This week I rediscovered one of my favorite quotes:

"Creativity is intelligence having fun." --Albert Einstein.

And how true! PR firms and garden businesses alike are full of brilliant thinkers, so let's help them have more fun and exercise their creativity--which will ultimately affect the bottom line.

Below are 7 tips to integrate into your garden business to have a bit more fun and a whole lot of ground breaking ideas.

Today's Garden Center is showcasing Garden Media Group's six major consumer shifts along with several lower level trends that will impact garden purchases in its 2014 Garden Trends Report.

The overall theme, the report says, is finding balance. Each Thursday GROW! will now showcase and delve into a new garden trend of 2014.

Be sure to download the 2014 Trends Report to learn the details and forces behind each trend--and how your business can integrate the 2014 garden trends to grow your business.

Content marketing is the future of the industry.

Instead of telling you what to do and what to know, content marketing inspires you to listen by providing your target audience with information they're craving in an arary of formats.

Content marketing connects instead of isolating. Typical advertising and marketing can actually have an adverse effect on your target audience. By bombarding them with irrelevant information, you isolate them from your brand while content marketing connects by answering key questions on their own time.

Below discover why content marketing, also known as inbound marketing, is the future of the industry as we know it. 

Happy Labor Day y'all!!

How did the summer come and go so quickly this year? The air already feels a twinge cooler, and the calendar page has been flipped to September.

Before switching your mind to football games and pumpkin-flavored everything, revel in the last lazy day of summer.

Turns out your well-being may depend on it! 

Below is one more reason to celebrate this Labor Day with gusto.

Americans by and large live by Jack Nicholson's motto, " All Work and No Play." Just look at the infographic below for more!

Big news! Garden Media Group has released the 13th annual Garden Trends Report!

Finding happiness and balance in the garden is the theme of the 2014 Garden Trends Report, which identifies several lifestyle shifts and 12 garden trends for 2014.

If you want to be on top of things and love hearing about the hottest consumer, garden, home, and lifestyle trends, you'll want to download our trends report. If you love talking about trends and want to use them to grow your brand and maximize your garden business, you'll want to join us for "Trending Thursday" every Thursday here on GROW!  

Looking ahead, Garden Media sees six balanced sets shaping greener lifestyle choices people are making for their homes, gardens and outdoor living.

Below is a snippet of Garden Media Group's 2014 Trends Report. Download the complete report for all the details and predictions for 2014!

If you're about to hire a PR firm, you want to do your research. Know when to hire a PR firm, questions to ask, and what public relations can really do for your business.

Before you sign the contract, clearly set your expectations. The last thing you want to do is sign a year-long contract only to discover you've made a terrible mistake.

To make your partnership with your (almost) new public relations firm, outline a clear plan of attack for these 4 criteria.

In the gardening world, the print catalog has always been a standby.

But, they're expensive and often sent to a broad list of people, who frankly throw it in the trash. 

Instead for your garden brand to gain true, meaningful traction, you need to provide interesting content to the people who crave it.

Enter the new digital, social catalog of 2013--and beyond. Read on to discover how you can create your own innovative, green catalog.

This week, I'm at Hubspot's Inbound Marketing Conference in Boston and am loving every second of it! Don't worry, I'll share more knowledge and content marketing wisdom when I return.

But, I could not wait to share Seth Godin's insights on how "we are all inbound now." As you probably guessed, seeing and hearing "America's Greatest Marketer" was absolutely amazing!

So amazing in fact that I could not wait to run back and blog about it--in typical content marketing fashion!

Read on to discover Seth Godin's tips and tricks for navigating the world of marketing that he shared at Inbound 2013!

There's a best and worst time for everything. Coffee after 11 pm is not the best idea, nor is hiring a PR firm December 1st to boost Christmas sales.

When hiring a public relations firm, be sure you have the timing right too.

Below are the four worst times to hire a PR firm in the home and garden industry.

Content marketing, brand journalism, inbound marketing, blogging. Call it what you will, but the concept is all the same. Creating content by your garden business about relevant topics for your target audience.

No longer are you reliant on traditional media sources to tell your garden brand's story. With content marketing, the power is in your hands.

Creating your own content is one of the best ways to connect with your audience, increase engagement, and improve SEO.

When investing your time in your content marketing plan, make sure you're doing it as best as you can. Creating killer content takes time, so be smart about your execution and promotion.

Read on to discover 5 ways to improve your content marketing in less than 10 minutes.