Lyndsey Sutherland leads digital marketing and strategy at AgSouth Farm Credit, one of the most recognized Farm Credit associations in the Southeast. Over her seven years with the ag lender, she has helped AgSouth evolve its approach to customer engagement from traditional brand building to targeted digital campaigns and data-informed strategies. We sat down with Lyndsey to talk about how ag lending marketing is shifting, the importance of segmentation, and what it takes to build trust and drive action in today’s fast-changing environment.
Key Takeaways:
- Omni-channel marketing is now a must—ag lenders like AgSouth are investing in coordinated digital campaigns that blend website, social, email, and video to reach customers everywhere they engage online.
- AI and analytics drive better decisions—from targeting content to measuring customer sentiment, digital data drives smarter outreach and real business value.
- Customer-centricity fuels content and campaigns—customer surveys, Q&A sessions, and interactive content help lenders remain relevant and trustworthy.
- Simplicity and trust win in digital campaigns—easy-to-navigate websites and transparent messaging help build loyalty and confidence.
- Consistency matters—showing up regularly on chosen digital platforms (especially social media) makes the brand familiar and reinforces credibility.
Q: Farm Credit has traditionally focused on community and relationship-based marketing. How has your strategy evolved in the past five years?
Lyndsey:
We’re still incredibly focused on relationships. That’s part of our DNA as a Farm Credit association. But the way we build and maintain those relationships has grown a lot.
Five years ago, a lot of our marketing was focused on brand awareness; making sure people knew who AgSouth was and what we stood for. And that’s still important. But today, we’re much more intentional about how we communicate and who we’re trying to reach.
Our strategy now is focused on lifecycle marketing. That means asking: Where is this customer in their journey? Are they just starting to farm? Are they growing their operation? Are they thinking about succession? Then we tailor the message and the medium accordingly.
We’ve also embraced digital in a much bigger way. We’re not just attending events and putting ads in ag publications. We’re showing up in people’s inboxes, their social feeds, and search results. And we’re doing it with a clear goal of being helpful and relevant, not just visible.
Q: You’ve mentioned segmentation as a key piece of your current strategy. Can you explain how that plays out at AgSouth Farm Credit?
Lyndsey:
Absolutely. Segmentation has been a game-changer for us.
The reality is, a 25-year-old who just bought their first piece of land and is raising pastured poultry has very different needs than a multi-generation row crop operation managing thousands of acres.
We’ve gotten better at identifying and grouping our customers in meaningful ways: young, beginning, and small (YBS) farmers, experienced operators, niche producers, lifestyle farmers, and more. Once we know who we’re talking to, we can communicate in a way that resonates. That might mean different types of loan products, different messaging, or even different channels.
It’s also about showing up in ways that feel personal. For example, we may invite YBS farmers to attend educational events or grant workshops. For larger operations, we might focus on diversification or land acquisition strategies.
Segmentation helps us be more relevant and when we’re more relevant, we’re more trusted.
Q: What are some of the challenges you face when trying to show the value or ROI of marketing?
Lyndsey:
This is something we’ve worked really hard on in the past few years.
In the Farm Credit world, marketing has traditionally been seen as more of a “support” function—something that’s helpful, but maybe hard to quantify. And honestly, that’s fair. We’re not selling consumer products with instant conversions. A lot of our impact is about trust-building and education, which takes time.
That said, we’ve gotten much better at tracking influence. We use form fills, call tracking, website behavior analytics, paid media engagement, email performance, or anything that helps us see what’s working and where people are engaging.
It’s not just about direct leads (though we love those). It’s also about moving people through a journey. Maybe someone reads a blog post on land loans, then a month later they attend a branch event, and three months after that they call a loan officer. That’s not an accident. It’s a sign that marketing is effectively collaborating with our loan officers on the ground to further move the customer through the lifecycle.
We’re also more proactive now about sharing those wins with internal teams. When someone says, “Hey, I had a great lead come through from that email campaign,” we celebrate it… and then we figure out how to do more of it.
Q: How do you balance long-term brand building with shorter-term demand generation?
Lyndsey:
That’s one of the biggest balancing acts we manage. As a cooperative, we care deeply about the relationships we’ve built. Brand equity matters. So we do a lot of work around storytelling, community involvement, and education, as not everything we do is meant to drive a direct sale.
But we also live in a world of goals, numbers, and accountability. We have to bring in new customers. We have to support loan growth. So, when we launch a campaign, we always ask: What’s the goal? Is this about building awareness? Or is it about driving a specific action?
One thing we’ve done is get really clear internally about what success looks like for different types of marketing. A Facebook post that reaches 20,000 people might be a win for brand visibility. A Google ad that drives five land loan inquiries in a week is a win for demand gen. We try not to compare apples to oranges and we’re always looking to layer the two together when possible.
At the end of the day, we’re here to support our farmers and rural communities and that means making sure we continue to grow. The more loans we make the more we support our Farm Credit mission.
Q: What’s one lesson you’ve learned that you’d share with other ag lender marketers?
Lyndsey:
Bring people along for the ride especially internally. The sales team is our biggest collaborator. We could not do quality marketing without them. We’re not just off in a corner “doing marketing.” We’re collaborating. We’re listening. We’re making sure that what we’re saying externally aligns with what’s actually happening on the ground.
And we’ve also learned to share the “why” behind what we’re doing. When we run a campaign, we loop in our loan officers. When we try something new, we share the strategy. That kind of alignment builds trust internally, and it makes the marketing more effective.
Also, be willing to try new things—but measure and learn. Not everything will be a home run, and that’s okay. The key is to stay curious, stay connected to your customer, and never stop refining your approach.
Pay Dirt Digital specializes in digital marketing for Ag Lenders. Contact us to find out how we can leverage your current systems to grow your loan volume from digital sources.
