Now's the time to go green, and get some green.
The second coldest March on record planted landscaping sales in the dirt, with garden retailers advocate Garden Center Association reporting that horticulture sales were down 32 percent this March compared to last.
But there will still be gardens to be mulched, bulbs to be planted and grass to be cut. Consumers have spring fever. They’re thinking about working in the yard; it's just the projects will start later than usual. And that’s the true opportunity for both landscape and promotional product companies.
The delay gives landscape supply companies and landscapers an opportunity to make a brand impression while consumers are thinking about yard improvement even though they can’t quite yet do it.
"It does mean that when the weather picks up our members are likely to see a surge in visitors. We are feeling quietly optimistic about the rest of the season," GCA Chairman Peter Burks said via
hortweek.com.
Warm weather for landscapers is what Lisa Suttora at her Ecommerce Marketing Strategies blog would call a "
sales spiker." Promotional product distributors are in the unique situation to help their clients cause sales spikers through the persuasive power of promotional products.
Ideas are plentiful and websites are leveraging them to leverage sales.
PsPrint.com, part of the Deluxe Corp. family of companies, published a five-part series on marketing the landscaping industry. PsPrint.com focuses on printing and sees the sales spiker and opportunity to pump up sales.
As a promotional products distributor, you know that developing the proper pitch and selling well in advance so you can harvest good margin takes planning. Take a cue from nature: plant seeds, cultivate them, and reap the benefit of that work. And just like farmers, it takes more than planting a small garden. It takes equipment and technology to turn it into a profitable enterprise. It starts with seeing the opportunity.
"With guidance from a prepared promotional products distributor, these green professionals can be in the black sooner and for longer," said Eric Alessi, President and CEO of the leading solution provider of eCommerce and business management system software company Essent. "The secret is coming armed with a cost-effective promotional website that easily allows landscaping companies to communicate a promotion and reward their target market with a relevant promotional product just for visiting."
With a flexible ecommerce website using SiteBuilder from Essent, you can quickly create a professional, customized ecommerce website created just for this targeted marketing opportunity and optimized for major search engines like Google -- so you're not just planting a seed with your promotional customer, you're helping them plant seeds with their customers as well.