Rumormonger rogue talent.
Either a PC with or the PCs find and pay a rogue with it.
Edit: Nevermind I thought this was PCs trying to spread rumors.
As the GM "it just happens" is valid. You don't have to have mechanics for everything you do, it's part of the story.
At early levels the PCs just hear a few odd rumors of the dead rising. They go on for a while hearing such rumors, but not actually seeing any undead.
As they travel, the rumors grow more persistent until it's on everyone's lips. Cue people who claim to have seen it first hand, but they're crazy now (maybe before the encounter too) so not necessarily reliable.
Eventually the PCs actually encounter the undead.
It can be a tough task, because if you bring it up, players will likely think it to be of some importance. Perhaps even a new mission. Here are my thoughts though.
1. Make the rumors subtle and vague. You want to avoid having townsfolk talking about a sick looking person randomly biting another person. You could however, maybe mention how smelly the person who's necromancing seems to be (since they're toying with decaying remains).
2. Make other unrelated and occasionally false fumors. Try peppering them in with the real undead rumors.
3. Require a perceptioncheck to even overhear some of the rumors. Sure a shopkeeper might bring it up if asked, but townsfolk may just be whispering gossips to one another about the matter.
4. Make the rumor teller seem unreliable. At least enough for players to question whether it's worth bothering with.
5. Make the subject of the rumor seem kind, amiable, and most importantly... useful to the PCs. They could even complain about the mean townsfolk spreading lies. Make sure to make the subject one heck of a bluffer though.
Just some ideas. Hope they can help.
What you need to do is mix it with uncertain information and give it from not-credible sources. Let's say you want to have a rumour about the undead. First, on level 2, they hear that a lumber camp has been destroyed. The people slaughtered. No witnesses except one, and he never was sensible even when sober before. This results in a rumour about how flying werebeasts attacked the town - because those relating his truthful account judge that more probable than the dead returning. With discussions if it is possible, how it was enemy kingdom soldiers, and so on. Then next time, they hear that someone sighted a small troupe of wanderers in the dark of the night, who moved entirely silently, but felt wrong and the watcher didn't dare stay around to look further. Then they come to the destroyed camp, and find traces that hint at undead. Others have seen it too. Panic is rising, people barricading their doors in the area, but nobody knows, as the undead have already left the area. More rumours, these spread by an enemy kingdom about how it's a new weapon, in the form of magically enhanced soldiers. And so on...
The other thing is that you want to encourage the players to seek out rumours. That way you can drop some extra red herrings and your hints in easily. Maybe their quest requires them to find someone, maybe the person they're dealing with seems really sketchy but he seems to be a regular in this bar so asking around might work, etc.
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Here's something I found to be effective: rather than focusing on rumors of the "1-5 Suzie's been sleeping around; 6-10 You can buy poison at the Rat's Tail Tavern, 11-14 Critias is looking to hire some caravan guards" variety, add details into your campaign so that your early adventures foreshadow later developments.
For example in my Red Hand of Doom adaptation, the main adventure plot is that the bad guys united all the hobgoblin and goblin tribes in the mountains along with a bunch of dragons and are marching on Sterich--or will be when the PCs reach 5th level or so.
So, I started with a few things. Many more hippogriffs than usual came down from the mountains. (They were driven out of their hunting grounds by the dragons, manticores, and wyverns, etc that have joined the Red Hand). Now the towns of the vale have trouble with hippogriffs raiding their herds and flocks so the local count institutes a bounty and calls for a hunt.
The PCs also run across a manticore during the hunt. The manticore (and some of the hippogriffs) has scarring from electricity from a run-in with the biggest dragon who is a blue. They also run across some hogboblins. The villains didn't just convince all the tribes to join them--they conquered some--so these hobgoblins are from a defeated tribe and are fleeing into the vale from the victorious Red Hand. I took care to describe their boots as worn out and their clothing as threadbare and to note that they didn't have any rations in their gear after the PCs defeated them. By this point, a couple players had speculated that something must have driven the hippogriffs and manticore out of the mountains. What was it?
The PCs then decided to explore up into the mountains which is the direction that the Red Hand was coming from. They found a lot of trouble, ran across another band of goblins from the defeated tribe, found signs of a battle where the defeated tribe was driven into the forest, and, on their way back, saw Red Hand century on patrol as well as some old shrines in the forest that the goblin refugees had begun using again. By that point, the PCs have figured out that someone in the mountains is unifying the tribes and has driven the losing tribes out of the mountains.
Then the PCs ran across a couple more adventures and the remnant of the goblin tribe that had been sheltering in the forest attacked the vale and was defeated. I gave them a few rumors on that but in order: the Count's army had marched out west on short notice. There had been a big battle at Drellin's Ferry. The baron of Drellin's Ferry was killed. They defeated the goblins etc. The first rumors were people who saw the army march. Later rumors came from traders who were coming from further up the road. Then people who saw the army marching back. Etc.
Then when the PCs went on patrol, they found a spot where the Red Hand ambusher's could have crossed the river and when they crossed they found their camp site. And asking in the next town, they heard a local militiaman had seen a group camped across the river (where the PCs found the campsite). Somehow my players didn't put two and two together at that point and figure out there was an enemy patrol on their side of the river, but it didn't come as a shock to them when they were ambushed.
Shameless plug for my campaign journal:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?494229-Pathfinder-Red-Hand-of -Doom-in-Greyhawk-(Sterich)&p=21183938#post21183938
If you wanted to implement something like that, you might have the PCs come across some empty graves (because people are digging up bodies for the necromancer) early on. Then maybe they are hired to investigate the theft of a shipment of black onyx stones. When they break up the ring of thieves, they discover that the fence who's buying all the onyx also offered a bounty for dead bodies. They hear a rumor that XYZ happened--relating to whatever the necromancer is doing (if he's using the undead to build a fortress, maybe "That's strange allright, but not as strange as what I heard in Abbotsford. Supposedly, someone is building a tower out at Lizard Rock, but I've never seen any workers and no-one comes to town for supplies." Later, (at the "they start finding evidence" stage, they find a grave that looks like it was dug up from the inside. Then they run across a ghoul or wight or something that got away. Now they know there are undead in the world but not where they came from or who made them.
The details will vary a lot depending upon why the necromancer or evil priest is trying to create undead? Does he want an army who he doesn't need to convince (or pay) to fight for him? Does he want slaves who won't rebel and that he doesn't have to feed? You'd want to foreshadow those two necromancers very differently.