Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
A run booked on word-of-mouth, a season that fills or doesn't, no second chances
A shearing contractor runs a business with one structural problem nobody outside the industry understands: the run has to be booked before the wool grows out, the team is paid by the hundred (or the day if it's a small shed), and an empty week in the middle of the spring run is a week of accommodation, fuel and lost ringers you can't get back. Most contractors book the season on a phone-and-handshake basis with the cockies they shore last year, plus whatever word travels at the show and the AWI ShedSafe register. That works until a long-standing grower sells out, switches breeds (merino to dorper, no shearing required), or quietly tries the contractor from the next district. By the time you ring to confirm the dates, the shed's gone. The marketing problem is not visibility to consumers, it's visibility to woolgrowers searching '[district] shearing contractor' or 'best shearing team for merino' when the cocky finally decides to switch, which is the only time you get a look-in. Either the team is the first name that comes up, with the AWI accreditation and the recent shed photos, or the run has gaps.
Good shearing-contractor marketing is three things, in this order: a district-and-shed-type page library covering every catchment the team travels to (one page per district, with the breeds you specialise in, the shed sizes you handle, the AWI ShedSafe number, the woolclasser arrangement, the cook arrangement and the on-property accommodation set-up if you bring it), a Google Ads set that ranks you for '[district] shearing contractor', 'crutching team [district]' and the breed-specific searches ('merino shearing team [region]', 'dorper shearing [region]', 'lamb shearing contractor [district]'), and a relentless shed-by-shed social feed (the board, the wool clip, the press, the cook's smoko spread, the AWI-quality merino bale tag), so the next woolgrower wavering about the contractor they shore with last year sees your name twice a week and rings before the wool grows out.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the run that actually pays (the spring and autumn merino sheds in the wheat-sheep belt, the crossbred sheds you take on the way through, the dorper sheds for the hygiene shear, the lamb shearing in late winter, the crutching small jobs that fill the in-between weeks) rather than chasing every sheep keyword. Briefs the other agents so the district pages, the breed-specific ads, the shed-by-shed social and the AWI accreditation surface push toward the woolgrowers you actually want, not the price-shoppers from outside the catchment.
Imports your existing site so you stop paying for hosting plus a CMS subscription, and ships a district shed-booking page for every catchment the team travels to. Each page carries the breeds you specialise in there, the shed sizes you handle, your AWI ShedSafe accreditation number, the woolclasser and cook arrangement, the on-property quarters set-up if you bring it, real shed photos, a spring-and-autumn run availability module that updates from your roster, and proper AgriculturalBusiness schema.
Goes through your live site for the things that actually move shearing-contractor rankings: district keywords on every page, AWI ShedSafe number called out properly in copy and schema as the trust signal woolgrowers actually check, separate keyword targeting for merino, crossbred, dorper, lamb shearing and crutching so they don't cannibalise each other, and a Google Business Profile that lists every shearing-service line item properly. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes.
Launches Google Ads on the searches a wavering woolgrower actually types: '[district] shearing contractor', 'crutching team [district]', 'merino shearing team [region]', 'dorper shearing [region]', 'lamb shearing contractor [district]'. Higher bid the eight weeks before the spring and autumn run when shed bookings are being locked in, paused in between. Drops broad 'shearing' bids entirely. Pulls Meta budget into Facebook only, because woolgrowers live on the district woolgrower groups, not on Instagram.
Turns every shed into a post in your real Facebook accounts and the district woolgrower groups: the eight-stand board going from 7:30, the woolclasser's prelim on a 19.5-micron merino clip, the press cranking through 86 bales, the cook's smoko spread, the AWI ShedSafe safety brief Monday morning, the dorper shed for the once-a-year hygiene shear. Builds the trust signal that wins the next wavering grower three sheds down the road. You upload one board or wool-table photo per shed, the agent drafts the caption in your voice, you approve.
Drafts the long-form pieces woolgrowers Google before they switch contractors: 'choosing a shearing contractor: what to ask about AWI ShedSafe', 'broad-comb versus standard-comb on second-cross sheep', 'how a top-quality clip lifts your AWI premium per bale', 'what to expect from a contractor with on-property quarters and a cook'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that pull the wavering grower in months before the shed-booking decision.
Your first 30 days.
- Annual plan built around the spring and autumn merino run, the crossbred sheds you take on the way through, the dorper hygiene shear and the lamb-shearing late-winter window, tilted to whichever sheds keep the run full end-to-end
- Google Business Profile rebuilt with 16-item service list including stud shearing, crutching team, woolshed hygiene, woolclasser supply, wool press operator and on-property quarters as separate items
- AWI ShedSafe accreditation number called out on every page header, footer and the 'about the team' page
- District shed-booking pages indexed across every catchment on the run with breed, shed-size, woolclasser-and-cook arrangement and the live availability module
- Google Ads live with district and breed-specific keywords, eight-week pre-run bid lifts and broad 'shearing' bids excluded
- Crutching ad set live as the fortnightly small-job filler that smooths the gaps between sheds
- Dedicated merino-clip-quality page live with the woolclasser arrangement, the AWI premium positioning and 19-and-under micron specialist messaging
- Dorper shearing page live for the once-a-year hygiene-shear market, separated from the merino positioning
- AgriculturalBusiness schema deployed with service-area for every district on the run
- Shed-by-shed caption library running with board photos, woolclasser prelim sheets, press totals and cook's smoko shots
- 'Choosing a shearing contractor: what to ask about AWI ShedSafe' and 'How a top-quality clip lifts your AWI premium per bale' guides drafted for approval
A shearing contractor with a team that turns out a 19.5-micron merino clip without a second cut, a cook who feeds the ringers properly, on-property quarters that keep the team rested, and an AWI ShedSafe accreditation that lifts the woolgrower's premium per bale, should not be losing the next shed up the road to a contractor who happens to come up first on Google. The work is making sure the wavering grower searching '[district] shearing contractor' on a Sunday night sees your last six shed posts, the woolclasser's prelim numbers, the AWI ShedSafe number and a run calendar that says 'three slots open for late September', before they see anyone else.
Agencies are too dear, and too metro-blind, to run a district-by-district shed-booking library and a crutching ad set for $3.5k a month. Tools are cheap but the run calendar still says '2024 season' and the dorper shed up the back goes to the next-district team. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the district pages, launch the breed-specific ads, post the board and the wool table, and brief the AWI premium and the on-property quarters set-up. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day. Stop losing the spring run to the contractor up the road with the better Google ranking.