Ag Brands Deserve Better ROI
While I’ve already discussed the need for agrimarketers to generate better results, here I will speak instead to the overall return on investment (ROI) an organization is achieving from the whole of its marketing spend (not just the results of specific efforts/tactics). And, for me, this may very likely be the most critical area of future focus for us all.
Let me start with a bit of easy math. As you know, there are only three ways to improve an organization’s marketing ROI, and these are:
In my experience, the focus for improving marketing ROI for the vast majority of agriculture organizations has and continues to be:
#1 increase returns at a greater rate/amount than marketing spend. Likewise, this focus typically only changes when organizations and/or the industry face challenges, resulting in a shift to #2 in the form of “budget cuts”. This means that #3 is the focus that I’ve seen the least, and unfortunately, it’s also the one that can generate the most significant impact.
That said, it’s not just the impact of #3 that makes it so critical in my opinion, it’s the fact that almost every external and internal trend in business and agriculture are pushing us to a reality where it will be an absolute necessity.
These trends include but are not limited to:
The unprecedented effect that inflation has had on the costs of business and the inability to counterbalance this through price increases alone (i.e., margins will need to be improved through cost savings and efficiencies).
Agriculture’s inability to attract younger generations of talent into the industry’s workforce at a pace equal to the significant existing of older generations (i.e., resource constraints will force a focus on “doing less”).
The scope, scale, and speed of AI innovation and its ability/capacity to reduce operational resources and costs (i.e., leveraging AI to offset resource costs and constraints).
The mounting pressures for existing technological investments (like CRM, marketing automation, e-commerce, and SaaS) to generate significantly greater returns and efficiencies (i.e., moving from integration and high-level use to deeper adoption and business creation).
What’s most unnerving about this is the fact that, as agrimarketers, we’ve lived in a world where a focus on effectiveness (i.e., achieving results) AND efficiency (i.e., doing so with less time/effort/investment) has long been possible, but have simply chosen to prioritize the former much more than the latter. Even agencies are typically terrible at this as most have been built to get their clients to spend more, not less (i.e., full-service = more not better).
Creative is a powerful tool that when wielded properly can produce astonishing results, and for the most part in agrimarketing, we are only scratching the surface of its abilities, which include:
I can’t stress enough how critical this shift in thinking is going to be to agrimarketing as I truly believe it will and should be the ultimate test of our abilities. As such, in an effort to save my most spicy comment to the end, if in the next year, you and your agency haven’t found a way to achieve this, give me a call as I’m more than confident that for every dollar you give Think Shift, we can help you find a way to save ten (and achieve greater results in the process).
Book a call with the author, David Lazarenko: https://meetings.hubspot.com/david-lazarenko
Read all of the Evolution of Ag 2024 trends: https://learn.thinkshiftinc.com/evolution-of-ag#anchor7