Question

Topic: Strategy

Help Me Come Up With An Efficient Plan For The Rest Of 2009!

Posted by Anonymous on 7/14/2008 at 3:52 PM ET 250 Points
I manage marketing for a group of plant nurseries in the Northwest. For the last few years I've taken care of the marketing communications side of things: newsletters, website, enewsletters, direct mail, etc.

All these things are terrific for keeping up a conversation with our customers, but they don't do a whole heck of a lot to bring them back in. Over the next 6 months and beyond I would like to completely change my strategy/marketing role in order to drive sales. The trick? To NOT wear 1,000 hats. I want to get the biggest bang for the buck (aka high ROI) as a one woman marketing department -- as it is I have a really hard time keeping up and so I don't want to complicate things. My mantra: efficiency - simplicity - sales.

Here's my plan thus far, I'd love feedback and additional suggestions.

1. Hire a very part-time graphic designer to help with web & print (currently laying out newsletters/enewsletters takes 65% of my time, at least)
2. Offer monthly buy 1 get 1 free coupons that I can track. Offer them web only AND as a bounce back coupon at the register. Have store signage reflect these offers (with web only coupons)
3. We have an anniversary celebration coming up. I'd like to promote the heck out of this using some of our vendors to pay for advertising costs.
4. Give our community donations requests to someone else in the office so that I can concentrate on driving sales. I will continue focusing on driving sales and customer communication via newsletter/web.
5. Plant care information. Our customers are hungry for plant knowledge. I'd like to turn this need for horticultural education into sales...but I'm not sure how.

So that's my plan. Would love your feedback marketing folks. Again: efficiency - simplicity - sales is my mantra. Thanks!

-kyla
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 7/14/2008 at 4:42 PM Accepted
    Hi Kyla,

    Wow...I just spent 20 minutes typing a response for you, but I hit submit and it was deleted. So...you are going to get the short and sweet response. Email me if you want more in depth explanation. kris@morter.com

    1. Keep strong content but tailor it to what you wan to sell. Example...In April educate them about the planting, care, and growth of flowering annuals and then in the last paragraph...tell them about all the annuals that are arriving this week. Give them a coupon that expires so they will act quickly. In other words...educate them on what you want them to buy and then ask them to buy it. (Hint...you will never get them to buy something if you don't ask for the sale)

    2. Regarding your number 5. How about giving a twice a month class for free on topics your people are interested in.? Then, after you thoroughly educate them you can "close" them on something related to the class. You have given them incredible information...you have a right to ask for something in return...a sale.

    My previous post was much more elegant, but I hope this gets my message across. (LOL!!!)

    Best of luck!

    kris
  • Posted by Corpcommer on 7/14/2008 at 5:31 PM Accepted
    Hi, plant geek girl!

    You have very good ideas and I agree with kris' thoughts.

    My suggestions:

    A)
    Plant care information should be a year-round part of your plan (weekly or monthly activities).

    B)

    Have a gardening festival for 2 - 3 days to link your anniversary celebration with plant care information. Tailor the event based on your space, what you have to offer, the partners you can come up with and your budget.

    1.
    Have only pertinent vendors onsite who can give talks or do demos. Don't have someone selling baby toys, jewelry, etc. There must be product/service tie-in with the items you sell.

    Some examples -- have product reps discussing proper lawn mower care, even if you don't sell mowers.

    -- invite organic gardening professionals from local/regional organizations to speak about organic care and maintenance of plants that you carry. Do you have a town Rose Society?

    2) Invite your local horticultural school to setup a table to dispense information about their courses -- offer a "student" discount for nursery purchases. The school should have a box where people can drop donations.

    3) Maybe the school or your nursery staff can do free dirt analysis at the festival -- your event announcement would mention people can bring a 2 oz. sample for free testing.

    4) Encourage people to ask questions about the state of their trees, vegetable patches, etc. Give them helpful advice and let them know that customers are welcome to call on you in future -- offer these people "special" coupons or discounts for the type of item they ask about.

    FYI, my area's annual garden festival gets a terrific turnout and some people buy plants because they feel better that a portion of the sales are to benefit the school.

    Let me know if you do any of these things. I'd appreciate hearing about your results. You can contact me offboard -- see my profile.

    Good luck.

    Corpcommer - MC
  • Posted by Mikee on 7/15/2008 at 8:48 AM Accepted
    I think that your number 5 could be the key.

    People like to buy from people that they feel are helpful and knowledgeable. You could do an email newsletter that tells people what they should be doing depending on the time of the year. Our newspaper used to have a column "Now's the time to ..." with temporal gardening information. You could then offer items for sale related to the things the article mentioned. You would probably want to send the newsletter at least every other week. The key is to make sure that you keep the information relevant and of high quality. If you are able to pass on any grower's tricks that is great. The more relevant the information the more it will get read. You can also invite readers to pass this on and provide a link for them to subscribe as well, building your network.

    I would put a calendar on your website that includes important dates regarding plant care. This can include links to your newsletter articles. You want to give people a reason the visit your website and "stumble upon" something they want to purchase. These newsletter articles could also be re-purposed into a blog that people can subscribe to, look up "RSS". This way people will immediately know when the information is updated or added.

    Hope this helps.

    Mike
  • Posted on 7/15/2008 at 9:04 AM Member
    A large nursery in our area partners with one of the universities to offer a continuing ed course that has one class on site at the nursery. The master gardeners employed by the nursery teach the courses, which vary in subject by season, there is a materials fee for the plants used during the class, then the final class is at the nursery, where more plant ID, care, use, etc. is done. Sales can be made there at that time. Pair it with a coupon just for the students to receive a great discount on plants/supplies, or free small bag of potting soil with purchase of pot, etc.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/15/2008 at 9:28 AM Member
    Measuring the ROI of your efforts is very wise. One local nursery offers loyalty cards and tracks purchases year-round. Loyalty members get newsletters, free seminars, discount coupons (based on level of purchase).

    Offer local non-profits a chance to sell seedlings that they grew (local schools, 4H, Scout Troupes). They'll help co-market the event for you.

    The type of clientele you're hoping to attract isn't the one that comes in once a year for their annuals. You're looking to develop a regular client. Odds are, the biggest growth are from people that have a yard but don't really know what to do with it. Therefore, offer makeover classes. Have people submit pictures of their yards, and provide a quick analysis (also offering more in-depth garden design services either in-house or via consultant recommendation). If you have software that you can help people visualize the final result, so much the better.
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