Agriculture marketing and lead generation go hand in hand. What really is marketing without lead generation or lead generation without marketing.
Marketing is the “activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
Lead generation is one of those processes used to deliver and exchange offerings. More leads means more revenue for your business. At Hook, we love lead generation. That’s why we’re offering this agriculture lead generation guide.
#1 Lead Generation Tool for Agriculture Companies
The number one tool for agriculture lead generation that you should be using is SEO. SEO or search engine optimization is the process of making your website more visible to search engines like Google. For example, if someone searches for a farm tractor or food processing, seed mill, etc., your website, with a little work and SEO magic, could be one of the first things they see in the Google search results.
PPC (Pay Per Click)
PPC or pay per click is a concise way of talking about Google ads. While PPC isn’t a cheap option for lead generation, it is a successful one if you’re looking to get more leads quickly. The difference between PPC and SEO is easy to understand if you think of SEO as more of a long term investment. SEO is all about building a web presence up over time so that even when you’re not spending money. For PPC to be successful, you’ll need to be spending money, and when you stop spending money, you’ll stop getting those leads.
For a little comparison of SEO vs. PPC, check out this video!
Signs, Banners, and Physical Advertisements
Signs, banners, and physical advertisements are overlooked all too often by companies that try to go fully digital with their marketing. While it might seem like a classic example, a truck wrap, bumper sticker, or other physical advertisements on your vehicle can really do wonders.
Who doesn’t love to wear their own company shirts? Free shirts for your employees is a great way to turn them into brand ambassadors that champion everything your company is about. While you might not see immediate leads through doing this, you can build up a good company reputation that will eventually reach someone who’s considering working with your company.
Events and Event Marketing
Event marketing is another great way to build a great company culture and reputation. Sometimes events can be expensive, especially if they’re national or international, but don’t let that scare you away. There’s a lot of potential for events to pay off in the long run. They can be a great way to meet other people in your industry, potential clients, investors, or even future employees and partners.
Take some time to put together an eye-catching booth, a good one-pager to deliver, and spruce up the old business cards. If you invest the time and energy that a good event deserves, you’ll see a return on that investment.
Lead Generation Website
There are two different types of websites in our eyes. On the one hand, you have marketing or lead generation websites, and on the other hand, you have credibility websites. A marketing website is built in such a way that it can be used as a tool to sell your services or products. A credibility website is a way that companies can show that they’re credible and can be trusted.
A marketing website is a website that uses SEO, calls to action, uses landing pages, and is regularly optimized. If you want your website to offer ROI for your business, then you should look into developing a marketing website.
Google My Business
Google My Business is an amazing, completely free resource offered by Google. No matter the size or location of your business, you can have a GMB listing for no cost to you. The biggest advantage of having a GMB listing is that it offers useful resources to potential customers and helps you show up in “near me” Google searches.
When someone searches for “burgers near me,” it’s going to pull up the Google my business listings of businesses that serve those products near them. Additionally, GMB is a great way to get and store reviews from customers, display store hours, and your location. Check out this video from Cody Warren with more details and instructions on how to get your GMB listing up and running.
Social Media
Another avenue that can drive leads and help your overall brand is social media. We know it can be hard to manage social media at times. Finding the time to post, staying creative, and knowing what to post about, it can all be a challenge at some point.
One solution that you might consider is hiring an agency to provide for you something we like to call vanilla social. Vanilla social is a simple posting strategy where a marketing agency like Hook can post for you 3-4 times a week. The only thing you have to do is provide the pictures and any other direction you might find worthy, you can leave the rest up to us.
Be a Guest on Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to get more exposure to your services or products. You might not have a podcast of your own, but there are people all over that would love to have business leaders on them. Do a little outreach if you need to, and don’t be afraid to go out there offer some of the experience that you’ve gained from building up your business.
2 Bonus Agriculture Marketing Tips
Here are 2 bonus agriculture marketing tips if you feel like there’s more that you could be doing. These tips work great across all types of businesses and will also help you grow your sales funnel over time.
Incorporate Video
Video is a great way to engage new and old audiences and connect them better to your brand. It allows you to show behind the scenes and humanize your company and employees.
Videos also have a better engagement rate on social media and can help to increase time on the page within blog posts or service pages on your website. At Hook, we believe video is an essential part of any marketing strategy.
Get More Reviews
Reviews are a great way to get more business and sell more deals. Often times, potential customers are looking specifically towards your previous customers for insight into whether or not they’d like to work with you. Getting more honest reviews on the great work or the great products that your company provides will do more for your sales funnel than you’d expect.
Takeaway / Summary
To put it all together for you, here are agriculture marketing and lead generation tools that we talked about today.
- SEO – a top priority as a long term lead gen strategy
- PPC – quick payback for investing in ads but not a long term solution.
- Physical Advertising – this is a great way to spread brand awareness for an exponential effect.
- Event Marketing – offers some gain if you’re willing to put in the work. Not right for everyone or every business.
- Lead Generation Website – a marketing website will offer you a greater ROI than a credibility website or on that isn’t optimized for lead generation.
- Google My Business – a free tool that will help you get found in more “near me” searches.
- Social Media – build a greater brand presence and culture around your company. Humanize yourself.
- Be Guest on a Podcast – a great way to reach audiences that you don’t normally reach.
I hope you found this agriculture marketing and lead generation guide helpful. If you find yourself in need of help better understanding any of these principals of if you need help implementing them, be sure to reach out to us!
We’re always happy to help businesses learn and grow their marketing funnels.
