WGC Website Visibility
The WGC website offers a wealth of ways that you can make your company and your products more visible – while adding to the depth of this great resource. Here are some of the most obvious ones. If you see some other place that we could help you AND add to the richness of our website’s content, please contact us with your suggestions. Many of our links and new content additions started as member ideas!
Overview of Website Visibility Opportunities
Here's a list of the main opportunities, with full descriptions below. All website marketing opportunities are free of charge and are included with your membership. NOW is the time to update your information throughout the website, to take FULL advantage of your WGC membership. Contact Cynthia Harriman at (617) 896-4820 or cynthia@oldwayspt.org.
WG Product Finder Lists
... Retail Product List for Consumers
... School Vending Machine options
... School Cafeteria options
... Foodservice options
... Ingredients List for Manufacturers
... Restaurant List for Consumers
Press Opportunities
... New Product Announcements
... Photo Gallery Images
... WG Sales Are Up – Stats and Quotes
Other
... Member Directory
... Recipes
... Educational Materials
... Intro to Whole Grains
... WG Health Studies
“Whole Grain Product Finder” Lists
One of the main missions of the WGC is to help consumers find whole grain products. We are constantly increasing the resources that help consumers find your products. These lists include
a. Retail Product List for Consumers (Stamped Products)
All products registered to use the Whole Grain Stamp are automatically added to this list (unless you have asked us not to list them). Make sure we have a Product Registration Form for all your qualifying whole grain retail products – whether the packaging shows the Stamp yet or not – so all your products can be fully represented here.
b. Foodservice List for Schools, Restaurants and other Foodservice providers
If you’re specifically targeting schools or other foodservice venues, we’ll increase your sales opportunities for whole grain products by promoting them on our Foodservice Page. You can specify that you want your products included here as you register them for the Whole Grain Stamp -- or just contact Cynthia Harriman and she'll make it happen.
c. Restaurant List for Consumers
We keep a list of national chain restaurants featuring whole grains. If your foodservice division sells ingredients or products to one of the chains, tell us, and we’ll add them to the list so you’ll sell more (and so your restaurant customers will appreciate that you told us about them!).
PRESS OPPORTUNITIES
Journalists contact the WGC daily, and we do everything we can to get our members' companies and products included in top newspapers and magazines. You can help us help you, by sending us information in these ways:
a. New Product Announcements
We’ll post a short paragraph on your new product, with a link to more details on your website, and we can even include a branded photo. Send us your paragraph and photo today! Ideally, photos will be JPEG or GIF measuring no more than 5.6”w x 2”h at 72 dpi. Our staff can resize graphics but your entries will be posted more rapidly if you send us finished paragraphs and photos.
b. Photo Gallery Photos
Journalists writing general stories on the benefits of whole grains turn to our Photo Gallery for generic whole grain photos. These are UNBRANDED photos – yet they still offer great promotional opportunity. Your company will be mentioned in the credit line… your product category will be emblazoned in readers’ minds… and journalists may be inspired to contact you for quotes. We post low-res photos, so that journalists must contact us for the actual photos. This gives our media team an opportunity to offer contacts and more information for pending whole grain stories. Contact us now – we need photos such as a steaming bowl of oatmeal, a dish of crunchy flakes with fruit, whole grain cakes, cookies, crackers, grains growing in the field, etc.
c. Whole Grain Statistics
Journalists LOVE statistics for their stories. Our partnership with MINTEL gives us quarterly data statistics on new whole grain product launches, but we need anecdotes! Please consider sharing information on your whole grain successes if it furthers your marketing goals, especially if you can include industry data such as AC Nielsen, SPINS, InfoScan, etc. We used to have quotes like these on the website, but took them down when they became updated. We'd love some new ones.
Hodgson Mills
Hodgson Mills, a leading manufacturer of whole grain pasta, reports that as a category, total Pasta unit sales (individual packages) in the U.S. were down 2.8% for the 12 month period ending May 2005. Hodgson Mill’s pasta sales were up 20.3% during the same time period.
Paul Kirby, VP Sales & Marketing (August, 2005)
Rudi's Organic Bakery
At Rudi's Organic Bakery, our #1 Item is our 100% Honey Sweet Whole Wheat Bread. In 2004, our dollar sales on this item increased 61.3% in natural foods supermarkets, and 39.7% in groceries.
Victoria Hartman, VP Sales (January, 2005)
We welcome fresh quotes. Listing a quote on this page increases the chances that journalists will contact you for inclusion in a story on whole grains. Just email us, and we'll post it for you.
OTHER LINKS ON THE WGC WEBSITE
Here are some additional marketing opportunities on the WGC website:
a. Member Directory
All members are automatically added to this list as soon as they are members in good standing. Your listing links to the website of your choice
b. Recipes
We can post selected recipes from your company in our Recipes section, and link back to your website.
c. Educational Materials
The WGC frequently gets requests from RDs, schools, and health and educational organizations, asking us for whole grain educational materials for health fairs and classes. We'll post your materials on the WGC site, with links to your website, or PDFs on our site, or phone/email details for them to contact you directly.
d. Whole Grain Health Studies
If your company knows of any peer-reviewed published health studies that show new benefits of your products, make sure we’re aware of them, so we can add them to this page.
e. Guest Blog
If you have news or an "Op Ed" piece that is clearly NOT simply self-promotion, we can consider it as a guest blog. Take a look at three past examples of members' guest blogs, and get inspired. If you'd like to submit a guest blog, email Cynthia Harriman with your idea, before you write it.
Guest Post: InvenTeam Teens Make Sorghum Accessible to World's Poor
Guest Post: Sprouted Whole Grains
Guest Post: Do these look like whole grain pancakes?
Now is the time to update your information on the WGC site, to make sure you are taking FULL advantage of your Whole Grains Council membership.