Stay in Front of Customers for Normalcy and Support During Pandemic

During the coronavirus pandemic, many homeowners struggle to find purpose as one day blurs into another and unpredictability weighs heavy on their minds. Now more than ever, it’s important to stay in front of customers.

While much of North America remain under some form of quarantine, front yards and back yards offer a place of solace in the form of gardening.

While you may not be able to directly interact with your customers in person, you can still market to them, offering them education, information (and most of all) inspiration. Here are three ideas of how you can stay in front of customers during the pandemic.

Newsletters
If your garden center or nursery doesn’t currently have a seasonal or monthly newsletter, now might be a good time to develop one. Newsletters afford you the perfect marketing platform to stay connected to your customers when face-to-face interactions are restricted. It can be used to educate on planting and fertilization, the best irrigation practices, new item introductions, and even special savings throughout the season. Today, e-newsletters are a popular choice, but hardcopy editions can help differentiate your business in a crowded market and even be included with curbside pick-ups.

Social Media
If creating a full-scale newsletter is not in your wheelhouse, social media is a great, cost-effective solution to stay connected with customers. It’s easy to set up and maintain and platforms like Facebook offer targeted, low-cost advertising options for your business. If you’ve already established your social channels, how are you using them? Are you posting demonstration videos, promoting your curbside pick-up, and online ordering or providing a little inspiration with well-known quotes or imagery of beautiful flowers in containers? Make sure you encourage people to engage with your social channels in your newsletter.

Appreciation Programs
During the normal spring and summer season, garden centers and nurseries might implement appreciation programs for their customers on the business’s anniversary, special holidays, or for repeat purchases. But during this unprecedented pandemic, why not develop an appreciation program where it can have the most impact.

Donate plants and vegetables to the families of those in the medical community as a way to honor them and say, “thank you”. Work with local communities to help beautify common spaces for law enforcement officers still on patrol and grocery delivery service workers who are out and about making life easier for those under quarantine. The ideas are endless, and the word-of-mouth publicity is invaluable – helping you stay in front of customers. Plus, we can’t think of a better way to find some purpose.

We’re all living during strange times. But it’s important to stay in front of customers as a way to not only create a sense of normalcy but to remind them that you’re still here to help.