34 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM INSIDERS ADVICE FROM INDUSTRY EXPERTS In 2018, the EU28 will harvest about 2.8 million tons of soybean grains, which represents only 6% of the total EU28 soybean meal needs, but 50% of the non- GMO soybean meal consumption. So, the EU28 needs to import a huge quantity of soybean from South America, pushing the soybean crop to represent close to 50% of the total cultivated land in that region, with no respect for any cor- rect crop rotation. This situation is not environmentally sustainable at all. South America is now experiencing soybean disease increases and weed resistances obliging to increase glyphosate rates, spread by planes which is heavily polluting the soils and endan- gering people living around. At the same time, more and more European consumers want to eat meat, CORN, SORGHUM AND OILSEEDS Non-GMO soybean as a strategic crop for Europe! FRANÇOIS PAYBOU Soybean Technical & Market Manager • Euralis Semences eggs and milk produced locally with non- GMO soybean meal, for environmental and food security reasons. Therefore, the EU28 decided to strengthen the crop rotations with legumes and set up protein crops cultivation indi- cators in the future Common Agricultural Policy starting in 2021. In terms of protein, soybean is the rich- est plant in the world (close to 45%) so it will be one of the favourite crops. The first step of the EU28 will be to produce 100% of its non-GMO soybean meal needs and not import anymore. The second step will be to decrease the dependence to the non-sustainable GMO soybean meal imports to increase food inde- pendence security. The non-GMO soybean imported from America will be replaced by sustainable and locally grown: this is the European Protein transition. For these reasons, several soybean associations have developed full supply chain systems to trace locally produced soybean. This is generating a strong motivation for farmers to plant soybeans, which is becoming now one of the most profitable crops. Soybean production has quadrupled in the past 10 years! Euralis anticipated this strategic change many years ago by investing massively in soybean breeding from very early to late maturity (000 to II), being now the No. 1 non-GMO soybean breeder in Europe with the n°1 variety sold in Europe. Euralis invested also in a soybean crushing factory SOJALIM in South-West France to transform local soybean grain in soybean meal to increase added value for farmers. Content Marketing’s goal is to create and distribute valuable, relevant, and con- sistent content. Content that triggers a response to drive action. The notion of reciprocity - trying to repay, in kind, what another has provided for us, is a deeply engrained human behaviour. Providing content that the audience finds enter- taining, insightful, or informative, means they may feel ‘indebted’ to support the brand in some way. Content marketing is inherently recip- rocal. You put in the work to create and distribute impactful content. The audience shows appreciation through engagement. Engagement, as we know, leads to action and opens the door to the start of the sales cycle. Audience engagement comes in many forms. u Engagement is not a guarantee. Here are some tips to help foster reciprocity through engagement: 1. Create content with your audience in mind. It is only natural to develop a biased opin- ion or get too close to our own brand. Develop a persona for your audience. KNOW your audience. Listen to them. Ask questions. Monitor their online comments and behavior. Take the audience’s per- spective to better understand what infor- mation, style and type of content will be appealing. 2. Humanize your brand. Find a personality within your company that’s relatable and a natural communi- cator. Feature this person in videos or develop an ongoing column. No one vol- unteers to be a spokesperson, no problem. Create a fictional character. 3. Tap into basic psychological needs. Try to develop content that plays into basic psychological needs like competence, relatedness/belonging or usefulness. Connecting to the audience’s psychologi- cal needs is more likely to trigger a strong response and lead to engagement. 4. Monitor and quickly respond to audi- ence/customer engagement. Engagement is a two-way street. Say you posted something on social media and some- one comments. Respond to that comment. You received an email referring to a blog or web content, immediately respond. Treat audience engagement similar to a customer transaction – give engagement attention and priority. Engagement from brands breeds further engagement from the audience/ customer. 5. Focus on quality. Less content is better than bad content. Not every content piece needs to be a mas- terpiece. However, there should be quality benchmarks. Producing and distributing low quality content just to fill space is a waste of time and does a disservice to your brand. CONTENT MARKETING The Power of Reciprocity KELLY SAUNDERSON Director, Client Services • Issues Ink