Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52NOVEMBER 2016 19 YOU’VE HIT THE WALL. The first few con- tent marketing posts flowed easily, but now that you’ve cherry-picked the low- hanging fruit, what’s left to write about? Don’t worry — you’re not alone. According to a 2015 study from B2B Content Marketing, despite all the content types, platforms and options available, over 50 per cent of marketers find it challenging to produce engaging content, and 42 percent find it difficult to produce a suitable variety of content. It’s important to create a map of all the channels and content types your organization will use. This can help your team fill the content marketing idea bank with concepts to execute. Content can and should have many different goals — sometimes as basic as putting a human face on your brand (nothing does that better than pictures or video). Share photos of a recent team event with a brief introduction or a video of a customer using your prod- uct. Run a poll on social media that can gather customer insights or share an article that you found particularly insightful and give your review. There Shawna Schimnowski CREATE by Issues Ink Client Services Manager @IssuesInk sschimnowski@issuesink.com create.issuesink.com CONTENT MARKETING IDEAS YOU CAN TAKE TO THE BANK are many ways to engage your audience and by monitoring what they respond to best, you can find a winning combo to keep them coming back. Start building your idea bank with some of these sources: • What are the most common questions that your sales team gets asked in the field? • Know your content keywords — what information are people searching for online as it relates to your business. Are they finding your content? • Share what’s new and on the cutting edge for your industry and give your opinion on how it will impact their business. • Revisit the presentations you’ve done over the past year. Did topics or portions generate good audience engagement? Hone in on this and build content around it. Start conversations on social media to find out what customers want to hear more about. It’s important to keep in mind that content marketing is a holistic effort. It’s likely that no “one” piece of content will be responsible for a sale. The key is in the content mix, and the secret to content return on investment is creating great content consist- ently, finding the right key performance indicators for your business goals and measuring them over a long period of time. And remember, there is lots of help available! CRAFT BREWING is enjoying a renaissance in North America. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada notes that in recent years, even as per capita beer con- sumption dropped, sales and consumption of craft beer has been on the rise. Not only am I a beer fan, but in my role within the seed industry, this emerging market is of par- ticular importance to me. Because malting barley is handled on a variety-specific basis, it’s part of my job to look for variety-specific opportunities. Malting barley also presents a unique opportunity to help increase the use of certified seed. I’m always watching the craft beer industry. As a general rule, craft brewers use 100 per cent barley malt in their beer. Larger brewers often use adjuncts such as rice and corn. The heavier reliance on malting barley is one that’s good for the barley industry as a whole — not only maltsters, but also farmers, seed growers and breeders. This has given rise to the number of small- scale micro-maltsters in North America. Examples are Red Shed Malting in Alberta and Malterie Frontenac and MaltBroue in Québec. These busi- nesses cater to the craft market, providing malt Brent Derkatch CANTERRA SEEDS Director, Operations & Business Development @CANTERRABD b.derkatch@canterra.com canterra.com CEREAL SEED NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN THE CRAFT BEER SECTOR barley that varies in flavour, colour and body. To best serve these maltsters, some farms are becoming more vertically integrated with the craft beer industry. This makes for a closer relationship between the two and helps farmers diversify their business, creating for long-term sustainability. This emerging market benefits seed companies, as well. We’ve added frontline staff to help support the sale of cereals and pulse prod- ucts, including malting barley. It’s a great market that’s crucial for us to explore. Best of all, beer fans like me get to do our own market research, and discover the latest creations that craft brewers release. When I manage to find time to catch up with friends and colleagues over an exciting new craft beer, that’s when I know the hard work of our industry has paid off.