Nkosi Kholiwe
Why digital marketing in agriculture?

Digital marketing in agriculture means being able to customize a plan that drives paid search traffic toward your company’s desired goals. Agriculture has the lowest adoption rate of content marketing compared to other industries. Therefore, to maintain its relevance, digital marketing in agriculture has to be implemented. This aids to the developments of the adoption of new business techniques. Moreover, it leads to the expansion of the international agricultural market.
Rather than targeting individual clients, the agriculture industry normally employs a business-to-business approach, such as market segmentation. Therefore, adoption of current and efficient technologies, such as digital innovation, is required to solve the issues.
Disruptive digital technologies such as the internet of things are fast transforming several sectors in the fourth industrial revolution. Digital Marketing agriculture is intended to create highly productive and proactive arrangement . As a result, there may be more food security, profitability, and sustainability.
The widespread use of e-commerce and the online sale of agricultural products, have significantly improved online marketing.
Digital marketing in Agriculture enablers
For people involved in agriculture production and distribution, internet connection such digital engagement platforms have improved access to information.
Digitalization raises the demand for digital skill development. Therefore, as the literacy rate rises, so does the demand for digital skills, resulting in faster adoption. As the competence level of potential users rises, so will the process of digitization.
Let’s unwrap the benefit of Digital Marketing in Agriculture
Digitization has the potential to provide considerable economic, social, and environmental advantages. It is capable of overcoming numerous obstacles that the traditional method is incapable of. Because of its unusual strategy, it is able to maximize reach among its target consumers, producing results that other modes cannot produce.
The use of digital technology for agricultural product marketing is successful because it aids in the development of focused product positioning, which aids in product differentiation.
There are two important parts of agricultural product marketing, according to Bouris et al. The first is physical marketing, which involves getting things from the producer to the consumer. The second entails a pricing marketing strategy. Therefore, digitalization has the potential to improve the performance of various stages and its implementation in the agricultural industry.
Agriculture marketing will benefit from digitization, which will help to expand the market. Farmers may approach a global market with a larger number of potential customers by using the internet. In reality, the digitization process is creating an environment where people can freely do business and participate in the transaction process at their leisure. It also provides a massive amount of data, making the entire process more effective and efficient, moreover, while still being affordable (Schwartz et al., (2015).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Digital Marketing in Agriculture
Search engine optimization technology is a new form of network marketing that business are applying today. Agricultural SEO improves the marketing of agricultural products and businesses by raising the search engine ranking of agriculture-related material.
There’s a joke that says you should go to the second page of Google if you want to effectively hide. Nottermann took farmers on a fascinating journey into the world of SEO marketing and how search engines function. Because 97 percent of people use the internet to look for local services, such as farms, therefore, SEO is important.
So, why should you think about SEO as the art of war for Digital Marketing in Agriculture?
A professional SEO strategy may assist enhance the quality of visitors going to your site by targeting high-value, high-traffic industry keywords and then implementing site content with those target keywords, which is one of the benefits of digital marketing for farmers. Moreover, advantages of using SEO in agriculture are pointed out below:
- Ensure consistent profits and long-term business growth
- Maintaining or increasing market share in the business
- Building a business’s loyalty base and promoting brand recognition
- Increasing the amount of organic, referral, and social traffic to your website
- Improved page-linking and natural backlink growth will help you gain authority.
- Without spending money on advertising, you can increase sales and profit on a budget.
- capturing search traffic for customers at the top of the shopping funnel to generate leads and sales
This means that tracking a site’s current keyword ranks, researching related keywords, and finding related phrases can all contribute to better overall search engine rankings. Optimizing the site’s content using on-page SEO built for farming services, agriculture items, industrial eCommerce products, and more is part of algorithm and search-focused methods.
The footprint of Social media in agriculture
Social media is a very beneficial instrument in agriculture marketing. Today’s world is referred to as the “Social Media World.” Various social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and others, are becoming more popular for exchanging agricultural produce and agricultural marketing information.
Farmers use social media because it allows them to connect with other farmers, agribusinesses, and agricultural professionals beyond geographical boundaries. The capacity to gather a wealth of knowledge and ideas, the ability to form critical partnerships, the ability to reach a wider audience of customers, and the ability to access professionals in the agricultural field are all major advantages of social media in agricultural marketing. Below is the elaboration of social media platforms:
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- For pages and profiles, Facebook is the most likely social media platform.
- LinkedIn, Connects with professionals, share information, related or becomes a resource
- YouTube videos are the most common way to receive information with apps.
- WhatsApp is a convenient social networking platform that is primarily used by linked groups.
- Many officials have official pages, blogs, and groups on social media, which helps in the resolution of problems.
In conclusion, key benefit of digital marketing in agriculture is that it allows you to contact a specific audience in a cost-effective manner. Therefore, businesses having an online presence can get the greatest bang for their money by combining all of these digital marketing tactics.
Author

Kholiwe Mildred Nkosi, Digital Marketing Analyst intern at International Institute of Digital Marketing.
LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/kholiwe-nkosi-8470a220a

Zwelibanzi Magobolo, Digital Marketing Analyst intern at International Institute of Digital Marketing.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zwelibanzi-magobolo-7a5a42112/