When you think of digital marketing, I'm sure gardening doesn't pop into your head. But, maybe it should. I have been an avid marketer for 30 years, about the same as being a gardener. I've wondered why I love these two things so much and I think I've hit on something. It came to me when I was interviewing for a job. If you're a marketer, learn why cultivating these two gardens breeds success in both your professional and personal life.
Your Marketing Garden
When cultivating your marketing, there are many variables to consider, and depending on what you use, it can make or break a company. Here are four crucial things to think about:
- What story do you want to tell? Who, what, where, when, and why (the 5 elements of journalism) also make a big difference in marketing. Who are you marketing to, what are you marketing, where (geography), when (holidays, special events, daily, etc.), and why are you marketing this service, product, etc. Granted, you want your company to succeed and make money, but think about WHY.
- Layout & Design - Just like a garden, you have to know the layout of the space and how you want to design it; the same goes for digital marketing. Are you laying out a website, social media account, email campaign, book, blog, etc? And next, how will you design it? What images and content will you put in it? Will there be weekly blogs and service pages with full descriptions and links? How about your front page, landing pages, contact us, or bios pages? This is a vital key to getting your company out there and being marked as an authoritative source.
- What keywords are you using? You might ask what this has to do with gardening but think about it. With gardening, the "keyword" is the actual plants you put into the garden, just like keywords are used for marketing. You can put in a ton of keywords to see how well they rank on search engines, or, you can pick specific ones that match your gardening space, layout, and design (products, services, company theme, etc.) Using keywords in the proper place allows visitors to see your marketing garden first and foremost. When it's colorful, spaced just right, and looks inviting, people will want to regularly visit your garden.
- Fourth and the most important of all is your ROI and that comes down to cultivating all three above, so your garden breeds success and increases your bottom line. In gardening, cultivating the plants means fertilizing, weeding, watering, and trimming when needed. You need to do the same with your company to potential clients or customers.
- Appeal to their interest
- Nurture them
- Solve their dilemma
- Keep them coming back
Seeds of Marketing Gardening Sucess
Once the garden has been planned, created, implemented, cultivated, and nurtured, the reward is a beautiful space that can grow and include many diverse plants of different colors, shapes, textures, and interests - the same as digital marketing. When a plan has been brainstormed, created, carried out, and tracked, you can see the rewards of success. You can see what went wrong and what went right, and learn and grow from the experience. Better, you can change out when needed and create more space to add more exotic and beautiful plants (or products/services) and weed out the competition for long-term marketing success.
