Advertising seedstock 101: Know your customers

In part one of Advertising Seedstock 101, we sat down with Eric Grant, president and general manager of Angus Productions Inc. to learn about the importance of having a professional website. In part two, the discussion moves to knowing your customers.

The next step in optimizing your marketing efforts is to know details about who you are trying to reach. What are the main age groups of customers? What industry publications are they reading? Do they consume everything in print, or are they online?

"When you know this information, it is going to help you find the right advertisers," Grant says. "When breeders talk to their customers, they should also ask them where they are getting their information. And if a producer has 10 new breeders show up at his sale, he needs to make a note to follow up with them on how they found his genetic program."

While it can be time consuming, producers calling through the customer list with survey questions is a very effective way of gathering crucial information, Grant says, but it doesn't have to be limited to calling. Print out a brief survey that can be filled out quickly while customers register for buyer numbers or stand at the settlement table on sale day so that information can be turned around for the next year's marketing plan.

Another way for seedstock producers to know their customers better is through the use of Google Analytics on their website.

"Whoever makes the website can place Google Analytics on it to collect data," Grant says. "This is going to help track how many visitors there are, what they are interested in, when they are visiting and what platforms they visit on. This information can then be broken down to see what the producers need to focus on most for their website."