Trending Thursday: Marketing to the Newest Generation of Gardeners

A huge garden and home trend for 2014 is that the newest growers and gardeners of 2014 will be hitting the market: the millennials.

Millennials are those between the ages of 18-34, and they currently make up 23% of the US population. That means that 23% of those with spending power in the upcoming year will be the hard-to-reach, upcoming gardener.

Below are the top marketing tricks and tips to connect, engage, and convert millennials from budding to devout gardeners.

Savvy Social Media

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Social media is the be all and end all for millenials. They're on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And, it's through these social platforms that they form relationships and learn to trust brands.

Plus, if millennials have a question or customer service issue, it's guaranteed that they're going to be posting on your social networks for assistance.

The customer service line is out, and 24-7 social media help on garden business's social networks is in.

E-Commerce Everything

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E-Commerce is the wave of the future for millennials. They are shopping through social networks (like Pinterest and Wanelo), but they're also shopping differently.

They're making purchases online--a lot. This holiday shopping season 95% of millennials will be doing their Christmas shopping online from the comfort of their own home.

Your garden center or garden product needs to be sold online in order to truly resonate with millennials.

Plus, 1 in 3 millennials will be making these online purchases on their phone. Be sure your site is optimized for the mobile experience, too.

Educate 'Em

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Millennials are the up and coming gardeners, meaning that they don't have much experience--yet. They need you, as the gardening experts, to provide lots of easy insider tips, tricks and help to make them successful.

Having a green company blog for your garden business is the best platform to publish this info. When blogging, make sure your content is SEO optimized, so that you'll show up first when the millennials are searching in Google!

Also, keep in mind that millennials are often working with small spaces at this time in their lives, which means they're big on container gardening.

Plus, millennials are really interested in growing their own food and living a green life. They care deeply about looking after the environment, so frame your content in this manner.