Hello and welcome to the Marketing Minute newsletter! This quick, monthly touch-base gives SWCDs a couple of marketing resources, plus a tip for general marketing success.  

We hope you’ll find it valuable and maybe even become a contributor. (Shoutout to our first contributor, Lord Fairfax’s own Allyson Ponn! See next story.)  

With cost-share funds increasing each year to meet the Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals, the Lord Fairfax SWCD had to evaluate its marketing strategy. The Annual BMP Action Plan is a list of marketing goals LFSWCD accomplishes each year, including various media and audiences to try and engage all types of agricultural landowners.  

The attached plan is updated each year, and involves actions taken by all District staff and directors. Contributor: Allyson Ponn, LFSWCD 

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video may be worth a few more! Videos let farmers tell other farmers about the benefits of Virginia Agricultural Cost-Share.

In DCR’s latest video, crop farmer Joe Gray explains how his Soil and Water Conservation District has helped him install practices that have steadily improved his soil.

You’ll find this video, another on livestock BMPs, plus a host of other resources on DCR’s Agricultural Cost-Share Marketing Toolkit. 

Know a farmer with a great conservation story? Email us at pcmo@dcr.virginia.gov. 

There's a button on your keyboard that can instantly make your marketing messages easier to read. What is it? “Enter.” In school, we learned that paragraphs are 5 sentences or more, but in marketing, the sweet spot is 1-3 sentences.

Help the reader get your message quickly by breaking that long paragraph into shorter chunks. And if you’re writing a sentence with a list of things in it, consider bullet points. Lists and bullet points help:

• Grab attention
• Direct your reader to your main point
• Improve overall readability