Leave the Leaves Month (October)

A growing understanding of the ecological benefits of fallen leaves and the negative impacts of traditional lawn care practices has led to the observance of Leave the Leaves Month in October. This sustainable practice directly benefits a variety of wildlife, including pollinators, beneficial insects, birds, and small mammals, by providing shelter, habitat, and food sources. It can also improve soil health, reducing the need for fertilizer and other harmful chemicals.

Leave the Leaves Month is an excellent opportunity for garden businesses to promote eco-friendly landscaping by sharing their expertise and sustainable practices.

Read on to learn more about Leave the Leaves Month and how to incorporate facts and tips into your fall content.

In such a small industry, any glowing media coverage is a significant win for your horticulture company! At Garden Media, we've learned that it's crucial not to let your hard-earned recognition fade away after a single email blast. By strategically repurposing and sharing this coverage, you can maximize its impact across your entire organization.

These stories not only amplify your company's message but also strengthen your brand reputation within the industry. With a well-thought-out strategy, you can transform a fleeting moment of media attention into a long-lasting asset.

Read on to learn how to squeeze the most value out of those glowing articles:

Meta ads, or metadata ads, are crucial to successful marketing campaigns. These ads provide a glimpse into a product or service, its use, and its value, enticing potential customers to engage and convert (AKA buy) with concise and catchy visuals and messages.

When it comes to creating effective meta ads that convert, it's important to keep a curious mindset and try various strategies and types of creatives that people will see. We call it test & learn.

You may be thinking, what are the various types of ad creatives?

Read on to explore the top ten creatives that have proven to be successful for our green industry clients in capturing audience attention and driving conversions.

In the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, staying up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies is crucial. This is why we attended a recent webinar hosted by Meltwater, a global provider of media intelligence and social analytics. 

This exclusive webinar explored cutting-edge advancements in AI and shared tips on achieving success using new innovations. We learned valuable insights to transform our approach and discover how Generative AI revolutionizes marketing.

By automating content creation, optimizing customer targeting, and delivering personalized campaigns, AI can almost be seen as a silver bullet. We advise you to proceed with caution and take extra steps to ensure accuracy, originality, and ethical reliability. AI can be used for writing, data analytics, and other practical applications. 

The webinar was led by Lindsay Herbert, Author of Digital Transformation and Global Chief Innovation Officer at IBM Garage, and Guillaume Decugis, Meltwater's VP of Consumer Insights. 

Keep reading to learn how to integrate AI into your workspace seamlessly.

Meltwater, an online media monitoring company, recently launched a report that shared current trends in social media for 2023. 

The report offered findings from over 1,700 marketing and communications professionals globally. The short: paid and organic social media are expected to increase in 2023. Garden businesses must stay at the top of their game and adapt while also increasing their skillset. 

In the report, social media platforms were ranked by usage and popularity. Facebook is still holding the top ranking, followed by LinkedIn and Instagram. YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok remain relevant while being slightly less popular than the top three. Short-form video is hot right now on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Read on to learn more about how social media has maintained and even gained importance during the current economic development. 

Pantone’s 2022 Color of the Year, “Very Peri,” a custom periwinkle with hints of violet-red, is popping up on taste makers’ radars around the country. From delicate blossoms to vibrant foliage, you can find periwinkles and purples in a vast array of landscape plants. As trendy pollinator, edible, and cutting gardens are poised to capture gardeners’ attention in spring 2022, the following periwinkle plants offer an inspiring infusion of this year’s “it” color.

Gardening is on the tip of everyone’s tongues as unprecedented millions took to plants during the pandemic. Are you speaking the new gardener’s language?

This report analyzes millions of social media posts and articles written across the course of the pandemic. These gardening posts reveal key patterns in language and sentiment – and represent a significant shift in the way the public talked about plants before and after COVID-19.

Navigating emerging pandemic trends and topics, Mind the Gap helps readers better relate to the gardening public – and gain the trust of the new gardener.

In the modern digital age, new social media platforms pop up every other day. And as quickly as they come, they often fizzle out faster than you can say YikYak, ClubHouse, or Vine. It’s a whirlwind for anyone trying to create a digital marketing strategy!

When TikTok came to the stage, many assumed it, too, wouldn’t last. Yet it continues to be the number one downloaded app, and users average 80 minutes a day scrolling through endless videos. We predict it is here to stay.

Read more to learn how this “clock” app works and how your garden brand can use it. 

The headlines seem to be everywhere – skyrocketing plant sales, seed shortages, and a cut flower frenzy. On the heels of the pandemic, 2021 has seen a fervor for plants and garden goods that our industry hasn’t experienced in years.

As industry struggles to meet the demands of the massive “plantdemic” gardening trend, many are acutely aware of how limited supplies are this spring.

And this has led to an important question: how much of the “sold out blues” are consumers feeling? 

This spring, many gardeners (including first-timers) arrived at the garden center ready to shop, only to be met with empty shelves and in some cases, unfulfilled wishes. In our visions of worst-case scenarios, we imagine them getting frustrated and giving up – even abandoning the hobby.

Luckily, social media is giving us insight into consumers’ thoughts and feelings…

Read more to find out what they’re posting - it isn’t what you might expect!

Read on for the four surprising finds of the 2020 holiday season.