Rivenrock Gardens Cactus Blog… go to www.rivenrock.com for edible cactus

   Alrighty then….   We’ve been getting rain, so that means no work outdoors…. I should be preparing my income taxes, but it seems a big portion of the Obama economics plan seems to be to hire people who don’t pay their taxes, whereupon they will immediately pay any taxes due.  So from today until April 14 when I’ll totally freak out and run the taxes to the Post Office, I am not paying income taxes, and am declaring my desire for a  ‘Cabinet-Level Post’.. preferably as Secretary of Agriculture…. but I’ll take Ambassadorship to Germany if the other post is taken.  As soon as I am nominated I’ll send the tax forms on to the IRS…. I should have them done by the end of this month.

   So what’s a none-tax preparing, stuck indoors during rain… cactus grower to do? Well, just in case I’m not going to D.C. or Germany and getting lots of money for that… I should try to sell more cactus. Since it seems tortoises are a large potential market for us, I should try to sell to zoos and reptile houses and such. So I have been working on a marketing postcard to send out.  I posted a version of it a few days ago… but now it is in its final, indeed, submitted version. Yes folks, we’ll soon have a box of these coming to our house and ready to send out once we have our final mailing list compiled.

Here’s the postcard….

Cactus tortoise sales postcard, 2009

   Now I’m on the look for likely groups of people to send these to.  I am getting a list of zoos together, and also tortoise clubs would be good. I am pulling in various names and addresses for these groups from the Internet…. these will all go into a large mailing we expect to be making within the next month or two, timed to arrive as the new flush of leaves is starting to mature.  We’ll be taking some of those names and sending a postcard to them once a month or so through the summer. It is said that repetition is the key to successful marketing.   The first ad might be summarily trashed, the second might merit a cursory glance as it triggers some memory (“Have I seen this before”?) before being trashed, the third might cause the person to examine and think about their need for cactus before they throw it away. And it might be the fourth or the fifth that might actually cause the person to decide to examine the issue.

   Also, if the postcard is colorful and eye-catching, it is more likely to stand out and be looked at… and certainly it will be recognized more quickly the second time.  That is why I’ve used such blaring glaring colors. And I tried to put out all the concepts and messages in that front image… the tortoise, huge and determined, the ‘USDA Organic’ logo, our own logo which we hope to brand as ‘cactus’, and the fine cactus leaf itself. This should show people that ‘This is not your father’s cactus’… hey wait… did I just make up a great one-liner or what!!!???  I have a ‘Call to action’ in the form of the “LET THEM EAT CACTUS!”… and the ‘hook’ is the “$5 off” offer which hopefully will cause them to at least think about getting a nine pound box and see ifthe tortoises like it.  Frankly, people are amazed at how much their tortoises love cactus…. and although I mean this as human food, and raise it with that end in mind…. ‘buyers is buyers’, and anyone who is stoked to buy our cactus is welcome!

  By the way…. when I send these out and am giving ‘five dollars off’, anyone on the mailing list will also be given the same opportunity. I do not believe in offering a special deal only to new customers…. it is the old customers who buy month in and month out who are the ‘bread and butter’ of any business…. so join the mailing list to get notified of specials such as this one.  We always welcome new business, but we also desire to keep old customers happy… so I’d not usually give any discount to lure new customers and not also offer it to the folks on the mailing list.

   I know a few people who are super skilled and creative at advertising…. and they are always very interesting to talk to. I get such valuable input from them.  And this postcard is a bit of the culmination of my marketing plans for this year… meager though as it may be.

   We get a good number of people on the website daily (averaged some 750 users daily in 2008), but we know there are still many more people out there who need to find out about our cactus. So in the spring when the cactus that survived the winter have scars to prove it, the marketing should be to tortoise people and groups who just desire good healthy material for tortoises to eat.  In the summertime when the plants are loving the hot weather, full sun and care we give them, they will out out the highest quality of cactus leaves anyone has ever seen. That is the time we should be marketing to health food stores and vegetable brokers. So my second phase of our 2009 marketing, to be implemented in late spring will be to those groups of people.

   A friend suggested using a tortoise for that mailing also. The text would be above the tortoise saying something to the effect that ‘Cactus is the preferred food of tortoises…  tortoises can live for over 100 years…. maybe they know something we don’t?’   I like that concept, and have started on that postcard… but have to work the text out yet.

   So, this is a good, fun and productive way to while away the winter storm hours.  In a few months we’ll have the highest quality fresh cactus growing out, and it’ll be good having new customers.

   Speaking of that, we have been getting a good deal of new customers. So the marketing we placed at the end of 2008 seems to have done well. We’ll keep up those marketing strategies that seem to work, and continue to pursue new avenues that might appear promising.

   However, none of my training or education was directed toward marketing in any great way, and it is not a natural inclination of mine to ‘toot-my-own-horn’ (so to speak)… but there is no way to let people know of our great cactus and its wonderful uses other than to introduce ourselves. So if anyone has marketing strategies and ideas… or ideas for mailing lists that might be beneficial, do let us know.

   Thanks