57: Why You Should Be Doing Lead Gen RIGHT Now

May 20, 2020 by Corinna

Local farms are HOT right now — specifically CSAs. Have you noticed?

Everyone and their mother is trying to find a way to get our products. And if you’re sold out, they want to make sure they hear about the NEXT best thing you might have to offer.

It’s not every day that you have a “hot” lead coming to your door.

So what are you doing to capture them?

That’s what this episode is all about.

Getting people on your email list is always important. It’s just that usually it’s harder to do. Right now… it’s easy to convince someone that you have something valuable to offer. In this episode, I review how to go about capturing a person’s contact information, and how (for a short time) you don’t even have to be super complicated about it.

Capitalize on this time and grow your list of leads. Then use the rest of the year to build their trust.

Hit play and let’s get started!

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Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

• Find my Facebook group for farmers! I jump in here every week to teach farmers tips and fundamentals of marketing.
• I talk about ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign in this podcast. They are my 2 paid email providers of choice. I personally use ConvertKit because it’s text-only (and super easy to use), but if you want to have a tool that allows you to make pretty pre-formatted templates, you’ll want to try ActiveCampaign (even though it’s a bit less easy to use).
• Leadpages – a landing page builder that connects to most of the big email service providers and allows you to create beautiful (and optimized) opt-in forms, sales pages, thank you pages, and more. Drag and drop, pre-built, and you just change the images and text.
• Here’s the copy of the text I used in the Facebook post I mention in this episode. Use it to help you craft your own lead gen post.

  Note to our community from Farmer Kurt:
  Many of you have been reaching out to try and order our CSA for this season. Due to the COVID-19 situation, we’ve experienced a huge demand for our product and our CSA shares have been sold out for several weeks.

  So here is another option for you to buy our certified organic produce: “a la carte” online store pre-orders for curbside pickup.

  To get onto our email list so you can order from our online store inventory each week, please subscribe at www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/buyonline

  The Details: This year, we’ll be offering a curbside pickup option for retail customers who order a la carte from our online store. Starting in late May, we’ll start populating our new online store with items each week. Anyone can go there and buy our vegetables. We may not have as much volume in the early weeks, since our CSA farm members come first, but we’ll do our best to serve our local community! We’ve grown extra product in the field for this purpose, and hope we can help feed you all!

  To get onto our email list so you can find out what will be in our store inventory each week, please subscribe at www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/buyonline

  Pickup will be EITHER at the Toledo Market from 9-11 am OR our home farm in Elmore from 9-11 am.

  How pick-up will work:
  In Elmore: To honor social distancing measures, we are putting in place a drive-thru pickup system at the farm from our garage, so that you only have to pull up, and we place your pre-packed order inside.

  At Toledo Farmers Market: sales must be done online as a pre-order. We will not have unsold product available for sale on site. When you arrive to pick up your pre-order, we will ask you to practice social distancing and wait 6 feet behind the person who may be in front of you picking up their order. Pick up should be fairly quick as all your items will be pre-bagged for easy grab-and-go.

  Please spread the word that we are offering this option. Go to www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/buyonline to get on our email list. Corinna will make sure you get notice each week when our store inventory repopulates.

  Sincerely,
  Farmer Kurt
• To join the Email Challenge that I’ll be running in my Facebook group for farmers, be sure to get on my email list so I can tell you all about it! (I also send an almost weekly email to my list) You can join my email list here.
• My CSA Membership Academy — This tool has been a lifeline for my CSA members, and the price goes up in a month. Join this online library on a monthly or annual basis and get access to the “success path” I’ve created for my CSA members to help them become really good at using their box.  I have a lot of farmers who purchase the Academy to help them get ideas and templates for their own training system. Join now for a month, and cancel anytime!
• Episode 04 of the MyDigitalFarmer podcast — it is repeatedly cited as one of my fan favorite episodes. It will teach you one of the foundations of marketing called “The Customer Value Journey.”
• Want to use my 40-page A to Z Vegetable Storage Guide for your farm this season? It includes an entry for every vegetable and fruit we might provide to our customers, including storage and freezing instructions, as well as cooking tips. I use this guide as the primary email lead generator on my website. But it’s also a gift I offer to my CSA members. When you purchase this digital file, you’ll receive an unbranded PDF version of this comprehensive storage guide so you can literally just attach it to your email as-is. You’ll also receive a copy of the digital Master File shared with you on Canva. So you can take the file and customize it however you want. This product comes with lifetime permission to photocopy, digitally share, modify or cut-and-paste the guide for your own marketing purposes. To see the first 4 pages of this guide free, click here.

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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 mydigitalfarmers@gmail.com.

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