Happy (early) Halloween! 🎃

I know I've been a bit MIA on the blog front lately. I could apologize, but let's be honest—one less email in your inbox probably wasn't the worst thing. So... you're welcome. 😉

The real reason for my absence? My team and I have been knee-deep in some marketing experiments (aka the fun stuff you'll find in the blog below). We're figuring out where we can fill the gaps and create new opportunities to serve ag clients better.

So, take a look, take our poll below, and who knows? Maybe we’ll roll out something as sweet as those king-sized Snickers bars the neighbor hands out down the street every Halloween.

Let’s dive in!

On today’s docket:

• Poll of the week: Biggest marketing pain point
• Outsmart, outplay, outlast: The art of keeping tabs on competitors
• Open ag marketing gigs

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🗳️ Poll of the week:

*If you'd vote *other*, simply reply to this email and let me know what your biggest gap/pain point is!

🕵🏼 Outsmart, outplay, outlast: The art of keeping tabs on competitors

My 4-year old, Cooper, is competitive. Like uber competitive.

His pre-K soccer league is a great example. Functioning a bit like the World Cup, teams are designated after countries. He’s on team France (Vive la France!).

Two weeks back, after annihilating team Brazil on a breezy fall afternoon, he runs up to me while side-eyeing the soccer field to our left — apparently still consumed with the match his team lost weeks ago.

Mind you… this is a no-score, no-standings league.

But my child? He’s cut from the same competitive cloth as me, so let’s just say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Fast forward to me, trying to coach my hyper-focused, mini-obsessive athlete on staying in his own lane and focusing on his game.

This idea isn’t far off from how I work with content clients. I’m often telling them: “Stick to your own content plan. Don’t get too wrapped up in what the competition’s doing.”

But I also coach a balancing act—yes, stay focused on your game, but it’s okay to lightly keep tabs on competitors. Glance at their social posts, maybe take note if they got a feature on AgWeb. Just don’t make it your obsession.

But… is that enough? Should we be doing more?

Lately, I’ve been thinking, yes.

And here’s why:

It’s not about becoming consumed by what your competitors are up to. We’re not looking to copy their every move or over-analyze every piece of marketing they deploy.

The real value comes from capturing insights that help you do three crucial things:

1. Position and differentiate your brand

This one might seem obvious, but competitive intel can help you flip the script on what your competitors are doing.

Ask yourself:

• Is your messaging really yours?
• Do your paid digital ads stand out, or do they blend in with the noise?
• Have you positioned your brand in a way that’s fresh, memorable, and uniquely you?

Too often, we get caught up in our own little bubble—perfecting messaging and building marketing campaigns—only to have the sales team come back and say, “The prospect thought we were just another version of [competitor].”

Ouch.

But at least that’s a signal that our marketing work isn’t breaking through. To fix that, we need to stay alert, actively monitor competitors, and use those insights to sharpen our positioning.

It’s how you stay ahead of the curve and ensure you’re not just another face in the crowd.

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2. Get more nimble and adaptable

The only constant in marketing (and business, and life…) is change. If your business, offerings, and campaigns don’t evolve, you can bet your competitors will.

Spending just 30 minutes a week reviewing what your competitors are up to can unlock a real-time competitive advantage. Suddenly, you’re not just reacting—you’re anticipating.

You can pounce on gaps in their messaging, highlight the flaws in their latest offering, and collaborate with your sales team to send out a timely email sequence that shows you’re not only aware of the latest marketplace shifts but you’re still leading the charge.

Quick, strategic marketing moves turn heads. They grab your prospects’ attention—in all the right ways. Isn’t that what we all want?

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3. Inform your sales team

Let’s be real: we’ve all heard the stories about the love-hate relationship between sales and marketing. But we’re not here to dive into that drama.

Instead, think about what happens when both teams have regular access to competitive intel—it’s a game changer.

Sharing competitive reports can open up a whole new level of collaboration, where marketing isn’t just handing off leads but arming the sales team with real-time insights.

Suddenly, everyone’s on the same mission, fighting the same battle. Sales can take those insights straight to the field to vet digital strategies and deploy key messages, tactics, or tools. This helps them either counter or capitalize on what competitors are doing.

It’s a win-win. You give the sales team tangible value—ammo they can use. No more walking into meetings blind. Instead, they show up with a clear view of the industry landscape and exactly how they stack up against the competition.

So, hopping onto this competitive intel train, my pal Tanner Reed and I have been running one-off test reports for folks in the industry—and, let me tell you, the insights are, well... insightful.

• One group was completely unaware that a competing equipment dealer had strategically marked down used inventory at certain thresholds. That intel helped them rethink their own approach.
• Another agribusiness? They discovered that a competitor was hosting a string of field days in a region they didn’t even sell in… yet. Oh, and to top it off, there was a paid ad running in that same state, recruiting new dealers. Coincidence? I think not.
• And then there’s the SaaS company that noticed a competitor had gone radio silent on one of their key features. Like, crickets. After a little digging, their sales team confirmed it had been quietly phased out. Turns out, customers just didn’t want to pay for it.

If this sounds like something you’d want to dig into, we’d love to run a competitive intel mock-up for you. It’s not an exact science, but we do know the insights from our biweekly or monthly reports are sparking conversations across teams—sales, product, even leadership.

Just hit reply to this email, and we’ll get you set up.

💼 Ag Marketing Gigs

• Love working in Ag retail? Then head over to AgVend and check out their Partner Marketing Specialist role.
  • This position is tasked with maximizing the value that Partner Retailers gain when leveraging the suite of digital marketing tools in their AgVend-built platform to drive team and grower adoption, engagement, and incremental sales. This includes creating digital marketing campaigns for ag retail partners and coaching them on marketing strategies.
• ​Elanco is on the hunt for their next Sr. Director US Dairy Marketing.
  • This role is responsible to lead, develop and drive all aspects of Dairy business strategy including disease state, category and brand management to achieve business goals. The US Dairy Marketing Director has a deep understanding of the market, competition and most important the key insights of target customers.

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*Shoot me a note if you ever had roles you'd like promoted in the future.

Need a little extra help with all things content? Chat with us at Imagine Content to discuss how we help ag brands build trust, authority, and audiences. We've worked with 30+ ag brands on content strategy + execution, SEO, design, and content analytics. Get in touch to see past work and share where you're needing help.​

Or, do you need a little more design capacity? Subscribe to our simple, unlimited design service to support your existing graphic designers or utilize an outsourced team.

That's all for this month, folks!