Jason Crouch - Fraser Valley Rose Farm

Meet Jason from Fraser Valley Rose Farm

Meet Jason and Lisa, the passionate founders behind Fraser Valley Rose Farm. They are a dynamic duo dedicated to transforming the way we perceive and experience roses.

Picture this: a farmers' market filled with handcrafted goods, fresh produce, and vibrant colors. Amidst the bustling crowd, you would find Jason and Lisa, a little out of place at first. Their stand showcased a unique collection of ornamental plants, with the majestic garden rose, the "Queen of Flowers," stealing the show.

Jason, the green thumb of the couple, poured his heart and soul into nurturing and propagating old garden roses from his own garden. Roses like 'Sophie's Perpetual' and 'Buff Beauty' were once easily accessible through mail-order businesses but were now disappearing from the market, along with the nurseries themselves.

Lisa, always supportive and adventurous, joined Jason in their mission to find customers for their roses. While the roses faced resistance initially, they discovered that connecting with customers through an assortment of perennials was an easier pathway. The farmers' market visitors, kind and attentive, showed interest in ecologically valuable plants—ones that were drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly, and host plants for beneficial insects.

Jason observed a peculiar trend among the customers—fear. There was an unspoken hesitation to embrace roses. Concerns about space, vacation plans, or lacking a green thumb masked their underlying fear of growing roses, intimidated by the perceived difficulty and potential judgment. But Jason was determined to change this perception.

They have a YouTube Channel boasting over 220,000 subscribers 🤯 and have mastered the art of connecting human to human with their customers, so when it was time to find another way to build a new communication channel, they began their search for a marketing company to jump in an assist.

Was Facebook the way?

I remember our initial conversation (well rather it was a loom video that I recorded and sent over to Jason and Lisa) after I saw a quote request come through for our services. They had put in their contact form that they were looking for Facebook content help and a way to increase engagement on Facebook. 

I was terrified to burst their bubble but suggested that Facebook business pages were not going to yield the results they wanted, and that my recommendation was either:
  • A: A Facebook Group for Local Gardeners (which would inevitably take on a life of it's own), or
  • B: A Facebook Lead Form Ad Campaign with a lead magnet to grow their email list
I hesitated with my mouse hovering over the 'send' button for at least 10 minutes before I got the nerve to send the message, fearful that they would think I was turning them away. But I believe that you have to always do what's in the best interest of the client, even if that means potentially turning away business.

But Jason and Lisa were not offended. They needed some time to decide if this was right for them, and rightfully so, because growing an email list is great, but that means you also have to maintain and nurture that email list.

I reminded Jason that his YouTube channel already has AMAZING content that he's already producing (and that be can re-cycle), and the content for his newsletters essentially already exists.

The work

Jason and Lisa decided to move forward with our Facebook Lead Ad to Grow your Email List service, and we (myself and my bis bestie Jen) jumped right into creative mode.

Jason supplied us with a Rose Growing Guide for the Fraser Valley after we recommended to put existing knowledge into a guide that would be hyper local. His business in unique and orders are for local gardeners that pick up the roses, so we didn't want a bunch of people on his email list that were not ideal customers or that couldn't order even if they wanted to.
We added a cover and and end page to his guide that was expertly crafted, packed full of awesome information for local rose aficionados, and then we created our ad copy, images, and all of the creative elements we needed to put the Facebook ad campaign together.

After we got the a-ok on our creative pieces, we set up the Facebook lead ad itself, set up his mailerlite email campaign to automate sending the guide (because no one wants to manually send that, how boring would that be!) , and then we used zapier to connect the two systems together so that the Facebook leads from his ad would get automatically moved to mailerlite, and mailerlite would do the heavy lifting sending his welcome emails.

The results

Not every story has a perfect happy ending, and not all ads are created equal. Some ads and campaigns have all the promise in the world but then you put it out to the world, and spoiler alert... the world gives you 🦗

But not in this case my friend! 

I went back to check on the ads only a few short hours after they got through Facebook's review process, and we had 44 leads already at a cost of $0.41 🤯 I almost didn't even believe it because it usually takes quite some time to get the first few leads, and we had literally just turned it on!

By the end of day one we were just shy of 100 leads to his email list, and less than a week in, well... you can see the proof on the screenshot to the left. 

So what's next?

Time will tell how this impacts Jason, Lisa, and their beautiful farm, but I am so happy that we got to be one small part of their marketing journey and bringing their new email list to life.

Stay tuned for perhaps a follow up story in the fall!