Spring is coming. And if you’re a home and garden business owner, the time to start planting seeds and painting pictures in consumers’ minds is now. Have you created your spring marketing plan yet? Because soon, those DIYers will be coming out of the woodwork.
Fortunately, whether you’re a home improvement, garden, or home and garden business, increases in spending are predicted for home renovation and repair as well as gardening. Here are some trends to expect this year:
Home Improvement Renovations
Heavy metal: Metallic accents are 2018’s shiny new trend in home decor and improvement. Think brass light fixtures, stainless steel appliances, copper cookware and cooking tools and silver mirror frames.
Wood and tile: Consumers are gravitating toward light wood floors, whether real wood, laminate, tile, or oversized tile floors. Think spacious, clean, and easy upkeep.
Paint: Each year, Sherwin-Williams comes out with a color of the year. This year, it’s a rich, cool teal named Oceanside. There’s also a trend toward using Gen Z Yellow.
Home Gardening
Habitat help: Bees, butterflies, birds, frogs, and even turtles are in decline because of ongoing habitat loss, so many gardeners are constructing gardens to help restore livable spaces for these creatures.
Indoor and container gardening: Hydroponics, aeroponics and container gardens are growing in popularity, so consumers will seek equipment like automatic watering, proper lighting, soil, pots, and complete systems. Indoor gardening with lights is predicted to increase 6.3% every year for the next few years.
Protein plants and vegetables: As more consumers become aware of the carbon footprint of animal products and switch to plant-based diets, the interest in home gardens that are both beautiful and edible will increase.
Marketing Ideas that Produce
Now that you know a little about what’s expected to trend in the home and garden industry in the coming year, you can develop some ideas around those trends (and others) to use in your marketing campaigns. Here are a few suggestions:
Direct Mail
Direct mail is a definitive way to reach consumers in your community with a response rate of 3.7% and a return of investment between 18 and 20%.
Use direct mail to introduce your business to your surrounding community. Invite them to your store, to follow you on social media, to read your blog, or to take part in upcoming classes. As consumers become customers (and they will), collect as much information as you can about them so you can develop increasingly targeted marketing approaches as time goes by.
Direct mail is also a great way to announce a big sale or seasonal inventory. Purchase a new mover mailing list and offer a welcome discount. According to Zillow Research, 57% of new movers make major home improvements to their newly-purchased home.
Social Media
With home and garden, imagery and video footage are necessities. DIYers want to see before and afters, how-tos, trends, and more. Fortunately, social media has reached the stage where using photos and videos is simpler than ever before. Plus, you can easily find out how they are performing with built-in metrics. Learn more about sharing Facebook videos here.
Sharing a post at least once per day on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram would be ideal. You can create a posting plan for the week or month and even schedule your posts in advance if you’re not providing a photo or video updates on a project. There are other helpful tools (some free) such as Hootsuite that can give you more help.
Blog
Again with the imagery. You can keep your blogging activity efficient in your industry by producing a photo- and video-journal blog to show your projects in process. For example, if you want to show your customers how aeroponics and hydroponics function, photograph your kit assembly, planting, feeding, growth, and the end result (in a salad, maybe?). Same with home renovation improvement. Take the color of the year and paint a drab living room and share the before and after, including tips about adding accents that work.
Classes & Community Events
“Give a man a fish…” Teach a person who can’t hit a nail on the head how to cut tile for their bathroom remodel and they’ll be forever grateful. Same with a past “brown-thumber” who can now grow several varieties of succulents. Gratitude leads to repeat business and referrals.
Conducting public events to encourage donations to organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Seed Your Future conveys to your community that you care about the future of the environment and its inhabitants.
The Human Touch
The world is quickly becoming a tech-driven space. Incorporate the human touch in your business interactions. Shake hands. Smile. Be friendly, helpful and responsive. These are the traits that will help give you a leg up on your competitors. Simple, neighborly things like offering fresh coffee and a donut in the morning can make a huge difference.
One more thing.
Do you know what else can make a huge difference in your home and garden marketing? Valpak®. We’ve been providing local marketing for small- and mid-sized businesses for 50 years. And Valpak’s not just a leader in direct mail marketing, we know digital like a tech-obsessed millennial. Reach out to your local Valpak representative to find out how we can keep your business growing.
