Agrimarketing: Is There a Place for Tractors on Instagram?

• B2C and B2B are closely intertwined. Consumers of agricultural products, producers, and suppliers of raw materials, seeds, and equipment are all connected within one large network. You need to take more details and relationships into account to make sure an offer is profitable. Even if a consumer needs a particular product, they may turn it down because of an existing partnership with another company or farm. You also need to be prepared for unforeseen circumstances and the losses they can cause.

• A wide variety of business types and areas. Consumers of the same products can range from large, well-known players operating across Europe to very small businesses. You have to take into account the needs of everyone from individual gardeners to the largest agricultural holdings with land banks spanning tens of thousands of hectares.

• Seasonality. Most agricultural crops are grown during clearly defined periods. The foundation of any marketing campaign in the agricultural niche is a forecast of demand for the upcoming season — or, even better, for the year ahead. You need to provide consumers with exactly what they will need before the season begins. To achieve this, customers often need to be supported with advertising and meetings with managers for many months.

• Dependence on external factors. Unfortunately, agriculture involves many factors that cannot be controlled: weather, outbreaks of weeds or insects, and other environmental conditions. It is impossible to predict yields or the availability of certain agricultural operations with complete accuracy, as droughts, heavy rainfall, or soil compaction can inevitably affect the outcome. You should always be prepared for unforeseen circumstances and the losses they may cause.

• An extremely long purchasing decision-making process. Since raw materials are often purchased in large wholesale quantities and agricultural machinery can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, these are not impulse purchases. In a highly competitive environment, consumers don't even have to search for suppliers themselves. Sales managers will find them and bombard them with offers, flattery, and "gifts." The company with the most compelling and distinctive offer will win the race. That's why you have to fight for every sale throughout the entire year.

• Participating in exhibitions and industry conferences. These events are taken very seriously. Every participant in the agricultural industry carefully prepares for their role. Manufacturers and suppliers polish their machinery and presentation materials to perfection. Managers plan strategies for attracting new customers. Consumers study the products on display, compare prices, and prepare to put them to the test. While exhibitions in other industries are often more about building brand image, in agriculture they are a genuine marketplace where hundreds of preliminary orders can be secured.

• Partnerships. Building long-term relationships in the agricultural sector is extremely difficult, but the potential benefits are enormous. Since everything in this industry is interconnected, the more partners a business has, the better its products tend to sell. A recommendation from a representative of a trusted partner company carries significant weight.
• If many businesses speak positively about a particular company's service and products, orders are likely to come in steadily. If personal recommendations are negative, the business will suffer. Reputation therefore needs to be monitored carefully, and resources should be invested in maintaining it. By the way, internet marketing and SMM can be extremely helpful in this area.

• Production of printed materials. In the agricultural sector, printed catalogs and industry-specific magazines continue to be highly effective at maintaining consumer interest in new products. This is a powerful advertising tool that companies in the industry generally don't tend to cut costs on.
• Take a look at the brochures, magazines, and catalogs produced by well-known brands — in terms of design and quality of content, they are often just as impressive as popular lifestyle magazines. At the same time, they present detailed and compelling information about new features and technologies, encouraging customers to upgrade their machinery fleet or purchase new equipment. The impact of print materials on sales in this sector is several times greater than in many other industries.

• Cold and warm calls. It might seem that cold calling can only work today for mass-market products. And even with a huge target audience, its effectiveness can be laughable. In agriculture, however, the opposite is true: calls are one of the foundations of promotion and maintaining contact with consumers.
• To avoid getting lost among hundreds of companies and offers, you have to constantly remind customers about yourself and make compelling offers. Even if a customer cannot make a purchase immediately, it is important to keep the conversation going, offer them an incentive, and remind them of the product's value and why it is worth choosing.

• Personal selling. A qualified sales manager is so valuable in the agricultural sector that companies are almost willing to fight to hire one. The reason is that regular contact between managers and customers brings them closer and often develops into friendly relationships. Customers appreciate being understood almost without words, so when a manager moves to another company, the customer may follow them. Given the average order value, losing a loyal customer can have a noticeable impact on revenue.

The effectiveness of contextual advertising is so high that the focus is gradually shifting away from traditional methods toward precisely targeted campaigns aimed at specific audiences. Even the relatively high cost of this type of advertising does not discourage businesses from using it.

Retargeting works particularly well for products with such a long purchasing decision-making process. Managers remind customers about the company once a week, social media keeps them informed about the latest news, while contextual advertising and retargeting follow consumers across many of the websites they visit.

There is practically no chance that the customer will forget about the company or the product they were interested in.