One of my favorite resources is the Search Engine Land blog. Greg Sterling's recent contribution titled "Local Search Is About Products Too, Not Just Restaurants And Plumbers" has eye opening impications for our green industry.

We have a fragmented industry. We have breeders that don't know where their plants are being sold. We have brands that utilize a growers network, but each grower in the nextwork won't share information with the brand as to where the plants are being sold.

Ultimately, the consumer loses, as does the green industry as a whole. We are fighting for the attention of the consumer and their descretionary dollars. When they can't find us for the information they need, they take their dollars elsewhere to a place where they understand what they are getting and where they can get it.

So Greg has this to say about product related searches:

"ShopLocal found that "65 percent made an in-store purchase within a week after visiting a site and another 23 percent within three weeks." As more data like this is compiled tactical implications for online marketers will become apparent."

He - llo ! He just said 88% make a purchase in less than a month after doing online research.

Bottom line? You need to have your web site in places that people are searching. When found, they will meet you at your cash register.

Steve

There is all sorts of content being published these days about "Local Search". There are huge amounts of money being thrown at local search platforms as well from the likes of Google, Yahoo, MSN, YellowPages.com, Local.com and many many more.

A recent Piper Jaffray survey showed that local search is now the second most common activity online. They created a recent document called the "User Revolution". It discusses the new advertising ecosystem and the rise of the Internet as a mass medium, and makes some pretty incredible forecasts.

Did you know that people are using the Internet now to make locally focused decisions more than anything other medium with the exception of email? I'm not sure that your local business really understands the size and frequency of the audience that is looking for you. Truthfully, most green industry businesses are missing the boat.

Has "Build it and they will come" been the thinking of your green industry business web site so far? You need a layer of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) on top of your web site if your site is going to be found by those who do not know about you.

Sure, put your URL on your letterhead, invoices, shirts, signs, vehicles etc. But reaching out to those who don't know about you is the strength of SEM. And it works.

I will take some time here in the near future to write about SEM.

Steve

Saturday morning. 6:30 am. Hot bagel and a cup of coffee.

Thumbing through the Sept/Oct issue of Green Profit Magazine. There's a lot of information about the OFA Short Course and Trade Show in this issue, and rightfully so. It was a great show and learning experience.

My friend Bill Calkins gives his farewell salute to us as he is moving up the chain of command at Ball Horticulture. Bill is taking on the position of Manager of Independent Garden Centers. If you are an independent garden center, keep an eye on Bill. He gets around and is very observant of things that can really work for garden centers. . . and he doesn't necessarily get his ideas from garden centers.

The Consumer Buzz Live event is covered pretty well. Kerry Herndon, a grower of Bromeliads and Orchids in Florida, wrote a column about the event and how the Internet was the underlying theme of the CBL event (p. 42). The panelists of 40 year olds said they wanted the garden centers to help them, get to know them, and maintain a relationship. They want to hear from the garden center every month about what they should be doing, whether it is with new things for gardening, or whether is has to do with the things they bought there.

These panelists also reenforced the data that says consumers go to the web to do research first, then go to the store to buy.

My friend Pete Bottomley wrote an article about how garden centers can succeed with customer seminars.

Bottom line take away this morning: We (consumer focused green industry businesses) need to do a better job of developing relationships with our customers, and find ways to establish the relationship that find them where they are.

Sun's up. Time to get moving.

Steve

I have had the pleasure recently of speaking to green industry folk about Search Engine Marketing, better known as SEO.

One lady sent me a note later, "I wish I could have picked your brain for another couple hours."  I was really glad to hear that.

I struggle with the reality that our green industry is not getting the information necessary to keep up with the SEO opportunity. There is so much going on with the web, but we are still taking a "wait and see" attitude. So to hear someone say they want more, more, more information, I say "finally", people are starting to get it.

And get it they should:

~ The majority of homes in the US are connected to the Internet with a broadband connection. Yep, the Internet is always on in their house, and possibly at mutliple locations. Just belly-up to the 'puter and start surfing.

~ US households now watch more hours of Internet than they do of television.

~ 2 out of 3 consumers do reasearch on the web before making a purchase.

If you are in business,  you need to be on the web. Period.

Steve C

I've had the pleasure of reading a number of blogs in the blogshere, and now look. I've got one with my mug on it.

I'm going to try to use this space as a place for thoughts about the green industry,technology, marketing, rants and raves, and oddities that are on my mind. 

We, as an industry, can certainly benefit by the integration of technological efficiencies, so I hope to spend most of my time there.

No need to ramble any longer.

Let's kick it off.

Steve C