How to Stay Top-of-Mind to Buyers Year-Round by Brandi Buzzard Frobose, Editor and Director of Communications Late summer. Synonymous with baling hay, state fairs, chopping silage and bull sale prep. Wait, what? Yes, even though it’s September we are already on the topic of the 2022 spring bull sale season. And while many producers are focusing on the tangible work to be done such as DNA sampling, foot scoring and nutritional planning for fall and winter, it’s also critical to analyze and implement an online marketing strategy to build brand awareness leading up to the sale. Yes, that means social media and website updates. Quite frankly, if online promotion isn’t part of a ranch’s marketing strategy, potential buyers and sales are left on the table. And in an industry with already tight margins, no stone should remain unturned. Survey data from Forbes showed that 72% of Americans use some sort of social media daily – that’s quite a big chunk of the population scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and several other platforms every day. It’s a fair assumption that quite a few farmers and ranchers fall into that data gure, as well.
Hypothetically, if you learned that 72% of bull buyers read the Red Angus Magazine, wouldn’t that entice you to advertise every month? One might wonder, “My sale isn’t until March. I don’t need to worry about promoting it until January.”
“Survey data from Forbes showed that 72% of Americans use some sort of social media daily.” Which might be true, but the key to an online marketing strategy is the promotion of an entire brand, not just one single event. Take for example Chevrolet’s employee pricing sale that takes place in December annually. While its marketing department heavily promotes that specic sale leading up to and during it, the brand doesn’t disappear or stop its marketing efforts once the sale is over. Chevy has a consistent marketing strategy to keep its line of trucks and cars in front of potential buyers year-round. In fact, that kind of strategy is so successful that the
communications department at Red Angus has adopted it as our own over the past several years, striving to keep Red Angus in the media spotlight on a consistent basis to ensure name and brand recognition 24/7/365. If it works for Chevy and the RAAA, it will work for individual ranches, too, and you don’t have to have a huge advertising budget to make it happen. Brand awareness can be developed on social media with a little bit of creativity and time. Not surprisingly, whenever the subject of social media comes up in a room of ranchers, there are almost certainly two reactions: 1) Facebook and/or Instagram are ridiculous – that’s no place for ranch promotion, or 2) Social media is so big and intimidating, where should I even start?! The rst thought is 50% accurate – social media can be a huge mess on any given day. However, there is absolutely still room for promoting a ranch online. Just by having a Facebook or Instagram prole for their business, producers can carve out a spot to promote their ranch and share their practices, activities and, when the time is right, a nished sale catalog for buyers’ perusing.
Take lots of photos of moving cattle and other day-to-day ranch activities to build up a bank of images to use later on social media.
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RE R RED ED AN A ANGUS NGU GUS Magazine Maaga M gazziin ne e n September Seepptteem S m mbe bbeer 20 22021 02211
