June 2020 - 18

MARKETING
MARKETING SOLUTIONS
FOR GARDEN CENTERS
Quick & Easy
By Joe Tacosik
Marketing experts offer tips to help
your retail location stand out.
W
hen it comes to helping your
garden center stand out in
the crowded retail industry, a
well thought-out marketing strategy and
proper execution can be what sets the
good retailers apart from the great. And
if you're looking to improve your garden
center's marketing efforts, there are a
few quick, easy things you can do right
now to help improve your visibility.
Updating Your Brand Identity
One area that many businesses can
improve their marketing is by making
sure they are presenting a proper
brand identity. Your brand identity is
considered to be all the visible elements
of your brand - think color, design,
logo and signage - that help identify
and distinguish your brand in a
customer's mind.
Many businesses, especially those
that have been around for decades, may
have a mixed brand identity, e.g., some
social media channels show old logos,
while using new logos on their website.
By taking the time to ensure your
brand identity is streamlined across
all of your touchpoints with customers
- including social media, email
marketing, website and various
business listings - you are providing
18 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | JUNE 2020
them with the important benefit of
making your brand recognizable. With
a streamlined brand identity, customers
immediately identify a certain color,
shape or logo with your company, making
it easier to connect with your company
and separating you from other retailers.
Improving Your Website
In the digital age, it's not just local
retailers that you are competing with,
but also national brick-and-mortar and
online chains. Companies of all sizes are
using search engine optimization (SEO)
on their online stores to move up in
Google's search results in an attempt to
acquire more customers.
If your website is outdated, with poor
design and inaccurate information,
you could not only be missing out on
sales now, but hurting your chances to
acquire future customers as well.
Some simple steps business owners
can take right now include updating
the website's information - such
as hours, sale information, location
information and more - to ensure
you're providing your customers with
the most accurate information.
Another way to help your website is
to make sure the design is updated to
reflect the same logos and branding,
and keeping a streamlined look
with your social media channels, as
previously mentioned.
Finally, you can do some work on your
SEO presence to help move your website
up in Google's search results. Some of
the small changes to make right away
are including your company's story
directly on the home page, considering
adding a blog (and updating it regularly
with fresh information and customeroriented
topics) and including great,
high-quality photography throughout
the website.
Making Social Media
Adjustments
If your company isn't currently using
social media, setting up the appropriate
social media channels for your business
should be a high priority.
Nearly 42% of the world's population
- or roughly 3.2 billion people - are
active on social media each and every
day, and that number is constantly
growing. Furthermore, according
to GlobalWebIndex, over 54% of
consumers will browse a company's
social media to research products or
services before making
a purchase.
All of your social media channels
should have a single, streamlined
June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2020
