We received an inquiry last week regarding the online marketing of flowers and florists. Like many other businesses, florists exist in the real world as brick-and-mortar establishments and on the Internet as a virtual store. Each requires specific marketing strategies.
Foot traffic is a large component of a florist shop’s business, even if they also have a thriving online presence. The latest wrinkle in florist marketing is a phone application to find a nearby florist and/or pick out inventory. You simply feed your GPS location to the app, and it renders a 3-D map of all florists within a user-specified radius. Participating florists maintain a timely perpetual inventory that the app presents along with appropriate photographs of different flowers and plants. If you like, you can text the florist to hold or create a particular arrangement for you. A shopping cart allows you to buy on the spot without even setting foot in the shop.
Florist directories are available from FTD, Teleflora, and others. A florist can market itself by paying a fee to the directory in exchange for prominent placement. Of course, you can supplement this approach with simple paid advertisement banners on flower-related sites. You can cross-market by advertising on appropriate sites, such as those hosted by wedding planners or undertakers.
Funeral flowers are a large revenue stream to florists nationally, so it makes sense to place an ad on a funeral parlor’s website. A savvy florist who takes this approach will stock a full array of casket sprays that are ready to go on a moment’s notice. It is important to offer a variety of casket sprays that sell at different price points, since the relationship between the flower purchaser and the deceased will vary tremendously. Many grief-stricken mourners want to express their loss by specifying an expensive array of flowers for the funeral of a loved one. Thus it is a good idea for florists to stock one or two high-end designs along with less extravagant arrangements.
An interesting marketing trend is to offer funeral flower renting. In this arrangement, the mourner buys the use of flowers for a two or three hour period, after which the flowers are returned to the florist. This can cut cost to the mourner by one-half to two-thirds, depending on circumstances. On a good day, a florist can reuse the same flowers two or more times.
Another marketing approach is to offer customers a gift directory with automatic reminders. The reminders can be sent to email customers a specified number of days before the birthday or anniversary of the recipient, or even to automatically purchase and ship flower arrangements and bill a registered credit card. Florist love automatic ordering, as it represents a steady and reliable source of income.