Whether you're a brick and mortar store or exclusively online, content marketing matters to your business.

When used to its fullest potential, content marketing is how you get more new customers for your garden business.

Every Wednesday in the month of February, Garden Media will be dishing on how to navigate the world of content marketing while increasing your bottom line, too.

Whether you're familiar with content marketing or you've never heard the term before, read on to learn all about Garden Media's insider secrets to master the art of content marketing.

One of the 2014 Garden Trends is "Ground Up."

We predict composting will continue to grow in 2014 with more and more municipalities around the country mandating residential composting.

Presently, 25% of US households compost, which means 1.2 million tons of food goes into a landfill each year. A whopping 97% of food scraps are tossed each year.

As gardeners, you know that food scraps can be turned into black gold for your garden since compost is packed with nutrients for your garden. Plus, a healthy garden starts from the ground up.

Throughout 2014, composting will continue to grow as a major garden trend. Take hold of this trend to increase sales for your garden business by implementing the following marketing tips below.

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. 

By now, your garden business knows social media matters.

Though startling new social media research shows that how you think about social media may need to be updated.

You know who you are targeting on social media, what types of content to post, and when to update your page.

But do you know where social media ranks in terms of activity on the web?  Or how often LinkedIn gets a new member?

The following statistics may shock and surprise you, and make you rethink your garden businesses social media strategy for 2014.

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.

From organic produce to reusable grocery bags, concern for the environment is having a BIG impact on countless aspects of life. 

Due to this eco-friendly emphasis, an interest in eating healthier, and efforts to reduce wasteful spending, the gardening world is getting a face lift!

The lawn and garden industry has become the third most profitable market, bringing in around $58 billion annually.  But it’s not stopping there! 

Garden Media predicts that this number will continue to steadily increase on a global scale.

One big reason gardening will continue to grow is due to the growing number of DIY gardeners. Below Garden Media dishes on how the DIY gardening trend will keep growing in 2014--and how your garden business can capitalize.

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.

Hundreds of public relations pitch emails go unanswered every day, or even worse, unopened and deleted.  There’s no surefire way to get a response from a pitch, but there are ways to up your chances. 

Awful subject lines, bad introductions and simple misspellings or grammar mistakes are some of the reasons journalists delete emails without even reading them. Be mindful of those trigger points before you hit send on an email.

Below are 6 more tips and tricks to get your public relations pitch opened, and hopefully, answered!

Family dynamics are changing big time in 2014, according to Garden Media's 2014 Garden Trends Report, and it’s time for your garden business to catch up. 

Men are taking on equal roles as the homemakers in many households, which means they're getting their hands dirty in the garden too!

Men love to get physical and create with their hands, and what better way to do that than gardening? 

The traditional ‘mom role’ is becoming more gender netural, which means women are not the only ones interested in the gardening world anymore.

Introducing:  Mr. Mom, the newest gardener to target in 2014. 

With this change comes a new challenge. Keep reading to learn how to get your garden business noticed by Mr. Mom.

Marketers are creeping and crawling into the night with Halloween just a few short days away.

From the big holidays to the small ones, marketers love putting a twist on their product and content to make it more relevant for the time of year.

And Halloween is one of the most fun times of the year to do just that. The spooky styles, the dark colors, and of course, the costumes!

This Halloween season take your marketing to the next level to connect, engage, and form meaningful relationships with your customers.

Below are 4 marketing ideas tailor-made for your garden business that will boost engagement and get your audience's attention--plus, you don't even have to say BOO, unless you want to!