Page 9 - Griffin Gazette Fall 2016

“Digital advertising offers several
benefits that even small retailers
can take advantage of.”
1. Going mobile.
The public’s love affair with the internet
shows no signs of slowing, but it is evolving.
We’re seeing more people turn from
their desktop PCs to mobile devices and
streaming services from cable providers.
At Proven Winners, we’re responding to
this trend in a few different ways. This year, help consumers connect directly with our
we did our first advertising campaign with
digital/streamed music provider Pandora,
with much success. As a result, we’ll be
transitioning all of our traditional radio
advertising to Pandora in 2017.
Similarly, Proven Winners will move much
of its print advertising budget into social
media and other online advertising. Digital
advertising offers several benefits that even
small retailers can take advantage of.
First, advertising on social media can be
surprisingly cost effective. On Facebook,
for example, advertisers may set a spending
limit for each campaign, which can be as
low as $5.00. Businesses can start small,
without fear of running up budget-breaking
advertising bills.
Second, digital advertising is often far more
measurable than print. When you run an
ad in your local newspaper, you know how
many people receive the newspaper, but
do you know how many read that issue or
saw your advertisement? With digital ads,
businesses can see specific results such
as how many people visited the website
on which your ad appeared and how many
of those folks clicked on your ad. These
insights are valuable in determining how
effective your ad was, and whether you
should do more of the same or experiment
with different messages and promotions.
2. Moving faster.
Now isn’t soon enough.
As technology advances and becomes
more engrained in our lives, so too comes
the ability to have quicker interactions. It
seems that consumers have little patience
to wait for anything anymore—from a
sandwich to an Amazon delivery.
Expectations of speedy service may not be
determined within our industry, but they still
impact us. Take a look at Amazon Prime
Now, for example. Amazon Prime Now
is a one-hour delivery service that’s now
available in 27 metropolitan areas, impacting
more than 150 million consumers. Those
folks will now expect an increased level
of service from all of their retailers,
including us.
At Proven Winners, we’ve increased our
capacity to respond within 24 hours to the
thousands of questions we receive through
our online feedback system. We’re also
working on a brand-new program that will
retail customers for specific plant varieties.
Internally, we’re referring to this program
as “plantmatch.com”, though it won’t be
a standalone product; it’ll function instead
as another service in the Proven Winners
offering, similar to our retail locator. We’ll be What can we deliver on a regular basis to
sharing more details on this new endeavor,
as its launch gets closer.
Consider all of the ways in which your
customers interact with you. Where and
how can you make those connections
faster, easier, more valuable? How can you
respond quicker or, better yet, anticipate
your customers’ needs before they have
to ask?
3. Solo-preneurs get attention.
As individuals turn passions into
professions, freelancers and work-from-
home employees will continue to increase
their production and get results. Let’s
look at Laura and Aaron LeBoutillier from
Ontario, Oregon (population 11,091) as
an example.
This year, Proven Winners challenged its
marketing team to find people who were
using social media to make a difference in
the gardening world. One of our freelancers
suggested we check out a young, dynamic
husband-and-wife team called Garden
Answer who were posting videos on
YouTube and their Facebook page. Their
high-quality work, their genuinely warm
and engaging personalities, and the huge
number of fans they were reaching instantly
impressed us. Clearly, the gardening public
liked what they saw, too!
As a result, a new partnership was born:
Aaron and Laura are now developing weekly
videos to entertain, inform and promote
Proven Winners products throughout
the year.
Is there someone with whom you could
join forces to handle various aspects of
your business, allowing you to focus your
resources elsewhere? Is there anyone you
know whose strengths complement yours,
in such a way that working together could
benefit both of you?
4. Subscriptions, super-sized.
We’ve all heard about subscription services
like Dollar Shave Club, Netflix, Pandora and
Apple Music. What about our industry?
an audience that’s increasingly busy and
making more purchases via quick shopping
trips or midnight online buying sprees?
In 2017, Proven Winners will enhance its
social media content-sharing platform on
Google Drive. This will enable our customers
to select the social-media channels for
which they need content, and provide them
with ready-to-use, pre-sized and optimized
content for those platforms. This move
builds on a unique program we began in
spring 2016, in which we partnered with
Jamie Durie to create 12 videos for IGCs to
Garden Answer YouTube video
share on their own social-media accounts.
At Proven Winners, we’ve determined our
grower and retailer customers have needs
– for relevant information, for social-media
content, for updated availabilities, for
connection to new customers – that we can
help address by harnessing technology to
work more efficiently on their behalf.
Think about your customers, their needs
and the resources that are available to you.
Where can you find opportunities for your
customers to opt in to specific products,
services or information you have to offer,
in a way that streamlines the experience
and strengthens your relationship with
them? The answer doesn’t necessarily cost
a lot to implement, but could make a big
contribution to your bottom line in 2017.
Griffin Gazette Fall 2016 | 9