Many ag equipment dealers have seized on digital marketing opportunities and found them to be very effective tools as part of their overall marketing efforts, according to the findings of a first of its kind marketing survey.
Industry leaders say they expect even more dealers will take advantage of these newer marketing opportunities that have been created by digital technology in the coming years.
The first-ever Confidential Marketing Expenditures Survey was prepared by the editors of Farm Equipment magazine to help U.S. farm equipment dealers benchmark how they are allocating marketing dollars vs. the industry at large — and where they achieved their best results. The findings of the survey were compiled into an executive summary report, and those who attended the 2018 Dealership Minds Summit in July were the first to take a look.
Top 3 Dealer Takeaways from This Survey
- While many respondents said they plan to embrace newer marketing opportunities in the coming years, such as mobile marketing and customer data mining, it’s typically the larger dealers that are doing so.
- Many of dealers’ greatest marketing successes over the past 12 months relate to electronic media, such as website development and social media.
- The 5 highest ranked marketing activities in terms of ROI were a mix of digital and legacy media, though newer technologies claimed the top 3 on that list. Larger portions of dealers’ marketing budgets continue to be spent on legacy media, however, such as print and radio/TV advertising.
Participation in the inaugural survey was limited to U.S. farm equipment dealer companies only and was compiled based on an 18 question survey that was sent out by fax and email to top farm equipment executives and marketing managers in early June. Responses were collected until early July.
Source: Farm Equipment
