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Garden Center Support / Let's Get Inspired!
The Garden Center Show staff writes and searches for quality articles to help you grow your business. That's what we're sharing - We hope these articles help inspire and energize you.

Let's Get Inspired @ The Garden Center Show: Presented by Lawn & Garden Retailer

Collaboration: The IGC’s Key to Success
By: The Garden Center Show -- No one business can capture every single customer. We all have a niche to fill, and we can coexist. As many small businesses slash marketing budgets, consider joining with other local IGCs to run ads together on a "support local businesses" theme.

How IGCs Can Thrive This Holiday Season
By: The Garden Center Show -- Millennials and Gen X will spend more this holiday season than last, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Independent garden centers can compete with big-box stores by offering better service and value. Collaboration with other local businesses will help you keep money in the local economy.

The Power of Email Marketing
By: The Garden Center Show -- One of the most powerful marketing tools you have at your disposal is your email list—not ads, not social media, but email. The biggest advantage of an email list is that it is yours.

Should Our Garden Center Join TikTok
By: The Garden Center Show -- If you're passionate about not just selling but educating and entertaining, TikTok might be the platform for you. Don't just do a video on a new plant you have in stock; teach viewers how to best care for it. And above all, keep it real.

Using the Pantone Color of the Year in Your IGC
By: The Garden Center Show -- Pantone has announced that their Color of the Year for 2023 is “Viva Magenta.” They describe it as a shade of red “rooted in nature,” connoting strength, bravery, joy and optimism, powerful and empowering while being welcoming and witty.

SMS for ICGs
By: The Garden Center Show -- Text marketing, also known as SMS marketing, is exactly what it sounds like: sending marketing messages to customers via text message. Many businesses already use text messages for promotional purposes.

Are You Using Reddit to Its Full Potential
By: The Garden Center Show -- Content marketing is all about providing value to customers through education, community, and beauty, and Reddit is a great way to do this. If you’re marketing on a budget, it’s worth it to try to build an audience for yourself on social media.

Connecting With Customers Through Newsletters
By: The Garden Center Show -- Independent garden centers can stand out from the competition by connecting with customers on a personal level through email marketing and newsletters. Newsletters should be personal and friendly, with a unique voice and perspective that customers will connect with.

Worried About Recession? Here’s How to Prepare.
By: The Garden Center Show -- Fears of a recession in late 2023 persist due to high inflation and rising interest rates. The job market remains strong, and consumers plan to adjust spending accordingly. Developing a plan is crucial.

Consumers Willing to Pay More For Environmentally Friendly Flowers, Study Finds
By: The Garden Center Show -- A new study that should interest independent garden centers shows that across almost all demographics, half of all consumers are willing to pay up to 10% more for sustainably grown flowers.

Using the “About” Page to Build Trust in Your Independent Garden Center
By: The Garden Center Show -- Trust is everything in business, especially for independent garden centers. Here are some tips for using your About page to build trust with consumers so they choose your small business.

Intense Heat Waves Are the New Normal. How Can IGCs Help Gardeners Cope?
By: The Garden Center Show -- This summer has been hot. Very hot. Intense heat waves are sweeping the nation. IGCs can help gardeners cope with products and education geared toward water conservation and heat protection.

How Loyalty Programs Benefit Independent Garden Centers
By: The Garden Center Show -- For most businesses, more marketing dollars go into attracting new customers than retaining existing customers. It is often said that it costs five times more to attract new customers than to retain customers, so it would benefit small businesses on a budget, such as independent garden centers, to shift more of that focus from acquisition to retention.

How IGCs Can Thrive This Holiday Season
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Millennials and Gen X will spend more this holiday season than last, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Independent garden centers can compete with big-box stores by offering better service and value. Collaboration with other local businesses will help you keep money in the local economy.

Collaboration: The IGC’s Key to Success
by: The Garden Center Show Team
No one business can capture every single customer. We all have a niche to fill, and we can coexist. As many small businesses slash marketing budgets, consider joining with other local IGCs to run ads together on a "support local businesses" theme.

Reasons to Be Optimistic About the Future of Retail
by: The Garden Center Show Team
High inflation is driving up the cost of just about everything, and cheap big-box stores are thriving as customers tighten their belts. But a recent survey by INSTORE Magazine shows that there’s reason for independent retailers to be optimistic.

Halloween Marketing Ideas for 2022
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Halloween's popularity is growing each year among kids and adults. US consumers are expected to spend $10.5 billion this season, up from $3.3 billion in 2005. The holiday owes its popularity to Millennials and older members of Gen Z, who have transformed many of their childhood hobbies into adult passions.

Leadership, Management and Creating a Culture of Excellence
by: The Garden Center Show Team
As you know, a great team creating a great customer experience is an independent retailer's biggest competitive advantage. Join Bob Negen of WhizBang Retail Training, as he explores what a Culture of Excellence looks like and how to create one.

Why Is In-Person Interaction So Important to Building a Business?
by: The Garden Center Show Team
The pandemic forced us into awkward Zoom meetings. What makes them awkward is the lack of nonverbal communication. Video calls cannot replace or replicate the type of in-person interaction exhibitors get at a trade show.

Visual Merchandising with Biophilic Inspiration
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Visual Merchandising Expert, Joe Baer from ZenGenius, Inc. and biophilic expert Genevieve R Mills with Oakland Green Interiors teamed up in this webinar to talk about biophilic design and how it can be incorporated into your Visual Merchandising program to influence shopping time, perceived value and the overall mood of your customers.

Earth Day Celebration Ideas for Garden Centers
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Earth Day is a great opportunity to bring both new and existing customers into the garden center. This article lists a few things garden centers can do to promote Earth Day.

What’s Our Brand? Benefitting From Both Business and Personal Branding
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Many business owners focus on creating a brand identity for their business, but building a personal professional brand can be professionally beneficial, as well.

What is the Metaverse? Does My Business Need to Worry About It?
by: The Garden Center Show Team
The metaverse can be a confusing concept full of big claims. This article covers basic concepts and past applications and offers some practical ideas for garden centers.

Should We Be Doing Text Marketing?
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Text marketing is the practice of sending promotions or other marketing materials to consumers via text messaging. This article covers how businesses can reach smartphone users with text marketing.

Hiring & Recruiting Webinar
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Did you miss it? Don't worry! Here's the video replay for Andrea Hill's webinar, "Hiring & Recruiting for Independent Garden Centers." The author of "The How-to-Hire Handbook for Small Business Owners," where she shared her insights on how to turn your business into a 24/7 hiring and recruiting machine.

Social Standouts to Help Your Social Media Presence
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Gardening, houseplant, and floral design influencers on Instagram and TikTok provide social media models for garden centers to follow to make their social media presences successful.

Independent Retailers and the Great Resignation
by: The Garden Center Show Team
This article explores how independent retailers are handling the "great resignation,” the pressure to provide more perks, pay, and flexibility to workers, and what lessons garden centers can do to retain employees.

The Pantone Color of the Year: What It Means for Independent Garden Centers
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Pantone has announced the 2022 Color of the Year: Very Peri. This article discusses the meaning of the choice and how independent garden centers can incorporate it into their merchandising and marketing strategies.

What Inflation Means for Independent Garden Centers
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Inflation soared to a 30-year high in November, offsetting gains in employment rates and wages. Let’s take a look at how businesses large and small have navigated past inflationary periods.

Making Curbside Pickup a Smooth and Satisfying Customer Experience
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Curbside pickup is here to stay, even as the pandemic winds down. What can your business do to make it operationally efficient while giving customers a great experience? Read on to find suggestions from our retail experts, and turn curbside services into a brand differentiator for your store.

2022 Trends to Watch Out For: Sustainable Gardening
by: The Garden Center Show Team
The pandemic has brought millions of new gardeners to the hobby—over 18 million, in fact—and independent garden centers are keen on keeping interest in gardening alive.

Sharing the Joy of Gardening this Holiday Season
by: The Garden Center Show Team
The holidays are a great time to introduce someone to a hobby that will bring them joy for years to come. While some of the items listed above might not be ideal for the more experienced gardener, they certainly make the idea of gardening fun, simple, and exciting for the newcomer.

Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Accounts
by: The Garden Center Show Team
We all know a social media presence is necessary for any business, but there’s more to it than just having a profile on Facebook or Instagram that you update when you remember it’s there. Getting started on social media, gaining a following, and reaping the rewards seems like a daunting, time-consuming task, but with a little forethought and dedication, it can be a rewarding experience.

2022 Trends to Watch Out For: Outdoor Spaces
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Though the front and back yard trends of 2022 take a variety of forms, they all have one thing in common: using available outdoor space as more than an expanse of grass to tend to. Whether turning a porch or patio into another “room” or placing bird feeders and planting wild gardens to bring nature closer to home, garden centers can provide examples of these new outdoor trends and inspiration for consumers.

7 Tips for Supporting Employees’ Mental Health
by: The Garden Center Show Team
The pandemic has led many working-class Americans to reconsider what they value in life, and now more than ever they are turning their backs on jobs that drain their mental health and give little in return. A myopic focus on short-term results and productivity could lead managers to ignore employees’ mental health, which will end up reducing productivity in the long run. To avoid becoming another casualty of the Great Resignation, and to attract applicants, its imperative that small business owners and managers make it clear that they are interested in protecting their employees’ mental health.

30 Days of Content by Amanda Thomsen
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Suffering from social media block? This graphic will give you 30 great content ideas you can use over the next month. Don't worry about next month - this calendar is so good you can just rinse & repeat!

Amanda Thomsen "Into the Unknown" Replay
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Did you miss it? Don't worry! Here's the video replay for Amanda Thomsen's presentation, "Into the Unknown." She spoke at Milaeger's Garden Center in Racine, Wisconsin on November 17, 2021 to an audience of independent garden center owners and professionals.

2021 Holiday Season Overview
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Experts are predicting the strongest holiday in memory, and consumers are expected to head into stores to avoid late-shipment woes. Make sure you're stocking deep to offset the risks of supply chain problems.

7 Alternatives to Traditional Christmas Trees
by: The Garden Center Show Team
This year’s Christmas tree shortage could leave many revelers in search of something to put their gifts under. It’s a great opportunity to direct customers to a different kind of Christmas tree, one that expresses their individuality, one that they can enjoy all year long. What are some other alternatives to Christmas trees you’ll be marketing this holiday season?

5 Gardening Essentials for 2022
by: The Garden Center Show Team
2022 is shaping up to be a year in which Americans focus on personal growth, undertaking projects that are meaningful to them. During the pandemic, many have already found satisfaction and meaning in gardening, and garden centers must do their best to help make gardening fun, easy, and satisfying for these customers. This list is just a small sample of the types of products that will help these gardeners achieve their personal goals. What other products do you expect to be big sellers in the coming year?

When Marketing, Stay On Your Path
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Using marketing tools wrong – or the wrong marketing tools – can cause you to waste a lot of advertising dollars, permanently reduce your average order value, and find yourself serving the wrong customers. This article explores how this can happen, and what you can do to avoid it.

How the Light Gets In: Stop Pursuing Website Perfection
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Stop thinking of your website as a creative product, and start thinking about it as a creative process. It isn't done, and it will never be done. But the act of working on your website a little bit every week or every month will mean it constantly evolves, and keeps your customers interested in the process.

Lost in the Weeds -- Make a Plan
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Retailers spend more time and money marketing than ever before. One way to make sure those marketing dollars perform to their full potential is to do the work of creating a marketing plan. This article talks you through the process in clear, simple detail.

Differentiation Strategies: How to Be the Same But Different
by: The Garden Center Show Team
What does it mean to differentiate your Independent Garden Center, and how can you differentiate enough to matter, without going so far out of the box that you confuse your customers? Read on to learn some differentiation strategies that will help set you apart and simultaneously build trust.

Courting Millennial and Generation Z Consumers
by: The Garden Center Show Team
Gen Z and younger Millennials are enthusiastic buyers of houseplants and garden supplies. But they're also frugal, they have strong opinions about lifestyle, and expect a lot from their retail relationships. This article shares information about how to appeal to and win Millennial and GenZ business.

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