When the market faces a slowdown, the immediate instinct from many business owners is to pull back their marketing budget. It makes sense – if you aren’t making a profit from sales, you don’t have the extra funds to pump back into marketing efforts.
But slow your roll! A decision that seems temporary could have negative, long-term consequences.
A quick pause in marketing spending now, particularly for farm equipment dealers and agribusiness professionals, runs the risk of undermining the industry presence built up over many months and years.
A critical time to ramp up your marketing efforts and maintain a strong presence is actually when everything slows down. Sounds crazy? It’s not. Let’s dive into why it’s important to stay loud even when the market goes quiet.
The Cost of Going Silent
The biggest mistake by far for an agribusiness is going silent and making a drastic cut to visibility. When spending tightens, the natural reaction is to pull it back and save to get through tough times. This seems like a safe move, but in reality, disappearing from the market completely damages not only awareness of your business but also trust and momentum.
Agribusinesses cut back in lots of different ways, whether that’s attending trade shows or pausing digital campaigns. But consider this: when your brand becomes absent, your customers’ needs and perceptions of your brand don’t. When the market comes roaring back – as it routinely does – your competitors who stayed visible may be top of mind instead of you. The cost of going silent far outweighs the cost of continued spending.
Smart Cutbacks vs. Going Dark
If you have to make cutbacks, there is a smart way to go about making them. Smart cutbacks are more about trimming non-essential marketing spend while still maintaining the core of your brand. Visibility, message clarity, and customer touchpoints are all crucial marketing tactics to maintain even when you have to cut back. This tactic allows you to still show up for your customers when they need you, but with a more refined targeting strategy. You won’t disappear from view, but you’ll save money where it matters. The ultimate killing blow to an agribusiness is going dark and letting your brand fade from your customers’ consideration.
Key Tactics for Smart Cutbacks
- Focus Strategically: Prioritize high-ROI channels and high-intent audiences instead of a complete pause on activity.
- Maintain Brand Consistency: Keep your brand identity consistent to avoid confusion and loss of equity.
- Shift Content Strategy: Pivot content focus toward education, support, and insight, moving away from purely promotional messaging.
- Ensure Relevant and Forward-Looking Messaging: Acknowledge current challenges to maintain relevance, but make sure messaging remains focused on the future.
Marketing that Actually Works
Remember, you aren’t the only one who is facing an economic downturn; your customers feel it too. That can lead to them also choosing to spend less than they normally would. You still have to market to them, right? What kind of marketing actually works when customers aren’t spending as much?
Content Marketing and Thought Leadership: The great thing about organic content marketing, like blogs and organic social media, is that it’s essentially zero cost to you. All you need is someone who is willing to speak directly to your customers and share tips and tactics. Customers appreciate useful insights, data, and case studies that can help them navigate tough markets or prepare for the coming recovery.
Digital Channels and Precision Targeting: Digital channels such as email, paid social, and targeted paid media allow you to reach your audience more effectively. You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to reach your audience; you just need good targeting tactics.
Customer Retention and Loyalty Marketing: Whether you know it or not, your customers are loyal, whether that’s loyalty to you or a brand like John Deere. Lean into that loyalty, and maintain relationships so that when budgets loosen, they’ll want to continue to spend with you.
Pivot Your Messaging to Value, Efficiency, Risk Reduction: Don’t aim high with big growth promises. Instead, your messaging should be about resilience, cost-effectiveness, future planning, and maintaining a strong partnership.
Get Creative: Budgets are tight; now is the time to experiment with campaigns that are out-of-the-box or different from your normal messaging. Be creative. Be funny. Be clever. Test different creatives, messaging, channels, and measure their effectiveness. Small wins sometimes matter more than the big ones.
The Numbers Prove It
For agribusinesses, the stakes of going silent are high. About 50% of farmers say they are willing to buy agricultural products online, which means that disappearing from digital channels leads to missing critical touchpoints when customers are actively researching. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that when brands stop advertising, sales fall 16% after just one year and 25% after two years. These are losses that can take years to recover.
The Recovery is Coming
Now here’s a bit of good news: this too shall pass. The U.S. ag economy is currently facing a very real downturn, and that’s scary for many people whose livelihoods are at risk. However, forecasts point to recovery beginning in 2026. According to AgAmerica’s 2025 Farm Economic Outlook, the current economic downturn is not expected to last much longer, with stabilization returning in 2026. Similarly, the latest from FAPRI’s 2025 U.S. Agricultural Market Outlook shows that crop producers are feeling the pinch on their margins, but the livestock sector is looking up.
That means an opportunity for agribusinesses serving crop producers to focus on efficiency and ROI-focused storytelling, while livestock or diversified product producers can lean into more innovative tactics and potential expansion. No matter what, though, all signs point to staying visible now to position your brand for success when the recovery starts.
Root+Beta Gets You Through the Downturn
At Root+Beta, our strategy with clients is never to retract, but rather lean into the tactics we know are already working for agribusinesses. We utilize smart cutbacks and adjust our tactics for each client, whether it’s in organic content marketing, paid media, or digital strategy. We work for you and want to see your business grow and succeed, even when the outlook looks uncertain. Let us help you stay loud even when everyone else in the market goes quiet. See how we’ve helped countless agribusiness brands redefine their marketing strategies.
About Root+Beta
From global brands to local farms, Root+Beta builds authentic relationships and creates powerful business outcomes. We don’t just talk the talk – we’re deeply rooted in the agriculture industry and built by people just like you. Crafters of bold strategies that deliver, we move fast, test what works, and pivot when necessary. Our approach is data-driven, so every decision is backed by insights and made to maximize your marketing investment.
Email us at howdy@rootandbeta.com, give us a call at (501) 291-1642, or schedule a meeting with us today.