Insights from Spindustry, FEMA’s Digital Transformtion Partner and digital agency specializing in e-commerce solutions.

In today’s farm equipment market, your website is more than a brochure; it’s a business tool. From attracting dealers to supporting customers, a modern site sets the stage for growth. Make sure yours is ready for 2026!

Is Your Website Ready for 2026? Start with the Essentials
As 2026 approaches, one of the smartest ways to prepare for the future is by reviewing your company’s website. Your site isn’t just a digital presence; it’s the foundation for everything your business will do online. From AI-driven personalization to automated workflows and integrated systems, a strong, modern website sets the stage for growth.

If your site hasn’t been updated in a while, now is the time to act. A well-optimized site improves user experience, builds trust, and ensures you’re ready for the next wave of technology. To help you get started, we’ve created a Website Essentials Checklist, a simple, practical guide to make sure your site covers the basics.

Key Areas to Review
Before diving into advanced features, make sure your site meets these core standards:
• Mobile-Friendly Design:
Your site should work seamlessly on all devices: phones, tablets, and computers. Mobile traffic continues to grow, and a poor mobile experience can cost you leads.
• Fast Loading Speed:
Visitors won’t wait for slow pages. A fast site improves engagement and even boosts your search rankings.
• Security and Trust:
Look for the lock symbol in your browser. SSL certificates and secure hosting protect your visitors and your reputation.
• Clear Navigation:
Menus should be simple and intuitive. If users can’t find what they need quickly, they’ll leave.
• Accessibility and Compliance:
Your site should be usable by everyone, including those with disabilities. Include a privacy policy to stay compliant with regulations.
• Easy Contact Options:
Make it simple for visitors to reach you or take action, whether that’s filling out a form, calling, or making a purchase.
• Helpful, Searchable Content:
Content should answer questions and be optimized for search engines so people can find you on Google.
• Tracking and Analytics:
Tools like Google Analytics help you understand visitor behavior and improve your site over time.

These are just the starting points! Our checklist goes deeper, giving you a clear roadmap to evaluate your site and identify opportunities for improvement. It’s easy to follow and designed for businesses that want to stay competitive in 2026 and beyond.

Get the Checklist here:

Need Help Putting It All Together? Spindustry Can Help.
If you discover gaps in your website or want expert guidance, Spindustry is here to help. From strategy and design to development and optimization, we work with businesses like yours to build websites that drive results.

Whether you need a quick tune-up or a full redesign, our team can make sure your site is ready for the future.

Let’s talk about your website goals for 2026.
Contact us at

| Member since 2020

At the core of Spindustry’s approach is customized website development and robust e-Commerce platforms. Recognizing that FEMA members often serve mission-critical industries with complex product lines, Spindustry builds digital storefronts that are visually compelling, scalable, and engineered for performance. Whether it’s a dynamic product catalog or a streamlined B2B ordering portal, every solution is tailored to meet the unique business goals of FEMA members.

To help members amplify their online presence, Spindustry offers comprehensive digital marketing strategies—from SEO and AI readiness to paid advertising to content marketing and analytics. These services are designed to generate qualified leads and foster meaningful engagement. Traditional marketing support, including branding, tradeshow collateral, and print.

Spindustry also leads in enterprise collaboration through SharePoint and Office 365 solutions including developing AI agents. FEMA members benefit from customized intranet portals, document management systems, and workflow automation tools that boost internal communication and operational efficiency.

What truly sets Spindustry apart is its deep understanding of FEMA members’ needs and its commitment to long-term partnerships. With an average employee tenure of over 12 years, clients work with seasoned professionals who understand their industries inside and out.

Exclusive FEMA Member Benefits
• FREE web audit for any member in good standing
• FREE one-hour consultation per quarter as needed
• Discounts on programs and services

Whether launching a new website, optimizing e-Commerce capabilities, reimagining a brand, or deploying SharePoint for internal communications, Spindustry delivers solutions built to perform.

We are very excited to partner with FEMA and are ready to get to work for you! Claim your FREE web audit to uncover opportunities for growth.

To learn more go to or contact Michael Bird at MBird@Spindustry.com or Ashley Weaver at AWeaver@Spindustry.com to discuss opportunities.

Michael Bird: Farmers Buying Journey: How Farmers Research and Buy Online
Michael Bird is the CEO and Co-Founder of Spindustry, a technology/marketing agency. Spindustry recently conducted an attitudinal study of over 750 farmers citing their attitudes and preferences as they work towards making informed purchases. This session is designed to empower dealers, distributors, and manufacturers with key insights and real-world data that drive effective digital and marketing strategies. Discover how to make informed decisions—or validate your current approach—with actionable evidence tailored to your business needs.

Laura Sutherly: Innovate and Elevate: AI Tools for Agricultural Marketing Success
As the founder of Agtivation, Laura has worked with 550+ clients and developed 380+ websites, focusing on practical, ROI-driven strategies that make a real difference for ag dealerships. This session will provide an accessible introduction to how farm equipment manufacturers can leverage AI in their marketing efforts. Attendees will leave with practical steps on how to integrate AI into their marketing workflows, even if they’re new to the technology.

October 3 @ 11:30 a.m. In this webinar, they’ll start by sharing their expert-approved checklist of the building blocks every corporate website needs. From common pitfalls to easy-to-miss details, you’ll learn how to assess your own site and start making improvements right away. You’ll be surprised at how small tweaks can lead to big results.
November 7 @ 11:30 a.m. When should they work together? You might wonder when to use SharePoint and when to use Microsoft Teams. The questions are easy to answer and hard to answer because of the two tools, the overlapping functionality, the organization’s culture, and what the established Governance for the environment is.
For a complete listing of webinars go to:

| Member since 2020

Stop by the Spindustry booth at the Showcase on Wednesday, March 22 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for a professional head shot from a photographer at no additional charge.

“Together we are better able to meet companies in the agriculture space and beyond where they are and assist them with digital marketing and business success regardless of the technology stack they wish to utilize,” Spindustry said.

Source: | Member since 2020

How do equipment dealers sell to farmers, and are those dealers supported by manufacturers in the process?

A recent study conducted by Spindustry, Fastline Marketing Group and Audience Audit revealed several insights into how dealers think about marketing to farmers along with how supported they feel by their manufacturers. The survey results showed dealers break out into four attitudinal segments:

• Confident (21 percent): Feel they understand their customer well and have a strong grasp on their marketing efforts.
• Adapted (23 percent): Understand farmers have changed the way they buy, preferring more often to go online.
• Supported (26 percent): Feel the most supported by their manufacturer partners.
• Outdated (30 percent): Stuck in the past and increasingly concerned about growing in a post-COVID environment.

Getting New Customers with Digital Advertising

Dealers surveyed agreed that 2021 was a year to invest in their marketing efforts to take market share. However, the data analysis revealed varying degrees of engagement with this thinking. Fifty percent of respondents said their budget in 2021 was the same as 2020.

COVID accelerated the trend to more dealers leveraging their websites for commerce. However, not all dealers have approached this the same, with only 33 percent of the “outdated” group using the internet for sales.

Furthermore, digital marketing tactics are becoming more prevalent, with digital now representing the majority of marketing spend for acquiring new customers. The outlier here is again the “outdated” bucket at only 11 percent.

How Dealers Sell, How Farmers Shop

Social Media. Social media tops the list within digital tactics for dealers, but farmers ranked social media closer to the bottom when shopping for parts and equipment. The key with these platforms is to understand how they are used—it may not be the best tool for lead generation but could prove durable for basic brand building.

Trade Shows. Trade shows rank toward the bottom in spending for all dealer groups. It also ranked low for farmers in their preferred shopping strategies. This could be influenced by the shutdown of the past 18 months, or it could be the beginning of a trend in which more dealers are leveraging websites and videos to demonstrate products vs. trade shows. This is definitely a trend to monitor.

The “outdated” group leveraged trade shows for half of their annual marketing spend which could prove problematic in the future as they seek to reach new customers.

E- Commerce. Only 38 percent of respondents use e-commerce to get new customers, leaving plenty of room for improvement. Close to 70 percent of farmers begin their buying journey at a website or search engine, so if dealers are not creating robust “digital storefronts” (aka: websites) that are user-friendly and represent their brand, they risk missing growth opportunities.

The vast majority of farmers, young and old, are utilizing the internet for some portion of their buying journey. This is most problematic for the “outdated” dealers who are behind in creating a strong digital footprint, continuing to allocate 50 percent of their marketing budgets to trade shows.

Marketing Support from Manufacturers

When it comes to feeling supported by their manufacturing partners, ratings vary wildly. It’s encouraging to note that the “supported” group gives a 50 percent rating, but that also means the other 50 percent do not feel supported by manufacturers.

If manufacturers can provide better images, real-time updates to parts and whole goods, and easier to navigate co-op policies, they stand to grow their revenue and build loyalty among dealers.

Additional Trends to Watch

Sixty percent of respondents have an annual marketing budget of less than $50,000, and only 9 percent are developing their budgets based on a percentage of sales. That runs counter to how most companies allocate other line-item expenses, proving there is room for improvement when it comes to developing a strategic marketing plan. Only 25 percent of respondents are thinking about how they break out their marketing spend by segment (print vs. digital vs. other).

Sixty percent say their businesses use co-op funds. They are used mostly for print (82 percent) vs. radio at 50 percent and digital at 35 percent.

Respondents said the documentation required to be reimbursed for digital advertising is frustrating, which discourages them from pursuing it with co-op funds. The “outdated” group is the least likely to use digital.

Manufacturers should think through how they can evolve their co-op policies to be more accommodating to digital tactics. To hammer this point home, 88 percent of respondents think co-op is important, but many are not using it because they say it is a hassle.

Biggest Challenges Ahead

The biggest challenges ahead as rated by the dealer respondents align with the daily headlines. However, following supply chain, cost and labor challenges are poor or no ecommerce and a weak brand. These are two items that dealers can control.

The ecommerce piece might be a bigger bite to chew, but putting some amount of focus on the basic website look, feel and functionality can do wonders for a brand.

Couple that with some strategic integrated marketing tactics in both the traditional and digital realms to help dealers stay top-of-mind and better position themselves for when inventory corrects itself.

A key focal point for manufacturers is helping pull the bottom 30 percent of the dealer groups up more on par with the other groups, which should lead to big gains later. Now is the time to be strategic and perform the basic “marketing hygiene” to position for the future.

The webinar will cover results of a survey of more than 700 farmers and their use of websites, catalogs, YouTube and other tools in researching and buying parts and equipment. Data that the research-and-marketing team shared at the Summit included:

• 69 percent of producers say they buy from dealers or distributors all of the time.
• 86 percent buy from retailers they have used before, but 52 percent research other retailers before choosing “the usual.”

Learn more about the May 26 webinar at .

In survey results exploring farmers’ buying behaviors released at the Supply Summit on April 8, researchers revealed that nearly 70 percent of farmers search by looking at websites. In other words, they input a website address. Sixty percent reported using a search engine, which suggests they typed a term such as “sprayer” in a search bar.

About the same percentage—60—said they ask others for advice when shopping. Among other shopping behaviors, farmers:

• Visited retailers (56 percent)
• Watched YouTube videos (48 percent)
• Read printed catalogs (48 percent)
• Called retailers (48 percent)
• Used trade shows (36 percent)
• Called manufacturers (28 percent)
• Used social media (15 percent)

Researchers also found that 70 percent of customers who buy from you online are likely to buy from you again.

Sources: Spindustry and Audience Audit, Summit speakers

“While such information can be helpful to some degree, none of it captures what is most critical for those engaged in sales and marketing efforts toward these buyers: WHY they choose to buy the way they buy, and how their attitudes and assumptions affect their buying behavior,” researchers said.

Spindustry is a digital agency focused in part on e-commerce and web development. Agency CEO Michael Bird will speak during two sessions at Supply Summit 2021 in Kansas City. He will be joined on stage by Susan Baier, a marketing strategist and researcher with Audience Audit, to discuss results of this farmer attitudinal survey.

Bird also will be part of a panel discussion on permanent changes in the workplace post-COVID. He will focus on sales and marketing.

Audience Audit and Spindustry will launch the survey to producers Friday. If manufacturing members who sell directly to farmers want to participate, you will have elevated access to survey results, but you need to act soon.

Let Kristi Ruggles at the Association know you want to participate at Kristi@FarmEquip.org. She will send a distinct link for you to share with farmers. Findings will answers questions such as:

• How have farmers changed their approach to buying since the beginning of 2020?
• What pros and cons do they see with respect to their various options for purchasing?
• Do they prefer buying in-person, from a catalog, or online, and why?
• What barriers do the various channels for sales present?
• Are they confident that they have the information they need to make an informed buying decision?
• How are their buying decisions made?
• What resources are they turning to for information?

Attendees at Supply Summit will be among the first to hear study findings.