Getting your garden product on the hit show “Shark Tank” would be a great achievement and undoubtedly bring LOTS of publicity to you and your business. 

While not everyone can get on the show themselves, a few takeaways about pitching an investor can be learned.

Even if you know your business inside and out it’s easy to get flustered and thrown off by a tough question or one you weren’t expecting.  Investors ask those kinds of questions to get the information that they need. 

Make sure your garden business doesn't lose a potential deal by not having the right answers to investor's questions. 

You know the importance of consistently drawing in new customers, but it’s equally important to turn those one time shoppers into loyal customers who love your brand!

Though not every customer will remain loyal to your brand, there are a few ways to increase your chances.  Two of the major reasons that customers leave a brand are:

• Feeling that the brand is indifferent towards them

• A poor customer service experience

Loyal customers are a free and effective form of marketing, so don't miss out! 

Follow the tips below to make sure your garden business doesn’t get left behind.

After you’ve brought your website into the 21^st century and gotten your social media game under control, ask yourself: what’s the next step to building my garden business? 

Now, it’s time to start a blog. 

Why?  81% of U.S. online consumers’ value information and advice found on blogs, and a whopping 61% of those consumers have a made a purchase based solely on that advice.  If you haven’t already, it’s time for you and your garden business to get on board with blogging!

What is a blog, exactly? A web log (blog for short) is a website made up of short, information packed entries.  

Below are the top 4 reasons blogging affects the bottom line of your garden business.

The short, snappy title you type off right before you post your blog, tweet, or story is the reason for your downfall.

Even though headlines seem like the last step in publishing, they're the most important by far.

If you have a ho-hum headline, no one will click on it to discover the golden editorial waiting for them.

Instead, you need to really focus on crafting headlines that inspire and intrigue your audience enough to click through!

Below are the top 4 ways to write headlines that your readers can't help but click!

Trade shows are one of the best places to garner new business, attract new customers and interact face-to-face with trade show attendees.

But, realistically, they also are a huge investment of money. Are you making the most out of every dollar that you're putting into garden industry trade shows?

Chances are, your garden business could be doing more. 

Read on to discover Garden Media's 6 tips for tip-top trade show performance. We guarantee you'll like what you see!

Social media is here to stay.

It's completely transformed the landscape of personal and brand communication.

Yet, one of the biggest impacts on social media strategy thus far was just released in a new study from Econsultancy.

The reason marketers are using social media is changing--and the new findings are detrimental to your long-term success on social media.

Read on to discover the #1 way to ensure your social media strategy will fail--and how to avoid it.  Create a social media strategy that succeeds and shines.

Once you've begun interviewing public relations firms for your garden business, you're getting serious.

Your garden business should be whittling down a list of goals and objectives and honing in on potential public relations firms.

But before you go any further in the process of hiring a public relations firm, be sure you know what not to do. You don't want to be left ripping up your contract in vein like the poor souls on the right.

Below are 3 mistakes to avoid when hiring a public relations.

Building brand recognition to many small companies means slapping their logo and tagline on absolutely every item that leaves their office.

While logos are certainly one of the most important aspects of creating brand recognition, what happens when people already recognize your brand?

Unbranding is the newest public relations and marketing trend in 2013. It's essentially going beyond the logo and relying exclusively on an image of your product for marketing.

For unbranding to be successful, your garden business first needs to have a winning logo.

Below are our tips for creating a stellar logo to last for the long haul--and tips to go beyond it once your brand has national awareness.

Public Relations, you know your garden business needs it, but you're not 100% sure why.

Yes, stories will inevitably result from public relations. And, if your business is ever in a crunch, they're there to help you work through a crisis. But, what about the other 95% of the time?

In a nutshell, a public relations firm spends their time building your brand to make your customers fall in love with your company and become loyal consumers who ask for your product by name.

Each Wednesday in August the GROW! Blog will be delving into all your garden business needs to know before hiring a PR firm.

To see if your business is truly ready for a public relations firm, first see what the function of a PR firm is in your business plan--and learn a bit more about the services offered, which go far beyond securing stories.

Real time marketing is springing up all over the world.

Two weeks ago, it was the heat wave that dominated social media. This week, the royal baby was all anyone was talking about.

Brands across the globe tried to capitalize on the birth of Will and Kate's baby by posting on social media. Some worked, and others were a tragic flop.

Below, we've taken the best and worst real-time marketing stunts. We'll detail what real time marketing is while also focusing on the do's and don'ts of real time marketing using images and posts from brands on the #royalbaby.