1. Crawl Inside the Minds of Your
Customers

2. Today’s Talk
 Our goal today
 About GIE Media
 Our data-driven world
 Social media and mobile trends
 The new marketing mix for 2014 and
beyond

3. GIE and what we do
 Privately held, stable and strong
 Totally committed to the Green Industry
 Partner to OPEI and nearly all of its
members
 Excellent content presented in innovative
ways across all viable platforms
 Print is still king
 The 10/80/80 rule
 The new mantra: data, engagement and
metrics

4. Data Overload
 What do our customers look like?

5. Data Overload
 How often do they engage?

6. Data Overload
 How do they engage?

7. Data Overload
 What is important to our customers?

8. Data Overload
 How do you collect data?
◦ Point of sale or distributor housed is easy
◦ Web On-line components (social media
login) shared data
 Compelling reason to log-in is key
◦ i-App collected data
 Little investment, little data
 Paid model a little better
 Keyed login is data nirvana

9. In the beginning

10. The next generation

11. What landscapers do
 Get weather reports
 Schedule sales calls
 Send photos of job status reports
 Troubleshoot equipment problems
 Track of his employees’ time sheets
 Order materials
 Write – and close – proposals
 Take and share photos
 It all syncs back to his main file system
at the office

12. Superintendents
 Sharing updates on disease and pest
pressures across their region with other
superintendents and with their members.
 Apps like TurfPath being used for efficient
identification and treatment options for turf
and pest problems.
 72 percent of superintendents have a
smartphone and nearly all use them for
texting, email and accessing industry apps.
 About a third of supers use their phones to
access irrigation data or monitor other course
conditions.

13. Key contractor numbers
 When it comes to contractors, 80%
use a smartphone for work and 10%
have laptops in their trucks.
 43% of owners give their crews a
smartphone and 32 percent give
crews a non-feature mobile phone.
 8% give their field team a tablet.

14. Top apps
 Evernote
 Dropbox
 Xora
 Weather and maps
 Turfpath
 Harrell’s
 Lawn & Landscape
 GCI
 Company support apps

15. What it means for you
1. Contractors need tools to manage
and track labor, equipment and fuel.
2. Contractors and superintendents
want information on their phones and
tablets.
3. Mobile is just a tactic. Contractors
and superintendents still need top-
notch equipment, support in the field
and business management insight to
run their operations successfully.

16. Modern marketing mix
 An integrated approach
◦ Print
◦ Web
◦ Traditional direct
◦ Digital direct
◦ Mobile
◦ Face-to-face tools
 Targeted – increasingly able to reach
your ideal customer with a focused
message on a platform they choose
 Measurable

17. Web branding/reach

18. E-newsletters

19. Custom communications

20. Webinars and outreach

21. Twitter

22. Facebook

23. Digital publications

24. Mobile apps

25. Going mobile with GIE+EXPO

26. What should you do?
 Don’t dismiss what you don’t
understand
 Don’t assume that social media is
free, digital is cheap and all of this is a
way to slash your marketing budget
 Rethink how you come to market
 Create a mix that works for you and
your dealers

27. Thanks!!