Create Marketing Ideas To Grow Your Garden Center Business

The problem most small businesses face in marketing is consistency, especially when it takes time for results to pen out. Take social media marketing as an example. It has become one of the most common marketing strategies today. But how often do you look at a page on social media and find that the last time they posted or shared content was many moons ago? Here is the truth: inactivity costs you a big chunk of your lead generation output. One of the best retail marketing tips
 you can adopt is to stick with your efforts, especially when they seem like they are failing. On that note, here are some creative marketing ideas you can use to grow your garden center business.


  1. Grow Your Own Ideas

Inspire people with the benefits of growing things on their own and get people excited about your brand. A gardening company that does this well is Chladek. Instead of focusing their efforts on marketing their herbs, the company decided to focus its marketing strategy on the "Grow your own pizza" model.

People, including kids, started to become enthusiastic about purchasing the herbs they needed to grow their pizza at home. This is a genius idea because getting kids on board with your marketing campaign automatically gets their parents or guardians excited about the same products or, at the very least, involved.

The tag is also excellent for clickbait on the internet. That said, take a page from Chladek and start to offer "grow your own" options for your customers. For instance, Grow Your Own Fruit bowl salad is excellent if you want to target workout or health enthusiasts.

Also, look for products you can cross-sell with your idea. Cheese, for instance, is excellent for making pizza, while organic honey goes well with a fruit bowl salad.


  1. Organize A Gardening Competition

Healthy competition develops growth, innovation, and better-quality products or services. So, why not take advantage of healthy competition
 by organizing one for your garden center? But first, think about the demographic you wish to attract. Competition with promised prizes has an acumen for attracting unwanted attention.

Therefore, you can narrow down the entries in your competition to customers that purchase products from your store. Alternatively, invite other parties that subscribe to your website or newsletter. This way, you also get an opportunity to market yourself to them through email promotions and coupons and hopefully adopt loyalty.

Also, use the competition to increase engagement on your social media platforms and website. The goal is to attract business to your garden center. And healthy competition is an excellent way to get suitable attention to your business.


  1. Host Parties At Your Garden Center

Parties are hosted throughout the year. Therefore, hosting parties at your garden center allows you to market your products and beat the seasonal blues of the gardening industry. Make the parties memorable to enhance word-of-mouth advertisement
 for your business.

Here is an example: for adult parties, organize a "sip and paint" event where attendees have canvases, paints, and brushes to channel their creativity as they sip some fine wine. Instead of a canvas, you can offer gardening containers or shopping bags for the attendees to paint and take home.

Ensure these take-home accessories have your brand logo or name since they will promote your garden center every time they are used. If it is a kid's party, offer the same perks, with other fun activities like face painting, pet feeding if you have pets in your store, or organize a movie watch party in your garden and offer snacks.


  1. Offer Team-Building Activities

Like your garden parties, team-building activities have the potential to market your garden center successfully when done purposefully. Offer a gardening workshop to companies in your local region. Develop themes that will inspire people to subscribe to what you are selling.

For example, in your workshop, teach the company attendees how to plant flowers and plants that improve the air in their homes. Pair the colleagues and help them through the gardening process, from plant selection and soil preparation to the actual planting process.

Teach people how to replant potted plants from one miniature pot to a bigger one as their plants grow with time. Make it simple and easy to follow. The team-building exercise inspires the company employees to work together while cultivating an interest in gardening.

Let the attendees take the potted plants back to the office, where they can watch over them as they grow. This is worth trying out since it opens your garden center to new marketing opportunities and a unique audience.


  1. Take Advantage Of Sustainable Trends

Consumers today want to purchase from brands that practice sustainability
. Why? It improves the quality of life, preserves natural resources, and protects the ecosystem overall. Therefore, come up with marketing strategies that support the sustainability movement.

An excellent example to follow is the "losers box" used to sell plants by some Dutch garden centers. The idea is to give customers plants in a mixed variety at a discounted price for them to care for in their office or home.

Usually, the plants are in poor form or shape but can last several months if well taken care of. The idea works because it puts the customers in the savior mode, inspiring them to purchase and save the plants instead of leaving them to rot.


  1. Don't Forget The Power of Online Marketing

Your online presence is an opportunity for you to create retail promotions that work
 successfully. Online advertisements also give you the freedom of reach and versatility that a physical marketing promotion might not.

For instance, you can offer promotions through a simple banner or add a link to a gift voucher your subscribers can print out and use in your physical store. Or create an engagement by asking your followers to share their gardening stories, then offer a price for the best moving story.

Marketing this promotion on Instagram stories, for instance, will reach gardeners that don't follow your brand. Make your marketing exclusive to loyal customers by offering them promotions they can access through an online portal or a code.

To reach new audiences, use the power of online marketing tools like SEO that make you visible on popular search engines like Google. And if you are feeling up to it, create a press release and become newsworthy.


Let Erply Help

Erply cloud POS is excellent at teaching marketing tricks to client retail stores
. For instance, did you know that you can market your products at the point of purchase using your POS successfully? Here's how: Erply helps you gather customer data that provides insight into customer behavior. For instance, the data identifies fast-selling products that give you an idea of the items to stock most in your garden center. With your point of purchase marketing, Erply helps you display the in-store samples that attract the most attention among your customers. Therefore, your shoppers will include impulse purchases on products like garden accessories, which increases your overall sales rate. Additionally, customer data gives insight into your customer needs that you can use to upsell and cross-sell products from your garden center. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Join Erply today
 and learn more about how we can help you market your garden center successfully.