Overwhelming success. One way to describe the achievements of the Farm Advisory Online. This assertion is confirmed by recipients during a mid-campaign survey. The results follow.
- 98% of survey respondents found value in the service and want to receive the Farm Advisory again.
- 90% of growers said that they felt the Farm Advisory Online differentiates their John Deere dealer from competitors.
- 77% indicated their dealer’s sponsorship of the Farm Advisory Online encouraged them to do more business with the dealership.
- 12% indicated they purchased one or more of the parts featured on the Farm Advisory Online.
Entering the marketplace with an e-direct offering can be problematic, particularly when you have practically no experience with the medium. E-direct campaigns are content hungry undertakings, especially with the proliferation of subscription and fee e-newsletters in the marketplace. Relying on the expertise of Growth Stage, John Deere and participating dealers were able to enter and outperform most of the e-direct industry with their initial foray. The table below illustrates the outstanding performance of the Farm Advisory Online in its inaugural year, compared with results generated by many in the e-direct game.
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Farm Advisory |
Industry* |
| Delivery Rate1 |
98% |
96% |
| Open Rate2 |
37% |
23% |
| Click-Through Rate3 |
30% |
5% |
- An email that does not generate a failure or bounce back notification is considered to be sent successfully.
- The Open Rate values represent minimums. Due to SPAM filters, blocking images and other tactics, growers may be viewing the email but preventing the tracking of their use.
- This number represents the percentage of users who opened an email and clicked on at least one link.
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How does a small town, Western Canadian John Deere dealer access the latest in email direct marketing technology and expertise? Answer: Growth Stage.
How does this same dealer provide valuable, timely and unique information to their growers? Answer: Growth Stage.
How does Deere and Company provide this capability to their dealers? Answer: again, Growth Stage.
Growth Stage has ten years experience providing turnkey communications campaigns for agriculture manufacturers in North America. Deere and Company and its dealers had the desire and need to use electronic direct marketing to access growers and provide them with more value than traditional marketing channels allow. Specifically, they were looking to:
- Communicate valuable information to growers and support their operational decisions in a timely manner
- Differentiate themselves from competitive equipment manufacturers and dealerships within their local trade area
- Leverage e-direct marketing in the aftermarket sales-side of their business
- Execute a simple, turnkey and effective campaign
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Farm Advisory Online: strengthening the relationship between grower and dealership.
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The Farm Advisory Online e-direct campaign consisted of 25 issues, emailed to the grower group. Participating dealers selected growers who were believed to be early adopters of technology and progressive in thinking. Growers were generally considered to be “good” customers of the dealership.
The Farm Advisory service contained content from a number of sources and was selected based on its identified value and relevance to the grower group. Content and providers are listed in the following table.
Supporting the Farm Advisory email is an online environment which allows the user to actively participate in the Farm Advisory experience, if they choose to do so. The functionality provided on the Farm Advisory sitelet allows the user to modify their profile, including physical location and crops they are receiving information about. The user can calibrate the crop models used to generate their Field Activity Forecast. This is a highly recommended activity as it ensures that the crop development forecast will be accurate for the grower’s operation and location. The sitelet provides a mechanism for the grower to communicate directly with their sponsoring dealer via email. Included on the sitelet is an archive containing all previously sent reports and articles. And the latest, close of day, market quotes and volumes.
The Farm Advisory is considered successful by not only Growth Stage and John Deere, but also by the dealers and growers who received it. Indications are positive that the Farm Advisory will be repeated and expanded in 2007.
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