dot-coms: TENDING the Garden
Although it has tried a broad range of media channels, horticultural marketer Garden.com finds that e-mail is its most effective prospecting tool.
The company, which was founded in 1996, sends out two to three e-mail drops per month, each totaling between 250,000 and 1 million prospects, depending on the season.
Some of these go to rented e-mail lists, which have been producing diminishing returns because of their limited availability. And the firm sends co-branded offers with partners, who offer demographic, psychographic and lifestyle data comparable to that of a Garden.com customer.
Garden.com makes certain common-sense assumptions when choosing partners. For example, it has hooked up with Wine.com in the belief that a few hours of pulling weeds and planting zinnias may be followed by a glass of wine on the porch, says Dionn Schaffner, vice president of marketing for Garden.com.
As drugstore visits also tend to follow sessions in the garden (Band-Aids and bug spray), the company recently formed a partnership with pharmacy site PlanetRX.com. The partners have begun an e-mail campaign offering $10 off on pharmacy purchases after spending $25 at Garden.com.
The firm’s tracking technology, which is embedded in e-mail promotions, monitors everything from clickthroughs to sales. Another device determines if an html message has been opened.
Other online partnerships include supplemental stores – such as those with iVillage.com and Excite.com – that create expansive gardening channels designed with content and links to products.
Garden.com’s second-most-effective prospecting tool is its new paper catalog. The first catalog, a special holiday edition introduced last November, offered live Christmas trees, wreaths and ornaments. The initial test, described as a branding exercise, consisted of a mailing to 500,000 prospects from rented files and a small segment of the house list. The success of the test prompted the recent spring mailing of over 1 million catalogs, offering a wider range of the firm’s products.
The decision to launch the catalog is part of a strategic plan to target and reach prospects and customers in the environment in which they are most at ease, notes Schaffner.
“We wanted to go after traditional mail order buyers who are very comfortable buying through the mail but who may not be on the Internet or comfortable shopping online,” she says.
