Can you hear me now? Targeting communications in agriculture and the food system.

Innovations are happening faster than ever in agricultural and food systems. Therefore communication is critical for food system leaders to be effective in reaching their stakeholders. There is a tremendous amount of influence held by agricultural opinion leaders in this space, so making sure those individuals are as informed as possible is more important than ever.

It's no secret that the right message needs to reach the right audience. But how does audience segmentation impact communication preferences in this space? That’s where it gets a bit tricky. Working with a number of outstanding colleagues we analyzed the communication preferences of more than 3,000 leaders in Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) to determine what communication channels are most effective.

Key Findings

We found a few key trends in how ANR opinion leaders prefer to receive information. There were notable differences in preferences that could be tied to demographic factors:

• Web Pages/Blogs: Across all audience segments, dedicated web pages or blogs were the clear most preferred. These are the preferred communication channels in this space thanks to the frequency of updates, ease of accessibility, and organized structure.

• Conference Calls: The least favored form of communication was conference calls. This was true everywhere, but conference calls were particularly unpopular among younger people and among those outside of the United States. This highlights how traditional communication channels don’t always align with the needs and expectations of audiences that are digitally oriented.

These findings indicate it's necessary to build targeted communication strategies that respond to demographic nuances and successfully deliver the right message to the right audience.

Practical Implications

There are actionable insights from this study for anyone communicating information with ANR option leaders.

• Web-Based Channels: These channels are popular and should be the top priority. Consistently updating websites and blogs with engaging, relevant content from ANR opinion leaders is an excellent way to reach most of the audience effectively.

• Conference Calls: It might not be necessary, or practical, to completely discontinue the use of conference calls. However, given their low level of popularity, they should only be used if strong evidence exists that they are desired by a given audience.

To communicate with any audience effectively, it’s important to know that audience. In the case of ANR opinion leaders, it is clear through this study that they prefer to read content online and don’t want to participate in conference calls. Tailoring communication efforts to align with these preferences will help the message reach the audience. I've included the full manuscript below if you would like to read more. Please be sure to share your thoughts and insights using the comments.

Audience Segmentation Communication Channel Preferences.pdf

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Lamm, K. W., Borron, A., Holt, J. & Lamm, A. J. (2019). Communication channel preferences: A descriptive audience segmentation evaluation. Journal of Applied Communications, 103(3). https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2238