If you’re active on social media, you may have noticed a shift recently. We’re seeing an increase in issues related to farmers posting their farm goods online — From meat, to livestock, to leather products. Many farmers and business owners are starting to see blocked content and drops in reach on their social media accounts.

And it’s not just livestock farmers and ranchers that need to worry because at the end of the day, just focusing your marketing to social media is risky for any business.

Now don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to ditch your Facebook and Instagram accounts, after all that’s likely how you found me in the first place. So it still works! But, we’re still building a business on borrowed land.

At any point social media platforms can change and you could lose that access to your customers.

That’s where email marketing comes in…

When people ask me my biggest mistake when it comes to marketing my farm, it’s hands down not starting my email list sooner!

Last year alone, my email newsletter directly accounted for hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for my agricultural business so you bet I wish I had jumped on that train sooner.

Remember, you own your email list. Yes, folks can unsubscribe but you have a heck of a lot more control over who sees your message when it comes to email.

Here’s some quick facts:

• Only about 3-6% of your followers see your content on social media vs my email open rate of on average 53%

• 72% of people prefer to receive promotional information via email compared to only 17% who prefer social media

• Your email subscribers are typically your most invested community members

• No matter if you change sales channels, or something crazy happens and you lose your social media, you’ll always have your email list — PS, it can be routinely backup up outside of your email service provider to give you extra security against loss