Park Seed: Sowing the seeds of success on the internet Posted by Neil Davidson on 31 August 2007

Park Seed is a multi-million dollar gardening business that had built its incredible success on print-based catalogs. So starting business on the internet seemed like a leap into the unknown. But there was a link between these different worlds...

The link was content and it went back all the way back to the company's founder, George Watt Park.

Park started the company 140 years ago and built the business from nothing, through investing in advertising and creating relevant content for his customer catalogs. The quality of content in the catalogs was crucial, just as it is now for the internet. Walt Yates, SEM Manager at Park Seed, explains the link.

"The more we immerse ourselves in the internet, the more we see that the founding principles of Park Seeds still apply. I believe that George W Park would be proud of the way we're doing business on the internet today. We've adapted many of the things that made the original seed catalog such a success, but the fundamentals still apply."

For Park Seed, success on the internet is based on four key principles:

• High quality content is as important on the internet as it has always been for their print catalogs.
• Content decisions have to be driven by true understanding of the business's different audiences.
• This understanding has to be based on hard data, like keyword research data, not guesswork.
• Content has to change to reflect the ever-changing needs of their customers.

Internet success was built on Park Seed's foundations as a seed catalog company.

Walt Yates believes that the development of successful internet strategies is made easier by the quality of data used in planning and analysis, most of it unavailable for conventional marketing channels. Keyword research data helped them realize the true nature of their potential internet business on the internet.

"We worked with the Wordtracker keyword research data before we started any internet marketing activities. Thanks to that data, we understood our audiences, what content they needed and how their needs were changing over time."

The search term 'seeds' was the obvious place to start but the results were disappointing. The challenge was to separate potential buyers from other internet researchers. They discovered that people who were searching for 'seed catalogs' were much more likely to buy than those just searching for 'seeds'.

It was a useful lesson in developing their internet strategy, as Walt Yates explains.

"This was our 'aha' moment. It reminded us that things hadn't really changed for our core audience when they used the internet. They were still looking for the online equivalent of seed catalogs, and Park Seeds was still a seed catalog company. But when people searched using 'seed catalogs' they didn't find us, they found our competitors. We changed our content to deal with this right away. Now, our core audience finds us when they go onto the internet, not our competition."

Park Seeds also did more work to attract the internet seed catalog audience, and not irrelevant searchers. The search term 'Echinacea' was a good example. The keyword data revealed a split between those searching for vitamin supplements and those searching for the plant. Park Seed resolved this by using the terms 'Echinacea plant', 'Echinacea flowers' and 'cone flower', its common name, in their content.

Making use of misspellings

Wordtracker also helped Park Seed connect with younger audiences, most of them taking their first steps into the world of gardening. The big challenge was to get Park Seed top of their particular searches, which were often different to older gardeners, and sometimes didn't seem to make any sense. Even the most seasoned gardeners struggle to spell different common and botanical plant names, especially as horticulture experts themselves often disagreed about spellings. So, what chance did new gardeners have? The plant name 'Crepe myrtle' is a good example, as Wordtracker's search numbers reveal:

• Crepe myrtle - 206
• Crape myrtle - 38
• Crapemyrtle - 53
• Crepemyrtle - 0

Crepemyrtle had zero searches, even though it is the spelling that many horticulturists believe to be the correct spelling. Park Seed decided that the copy on their website had to recognize the debate on spelling, for this and for other plants. They used numerous different spellings of plant names, correct and incorrect, so that all of their potential customers would find them. Walt Yates believes that other businesses on the internet should think more about incorrect, regional and vernacular spellings.

"You would never turn away a customer because he turned up at your store and mispronounced the name of one of your products or got the spelling wrong, so why do it online? That's what you're doing when you ignore customers who use incorrect spellings in their searches. You need to be creative and make sure that your copy incorporates these so-called mistakes, maybe even have some fun with it!"

Understanding seasonal factors and trends could add to sales.

At the end of 2005, Park Seed had great success in using the search terms 'gardening gift certificates' and 'gardening gift cards', driving strong sales during the normally stagnant month of November. The Wordtracker data revealed that a large number of searchers were looking for 'gift cards' as well as 'gift certificates, which drove the dual focus of the search engine optimization (SEO) push. Of course, some of the thinking behind this strategy was based on an understanding of the seasonal nature of the business, but further insights from Wordtracker told the Park Seed team when it was time to change their content and SEO strategy, as Walt Yates explains.

"The Wordtracker numbers told us when the business for gift certificates was starting to die away, a week before Christmas, and when it was time to change our strategy, towards spring planting. It's a good example of why businesses have to constantly review and renew their content, based on what the keyword research data is telling them. That way, businesses keep search engine traffic and sales high. Those that don't do this will lose their market share.

Keyword research data is a key building block for Park Seed's future internet strategy.

The future of business on the internet for Park Seed looks good, thanks to the team's dedication and constant vigilance. The intelligent use of keyword research data is now a required step for any and all web promotions.

Its internet business is still growing, as an analysis of a recent twelve month period shows:

• Natural search engine revenue up by 42%
• Pay-per-click revenue up by 85%

But no one in Park Seed takes success for granted. As Walt Yates says, their approach to the internet owes a lot to George W. Park's way of doing business.

"His first priority was his customers' gardening pleasure, and that's still our guiding principle today. I like to think that we have brought George W. Park's restlessness and thirst for greater customer understanding into everything we do on the internet today. Wordtracker is a vital part of that, a required tool for our internet strategy."

For more information on how to use Wordtracker to its best advantage have a look at the Wordtracker Keywords page.