118 Amplify your CSA's Impact with Facebook Groups - My Interview with Tricia Borneman

118 Amplify your CSA’s Impact with Facebook Groups – My Interview with Tricia Borneman

July 28, 2021 by Corinna

Are you looking for a way to build momentum in your CSA community? Tricia Borneman from Blooming Glen Farm shares how her new CSA Facebook group has reenergized her CSA members AND her business. In fact, she claims staring a Facebook group has been, “one of the top 5 best things I’ve ever done in my business.”

In this interview, we talk all about how to set up your group for success and get your members learning from each other. We discuss what kind of content to release in the group, how to get people to join, how to hire a community manager to run the group, the most valuable piece of content for her members, and the benefits she’s seen so far in her CSA community.

Meet Tricia Borneman.

Tricia Borneman of Blooming Glen Farm

Tricia Borneman, together with her husband Tom, has been farming since the year 2000. They began their farm journey straight out of college, by apprenticing on different farms across the country- from Connecticut to Oregon to New Jersey and back to Pennsylvania where they both grew up. After 6 years of working for other people, Tricia and Tom started Blooming Glen Farm on 40 acres of leased land in Perkasie, Pa in 2006- located an hour northeast of Philadelphia in Bucks County.

This is their 16th season selling their certified organic produce and flowers at two local farmers markets and through their 500 plus member CSA with all on-farm pickup. Members enjoy a farmer selected CSA share, as well as various PYO crops throughout the season. While Tom manages the crew and the day to day operations on the farm, Tricia has segued from field work to focusing mainly on admin work, farmers market sales, CSA member satisfaction, and flower growing.

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Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

- - Follow me on Instagram @mydigitalfarmer to get a daily marketing and farm business tip.
  - Find my Facebook group for farmers! I jump in here every month to teach farmers tips and fundamentals of marketing.
  - Visit Tricia’s gorgeous CSA website: www.bloomingglenfarm.com
  - Tricia mentions my Facebook Mastery course that she took to learn the step by step process for setting up an engaging Facebook group for your farm. Make sure you think through all the elements BEFORE you build a group. Learn more about the course at www.mydigitalfarmer.com/facebookcourse
  - CSA Membership Academy – looking for a “curriculum” to help you create content in your CSA Facebook group. Tricia got a lot of her ideas from inside of my CSA Membership Academy — my digital library where I store all the “teaching content” for my CSA members. Join for a monthly fee. You can cancel anytime.
  - Canva is a free graphic design tool and app that allows you to design gorgeous marketing assets that make you look like a professional. Full of free images and templates, and then just post to social right from the app. I have a free Canva video training you can watch to learn the basics of the platform.
  - Tricia mentions the “CSA Early Registration Course” that she took from me to help her get the majority of her members to decide to return in late fall. To learn how to build an early bird campaign, take my online course where I walk you through the framework step by step. So many farmers have used it and achieved big results! Learn more and enroll at Early Bird Campaigns that Convert.
  - Facebook groups work because they hit the “excite phase” of the Customer Value Journey framework. This is the moment right after a customer buys, when you must “excite them” and help them experience a “win” with your product. If you don’t know about the Customer Value Journey (the 8 stages customers pass through in any business to become a super-fan), then you NEED to learn about it. It is the framework on which all my marketing is built. To dive deeply into these 8 stages and understand what they look like practically in a farm business, watch my 1 hour workshop on the Customer Value Journey here.
  - The A to Z Vegetable Storage Guide – One of my most popular resources! Tricia mentions this Canva template from My Digital Farmer, that is a 40+ page illustrated PDF guide for almost every vegetable you might grow. You get the Canva template that you can then customize with your own images, or additional entries. Share the PDF with your CSA customers as a resource, and use it to help you create weekly storage tips for your box.

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My hope is to feature guests periodically on the show. If you know someone who is innovating in the area of marketing as a farmer, please send me an email at corinna@mydigitalfarmer.com.

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118 Amplify your CSA’s Impact with Facebook Groups – My Interview with Tricia Borneman