Do You Leverage Your Data-Driven Regen Practices?

What’s the point of having great data if you don’t share it? Sure, it helps you have better yields, use fewer inputs, and even incorporate weather forecasts to your advantage. But does this increase your regen ag revenue?

We take it for granted that people know how a farm works. How a grower makes decisions. How a rancher decides stocking rates. But for the most part, people have no clue. When you leverage this information in your marketing, you show folks the backside of farming and ranching. When you’re doing this and others aren’t, this gives you a leg up on your competition.

How to Use Data-Analytics Tools in Marketing

Farming and ranching are businesses. That means you have to be profitable to continue into another season. Buyer behaviors and your ag practices determine your ability to survive in today’s competitive world. 

For many younger consumers, a transparent supply chain is critical. You can create an entire marketing campaign around the effectiveness of your regen ag practices to grow healthy, tasty food while repairing the earth. If you’ve had a measurable decrease in pest pressures since converting to regen practices, this is the basis for a wonderful story. 

Storytelling and data make strange and convincing partners. Your journey of discovery and change is compelling to an audience who is looking for truth in their food. They are on a parallel journey.

The storytelling engages the consumer, and the data convinces them. Highlighting specific examples of increased nutritional content and decreased inputs is the seasoning needed to change behaviors

I’ve Got the Data - Now Where Do I Put It?

This is where you have to know your market. Where do they spend their time? Interestingly, more people are taking breaks from social media and the internet. A period of time for a “digital detox” for mental health is driven by an awareness of the negative impacts of screen time. 

So, although getting your data and story out on the internet is good, there are also opportunities to think outside the box. Where do you highlight the glory of your products? What kinds of marketing have you neglected or never even considered?

Community and Your Value as a Supplier of Regen Food

There was a time when every community had stores where you could see all the events that were happening and all the products and services that were available in your area. We called these “community bulletin boards.”  Back in the day, when I was a young whippersnapper, I put my hand-printed flyer about my gardening services on such a board.

These days community message boards come in offline and online forms. And this is one of the best ways to generate local and regional interest in your product or service! 

Outdoor message boards are popping up in parks, community centers, libraries, and the old stand-by grocery stores!! You just create 8 ½ x 11 flyers like the one below (a good template that I used many years ago). It absolutely must have your name, location, and how to get a hold of you. I used bullet points to say what was in season when I transitioned to an organic specialty market grower. 

Color printing was expensive and colored pencils weren’t. Back in the day. And there is a lesson to be learned here. Old becomes new again. How can you market in a way that’s so different from your competitors that people can’t help but check you out? 

Online forums are also an effective marketing tool. The data you’ve collected on the positive environmental impact of your operation can be more in-depth. If you have a product or service that is sold to a wider audience than your community, these are great. These are the equivalent of coffee shops and are conversations. Reddit is a good example of one community, but subgroups can be found on all social media channels. 

How Does This Low-Tech Marketing Fit with My Precision Data?

Before precision ag, no one thought about the “data” behind their food. Well, some folks did, and they became our Big Ag today. They were keeping track of mainly one metric, “yield,” and that’s the only thing that mattered. 

Fast forward to today’s market and anyone born after the 1940s has only known what has been labeled “conventional ag.” But it’s far from conventional and regenerative ag is closer to what has been practiced for millennia. But because conventional is all we know, we have to reprove the value of regenerative methods. That’s why your data is so valuable. When you’re able to show your blueberries have higher nutritional profiles and antioxidants than the “conventional” competition, people think twice about the price.

Your data also shows the broader ecological benefits of regenerative practices, not just your ROI. Consumers are aware that the externalities aren’t being accounted for. Using infographics and other visuals helps to tell your story. Data-driven approaches to agriculture can improve soil health, plant health, and human health. 

Your data can tell the story of the interconnections of the soil and our gut. Healthy food can be produced with low-tech practices, and that is what happens in many backyard gardens. Those low-tech processes can be used on your regenerative operation, and that’s the basis of the storytelling. Having the data to back up your story allows the rational brain a seat on the buyer’s journey. But you have to measure the results and make them available to the buyer. 

Soil testing, plant sap analysis, and microbial testing all show you are on the journey to a healthier planet. Your journey, measured by high-tech sensors and soil testers, mirrors the journey your customers are on. The journey to better health and a healthier planet. 

By sharing your data-driven success stories, you build trust and loyalty with consumers, leading to increased sales and repeat business. Your outcome?  A profitable livelihood. 

Does this new-old way of looking at things look intriguing? Creating engagement and trust is how you grow your business.

At 3 Pillars Marketing, we think business should be fun, inventive, regenerative, and profitable. To find out how you can stand out in the crowd, click the link below for a FREE competitor analysis. Find out where you can zig while everyone else is zagging!

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