In Marketing Town, on the large Google and Meta buildings in the town center, farmers place posters advertizing their farm’s produce and services to attract people to their farms.

But now Google and Meta have changed the advertizing rules, farmers must rely more on alternative ways to get customers.

Most farmers have gardens for their farms where the town’s people join the farm’s guest list. The more pleasant the garden, the higher the number of guests that visit the farm.

It’s become more important than ever for farmers to look after their gardens and their guests.

Google and other authorities set the rules for how farmers treat their garden guests.

Farmers who play by the rules and treat their guests well, prosper. Those who don’t stay poor.

The Poor Farmer’s Garden

The poor farmer neglects his garden and its guests. He doesn’t cultivate a garden that’s worthy of attention.

He knows the type of town’s people who need his farm’s produce and services, but he doesn’t know his guests.

He pitches his produce and services in the same way to everyone who enters his garden, as if they’re the same person…

He doesn’t remember who’s visited his farm or what they’ve done there… 

Nor does he remember who’s seen his pitches and how they responded…

He doesn’t know or care about his guests. He doesn’t know how to cultivate a garden that makes them feel welcome.

And because he doesn’t care about his guests, he pitches them incessantly with ferocity, which upsets them and angers the garden rule makers.

Thus, the farm of a poor farmer forever remains as deserted as the neglected garden that cannot blossom.

Over at the rich farmer’s garden, she takes care of her guests. And she gives them a reason to keep returning and visiting her farm.

The Rich Farmer’s Garden

The rich farmer understands that not all guests are the same people. And she treats her relationships with them as such.

She groups her guests, knowing who’s ready for her pitches and who needs more time in the garden to learn about her produce and services, or just to be entertained and catered for.

But what keeps her guests returning to her garden week after week is her farm newsletter.

The Farmer’s Newsletter

The more entertained the guest, the happier they are.

Happy guests want to take the relationship forward; those who aren’t yet customers of the farm want to become customers; those who are customers want to become top buyers.

Rich farmers know this.

So they entertain and engage their guests with a regular newsletter.

Some produce a newsletter that’s a resource for their guests to learn about the farm’s industry, and how to use the produce and services to improve their lives.

Others have a community of guests.

Their newsletter tells tales of the community to encourage others to join.

And others monetize their newsletter by allowing other farmers to pay for sponsorships to advertize their farms.

They may also guests charge a subscription fee for exclusive content. Or they may sell the produce of other farms in the newsletter.

Regardless of the type of newsletter, it aims to engage its readers.

And all successful newsletters share the same qualities.

They Have the Best Content

Readers need to know that they can’t find the newsletter’s content anywhere else.

The content needs to be entertaining..

Educational…

Intriguing…

Unique… 

Insightful… 

Timely…

And relevant to the lives of its readers.

They’re Easy On the Eye

All readers like a newsletter that’s easy to read, and most like to skim read.

This is why rich farmers break up the text by changing size, font, and format.

They include numbered and bullet lists. They use horizontal lines to section off the content. They include headers and subheaders.

If the content is easy to digest, then readers will keep coming back to consume.

Offers Are Presented to the Right Guests, Appropriately

Though newsletters are designed to entertain, they still have room for promotions.

Rich farmers present different versions of the newsletter to guests based on their groups. Therefore, the offers presented to guests are most suited to them.

The best newsletters respect and reward the attention of their readers.

At least 70% of the content is helpful, with 30% or less being promotional.

This makes readers feel like they’ve gained from their attention more than they have given, and it pleases the garden rule makers.

Newsletters that have these qualities give guests on the farmer’s list a reason to keep visiting the farm’s garden, where the farmer can nurture their relationships.

The Power Is In the Hands of the Farmers

What’s to be learned from Google’s recent enforcement of data protection?

That it’s our responsibility to take care of the relationships with the audiences we own.

Many marketers and business owners focus too much on “more”…

More traffic…

More subscribers…

More customers…

But how many of these marketers are getting everything they can from what they already have?

What happens when the fish in your buyer pool swim too deep to be seen?

Will you cast more rods? Or will you feed the fish to draw them towards you?

Farmers of any produce—crops, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, beans, tea—all cultivate their land for prosperous harvests.

Try running your business like a farm. Change how you reap and see what you sow.

We hope you enjoyed today’s Deep Dive.

See you next week!