Marketing in a Shifting Agriculture Landscape
Right now, the agriculture industry is experiencing a rapid technological transformation. From cloud-based software and mobile apps to automated machinery for precision farming, technology is quickly evolving how our ag clients do business.
Keeping up with these fast-moving changes requires adaptability — and a marketing partner that understands both agriculture and technology. Here are a few ways Jump is helping clients navigate marketing challenges in a shifting agriculture landscape:
Leverage Customer Service
The ag community is a close-knit industry where reputation and customer satisfaction play critical roles in business success. With smaller margins for error, exceptional customer service is not just nice to have — it’s essential for customer retention.
We help our clients leverage their great customer service by bringing it forward in their marketing materials. Across all media platforms (website, collateral, etc.), we ensure that customer service and satisfaction messages are prominent and consistent.
Video testimonials from both employees and customers bring these messages to life. We also actively listen for case studies and stories that highlight customer satisfaction to craft videos that engage potential customers and potential employees.
Adapt to Rapid Technology Changes
With ag tech evolving at lightning speed, it’s vital to keep pace and ensure messaging and functionality align with current tech trends. One way we help clients stay a step ahead is to create tools they can quickly customize, such as websites with CMS capabilities for easy content changes.
We also collaborate with client sales teams, staying up to date on innovations, so we can help them communicate advancements in customer-friendly ways that are consistent with the brand. Partnering with our clients in this way allows us to support their efforts to push future-focused solutions to their customers. Similarly, we also assist our clients during industry events, where hands-on learning can help customers understand and adopt new technologies.
Navigate Acquisitions and Consolidations
As smaller ag companies are increasingly acquired by larger ag-tech firms, the customer landscape is changing. While fewer customers remain, they often come with larger user bases and more complex needs. Jump has been in the ag space long enough to see this shift firsthand.
To adapt, we’ve scaled our marketing strategies to suit these larger user bases. This means creating digital campaigns that can be turned on and off easily, depending on demand. We also support mergers from a PR perspective, crafting careful communication strategies that ensure a smooth transition for both internal teams and customers.
Develop Clear Brand Architectures
As ag companies grow their products and services, one challenge they face is clearly communicating how everything connects. To ensure consistency, Jump creates brand architectures that establish a clear parent brand, as well as product sub-brands. This future-proofs the company and accommodates any upcoming changes. We also help clients develop rebranding strategies when they acquire companies and/or products, so they align with the company’s main identity.
Solve Unique Challenges
Experience is the best teacher, and ours has taught us some specific things about marketing in the ag space. First, farmers are not a monolith. While younger farmers are quick to adopt new processes and technologies, older generations are more resistant to change, inspiring us to be more creative and flexible about how to bridge this gap.
And speaking of technology, it’s moving fast. In a lot of cases, it’s moving to the cloud. While this brings a lot of benefits, it also raises concerns for some farmers and ag retailers. To frame the discussion in a positive way, we highlight the efficiency benefits while also addressing concerns like data security.
At the end of the day, our success in the ag industry comes down to two things: listening and being open to creating new solutions. Much like our ag clients, reputation is very important to us. And that will remain true no matter what changes the industry faces.