Fresh flowers help celebrate or honor an occasion and add ambience and character to people’s homes and offices, so by nature they sell themselves. However, even if people naturally flock to your floral shop – not everyone ends up buying, and there are times when floral business owners simply need to boost their sales and convert more leads into clients.
So how do you get more people to find you, entice them to come into your flower shop, make a purchase, and ideally keep coming back?
Here are 10 ways to promote your flower company and help you turn leads into customers:
1. Expand Your Brand
One way to take your flower shop branding to the next level is to do so digitally. Data shows that 97% of people turn to the Internet to search for businesses in their area, so make sure you have a web presence and good branding.
Your website should “wow” the viewers. After all, it is the first impression of your brand. Use your company logo (many agree that the best spot is in the top left corner), make your pages visually appealing with big beautiful images of flowers. Ensure your website is easy to navigate, contact information is clear and easy to find, and keep all content fresh and up to date. Include an “About Us” page where you can share the story of your brand, as well as some testimonials from satisfied clients.
And make sure your brand is on everything that leaves your flower shop, including boxes, vases, tissue paper, ribbons, and other marketing swag – it will keep your brand on customer’s minds long after they buy your products.
2. Use Social Media
Use social media as a marketing tool with an active presence on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and provide a good reason for people to follow and like you.
These social networks increase your brand awareness and help engage with your audience, and are great ways to also reach younger demographics.
Post a daily on-brand image; it can be a fresh bouquet of the day, a beautiful flower of the season, your team members working, how you decorated your home for a special occasion, re-gram of customer photos of their weddings or birthdays showcasing your flower arrangements, etc. Keep your audience posted about any in-store promotions, upcoming events, industry trends, etc.
Aim to post at the right time of day, when your followers are active, and use relevant hashtags and location geo-tags. Engage with customers by commenting on and liking their posts.
To boost business, you can take advantage of Instagram’s “Shop Now” features; also, you could start a targeted ad campaign on both Facebook and Instagram.
3. Use Google and Emails
Google is an excellent resource for promoting your floral business online, so make sure your Google business listing contains the right contact information, website, and hours of operation is up to date.
To help Google searches lead people to your website, your website should satisfy Google’s standards. A way to achieve that is having an efficient SEO strategy to attract local customers and out of town business. Also, having a flower shop blog is a great way to keep your web content fresh and lace important keywords throughout.
Managing your online reputation is essential – data shows that over 91% of consumers take time to read online reviews. Remember to ask happy customers to share their experiences with Google reviews, as well as on other important sites, like Facebook. And, be sure to respond to both negative and positive feedback.
Utilizing email is another smart marketing technique - use it to share promotions, company updates, new product lines and seasonal news.
Targeted email campaigns are a great way to boost business around important holidays, such as a sales blast before Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. Capture emails of potential byers, so you can stay in touch, and have an “early-bird” sale for them before you announce the upcoming sale to the general public.
4. Boost Your Shop’s Look, Feel, and Offers
Take steps to ensure your window display appeals to your target buyers, and your signage is as eye-catching and inviting as possible to bring in business off the street.
Get creative with your window displays. Decorate outside your shop with pots or buckets abundant with beautiful flowers – create excitement and interest with colors, scents, and attractive decorations. Utilize the beautiful storefront to hand out coupons, promotions, and info on upcoming events.
5. Nurture Existing Relationships
Cultivate and delight your existing customers – not only so they want to continue supporting your flower shop, but also so they can recommend you to other people.
Be genuine, personable, and attentive, and go above and beyond whenever possible.
Add a personal touch by sending a handwritten note or making a personal phone call thanking your customers for their order. Reward your loyal customers with a loyalty program and gift special discounts for first-time and repeat customers.
Whenever a customer refers someone to your shop, give them a special thank you gift. You could also host a special appreciation event for your top customers and invite them to bring their friends and family.
6. Partner with Like-Minded Brands
Host events in collaboration with like-minded stores, artists and organizations – this is an opportunity to draw in more traffic, offer something unique, and grow your own fan-base while nurturing relationships with individuals and companies in your community.
It could be a designer showcase, a talk by a local artisan, or a fundraiser. Another way to boost your brand exposure would be partnering with local restaurants, event planners, or delivery services.
Also, consider partnering with local influencers - send them fresh flowers in exchange for posting about your brand and tagging your business to promote you to their many followers.
7. Give Back to the Community
Market your flower shop by getting involved in the community with charities at local parks, nursing homes, schools, etc. Do some volunteer work or offer flower donations at local community events.
Or, offer some after-hours workshops and classes on DIY flower arrangements, wreath-making, gardening, or wedding floral decorating tips, and have some specials ready for everyone who wants to place an order.
8. Expand Outside the Flower Box
Take your flower shop marketing ideas outside of the box and distinguish yourself -
focus more on individualized custom products; source locally; use unique packaging such as recycled paper or hatboxes; feature rare and hard to obtain flowers; etc.
Consider launching a pop-up flower shop – a branded flower cart that you can park outside of busy downtown areas and other places to boost brand awareness and sales.
Remember to use both digital and grassroots techniques to reach new clients. Targeted efforts can also help you get more bang for your marketing dollars.
9. Be Inviting & Enticing
Try various approaches to get more people into your flower shop.
People love free giveaways. Consider having a raffle for a flower arrangement a month for six months or something similar that is significant enough for people to want to stop in to add their name.
Or, display a large calendar with the current date on your outside window or on an easel outside your store, with a clearly visible sign that says if your birthday is that day, come on in for a free flower of the season! Another fun approach could be displaying a different name on an easel out front daily, and if they see their name there (alternate male/female names), they can come in to receive a free rose/another flower that day.
Install a larger than life flower display for people to take pictures with – it’s a fun way to tie in social media and invite people to come into your shop.
With each purchase of a bud vase or arrangement, or when they spend certain dollar amount, give a free gift, such as chocolates, a teddy bear or a candle.
10. Ensure Excellence of Service
Train your staff to be knowledgeable and efficient, and set high standards for them to be friendly, attentive and personable.
One of the important reasons many customers support small businesses is the personal relationships, so make sure you and your team have what it takes and always offer a smile, great service, product knowledge and enthusiasm.
And, always make sure your shop is well stocked with the highest quality fresh flowers!
For all your wholesale flowers and other wholesale flower supplies, turn to Schaefer Wholesale Florist (SWF).
SWF has been your trustworthy local wholesaler flower company since 1958. As an importer-broker of fresh-cut wholesale flowers from around the world, we proudly serve Event/Wedding Planners, Family Owned Grocery Stores, Retail Flower Shops and Wholesale Flower Shops in the Mid-Atlantic region.
