In the midst of the digital content flood, Shane Thomas, the author of Upstream Ag – a newsletter that focuses on research and analysis for agribusiness leaders, made the decision to switch to a paid subscription model. We talked to Shane about what prompted this transition and what are the challenges of gated content in the era of utmost informational accessibility.
The reason for the transition directly ties in with my vision. I want Upstream Ag to be the trusted resource for news analysis and frameworks for understanding innovation in business and agriculture. I want to support competitive intelligence and decision making across numerous areas of the Ag value chain.
To deliver truly best-in-class insights and build better functionality, I have to commit my full time, not just late nights and weekends. And paid subscription is the ideal business model to facilitate that.
I am also in a unique space due to the nature of my content. It’s not advertorial because I perform analysis and can sometimes be critical. About 95% of my audience is B2B. They are decision-makers who require data and trust my expertise to assist their agro-businesses. Since I don’t have sponsored content to advertise to farmers, a subscription is my way of approaching profitability for Upstream.
There was something that I’d been doing for some time prior to launching the paid version. It was using my blog as a top-of-funnel for generating leads for consulting and speaking engagements. It worked, but it was very time-consuming. Starting a newsletter allowed me to better distribute my efforts and gain more independence.
Plus, I wanted to lean into the market of intelligence and insights. And that’s a segment where people are already accustomed to paying for data. My advantage was that the agribusiness analysis market today is very black and white. It’s either free or very expensive, like in the cases of Phillips McDougall or AgbioInvestor, for example.
This created a gap in the middle with a large underserved market of ag professionals that featured anyone from marketing technologies to the railroad industry. Meanwhile, this audience still requires verified, substantial data to make their business decisions. And that’s where I saw the opportunity to target individuals and small businesses that will find value in what I’ve got to offer.
At the same time, one of the challenges was the people who are not used to paying for information. Especially considering that I’ve been doing Upstream for free for three and a half years. So, asking people to pay will remain a challenge. However, I plan to address it by continuously improving the value of the subscription and showing that it’s truly worth it.
Interestingly, even though my audience was getting my content for free before, I received a lot of positive feedback after putting up the paywall. I got a handful of messages where people said a subscription model was giving them a competitive edge. Because they received exclusive access rights to data their competitors don’t have.
Apart from that, I did a few other things to ensure the paid version offers considerable value. First, I eliminated the free version getting any access to any specific analytics, insights, and imagery that I create. Free subscription audiences still get the value of curated content and high-level highlights. While paid subscribers access deeper levels of information and additional assets. I also ensured that my paid subscribers get practical advice on how to implement the data I provided them with.
Another value booster for Upstream Ag’s paid version is the subscriptions and services I purchased to pull the data from. I have access to both large databases and exclusive networks. One of the examples of this is the Canadian company, Stratus. I’ve been in contact with them to collaborate and outline potential opportunities.
Finally, I practice an approach that gives me a unique age over others in this space. For instance, in August, I travelled to the US to spend a couple of days getting to know a tech company and their executive teams. I got practical demos, talked to people and gathered information that will be beneficial to different categories of my subscribers. So, it’s not just purchasing access to data, it’s also gathering that data myself.
A personal brand is crucial for the engagement your information, product or service gets. It’s directly related to trust that people build over time which makes them more keen to hear what you’re going to say.
Recognizing a name in your inbox or your social media feed is another factor that contributes to the success of a paid subscription model. Without that familiarity, at least from my personal experience, people are generally more hesitant to pay because there is no certainty in the delivered value or the consistencies of these deliveries.
My main approach is, once again, tying the data to practical implications. For ag professionals, it creates a gateway to the end customer – the farmer and introduces a more efficient way to market their products and services.
Another aspect that helps me stay consistent while covering such a broad range of topics is staying true to my audience personas. One of the examples is an Ag retail professional from the Midwest US who’s ambitious and passionate about the technology and data that impact their organization and their segment.
This doesn’t limit me because, if you think about it, everything touches them – crop protection, fertilizer biologicals, digital strategy, equipment and fleet dynamics, precision ag, and so on. However, it does give me a clear vision of which data points I need to focus on and the best ways of communicating them.
My digital presence definitely prevails. I have 10,000 followers on LinkedIn, 10,000 on Twitter, and nearly 13,000 newsletter subscribers. I also see more opportunities for scaling my brand in the digital space. So, I tend to invest more time and effort into it while cutting down the physical presence.
But when I take part in speaking engagements, I always make sure that it’s not only an opportunity for me to present but also a chance to learn from the attendees and other speakers. That’s why I’d never turn down an interesting opportunity. Because a forward-thinking audience is at the forefront of new technology and new things happening in agriculture. And they are essentially who the Upstream Ag is for.
Book your spot to hear Shane Thomas talk about “Marketing Enlightenment in Agriculture” at the CAMA Level Up Conference 2023. Alongside other esteemed speakers, Shane will share his insights and expertise beneficial to all agromarketing professionals. See you there!
Daryna's life-long passion for writing and creative solutions empowered her to develop content across many fields, including ag-tech, education, succession planning, and more. Her superpower is finding the right words for any concept, no matter how complex.
