I had a fascinating 2 weeks in December as I traveled to Los Angeles for the Kelsey ILM:07 Conference and then to Chicago for the Search Engine Strategies Conference.

Without question, there is a growing movement of the SMB (Small-Medium Business) to the Internet. At ILM:07 one of the speakers (CitySearch) noted that they are finding that marketplaces with advertisers that traditionally spend little on advertising, are finding that Internet Advertising is an effective channel for them.

Well H-E-L-L-O.

For the first time ever, there is an affordable vehicle for getting your advertising message out to the "local masses". Every form of traditional media is invasive - it interrupts your mission. Watching TV ? - Interrupted by advertising. Reading a magazine ? - Interrupted by an ad.

Internet Search is totally different. So I go online and search for something to address my (immediate) need, and behold, there are potentially advertisers on the page that can address my need (at least that is how it should work).

Enter niche content, or vertical publishing or however you want to say it. Bottom line is that now there are web sites out there that address a theme, hobby, interest, business etc.

While the big search engines fragment into their "universal search" experience, the niche players refine - creating silo's of information that meets the very need of its users. Cool.

There is an unprecedented opportunity here for brands and local companies of all shapes and sizes (and budgets) to be heard.

What are you waiting for?

Steve

I recently attended the Search Engines Strategies Conference in Chicago and learned a ton.

One of the take-aways was the fact that consumers are increasing the number of searches they are doing at the rate of 17% a month.

One gentleman said that their web site had an 84% increase in product quieries on Black Friday over the same day last year.

In store transactions makes up 95% of retail sales (eCommerce is only 5 percent), and that number is holding steady.

This has huge implications for your lawn and garden business:

~ Is a garden center / nursery web site able to give the user the product information they are looking for? Or will the user have to search for the brand, only to be lead away to a store locator (possibly a dead end)?

~ Does the garden center / nursery have a means to communicate in a timely manner about the product or service they are looking for?

~ Does the garden center / nursery have a mechanism in place to take the online order and have it picked up in the store?

The answer needs to be yes to all the questions above in order to provide a satisfactory experience to that customer.

Garden Centers and Nursereis that do not embrace the new shopping paradigm will be struggling with one arm tied behind their backs.

What are you waitning for?

Steve

As I reflect on 2007, I can’t help but notice a sound - a sound that is growing louder by the day.

The sound is the beating drum of environmental awareness. In the last week I have heard of plans at the University of Maryland to engage ‘sustainability’: turning the campus into an arboretum, working on the rooftops with plants, recycling etc.

Also, our allies at Maryland Cooperative Extension are proposing a Green Building at the Central Maryland Research and Education Center. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman wrote a $250,000.00 dollar check to kick off Howard County’s support of this Green Building.

When completed, Stanton Gill and his team will have the “real deal” of an environmentally constructed facility. Here are some of the features (terms): a breeze funnel, rain collection, living roof, daylighting, earth sheltering, reflective paving, greenhouse, solar chimneys, bio-filtration, earth tubes, silo wind generator, wind blocks.

It is time for us, the green industry, the stewards of the environment, to join the beating drum with our instruments and make some music!

It is in this spirit that I offer a thought for your consideration: The excessive consumption of fossil fuels, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and its negative effect on the environment has all been boiled down to one phrase: Carbon Footprint.

I know you’ve heard it before. It is a “kitchen table” term.

Our green industry has an opportunity to be a lead instrument in the environmental ensemble. In my opinion, we need a simple message. The consumer is not going to understand what a “green building” is, and certainly isn’t going to understand the “terms” listed above. I don’t understand the terms above, but I know they’re a good thing.

How do we say: plants, purification of water and air, water usage efficiency, energy efficiency, recycled waste, efficient use of natural resources?

What phrase makes it simple and a kitchen table term?

I submit for your consideration: Oxygen Footprint.

Oxygen Footprint is the antidote to Carbon Footprint. Might we develop an Oxygen Footprint calculator? Architects currently do an energy consumption calculation on buildings. Ideally, an Oxygen Footprint calculation on a building should offset the Carbon Footprint, and the excess sustains life. The thought of consumers being aware of the Oxygen Footprint of their properties would be a good thing.

In an effort to spark discussion, I built a web site: http://www.oxygenfootprint.org/ - my desire is that our green industry takes ownership of this idea and leads it to an encore performance at the kitchen table.

May God bless you, your family, and our green industry.

Steve

Have you looked for yourself lately. You may be lost.

You may be lost in the search engine world, while others are being found in your place.

Go to a major search engine and do a search for one of your high margin products or services and see if you show up. Add a geographic qualifier if / when necessary and see if it helps.

The more keywords you add to a search string the higher the odds are that you should show up.

If you don't show up, you're lost. Lost in on the web. To get out, or to be found, you need a plan, or a map of keywords and pages that are 100% relevant to what you are searching for, and the pages will have to be Search Engine Optimized.

First things first, make a list of words you want to be found for, then do some searching on the web for them. Take note of who is being found first for the query, and take a look at the pages to see "why" they are showing up first. Can you do the same. Can you beat them with some good creative?

Time to start learning how to do this now, as it takes a few months to get results.

Steve

I find it hard to understand the thinking of businesses these days when it comes to their web sites.

I have had this discussion with many a landscaper in a popular message board about it. These business owners are doing their best each and every day to portray a professional image, but when it comes to building a web site, they turn it over to their nephew in high school.

Imagine being a landscape design firm, and having a poorly designed web site. Happens all the time.

There is new data out today that has some real numbers on the influence of web sites on consumers. My friend Peter Krasilovsky summerized the Neilson Net Ratings study for WebVisible in his blog titled "Local Onliner".

Here is the part that stood out to me about web sites:

Website quality also played a significant factor in attracting local commerce. Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed that the quality of a business owner’s website is an important factor in earning the consumer’s trust. Over 75 percent of respondents said they were more likely to make a purchase from “an unfamiliar business with a quality website,” than “a poor website from a known business.”

We recently built a site that took the client from amateur to professional. It is pretty sharp.

If you have not hired a professional to build your web site, you need to do it, starting now, because your customers are making the "first impression" decision about you based on the quality of your web site.

Steve

I am assuming you are dropping in here because of the GCA newsletter. Well, come on in !

Actually, the GCA FIB thread is a few down, so I've given you a shortcut at the bottom of this blog entry.

On another note, I see the newsletter mentions the web award we received. Thanks for the acknowledgement.

Thank you GCA for giving us the free reign to push the edge of creative design for the event. There has been a lot of positive feedback on the mix of fashion and plants in the web design. Here is a link to the site if you haven't seen it.

And last, this blog is a place where I convey Internet advertising information and knowledge. There is SO MUCH information in the space that is not making its way to our industry. I'll do my best to put it here, so stop in again.

I'll leave the light on for ya.

Steve

PS - would really appreciate a comment or two as you're passing through. Thanks.

Shortcut: Click here for GCA's Fashion In Bloom blog entry.

A couple snippets from Website Magazine worth noting (and understanding).

"The Department of Commerce estimated total e-commerce sales for 2005 at $86.3 billion, an increase of 24.6 percent over 2004. Total retail sales in 2005 increased 7.2 percent over 2004, with e-commerce sales accounting for 2.3 percent of total sales. "

That means that 97.7 percent of retail sales in 2005 happened in stores or catalog's.

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"Most people don’t buy right away; they like to shop and compare. The study found that over half of online holiday buying activity occurred in subsequent Internet sessions. This shows a strong trend known as latent buying and the importance of search marketing."

This really tells the story of how people use the web to do research online and then go to the store to buy.

If you think about the perishable products of our green industry, I would estimate that MOST of the green products are sold in store because the buyer wants to physically touch what they are buying.

They'll ask: "Does it have any flower buds on it? Any broken branches? What kind of container is it in? Is it a bio-degradable container? Is it rootbound? What kinda bugs does it get?"

We need to serve the web audience the information they are looking for so that they WILL come to the store.

Otherwise, we'll lose out to those descretionary dollars to another category.

For the full article from Website Magazine, click here.

Steve

Brian Wool wrote an interesting article today at ClickZ.

It is titled: Is One Good Web Site Enough for a Local Business?

The thinking behind it is that there are many opportunites to list your business in different directories, and many have profile pages that showcase your business.

As a business person, you should make the profile page as robust as you can make them.

Here is a snippet from his article:

"I don't think these profile pages are meant to -- or can -- replace a well-built Web site. But for some business categories, where in-depth product details, services, or inventory are necessary, profile pages can help drive traffic."

Click here for the full article.

Steve

So what in the world does Brand Search is Category Driven mean?

It means that consumers don't normally start their search on a search engine with a brand name, they usually start it with a generic category-like term. Here is an example using the travel industry.

Search 1: Vacation

Search 2: Caribbean (search completed some time after search 1)

Search 3: Carribbean Cruise (search completed some time after search 2)

Search 4: Carnival Cruise (the brand)(search completed some time after search 3)

Here are some real examples using categories and keywords from our green industry using a popular search engine.

Plants - is a top tier "generic" category keyword

"Plant" got 126,007 searches and "Plant Nursery" got 23,194 searches. "Plant" wins.

Shrubs - Another category keyword, but would expect to fall under "Plants" in the scheme of things

"Shrub(s)" got 10,789 searches. The numbers are getting smaller. "Flowering Shrub" even smaller.

KnockOut Roses - Here is the brand. Currently the most popular rose in the marketplace.

"KnockOut Rose" scored a total of 2,203 searches at the same time "Plants" did 126,000

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Just for information purposes, here is the data on "Roses".

Man there are a lot of "Lover's" out there searching for a handful of roses. It is almost IMPOSSIBLE for a local garden center or nursery to buy the keyword "Roses" in the search engines. WAY too expense a keyword.

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So here's my point.

If you are a brand, and you have a store locator. That is great. Keep doing it. There are those who will drill down far enough to find you. When they do, make sure your store locator is really good.

However.....

Don't rely soley on your store locator thinking it is THE answer. Invest in other web publications that move traffic through top tier keywords. They can drive traffic to the points at which your brand is sold, and in some instances, can introduce your brand.

Steve

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BTW, I understand this concept because our Lawn and Garden Search dot com site introduces brands at top tier category levels. We will be serving brands into the local businesses with the keyword "garden center" over 500,000 times this year. Not to blow my own horn here, but show me another web site that does that and I'll buy you a rose.