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This Winter, Grow Your Farm’s Brand Image with Content Marketing

Right now, farmers across the country are holed up inside preparing tillage equipment, sprayers and planters for the spring growing season. But with the downtime of winter, it’s the perfect time for farm managers to sit back and think about another topic that will be vital to success once it’s time to get back outside in the soil: brand image.

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According to owner of Innovus Agra LLC Brett Oelke, brand image will have a direct impact on one of the most important factors of running a successful farm operation: your bottom line.

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ITEXPO 2014 Editor’s Day: Brand Strategy at its Best

shutterstock_161159720We are just a few hours into ITEXPO 2014 in sunny Miami Beach and the energy and electricity here at the convention center is truly palpable. Attendees are starting to pour in for a number of conference events; TMC staffers are running around putting the finishing touches in place for what will be another bleeding-edge technology event; and dozens upon dozens of C-suite officials and leading company executives are making their way to the convention center to participate in Editor’s Day.

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The Job of a Marketer: Always be Awake

shutterstock_161159720You know how accountants and financial planners see the world in numbers, formulas and percentages? Well, as a marketer, do you feel like you see the world in terms of strategy, brand tactics and messaging? You are not alone.

I have slowly started to come to the realization that the more I immerse myself in the marketing realm, the harder it is for me to turn off that marketing lens. For example, a simple TV commercial is no longer just a commercial. Rather, it’s a window for me to assess the company’s branding efforts and marketing strategy. Similarly, even a simple flyer that I receive in my mailbox or that I pass on the street cannot escape my marketing lens. I am evaluating the flyer on its font type, its verbiage and its originality. Simply put, the job of a marketer is to always be awake. To always be discerning. And to always be searching for the best campaign.

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Customer Service: It’s all About the Little Things

If you follow the news at all, you are probably well aware by now of the massive data breach that sent retail giant Target spiraling into a public relations crisis from which it has yet to emerge. As you may also know, the company has taken almost as much flak for the difficulty shoppers had reaching customer service—and the treatment they received from call center agents once they did—as it did for the intrusion itself.

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Here at Content Boost, we write often about the importance of  customer service, the impact it has on consumers and a brands image. In thinking about and discussing Target’s predicament over  the past few days, I thought a lot about how companies distinguish  themselves as customer service leaders. As they often do, my  thoughts turned to golf.

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ITEXPO is Around the Corner: Do You Have a Story to Tell?

shutterstock_143009551Every year, the weeks leading up to TMC’s ITEXPO event, one of the largest business technology conferences, feel a bit like the weeks leading up to the first day of school.  The excitement is palpable, the nervous energy is at an all-time high and everyone is wondering, “How will the first few days go?”

That’s because whether you are a sponsor, exhibitor, speaker or participant, you understand—as is the case with any trade show—that your time at the convention is valuable. You understand that every second spent on the trade show floor and in a session are crucial seconds spent away from your home office. Simply put, you understand that you need to make every minute count.

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Channel Your Inner Minuteman to Bounce Back Your Brand

I know it’s only January, but I’m already getting excited about college basketball—mainly because my Alma Mater, UMass, is currently holding down the number 19 spot in the nation. And after a victory over rival St. Joseph’s, all signs indicate that they could move up even further in the rankings.

4704575195_a9006fc904In case you are unfamiliar with UMass basketball, there hasn’t been much to get excited about over the past 15 years. But this year, the Minutemen are carrying themselves a little bit differently. While there is still a long season to go, at 13-1 UMass is in a great spot and has re-established itself as a college basketball powerhouse. There is a pulse in the Mullins Center again, and it looks like UMass finally has what it takes to get a little mad when March basketball rolls around.

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Three Ways You Never Thought to Use Social Media for ROI—Until Now

ROIAccording to an aggregated video composed by Erik Qualman, author of “Socialnomics,” the return on investment (ROI) of social media is that your business will still exist in five years.

That’s a big claim to make, and many brands are still plagued by the question of whether social media drives real ROI. However, on the other side of companies’ inhibitions lies research and testimonies that keep proving the value of social media to be true. For instance, Coffee Groundz, a midtown neighborhood coffee shop, reported a 20-30 percent increase in company sales and market share via Twitter.

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My Three Favorite Social Content Marketing Campaigns of 2013

I don’t know about you but for me, 2013 was a prominent year for content marketing. In the past—say, five years ago—things were so much different. Just take a look at the Content Marketing Institute’s list of 2009 content marketing predictions, where industry pundits were calling social media a “new frontier” for marketing.

It’s amazing to think just how far companies have come with the use of social media for content marketing purposes. Just yesterday, industry figures were applauding companies that paved the way by making corporate Twitter accounts. Today, a company is expected to have a maximum 60-minute response time on social media and can lose credibility with just a single spelling error in a post.

The reins are being tightened and companies have been forced to jump through more hoops than they care to admit this year. This pressure suffocated some brands and enabled others to rise to the top. Here are three social media content marketing campaigns that I think absolutely killed it in 2013. (Take note: these guys took the social marketing bar and raised it a few notches).

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Making Money in the Mobile App Market

4163909778_a07dd8e269_oMore than half of all adults in America own a smartphone these days, and more than one-third of them own a tablet. With these numbers in mind, it makes sense that the mobile app market is exploding. Depending on who you ask, experts predict that when all is said and done, there will be 56 to 82 billion downloads of apps in 2013. And that number could swell past 300 billion by 2016. Continue reading “Making Money in the Mobile App Market”