If the sight of Christmas decorations next to Halloween candy on store shelves makes you raise an eyebrow, you may want to get used to it – because a trend has arrived that garden retailers can’t afford to ignore.

In recent years, 43% of holiday shoppers planned to start shopping in November. But signs are indicating a major shift this year, and retailers need brace themselves: holiday shoppers are shopping EARLY in 2020, and their preferences have changed.

Read more to learn 3 must-have tips for positioning your brands this holiday season.

Topics: Pinterest, marketing communications, trends, Instagram, advertising, Cyber Monday, marketing, emails, holiday

Give and Take. One of the most simplified principles of physics. Energy, inertia and other terms help explain the physics principle but what about in business? What are some Give and Take principles for business?

Sharing Feedback (give) and Effective Listening (take) are the two I’ll be focusing on. Both can be very difficult to do but they are extremely important and don’t need to be stress inducing. Sharing feedback can make people feel uncomfortable for both the giver and the receiver and listening effectively can be challenging when you have so many other things on your mind.

Continue reading for some tips on how to do both with ease.

Topics: marketing communications, leadership, public speaking

October 2017 - (Philadelphia) IMPACT Marketing & PR, Inc. was recognized in the Philadelphia Book of Lists as a Top Woman-Owned business and Top PR firm for 2017. Suzi McCoy founded IMPACT Marketing 30 years ago.

Garden Media Group, a subsidiary of IMPACT, was founded 20 years ago to serve the horticulture, gardening and outdoor living industries. Our boutique public relations firm gets results fast because we have our finger on the pulse of the industry and the ear of influencers from top outlets – from Better Homes & Gardens and Magnolia Journal to the sweeping social media outlets. Our clients are both national and international and come to us to make them popular with their target market. We also publish an annual garden trends report, one of the most widely read reports in the industry.

Continue Reading to learn about our Queen Bee and how GMG was born.

Topics: Public relations, lawn and garden public relations, garden marketing, marketing communications, Garden Media Group, garden industry public relations

During the 2015 Super Bowl, Budweiser released #BestBuds, an emotional commercial about a friendship between their beloved Clydesdale horses and a puppy, which probably made you tear up more than the Seahawks fans at the end of the game.

While you will inevitably sob into your chips, dips and beers during the 2016 Super Bowl, you can at least learn some skills about marketing your brand along the way.

If anything, the Super Bowl commercials teach us about how to effectively market your brand, particularly on social media.

Continue reading to learn how Super Bowl commercials can help improve your brand.

Topics: PR Campaign, PR Strategy, marketing communications, advertising, marketing

When it comes to dating on reality TV, preserving your reputation and picking the right person are essential to your success on the show.

When it comes to PR, picking the right clients and performing well helps build your company’s strong reputation.

Coincidence? We think not. 

Continue reading to learn how to interact with potential clients and build your public relations client list.

Topics: Public relations, PR Strategy, marketing communications, garden business, Garden Media

Volkswagen is facing a storm of bad publicity surrounding the recent emissions test scandal.

Chipotle has temporarily closed a number of its western stores due to E. coli outbreaks.

Crises like these happen all too often these days and it is crucial to know how to react in these situations.

A publicity crisis has the potential to destroy a brand. If dealt with in a positive manner, companies can, and often do, rebuild themselves by responding quickly and honestly.

Read more to learn about the best ways brands can respond to a publicity crisis.

Topics: Public relations, audience, branding, marketing communications, Garden Media, crisis

Many business people are taught how to manage a company though years of classes and seminars. But do they ever really learn how to lead?  

Whether it’s a large corporation or a small business, learning to be a leader and one who others will follow is the key to success.

Leaders and managers differ in their decision making approaches, visions and values. Those who understand these differences and why they are important will build stronger teams in the long run.

Read more about the important differences between managing and leading.

Topics: Public relations, marketing communications, Garden Trends, Garden Media, leading

For our second Spring Speaker Series, we sat down with Garden Media Group’s newest employee, Sammie Arcieri.

New to the lawn and garden industry, Sammie has experienced a crash course in all things green living. She’s even grown a few things of her own.

As an Assistant Account Manager, Sammie manages the company’s blog, oversees the intern program and continues to nurture relevant media contacts.

Continue reading to learn more about Sammie and her experiences in the public relations and marketing industry. 

Topics: marketing communications, Garden Media Group, blogging, key influencers, Speaker Series

Social media has the ability to bring people all over the world together to talk about specific events. Sunday’s #Oscars proved once again that outlets like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have a huge impact on the way consumers receive news.

What better time than awards season for garden brands to plant the seeds for a future of retweets, likes, favorites and re-pins?

Continue reading for more information on how brands can promote themselves and build a personality through social media.

Topics: branding, marketing communications, Digital Branding, Garden Media Group, social media

Garden businesses want clearly defined numbers when it comes to ROI.

While public relations departments and firms can collect all kinds of information, it's extremely difficult to produce a singular monetary representation of PR results. 

However, that game may be changing.

Adopting the sales metric of conversion rate can end some of the uncertainty surrounding PR measurement.

Can conversion rate change the public relations measurement game? Keep reading to learn more!

Topics: PR Measurement, PR Strategy, marketing communications, garden business, garden industry public relations, key influencers, inbound marketing