Blogging Webinar
Thursday, June 13, 2013, at 1:00 pm central time

Blogs – Strategizing, Executing and Impacting your Target Market

In the increasingly noisy marketplace, every organization needs to state its messages clearly.  A blog is one of the cornerstones of a modern communications strategy, but  not like an ad, a newsletter, or an email.  Blogging requires a different set of skills, a different publishing cadence, and a different messaging strategy from traditional media.  Adrian Blake is CEO of Social Media Contractors, an Omaha outsourced social media agency that creates and manages blogs for clients from Massachusetts to California.  He is also the former Publisher of The Progressive Farmer and understands the ag space well.  Adrian will talk about how to develop a strategy for your blog, how to execute that strategy, and how to ensure that your blog has impact with your target market.

Join NAMA on Thursday, June 13, 2013, at 1:00 pm central time.  To register, please visit:  https://secure.confertel.net/tsregister.asp?course=567304.

Mark your calendars!  The 10th Annual NAMA Boot Camp dates are August 14th – 16th at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City.  Whether you’ve just entered the working world or been through the NAMA Boot Camp drill before, learn more about the latest trends in the agri-marketing industry. 

This year the Boot Camp will take it to a new level expanding on marketing and agriculture basics. All attendees will receive a notebook packed with agricultural terminology, facts, case studies and speaker presentations. This notebook has become one of the most popular aspects of the boot camp experience.

Session titles include “Ag 101” and “Client Communications 101”, this is the place managers and directors need to send their new hires.  And for industry veterans who want to sharpen their skills, there are also sesssions on making the most of trade shows, social media and management.

More details to follow.  Sponsorship packages are available. If interested, contact Jenny Pickett at 913-491-6500 or [email protected].

And looking farther down the road, mark your calendar for the 2013 NAMA Fall Conference, September 17-18 at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton, Missouri (St. Louis area).

Online marketing was a hot topic that caused agri-marketers to gather in Omaha, Nebraska. The Cornhusker Chapter NAMA group stepped out of agriculture to learn how an online retail company, Hayneedle, approaches marketing.

Kim Sindelar, HR Generalist at Hayneedle, led a tour through the Hayneedle offices explaining the history of the company. Then the group met with Jeremy Podliska, Marketing Director, and Steve Seim, Senior Marketing Manager, both of Hayneedle, to learn about the company’s marketing initiatives.

Hayneedle is listed at No. 85 on the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide and was named a fastest-growing online retailer in Inc. and Internet Retailer magazines. The company depends on search engines – organic searches and paid listings – to drive customers to its hyper-optimized shopping sites.

The marketing experts at Hayneedle leverage Google to increase traffic to their site. Podliska recommends that agri-marketers focus on deploying the right architecture when it comes to URLs, building a Google + social media channel, and utilizing Google Author Rank. Outside of relying on Google, companies should continue to build brand awareness, develop relevant content and increase link building efforts.

When it comes to paid listing advertising, Hayneedle bids on more than one million ad words a day. Seim encouraged the group by saying, “Algorithms continue to change, allowing smaller businesses the opportunity to rank higher in search engine results. A good starting point for building effective Ad Word campaigns is to explore Google Trends to see the volume of searches on specific terms relevant to your business.” Once you choose Ad Words for your business, ongoing testing and tracking are key elements to successful campaigns. He added that it is important to understand your return on investment when it comes to online marketing by comparing gross margin to advertising dollars spent. These metrics help determine if you are spending effectively.

MoKan NAMA and the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City gathered for several hours May 29 to hear about immigration reform from five very knowledgeable panelists who were moderated by Allie Devine, Devine & Donley, LLC:

Suresh Ramamurthi, President, Yantra Services, Inc.

Craig Reggelbrugge, Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform

Sister Therese Bangert, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth

Chief James Hawkins, Garden City Police Department

Hon. Bob Holden, former Governor of Missouri

Immigration reform is one of the most challenging issues facing America today.  At least 50 percent, and as much as 70 to 80 percent, of the nation’s farm workers arrived illegally, according to labor and industry estimates.  Currently, a bipartisan bill (S.744) is being crafted to address this concern, as well as to secure the nation’s borders, improve legal immigration and offer eventual citizenship to millions of people now in the country illegally.

The diverse panelists touched on various aspects of this important issue, including the local business community, law enforcement, civic organizations and the political arena. This “main street” look allowed attendees to see the different sides of current immigration reform, and how it is affecting not only the current labor force in our Midwestern states, but the agricultural industry as a whole.

If you were unable to attend the Agri-Marketing Conference, or would like a copy of the presentations,  you can watch the video of the General Sessions and the student marketing competition top 6 finalists on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ExploreNAMA.