Marketing Tip of the Week: Garden Centers

This week I decided to create my winter networking list. These are the people and companies I want to reach out to during the off season. I might not get to everyone, but I like to set reasonable goals. For example, one goal is to go to 10 garden centers each month this January and February.

Here's a trick of mine-- I call the garden centers in advance and ask them if they do pond cleanings and installations. If they say yes, I cross them off the list. If they say no, I add them to my prospective marketing list. This way we're not wasting time going to places that already offer services like ours.

When you go: It's helpful to have materials with you when going to the garden centers. I had a rack card made that has our contact information, simplified key words of what we do and photos of our work on it. A rack card is a small brochure card with print on one side that fits in a generic brochure holder. (see photo at the top of the page for ours). You can design and print one at Vistaprint.com

I bring those and a brochure holder with me. If nothing else, we can ask to put our brochures out in their store and instead of handing them a bunch of papers, I already have a way for them to display them simply and neatly.

How I found the centers I want to go to: I found my current list of garden center prospects by purchasing a list. I used www.infousa.com, to buy the list, but there are quite a few companies that do the same thing. I put all of my specific search parameters in, for example, specifying that each store must do over $500,000 per year but less than $10,000,000. This removes the Home Depots and other huge places from the list. I also look for stores within a certain mile radius and with more than one employee.

I purchased a list of 79 names for $99.00 from www.infousa.com. I will now go through them all to find the ones that seem the best fit. Those are the ones I contact and visit.

I'll keep you posted as we go out each month!

What are your winter networking goals?

To see how Pondtent can help you, visit www.mypondtent.com