Farmers & Ranchers have been challenged with connectivity issues over the years. That gap is slowly but surely catching up and is allowing them to get online with a reasonable speed. I have spoken to many farmers at trade shows who state they would use the web more often as soon as they have high speed. Couple this with the fact that our industry is experiencing a strong economy and I think this is an incredible time to reach this "new audience" via the web. Now, as a guy who works for a print publication you may think I am crazy to say," use the web!" But the good news is at Fastline is we have been preparing for this shift for many years. We are weeks away from a new website re-design for fastline.com and we have been working with a Search Engine Optimization company to help us be on the front lines of those in need of ag products and equipment. Our web numbers have been growing at an average 40% increase year over year and we are close to reaching the 4 million page view mark per month.
So the bottom line is that ag online advertising is the new frontier for those in our industry who want another touch to reach prospective customers. We have had our site up since 1998 and we are the leader with the largest searchable database of equipment in the world.....but the last year tells me that we are just hitting our stride and that the best is yet to come.
2 comments:
It's almost here, Matt! We are on the verge of rolling out the first pages of our new Fastline website this Thursday, June 5.
In reference to our readers who are thinking about moving to the web to find the products and equipment they need, I would recommend our Pricing Tool. By filling out the category, make, and model of a desired item, a customer can easily find out what the low, high, and average price is of a given piece of equipment. This is a great way to research the value of a piece of equipment a customer wants to sell, or just to get some ideas before negotiating a new purchase. While at the Farm and Machinery show this year, I even spoke with someone who was using this tool to support the value of a piece of equipment for an insurance claim! The applications are endless.
Yes, for farmers and ranchers, the web is the way of the future. As more and more in the Ag community are introduced to this growing medium, these new "Agri-netizens" will wonder how they ever lived without this technology!
Thanks, David...appreciate your thoughts and thanks for reading!
mjc
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