b'Is Your Marketing Getting You Desired Results?VINCE WERTMANMARKETING IS A COMPLEXand ever-evolving TECHNICAL SALES MANAGER NORTH AMERICAprocess. It can be daunting to determine which v.wertman@agrauxine.lesaffre.commetrics will provide the most accurate picture of youragrauxine.usreturn on investment (ROI). Whether you are evaluat-ing campaign performance or tracking sales leads, the key to obtaining meaningful results is by developing an effective strategy. This would include clearly defin-ing your goals and selecting the appropriate metricsLets Dispel the Myths to measure their success.Depending on the type of goals and the mediums used to deliver your marketing efforts, you will needAround Biologicalsto identify the best metrics to gauge the progress to reaching your goal. In general, there are five key types of metrics that can be used to evaluate the success of a marketing campaign: IF YOU REMEMBERway backin questions all the time: Do I needLead Metrics: Used to measure the ROI of a market- in the day, biologicals used toto put my biological on the seed, ing campaign. be considered snake oil in thein the furrow and then continue Conversion Metrics: Used to determine how manyagriculture industry. It was a hugeto apply it several times over the customers make a purchase after engaging with yourmisconception that customers andtop?Its just not true! There are campaign. companies had, and it really stemsplenty of organisms in the field thatRevenue Metrics: How much money a companyfrom our misunderstanding of bio- are endophyticor they live inside makes as a result of its marketing efforts. logical products as a whole. the plant. When you apply those Engagement Metrics: Measures how many peopleKeep in mind: biological prod- organisms as a seed treatment, not interact with you content and take action as a result.ucts typically are live organismsonly will they colonize inside the This includes time viewing, likes, clicks and shares.and at the time, they didnt haveplant, they colonize well outside the Social Metrics: One of the most accurate metrics infantastic genetics. Not only that,plant. In the long run, that means measuring brand awareness, brand mentions andbut the delivery method used foryoure provided with a season long branded search. biologicals were very antiquatedresponse to that biological. It is vitally important to choose goals and metrics that quite often, they werent friendlyIn addition, because many of are meaningful to helping you grow business. And liketo keeping your biological productthe organisms we work with are with any marketing, you cant just set it and forget it. alive. There were a lot of inconsist- endophytic, weve been able to Identify your goals clearly and why you want toence performance 20-30 yearsidentify the genetics to be host achieve them. Carefully select metrics to gauge yourago. specific. By having an organism progress along the way. Invest the time and efforttoOver the last 20 years, the bio- that lives inside the plant, you actu-measure and monitor your marketing metrics andlogical treatment sector has vastlyally take environmental factors out identify if you are on track to surpassing your goals.improved. Not only have deliv- of play, such as soil type, pH, nutri-Adjust and adapt your program as needed or considerery methods become better, butent availability in the soil. It doesnt running an A/B test. Remember though, if you dontbaseline genetics and our under- matter if the crop came from track the results of your efforts, youllstanding of genetics has greatlyMaryland or Nebraskabecause never figure out what youre doingimproved. But, though were work- the organisms are inside the plant, wrong or more importantly theing hard on our end to improveyou end up with a more consistent things you got right! and educate about the benefits aresult from year-to-year. biological can bring to a growersIt all comes back to depend-field, theres still misconceptionsability and consistency. While that that pop up. might not have been guaranteed LAURA BURTNYK The biggest misconception I30 years ago, its something we deal with on the day-to-day basisknow our biological treatments PROJECT MANAGER, CREATEis the idea that biologicals need toall have in common. Lets start to lburtnyk@seedworldgroup.com be applied multiple times through- dispel the myth that biologicals seedworldgroup.comout the growing season to getarent reliableand it all starts adequate performance. It pops upwith education. 24/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2023'