Garden Center Blog

When we started sending e-mail newsletters  six years ago virtually all of them got opened.  There was a big difference between spam and the mail you wanted to get.  The middle ground has filled up.

Now the average person receives 72 emails each day and opens less than 20% of them.  Couple this with the projection that in 4 years the number of emails per user is likely to double.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that you will have to compete for all of those opens.  You can't spend your advertising budget on emails that don't get opened.  Manage your content to build your open rate, just like you build your subscriber list.

We watch these open rates very carefully.  We strive for an open rate greater than 60%.  When we start with a clean list, we keep it over that number in almost every case.  In some cases the number is lower because the lists are dated, or have been spoiled because a sender didn't worry about the content.  We have taken lists over after a nursery used a mailing list to send virtually the same sales flyer month after month.  Without useful information, fresh ideas, and a bright attitude, those lists became cold.  It takes a long time, and some great marketing to rehabilitate those lists.

One major factor is send frequency.  We were surprised to see that the highest open rates happen at "off gardening times."  January and February have the highest open rates of all the months.  If the weather isn't suited to garden then people read about gardening. J

Another contributing factor is how long since the last newsletter was sent.  To  our surprise, emails that follow 2 weeks behind the last email open 9% more often than monthly emails.  The like to make sure that every email contains some treasure, and that there are offerings across a wide audience.  You should offer something for the novice, and something for the expert.  We all know that the widest opportunities are with the broad center of casual gardeners who would like to be just a little better.

If you want to consider an effectiveness formula, it would look something like:

(# of subscribers) X (open rate)  X (frequency)  X (average purchase) = newsletter value.

I would love to hear some differing opinions, or suggestions.  Happy retailing!

 

 

   

This year will stretch everyone’s “management muscles.”  As budgets get cut, the importance of relationship building and service becomes more relevant.  Profit, morale, and quality service are all hanging in the balance of good management

It is the garden centers responsibility to ally itself with its customers and its employees.  We all know that people will remember those that helped them when they needed it.  This is not a zero sum problem.

I have spoken to my employees, and told them that I am committed to use every bit of my focus to help them all keep full schedules, but I can’t do it on my own if the customers aren’t there.  At the same time I am reaching out to help customers that are having problems to keep them viable.  I have made concessions on dating, and worked out some less expensive alternatives.  As you approach three balance drivers of payroll, inventory and sales, it is so important to show your vendors and your employees that their fates are welded to yours.

I see my employees going the extra mile to make sure their clients are happy.  I see vendors reaching out with plans to make sure their dealers are stocked and ready to go.  This is a time of change for consumers.  They will be reevaluating everything they do. It is important right now to control the parts of your value proposition that you can.  Don’t wait for this economy to happen to you, you have to adjust one of the 3 to meet the challenge.

Here is a concept that really helped me grow sites, and search benefits.  It moves a site from being pretty to look at, to building revenue.

Traffic is not linear.  As a web developer we like to think that readers will look at our pages in order starting at the front and working back.  The challenge is to make each page it’s own “front door” with search engine considerations, a call to action and a means to move viewers to other key pages within the site.  See how many search terms will lead a browser to your site.

We used to think the goal was to be number 1 on google, get people to your home page and then get them in the store from there.
Now it looks more like targeting 100 search terms, building 50 gateway pages, and considering 5 different calls to action.

A great tool for this is Google Analytics.  It is free, tells you how many people came from which search engine.  Most importantly GA will tell you which search terms they use to get there.  We gather this information for all of our customers and are glad to help you expand your reach.
Good hunting!