Perhaps more than any other factor, the emergence of glyphosate-resistant cropping systems helped redefine the ag retail marketplace during the past 10 years. Retailers who have survived and thrived have often done so by helping their customers make sense of new technologies and practices, and then helping integrate them into their operations.
As broadband access becomes more readily available in rural communities, the Internet will only continue to grow as a source of information and opinion about innovations. In the years ahead, agricultural producers will be looking for retailers and manufacturers who can help them assimilate the knowledge available via the Internet with their own on-farm data to get the most from every acre and every animal. Because of their local relationships and historic role as a trusted advisor, ag retailers are well positioned to work in partnership with ag marketers to usher in a digital age in agriculture.
The opportunity of marketing automation
At Quarry, we believe an increasingly important tool in enabling ag retailers and ag marketers to work together in providing producers the right information, at the right time, is a category of technology called marketing automation. This technology is already being used successfully across a number of market segments to identify and nurture prospects and provide value-added information to specific customers and prospects at specific times. The opportunity exists today in agriculture.
The term marketing automation can mean different things to different people (as explained in this E-Commerce Times article). At Quarry, we define marketing automation as technology that helps build relationships. Through marketing automation platforms like Eloqua, marketers can monitor and track online behavior, and continuously nurture relationships based on their profile and activity. This activity helps build alignment between sales and marketing by identifying and passing along only the most qualified “purchase-ready” leads to the sales force.
Research by the Aberdeen Group found that while only 23% of marketing operations currently use an integrated marketing automation platform, 58% plan to in the future. While turbulent times might hardly seem like the best opportunity to make major purchase decisions about marketing automation technology investments, we’re seeing a surge of interest in this area, because of the significant impact it’s shown to have on the marketing and sales lead generation.
Will grower adoption of digital information technology be the next major milestone in the evolution of the ag retail sector? Could marketing automation reinforce the role of the retailer as a critical link between ag marketers and producers during another era of great change in agriculture? Join the conversation.
Aug 11th, 2009 12:36 pm
I believe the discussion is helpful to have as it moves clients’ thinking in the right direction. And the company first in on this technology is poised to own it in the future. We need to be careful however in looking at adoption/penetration rates in other industries and applying them to the ag sector.
I don’t work a lot in the states, but I did recently review the 2008 NAFB wave study, which surveyed 2,412 american farmers at random. 1,773 of them indicated they were over 50 years of age. Over-50s are late to never adopters of new technology. And, when asked whether they use a dial up or higher speed internet connection, 35% of the over-50 group indicated that they do not have an internet connection at all.
Granted, Agri-Retailers are going to be ahead of this curve. Marketing automation to agri-retailers when they are the primary target for a message or discussion may be appropriate. But as a 2009 tactic, I would want to get some quantitative data on how agri-retailers are currently using online.