Blame it on low milk prices, or genomics or whatever you want, the dairy genetics industry has changed drastically in the past ten years. Gone are the days where a sweet young cow scoring VG-85 as a two-year-old was something you would run a print ad in a magazine, and fellow breeders would be calling you up asking about her. Not only has what breeders are interested in changed, thanks to genomics, etc. but so has how people buy. Where and how breeders show, share information and buy has dramatically shifted. However, most breeders are still trying to advertise and wasting their money on marketing that no longer delivers a return. Simple question to you, when was the last time you can directly attribute a sale to an ad you ran in a print magazine? As Einstein says doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results is the definition of Insanity. My fellow dairy breeders it’s time to stop the Insanity.
There is no question the dairy genetics marketplace is a tough game just now. With AI companies dominating the genomics marketplace (Read more: Should A.I. Companies Own Females?, Why Good Business for A.I. Companies Can Mean Bad Business For Dairy Breeders, and How Genomics is Killing the Dairy Cattle Breeding Industry) and low milk prices killing the market for good dairy cattle (Read more: Who Killed The Market For Good Dairy Cattle?) things are terrible. These changes and challenges are not limited to the genetics game either; advertising has its own difficulties. It seems like every day you hear reports about how one print magazine has gone bankrupt, or another one has staff that is leaving to take jobs elsewhere cause they can not pay the bills anymore and even fake announcements about new staff who have actually been working for the publication for years. This does not happen in a medium that is thriving.
There is a simple rule in marketing, get your message to where your ideal customer is. Thanks to Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, most breeders no longer use out of date print magazines as their #1 source for information. On any given week more dairy breeders are online searching for the latest show results, genomic test results or classification highlights than read a print magazine in a whole month. It’s simple to explain why digital news is faster and less expensive. It also is much cheaper to advertise in digital, hence why so many advertisers are shifting their dollars from print to digital. The rise of digital media in preference to print comes down to four key factors: cost, flexibility, accountability, and demographics.
- Print is Expensive
Beyond space costs, creating print ads can also require significant In contrast to online ads are relatively inexpensive or, in the case of social media, often free. - Print isn’t flexible
There are fixed closing dates for materials, and once in print, the message cannot be changed until the next issue. In contrast, digital media is much more flexible. - Print results are tough to track.
In comparison to click-throughs, open email rates and a host of other digital metrics, print’s ability to provide ROI data is limited without well-planned campaign execution, which often requires an expensive ad agency to set up for you. - Print does not attract many breeders under 40
In this age group, someone put a cell phone in his or her hands when they were 9, a laptop when they entered middle school. Print is not their media of choice or experience.
In comparison to spending thousands of on prints ads, a simple ad on a Facebook page with a spend of under $50 can reach over 108,000 dairy breeders in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Colombia, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand and the US (Based on metrics provided by Facebook) that is more than double any reach of a print ad. Now I am sure you say, but there are thousands of fake accounts, and yes there is, that is why you need to create target markets such as the countries listed above instead of just spending to put up a bunch of fake metrics (Read more: The Truth about Dairy Genetics Publications Facebook Fan Page Statistics and The fakebook – Our Secret is Exposed). Facebook marketing is not just a simple as “post it, and they will come.” Just like any effective marketing plan you need to have a strategy that identifies who you ideal customer is, and what motivates them to spend their hard-earned money.
To learn how to get your farm on Facebook download this free guide, and once you are up and running be sure to check out The Top 10 Dairy Breeder Facebook Fan Pages and Why They are Successful as well as How to Make the Facebook 10 Most Wanted List.
The Bullvine Bottom Line
Let’s face it; times are tough in the dairy industry just now. But It’s in these tough times that we can make some of the most impactful decisions. That is very true when it comes to promoting your dairy farm to the world. There are more dairy breeders on Facebook than read all the dairy print publications combined. Take a look at who is buying, where are they spending their time? According to Facebook statistics, 50% of dairy breeders log in every day. Most cannot go without at least checking their Facebook page once or twice a day. That is nearly 1 hour per day, per user. That is longer than it takes most dairy farmers to read most monthly dairy magazines. The message is simple: “In these tough times don’t advertise for the sake of advertising. Market to win!”
