Interesting and informative blog posts on farmers and ranchers from US Farm Data.

What is the State of Your Website?

In today’s digital environment, your website is the center of your business’s online world. Almost every aspect of your business revolves around it in some way.

Customers come to your website to learn about your business. In many ways, your website functions as a member of your staff in that it plays a huge part in your business’s brand awareness, lead generation and customer conversion. Therefore, it is not difficult to see why your website has a dramatic effect on every aspect of your business.

Despite the incredible difference a business’s website can make – both positively and negatively – on its success or failure, many of even the savviest business owners put its maintenance and upkeep at the bottom of his or her list of priorities. Why? It usually comes down to one (or more) of the following three reasons:

  1. Lack of time
  2. Lack of money
  3. Lack of know-how

Overcoming these three obstacles is essential to the health of your business. In many cases, it may pay to outsource your website upkeep to a company that specializes in website development and maintenance. The best part is, if you pick the right company, it will be surprisingly affordable. Further, since a well-maintained website is almost certain to help generate more sales leads, in most cases you will end up making money by outsourcing.

So what exactly does a high-quality, customer-friendly website look like, and more importantly, what can it do for your business?

It is well-designed. Pages are clean with the perfect mix of images, text and multimedia features.

It is easy to navigate. Visitors can find their way around the site with ease. Your contact information is front and center and links are descriptive and logically labeled.

It is mobile-friendly. Whether they are accessing your website from a smartphone, tablet or any other type of device or computer, it is easy to read and navigate.

It supports what your sales people are saying in the field. Your website should have the latest information and be perfectly in sync with every other aspect of your business.

It is full of quality, timely content. You should be posting new blogs and content on a regular basis. Nothing turns visitors off like returning to your site and never seeing anything new. Is your last blog post from six months ago? Not a good sign.

It allows for feedback. When it comes to SEO ranking, content is crucial. Feedback on your content is crucial, as well. Therefore, your website needs to encourage engagement and allow people to comment on your posts. That’s what will get you noticed by the search engines – and customers.

Your website needs to work as hard as you do for your business. If it’s doesn’t, you need to make some changes – fast!

Contact US Farm Data if you are interested in strengthening your website, and increasing your visibility on the web. 800-960-6267 Call us today!

 

The Challenge of Marketing to Farmers

Marketing to farmers is no easy task. More than most, the agriculture industry is subject to rapid change from year to year. Market conditions and other variables in the industry can also shift drastically from season to season, forcing a complete overhaul of your B2B strategy at a moment’s notice. While agricultural marketing can be […]

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The Best in Ag Apps

Ag Apps

It is rare to find a farmer these days that isn’t using a tablet or smartphone. So it should come as no surprise that the number of agricultural apps is on the rise.

Finding quality farming and agriculture apps can be a difficult task, however. This is unfortunate since there are so many quality apps out there that can make a farmer’s workload lighter.

One problem with finding quality farming apps is that it’s hard to know which agriculture apps are really useful. Thankfully, there are ways around this problem. For instance, AgWeb now has an app finder that allows users to search by category, such as markets, business, livestock, and crops.

What follows are some of the apps farmers list as their favorites. But remember, the most popular apps can change quickly – and new ones are popping up daily.

Ag PhD App Suite. This suite of apps includes a field guide, drainage calculator, planting population, a harvest loss calculator, and more.

AgWeb. This app features market news, weather, and other ag-related content. It also is interactive – allowing users to choose the specific content they are interested in.

Climate Basic. From The Climate Corporation, this app enables users to track up-to-the-minute, field-level information such as weather forecasts, soil conditions, and crop growth stage. Farmers also are able to add their own notes and field alerts.

Farm Futures. Farm Futures magazine’s app provides an overview of agriculture news and headlines, along with podcasts.

FarmLogs. Farmers can collect and log detailed information on a per-field basis with this app. Rainfall history, budgets, and inventory management are just some of the information farmers can track using FarmLogs.

Grower’s Edge. Offering a variety of functions, this app includes access to cash prices, market quotes and commentary, news, and weather.

Pioneer/Encirca View. Encirca View allows farmers to record field observations which are then georeferenced for their convenience. When used with the Encirca View website, users also are able to access aggregated data from other Encirca View users.

TractorHouse. A simple way to buy or sell a tractor. The TractorHouse app allows users to browse or list equipment by make, model, price, and location.

Social Media Tips for Farmers

Using social media to promote a farm is similar to using social media to promote any business. Farmers may actually have an advantage over other businesses on social media because their story is so compelling. After all, who doesn’t want to know who is growing their food – especially in today’s marketplace where people are becoming more particular about what types of foods they purchase. What’s more, by connecting with farmers on social media consumers are able to engage with the people who grow their food. Farmers can capitalize on this trend and make the most of their social interactions by keeping the following points in mind:

  1. Your followers want to know about your life on the farm. What may seem like mundane details to you are just the things they want to learn more about. Further, if your audience doesn’t learn about life on the farm from you, they will have to learn it from other – often inaccurate – sources that might have their own anti-agriculture agenda.
  2. Social media is one of the only places where you can connect, mingle, and allow your customers to get to know you personally – without ever leaving the farm.
  3. Make sure you showcase your own personality and let your voice be heard. People engage farmers on social media because they want to know more about how farmers live and work. This is your chance to let them know!
  4. Engage with your audience. If a person has never stepped foot on a farm they are going to have a lot of questions. Be there to answer those questions and you will build lasting relationships. On the flip side, you can ask some questions of your own to find out how you can better connect with current and potential customers.
  5. Social media helps you to get the word out about your farm. While social media takes time, skill, and some writing savvy, it is also relatively cheap when compared to traditional forms of marketing. Social media has correctly been referred to as the new word-of-mouth advertising. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to let people know who you are and what you can do for them.

Thankfully, most farmers already are on some type of social media. The key is to find compelling and effective ways to use social media to tell the story of your farm and your life. While it may seem challenging, most farmers know how to meet a challenge head-on!

Marketing to Farmers and Ranchers

Marketing to farmers and ranchers takes more than just securing mailing lists or agriculture leads. Those who really want to engage farmers need to use both online and offline marketing techniques to do so. However, depending on what you are trying to sell or to market it’s important you understand how farmers live, work, and use their purchase power.

As with any marketing segment, it is important to really get to know your customers before you can try to sell them something. And the worst thing you can ever do is to make assumptions about what a customer needs or wants. So if you are newbie to marketing to farmers and ranchers, or even a seasoned professional, it pays to brush up on your facts about farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers. Here is some information you should know before you make that first contact:

  • In 2010, there were a little more than one million farmers, ranchers, and agricultural managers. Almost 80 percent of these were self-employed.
  • American farmers and ranchers produce food to feed the nation and they also export to other countries. They must do this while contending with a variety of unknowns, from weather to price fluctuations.
  • Crops are mostly sold to food processing companies but more and more farmers are selling their goods directly to consumers.
  • Farmers also are business managers. They must oversee crop production, purchasing supplies, and maintain buildings and equipment. They also are in charge of keeping financial records.
  • Farmers and ranchers must be part salesman in order to effectively market their livestock and crops.
  • While in the past most farmers had only a high school education, bachelor’s degrees in agriculture or related fields such as agricultural economics are becoming more and more common as farming becomes increasingly complex.
  • The median annual salary of farmers and ranchers is just over $60,000. Incomes can vary widely from year to year because of the many outside factors that affect farm production. Small farm operations are often run by a farmer who also holds an additional full-time job away from the farm.

Farming is like every other industry in that it is ever-evolving and its dependence on technology continues to grow. If marketers expect to effectively market to farmers and ranchers, it will mean keeping up on the many challenges that farmers and ranchers continue to face.

Marketing to Farmers Brings its Own Set of Challenges

In order to successfully market to farmers, you need solid agriculture leads, mailing lists, and a variety of other marketing tools. Once you have these tools in hand, however, your job has just begun. One of the most common reason marketing to farmers is a challenge is because of the many common misconceptions people have about farmers.

In order to speak to your target audience – in this case, farmers – it is important that you leave all stereotypes at the door. What follows is a list of the some of the most common ones that can be a real impediment to successfully marketing to farmers.

  • All farmers are old. While it is true that the average age of farmers in on the rise (this is true in the general population, as well), there also is a growing number of young, beginning farmers. This is due in part to a variety of programs introduced by Congress and the USDA to support young people interested in farming. These programs include the Agricultural Credit Improvement Act, the Farm Security and Rural Infrastructure Act of 2002, and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act.
  • All farmers are white. While many farm owners are white there is an increasing number of people – of all races and ethnicities – who are interested in breaking into the farming industry.
  • Farmers are not well-educated. While they may not have degrees in philosophy, farmers are far from uneducated. In order to be a successful farmer, one needs to have an in-depth knowledge of microbiology, ecology, chemistry, economics, carpentry, forestry, and more. Further, many young farmers are starting out after graduating with majors in things like agriculture, land management, and similar fields of study.

While common sense should always dictate marketing decisions when it comes to a particular market segment, it is better to be safe than sorry. That means you need to know who you are talking to before you start a conversation. Here are some facts about farmers you can count on:

  • Farmers generally produce a crop or livestock. In some cases, both. These crops and livestock are in most cases are sold to food processing companies.
  • Farmers receive most of their training on the job – even if they have earned a degree in agriculture or a similar field.
  • Most farmers are self-employed and their duties will vary with the size of their farming operation. Small farmers will typically take care of all day-to-day operations while large farms will have employees that manage particular tasks.
  • Farming can be a challenge financially. So much to do with farming has to do with market fluctuations so a farmer’s financial return can vary greatly from year to year.
  • It is hard to find anyone who works longer or harder than a farmer. Time is always of the essence as farmers fight weather conditions, market fluctuations, and other factors.

Marketing to farmers is a challenge because of the particular nature of the industry. Having a good grasp of farmers and what makes them tick will help your efforts be successful.