Greetings!
"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." So said Jonathan Swift. And it's true - photographers see the world in a different light than the rest of us, making mere objects and landscapes not only beautiful but striking. Artists take the mundane and make it magical, weaving words and images into the perfect tapestry. And marketers make it all irresistible to the masses. Lucky are we at Pen & Petal that we get to touch not one but all of these elements and more, to leverage the power of creativity in our clients' favor. We're looking forward to bringing your vision to life - here's to a banner New Year!
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5 Top Marketing Trends for the New Year
No one has a crystal ball, but the pundits at Entrepreneur magazine often get as close as anyone. Here's what they're saying will drive marketing in 2017:
- Native advertising - in other words, it looks like it's native to the spot it's in, doesn't disrupt the user experience.
- Content marketing - creating and distributing relevant content to a specific target audience.
- Target influencers - those (especially on social media) who motivate others to act or buy or both.
- Livestreaming video and visual storytelling - the next generation of video.
- Marketing automation - 71% of marketers currently use it.
How do you leverage the trends! We can help.
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Six Must-Haves for Your Marketing Plan
If you haven't got your 2017 marketing plan nailed down, don't worry, you're not alone. If you're not sure where to start, well you're not alone there either. Here are some of our best tactics for launch:
Did you succeed or fail last year? Review and analyze, then determine what bears repeating and improving, and what needs to be thrown out.
What do you want to do? Establish clear goals. Limit the number (top 3, 5, 10) so you aren't overwhelmed. Be realistic.
What is your message? How do you want to be perceived in the market? Look at your current marketing and advertising inventory, and determine what is at the core of it all that works, repeatedly.
Know your audience. Who are they? What do they want? How do they buy? What makes them loyal? Then decide how you and your products answer and anticipate their needs.
Find your number. Whether you start with your number and work backward granularly to layer in tactics (the most efficient way) or whether you layer tactics to get to a number, then determine if you're comfortable with it, a budget is non-negotiable.
Still not sure how to launch 2017? We can help.
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Pantone 2017 Color of the Year - Made for Horticulture
You may have already heard it by now, but it bears repeating: Pantone has announced their Color of the Year for 2017, and it's tailor-made for our industry! Greenery is a refreshing and revitalizing shade symbolic of new beginnings.
Pantone describes the color like this, further tying the announcement to our world: "Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate."
Now if we can't leverage this color in what we do, we aren't horticulture!
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In Our Client's Words
"We believe that Pen & Petal is the best in the business. They understand the horticulture market very thoroughly and have been to both understand our creative vision and then be able to connect us with the right publishers and the right magazines to be able to bring that vision out to the market."--Derek Moeller, President, McConkey Company
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February
Ad Deadlines
PRINT
Greenhouse Grower 1/3
GrowerTalks 1/6
GPN 1/6
Greenhouse Management 1/8
Green Profit 1/6
Lawn & Garden Retailer 12/16
Garden Center 1/19
Nursery Management 1/13
American Nurseryman 12/30
Greenhouse Canada 1/4
DIGITAL
All pubs 1/18
Reserve space
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