By far the best marketing tool we use at the nursery is the newsletter. It has roughly 2500 subscribers and over the years I have figured out the best way to get people to open it and actually read it all the way through. It’s a combination of news, special sales, and entertainment. I decided a few years ago to put my “personality” into the newsletter and add funny photos, funny stories, and stories about me, our employees, and my family. A personal touch that reminds them they are buying from a family owned business. A business made up of people that live in the same community and share the schools and churches with them. It seems to have helped the number of people that open up the emails and the responses and replies are up 10 fold compared to just sending out sales emails. I had a few extra Christmas trees and branching left so I sent out a newsletter and finished it off with a story. Here is the story.
People will ask you what your earliest memory is and mine is clear as day. My earliest memory is from an early age Christmas morning. My father worked for his father at the nursery and like most young nursery sons, didn’t make a lot of money. My Mom was 24 with three kids. Combine the nursery salary with three crazy kids and you can imagine my parents questioned whether they had made the best choices. But Christmas was always different. It was still a time back in the 70s where we didn’t start celebrating Christmas until a few weeks before and kids didn’t want $500 Playstation 4s. My wants were simple.
Anything Speedy Gonzalez. 
If you don’t remember Speedy Gonzalez, he was one of the Looney Toons characters. A Mexican mouse that was so fast nobody could catch him. He would fly past you and yell “Andele Andele !!” I thought I fastest 4 year old the world had seen. And Speedy was the only guy that might be faster than me. To say I was excited to get a pair of pajamas with Speedy Gonzales on the front would be an understatement. I put them on and spastically ran around the room. Showing everyone who would watch how fast I was. I can remember it like it happened yesterday. But it is a memory, and like most memories from 40 years ago, I’m not sure what part of it was made up of it in my head and which part was real.
A few years back my Grandmother’s house had burned to the ground in San Diego. San Diego has the most beautiful weather in the world but some times God has a way of playing Even Steven and he took my Grandmother’s house and memories from her. She was most upset about the photos and film that she and her husband had collected over the years. My Grandfather filmed everything. There are very few people that had films of their parties growing up in the fifties and sixties and my Mom had pretty much every minute on film. Or had. But a miracle had happened. My uncle was going to surprise my Grandmother and had grabbed all of the film out of the attic and taken it to be put on CD. He did that a week before the fire. It was all saved. Of course the first thing my family did was watch it, all of it
We watched my Mom go to Jr High, Girl scouts, go sledding. Start college, get married and have some kids. There were birthdays, anniversaries, and yes, Christmases. One of those Christmases is with my young Mom and her kids. We see our parents and realize they are getting old. We are reminded how young they were through pictures but nothing brings you back like film. My Mom was stunning. The most beautiful smile you had ever seen. Thin and in shape which is also known as 24 years old. I almost cried when I saw how young and amazing she looked. Where I lost it was somewhere else. There was this little kid, a cute kid, wearing Speedy Gonzales pajamas dancing around like a little spaz. The biggest, happiest smile you have ever seen. All because a pair of pajamas. The memory was real. Every single moment in my head was replayed in the home movie. Captured on film to fill in the blanks 42 years later. My first memory added to a new memory that was just as happy.
Here’s hoping you have a Speedy Gonzales Christmas. Whether its yours, your kids, or your Grandchild’s. I hope that what came in the gifts entertains you for a little while but the memories of getting together with friends and family stays with you forever.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Please come see us again in the Spring (after you buy all your Christmas stuff this week)
Shane and Everyone at Country Arbors
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Take a look at some of the names coming Here is the FULL LIST
Have a name at auction and need more exposure? Send me an email. I Charge $10 per name per day. We may be able to help. If you have an auction you want to promote, email us for details.*All names chosen by me, Shane . (ie you click through and purchase a name you like) or an occasional paid listing. Everything I say is based on my own research or is opinion. Do your own due diligence. That means look it up yourself if you don’t think the stats or my opinion is correct. I hand choose my names but I am paid to make this list by both the auction houses, individuals that are auctioning names, and Godaddy affiliate links. Keep that in mind and only buy names that YOU think are good
You nailed it.
As you knw I lost my wife a few weeks ago. I had hundreds of photos out at the wake. People married 40 years told me they had less pics than us after our just 15 years.
Those movies and pics are worth much more than a house made of wood and nails.
The best thing you can make in your life is Memories.
Tim,
As I told you before, your experience certainly affected me. The eulogy to your wife was one of the most beautiful things I had read and I wanted to make sure I shared a little more of that with the people I care about. Thank you for that. Merry Christmas
Wow. There’s nothing better than sincerity. You’re the best domainer because you’re so relatable to the common man – you’re real.
Merry Christmas from South Dakota!
Thank you Cam. It’s pretty easy just writing about my journey in life and domain investing. It may not always be good and bad but it will always be memorable. Merry Christmas to you as well.
Merry Christmas to you too Shane. In 1976 at age 4, Evel Knievel and TheSixMillionDollarMan had me convinced that crashing motorcycles and rocketships was what I wanted to do. By 1980, more realistic career opportunities came along like Van Halen.
Thanks for the advice on the Hibiscus, turned out to be too much water. I let it dry out and it greened up nicely. Have a great 2017.
Steve,
Ha. A coworker and I were JUST talking about the Evel Knievel motorcycle and how we would wind that thing up 100 times a day every day. It was indestructible. Definitely my favorite toy of my childhood.
If anyone wants a lesson in content marketing — and how using real, earnest stories can make an enormous impact — they just got it. And it’s not the quantity of subscribers, but the quality of the list and content.
Happy holidays to you and yours, Shane!
Thank Michael. Our town has 100,000 residents. I bet there aren’t many local businesses that have a mailing list of 2500 that averages 1800 to 2000 openings. That many eyeballs that actually care is worth a lot of money.
Awesome Christmas story Shane! I, too, has that Evil Knievel and it was up there with that Atari 2600 as one of my faves of all time! And, as a direct marketer- let me just say that your open rate of your envelope is astounding!
Happy Holidays to all
Mike