Today, I’d like to highlight our work with Genuine Skagit Valley, a local non-profit focused on raising awareness of local farms and producers in Skagit Valley, and sharing the importance of agriculture in our community.
Part of Genuine Skagit Valley’s efforts are focused on elevating the network of amazing farmstands in the area, selling locally grown produce and locally sourced products in farmstands large and small. Funded by a grant, we created a digital coupon campaign that performed even better than expected, raising awareness of the amazing bounty available in the valley and bringing new visitors to these small farms and family businesses.
In two months, we drove over 1,500 coupon conversions that were used to generate purchases from these local farmstands. Here’s how we did it.
Genuine Skagit Valley Summary
Genuine Skagit Valley is an organization dedicated to promoting agriculture and agritourism in the Skagit Valley. Their mission is to help sustain farming for generations to come.
Skagit Valley is an agricultural community, and Genuine Skagit Valley aims to highlight local growers and producers, promoting farm-to-table dining, tote-to-table cooking, and shopping for locally produced products such as cheese, baked goods, beauty products, and more.
Genuine Skagit Valley was awarded a 3-year grant to use annually in July and August toward their farmstand marketing program, Farmstand Fresh. The goal is to raise awareness of the numerous farmstand opportunities across the Skagit Valley, and drive new traffic and customers to these stands.
Strategy for the Grant
Our strategy was to utilize Meta, Google PPC, and Google Display ads to promote a $5 off digital coupon that could be used at all participating Farmstand Fresh farm stands across Skagit Valley. See a list of the types of farm stands that participated in the campaign.
The campaign goal was to encourage people to download a $5 off digital coupon that could be used for a purchase of $20 or more. In addition to the benefit for local residents, tourists could also download the coupon to get money off their farmstand purchase and experience the local culture of the Skagit Valley. Local farms were excited about the program because it attracted new customers to their small business and increased sales, even with the $5 off digital coupon. This campaign was a win-win for everyone!
Challenges We Overcame
One challenge we faced was that every farm stand had a different point-of-sale (POS) system to accept purchases. Some farms have a digital POS system, others have an old school cash register, and a few use Venmo and the honor system. We had to consider how to implement this digital coupon campaign for everyone, and also provide a way for us to track usage across the network of farmstands. We spent a lot of time creating a customer journey that allowed farmstands to implement the coupon within their own workflow and system.
We had to consider multiple factors to make it as accessible for participants on both sides of the transaction. The technical ability of users varied. We needed a plan for someone who wanted to print the coupon and carry a physical copy to the farmstand, and also create an option for someone who wanted to save the coupon in their Apple or Google Wallet and show it to the farmstand digitally.
Implementation of Our Strategy
I worked with Genuine Skagit Valley to build a strategic customer journey. It wasn’t just “we’re doing some paid ads.”
We mapped the entire process from both the Farmstand perspective and the customer-facing side. My team and I developed the landing page, created an email and texting workflow, and designed and managed the paid ads.
Here’s what the customer journey looked like:
- Customer encounters the ad based on strategic audience targeting
- Customer clicks on the ad to visit the landing page with more information
- They submit a request on the landing page to download the coupon
- The customer then enters an email marketing workflow where they receive the coupon by email and text (based on their stated preference)
- They have the option to print the digital coupon or save it to their Apple Wallet or Google Wallet
- Customers choose a farm stand (or several farm stands!) to visit during July and August
- They produce the coupon (printed or digitally) at point of sale to receive a $5 off a purchase of $20 or more
Here are some of the ads we created:
We’ve had AMAZING results from this digital coupon campaign.
Digital Coupon Campaign Results
Within a day or two, participating farmstands began to see coupons at their shops.
The campaign results are outstanding. We were confident the campaign would work, but we were thrilled to see how fast it did!
Since the digital coupon campaign was so successful, Genuine Skagit Valley plans to continue it in 2026 and 2027 to complete the grant. We have the infrastructure set up, so next year, we can make some small tweaks and restart the campaign to start seeing results right away.
Why Work with Woods MarCom?
It was so fun working with Genuine Skagit Valley on this project. I grew up in the Skagit Valley, and I love working with local businesses here that support our community. I’m finding myself visiting local farms for produce over grocery stores more than ever!
As you can see from this case study, a lot more goes into a successful campaign than just deciding to do paid ads. You need to consider the holistic customer journey and experience, as well as how your campaign method aligns with it.
That’s something I help many clients with. And if you’re looking for a more strategic and holistic approach to your marketing, let’s partner together to achieve these kinds of results.
(Bonus points if you’re in Skagit Valley, but I won’t hold it against you if you aren’t!)
