If you aren’t already building an email list, or at least thinking about one for your livestock marketing or Agriculture Business, it’s time to start. At Ranch House, our list is more than 16K strong and we are constantly working to grow it, but we want to share some of the lessons we’ve learned with you! This week as part of our educational blog series, we explain why you should have an email list for your ranch or agricultural business.
Consider your email list a “Digital Business Asset” I know, I know! In agriculture, we like hard copies. Pen and paper, an actual printed document. It’s really hard for us to wrap our heads around a digital business asset when our biggest business asset is a live animal out there in the field right now, or our land, our equipment and our buildings. A lot of business assets in agriculture are very tangible and an email list might not seem like an important “asset.” However, we promise building an email list is worth the time and effort.
It spreads your message to a wider audience
You have a website and social media, but with an email list, you can make sure that the people who want to have updates about you and your business, get information. It’s more direct and sometimes more personal than social media or what you have posted on your website.
A bigger email list can lead to an increase in sales
Wouldn’t it be nice if every time you had an animal you wanted to sell private treaty, you had a list of potential people who are already interested to contact? With an email list, you do! You might be able to sell the animal (or animals) just from a sending a simple email.
It’s easy AND You can start for FREE
At Ranch House, we have a large list and we pay for expensive, state of the art software to manage our multiple lists. (If you’re a website customer, we can help manage your list too!). However, if you are just getting started and have less than about 2,000 contacts you can start with a program like MailChimp for free. If you’re someone who has a production sale regularly, then you already have a mailing list started! Go through your customer list that you mail your catalog to each year and begin compiling their emails. You probably already have a lot of their contact information, it just isn’t put together!
Email is engrained into us
For me, (and millions of other people around the world) the first thing I do in the morning is check my email. I have it open on my computer all day and I have three different email accounts that I check regularly. That’s a LOT of email! Email is a natural part of the business world, no matter what industry you are in. It’s something that comes naturally to most of us, so it’s a great way to reach customers where they are already spending a lot of time.
The lifespan of your message lasts longer
When you post on social media it’s an update that is there and gone. A website update is only shown to people who visit your website regularly. Email is a notification that is there until it is marked unread. Email creates a notification bubble bothering someone, somewhere. Confession: I totally can’t STAND notification bubbles. I am someone who always has to keep my inbox at zero. All emails must be read or filed. With an email you aren’t just a status update that is there and gone and someone might never see. You are right in your customer’s inbox.
It’s super helpful for online sales
You can send reminders about how to register to bid, closing time of the sale and even send video and photos directly to interested potential buyers.
Livestock Producers Like Email
According to our annual Livestock Marketing Survey, people in agriculture LIKE getting email blasts! Three out of four people responded saying they enjoy getting emails about sales and events.
Don’t miss out on engaging with your audience or creating new business relationship. Working to build an email list now, protects you from changes in search engines and social algorithms. We promise, you’ll be glad you started sooner, rather than later.
Need Help?
If you don’t know where to start building an email list or even with marketing your livestock, let us know! We are experts in agricultural marketing and can help you maximize your advertising dollars to market your business effectively. If you have a project in mind, fill out our request a quote form. For more great information like this article, join our email list!