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RFM NT, an agricultural machinery company, launched an exciting digital marketing strategy during the Covid19 pandemic. RFM NT deals with the complexities of importing parts and exporting, such as managing lead times and frequent price changes. They have been doing so for several years. The pandemic meant that challenges associated with this increased, and primarily, contact with the customer became virtual. Shifting their marketing strategy towards a holistic digital marketing approach has made RFM NT confident in keeping on top of things during the outbreak.

In the past, RFM NT’s marketing strategy involved driving sales by exhibiting at farm shows. Whilst this has been the industry standard for many years, the widespread pandemic forced organizers to cancel these farm shows. To avoid losing sales, RFM NT reacted by launching its digital marketing strategy.

The pandemic affected many industries, forcing many businesses to shut down or abandon markets. On the other hand, agriculture continued as usual and soared in some regions.

Carefully research digital marketing channels with consideration of what works in the agricultural industry.

RFMNT’s marketing manager explains with a bit of help from online courses provided from sites such as Udemy, he launched a successful digital marketing campaign. He realized that you should undertake a multifaceted approach to digital marketing that includes several channels, such as SEO, Google advertising and social media, rather than focus on one channel.

“To launch this multi-channel strategy, RFM NT had to understand what stages of the customer cycle each one would affect,” the Marketing Manager said.

He explains RFM NT was a niche brand with a small but loyal following. We wanted the customer base to grow, we had to increase the awareness for the brand and its products.

“Firstly, we chose to do this via an above-the-line campaign via Facebook’s marketing tools. This initial strategy drove traffic to RFM NT’s website as customers clicked on the link or searched for the brand name or product on google,”.

“During the awareness stage, many of RFM NT’S customers enter their website through a search on google,”.

“We had to ensure that we rank higher up the list organically,”

“Doing so is a process, which meant that we launched a Google advertising campaign. This campaign would ensure that RFM NT topped the first page or appeared on the page; when a customer searched a keyword,”.

Finally, after these customers visited us, we could retarget them via Facebook or Google Advertising’s retargeting campaigns,”.

What works for others you may not work for you

The Marketing Manager said Marketing Managers should be considerate of what strategy they choose to avoid wasting their companies money and resources. For instance, what social media platforms to push content through.

“RFM NT’s (agriculture) strongest social performers are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We found that LinkedIn underperformed as many farmers are not registered or don’t use it even if they have an account,” he said.

“What works in the agricultural industry may not work for other industries. The one common thread that can work for most businesses is to ensure they have a strong SEO and Google Advertising campaign,”.

“Being visually appealing is one thing, but high quality and optimized websites will give a substantial chance for google to rank you higher. The point mentioned feeds into Google Advertising which has keyword quality scores, with a component of that based on site quality”.

Agricultural companies are not using traditional farming methods, so you should not rely on the old marketing methods.

There is much uncertainty these days, but one thing that will remain constant and continue growing is the global digital economy.</h2>

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