When my wife, Beth, and I started Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm we’d read a lot of books on non-conventional farming. We’d also printed and read reams of documents on sustainable farming and marketing from The National Center for Appropriate Technology (www.attra.ncat.org). We knew we would have to sell directly to our clients for our farming business to be successful. We internalized one author’s (Joel Salatin) truism that production will take care of itself. Marketing is what separates successful enterprises from failures.

The CSA model appealed to us the most; but we were at a loss as to how to get the word out about our offerings. We started with brochures and business cards. A friend, Jason Salas, has a graphics design business (Salas Design, 1962 _ Hamann Ct., Whiting, IN 46394 (312) 296-5115 salasdesign@comcast.net) and agreed to take on the project. We work on a cash and barter system. He designs our logo, business card and brochures, and we pay him a little and supply him with fresh vegetables, pastured poultry, and beef. If you don’t have a friend in the business, you can produce very professional looking materials with home publishing software. Although, you’d be surprised how many graphics artists are in the phone book even in a small town. Of course, with email and the internet there is no requirement that they be local. However, someone local may be amenable to a barter system. You can but ask. More on that later.

Look professional
Working with a professional helped us to focus on answering the important questions: Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How much? The Cedar Valley Sustainable brochure introduces our farm; explains Community Supported Agriculture; details our offerings; and lists our prices. It also has a schedule, a map and a convenient tear-off order form that clients can fill out and mail with their checks. Every page has our contact information. The business card was purely Jason’s creation. It is double sided with our farm name and logo in six colors on one side and our contact information on the other. The initial run of cards was expensive $381 for 500 cards; but this year we got 1000 more for $368 (initial set-up is expensive). The investment was worth it. We shaved costs on the brochures by using a single color; but we livened things up by using colored paper.

Not having put a seed in the ground, we were reticent to talk about our fledgling business. Then, we got the boxes from the printers. Upon receiving our brochure and business card in the mail one early subscriber remarked, “If your produce is half as beautiful as your card and brochure, I’ll be happy.” This was a confidence booster for us. We knew we were making a good first impression with our card and brochures. These tangible items energized and empowered us to market with a vengeance. At the same time, we already had a “product” that set a high bar for the quality of our offerings. We vowed to live up to the expectations set by our cards and brochures.
Now, we had something concrete to present to people! We started off by giving brochures to all our friends and family. Next, we started asking local businesses if we could post brochures and leave business cards with them. The partners of an independent bookstore became subscribers and displayed our brochures prominently on their counter. They talked us up and would call us for more brochures when they ran out. Several subscriptions were generated from just asking to leave our information there. Guess where we shop for books? We don’t leave the house without a supply of cards with us.

Never be afraid to talk about your business. People are always interested in our story. The guideline that we use is to be able to tell who we are and what we do in thirty seconds or less. After that, they’re asking the questions. At that point it’s easy, who doesn’t love talking about their passion? I know our enthusiasm shows!

Press releases
The next marketing project was our press release. With a quick web search I was able to get the contact information of several local papers. I wrote a general release describing our farm, CSA, and subscription produce. The press release included all the information from our brochure with the exception of our prices. I had learned that papers don’t run that information (at least not for free). Then, I set about customizing the release for each paper. For our local paper, I tailored the message to emphasize that we were returning to our hometown roots. Beth and I had moved from suburban Chicago back to the family farm in rural Illinois. For another paper in the school district in which Beth teaches, we included that connection to the community. In all, we sent releases to half a dozen papers.

Three papers ran our releases almost verbatim. One included us in a feature article on CSAs that gave equal time to us and two other farms. Two papers did feature articles with color pictures just on us. Our local paper included our logo – in color, and the map to our farm. To our chagrin, our contact information was left out; but people were able to find us through other ways. That’s something we’ll remember to emphasize in future interviews. The combined circulation for the six papers was 100, 000 plus.

On to the Internet
In addition to being a great research tool, the internet can be a powerful marketing tool at little or no cost. One of the first things we did to market our farm was to get listed on the USDA’s directory of CSA farms. The directory listing is free and is maintained by the Robin Van En Center for Community Supported Agriculture. It can be found at www.csacenter.org. Prospective CSA members can search for farms by state.

Another free place to list farms is at www.localharvest.org. I really like this site as you can build your own farm listing. It takes about 20 – 30 minutes to go through all the forms and complete your listing, and you can go back and update your listing at any time. It has a “hit counter” and allows people to leave comments and request additional information through the website. For farms with mail order products, there is the option to “build” an online store as well – there is a fee for this service. Another place that offers free online listings and that will send an email when there is an inquiry is www.greenpeople.org. Part of our daily schedule is to check our local harvest listing and email accounts for inquiries. We’ve made it a policy to reply to inquiries ASAP. People really appreciate the quick response. To be more efficient we’ve created a file of inquiry replies that we can shoot out almost instantaneously.

In our first season, an inquiry from our local harvest listing led to the sale of fifteen subscriptions – 25% of sales. The woman making the inquiry was part of a congregation interested in joining a CSA. The fact that we were converting conventionally farmed acreage to sustainable methods and organic practices appealed to them. She had learned specifics about our farm from our listing. Needless to say, we did all that we could to accommodate the needs of her group including prompt answers to any questions and regular communication as we got closer to spring deliveries (which we scheduled for Sunday mornings). An incentive we use for group sales it to offer a free share to anyone who brings us 10 or more subscribers. Our contact donated her “free” share to needy in the congregation and purchased an additional share. Now, that’s community building! This was a big sale from a single contact; but equally important are the members who refer one or two friends or neighbors to us.

The road show
Another tool that we’ve incorporated into our marketing plan is what I like to call the road show. We’ve put together a brief (20-30 minute) presentation about CSA and our farm that we’ll present for anyone with a group of five or more. The presentation is on a Post It Easel Pad that Beth put together. There are pages on CSA in general and pages specific to our farm and offerings; this allows us to customize the presentation as necessary. We use it as a flip chart and important pages can be pulled off and stuck on a wall. An Easel Pad runs about twenty dollars but is well worth the cost. Office supply stores usually have them in stock.

We mention the availability of the presentation to new inquiries as well as current subscribers. Last fall, I did a presentation for a group of seniors. This spring we presented at the congregation of our biggest group, and we expect it to grow by 50% this season. Two more presentations are currently on the schedule. One is at a city art gallery that served as a drop off point last season, and the other is at an office building in a suburban office park. We expect multiple sales to be generated from each of these presentations. Group sales at office buildings and business campuses are a something we will continue pursue as we grow. Establishing a drop off point at an office building is convenient for our clients and time efficient for us. We can narrow our delivery window. No shows are nearly eliminated, and we don’t get calls on the cell asking us to wait just fifteen more minutes because they’re stuck in traffic – they are already there!

Network, network, network
I cannot emphasize this point enough. Go to growers’ conferences. Sell at a farmers’ market and find time to visit with other growers and sellers (sometimes there is a lull after setting up but before the busy rush of shoppers – rainy days are also good). Join the Farm Bureau. Talk to vocational agriculture teachers at the local high school and community college. Let every friend, relative and business associate know what you are doing. Exchange cards and contact information with everyone. When you’re having trouble finding something that you need, put the word out to your contacts; and always be willing to return the favor.

Some dividends that have already paid off from our networking efforts:
•Horse manure compost from a local boarding facility – free for the hauling
•Finding a used portable cement mixer for soil block mix from a family friend
•Invaluable advice on refrigeration from a local grocer
•Cooperative marketing agreement with two local beef producers
•Internship possibilities with a local high school and community college students
•Invitation to be on local radio farm show to discuss CSA

This is just a short list of the results we’ve gotten from our networking efforts. By nature, people like to be helpful, especially when they know by word and deed that it is a two way street. You can but ask.

Just by marketing your farm products directly, you’ve already leapt far beyond what most conventional farmers are doing. By no means should you stop there. Be creative in your marketing efforts. If you’re not creative, network with someone who is! There’s a lot you can do to get your message out without spending a lot of money.

Giving a presentation or being interviewed for the newspaper or radio might scare the daylights out of you – the first time. By the third or fourth time, it’s old hat. We had serious butterflies on our first CSA delivery day, too; but they all flew away as we gave out our great produce and talked to supportive members. Remember the people you present or talk to will be just as kind.

Direct marketing is not for everyone. It takes time, work and a bit of courage; but the rewards come in direct proportion to your efforts. Over time, the rewards can be substantial. By using these marketing ideas and staying open to new ones, Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm met its sales goals for the first season and is well on the way to hitting the target of 50% sales growth in the second season. Incorporating some of these ideas into your marketing will hopefully help you meet and exceed your sales goals, too.

Jody and Beth Osmund own Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm in Ottawa, Illinois. They can be reached at cdrvalleyfarm@cs.com