USDA Grant Expands PCFMA Marketing Reach
PCFMA was recently awarded a grant from the USDA’s Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) to expand its direct mail outreach and analyze its impact. The grant, awarded through the “Turnkey Marketing and Promotion Projects” initiative, will fund the development, distribution, and tracking of postcard promotions for 6 PCFMA farmers markets during the 2026 and 2027 seasons.
PCFMA’s Director of Marketing, Stefan Robinson, explained the significance of this project. “Our farmers and other vendors count on PCFMA to raise awareness of our farmers market in every community where we work,” he said. “This project will not only reach more potential customers, but it will also help us to identify the most cost-effective ways to reach them in the future.”
The FMPP-supported project will test different direct mail strategies, such as Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) — in which every household in a designated area receives a postcard — and targeted mailings, in which addresses are purchased for households meeting certain criteria, such as families with children. While EDDM is less expensive, the postcards arrive without a specific name or address on them. Using a purchased list is more expensive; however, the postcards arrive with the customer’s name and address printed on them. This project will assess which strategy is more effective at driving customers to shop at their local farmers market.
Over the course of two years, PCFMA expects to distribute an additional 120,000 postcards to households in the communities served by its markets. The lessons learned will be shared with other farmers markets throughout California via the California Alliance of Farmers Markets and nationwide through PCFMA’s partnership with the Farmers Market Coalition.
Funding for the “Farmers Markets Deliver Sales for Farmers: Direct Mail Strategies for Market Success” Project was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.
