Questions with Cassie Flynn

Cassie Flynn is marketing director at Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses, and she also runs her own business, Harken Consulting. Her session “Day-to-Day Marketing for Small Businesses” will provide a guide to marketing your green industry business when you have no time and little to no resources. 

NM: What kinds of marketing ideas will you explore in your talk? 

CF: We're going to talk about my ‘big 5’ for marketing success. It's the marketing basics that every business owner should know and how to implement it into your day-to-day thinking when it comes to social media marketing or traditional. 

We'll hit on branding, audience, consistency, budget and adapting as things change over time.   

We'll talk about the planning phases and how to develop a strategy and organize your thinking for the long-term. And then we'll go into a section that's all about day-to-day, like how to utilize Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to their highest advantage. We’ll talk about how to take really great photos of products including plants. We’re going to do a bit on paid advertising, including search engines and Facebook. I’ve also got a plan to talk about how they can interact with other businesses in their communities and really leverage events and classes as part of their marketing strategy. 

NM: How do you recommend a nursery will only a few full-time employees handle marketing? 

CF: I tell all of my small business clients that anybody with a cell phone can be a marketer in 2023. When you have such limited staff, your program is going to be primarily on social media.  

Want to go?

Tuesday, July 18, 8-9 a.m., Union Station Ballroom C