Take the "Off" Out of Your Offseason!

August is quickly coming to an end and Labor Day is just around the corner. For people in the industry (especially in the Midwestern and Northern states) this means one of two things. Mum season is about to start or that the selling season is pretty much dead for the year. Sure there might be poinsettias and other special crops to worry about from now until April, but without the need for herbaceous plant material the market is reasonably shut for the year.

As anyone in the industry knows, once one season ends the next begins. Today’s post deals with staying connected to your customer even when things aren’t in season. Trust me, if you can keep the name of your business relevant in the minds of your customers through the winter, you’ll be the first place they look to next spring. How do you stay connected? You already know what I am going to say, but I’ll say it anyway: through Social Media!

Through the use of Social Media pages and blogs your business can keep people up to date on interesting things that are happening in the industry and new products that will be available next spring. Also this time of year can prove to be a great time to boost trust with clients of businesses that sell perennials. For example: the main concern of anyone growing any sort of perennial is its hardiness. If your business does a lot of perennial business why not make a name for yourself and make some helpful videos for consumers displaying proper techniques and tips for making sure that their perennials will reappear next spring? Or in January and February why not make some videos displaying how to protect early emerging perennials from damage? Videos like this provide value to the end consumer and can help establish a relationship of trust. They are valuable to any company in that market channel because they can help establish pull through.

Another easy way to stay in the mind of your customer is to put your product listing for the spring onto one or more of your Social Media pages. Highlight a product or two each month and post a couple different pictures about it each week. For growers this allows retailers to see through interaction what products are going to be hot next spring. If you are a grower and throw up a picture of a brand new Begonia variety that you’ll be offering and it gets hundreds of likes and shares retailers will know this is a product with a lot of interest and will be more likely to try it and order your product next spring or later this fall.

Also the winter is a time for the 2 H’s: Holidays and Humor. Stay relevant by posting cute holiday images involving plants or your products. From my experience these posts ALWAYS get lots of attention. You may not think people are going on Facebook on Christmas, but for Generation Y, Facebook is one of the only ways they send holiday wishes. So if they are on Facebook posting and so are you there is a great chance they will see your post and again be reminded of your products/services. As for the other “H”, we all know that in a lot of places January and February can be cold and depressing. People need to be cheered up. That’s why if you can make people smile with a cute garden joke or photo then you are only getting further ahead of your competition. Research says that the greatest impressions come not from how you look, but how you make people feel, so make your customers happy!

I know this post is a little preemptive, but it’s better to start thinking about this stuff now ahead of time. If you get to January and just start thinking about this kind of stuff, you’re probably too late. As we get deeper into the fall and winter we will undoubtedly be talking about more of this kind of stuff. For now however enjoy the sun and have a great Labor Day weekend!

You can always find me all over the internet! Email: mday55@gmail.com ; Twitter @mday55 ; LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233 ; and shoot me some +K on Klout if you think this was/is worthwhile!

Mobile Movement

Whew! I’m back! It has been a crazy week of moving and getting things straightened out, but anyways I’m back and ready to put my brain out there and let you know what’s going on in the realm of Social Media, Generation Y, and Horticulture in general.

Last week I touched on the topic of music and how the youth have always been “in tune” with music and how we need to find a way to tap into that. A day after I wrote that piece Nielsen released a study stating that YouTube is the number one way in which the youth listen to music. YouTube has surpassed internet radio and I-tunes. This got me thinking about a few things.

My first thought was that the horticulture industry needs to tap into this. We need to find a way to get our products connected with the music scene on YouTube. How do we do it? I guess an easy answer would be to start advertising on YouTube before music videos, etc. However, I think one of the overall goals should be to somehow get musicians to promote gardening in general on YouTube. If we can get Blake Shelton or Adam Levine to do a one minute piece on their YouTube channel about how they love to relax in their garden, I think we could see them have some influence over the youth. I don’t know how the industry could do this but there has to be a way we can come together and send out the message that gardening is “cool”.

Generation Y wasn’t raised in the garden. They feel out of place there. We have to show them why they should be gardening.

The other thing this YouTube trend got me thinking about was how it could be possible that a website was the most popular place to listen to music. It wasn’t that hard actually. On my morning walk today I saw five people listening to music – all of them on their cell phones. Cell phones have revolutionized the music industry and made new music available to anyone at any time. I’m guilty of it I’ll admit! If I want to know what a song is called or just hear a song I haven’t heard in a while, I’ll just look it up on YouTube on my phone.

But how does this apply to our industry you ask? Well clearly YouTube has catered to this mobile revolution of having a “computer” in your pocket wherever you go. Have you? Does your company’s website have a mobile version that is easy to use on an Android or I-Phone? If not you might want to consider making one or hiring a company to make one for you. Take a look at your Google Analytics page (If you aren’t using this already you need to start), and see how many of your visitors are coming from mobile operating systems. My bet is that number is higher than you think it would be.

Think about it: if you are getting a significant amount of traffic from mobile devices, and your website is not easy to navigate on a small screen scale, isn’t it worth the change. It even makes it easier on yourself if you are out and about and want to show a client something online. You don’t have to fumble through a clumsy webpage if you have a clear cut and easy to use mobile page.

In this instance it’s not about creating new content, it’s about making the content that you have easier to find in the palm of your hand.

Again I apologize for my absence this last week. I’ll try to get back to posting in a more regular fashion. I would love to hear your thoughts on these subjects or any other related topics. Leave a comment!

You can email me at mday55@gmail.com , find me on Twitter @mday55, find me on Klout here: http://klout.com/#/mday55 , or find me on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

Getting into the Rhythm

Today’s post takes a slightly different twist then most of my past posts. Today I want to talk about an idea that has been rolling around in my head for a while now. I get all kinds of ideas some of them are good others of them are worthless, but tonight I need to get this idea/string of thoughts out there so that I don’t go nuts!

When I started this blog a couple months ago, I was working on projects to create better marketing strategies that catered to Generation Y.  I came up with what I thought was some good stuff, and Social Media played a large role in a lot of those strategies. However, one thing really stood out to me when it came to how to cater to Millennials (Gen Y): Music. In horticulture it’s almost the one element of culture we don’t mess with all too often. We talk about food, self-expression, art, and even fashion. We have done a great job of being connected with those areas of human lifestyle as an industry, but the one area we hardly even touch is music.

In the last few months there has been a lot of buzz around the topic of marketing to younger people. Our industry has been trying to come up with ways to make gardening hip and cool. I say we find a way to tie plants and gardening into music. Music is something that all young people love. Music is the basis for almost every subculture in our society. It helps people relax. It gives people a status. It even helps people form opinions. Music ties into the youthful lifestyle in almost every way. So why haven’t we found a way to break into this scene.

For a long time I couldn’t really think of anyways to do this, hence why I haven’t told anybody about this concept (an idea without a spark for integration is about as useful as a busted pair of headphones). However, today while driving, and yes listening to music, I came up with a few different ideas in which different areas of the marketing chain could get plugged in to the music world.

The first thing I thought of is how come big companies that control brand advertising aren’t advertising on internet radio. Millions of people listen to Pandora radio everyday so how come Proven Winners or Wave Petunias hasn’t started advertising on there? Of course I don’t know the pricing of an advertisement like that but I think they would be surprised by the return.

For the smaller venues like IGCs, I thought why not have local bands come in on the weekends and play a couple sets on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. People want to experience something when they come to your business. If you have live music you take your garden center from “a place to buy plants” to “a rockin’ garden experience”.

These are just a couple tipping points to get our industry thinking about incorporating music into our marketing strategies. If we are trying to market to Millennials we have to try to meet them and express that our industry fits in with a hip music culture.  Again this is something that our industry has yet to dabble into, and I would love to hear from anybody with any kind of idea on how to incorporate the two concepts.

Reach me here:

Email – mday55@gmail.com

Twitter - @mday55

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

Rev(iew) Your Engines!

When it comes to being successful in the business world, everyone knows you have to make a profit, and you can only make a profit if you have customers to buy your products/services. In today’s society it is extremely easy for customers to share information. One of the biggest ways customers get information about businesses and the things they provide is through reviews. Now with certain sites reviews are easier to write/find than ever. Today’s post is about finding these reviews and what to do with a couple sites to ensure that people are writing the right reviews in the right place for your business.

It used to be when you wanted to find something out about a business you would ask around about it or try to find a magazine in which a review was written. However, nowadays people turn to the internet, specifically to Yelp. Yelp is a Social Media (sort of) site that allows people to write reviews about pretty much any business out there. It has a vast array of reviews on all sorts of businesses. Chances are if you log on and type in the name of your business something will pop up. There might not necessarily be a review there, but there will most likely be a page for your business and the ability for someone to write a review about it. If nothing pops up in Yelp, add your business! People can’t tell you what you’re doing right or wrong if they don’t have an outlet!

One thing Yelp allows you to do is to “claim” the business. For example if your business pops up in the search you can “claim” it and add a description to your business. This is highly recommended so that people better understand your business goals and can write a better review. Also, it might help to attract new customers if people are browsing a certain category for a certain area. If someone is looking at garden centers in their area and come across yours with a full description they will be enticed to go to your business over another one whose profile is nonexistent.

Reviews online can be tricky. As most business owners know, people only tend to write reviews if they have something to complain about (which can be bad for business). This is a fixable problem! Why not simply put a flyer at the checkout of your building or a note on the receipt that reminds customers if they liked the experience that you would appreciate the feedback on Yelp. Also, a link to your company’s page on Yelp on Facebook or your webpage could promote a spontaneous goodwill review.

Yelp isn’t the only place to find reviews. People can also write reviews on Google + or even e-commerce sites that may be selling your products (hint: Seed Companies). Finding these reviews could be as easy as throwing your product/business name into Google and the word review along with it.

Reviews aren’t always going to be positive, but that’s ok. They allow you to fix what’s wrong and get your business better catered to the customer. Reviews are a source of constructive criticism. Some may be misinformed, and perhaps you can reply in a comment or email and solve a problem.  

People like knowing what other people have to say before buying. Third party information is the most reliable information to a customer. They know something is good when somebody outside of the business recommends it.  Check out Yelp and see what people are saying about your business. If things are looking pretty rough, try to make some changes and shake things up. See if you can get some better reviews.

Nothing tells you to change your business strategy like a slap in the face from your customer!

Contact me for more information/comments/questions.

Email: mday55@gmail.com

Twitter @mday55

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

Also find me on www.klout.com and throw some +k my way if you like what I’m doing! 

Don't Let the Numbers Win!!!

Lately I have been seeing a lot of skepticism cross my desk. There is a big debate going on about whether or not “business to business” companies should be investing in Social Media. Looking at the numbers it might seem like a fruitless effort for a B2B business to be on things like Facebook and Twitter. However, I’m here to tell you numbers can be deceiving. Today I want to take a deeper look into what it might mean for you to be active in Social Media even if you are a B2B business, or wholesaler.

A lot of talk I have been seeing in the last few days regarding B2B companies has been saying that B2Bs simply can’t drum up enough interest to make Social Media efforts worthwhile. They said that B2Bs didn’t get enough followers or likes on Twitter and Facebook to create a good following. They even tried to discount competitors being on Social Media saying that it doesn’t matter if your competitors are Facebook if they only have 30 “likes”. After reading this I started thinking about B2B businesses and I got a different view of things. There was something that this skeptic in particular was clearly missing.

I started thinking of the marketing channel as a food chain. The higher up you get, the fewer players there are.  When you think about it some businesses that cater to other businesses may only have 60 customers in total, but each customer is highly valued and worth a lot to that business. When that business then gets 30 followers on Facebook it means that either a good percentage of his customers have connected with him or that people interested in doing business with that company have established contact.

In businesses like this it doesn’t mean that Social Media isn’t worthwhile, it means that Social Media could be worth more to you than a B2C business because every customer in that B2B business is worth a great deal more than the average consumer. If your competitors are out there and scoop up just five customers from Social Media just because you aren’t out there could mean the loss of say $100,000 if each one of those B2B customers buys just $20,000 worth of products/services. Whereas in the consumer market if a competitor attracts five more customers it could be a difference of a mere $25.

Being a B2B business on Social Media also provides a source for customers to provide their customers with a story. They can say this product is good because it came from this company. This in turn can create pull. A consumer who comes across your B2B Facebook page may go to a retailer and demand a product that you produced.

Social Media can be a great marketing tool for any business, not just consumer facing ones. It can help create pull through. It can help to answer questions, and it can bring customers. It can even help you find new talent to bring into your business. Businesses should always be looking for good, young talent. They are out there on Social Media trying to connect. Why shouldn’t you be out there too?

Even though the sheer volume of people coming to your page may not rival B2C businesses you have to look at the money behind your customers and attribute that to the followers you get and the chance you may obtain a new account from your efforts.

Email: mday55@gmail.com
Twitter @mday55
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233


Perennials last the longest because they " know how to get back to their roots"
Yeah the jokes don't get any worse.

TV Commercials Aren't Free Either

In the last couple of weeks, I have been making presentations and talking to people in the industry about how easy Social Media can be if you set up an organized plan. For some larger companies I often bring up the thought of hiring a Social Media Manager to take care of various pages and constantly be updating content and working with other web based tasks as well. Most of the businesses I talk to seem interested in the concept of Social Media, but when it comes to talking about taking time and money out of their schedule, people start to become very skeptical. Now, this is understandable for any business venture that varies from what a business is currently doing. You have to scrutinize opportunities so you don’t fall into any traps. The number one thing people say to me about Social Media is that it is nothing more than a passing fad.

Today I’m going to tell you why Social Media and web analytics aren’t just a fad for this industry or for any industry. I’ll explain why it is vital for any business large or small to pay attention to what is happening out there on the internet.

The first reason that you need to be constantly monitoring what is going on out there is because your competitors are doing the same things and working toward advancements. I will say this; at any level in this industry all of your competitors are online somehow. In today’s world if something isn’t online then it doesn’t exist.  I will also say that most of your competitors are involved in Social Media in some way. That poses a problem for your business. If your competitors are out there getting their name out there and you are not, what is that doing for your market share? Sure, maybe Social Media pages still aren’t as great an advertising tool as something like a TV commercial spot, but things are changing and more people turn to a computer rather than a TV every day. Bottom Line: your competitors are using Social Media to gain a following, and whether you like it or not you should be using SM to do the same just to say at an even level with your competition.

The second reason that Social Media is a must right now is to get ahead of the changes that are about to occur. Right now we still see Boomers and Generation X holding all the money in the economy. However, this is about to change in the next 5 to 10 years. Millennials (Gen Y) are getting older, and getting better jobs as Boomers move along. Along with this we will begin to see freedom from debt and monetary gain. Millennials will become the top consumer, and you know where Millennials go for information? Well here’s a hint: currently roughly a quarter of Millennials check their Facebook before rolling out of bed. It’s the first thing they do after they wake up. Think about how that percentage increases as the day goes on. Think of how many Millennials would have checked their Facebook by noon? If you aren’t on Facebook then there is no chance that they see you by checking their Facebook page. Also like any other ad campaign there is no cure-all. It would be impossible to reach every member of your target audience in any kind of ad. We need to think of Social Media just like that. You can’t reach everyone, but if you aren’t out there you won’t reach anyone.

The last reason (that I’ll list to keep today’s post from taking up five pages) that Social Media is worth the time and money is that it’s free/cheap. As I’ve said over and over again in these blog posts, if your business isn’t already on Facebook and Twitter something is wrong. Setting up a profile is free and takes under ten minutes. For big companies who are wary of hiring someone to a Social Media Manager role or having someone keep the content on their SM pages up to date; I ask: Are you paying for print ads? Are you paying to print sell sheets? Are you paying for TV spots? Of course you are, so why not work it in your budget to possibly get away from some forms of media that you are seeing a decline on and take a chance on Social Media. Heck for most companies that do print ads, there is a creative person, a designer, and an editor. Therefore not only does the company pay for the ad but they have to pay the people who are making the ad! With Social Media you pay someone to do a job and it’s done! You don’t pay by post on Facebook, and you don’t pay by minute on YouTube!

I know today’s post was a little bold. I just hear people tell me that Social Media is just a passing fad, so they don’t want to get involved, and I honestly feel bad. In a couple of years a new generation will be controlling the market place and the companies who didn’t get a head start on this Social/Web based marketing are going to be left in the dust. This is one of those points where the older generations in the Horticulture industry really need to listen to the Millennials breaking into the industry and try to figure out what is TRULY best for the future.

I would really love to hear any questions, comments, or even if you would like more reasons of why you need to be involved in Social Media please contact me. Email : mday55@gmail.com , Twitter : @mday55 , LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

Share Your Story!

Up and at ‘em bright and early. That’s how it’s done in this business, and just because I spend more of my days behind a computer than behind a tractor doesn’t mean that I’ve lost that mentality. Alright so this morning I want to go over another great way to provide content online to your customers/consumers. That way being: blogs! Yep I’m talking about creating something exactly like what you’re reading just now – well but with different content of course. Blogs let you expand on things. They let you tell a story. In a way, think of a blog as a way to get a lot of content to your target audience. Facebook and Twitter are great ways to get snippets of information to your followers, but on these sites nobody wants to read a page worth of text. However, there are a lot of times in this industry where things can’t be explained in a simple paragraph. That’s why you should start and build a base for a blog(s).

The first thing that you might be thinking is “But I don’t have any content that could fill up a blog”, but I say, sure you do! The one thing I’ve found at every level of the industry is that no matter what the company, there is always some sort of information that a business is trying to relay to a customer, but they just aren’t getting it. Because there is “no recommended length” for a blog post you can take as long as you want to explain what you are trying to show your audience.

I have no idea what your individual businesses are but here are just a few of the ideas I have for blogs for numerous levels within the industry. For instance as a local garden center, why not set up a blog with the story of your business. Show your customers how you started. Tell them how long you have been in the area, and how your business has changed with time. Post old newspaper clippings and say what your business was like at that time. For garden centers with less of a history, why not use a blog to detail the building process of your business (which you are currently experiencing), or show the hard work it takes to get started in this industry. Personal stories like this are great for blogs and help attract customers to garden centers because people feel like they know the business better and prefer to shop there.

If you are a breeding company, why not set up a blog and discuss a different variety in each post?  You could show how the variety came about. It might be a great way to showcase someone’s hard work. Often the breeder himself gets very little credit in the scheme of things but this way you could show your appreciation. Along with that you could show what the process is for breeding new varieties (obviously without showing your secrets)! Growers and consumers are always interested in “where something comes from” so why don’t you show them. It might even help generate interest in new plant varieties if customers see how cool the breeding history is.

Landscapers, a blog could do great things for you as well. Why do a post for each job that you have and show before and after pictures of the site. Along with the pictures tell everyone how your crew was able to get from the previous to the latter. Emphasize the labor and hard work you put in! This way, customers can see that you do great work and that you really get the job done.

No matter what the case, I’m sure your horticultural business could find use for a blog. To get started it’s probably easiest to use something like Blogger or Wordpress, but if you know of another site that hosts blogs feel free to use that. Then post links to your blog in your other Social Media pages and websites. Tell your customers about it.

Don’t worry about time either. I know that in this industry people are always stretched for time. You may think that it isn’t worth having a blog because you won’t be able to post on a regular schedule, but people who read your blog will only be used to the way you post. So if you post at irregular intervals then they will be used to you posting at irregular intervals. Besides, content on blogs doesn’t go away. It isn’t like Facebook or Twitter where things you said an hour ago get washed away by the millions of posts people are creating. Things you post on a blog stay there and people can easily search for the content and come back as often as they want to reread old posts.

Blogs are a slower paced way to really tell your story online. It puts you more on your audience’s level. They are one of the only low-stress endeavors in today’s marketing infrastructure.

I hope you found today’s post interesting as always. I’d be interested to hear from you if you start/have a blog. I’d love to check it out. For this and all other questions or comments: Email mday55@gmail.com , Twitter @mday55 , or find me here on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233