Communicating effectively with regional communities
Strategies for engaging rural Australia

When many of us think of rural and regional Australia, we think farmers, and farming, and cattle and sheep. Kelpies in the back of a ute, stockmen on horseback and crops as far as the eye can see. And, that’s not wrong.  In August 2019, the National Farmers’ Federation said 318,600 people were employed in agriculture, forestry and fisheries which accounted for about 2.5% of the national workforce. The gross value of Australian agriculture in 2018-19 was $62.208 billion. 

So farming, or agriculture, is a significant industry for country communities across our nation. But these communities are also home to many individuals who don’t make their living on the land, who don’t have a dog in the back of their ute, or hundreds of sheep out their back door. Thousands of us have taken very different paths but have chosen to make our homes outside of our big metropolitan centres, because we value what these rural and regional communities offer, and the richness they bring to our lives, our lifestyle and our overall wellbeing. 

Communicating with rural and regional audiences requires a different approach 

For Seftons, our work has focused on rural and regional Australia for more than 20 years, and many of our team are based in communities outside our big cities, so there’s not only a deep appreciation and respect of these audiences, there’s also a real understanding. Communicating with rural and regional audiences can require a different approach to metropolitan areas, these residents’ views, outlook and opinions shaped by a myriad of factors, such as:

• Distance 
• Smaller populations
• Stronger community ties due to smaller populations  
• More limited access to essential services such as health and education
• Telecommunication challenges
• Quality of infrastructure 
• Access to transport links
• Connection to the land and local environment
• Impact of natural disasters, such as drought and bushfires 

As a result, these communities and their residents are resilient, resourceful and pragmatic with strong views on government policy decisions, resource allocations and the perceived ‘country/city’ divide. In 2023 it was shown almost 30% of our nation’s population lived in rural and regional areas, so their views and opinions matter and getting the messaging right when communicating with these audiences is key.  

Tips for communicating and engaging with rural and regional communities 

Factors to keep in mind when planning an approach for meaningful communication with country Australia are:  

Getting your communication channels right 

Getting it right when it comes to the most effective and dynamic communication channels for rural and regional audiences is key. Once upon a time, the local newspaper was the go-to for any message that needed to be conveyed to the widest possible audience. Even the smallest of towns had one, and the local editor was one of the most influential figures in the community. Those times have passed though, and with the rise of the internet and social media, we’ve seen an equivalent demise in rural and regional publications. Many have closed down, while others are now exclusively online, often run from bigger centres far removed from the heart of the communities they purport to represent.  

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in their latest 2024 report, How we access news, Executive summary and key findings, found free-to-air television remained the most common source of news, used by 26% of Australian adults, followed by online news websites or apps (23%). The only news source to see more adults choosing it as their main news source in 2023 was social media, which was up 3% on a few years ago to 20%. ACMA determined the rise was driven by younger Australians, 18–24 years, with 46% of this demographic saying social media was their main source of news. 

The ACMA research confirmed the decline in the printed word, with fewer of us reading the print version of newspapers (18%), although more rural and regional Australians could be found with a paper in their hand, and they were more likely than their metropolitan cousins to access news through free-to-air television - 60% compared to 49% - and radio - 41% compared to 35%. And, of course, the proliferation now of news websites has a direct correlation with the fall in newspaper/magazine consumption, so our appetite for an interesting read hasn’t diminished, just the format in which we consume it has changed. 

There’s no doubt social media platforms are key to communicating with regional target audiences today, but the latest ACMA findings show there’s still a big place for the likes of newspaper, radio and TV amplification – depending on what’s available in that community – particularly when considering an older demographic. It’s this kind of information that helps inform our work for clients, looking to effectively communicate with a rural and regional audiences on issues or news of significance to those communities.    

And the better you understand these communities, the people within them, the local leaders, and where they get their news from, the more likely a message will resonate. Our Seftons’ team knows these communities not only because we have been working with them for almost three decades, but because this is where many of us grew up or have made our homes, but we appreciate it takes more than this to deliver the best outcomes for our clients.  

In this rapidly-evolving communications landscape, there’s always new avenues for conveying news, views, opinions, policies and strategies. We’re constantly reviewing, revising and recommending these new opportunities to clients, and enjoy the ongoing challenge of ‘helping shape rural and regional Australia, from the boardroom to the bush’.