Multichannel Merchant Cites Dip in Gardening Catalog Universe

July 30, 2010 – 4:15 am

According to an article in the July issue of Multichannel Merchant, the number of 12-month buyers from gardening catalogs dipped 7.6% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to first quarter 2009. The article further reports that only 29% of gardening catalog files had some sort of growth, while 37% declined.

Of course, these numbers are averages that include both vegetable gardening companies with strong sales and companies selling discretionary luxury products, many of which are hurting.

Nevertheless, if Multichannel Merchant’s numbers are correct, I’d say we’re doing a darn good job of beating the averages for most of our clients. In our experience, direct-to-consumer sales are outpacing business-to-business. What’s more, a number of clients selling discretionary products with high price points are doing well by emphasizing the more affordable segments of their product line.

What’s been your experience so far in 2010?

By Val Gosset | Posted in Garden industry trends | Leave a Comment

An Elegant Example of Customer-Generated Content

July 28, 2010 – 4:15 am

Our last post talked about the how’s and why’s of obtaining and using customer-generated photos. But why stop there?

For a superb example of one company’s use of customer-generated content, have a look at the Backcountry.com website. Below each product description is a “Product Wall” with 4 choices: Reviews, Questions, Photos, and Videos. That’s followed by the call to action: Talk shop with all the gear freaks out there: ask ‘em questions, upload/browse photos, and give your 2 cents.

The resulting posts serve to build community, reduce customer service questions, and generate some powerful testimonials.

The rest of Backcountry.com’s product pages are worth noting, too. The clear, concise way they present an extraordinary amount of information – including product detail views, testimonials, product specs, cross-sell opportunities, guarantee, offers, and more – is positively elegant.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Video, Website design | Tagged , | Leave a Comment

Encouraging Customer Photo Submissions

July 26, 2010 – 4:15 am

Nothing sells like a photo of a happy customer using your product or showing the fruits (and vegetables and flowers!) of their gardening labor. I’m always amazed at how few companies make a concentrated effort to encourage customer photo submissions. Here are a few tips on how to go about it:

• Contests are among the best ways get customer photos. Gift certificates are easy prizes that are always appreciated. I’ve seen amounts range from $25 (for any submissions used) to $1,000 (for a first prize winner).

• It helps to give guidelines on what you’re looking for. Specify how the winning photos will be used (i.e., catalog, newsletter, website). If you prefer people, children, or animals in the photo, say so. If you’d like some information about what the photo is of, specify that, too.

• Ask for photos at every opportunity – on your website, in your enewsletter, blog, or forum. If you’re running a contest, be sure to include a deadline.

• Give specific instructions about how photos are to be submitted. Should they be emailed, or uploaded to your website? If you accept prints, where should they go, and will they be returned?

With any luck, you’ll get more photos than you can use in your catalog or on your website. Consider setting up a separate section of your site for the rest. It creates good will with the senders and inspiration for your website visitors.

How about you? What are you doing to encourage customer photo submissions?

By Val Gosset | Posted in Advertising, Marketing | Tagged | Leave a Comment

Mind Your Blog Etiquette

July 23, 2010 – 4:15 am

One thing that stops some people from blogging is being unsure about proper blogging etiquette. Here are a few guidelines:

Be transparent. Speak in an authentic voice, about real situations. Just don’t divulge any information that was given to you in confidence.

Reference others. Most bloggers love to be mentioned, even quoted directly, in other blogs. It’s free publicity and expands their audience. Just don’t borrow their work wholesale, and always link to their blog or website.

Respond to comments. If someone made the effort to read and comment on your blog, don’t ignore them. Post an answer, even if it’s only to thank them for their kind/provocative/interesting observation.

Be polite. Disagreement makes for more interesting reading, so it’s good to approve comments from others who have a different point of view (provided they’re on-topic and not vulgar, of course – go ahead and delete those). Respond factually and politely.

Own up to mistakes. There may come a time when you post something that’s inaccurate. We’re all human; it happens. Don’t take the cowardly way out and hit the delete button. It’ll cost you credibility in the long run. Instead, correct the mistake in another blog post or the comment field, and move on.

Divulge conflicts of interest. If there’s some personal relationship that may affect a reader’s interpretation of your blog post, don’t hide it. Maintain full disclosure and mention it in the blog post.

Blogging etiquette really isn’t all that different from any other type of communication. So don’t be shy. Dive in and start blogging!

By Val Gosset | Posted in Blogs | Leave a Comment

Using Marketing Personas

July 21, 2010 – 4:15 am

Today there’s a popular trend towards marketing with personas – fictitious customers, each representing a different market segment. When developing personas for your business, there are lots of variables to consider, such as age, geographic location, education, experience with your products, whether they’re avid Internet or social media users. The benefits you provide, offers you make, and media you use to communicate is likely to differ from one persona group to another.

For instance, a company selling a self-contained raised bed gardening system may have personas such as:

• City Susan, who grew up gardening, but now lives in a large city and only has a small patio on which to garden.

• Nancy Newbie, who has never gardened before in her life, and is looking for a foolproof system that provides ideal growing conditions.

• Downsizing Dan and Donna, who have been avid gardeners all their life, but are finding that the physical work of shoveling and weeding makes it too difficult to maintain their large traditional garden.

Descriptions of each marketing persona would be developed in much more detail, based on hard data.

There are two big benefits of using personas for marketing purposes.

One is that they put a human face on the customer. When developing products, writing catalog copy, or creating a blog, it’s helpful for everyone involved to have a picture in their mind of who their customers are.

The other benefit is that personas help marketers avoid the common trap of thinking “all customers are just like me.” 

How about you? Have you tried using personas in your marketing? Have they been helpful?

By Val Gosset | Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Marketing goals | Tagged , | Comments (2)

What’s Ahead For Online Marketing?

July 19, 2010 – 4:15 am

While catching up on trade reading, a comment in the Publisher’s Letter of Internet Retailer magazine caught my eye. While describing the new Internet Retailer website, publisher Jack Love noted that “Soon we’ll be presenting video of interviews with industry experts that we record in a studio just completed in our new corporate office. Video will someday be the primary content on the site, supplemented by written content and data. When the web merges with cable television in a few years, we want InternetRetailer.com to be the cable channel focused exclusively on covering e-commerce.”

Time will tell if his prognostication will be right or wrong, but it’s certainly intriguing. And it makes me all the more eager to hear Internet Retailer’s Editor-in-Chief Kurt Peters at the Mailorder Gardening Association conference (Aug. 16 – 18, Chicago), discussing what he sees ahead for web marketing.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Events, Online marketing, Video | Comments (4)

Identifying Keywords That Signal Shopping Behavior

July 16, 2010 – 4:15 am

When it comes to building a keyword list, it helps to pay attention to wording nuances that suggest whether or not a searcher is in buying mode.

Conventional wisdom says that people start a very broad search term, such as tomato plants and then get progressively more specific as they get closer to buying, first with searches like beefsteak tomato plants, and finally something like Brandywine tomato plants.

While that’s likely true, there are other cues that searchers are in shopping mode, such as terms like these:

buy tomato plants
tomato plants for sale
tomato plants online
vegetable plant catalog
vegetable plant company

Someone searching on any of these terms is likely to be shopping, and at a point where they’re far more open to suggestion than the person shopping on Brandywine tomato plants.

By contrast, if you focus strictly on the higher volume, more generic keywords like tomato plants, there’s no way to know whether someone is shopping — or looking for advice on when to plant, how to plant, how to care for tomato plants, how to treat pests and diseases, when to harvest, or a myriad of other topics.

When building your keyword lists, be sure include those that telegraph a shopping intention, and be cautious about using those that too open-ended.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Pay-per-click advertising | Tagged , | Leave a Comment

What’s the Best Way to Present Your Message?

July 14, 2010 – 4:15 am

The rise of new media has given companies many options for presenting their sales messages: video, blogs, podcasts, and much more. Many wonder what’s the best way to get their message out. The answer:

There is no best way, because we all absorb information differently. For instance, I’m always awestruck by the way my designer can provide perfect driving direction by simply drawing a picture. I, as a word person, take that picture and translate it into written instructions.

Likewise, when listening to a lecture or on an important phone call, I must take notes in order to do a good job of retaining what I’m hearing.

So don’t make the mistake of thinking there’s one best way to communicate. And even though you may absorb information best one way, make an effort to include other communication styles in your marketing messages. To reach the broadest audience, get your message out there often, and by many different means.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Social media | Leave a Comment

An Acid Test for Headlines and Subject Lines

July 12, 2010 – 4:15 am

When your prospects are flipping through a magazine, your ad only has a second to catch their eye. Your headline and image has to do all the heavy lifting. Unless that catches their interest, they’re guaranteed not to delve further.

Likewise, when looking at an overflowing email inbox, readers are most likely scanning “from” lines and subject lines, deciding which emails they can delete without opening.

That makes writing powerful headlines and subject lines a pretty important skill to master. Here’s the trick I use to see if mine measure up:

Picture yourself answering the door for a door-to-door salesman. (I know, I’m dating myself). Imagine your headline is the first thing he says to you. Do you keep the door open, or slam it shut? If there’s enough of a benefit, you’ll keep it open.

If the benefit isn’t immediately clear, expect a door-slam. Assuming that a “clever” headline will catch attention “and then they’ll want to know more” is a tactic that hardly ever works.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Advertising, Copywriting, Email marketing | Leave a Comment

Technology Gone Awry

July 9, 2010 – 4:15 am

Last week, before leaving for a long weekend in Maine, I wrote blog posts to carry the schedule through the end of this week. I don’t know what happened, but they weren’t deployed as I intended. In case you missed any, here are the links:

• What Will Google Come Up with Next?
• One Trip, Two Great Events
• Lessons from the GardenWatchdog Top 30

I’ve published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the last two years without missing a beat, and apologize for the snafu. Back to normal next week!

By Val Gosset | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment