on social media is to run a contest! Here is the easiest way to collect leads with a social media contest:

• Do a “follow and tag a friend” to be entered type contest. 
• To track this, just manually go through your posts and add those to a spreadsheet
• The prize can be whatever you want - one week free share would be a popular choice. 
• Use graphics on social media to promote it 
• Announce the contest via warm leads list 

Ok now you have all these great new leads but they are worthless unless you nurture them! Below you will find a strategy to nurture these new leads and turn them into members. 

New Lead Nurturing Strategy

Once you have your new leads, you can get them subscribed to a welcome sequence. 

Here is an example of a template you can use:

• Email # 1 Welcome email / what they can expect 
• Email #2 Why I Farm 
• Email #3 Speak to the pain point or problem of your potential member - what is your farm/csa program trying to solve?
• Email #4 Tell a story of how joining a CSA share solves the problem or pain point identified in email #2. 
• Email #5 What is a farm share (provide further details)/ Who is a farm share for? Questions to ask yourself as a potential member.
• Email #6  Is a CSA/farm share a good fit for me? 
• Email #7  Optional call to action (if your season is open) if not, then “Stay tuned for information about our next season shares” 

Here is a template script you can use if you need inspiration!

Step by Step Guide

• Add leads to this campaign as you receive them.  
• Send one email per week
• If you can, add a tag to anyone who signs up for a share and remove them from this nurturing workflow. This will eliminate anyone getting emails that are not relevant to their buyer stage. 
• These leads are now warm!

Warm Lead Nurturing Strategy 

The warm leads nurturing strategy will feel similar to just a general newsletter and it should! You don’t want to be constantly selling to your list, but you still want to engage with them so you are top of mind when your new season opens up for the year. Aim to communicate with this lead list 1-2 times per month. Any blog posts or emails you generate in the off season can be used on social media as well! See the "Social Media Resources" help doc for further ideas. 

Here are samples of topics you can talk about when you aren’t selling to them

• How members use their share - Member feature recipe
• Behind the scenes video, photos, stories, etc. 
• Farm updates w/videos/ what farmers do in the winter (think planning spreadsheets, seed catalogs, etc.)
• Pick a produce item that is in season at the moment and provide a few tips and recipes for it 
• Promote any farmer happy hour/meet and greet events coming up 
• Happy holidays (thanksgiving, christmas, new years, etc.)
• CSA Day in February →  This should kick off a new season email campaign

Ready to Sell Your New Season?

At this point, your leads are warmed up and ready to go for the new season. When it's time to launch a new season, contact your account manager and they'll get you set up!