blogs4businesses.com » locally owned

Monon Coffee Company

b4b — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:52:05 +0000

About the project

This 12-year-old mom and pop coffee shop in the heart of Broad Ripple Village, Indianapolis, sees a diverse crowd of regulars. In a town full of transient Starbucks drinkers, that’s a marketable commodity.

Owner William Powell had signed up for a blogging program that concentrated on keywords to optimize search engine results. He had begun to feature his regular customers in posts. But Powell, like many busy business owners, rarely had time to blog regularly.

Now that we’re in charge of content, our goal is to capture and channel the shop’s character. Creating a new page spotlighting the shop’s exhibiting artists is one way we’ll achieve that.

Another is the blog’s new “Weather Willy Wednesdays” campaign to make Powell’s previously coffee-shop-bound weather forecasts an interactive draw for coffee drinkers. Regulars know–Powell uses Weather.com’s “weather in motion” map to predict conditions, and he’s usually right on the money. But if he’s wrong more times than not in a month, blog readers will know when he’ll give away free drip coffee at a particular time of day. They’ll also get to see his predictions online via embedded video. It’s also likely something that local weather affiliates might cover, once we’ve developed a following.

The key to achieving regular blog readers, however, will be consistent, on-target posts for local coffee drinkers. And we’re here to deliver.

Locally Grown Gardens

b4b — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:06 +0000

About the project

Culinary Institute of America graduate and Locally Grown Gardens owner Ron Harris is very particular about how his colorful, quality market is portrayed. But we do his Pink Pie baked goods and Indiana-grown produce justice with our “gorgeous food photography,” as many readers have called it. We’ve emphasized the pictures’ popularity in bountiful galleries and navigation.

This site gets updated about twice weekly to let readers know about inventory; upcoming events; and history of market offerings. The goal is for customers to be able to know what’s at the market on any given moment, and if Harris has what they’re looking for on their drive home to cook dinner.

Most entries are greeted with a bevy of comments—mostly gushing thanks for Harris’s offerings. (We’ve been spoiled with great clients.)

B4B also helped conceptualize Harris’s popular weekend outdoor hog roasts. His pulled pork sandwiches became so popular, they’re now a daily offering.

As for Harris’s want to communicate with the public, we think he’s succeeded: Since the blog, LGG has been covered by Indianapolis Monthly, WTHR’s Treeboy, Nuvo, The Indianapolis Star, Indy.com, the Broad Ripple gazette, and more. LGG is also well-connected in the blogosphere—everything from Indy’s famous foodie Feed Me/Drink Me blog to national sustainable food site Civil Eats has a link to Ron’s virtual real estate.