January 12, 2011 Tina Mast Homewood Nursery

Prioritize Your Marketing Efforts Website Newsletters Facebook Blog Twitter Groupon

Website Easily navigated, attractive, important info is easy to find Snap Pages – cheap, easy, professional-looking. Good features like PayPal, blog, calendar, document storage & more. Mailing list sign-up box so you can continue to reach customers Facebook sign-up for the same reason Update regularly to keep the site looking fresh and information current Get other websites (i.e. vendors) to link to your website. Add a Share This button to every page of the site to visitors can share. Try to get it optimized for keywords. You can buy services that will boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Link your website to Google Analytics so you can track the traffic going into and throughout your site. Plenty of information about this on the Google Analytics website.

Newsletters Still an excellent, effective, and inexpensive way to reach customers who are already interested in your products and services. Ways to collect customer addresses: raffle box at events, at checkout, at key traffic points, on your website, in your postal mailings or catalogs, targeted services you can buy to get going. Constant Contact: inexpensive, easy-to-use, includes report functions Don’t too often Pictures are great sellers No time? Have department heads write for each section. Add a Share This button to each .

Facebook Have website and before attempting social media Less about selling more about engagement, having relationships “Like” (become fans of) other businesses both similar and different to yours and see how they engage their fans. You will likely have to experiment some to find the types of posts that your fans are most interested in and responsive to. Train employees to report customer comments about FB posts Ways to engage: special discounts for your FB fans, post sales/events, links to items of interest, helpful tips/info, PRETTY pictures (always popular), your s/blog posts, have contests, be creative Facebook ads – FB has a lot of user data and can help you reach people likely to use your service in your geographic area. Cadmus, PostRank, and Yahoo Pipes for curated content.

Blogs Cheap and one way to stay in front of customers Embed it on your website so it can double as a way to talk about what’s new Didn’t work well for Homewood but wasn’t embedded. We currently use a What’s New page on our website. Make sure to work “keywords” (search terms that potential customers might use) into posts and titles but don’t overdo it or Google might lower your search rankings. Link to other blogs who will hopefully return the favor Update weekly Read other blogs and comments on them Copyblogger: excellent newsletter on writing for blogs and getting them read WordPress and Blogger: free, easy-to-use blog services

Twitter For small brick and mortar businesses like garden centers, not enough return on investment. Only 6% of Americans are using Twitter according to Pew Research Center. Garden writer/former nurseryman Doug Green says the cost per customer is too high. Some professional networking perks plus a good way to get ideas and follow trends but don’t throw everything at it. Connect it to your Facebook page so they can be updated simultaneously.

Groupon coupon sent daily for really good deals on goods and services. Coupon is activated by pre-set number of people who must buy it in order for it to be valid. Might be a good way to get new customers. Groupon takes half of each groupon bought. Make sure you do the math on your margins and set realistic parameters. We don’t feel that it will be profitable for us but not everyone agrees. Similar to Groupon: Twongo, Living Social

Future Options Text message marketing Advertising on relevant online forums. Google AdWords Facebook Ads

Good Sources of More Info Mashable.com Copyblogger Social Media Examiner Seattle Girl blog Socialnomics – Social Media Blog Techipedia blog Slideshow by Ellen Wells of Buzz for GreenProfit: Using Social Media as Marketing Tools marketing-tools http:// marketing-tools Open Insight Social Media Guide: Ways Small Businesses can Measure Social Media ROI and PROVE results Steps to Social Media Success for Garden Centers garden-centers/ garden-centers/