Marketing a Garden Centre.

[Sobie]

Hi All,
We are a small, independant family run garden centre. We are very much a traditional garden centre in which plants are our core product and our passion. Then we stock products needed to look after those plants, composts, pots, plant feeds etc. Mainly our customers are retired couples.
We normally advertise in our local paper at key times in the season. We have a website and are on facebook. We also are involved with the local WI and gardening club. We donate to various local school gardening clubs. We have our own discount/ membership scheme where we post or email out newsletters on a monthly (in season) basis. we have been featured in a book published by Country Living. In the spring I will be writing a gardening feature for our parish newsletter.
We are off the beaten track, we are unable to put signage on the main road leading to our garden cente as planning permission was not granted, so we do not get any passing trade.
We are a very seasonal and weather related business.
So what else can we do to market our business?
Thanks

 

[filtuh.com]

Tea Party In The Park?

Xmas fair with mulled wine?

basically make it a destination - do you do food - weekend breakfasts etc?

 

[360interactive]

Unfortunately these days you're competing with the big boys who market them selves almost as a day out with the family. Huge income is derived from not only plants, but pets and gift items. Food also plays a huge part, with all our locals having large food courts.

I would concentrate on your core values, which seems to be the traditional gardner who is just interested in his/her plants, not gifts or hot tubs. Have you thought about a sort of gardning club? I recently did some photography for a HUGE garden club near London, that soley sells plants. They are membership only, but here is the clever bit, the membership for the year is only £5. They have thousands of members, so they make a chunk of cash even before they have people through the door. As it is just a small amount, loads are willing to pay even if just visiting once. They also had a huge range of flowers and plants, that changes constantly throughout the year. The place was packed when I was there, with mostly older, retired types. They also potted their own plantlings (i think thats what baby plants are called?!), so were actually able to provide cheaper prices than most garden centres.

Flyers and publications would be a good idea for your target market, I don't suppose many of your customers use facebook do they? Really build up your reputation as a good, solid reliable place selling high quality plants.

 

[Sobie]

Tea Party In The Park?

Xmas fair with mulled wine?

basically make it a destination - do you do food - weekend breakfasts etc?

We sell a food range but we cannot have a coffee shop because we do not the necessary facilitys to pass planning.

 

[Kernowman]

C'mon, just because most plants are dormant in the winter, it doesn't mean to say you should be as well.

From my own point of view the average garden centre effectively says to me "Here are some plants to buy" making the assumption I know what I am doing - which I don't. What I would like to see is some added value there in the form of some free knowledgeable advice of where these plants are best suited, their anticipated size when full grown and any other requirements like pruning. If I am lucky I get a plastic thingy poked into the pot written in pidgin english or soppy diagrams which are usually way off the mark. Your knowledge means I might not make expensive mistakes in my garden design.

If this is your area of expertise, then why not have regular gardening masterclasses at the start of each gardening season on a slack day of the week and make an occasion of it too. Dig the barbecue out, offer refreshments and make it friendly and informal. If you feel it is beneficial, then invite tradesmen along to advise or demonstrate barbecue building, fence building/care, tree care and a myriad other trades that are likely to be involved in gardens and surrounds.

 

[An Oasis]

Can you offer trade discounts to local designers and landscapers?

Have you tried to get in with your local authority as part of your local planting schemes?

Are there any pubs/restaurants nearby that you could plant up in return for profile marketing?

 

[Kernowman]

Maybe approach the council highways department to landscape one of their roundabouts free on the proviso you are able to place signs to the effect it was your business that did it

 

[Sobie]

Unfortunately these days you're competing with the big boys who market them selves almost as a day out with the family. Huge income is derived from not only plants, but pets and gift items. Food also plays a huge part, with all our locals having large food courts.

I would concentrate on your core values, which seems to be the traditional gardner who is just interested in his/her plants, not gifts or hot tubs. Have you thought about a sort of gardning club? I recently did some photography for a HUGE garden club near London, that soley sells plants. They are membership only, but here is the clever bit, the membership for the year is only £5. They have thousands of members, so they make a chunk of cash even before they have people through the door. As it is just a small amount, loads are willing to pay even if just visiting once. They also had a huge range of flowers and plants, that changes constantly throughout the year. The place was packed when I was there, with mostly older, retired types. They also potted their own plantlings (i think thats what baby plants are called?!), so were actually able to provide cheaper prices than most garden centres.

Flyers and publications would be a good idea for your target market, I don't suppose many of your customers use facebook do they? Really build up your reputation as a good, solid reliable place selling high quality plants.

We do concentrate on gardeners you have completely understood our business model most people do not and think we should be more like a DIY store. And you a right in that the large garden centres the plant sales are only a fraction of their turnover. Scotsdales (in Cambridge) for instance TO 2009 13.89million, 3.5m of which from plants.

There are three other retail outlets on our business park, including an Aquatics Centre (which was the orginal business), a pet shop.
We have a membership scheme that is like a discount store card which people pay us £4 to join. I can't imagine that our customers would be happy to pay £5 just to come in the shop, maybe if we had a garden people could look round then it might work. What a fabulous idea in the right location!

We do not have a large enough space to grow enough of our own plants but we do offer to plant peoples pots and hanging baskets for them. We use mainly local growers to get the best quality and we have very competitive prices (even if it is impossible to beat the DIY/ chain shop prices.

 

[Sobie]

Maybe approach the council highways department to landscape one of their roundabouts free on the proviso you are able to place signs to the effect it was your business that did it

Our council are completely against any form of signage on roads as they feel its not save for drivers, hense the reason we are not allowed even a sandwich board at the top of our street on the main road. We had our sign removed and then told we had to apply for planning but that it would not be granted. The piece of land is waste land full of rubbish we would love to tidy it up and plant it up. We have planted up our railway station and put advertising boards on the station. (different council).

 

[Sobie]

Can you offer trade discounts to local designers and landscapers?

Have you tried to get in with your local authority as part of your local planting schemes?

Are there any pubs/restaurants nearby that you could plant up in return for profile marketing?

Yes we do have discounts for trade, and we have ordering services so they come to me with a basic scheme and I order the plants for them to work in the scheme. We also have various trading relationships such as a company that lays driveways if we recommend them to a customer, the driveway company gives the client a voucher to spend in our garden centre when they have the new driveway laid.

We do supply to some of the local pubs and resturants, it is something I want to do more with next year.

 

[Sobie]

C'mon, just because most plants are dormant in the winter, it doesn't mean to say you should be as well.

From my own point of view the average garden centre effectively says to me "Here are some plants to buy" making the assumption I know what I am doing - which I don't. What I would like to see is some added value there in the form of some free knowledgeable advice of where these plants are best suited, their anticipated size when full grown and any other requirements like pruning. If I am lucky I get a plastic thingy poked into the pot written in pidgin english or soppy diagrams which are usually way off the mark. Your knowledge means I might not make expensive mistakes in my garden design.

If this is your area of expertise, then why not have regular gardening masterclasses at the start of each gardening season on a slack day of the week and make an occasion of it too. Dig the barbecue out, offer refreshments and make it friendly and informal. If you feel it is beneficial, then invite tradesmen along to advise or demonstrate barbecue building, fence building/care, tree care and a myriad other trades that are likely to be involved in gardens and surrounds.

We would be an Ideal garden centre for you as we don't stock our plants in the usual a-z way of most garden centres. We arrange all of our plants in plants for places order, we have one area for shade, sun, pots, rockeries, ground cover etc. Then we have a seasonal display in each of the areas which change on a fortnightly or monthly scale dependant on the time of year. Plants really are my passion so I spend all of my day outside with the plants running about from customer to customer helping them choose the perfect plant. we also have a small empty area in which I help customers to "layout" their plant choices so they can see what they will look like together.

I Like the masterclass idea, I was planning on a "fill a hanging basket" day for next spring but it could work with any area, like plant a tree, make a rockery. Im not sure how to go about advertising this though? I think the informal route would work best, I'd just spend the whole day in the greenhouse and people could come and go as they pleased. I'd have to draft in some free help because we don't have quiet days in spring!
I wonder if people would like "how to make a christmas wreath" class? that would be really lovely.

 

[Kernowman]

We do concentrate on gardeners you have completely understood our business model most people do not and think we should be more like a DIY store. And you a right in that the large garden centres the plant sales are only a fraction of their turnover. Scotsdales (in Cambridge) for instance TO 2009 13.89million, 3.5m of which from plants.

There are three other retail outlets on our business park, including an Aquatics Centre (which was the orginal business), a pet shop.
We have a membership scheme that is like a discount store card which people pay us £4 to join. I can't imagine that our customers would be happy to pay £5 just to come in the shop, maybe if we had a garden people could look round then it might work. What a fabulous idea in the right location!

We do not have a large enough space to grow enough of our own plants but we do offer to plant peoples pots and hanging baskets for them. We use mainly local growers to get the best quality and we have very competitive prices (even if it is impossible to beat the DIY/ chain shop prices.

For any business to succeed (especially in a competitive marketplace) you must have a clear DIFFERENCE from all the others in that sector which becomes your unique selling point. If that means adding value to what you do, then so be it and sometimes you must get off your tramlines of thinking to achieve that.

I agree that the big garden centres sell more in the way of baubles than plants, some have installed entertainment for the children to keep them amused and so has marketed their business as a "family day out". The DIY stores in particular sell their plants on that "here is a plant to buy" basis and as for expert knowledge and guidance - no chance. I really can though understand your reluctance to go down the Mini Alton Towers route.

Perhaps you could focus more on the younger age groups as the older folk are seeming to find you already without difficulty. For your line of business, I don't think the Facebooks of this world are going to be generating much in the way of traffic, so maybe handing out flyers down your local high street(s) is a more positive direct approach, especially so as your friendly local council is being as helpful as it can be towards one of it's rate payers.

However you do it, you must think to yourself "If I were my prospect or customer, what would get me to visit this garden centre?"

 

[Sobie]

Perhaps you could focus more on the younger age groups as the older folk are seeming to find you already without difficulty. For your line of business, I don't think the Facebooks of this world are going to be generating much in the way of traffic, so maybe handing out flyers down your local high street(s) is a more positive direct approach, especially so as your friendly local council is being as helpful as it can be towards one of it's rate payers.

However you do it, you must think to yourself "If I were my prospect or customer, what would get me to visit this garden centre?"

We do not have a problem getting customers in during the main season, and are usually pretty packed out during spring weekends. 80% of our turnover is from April, May and June. Its more out of season we just can't get enough footfall.
The problem we have with our younger customers is that they tend to only visit us once or twice a year to "spruce" up their gardens. very few garden continuously throughout the year.
Our "gardeners" will pop in and out all the time even if its just for string, seeds or a bag of compost but is it frustrating sitting about all day for these low value, infrequent sales.
What we need is more gardening programes on the TV!

 

[Kernowman]

I fully understand your predicament believe me, but I have to insist that you are still taking the passive view and it is your job to be creative if you really do want that autumn/winter custom.

What are the primary jobs to be done in the autumn and winter? Leaves is a perennial problem for most gardeners, so you could devise a sales campaign for rakes, leaf blowers, compost bins, etc., right at the point when it is topical - just before the leaves drop. You could create a "leaf collecting" package of those items at a hot price and flyer/leaflet to local homes or if you stretch to it, a radio advert to save your poor aching feet which isn't as expensive as you might think.

As I say, what I know about gardening would fit on a postage stamp, but I do remember listening to Gardener's Question Time on the radio and they had as much to say in the autumn/winter as they did in spring/summer. Use that valuable expertise and PASSION you obviously have by writing informative articles for your local newspaper and become "The Authority" on all matters gardening in your area. My idea of holding gardening "workshops" during the winter is perfect timing to inspire people to create beautiful gardens in the springtime, so where will they go to get plants and advice? Almost every house in your area has a garden, so capitalise on that wide open market!

So stop making up excuses why it isn't happening, trust your instincts, enthusiasm and confidence to MAKE it happen by changing your perceptions, outlooks and prejudices a tiny amount. Please? Pretty please?

 

Hi All,
We are a small, independant family run garden centre. We are very much a traditional garden centre in which plants are our core product and our passion. Then we stock products needed to look after those plants, composts, pots, plant feeds etc. Mainly our customers are retired couples.
We normally advertise in our local paper at key times in the season. We have a website and are on facebook. We also are involved with the local WI and gardening club. We donate to various local school gardening clubs. We have our own discount/ membership scheme where we post or email out newsletters on a monthly (in season) basis. we have been featured in a book published by Country Living. In the spring I will be writing a gardening feature for our parish newsletter.
We are off the beaten track, we are unable to put signage on the main road leading to our garden cente as planning permission was not granted, so we do not get any passing trade.
We are a very seasonal and weather related business.
So what else can we do to market our business?
Thanks

Why don't you exploit your website both to allow people to know you exist and for online sales.?

Earl

 

[Sobie]

I fully understand your predicament believe me, but I have to insist that you are still taking the passive view and it is your job to be creative if you really do want that autumn/winter custom.

What are the primary jobs to be done in the autumn and winter? Leaves is a perennial problem for most gardeners, so you could devise a sales campaign for rakes, leaf blowers, compost bins, etc., right at the point when it is topical - just before the leaves drop. You could create a "leaf collecting" package of those items at a hot price and flyer/leaflet to local homes or if you stretch to it, a radio advert to save your poor aching feet which isn't as expensive as you might think.

As I say, what I know about gardening would fit on a postage stamp, but I do remember listening to Gardener's Question Time on the radio and they had as much to say in the autumn/winter as they did in spring/summer. Use that valuable expertise and PASSION you obviously have by writing informative articles for your local newspaper and become "The Authority" on all matters gardening in your area. My idea of holding gardening "workshops" during the winter is perfect timing to inspire people to create beautiful gardens in the springtime, so where will they go to get plants and advice? Almost every house in your area has a garden, so capitalise on that wide open market!

So stop making up excuses why it isn't happening, trust your instincts, enthusiasm and confidence to MAKE it happen by changing your perceptions, outlooks and prejudices a tiny amount. Please? Pretty please?

You are right in that just because we are used to winters being slow that we have become rather passive in our outlook of winter. Years and years of almost non exstinant winter trading has kind of knocked us into not trying.
I am looking further into the garden workshop idea. I've started by looking at winter suitable projects and turning them into 1hr sessions. I'm going to experiment by holding my first workshop with spring bulbs and/ or winter hanging baskets. I'll contact our members and the local gardening club to see If i can put a trial together pretty quickly. If its sucessfull then I will look at rolling it out to GP. I'll keep you informed.

 

[Sobie]

Why don't you exploit your website both to allow people to know you exist and for online sales.?

Earl

We do sell online, but not directly via our website (just ebay and other auction sites linked from our website) Last winter we did almost all of our winter trading online. We are in the process of updating our website for direct online sales to cut out the high auction fees. And I am currently in talks with a few of our suppliers to make sure I get the key "must have" gardening xmas gift at a great price.

 

[Kernowman]

You are right in that just because we are used to winters being slow that we have become rather passive in our outlook of winter. Years and years of almost non exstinant winter trading has kind of knocked us into not trying.
I am looking further into the garden workshop idea. I've started by looking at winter suitable projects and turning them into 1hr sessions. I'm going to experiment by holding my first workshop with spring bulbs and/ or winter hanging baskets. I'll contact our members and the local gardening club to see If i can put a trial together pretty quickly. If its sucessfull then I will look at rolling it out to GP. I'll keep you informed.

Result!

 

[MrsPWN]

Sounds like you are doing alot of good stuff, I like the idea of making a Christmas wreath, you could charge about £12, have a couple of benches of stuff for people to pick a set amount of stuff from and show them how to put it together.

We have a local plants only place and they recently helped a local village get a grant for hanging baskets in the square, and created plant boxes around the village sign that they maintain.

How about taking a selection of plants to residential homes for the inmates to buy, set up a lovely looking display and have them wheeled past? Maybe nothing over a tenner.

Maybe a comp every 2 months/season, I won one once that had the title "teatime" and we did a tea tray with plants in the t pot, sounds corny but we won a £15 voucher

Good luck, nice to see someone actively taking on the big boys!

 

[happyoutdoors]

You say you give discounts to trade, why not have a trade directory on your website and get those that have a website to link to you.

Take a look at the http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com
its free to join, lots of fellow gardening pro's and nurseries, maybe post your question there, you may get more industry specific responses.

Get a vehicle sticker made, 'I bought my plants at Brandons'

We pro gardeners want materials all year round, like bark chip, not everyone buys in bulk.

 

[gemd89]

What about PR in the local paper? Surely that may drum up some interest.

I send a press release into my local paper and got a full page!

Gemma

 

[Matt1959]

Our council are completely against any form of signage on roads as they feel its not save for drivers, hense the reason we are not allowed even a sandwich board at the top of our street on the main road. We had our sign removed and then told we had to apply for planning but that it would not be granted. The piece of land is waste land full of rubbish we would love to tidy it up and plant it up. We have planted up our railway station and put advertising boards on the station. (different council).

this seems strict - where abouts in the UK are you out of interest? We are in a fairly picturesque part of the world and here are signs galore. In fact, I'm sticking one up on the side of the road shortly and I dont expect to have problems. I think I would be pursuing this line myself - what about a sign in a farmers field (subject to a few quid going to the farmer) in the vicinity saying "garden centre next left" that sort of thing would easily be allowed around our parts.

 

[Sobie]

this seems strict - where abouts in the UK are you out of interest? We are in a fairly picturesque part of the world and here are signs galore. In fact, I'm sticking one up on the side of the road shortly and I dont expect to have problems. I think I would be pursuing this line myself - what about a sign in a farmers field (subject to a few quid going to the farmer) in the vicinity saying "garden centre next left" that sort of thing would easily be allowed around our parts.

Norfolk/ Suffolk border. Its not just us, they also made the chippy and the petrol station remove their signs. The land at the top of our road is privately owned and this is where the signs where (just an ordinary sandwich board with permision from the land owner). The council told us that they had received a complaint (yes just one) regarding signage through the village blocking views. We were told that we would need planning permission to keep the sign, but that planning would not be granted (because the field is one day going to have houses on it). They have told us, and the other businesses that we will be fined if the signs are not removed.

 

[Sobie]

What about PR in the local paper? Surely that may drum up some interest.

I send a press release into my local paper and got a full page!

Gemma

We have recently had a double page in our village mag. It was really lovely, all about me being a local girl, my qualifications etc. lovely pictures of the GC. And for a couple of weeks after our regulars where all coming in the shop saying "ooohh your famous" and "aren't you clever". now I just need to get a couple of the bigger weekly papers to take it up!

 

[Sobie]

Sounds like you are doing alot of good stuff, I like the idea of making a Christmas wreath, you could charge about £12, have a couple of benches of stuff for people to pick a set amount of stuff from and show them how to put it together.

We have a local plants only place and they recently helped a local village get a grant for hanging baskets in the square, and created plant boxes around the village sign that they maintain.

How about taking a selection of plants to residential homes for the inmates to buy, set up a lovely looking display and have them wheeled past? Maybe nothing over a tenner.

Maybe a comp every 2 months/season, I won one once that had the title "teatime" and we did a tea tray with plants in the t pot, sounds corny but we won a £15 voucher

Good luck, nice to see someone actively taking on the big boys!

£12 for the wreaths would be a great price, I've found all of the bows, flowers, rings etc. just need to talk a neighbour into letting me cut down their Holly bush and I think I can "make" a wreath for well under £4.

The residental home comment made me laugh, that would be great fun! We have the day care centre come to the garden centre every couple of months and it is always such good fun. I'll contact the wardens and see if I can do that, especially nearer to christmas with potted houseplants. My Nan is our usual "sales rep" in her accomadation !

We have ran the odd competition in the past, usually raffle types. but that will also be something I will definately look into a bit further.

 

[ooh]

I didn't see the word allotments mentioned in this thread yet. Work out some way to reach allotment gardeners. There's usually a great community within allotments, so once you reach a small number of people in one allotment community successfully, you end up reaching all the people in that allotment community. Work out some way to be good (e.g. useful, helpful, thoughtful) to/for allotment users/owners.

One way to be good for allotment owners (and this is from not knowing much about gardening myself so it may not actually be that useful for gardeners, I'm not sure): Go to a/some allotments, take soil samples. Test soil samples. Analyse results. Make up flyers and/or a poster and provide your findings back to that allotment. This will get their attention. It's thought out news about and for them. Connect the soil type with what grows well (which you sell) in it. Do this for multiple local allotments. It'll put you on their mental map.... Same idea but different. On your website allow people to insert soil type details (tell people how to test their soil -- maybe this is really hard/expensive? I don't know). Then as they browse products those products will be rated against/according to their growing conditions. I suppose there's more to it than soil type. Allow those details to be inserted also. Lot of work to make that work well though.

That's just the first thought without really thinking much. There'll be a million other ways to be useful/helpful etc. to allotment gardeners. Think of some more. Choose the best. Do them.

 

[Sobie]

You say you give discounts to trade, why not have a trade directory on your website and get those that have a website to link to you.

Take a look at the http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com
its free to join, lots of fellow gardening pro's and nurseries, maybe post your question there, you may get more industry specific responses.

Get a vehicle sticker made, 'I bought my plants at Brandons'

We pro gardeners want materials all year round, like bark chip, not everyone buys in bulk.

I've joined the network, I have not heard of that site before so I will pass it on to the landscapers that use our garden centre. Although a lot of them are not on line and do not have their own websites
We would look to offer our membership discounts to tradesmen/ alotment holders etc who purchase small amounts but regularly, and we do have 30 day accounts, so tradesman can pay us once their client has paid them, avoiding any cash flow issues.

 

[Sobie]

I didn't see the word allotments mentioned in this thread yet. Work out some way to reach allotment gardeners. There's usually a great community within allotments, so once you reach a small number of people in one allotment community successfully, you end up reaching all the people in that allotment community. Work out some way to be good (e.g. useful, helpful, thoughtful) to/for allotment users/owners.

One way to be good for allotment owners (and this is from not knowing much about gardening myself so it may not actually be that useful for gardeners, I'm not sure): Go to a/some allotments, take soil samples. Test soil samples. Analyse results. Make up flyers and/or a poster and provide your findings back to that allotment. This will get their attention. It's thought out news about and for them. Connect the soil type with what grows well (which you sell) in it. Do this for multiple local allotments. It'll put you on their mental map.... Same idea but different. On your website allow people to insert soil type details (tell people how to test their soil -- maybe this is really hard/expensive? I don't know). Then as they browse products those products will be rated against/according to their growing conditions. I suppose there's more to it than soil type. Allow those details to be inserted also. Lot of work to make that work well though.

That's just the first thought without really thinking much. There'll be a million other ways to be useful/helpful etc. to allotment gardeners. Think of some more. Choose the best. Do them.

I hadn't thought about doing a soil anaylise for the altoments. It is quite easy to do a basic soil test. We have a very unique soil structure in our area, we are basically sand with an underlying table of lime. One of our local lotties is by the river and is usually waterlogged through the winter

We do have quite a few members that are part of the local alotments. but you are right, I need to get down to them more, perhaps I could take my barrow down with that seasons products seeds , fruit bushes etc, just like the idea for going to the old folks places I could run a "masterclass" from the alotments.

Love the online soil test idea, will look into it. My OH has just though of a great hanging basket online service so it looks like I may be glued to the PC for a fews days

 

[MrsPWN]

I may have missed it but have you posted a website address of your own? It would be interesting to see what you have

 

[Sobie]

Its www.p-rgardensupplies.co.uk

 

[ooh]

On your website allow people to insert soil type details (tell people how to test their soil -- maybe this is really hard/expensive? I don't know).

Of course, silly me... Encourage them to send you the soil, provide an easy way for them to do so, for which you can then test and generate the results yourself for them. Minimum effort required on their part. Tie their identity (e.g. username) to their results.

I wouldn't jump at the first idea that comes along though. Spend time generating many (set yourself a very high number of ideas to come up with, e.g. 100. in order to meet that high target you'll have to, once you've used up all and any obvious and sensible ideas, resort to silly wayward ideas. it is from these where the best will probably come -- your critical sensible part of your brain has to shut up in order to allow you to meet your 100 ideas target). Doesn't cost money to generate ideas, just a bit of time. Then weigh up the ideas in terms of their cost to you and their value for who they're aimed at.

 

[Sobie]

Spend time generating many (set yourself a very high number of ideas to come up with, e.g. 100. in order to meet that high target you'll have to, once you've used up all and any obvious and sensible ideas, resort to silly wayward ideas. it is from these where the best will probably come -- your critical sensible part of your brain has to shut up in order to allow you to meet your 100 ideas target). Doesn't cost money to generate ideas, just a bit of time. Then weigh up the ideas in terms of their cost to you and their value for who they're aimed at.

I always have an "ideas book" on the go, its full of some good, but mostly rubbish ideas. It goes back to my employed life in R&D.

 

[MrsPWN]

One comment on your website, it would be great if the photos were clickable to see them easier. It seems like you have some good ideas Do you have sign writing on vehicles? those magnetic ones seem good.

I don't know if you have seen this but it has some great ideas, love the pink flamingo one http://www.todaysgardencenter.com/magazine/?storyid=2427

 

[Sobie]

One comment on your website, it would be great if the photos were clickable to see them easier. It seems like you have some good ideas Do you have sign writing on vehicles? those magnetic ones seem good.

I don't know if you have seen this but it has some great ideas, love the pink flamingo one http://www.todaysgardencenter.com/magazine/?storyid=2427

I have put rather a lot of photos on our website, so yes it would be good if you could click on them to make them bigger We recently updated our PC to windows 7, what a mistake none of my web creator software works with windows 7 so I just made that one quickly with some free software whilst we (or our website developer) builds us a new site with e-commerce, so I will keep the clickable pictures in mind.

My SIL just purchased some of those magnetic signs for her hairdressers, it looks rubbish, unless you are stood next to it. To be fair they are tiny Vistaprint ones. We don't have any work vechicles, a friend of ours who is a landscaper does our deliveries for us which at the moment works well for both of us, we get a sale without having to pay out for vechicle costs and he occassionally gets extra gardening work. We could get them for our car, but we don't go anywhere in it except work and home !

Thanks for the link. I Love the pink flamingo idea, maybe big yellow sunflowers for us

 

[MrsPWN]

Interesting to hear feedback on the magnetic signs, I am debating whether to get a couple for my car.

 

[markwalton]

Write some articles you sound like you know what you are doing.

You could easily do some how to articles which gardeners would love - don't think that because there are lots of gardening books you cannot do it.

Offer these free in exchange for an email address and name - that way you can build a list of potential customers you can market to.

Mark

 

[Sobie]

Interesting to hear feedback on the magnetic signs, I am debating whether to get a couple for my car.

I think my SIL just chose the wrong size and style. It has a big purple flower on it, and just looks like a purple blob on the side of her car. What that has to do with hair and beauty I do not know? and it is too small and shes only got one. I think the right ones can look good depending on what you are advertising in the first place.

 

[Sobie]

Write some articles you sound like you know what you are doing.

You could easily do some how to articles which gardeners would love - don't think that because there are lots of gardening books you cannot do it.

Offer these free in exchange for an email address and name - that way you can build a list of potential customers you can market to.

Mark

Thanks Mark, that would work both on the website and in the shop. I could laminate some so people could use them outside to refer to when they are doing the job. Its anoying when your book gets dirty!