AgWired

Courtney Yuskis, pictured here on the right of some of the corporate partners of the Country Living Association, gave some closing remarks at the Country Living Outlook Conference that included a summary of the organization’s first year to date.

They started on January 1 and have over 11,000 members. She says that CLA is meant to be a community for like-minded people who share a passion for country living. They’ve held three clinics so far in three states with two more coming up next month. They’re working on developing their website so that it will be the authoritative site for country living information.

She also thanked the founding sponsors and corporate partners which include: Nationwide Agribusiness and Allied Insurance, John Deere, Fastline Publications, Land O’ Lakes, Purina Feed, Tractor Supply Company, PBI Gordon, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids and official publication, Living The Country Life.

You can listen to Courtney’s closing comments here: cla-07-courtney-close.mp3

This may be Courtney’s wrapup comments but I’ve got more to come from the Country Living Activities so keep your eyes and ears open.

One of our speakers at the Country Living Outlook Conference was Susan Spaulding, Market Directions. She was part of a panel that discussed “What’s Going on in the Country.”

Susan says her company has done some significant research on the rural lifestyle market. Some of the things they’ve found about the people who live the country life include:

• They are passionate about where they live.
• They’re looking to marketers to help them enjoy their choice to live the country life.
• Media choices are working well and used by them and they spend a lot of time on the internet.
• They’re very engaged in their community.
• Women are very involved in decision making.
• Half are empty nesters, half aren’t.

Everyone wants to understand just who these people are but it’s obvious that we’re dealing with a very diverse target market.

You can listen to my interview with Susan here: cla-07-spaulding.mp3

The first person on the program at the Country Living Outlook Conference is Betsy Freese, Editor-in-Chief of Living The Country Life. Betsy talked about who these rural lifestyle people are and based her comments on research her company has done as well as her personal contact with her audience. Some quick facts she gave came from the magazine’s subscription cards and includes:

Average Age: 51.9
Average Income: $81,911
Average Home Value: $116,479
Married: 89%

When it comes to reaching people living in the country she says they take a 360 degree approach using their magazine, a tv show on RFD-TV, a radio show and their website on which she’s now got a blog started. She says it’s a growing audience. From direct feedback with her audience she says they want a lot of information on various types of projects with questions about ponds being at the top of the list.

You can listen to my interview with Betsy here: cla-07-freese.mp3