Purebred Livestock Marketing: Managing your online presence (Part 2 of 6)

Written by Tessa Verbeek. Photos by the Limousin Voice.

Establishing an online presence should be first on your list once the basic branding of your operation (logo, signature colours, slogan, etc.) has been established. While you need not dive headfirst into all of the digital marketing avenues available, most of today’s buyers – certainly all youth and young adults – are getting a large percentage of their information from online sources. Luckily for livestock breeders, once your online presence is established, it is a reasonably small line item in your marketing budget that can achieve big results.

WEBSITE

A website is essential in today’s marketplace. It should act as the online storefront for your operation and all advertising efforts should direct interested customers to your website for further information. While the amount of information you can tastefully include in a print ad or e-mail blast is limited, those advertising mediums should act as the draw to point potential customers to your website for full details. A purebred breeder’s website may include a page about the operation and family behind it and a contact page with phone numbers and an e-mail address – provided it is checked and responded to. Some contact pages have a fillable contact form that will be sent as an e-mail to the website owner. Additional pages may include cattle for sale, sires, dams, show success, etc. Your website should be updated frequently – ideally at least once a month. Not only do customers favour websites with fresh content, but so do search engines. Keep your site up to date if you want your operation’s website to appear near the top of the list of results for a web search of your breed of cattle. At the very least, make sure to update your site well in advance of an upcoming sale and soon after the conclusion – no one wants to see an invitation to your sale that happened two years ago as the most recent post on your website. For the computer savvy there are do-it-yourself online website building platforms that will also host your web domain for a minimal annual fee. Many producers prefer to spend their valuable time working in the day to day management of their operation and leave website building to a professional. There are many options available that range from having a professional design the site and then hand the reins over to you for updates to having the site designed and fully maintained by a graphic designer.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is now a commonplace piece of most operation’s marketing strategies, and for good reason. There is no cost to use it, you can reach a huge worldwide audience, it is instantaneous and easy to update frequently and you can have direct interactions with your customers. Moreover, agriculture based social media accounts, when used appropriately, can be hugely impactful at promoting positive public perceptions of agriculture and engaging in factual information sharing with urban consumers.

Before you begin using social media to market your operation consider what your business objectives are, who you are trying to reach and what you want your audience to do. This may aid you in deciding which social media platform(s) are right for you. When you first delve into the world of social media for your operation, start small. You do not need to utilize every type of platform. It is much better to do a good job of posting useful, engaging content regularly on one platform than to scatter your efforts ineffectively across multiple platforms. Regardless of the platforms you utilize, always present your content in a professional manner with proper spelling and grammar. Make a commitment to respond to messages and comments in a timely manner. In order to get the most out of your posts consider the timing of your posts – too early or late in the day and potential viewers may be asleep and your content will get buried in their newsfeed.

FACEBOOK Creating a Facebook page for your operation is the most common starting point for operations once a website has been established. As with print marketing, your online advertising efforts should also direct your customers to your website. The best Facebook pages are not all advertising all the time, though. Your followers want to see the day to day happenings on your operation – pictures are especially well received. They want to read funny stories and gain insight from a good article you have shared. Think of the analogy of a bank account – frequently ‘deposit’ content that adds value to your customers, speaks to their values and emotions, but does not push them to buy product so that when you need to make a ‘withdrawal’ post advertising an animal or upcoming sale, your customers will have already developed a positive relationship with your brand. Focus on feelings and evoking emotion – when we care, we share. In addition to reaching individuals who ‘like’ and ‘follow’ your Facebook page, craft your content in a way that is likely to be shared by your followers, thus exponentially increasing your page’s reach. When it comes down to it people want to feel like insiders and make themselves look good by sharing your content.

In addition to your operation’s Facebook page, you can also create an event on Facebook – especially good for open houses, field days and sales – and invite people to the event over Facebook. Facebook advertising can also be a very worthwhile investment. For minimal dollar amounts of your choosing, you can specifically target your advertisement to individuals from specific regions, of certain age and gender demographics, and you can even go so far as to target individuals who list “Limousin cattle” as an interest. Ads can be set to run for specific periods of time targeting your selected audience. If you have ever seen a post in your newsfeed that says ‘Sponsored’ in small print – you are on the receiving end of that operation or business’ targeted Facebook advertising campaign. It is a highly cost-effective way of reaching your target market, especially if you have a sale to promote or animals selling by private treaty.

TWITTER is intended for the sharing of information and news and back and forth public conversation, largely between people who do not know each other. The # symbol is called a hashtag. You can use this to categorize your Tweet with others using the same hashtag and hashtags can be searched. For example, you could hashtag your Tweet #bullsale and someone could search #bullsale and see your Tweet along with others that used the same hashtag. There is a 280 character limit so Tweets are meant to be concise. If you enjoy using social media, a Twitter account may bolster your brand recognition, particularly to a unique and often international audience. However, for most operations a well-run Facebook page will be a sufficient social media presence.

INSTAGRAM is intended for photo sharing. You post a photo, add a caption and relevant hashtags if you wish and your followers can like and/or comment on the photo. Videos are also popular, especially when posted to ‘Your Story’. In a world where we are continually documenting life with our cell phones, it’s no wonder that Instagram has 1 billion users each month, with only Facebook and YouTube having more. The vast majority of Instagram users fall in the under 35 category so if your operation wants to target a younger generation of potential clients, it may be worthwhile to tap into this platform.

YOUTUBE For livestock producers, YouTube is best used to effectively upload and organize individual sale animal videos and embed links to those YouTube videos into your website or share links on your other social media pages such as Facebook.

BLOGS Blogs are intended for daily updating and sharing of relevant information, thoughts, photos and videos. There are free sites that allow you to create and maintain your own blog from a computer or cell phone. Blogs do not eliminate the need for a website, but they can be more informal in nature and drive traffic to your website.

NEWSLETTERS & E-MAIL

Newsletters and e-blast can go hand in hand but they do have a different place in your marketing scheme. Newsletters are periodical (perhaps monthly or quarterly) in nature and typically contain photos, updates, and information about recent or upcoming events on your ranch, show or sale results, and informative articles (obtain permission before republishing). Newsletters may contain advertising as well, but that is not their sole goal. Instead, utilize a newsletter to engage with your clientele in a meaningful way that will make them feel more connected to your operation. It is a good idea to have a newsletter sign up button on your website. E-mail blasts are a convenient and cost-effective means of reaching target customers. E-mail blasts are typically sent when pertinent information pertaining to a sale, particularly the catalogue, is available and then again the day before or morning of the sale. Utilize a mixture of a graphic (such as your advertisement that was placed in a print publication or create a new one) and plain text and always include a call to action with clickable links such as “Click to view catalogue” or “Visit our website for more information”. Work to continually build your own e-mail mailing list by maintaining a list of e-mail addresses for past buyers, bidders and those who have inquired about your livestock. You might also consider having a guest book at your ranch for visitors to jot down their contact information in or exchange business cards that you can refer back to. It is distasteful, however, to just go skimming through publications or online and spamming people without them either having signed up for your newsletter/e-blast or had a personal interaction with your ranch. Additionally, most breed associations also offer an e-blast service to their members which is an excellent resource to utilize and typically quite affordable.

If you work with a professional to design your website, ask them about setting up a personalized e-mail address for your operation. While not absolutely imperative, it does give you a polished and professional look (and remind people of your website address) to be sending e-mails from yourname@yourranchname.com. At the very least, don’t use the e-mail you have had since high school (cowboy1990@ emailprovider.com doesn’t have professional tone) and instead set up an account that is yourranchname@emailprovider.com.

If you are tech-savvy, maintaining your ranch’s website, social media accounts and writing newsletters or e-blasts can be a rewarding endeavour and a way for you to bring additional value to your operation. However, if your skill-set it more suited to managing your herd than hashtags, do not despair. There are professionals with vast experience in the livestock industry that can help you. Professional services can vary from an all-inclusive approach, whereby you hire out all of your online management, to the more common approach of having a professional design your website and set up a professional e-mail address, with you taking charge of your social media presence and updates. Oftentimes the younger generations involved with the operation can find their place of expertise in these areas and take on an active role in maintaining your operation’s online presence.

With a website launched, and online presence established, you can forge ahead into the next priority of getting your operation and livestock in front of your target audiences – print materials. Assembling the correct assortment of these essentials can make all the difference. Watch for Part 3 of our Six-Part Series in the next issue.