There’s familiarity in the slick paper of a sale book. The bull offering is lined out in a neat order, photos flanked by corresponding expected progeny differences (EPDs). But the smartphone tucked in the back pocket of a pair of jeans offers a different allure; there’s excitement in the potential. Moving ads, videos, emails —the possibilities of connecting with customers are endless. 

A modern cattleman sometimes might feel like he needs to be all to all; when in truth, a good marketing plan doesn’t have to use its entire budget or try to hit every touch point to be labeled as a success. Good marketing comes down to one big question: do your customers know what doing business with you means for their herd? 

Define yourself and your business. 

When Tom McCall led his family headfirst into The Business Breed in 2000, they quickly realized it was going to take more than a set of breeding objectives to create a recognizable and consistent brand. Though Tom came from a commercial background, he had worked in the seedstock business for 10 years and his passion for registered Angus cattle led him to establish MC Livestock. 

It was as they were developing their website that his wife, Sarah, says they found a need to create a real identity for their business. They wanted a clear, concise statement to define their Virginia operation, and a mission statement was born. 

We are dedicated to providing first-class customer service; raising efficient, productive cattle with balanced EPDs, structural soundness, fleshing ability and excellent phenotype. We pay special attention to fertility and feet and legs to increase the long-term profitability for our customers.” — Sarah McCall

Stringing together the sentences was a team effort, Tom admits. He says whereas his strengths rely on throwing out ideas, Sarah’s great at putting pen to paper. The brainstorming was well worth it, however, as Sarah says having a mission statement not only keeps their family on track, but helps customers better understand who they’re buying from. 

Know your customers.

“Our customers drive what we do.” 

It’s a simple truth for Mark Wilburn, an Angus producer from North Carolina. While he knows his own opinions helped create the breeding objectives at Uwharrie Ridge Farms LLC, demand is what keeps the operation in business. 

“We have to sell cattle at the best margin we can,” he explains. “I mean, that’s why we’re in this business. Our customers dictate that to some degree.” 
The farm won’t shift away entirely from their ideal type and kind, but part of being a seedstock producer is meeting the needs of the commercial cattlemen who are buying from you, Wilburn says. He won’t pigeonhole himself into trends, but Wilburn says he’s always eager to make sure his bulls perform as they should. 

“If our customers say, ‘Hey, look, we need a little more marbling and we want to keep that maternal momentum,’ we’re going to do our dead-level best to meet that expectation,” he explains. 

By knowing your audience, Tom also says you can make sure your messaging is meeting your clients where they are. 

“I think you have to reach all of them at their desired level,” he explains.  

When Tom’s family started selling cattle, they built a private-treaty market off of local producers. Knowing 80% of their bulls would go within 30-45 miles of their home, the McCalls started promoting their program by word of mouth. But sending printed flyers to a targeted area soon became a part of their marketing plan. The cost of postage was worth it, as those cattlemen appreciated having a book in hand come auction day. 

Today, MC Livestock is selling on a more national level, and putting their sale book online at www.angus.org has brought interest in from other states. That broader reach, however, hasn’t stopped the family from keeping a focus on local clientele. 

“We want to make sure our customer base, our friends, our community is covered for their bull needs,” Tom explains. 

Create measurable goals. 

There’s no right answer to what your marketing message is, but it’s vital to know what you want to achieve. A goal helps you create an ad’s call to action (what you want a viewer to do when they see your advertisement), and that call to action hopefully creates more business. 

Whether it’s from a social media post or a printed flyer in the mailbox, Sarah says their marketing efforts send customers to the same place. 

“We all say, ‘drive people to your website,’” Tom emphasizes. 

Sale season adds an extra layer, as their online sale book is also a prime point of contact. Thankfully, from that guiding mission statement to the sale book itself, the MC Livestock website was designed to answer any questions a potential or returning customer may have. 

Being a first-generation producer, Wilburn says his marketing goal is always to find new contacts in the industry. 

“I think starting from scratch … we didn’t have a customer base, so we had to organically form one,” he explains. “Almost 20 years later, I’m of no disillusionment that most people probably don’t know who we are, and that presents an opportunity.” 

There’s plenty to measure with that goal, too. Each new sale book request, phone call or website visitor is a win for Wilburn. 

Another digital touch point is social media, and Tom says there’s plenty of data available to know if a post went over well with an audience or not. 

“We definitely take a look at the analytics for how many likes or how many clicks or how many impressions,” Sarah adds. 

While useful, there’s more to consider than just a blue thumbs-up button on a screen. 

“Sometimes … the most valuable feedback we get is from customers, when they come to the sale and mention seeing a post,” Sarah says. “We look at the numbers, but also try to listen to the feedback from our customers and what they like and what they’ve seen.” 

Find a balance that works for you — and your budget.

Sarah and Tom utilize both print and digital strategies in their marketing plan. It’s a choice that takes a little extra investment of time, but it’s made possible as the McCalls save some marketing dollars taking pictures and videos themselves. 

“Our marketing is us basically,” Sarah explains, noting they have hired out graphic artists for their website, flyer and sale book. “We do everything ourselves in an effort to keep our costs down, and we enjoy doing it.” 

Sarah says there are a lot of hours spent in the picture pen and editing after the camera is put away, but it also requires planning to make sure there are enough hands on deck to make the process run smoothly. 

There was a learning curve, but between Tom’s background in the industry and Sarah’s love for camera work, she says they’ve found a way to make it work. 

Like his northern neighbors, Wilburn says he leans heavy on marketing choices that don’t put him in the red. The digital world has become a key part of his farm’s communication strategy. 

“Print advertising is great, don’t get me wrong. I’ve probably personally reached more through Facebook or TikTok … than I have through the print advertising,” Wilburn says. “We’re always looking for something where we feel every dollar spent returns a dollar and a half back.”

The digital world comes with data that makes measuring that return simple, too. For example, after booking an ad spot on the featured sale books page through Angus Media’s digital advertising team, Wilburn saw a spike in the numbers. 

“The amount of views on our book doubled or tripled,” he remembers. “It was well worth the money we spent. We were getting far more exposure for just a nominal amount of money.” 

Even though Wilburn tends to lean heavy on those digital options, he hasn’t gone cold turkey on print.  

“We try to make a nice, attractive sale book,” he says. “We don’t skimp on that.” 

In his own experiences at an auction, Wilburn says a good picture can make or break his decision to invest in new genetics. By providing quality, full-color images in his own books, he hopes it’s the final push for a customer to bid on sale day. 

Investing in printed postcards through Angus Media has actually proven to save on costs, too. 

“We can reduce the amount of sale books that we send out,” Wilburn says, explaining past clients receive a printed book, but potential new customers can receive a postcard instead for a fraction of the cost. 

The postcards go out ahead of Wilburn’s sale, with the call to action being to request a sale book. 

“They’ve been good. They have brought us new business,” he adds.

Don’t be afraid to try something new. 

With two sons involved in the operation, Tom and Sarah have access to the input of the up-and-coming generation of cattlemen. Recent college graduates Zach and Jake have pushed the operation into a new mindset when it comes to digital advertising and social media. 

“The boys are big help when deciding what type of content we should try to include to innovate our strategy,” Sarah says. 

While Sarah and Tom might not have put a lot of stock into apps like Instagram or Snapchat when they first made accounts, their tune has since changed. 

“It’s so easy to run out there and take a photo or video of a bull walking across the field with Snapchat,” Tom adds. 

If the simplicity wasn’t enough, Sarah says those little video clips have proven to help make real sales. 

This past fall, the boys sent some Snapchats out of a bull. Conversation sparked with a few other breeders, and before they knew it, the animal had a new home address. That same bull went on to win champion Angus bull at this year’s National Western Stock Show for Bush Angus and Seldom Rest Farms. 

Tom credits some of their success with these apps to transparency. He prioritizes accurate, clean videos, emphasizing animals should be filmed in a clean area without a distracting background.

“The animal needs to be depicted as what it is, not a dressed-up version of what it might be,” he explains. “We utilize social media and digital marketing to represent the cattle with the same trust and transparency as if they were physically with us in the pasture.” 

Use your regional manager as a marketing resource. 

As the boots on the ground for the American Angus Association, Wilburn says regional manager Reese Tuckwiller is able to help him get a pulse on industry trends. 

Wilburn encourages producers to ask their own regional manager questions like, “What are operations the same scope and size as us doing? What’s working?”

In his mind, it’s an unnecessary risk to go into new marketing efforts blind. 

Wilburn says, “Use that resource that’s available in that regional manager … they know what’s working, what’s not working, and I think they’re a valuable resource when you’re getting started.” 

Remember you’re selling cattle, but it’s still a people business. 

While there’s no doubting the value in a handshake or phone call, Tom encourages producers to utilize social media platforms to keep in constant contact with customers. 

“Realistically, when we started, it was a free avenue of advertising,” he says of creating social media pages for the business. “It’s instant. You can be running behind and still be able to get it on social media.”

A quick picture posted can have great reach and not require much back end work, which Tom says makes it a top-notch communication tactic for a busy cattleman. 

Social media can be an easy way to give back, too.

“Trying to get people to be interactive with your post is one thing that we find helpful,” Tom explains. “Last fall, we did some giveaways for swag — just simple questions, trying to identify certain bulls or certain traits in the sale [book].” 

It’s proof that marketing isn’t just mailing pieces and posts. Tom says there’s great value in forming a deeper connection with customers and the next generation of producers. MC Livestock, for instance, hosts a stockman’s challenge, where they host nearly 300 juniors from five different states to compete in a livestock judging contest. 

“Being involved in the community is key to meeting and greeting people that you might not reach, whether you’re just doing print or just doing social media,” Tom says. “You need to be involved in the industry you are in.” 

A ranch visit, Facebook post, digital ad, phone call, email campaign — Wilburn says it’s all important, but at the end of the day, he agrees it’s the human element that’s going to create a repeat customer. 

He says, “I think the best marketing is trying to be the best you can at treating your customer [right].” 

For Sarah, that means being trustworthy, transparent and straightforward. Integrity is everything to her family.

“We always keep our customers’ profit in mind and try to be genuine and honest about what we’re presenting,” she explains. “We’re in it for their success.”