Whenever you sit down to write something, do you imagine how impactful it will be?  Or how many eyes will read it?

Well, did you know that 40% of your articles never get read?

Yes, the one you slaved over and edited again and again.

If you're lucky, about 60% of your articles will be read! But there are secrets to increase readership and give your posts some punch.

Below, we've got some more facts about consumer reading habits... HOWEVER, we have ways to combat these findings and advice on how to produce pieces your readers will love.

Big or small, no business is guaranteed a fruitful financial year. In fact, maintaining your popularity with customers is hard work--and you always need to be ten steps ahead.

A new study, released this week, surveyed professionals about the next 10 years of marketing.

Read on to discover what your garden business needs to remain thriving (and relevant) in ten years.

As much as we talk about social media, press releases, and witty infographics, the medium simply will not matter if there isn't strong content backing it up.

Content is king and will be for the foreseeable future. Before you go blazing a new digital medium trail, you’ve got to pause and think before you do.

If you want your mediums to be successful, your content has to set the foundation. Meaning before you think about the how, you need to think long and hard about the what.

Strong, interesting content is the only way to ensure your clientele keeps coming back to you.

To get your mind wheels a’turning, here are eight types of content that consumers are proven to love.

Implement these tips next time you post on social media or write a press release, and voila, you’re the brand they’ll forever return to.

I recycle everything. Why should an item be used only once? One of my favorite necklaces was made with old soda tabs. Recycling is only one aspect of sustainable living, but it is certainly the aspect that translates to public relations best.

We work hard to create thoughtful copy that will be of interest to multiple audiences, so why would we only use it as a press release? Exactly, we wouldn’t; it's just as wasteful as trashing a plastic bottle.

As an innovative company, we’ve got to keep moving forward.

One way to do this is by repurposing content. With oodles of outlets, recycling content looks just as chic as ever.

All your garden business has to do is implement these tips to ensure your content doesn’t look stale.

I recently read an article that made me chuckle.  It started off, "There are so many similarities between SEO and gardening..."

Of course, I had to read on. 

In the article, Bernie Borges describes the stages of gardening and how they relate to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  It reminded me of my post last week about content marketing in which Marcus Sheridan said:

"Success in this business doesn’t happen overnight. Content marketing isn’t a chia-pet—water today, a vine jungle tomorrow."

We recently wrote a post, Does Your CEO blog? written by our fearless leader and CEO, Suzi McCoy.  In it, she mentions that "there's an untapped opportunity for an early CEO adopter with the right touch." Untapped- meaning, not enough CEO's blog. 

All too often it seems that blogs, social media and entire content marketing plans are left to the control of an intern or recent college graduate. Content marketing is too important to be left to someone who doesn't understand the brand goals and values of the company.  It is of the utmost importance to have the CEO and top level management at the company invested in the marketing plan. 

Email marketing, like most all things, can do some amazing good... or irreparable damage. Email marketing lets you build relationships with leads and current customers. Customers have even said that they like email marketing more than a regular email. Not only are they a customer favorite, but they also are more effective.

The emails sent by email marketing are usually beautiful. They're gorgeous to look at, so you'd think they'd be more likely to be read. Well, yes and no.

Email marketing is good, but only to a certain extent..

So, how much email  marketing is too much, and how can your business avoid getting on customers' black lists?

If you read this blog, you know that content is king.  But, does it matter where that content lives, whether it's online or in print?

Print is a medium that our clients still live for and we still see value in and getting a hit in the Wall St Journal or Southern Living is a home run.  But, what if magazines and newspapers follow the Newsweek trend and move all of their content online?  According to the Pew Research Center’s statistics on print vs. online media, more than half of Americans currently receive their news from digital sources, and the number of people relying on social media exclusively for their news has doubled in the past two years.  The trend to digital is increasing everyday. 

This week we've been discussing content marketing, how it works and ways to increase your brands reputation in the lawn and garden industry. 

But the one question we keep getting asked is, what kind of content works best?

There are dozens of forms of engaging content, but here are 12 types of content to focus on and how they can be used as part of any content marketing plan.