Blog – Page 48

Encouraging Gift Purchases

Ken Burke of MarketLive had an interesting article in the July 2008 issue of Catalog Success magazine about encouraging gift purchases. He recommends three approaches to significantly boost your gift business:

1) Gift Cards. Gift cards are growing in popularity. Last year, sales of gift cards grew by 25%. If you don’t already offer gift cards, consider doing so this holiday season.

2) Gift Guides. According to a MarketLive survey, companies who included a gift guide on their site averaged 68% more conversions and 70% more revenue per visit than those without a gift guide. See our recent renewsletter for some tips on developing effective gift guides.

3) Gift Sets. Preselected and prewrapped combinations of products are another way to boost sales. Gloves, hand tools, seeds, books and more can be packaged inside pots, trugs or watering cans for an attractive presentation.

With a little creativity and some preplanning, you may be pleasantly surprised at the gift sales you can generate.

What have you found most effective for soliciting gift business?

How to Encourage Customer Reviews

One of the most effective ways to get what you want is to ASK. It’s no different with customer reviews. If you’d like to encourage more reviews on your site, try sending an event-triggered email to buyers some time after they’ve received their product. For hard goods, this should be three to four weeks after […]

How to Handle a Snafu

As I was sitting here working on blog posts, I got an agitated email from a client who was in the process of launching a new enewsletter we had written for them. In their excitement to get the newsletter designed and out, they made the same mistake that all of us have occasionally made on individual emails …hit “Send” before the email was finished. What should we do now, they asked? My advice:

1) Send a correction immediately. In this case, the company had another emailing scheduled for the same day and wanted to know if they should change their plans, send a correction now and reschedule the second emailing for another day. “Yes!” I told them. The faster you correct the mistake, the more on top of things you appear, the fewer people will read the wrong newsletter, and the faster everyone will forget about the issue.

2) Make it personal. Have a real person send the email. Show some emotion and admit your embarrassment. Apologize.

3) Make it right. If no harm was caused by the snafu, a simple apology is sufficient. If the damage went beyond that, do whatever it takes to make it right.

We all make mistakes, and people are remarkably forgiving when we own up to them, provided they’re infrequent.

Our client ended up sending a correction with the subject line, “Ooops! We got a little excited.” I told them they may have increased responses with that one!

Have you had a similar snafu? How did you handle it and what happened as a result?

Heads Up On New Catalog Addressing Requirement

Effective March 29, 2009, new address placement requirements will affect most catalogers. Under the new requirements, the delivery address must appear on the top half of the catalog when the bound edge is to the right.

That’s currently not the convention for most catalogers, and I fear that many will be blindsided by the change. If you’re planning now for next year’s mailings, be sure to keep this switch in mind.

For details, read the USPS memo on the new requirements.

2008 Garden Industry Trends

Branchsmith’s Green Industry Blog recently reported on some interesting trends in the gardening world. Retailers and catalogers alike are finding that sales of vegetable seeds and plants have jumped this year, in some cases by 40% or more. Take that category out of the equation, and sales are flat or down.

We’ve certainly found that many, but not all, companies have been thriving this year. We haven’t, however, noticed a strong correlation to product categories. Instead, our unscientific research seems to indicate that companies relying solely on the traditional paper catalog are struggling against the tide, while those that are embracing new media are faring much better. (Unlike Branchsmith, who caters to garden centers, we deal primarily with catalogers and online marketers.)

How’s your year shaping up? Are you planning any strategic changes for 2009?

See You at the Independent Garden Center Show?

Last year, Nursery Retailer and Garden Chic magazines launched the Independent Garden Center Show, devoted exclusively to garden center products and experts. It was a first-rate show with a large collection of unusual, high quality merchandise on display.

This year’s show runs from Tuesday, August 19 through Thursday, August 21 at the Chicago Navy Pier, and I’m looking forward to attending.

In addition to the exhibit hall, two full days of lectures are also offered. Many topics are specific to garden centers, but quite a few deal with trends, markets, organics, and other topics of equal interest to catalogers and online marketers.

Please let me know if you plan to attend the show. I’d love to meet!

Catalogs and Environmentalism

A surge of “do not mail” legislative bills pending in numerous states has catalog companies running scared. Yet as an industry, we seem to be doing a pretty poor job of speaking up on our own behalf. In addition to doing your share to be environmentally responsible, make sure your customers know about your efforts. Along those lines, I was pleased to see the following message…

Welcome, Topsy Turvy Garden Products

We’re pleased to welcome our new client, Topsy Turvy Garden Products, best known for their upside-down tomato planter. Named Time Magazine Invention of the Year 2005, this innovative product lets gardeners grow tomatoes and other vegetables right on their patio, without digging or staking, in 20% less time than traditional methods.

We’ll be helping Topsy Turvy expand their retail distribution. For more about Topsy Turvy, see www.etopsyturvy.com.

Drive Your Customers Online

Thanks to lower costs and fast turnaround, most websites contain many more products than a merchant can afford to include in a single catalog. So I was shocked to learn from a customer panel at the recent Mailorder Gardening Association conference that customers assume that most websites simply replicate catalog offerings.

Assuming you offer more products on your website than in your catalog, make sure your customers know it. Say “More plants at www.OurCompany.com” on every page of your catalog, include “More Plants Online” bursts in your catalog, or include lists of plants that can only be bought online.

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