Greenhouse Canada

Features Business Retail
Editorial: Dig into our new online site!

June 23, 2008  By Amanda Ryder


Here at Canadian Garden Centre
& Nursery we’ve made some exciting changes since you received the
last issue in your mailbox. I’m happy to announce the launch of our
brand new website www.canadiangardencentre.ca.

Here at Canadian Garden Centre & Nursery we’ve made some exciting changes since you received the last issue in your mailbox. I’m happy to announce the launch of our brand new website www.canadiangardencentre.ca. For those of you who haven’t had the chance to check it out, we are updating the site all the time with garden centre news, industry happenings, new products, web exclusives and polls, to name a few of the highlights. There’s also a photo gallery and you can e-mail us any pictures you have of displays or merchandising ideas at your centre so we can show them off.

For the digitally inclined, our past issues are now archived online and you can also subscribe (for free!) to the digital version of the magazine and opt to have it delivered to your inbox as soon as it’s published.

Advertisement

Some of you may have noticed our e-newsletters popping up in your inbox, which is another thing we’ve just started doing. Our newsletters, which go out every two weeks, highlight the new happenings on the site and upcoming events, and alert you to any hot blog topics. The CGC blog has been attracting a number of comments lately and we thank you for your opinions. Whether it’s sharing your thoughts on customer service or having your say on the Ontario pesticide ban, we love to hear what you’re thinking. And if there’s anything on your mind, you can also post your own blog on our site and state your opinion.

In the spirit of all this web world excitement, I thought I’d take this opportunity to touch on e-newsletters. We’ve been sending ours out for almost two months (if you aren’t receiving them, go online to sign up or e-mail me and I’ll add you to the mailing list) and it’s been a fun learning experience. According to our website poll, just over 14 per cent of you offer your customers an e-newsletter while 71 per cent of you don’t yet, but would like to in the future. Here are some e-newsletter tips to keep in mind when you kick off your e-newsletter campaign.

Keep your subject lines short and punchy. This will entice your customers to open the e-mail instead of simply hitting delete.

Make sure you are behaving when you solicit e-mails. Let your customers know what exactly they are signing up for when they give you their address.

Double-check your links and test, test and re-test your message before you send it.

Keep your e-newsletter consistent. Let your readers become familiar with the design of your e-newsletter so they know instantly whom it’s from.

Get feedback. Talk with your customers and ask them what they’d like to see in the e-newsletter. Keep it fresh and new so readers continue to open it week after week.

So now I’m going to follow my own advice – what do you think of our new site? Is there anything more you’d like to see in our e-newsletters? Feel free to let us know how we are doing at serving our customer – you, the reader.


Print this page

Advertisement

Stories continue below