The 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, sponsored by Social Media Examiner, makes for some interesting reading. The report summarizes the results of a survey that sought to determine how marketers are currently using social media to grow their business. Among many other findings, the report cites 7 main benefits of social media marketing, as follows: (Click on the headline for more…)
Where Your Most Important Copy Points Belong
Lists and bulleted copy can make it easy for readers to absorb information quickly. When using this technique, (Click on the headline for more…)
Overcoming Procrastination
We entrepreneurs typically wear a lot of hats. Along with spending time doing work we love comes the things we must do, but would prefer not to … a recipe for procrastination. When I find myself procrastinating on an important project, one of three things tends to get me moving: (Click on the headline for more…)
A Short Course on Selling to Catalogs and Only Merchants
If you’ve thought about selling your products to catalogers and online merchants, but weren’t sure how to go about it, the Mailorder Gardening Association (MGA) is offering a crash course on that very topic. (Click on the headline for more…)
Overcoming Incorrect Assumptions in Cross-Promotion
Are you making the same mistakes I have been when cross-promoting your marketing channels? Here’s what I mean: We’ve been publishing a printed newsletter, Let’s Grow, three times per year for the last 7 years. It’s sent to a substantial mailing list we’ve developed over the years, and most of the articles in it are […]
Multichannel Merchant Cites Dip in Gardening Catalog Universe
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…)
An Elegant Example of Customer-Generated Content
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…)
Encouraging Customer Photo Submissions
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…)
Mind Your Blog Etiquette
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 […]
Using Marketing Personas
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…)
