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About Agritask

Agritask is a holistic ag-operations platform, designed to enable fact-based decision making for agricultural stakeholders. It integrates a wide array of agricultural technologies into one brain that analyzes input data and produces actionable insights. Data sources vary from digital scouting to sensors and machinery to aerial imagery, forecast models, and more.
The Agritask platform is extensive and rich in capabilities, yet modular and flexible. It supports customer requirements, regardless of their technological starting point, and grows with their changing needs. With Agritask, agricultural stakeholders can access agricultural technologies via a single platform and leverage them for a comprehensive combined wisdom.

Background:

Agritask operates in the B2B ag-tech ecosystem. The agriculture industry consists of large conglomerates as well as thriving-small-hold farms in remote areas and literally helps ensure the world’s food supply. It is one of the last industries to go through digitization, even though it is much needed and can potentially create value to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars annually worldwide. This is partly due to the fact that many agricultural stakeholders tend to be more on the conservative side. Another reason is that many digital tools that claim to help farmers require them to change their work routines to fit into the technologies, instead of the other way around. In addition, the tools do not interconnect with each other.

When we first started working with Agritask, they were considered an early stage venture, but already had a lot of experience in the ag-tech business – nearly 10 years – with clients using the platform in more than 30 different countries, across 5 continents, for various crop types. Marketing efforts were primarily performed on an opportunistic basis and were not methodically planned and executed.

The marketing goals were very clear:

• Build a methodical, scalable marketing operation for the company
• Create articulated and consistent messaging to be used across all marketing assets and sales tools.
• Build state-of-the-art marketing foundations, create new assets when needed and improve existing ones.
• Get “above the radar” when it comes to digital marketing, to support and enhance outbound sales efforts.

The challenges we were faced with:

• Operating in the active agtech space required our messaging to clearly convey our true and unique differentiation;
• The Agritask platform has a unique value proposition for different segments in the ag-tech ecosystem, and we had to make sure that we stay relatable to each segment;
• Operating in 5 different continents, we had to make sure that we take into account both cultural and linguistic nuances.

Where did we start?

Working in parallel-mode is key.
We kicked off the project with a workshop that helped us understand the company’s market, product and unique value proposition. We took all of these insights and conducted a thorough marketing-oriented ecosystem landscape analysis, to understand where we stand in comparison to the market and competing offerings.

Next, we defined the high level primary and supportive messages, which from that point on served as our basis for everything else (website texts, social channels, etc.).

First – a new website
We created a detailed website definitions document (PRD), taking into consideration our long-term marketing strategy and future planned activities, as well as our multiple target-audiences and relevant geos. An active website that serves sales efforts must integrate with multiple plugins, analytics and automation tools. We took that under consideration.

Arming the sales team
While the new website was in the works, we worked on both printed and digital collateral to support outbound activities. We consulted with the sales team to understand what their most burning needs were when conducting an effective sales process.

Owned social channels become active and engaging
Social media was another pillar of our marketing strategy, helping us connect with prospects, partners and other ecosystem players.

We made sure that all platforms are updated with the new messaging and the refreshed look and feel, and started publishing valuable content regularly. 

We created a healthy mix of our own content, curated content, short posts, long posts, articles, etc. We didn’t limit ourselves to company-owned pages, but also used management profiles to take advantage of their network of relevant people while also enhancing their position as influencers in the ag-tech industry. 

PR gets into the marketing mix
Before we came on board, Agritask was not very active on the PR front. In order to increase awareness and digital presence that will support the sales team in their outreach efforts, we worked on pushing PR announcements for various target audiences. This means that when there was a relevant PR to work on, we played a dual role of Agritask’s marketing team as well as its PR agency. We wrote the press releases, ran media outreach research, looked for top-tier exclusive coverage opportunities, pitched relevant journalists, and tracked results.

Summary:

Many startups, even those that have already gained some traction, share a common problem – limited budget and resources, paired with the need to stand out among their target audience.

Establishing strong marketing foundations and then implementing a smart, focused and data-driven marketing approach is critical for that mission.

Our work is far from over. We have many things planned ahead as our mutual journey continues, and we get a chance to make a real impact on the positioning of Agritask in the agriculture ecosystem.