It started with websites and email. Then, just as all us non-IT geeks got to grips with those, social media and all things Web 2.0 started to emerge. Within a short time the internet has become abundant with communication opportunities, but the success story headlines have led to confusion and misunderstanding about what’s really practical and effective when it comes to promoting a business.

With blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, Google Adwords and others all competing for attention on the web, it’s easy to expend an enormous amount of time, energy and sometimes money just keeping up without achieving anything special. Not everybody can stand out from the crowd. Navigating the internet marketing jungle is best done by stripping away the buzz-words and peer pressure to reveal which paths lead to relevant rewards, and weighing up the effort to effectiveness ratio for each.

A task you enjoy requires less effort than one you don’t. So if you have a regular supply of interesting news and views and you (or any of your staff) love writing, then blog, Tweet, Facebook (is that a verb yet?) away to your heart’s content. If you’re fascinated by social networking then click around, post, link, make friends, find followers, do what you will. But if your heart’s not in it you’ll struggle to do an effective job.

Here is a quick beginners’ guide to some popular internet marketing channels:

Blogs
What: A diary, written in normal language. Can include pictures. Readers can post comments for you and others (if you wish) to read.
Shelf life: Long. Posts stay visible forever (unless deleted) and can be picked up by search engines. Other people may quote from or link to your blog.
Effort investment: Easy if you’ve got plenty of interesting original information (facts and opinions) to offer and are good at writing prose. Ideal for updating anything from daily to monthly.
Who can you reach: People who enjoy a longer read – magazine subscribers. Most likely reach an older audience than Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
What’s the point: Can give you credibility as a trusted voice of authority if the postings are good. Can provide another in-bound link to your website.
Wasted effort?: May pick up a following of readers who are nowhere near your catchment area so never going to buy from you.

Facebook
What: A diary, but in note form rather than long-winded prose. Postings appear as public feeds on your own page and as personal feeds on the pages of your ‘friends’. Can include pictures. Readers can post short comments for all to read. Can be used to voice news or comments, but not to go into any depth describing them.
Events application allows you to email event announcements to all your ‘friends’.
Shelf life: Short. Postings will very quickly drop down ‘friends’ personal pages, so they need to remember to look at your profile page to see all you have to say.
Effort investment: Easy if you’ve got lots of time-relevant information to broadcast, such as new stock, weather reports, tip of the day, special events, etc. and are good at condensing information into few words. Should be updated at least once a week, but more often is better.
Why should you care: A great medium for reminding people you’re around and prompting them to buy from you.
Who can you reach: Early technology adopters. Should be operated as part of an all-round marketing strategy designed to appeal to these people. The attitude portrayed on Facebook should be reflected in the store.
Wasted effort?: You may think you’re doing well if you pick up lots of ‘friends’, but that doesn’t mean they’re aware of your postings as they’ll only see them if they’re in the habit of visiting Facebook regularly.

Twitter
What: A text-only diary of 140 where each entry is limited to 140 characters.
Shelf life: Very short. Postings will very quickly drop down ‘followers’ personal pages, so they need to remember to look at your profile page to see all you have to say.
Effort investment: Easy if you’ve got lots of short, snappy snippets of useful information to share, such as gardening weather updates in your catchment area or arrival of special limited stock. Should ideally be updated at least once a day, more often is better.
Why should you care: It’s the fastest way to spread news and instils a sense of urgency.
Who can you reach: Youngsters, early technology adopters, but needs to be treated as part of an all-round marketing strategy designed to appeal to them.
Wasted effort?: There’s not much to gain if your news really isn’t that time-sensitive or sensational. Like Facebook, you may have lots of followers but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re tuning into Twitter all the time.

You Tube
What: Video clip database searchable via internet search and YouTube’s own site. Can be embedded in your own and others’ website and shared via social networking sites.
Shelf life: Long. Posts stay visible forever (unless deleted) and can be picked up by search engine results.
Effort investment: Easy if you’re handy with a digital video camera and have some informative and footage to shoot.
Why should you care: If a picture can paint a thousand words, then a video can paint exponentially more.
Who can you reach: People searching for gardening topics using keywords that match your tags. Useful for livening up your own website, blog or Facebook page.
Wasted effort?: Unless your clips are outstandingly controversial, shocking or humorous, you’re unlikely to become a Susan Boyle-type sensation. But if you tag your clips well with keywords that gardeners may be typing in to search engines (e.g. how do I plant roses) then they could well be discovered by a relevant audience – but not necessarily within your catchment area.

Google Adwords/Adsense
What: AdWords are small text advertisements that link directly to your website and can appear on search results and on other websites that carry them via the Adsense system. The advertiser pays for each time somebody clicks on the ad.
Shelf life: As long as you want to keep paying.
Effort investment: Easy if you’re good at choosing keywords carefully, can articulate your call to action in about 15 words, aren’t overwhelmed by a choice-rich campaign management system and have money to spend.
Why should you care: Adwords can bring traffic to your website and has the effect of moving you up the Google rankings list due to the large amount of in-bound links generated by it. Local targeting is possible.
Who can you reach: Anybody searching for your chosen keywords or phrases via Google.
Wasted effort?: Can attract a lot of clicks by the wrong people, which can become expensive. In theory you are in control, but you need to spend time analysing data and experimenting with different formulas to make this cost-efficient.

Listings
What: Local or industry specific directories.
Shelf life: As long as your contract with the directory provider is.
Effort investment: Very little. After all, you know your contact details and sales story.
Why should you care: Directories will generally be used by people seeking what you offer, so the targeting is relevant. Each directory entry you have includes an in-bound link to your site, thereby improving your search engine ranking.
Who can you reach: People who have chosen to use, or found via internet search, the directory you’re listed on.
Wasted effort?: If the entry format doesn’t allow you to fully describe what you offer and differentiate yourself from other entrants. If the cost appears disproportionate to the amount of relevant traffic the directory gets.

Social media has become an influential marketing force. But it hasn’t signalled the death of the direct approach. Social media is a time-consuming activity for all concerned and often people just want to get on with things. Sometimes the simplicity of a business saying “This is what we do. We’d be delighted to have your custom.” Is all a customer wants to see in response to their wish “I want to buy this thing. Is there a place near me I can get it from?”.

For anybody involved in selling or using plants and plant care related services, Plant Concierge has been created to provide that direct approach. This project centres around a database of service providers that consumers can search for via the website PlantConcierge.com. The search facility is tailored to match relevant requirements (under categories of Advice, Installation, Maintenance, Design) and geographic areas with those able to offer them, providing a direct line of contact between people who want to find each other, saving a huge amount of time, effort and frustration on both sides.

What does this mean for Garden Retailers? Apart from the fact that the site also includes a Retail Store search (free to place a profile on), it encourages your less green-fingered (or thumbed) customers to employ help from those available to give it (which could include many of your other customers), leading to more gardening activity taking place in homes of less confident gardeners. And that translates into more garden centre sales. On-line and off-line promotional materials are available to encourage customers to participate.

In an anarchic Web 2.0 jungle, Plant Concierge has restored order by providing a high relevance, low-effort tool for garden centres everywhere.

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