By Bob West
For many years, marketers to the agricultural and horticultural audiences largely ignored the growth of the Internet as a marketing tool. Many factors contributed to this skepticism among media buyers, with the one key concern being that agricultural customers were not really using the web for work purposes.
“My customers are not online,” went the thinking. “They’re too old.”
“They’re not tech savvy.”
“They live in an area without high-speed connections.”
The list of reasons why not to market online went on and on.
Well, today’s marketers may still have their reasons for not incorporating the web into their marketing arsenal, but lack of audience will never again make that list.
Consider the following metrics from Meister Media’s eight websites serving the agricultural and horticultural markets in the first six months of 2013:
- Total visits up 51% year over year.
- Page views up 37%.
- Video views up 41%.
Market-by-market numbers are presented below, but the key takeaway here is obvious: Marketers trying to reach these agricultural and horticultural audiences ignore the web at their own peril.
|
Website |
Year-over-Year – Change in Monthly Unique Visitors |
Year-over-Year – Change in Monthly Total Visits |
Year-over-Year – Change in Monthly Page Views |
Year-over-Year – Change in Monthly Video Views |
| GrowingProduce.com |
41.5% |
64.5% |
42.7% |
62.9% |
| Hortalizas.com |
25.2% |
26.9% |
24.4% |
202.2% |
| GreenhouseGrower.com |
60.3% |
67.0% |
49.3% |
49.4% |
| TodaysGardenCenter.com |
59.5% |
57.7% |
61.9% |
0% |
| CropLife.com |
-5.9% |
-4.5% |
3.1% |
195.1% |
| Cotton 24/7.com |
70.8% |
83.2% |
57.7% |
57.4% |
| PrecisionAg.com |
15.9% |
17.0% |
14.6% |
39.7% |
| FarmChemicalsInternational.com |
-29.0% |
8.8% |
-2.8% |
52.7% |
Bob West is the Director of Interactive Sales at Meister Media. For more information on the metrics from any Meister Media property, contact him at 440-602-9129 or [email protected]