Signalfire | Brand Matters

Traditional brick and mortar retail locations often feel many online developments don’t apply to their situation and many times they’re right. However, the rapid rise of smart phones, tablets, and other portable devices are changing the way consumers shop. People are creating and storing shopping lists, scanning product bar codes to compare prices, and accessing coupons and promotions all on their phones and in your store.

Join Signalfire’s Matthew Olson to discuss and learn how mobile can change how your brick and mortar store view the online world!

Click here for FREE registration!

(Source: lgedcnov.eventbrite.com )

Wisconsin Farmers Market Association has invited Matthew Olson, president of Signalfire, to lead both of the Fall Workshop breakout sessions on Saturday, November 10, at Titletown Brewery in Green Bay, Wis.

The first breakout session will discuss farmers markets utilizing social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to improve exposure. The second breakout session will involve general tips on making the most out of limited marketing dollars with web-based marketing.

The Wisconsin Farmers Market Association (WFMA) was created to bring together resources and expertise from around the state to help farmers markets in Wisconsin thrive. The WFMA’s purpose is to promote local food consumption through the support and education of market managers, vendors, communities and consumers.

The Fall Workshop is being held in two locations, Green Bay and Lake Mills (near Madison) and hopes to provide information and resources for market managers.

“Farmers markets play such a critical role in both living local and living healthy,” Matthew Olson said. “Having the opportunity to share marketing knowledge and promote their success is equal parts an honor and exciting.” 

Learn more about the Wisconsin Farmers Market Association by visiting their website at www.wifarmersmarkets.org. Farmers markets help keep the local economy stimulated and help sustain businesses and families. Shop at your local farmers market and keep your community nourished.

Content marketing is one of the hottest trends in marketing for very good reasons!

• Demonstrates your brand’s expertise by sharing knowledge and insight
• Provides helpful, useful data or information to your interest community
• Establishes both trust and value in your brand
• Search engine boosts don’t hurt, either

Where do over-tasked business owners or time-indebted managers find the time to generate this small mountain of content? Some try to hammer it out themselves (and typically fail), some smartly hire writers who embrace their brand voice, and fewer turn to a the wider blogging community to offer guest interest community leaders to post. Are any of those, by themselves, the single best option? No, they all are.

While no business owner or manager really has time to personally pound out daily, weekly, or sometimes monthly content, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t write at all. All three options working in concert can be a great approach to the process.

A great illustration to this is Atomic Research’s new infographic outlining the difference between content development and content curation. Essentially, content curation mean a brand turns to the experts within the interest community to share articles or insights on their own platform. While this gives the critical hat-tips to the interest community at large by recognizing the leading voices, it also still shares the critical value from the provided content.

By being in tune with your interest community, you will be able to spot the leaders. Embrace them. Contribute to the community by posting your own content. Between the two, you’ll build trust and value for your brand as well as your website.

Like this infographic? Read more about Content Marketing @ Atomic Reach.

Traditional marketing says you are the right choice, but content marketing shows your company is a dependable investment. Content marketing is critical for small businesses because it effectively builds brand awareness, allows for more customer interaction, drives in leads, brings in visitors, improves SEO results, and improves your customer retention rate. There is no doubt that a solid content marketing strategy is a vital investment for your company’s reputation and worth.

What is content?

Learning the basic foundation to content marketing is key to a successful content strategy. Content is everything on your website, which can be the main pages on the site; About, Contact, Products/Services, Blog/News, and FAQ pages. In terms of marketing, it is everything that can be shared; social media posts, news releases, blogs, etc. 

Read more

We all have our favorite websites. Some sites are for news, some are for commentary, and quite a few are just for personal interest. The list of favorites is getting longer, more specialized, and more personalized—and it′s the content on those websites that keep us coming back.

Essentially, content has become the base commodity of the Web. And just like every other consumable commodity, an industry is rising around its production, delivery, exchange, and sharing. Content is a commodity that has actual cash value. Here’s why.

Like any other business commodity, great content adds value to the end product—in this case, your website. The more users value the content, the more they consume, the more they return, and the more they engage. How web users are consuming content is changing, and that’s driving the competition to stay ahead of the content challenge.

Read More