Question

FLORAL SHOP

1. Present a course of action involving Marketing Planning to improve this business. Organize your answer using bullet points and sections I, II, III, IV, V.

Alyssa’s Floral Shop is a florist shop owned and operated by Jim and Mary Brown (a husband-and-wife team). The shop offers hundreds of floral arrangements together with small gifts; gift items include flowerpots, jewelry, vases, outdoor patio furniture, et cetera. Jim serves as the manager and sales clerk, while Mary specializes in the floral arrangements. Sales of the specialty floral business have been increasing since their opening in 2019, supposedly due to its friendly service and quality offerings. Some clothing items such as sweaters were also added for sale primarily to fill-up available space in the shop. Their major business consists of parties, weddings, funerals, and major one-time special events, in addition to some internet orders and spur-of-the moment purchases. Internet orders comprise of only about 5 percent of their business. Although most sales are generated from loyal customers in the local community, about 20 percent of the sales come from casual buyers.   Most of the customers are women, medium-to-high income category.

The size of the shop is rather large, located in a residential area nearby to a resort town with a population of about 100,000 full-time residents. Although somewhat isolated, about 9 blocks from other stores, the shop is located near a major heavily traveled intersection. Price promotions are essential since there are about 12 competitors in the nearby community. However, although Mary feels that flowers are not considered “special” by most shoppers, there is some concern about diminishing the overall value and image projected. Their promotion strategy for flowers and floral arrangements consists of an advertisement in the Yellow Pages of the local telephone directory, and occasionally in the local newspaper. During busy times, high-school students are hired to assist in order taking. Their task simply entails showing the prospects the display items and processing the transaction.

Assignment: Present at least 3 marketing strategies. For promotion, consider using social media for this business.

Answer 1

Marketing Idea #1 – Use Social Media

Flowers are very photogenic and so it would be a shame not to share them online. More than that, though, social media is a great way to build visibility, find loyal customers and keep people coming back to your business every birthday, anniversary, or holiday.

According to MarketingSherpa:

95% of consumers aged 18 to 34 followed brands on their social media accounts.

It’s a great way to build your brand as well and create an image around your business. Here you can show your audience what kind of florist you are, whether you specialize in a certain kind of event or clientele or if your designs have a certain unique style to them.

Instagram

Instagram is the social media site to go to for visuals. This is the perfect place to keep an unofficial portfolio of your work. It’s important to post high-quality photos. Instagram is both a way to connect with your potential customers more directly and a way to showcase your skills and art.

Post your best photos–those that capture the energy and affect your flowers had on the environment. For example, if you specialize in weddings, feature interesting and attractive photos of the event with your flowers showcased throughout.

Botanica Floral Design, an eco-friendly flower design business created and owned by Josef Reiter, has a beautiful collection of photos on Instagram. The photos are professional and give off a certain feeling that tells visitors of the page the sort of style Botanica specializes in.

The incorporation of succulents with the expected flowers is complimented well by the color scheme chosen for the page. For Instagram, it’s important to think about how the photos look individually and together because of the way an Instagram page is formatted.

Many of the photos have warm lighting or an almost indiscernible sepia tint. The photos look good separately and match together.

A general rule for all social media marketing is to vary the types of posts you make. Yes, Instagram is all about the pictures but try and include photos of just flowers, photos with people, and/or photos at different kinds of events.

If you just take photos of flower bouquets in the same lighting and same position, the followers you gain will get bored. Not to mention, it won’t give those people interested in your business much of a feel of what your flowers look like in different situations.

Another general rule of social media marketing is to make sure you post consistently, whether that means once a week or once a day. Posting consistently means your followers will see you consistently throughout their day or week and that will keep them engaged with you and your business.

Facebook

Much as with Instagram, to be successful in your Facebook marketing, you have to post consistently and vary the kinds of posts you make. The important part here, however, is making a business page for your flower shop, which is where all your posts should go (as opposed to your personal profile). You have to have a personal Facebook page to make a business page.

Facebook is a good place to announce special events you’re holding, post pictures of your store or bouquets, and post about your current sales.

Facebook also offers the option to showcase your reviews like in the example below.

In the corner, you can see this flower shop’s rating is “4.9 out of 5,” which is a great thing to show off to those who visit their Facebook page. People trust reviews. According to a survey conducted by BrightLocal, 72% of consumers say positive reviews make them trust a business more.

Throughout their page, you can also see a variety of posts, from standalone pictures and videos to sale announcements accompanied by beautiful Christmas themed bouquets. They focus on holidays and celebrations, which is evident in their recent Christmas open house.

Their Facebook page helps create their image of a community-minded, celebratory flower shop. What you post on your social media influences how your business is perceived. Think about the image you want to convey and stick to it. What are the customer service goals surrounding your business? What style are your floral designs? Creating an image around these questions is the key to branding with social media.

Pinterest

On Pinterest, people can create “boards” and create an aesthetic for their events using a collection of images. For example, a bride can create a board that shows the imagery and mood she wants to see at her wedding. Florists can also use Pinterest to show the sort of aesthetic their flowers communicate or the sort of bouquets they want to create.

Julia Rockwell uses Pinterest to showcase the style and beauty of the bouquets she aims for. If someone is looking for a florist and comes across her Pinterest, they’ll quickly understand her taste and style.

Marketing Idea #2 – Use Google Ads

Paid ads can be a great way to stand out amongst the crowd. They put more control into your hands than other kinds of advertising because you can choose where your ads end up and who sees them. Targeting is a huge part of making your Google Ads campaign effective. For local flower shops, making sure your narrow down your location so your ads only appear to those who live or shop around your area is crucial to saving money.

Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay for it. Here are the most effective types of Google ads a florist can use:

• Search Ads

Google organizes search ads using an auction. How much you pay for certain keywords will make you more likely to rank on the first page, but it’s not the only aspect affecting your ad’s placement. The quality of your ad and user experience matters here as well.

This ad promises the “best wedding florists” and “beautiful flowers from $99.” All in all, it’s a very clickable ad. Its usage of numbers catches the eyes and it promises affordability as well as beauty. The description is also interesting because it promises “to do the legwork for you,” highlighting the ease as well.

Using numbers, taking up as much space as you can (with your limited amount of characters), and using keywords like “beautiful” or a location like in the example above, is a great technique for catching the eye of people scrolling through and compelling those interested into clicking.

The ad above is clearly optimized to a certain location so it only appears when people search for that location. This prevents the ad from being clicked on by people who would have no use for or interest in it.

People are much more likely to click on ads when they’re already looking to make a purchasing decision. According to WordStream,

65% of all paid ad clicks come from people with high intent to purchase.

So, when someone clicks on your ad, there’s a high chance they’re looking to buy your products before they even reach your page.

To learn more about Google Search Ads, take a look at our article about what Google Ads is and how it works.

• Display Ads

Display ads or banner ads are ads that you see as you scroll through your favorite websites. They look like this:

Display ads are a combination of visuals and text and so it’s important to make sure your chosen photo is eye-catching and that your text matches but compels the person viewing the ad to click on it. A call-to-action is important because it leads your potential customer to take an action instead of leaving them guessing.

While the ad above features a phone number, it doesn’t say “call now” or instructs the viewer to click anything.

Display ads appear when someone is not looking to shop and so, according to WordStream data, their click-through rate is lower (3.17% for search network vs 0.46% for display). However, display ads are a great retargeting tool, meaning they’re a great way of pursuing potential customers that left your website without purchasing anything.

For example, if someone adds flowers to their cart but never checks out for them, you can use display ads to remind them about their interest while they scroll through a blog about wedding decorations.

Targeting is as important here as for search ads. Because those viewing the ad aren’t necessarily looking to purchase and because the click-through rate is lower than for search ads, it’s important to make sure your ads are appearing on the right websites. You don’t want your ads appearing on websites that have nothing to do with your business. You would be losing money were you not to work on targeting the right people.

Pinterest has 250 million active users and, according to SproutSocial, 7.53% of referral traffic comes from the website, the second highest next to Facebook. With numbers like that, Pinterest is definitely a social channel to consider.

Marketing Idea #3 – Offline Marketing

1. We know that Mary specializes in the floral arrangements. So they should try focusing on trying different arrangement for different occasions and try to get that image captured by local media.
Example if it's independence day, try to build Map of INDIA using it.
2. try collaborating with Local people.
With festivals coming bring culture of exchanging flowers and gifts
3. Make Valentine's day your biggest sales day
4. Show that you don't own flowers but also the quality of those flowers

While online marketing is important and can mean the difference in a successful campaign and an unsuccessful one, offline marketing is important as well, especially for local businesses. Most of your customers will come from the neighborhoods surrounding your business.

According to the book Killer Business Plan by Peter and Lydia Mehit:

Most of your business comes from a one to five miles radius.

You should reach out and connect with your community in order to build the support of those around you.

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to increase business

According to Nielsen, consumers are 90% likely to trust recommendations from people they know. Word of mouth has the highest trust rate in comparison to any other form of advertising, including online reviews newspaper articles.

As with reviews, the best way to increase the amount of positive word of mouth interactions is to make sure you have great customer service and solve any issues that may arise in order to keep your customer happy. Just like people will tell their friends and family if they liked your business, they’ll tell them if they had a bad experience.

Networking is another important step to offline advertising

Reiter said he belongs to BNI (Business Networking International), the world’s largest networking organization. Joining programs such as these, or other kinds of networking groups will put you in contact with more florists, who you will be able to exchange information with. This will allow you to keep up with trends and stay in the know for important things about your business.

Not to mention, building connections with other people in your field will lead to referrals. “I tend to ask pretty much everyone how they found me. And it’s either through referrals from other wedding vendors I work with… and other florists,” said Reiter. “We refer each other when we’re not available.” Maintain positive relationships with those you have worked with and other florists you meet and they’re more likely to refer you to their clients.