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 (Click on the headline for more…)
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 (Click on the headline for more…)
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: (Click on the headline for more…)
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 […]
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: (Click on the headline for more…)
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 […]
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 […]
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: (Click on the headline for more…)
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: (Click on the headline for more…)
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: (Click on the headline for more…)
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