Communicating with farmers can’t be improvised. It’s an exercise that requires specific knowledge and a good dose of experience if you want to hit the nail on the head. Farmers are well-informed professionals. Every day, they receive a vast amount of information via a wide range of communication tools: e-mail, the Internet, post, the telephone, not forgetting the regional daily press and the agricultural press.
Connected in real time to social networks, markets, their cooperative or their producer organisation, they are in constant demand of relevant technical, political and environmental news directly related to their business. These business leaders draw on this daily information to adjust their strategy, which they pursue over the long term.
Knowing how to deal with experts
Farmers make reasoned, considered purchases. That’s why they need concrete arguments to convince them of the usefulness and effectiveness of a product or service. To be effective, communications aimed at these target audiences must be sharp.
Today’s farmer is an expert in his field, with each agricultural product having its own specific characteristics. Promotion via the web, advertising or a newspaper must take these factors into account. Communicating with a pig farmer is not the same as communicating with a dairy farmer.
What’s more, in agriculture, testimonials are very important : they’re a simple way of communicating through evidence.
Nor should the economic aspect be overlooked: in every communication, the farmer must perceive a potential return on investment. If you’re going to communicate with farmers, you need to know them inside out. It’s by understanding their lifestyles and daily working lives that we can anticipate their expectations.
Experience forged through exchange
From an office in Paris, it’s impossible to get a feel for what it’s like to be a farmer today. A communications agency in the field, in contact with producers, is an agency that won’t confuse a spreader with a sprayer or a Charolais with a Limousin…
To communicate effectively with farmers, you need to meet them , talk to them and, ultimately, get to know them. In the course of our discussions, we come to understand the challenges facing each agricultural sector, the issues that arise depending on the type of farm and the expectations of farm managers. These elements are essential and form the basis of any agricultural communication project.