Sutton Community Farm is a community-owned organic farm in South London, delivering seasonal veg boxes to local households. I joined as their Marketing Manager to build a proper marketing operation from the ground up: strategy, brand, content, website, social, and paid ads.
The farm had strong values and a loyal core audience. What it didn't have was a system for turning that into growth.
SCF needed more awareness and more customers. Their marketing was reactive, seasonal, and inconsistent. The brand existed but lacked cohesion. The website needed UX improvements and needed to speak to customers more quickly. Social media had a small, engaged following but no clear strategy tying content to acquisition.
They knew they needed to invest in marketing and sales to grow, but didn't have the time to do it themselves and didn't know where to start. They needed someone who could think about the whole picture, not just post on Instagram.
Developed the full marketing and growth strategy, including budgeting, campaign planning, and channel prioritisation. Took customer surveys to build marketing strategy and brand guidelines, shaping a data-backed persona that informed every decision after it.
Combined organic content with paid channels (Meta Ads, Google Ads) to reach new audiences and drive sign-ups within a limited budget.
Created comprehensive brand guidelines covering colour palette, typography, logo usage, voice and tone. The goal was consistency, not a rebrand. Every touchpoint needed to feel like it came from the same place: warm, honest, community-rooted.
Defined five brand codes that appear across all materials, from social posts to box inserts to the website. Built a Canva brand kit so the small team could create on-brand content without a designer in the room.
Developed the full content layout within Growing Good and restructured the user journey around one goal: making it obvious what SCF sells and how to order. Led with the value proposition above the fold. Made the shop impossible to miss. Streamlined checkout.
The result: account creation increased by 67% year-on-year after the redesign.
Also implemented SEO basics, targeting local search terms like "organic veg box delivery South London" to capture people already looking for what SCF offers.
Built a structured content calendar around four pillars: Happy Food, Farm Life, Community Building, and Food Systems Education. Each pillar had a clear purpose, from subtly showcasing products through emotionally led content to establishing SCF as a trusted voice in the organic food space.
Shifted the feed from reactive event posts to a consistent, intentional mix of shareable content and conversion-focused posts. Also developed and ran the paid social strategy through Meta Ads.
Produced a consistent library of photography and video capturing farm life, volunteers, seasonal produce, and community events. This content fed into social media, newsletters, the website, and print materials.
Also designed all graphic assets: social templates, flyers, recipe guides, box inserts, and the "More Veg" guide for new subscribers. Everything built in Canva using the brand kit, so it could be maintained by the team after my involvement.
Email has been one of the biggest contributors to converting interested shoppers into paying customers. The key piece: an automated conversion flow that nurtures people who create an account but don't place an order. Three emails, spaced over two weeks, each addressing a different reason someone might hesitate.
That single flow has delivered a 3x return on all email marketing spend. No discounts, no hard sells. Just well-timed, well-written emails that meet people where they are.
Also built a welcome sequence for new subscribers and a light-touch win-back flow for lapsed customers, keeping the tone warm and personal throughout.
This project ran across 18 months and covered everything from the first customer interview to the last Instagram reel. If you're an organic farm or food business that needs this kind of support, I'd love to hear from you.
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