What is our purpose?

The purpose of the UVM Extension Agricultural Business Digital Marketing Planner (AgBiz DMP) is to be a source of professional support to farmers throughout Vermont as they strengthen their business through online activities. The AgBiz DMP will allow farm businesses to learn about digital marketing basics and UVM Extension specialists will give direct feedback during the planning process that will lead to a complete digital marketing plan for the farm business at the end of the process.


We recommend that participants complete one part at a time.  The Ag Biz DMP is broken up into 5 parts. Upon the completion of each part, the participant will submit a form that is directly sent to the UVM Extension specialist team. The specialist will review the form and provide feedback.  Upon completion of the 5 parts of the plan, the UVM team will provide the participant with a document that details the digital marketing plan for the farm business.

The parts of developing a digital marketing plan for your farm:

  1. Design – What is our purpose?
  2. Get Discovered– How are people going to find out about our online presence?
  3. Relationship Building – How are we going to get people to engage with our content?
  4. Commerce – How do we make sales and increase them?
  5. Community Growth – How do we build community loyalty and advocacy?

These phases are meant to initially be followed chronologically, but each phase/section can be revisited for modifications.

Part 1 - Design

In this part you want to define the way that you will present yourself to the digital audience.

Purpose Statement 

Creating a purpose statement is a great way to start the planning process. This can be an internal or external statement. Similar to mission and vision statements, a purpose statement is meant to describe the following:

  1. What do you want your online business to be?
  2. What do you want your online business to do?
  3. What do you want your online business to have as a result of what it does?

Once you have answered those three questions, try to combine them into one 2-3 sentence statement. REMINDER: there are no wrong answers to these questions. Remember: “be”, “do”, “have”

Here is an example Purpose Statement:

“The purpose of the UVM Extension Agricultural Business Digital Marketing Planner (AgBiz DMP) is to be (be) a source of professional support to farmers throughout Vermont as they strengthen their business through online activities. The AgBiz DMP will allow farm businesses to learn about digital marketing basics and UVM Extension specialists will give direct feedback (do) during the planning process that will lead to a complete digital marketing plan to utilize (have) for the farm business at the end of the process.”

Messaging


In this part you want to define the way that you will present yourself to the digital audience. In this section, you want to:

  1. Define your brand and the products you sell.
  2. Define who your target audience(s) will be and how you will present your brand and products to that audience.  Many companies have several different audiences. It’s important to recognize the unique aspects of each audience and make sure that your presentation to those audiences address their needs. A good place to start is profiling your current customer base.  What motivates them to buy from you?

Here is some information to help guide your messaging:

Preparation Points of Focus

  • Focus on the benefits of your product/service features.   Potential clients/targets don’t care how great your product or service is (features). They care about what they will get personally for buying your product/service (benefit).
  • Explain why you are the best source for this product/service.
  • Provide proof that the product does what we say it will with testimonials, awards, special recognition, articles, case studies, white papers.

Creating Messaging

  • Always consider the audience you are targeting and make sure they understand “what’s in it for them”.   Build on your “Benefits” that you’ve defined.
  • Speak the target’s language. 
  • Create a sense of urgency.
  • Make a statement to your target audience.  Help the target audience visualize the benefits of our product.  Graphics, videos, etc. 
  • Accentuate your unique value proposition.
  • Establish credibility.
  • Create a conversation not a presentation.  Engage the target audience. 
  • Always include a call to action on every piece of content. A call to action (CTA) is a message that is meant to influence a decision by your target audience.

 

Please complete the following form. We ask that you please remember to use the same first and last name as well as email address as you proceed through the parts of the the planner.  Feel free to contact zachary.m.smith@uvm.edu with any questions that you may have.