A Living Document 

In their 63rd year of the registered Angus business, Walter Shealy III and family are using a private treaty sale book through Pasture to Publish to trim down numbers in their historic Black Grove Angus herd, located near Newberry, S.C. 

Shealy shares, “We put it online on a Wednesday night, and Thursday morning we got a call and sold five pairs, sight unseen.”
The family is able to guide new and repeat buyers to the sale book posted online at www.angus.org, an option easily navigable from his website’s homepage (www.blackgrove.com).  

With years of marketing experience under his belt, Shealy appreciates Angus Media’s sale book portal because he likes to write — and update — his own narratives. 

“I want the flexibility to be able to drop in key items or point out certain things,” he explains. “The idea to me is that for six months, I can modify any way I want — I can change it. It’s like a living document.” 

It affords Shealy the luxury, for example, to mark animals as sold or update breeding information, including artificial insemination (AI) and pregnancy check. It works for his needs. 

“You know, you get back what you put into it, but the flexibility is there and it’s so cost-effective in my opinion,” Shealy says. “This is, to me, one of the best returns on investments in marketing that I’ve ever made.”

The Storyteller 

In southwest Missouri, relationship-building is a focus of Traves and Kenadee Merrick’s Gleonda Farms, an Angus operation started by Traves’s grandfather more than 50 years ago. This past April wasn’t the Miller, Mo., operation’s first private treaty offering, but it was the first they made into a one-day “event” that included educational speakers and a Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB) lunch.

The Merricks used their field day and sale book to help tell their program’s story. With fewer than 30 bulls catalogued, Traves used Pasture to Publish to economically build his own book. 

“It was super easy. I did all of the layouts and footnotes,” he says, adding he used Angus Media because he wanted his sale book online so he could share out the link on social media, text and email to repeat and new customers. 

He also had Angus Media produce and send out a postcard, in addition to printing 100 sale books for the big event. As it turned out, bulls were bid off, encouraging true price discovery.

Sale day saw twice the number of visitors anticipated. One-half of their offering sold to new customers, and they grossed $40,000 more than Merrick projected. 

“It actually exceeded my expectations entirely,” he says.

A Game Changer

“Invaluable” is how Harold Miller describes the online private treaty sale book built by Angus Media this past spring for Rooney Angus Ranch, Chippewa Falls, Wis. 

Miller, of 7 Triangle 7 Cattle Co. and consultant to Rooney Angus Ranch, says he needed an attractive, organized way to present the bulls offered for sale, along with their video links.

“That whole piece became the crux of our videos that I could refer [prospective buyers] to,” he says. “It was so much more effective than me sending out spreadsheets like I’ve often done in the past. When I use spreadsheets, I have to keep updating every Friday if I really want to be current.”

The sale book and YouTube videos worked hand in hand, and even attracted some people who were not on any of their mailing lists. All lots had sold by May 1.

“I wouldn’t approach a private treaty sale without a sale book,” Miller says. “It just makes too much sense. Everything being said, we didn’t give up much from what I had projected from a net standpoint. So, it was very effective for us. I like the fact that it could stay up over an extended period of time.”

It also allowed them to spell out their guarantee and indicate which bulls were sold, a useful feature for buyers who may need additional bulls late in the season.

“I’d always focused on auctions, but for a smaller number of bulls and so forth, I can’t imagine not doing it,” Miller explains. “I would think some of these people that have a good understanding of the digital side of marketing could sure help themselves. With the online thing, it’s a game changer.”

Get Noticed

Private treaty sales lack the restraints of other marketing channels, allowing the seller more control over the process and free rein to often try innovative approaches to selling seedstock. 

Angus Media provides a one-stop shop for print, digital and video needs, including private treaty sale books and brochures. With the Angus Media Pasture to Publish^SM sale book platform, private treaty sale books include a minimum of four pages. Additional pages can be added in increments of one. The books come with two gratis 30-minute updates for the six months they are posted online at angus.org.

www.angus.org/Media/Contact/RequestQuote

For more information contact the Print Services team, at PrintServices@angus.org.