Shane Thomas is the founder of Upstream Ag Insights, one of the most widely read and respected newsletters in agriculture. With more than 20,000 readers across 120 countries, Upstream has become a go-to source for clear analysis, product trends, and sharp takes on what’s shaping the future of agribusiness.
Before launching Upstream, Shane held strategy and marketing leadership roles at companies like Richardson International, Farmers Edge, and AgVend. His experience spans retail, digital ag, input distribution, and startup growth, giving him a unique lens on how ag companies go to market, earn trust, and scale.
We caught up with Shane to talk marketing in ag: what startups get wrong, how legacy brands lose their edge, and what tactics are actually working in today’s crowded, skeptical market.
Key Takeaways:
- Marketing isn’t a department, it’s the strategy. If messaging isn’t aligned with product and business goals, it creates confusion, not clarity.
- Brand comes before leads. Without awareness and trust, even the best lead gen campaigns will fall flat.
- Authenticity beats polish. Farmers respond to real voices; messy, honest messaging outperforms slick but empty content.
- Farmers are the real influencers. Peer-to-peer credibility matters more than big-budget campaigns or flashy endorsements.
- Know exactly who you’re targeting. “Farmers” is too vague. Clarity on your ideal customer shapes everything from product to positioning.
Q: Before launching into Upstream Ag Insights full-time, how did your work at Richardson International and Farmers Edge shape the way you think about marketing?
Shane: I didn’t come into agriculture thinking I’d spend much time on marketing. I started as an agronomist. But when I was at Richardson, I was handed the reins as national marketing manager handling both the grain and crop input business. Suddenly I was responsible for how we positioned ourselves in digital media, or how we rolled out strategies across a national network.
It wasn’t just about messaging, it was about alignment. Alignment with product availability. Alignment with distribution. Alignment with what our regional teams were hearing on the ground.
Later, at AgVend, I was VP of Strategy, working closely with the marketing team. And we’d bump into these moments where marketing had a cool idea but it didn’t line up with our actual strategy.
That’s when it clicked for me: marketing isn’t a department you bolt on. It is the strategy. If the messaging doesn’t reflect what you’re building or where you’re headed, it’s not just ineffective, it’s confusing.
Q: What’s the biggest shift when you go from marketing at a large company to marketing at a startup?
Shane: The biggest difference is trust.
At Richardson, everyone already knew us. The name carried weight. We had a relationship with almost every farmer in Western Canada. So marketing wasn’t about awareness, it was about reinforcing the relationship. Educating on differentiators. Helping people understand why to buy more or stay loyal.
At Farmers Edge, it was the opposite. We had a product, but little brand awareness. Nobody knew who we were. That meant the hill was steeper. Just getting a meeting took more work. You had to spend time proving who you were and why a retailer should care.
Even when I was at AgVend, the company had more recently transitioned from a more e-commerce focus to digital enablement, but the e-commerce positioning was difficult to shake.
We’d done such a good job with that first narrative that people kept putting us in that box. That taught me that good messaging can outlive its usefulness if you don’t proactively evolve it.
Q: How should early-stage ag startups balance brand building/awareness and lead gen with limited budgets?
Shane: That’s the million-dollar question and I don’t think there’s one right answer. But I’ve seen what happens when startups neglect brand early on. If no one knows who you are, your “lead gen” efforts are fighting an uphill battle. You’re asking people to take action without trust or context.
So even if budgets are tight, I think you have to start by establishing who you are, what problem you solve, and why someone should care. And do that consistently. Not once. Not with a flash-in-the-pan campaign. Over and over.
Brand drives curiosity. It gets people to your website. It opens the door for your sales team. Then you layer in subtle CTAs. You educate. You position yourself as a credible problem-solver, not just another software platform or widget vendor.
It’s important to remember this, too: There are inexpensive ways to do this! Use LinkedIn, build out a Substack newsletter, proactively reach out to individuals that are influential in the industry. The cost is really your time, and it will pay dividends.
Q: You’ve said in past Upstream editions that “attention is the most valuable asset.” What do you mean by that?
Shane: Attention gets you in the door. It’s the prerequisite to everything else: trust, consideration, action. Without it, you’re invisible.
And here’s the thing: attention isn’t earned through perfect creative or clever slogans. It’s earned through relevance. Through authenticity. Through people.
That’s why I’m such a big believer in elevating individuals within a company—not just pushing messages from a logo. If a founder, agronomist, or product leader can show up and consistently share smart, thoughtful takes… that builds something. It builds a relationship with the market.
But it only works if the message matters. If it solves a real problem or reflects a clear point of view. You can’t just ask someone to post because “we need content.” You have to equip them to say something worth listening to.
Q: You’ve talked about farmers being the best influencers. Are ag companies missing something when it comes to influencer marketing?
Shane: They’re missing how powerful it is when farmers talk to farmers.
I’m not talking about massive YouTubers or flashy campaigns. I’m talking about the local farmer who’s respected by his neighbors and happens to have a few thousand followers on X/Twitter. Get your product in their hands. Let them test it. Let them share their real experience.
And don’t just stop at a testimonial. Bring them to trade shows. Let them work the booth. Let other farmers ask them the hard questions. That’s way more persuasive than a salesperson reciting a brochure.
It’s not that expensive, you just might have to get creative in how the partnership works. It’s just not that comfortable for most companies because it means giving up a bit of control. But that’s where the magic is.
Q: What do larger ag companies tend to get wrong in marketing?
Shane: They assume that a big brand means they don’t have to think deeply about the customer experience. That’s a mistake.
I’ve seen great products with solid technical performance fall flat because no one thought through the “last mile”—how the product gets mixed, sprayed, stored, or supported. One example that comes to mind involved a new fungicide with excellent results on paper. But the formulation required very specific water conditions to apply correctly. The result? It ended up clogging screens and frustrating users in the field. That kind of oversight can delay adoption or damage trust, even if the science is sound.
Big companies also suffer from internal handcuffs: processes that slow things down or strip the personality out of the message. They forget that the way something is delivered matters just as much as what is being delivered.
Q: What’s the most overrated marketing tactic you see?
Shane: Content for content’s sake. The “we need thought leadership” panic that leads to generic blog posts, copycat newsletters, or press releases with zero real info.
Content has to say something. It has to answer a question people are actually asking. If it doesn’t, it’s noise. And in ag, where the audience is skeptical by nature and short on time, noise gets you ignored, or worse, distrusted.
Q: What’s an underrated marketing tactic more ag brands should use?
Shane: More messy, authentic messaging and campaigns.
If something’s broken, say so. If a trial didn’t work out, talk about it. Farmers don’t expect perfection, they expect honesty. And the smaller you are as a company, the more leeway you have to be transparent and personal.
That will gain you more trust and respect as a company than anything you can do with a $25K marketing campaign focused on brand awareness.
Q: What’s the best piece of marketing advice you’ve received—or one that sticks with you?
Shane: Know who you’re targeting. Really know.
When Chip Wilson started Lululemon, he created a fictional customer named Ocean. He knew her income, her hobbies, her goals, even what kind of music she liked. That level of clarity gave him a north star for product, messaging, everything.
In ag, I see so many companies creating for “farmers” in the abstract. That’s not enough. You need to know: what region? What operation size? What tech do they use? Who influences them? If you don’t know that, it doesn’t matter how slick your campaign is, it won’t land.
