Making a Connection Through Agricultural Content Marketing

The phrase ‘content is king’ is overused for a reason, yet under-utilized in the ag space (with only 78% of agricultural marketers using content compared to 91% of all B2B marketers). So, who cares?

Well, if you’re a business or brand serving agriculture or advocating on behalf of it, you should care. Because of this stat: Farm and ranch families make up less than 2% of the U.S. population. When your customers are farmers or one of the businesses serving them, it’s an incredible opportunity to dial into a niche audience with content catered to their specific needs.

Advocating for the farmer to a consumer audience, providing trustworthy, factual content has never been more valuable than it is today.

No matter what agricultural segment you serve, building trust with your target audience is the key to increasing brand awareness and positioning your organization as an industry expert. In order to be seen as a truly reliable source with valuable knowledge, you’ll need to create content that answers their questions, establishes educational thought leadership and can easily be found when people are seeking help or expertise.

Whether you’re selling an innovative product or promoting a message about farming, these agriculture content marketing strategies will help you retain existing and win over new target audiences.

Align Content with the Marketing Funnel and Buyer’s Journey

Whether you’re selling a physical product or promoting a message (for example, the importance and benefits of consuming beef or safe food production), each piece of content should support a stage in the marketing funnel and include an enticing call-to-action (CTA) that aligns with the reader/target’s journey. In other words, after someone interacts with a piece of content, what next step should they take?

Here’s how to break down content by funnel stage (Hint: Search intent from your keyword research will help you determine which topics should fall under each stage):

• Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Your audience identifies a problem they’re looking to solve, identifies an opportunity they’re looking to exploit, or has a question related to an industry practice. Common content formats include blog posts, articles and social media infographics.
• Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): Your audience is considering options or examining them at a closer level to solve their problem. Common content formats include case/success stories, videos and downloadable resources.
• Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Your audience is ready to make a purchase or major decision to solve their problem. Common content formats include buyer’s guides, and trials and demos (if selling a product).

Depending on the depth of the content piece, CTAs will either point to another piece that expands upon what was just read within the same funnel stage or will lead the reader into the next stage.

Understand Your Audience’s Questions and Topics of Interest

First, define your target audience(s). Is it farmers, consumers, B2B? Keep this in mind as you conduct research.

Using an industry-leading keyword research tool such as Semrush, begin looking for highly searched keywords that point to various agriculture topics in your niche area. This indicates what users are frequently researching online.

Once you’ve generated a list of keywords, take them a step further to learn which audiences are searching for each topic. Plug the keywords into Google and analyze the search results for the intent. Some keywords may include an unforeseen intent to make an immediate purchase, while others are simply looking for information or for an answer to their question that will later impact their decision-making process. Use caution: A lot of vague agriculture keywords pull search results related to home gardening rather than ag.

Break keywords into categories based on topic, audience and intent. This will guide your content marketing strategy and improve rank on search engines for relevant queries.

A similar SEO-driven approach was followed when working with Illinois Farm Families to revamp their website as a trusted thought leadership hub for food and farming information. See the case study and results here.

Use a Variety of Content Formats

While the ag audience is relatively small, it is one that’s evolving to comprise different backgrounds, life stories and age groups. To reach each segment, you’ll need to get creative and leverage an array of content formats – not to mention, cross-promote across all channels rather than just relying on SEO for search engine rankings, social media, advertisements, or email alone. The agriculture industry poses a lot of exciting opportunities to educate target audiences through:

• Blog posts and articles
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Social media graphics
• Downloadable resources
• Quizzes
• Online courses
• Case studies and success stories
• Print advertising
• Radio and TV broadcasts

When COVID-19 kept The SCN Coalition from gathering for an in-person event, our MorganMyers team leveraged the power of both video and traditional media through the Let’s Talk Todes educational video series to connect soybean farmers with valuable information for their farming operations. Check it out.

Evaluate Performance, Adjust Your Strategy, Rinse and Repeat

With every marketing campaign should come key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine progress toward your goals. Common content KPIs include:

• Users and page views
• Number of downloads
• Social media impressions and engagements
• Average time on page
• Conversion rates (from search engine results, email clicks, social clicks, and on-page CTA clicks)

Once you’ve identified the most important metrics to track, revisit performance each month to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Perhaps a specific article about a new farming practice had low conversions on its inline CTA. Consider changing the CTA to something ‘lighter’ and more relevant.

Building brand awareness and trust in agriculture begins with good content. Good content starts with addressing the right topics, mapping them out alongside the buyer’s journey, leveraging multiple formats and channels, and consistently seeking out ways to improve performance and impact your company goals.

To balance your strategy and ensure the content speaks the target audience’s language, consider turning to experienced help. Our team is equipped with decades of hands-on experience in agriculture content development. Check out some of the content we’ve helped our ag clients develop:

• Illinois Beef: Video campaign diving deep into responsibly raised beef
• Iowa Premium: Email and video campaigns to showcase products and tell their story
• 4R Plus: Educational content hub on the website to establish 4R Plus as a thought-leader in the soil health movement