Customers search online about the things they want to buy, even if it’s a simple local purchase.

 

Google is not only helpful for consumers, but it’s also good for businesses. As long as you can use that to your advantage by strengthening your business’s online presence, your floral e-commerce website can succeed. 

Florist Quick Guide to Google My Business

Google My Business is Google’s one-stop shop for all things online for your business. It is an online platform that contains tools where you can manage how your business will look like in Google and Google Search.

Google My Business (GMB) improves your local SEO by:

* Giving you the options to add your business and the relevant details to Search and Maps

* Viewing and replying to customer reviews

* Adding photos

What are Google My Business local Guides?

Google My Business’s Local guides allow people to contribute to the following:

*Adding information to Maps

*Adding photos

*Updating information on businesses they are familiar with or local to them

*Adding new places to the platform.

The program differentiates individuals into tiers, depending on how much they have contributed to Maps. The goal for them is to keep Maps updated and help other people be fully informed about the businesses and places around them. 

Aside from adding data, Local Guides can also add reviews to business listings. However, they are considered to be more reliable users, thus their reviews appear more frequently and on top of the reviews list. 

How Can I Improve My Local Pages?

Customers who come across your business, those who make a purchase or require service can be a Local Guide. It can be hard to tell Local Guides apart from normal customers. Local Guides reviews are trusted more by people just with the sheer fact that their reviews are given priority when displaying reviews on your listing.

You cannot just pick out Local Guides from your customers and give them the best service you can. The key here is to treat all your customers the same and give the best service as much as you can to everyone. 

Encourage customers to leave reviews for your business listing in Google Maps.

When receiving Positive Reviews:

*Reply to reviews in your listing

*Make sure to thank the reviewer

*Offer them to return 

*Try out a new service that you might have started on your business.

 

When receiving Negative Reviews:

*Be polite and courteous

*State the status of the concern or issue the review was having problems with.

*Apologize for the issue or concern

*Offer to replace or fix the issue

 

Doing this will give people the impression that you are very mindful of the concerns that your business has and responsive to your customer base.

 

The tools that GMB provides are beneficial in boosting your online presence, and most especially in the local setting. Taking advantage of these tools is thus invaluable in helping out your business grow.

Florists, have you been using Google my Business: Local Guides? Please share your thoughts and comments below!

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

 

Did you know May is National Pet Month in the United States?

May is officially here! A month of Spring Flowers, Mother’s Day and a month to cherish our four-legged furry friends!

As florists, you may have been asked the question time and time again, what flowers or plants are safe around animals?

Every pet owner knows their furry friend will chew on anything it can get into, and at some point it will gravitate towards plants and flowers. As beautiful as plants and flowers are, some can be particularly dangerous to our furry companions. Pets are members of the family, so the last thing we want is for them to get sick from flowers or plants that are toxic to them.

Top Toxic Flowers and Plants

Aloe Vera
Amaryllis
Azalea
Baby’s Breath (toxic to dogs, safe for cats)
Begonia
Birds of Paradise
Carnation
Chrysanthemum
Daffodils
Dieffenbachia
Eucalyptus
Iris
Ivy
Mother in Law’s Tongue/Snake Plant
Narcissus
Oleander
Poinsettia
Tulips
Wisteria

Top Pet-Friendly Flowers and Plants

Aster
Alstroemeria
Daisies
Fern Varieties
*Lilies (safe for dogs, toxic to cats)
Marigolds
Orchids
Pansies
Petunia
Roses
Snapdragons
Sunflowers
Spider Plant this
Violets
Zinnia

Signs and Symptoms of Flower and Plant Toxicity

If you suspect that a pet has ingested a toxic plant or flowers, please contact your vet right away. Here are some signs:

• Lethargy
• Weakness
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Drooling
• Nausea

For a full and complete listing of toxic and non-toxic plants, we recommend the ASPCA website for more information.

When customers are ordering flowers or a plant for a pet-friendly household, just take a few extra minutes to check the list! This will help strengthen the relationship between you and the customer and provides confidence to keep them coming back.

Florists, do you get asked a lot what is pet-friendly? What do you offer your customers when asked this question? Please share your thoughts and comments below!

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner! Is your business ready for this busy floral holiday?

Having a plan in place to make the most revenue during Mother’s Day is critical to earning the rewards of this bustling, blossoming occasion. Read on for an agenda to help you plan and organize your shop for the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday.

1. Promote Your Floral Business!

Begin by using your floral website and social media profiles to start marketing your floral arrangements and your business. It’s not too late!

Images & Products

• • Post high-quality photos of your work or any specials you are offering during Mother’s Day on your website or social media platforms.
  • Don’t forget to link your social media posts to your website! You want to make it as easy as possible for customers to make a purchase—this also means that advertising your social media heavily on your website can actually lead customers away from making a purchase.
  • Mother’s Day products should be prominently displayed and easily accessible throughout your website.

Hours & Policies

• Clearly post your shop’s business hours on your website and social media.
• Having clear policies on delivery, returns, and substitutions will alleviate any headaches for you and your customers and help head off negative customer experiences.

Promotions & Discounts

• Increase traffic to your store by offering deals or discounts on pickups rather than deliveries.
• List special promotions. This is a great way to encourage customers to shop early, before Mother’s Day week.
• Don’t forget to update your product pricing to cover your costs!

Note: “Promoting” does not always have to mean offering discounts. Remind customers why they should order flowers through your business.

2. Staffing, Scheduling and Duties, Oh My!

Making sure you have enough coverage can be overwhelming during the holiday rush. Not to worry, take a deep breath and follow these tips!

Hiring

• If hiring extra help, have them come in on a day before Mother’s Day week to go over their responsibilities and training.
• If hiring extra drivers, discuss with them whether you require them to use their own vehicle.
• If you can, keep a standby driver at the shop to handle new orders for delivery.

Employees

• Have an employee meeting and discuss what is expected of them during Mother’s Day.
• Make sure to explain how important everyone shows up and does what is expected of them.
• Encourage and praise your employees and floral designers. Its always better to be positive than negative.

Scheduling & Duties

• Have your Mother’s Day week scheduled out two weeks in advance. That way there are no surprises to your staff and you have time to make adjustments and improvise as needed.
• Go over job descriptions with employees—it’s always useful to remind everyone what their responsibilities are.
• Assign sections for the delivery drivers in specific areas. Add finished flower arrangements to this area with the date of delivery that is bold and clear.

 

3. Don’t Forget your Flowers & Supplies

Making sure you have enough flowers and supplies to get through the holiday is important.

Supplies

• Start looking around for supplies, containers, baskets and vases weeks before Mother’s Day.
• Visit your local supplier. However, don’t forget to visit discount home stores and dollar stores. You can find some great unique items.
• Don’t settle! Shop around for the best deals on supplies and florals.

Flowers

• Start ordering your Mother’s Day flowers early to get the best value.
• Don’t forget to shop around if you buy from multiple wholesalers.
• If you are comfortable, get your flowers through a floral auction. A great opportunity to get some discounts when purchasing in large quantities.
• Make sure to order flowering plants, orchids, and dish gardens. These are big sellers and require very little work.

Note: If you are new to the floral industry, Mother’s Day spans for a week, not a day. So order enough flowers!

4. Start Prepping & Showcasing your Flowers!

Stay ahead of the game with these prepping and showcasing tips during the busy holiday rush.

Prepping

• Prep your flowers when they arrive.
• Teach your front of store staff how to wire flowers to help cut down the time.
• Cut ribbon and make bows ahead of time.
• Green any vases, baskets or containers.
• No wastefulness! With the abundant supplies and flowers in the shop, it is easy to get sidetracked and be super wasteful. Everything thrown on the floor that can be used should be. Wasting or throwing out even a good pin or wire is considered money out of your pocket. Please be sure to express this to your employees.

Showcasing

• Gather up all your add-ons and gift items and display them prominently in the store.
• Make sure you re-stock your impulse buys on your front counter to sell in addition to flower arrangements.
• Make sure your flower shop and displays are clean and have an inviting atmosphere.
• Remember: If employees have time to lean, they have time to clean! Breaks are important but it doesn’t take much energy to tidy up.

Work Ahead

• Work a day ahead. Fill any orders for next day the day before. Working a day or two ahead will allow you flexibility just in case there are any last minute orders.
• Place premade orders in a cooler tagged with date of pickup or delivery.
• Mark any time-sensitive orders and bring those to the front of your cooler.

Note: It helps to have a system that works best for you. However, working on orders per day can feel overwhelming, so staying ahead of the game is always best.

5. Take Care of Yourself

It is important to take care of yourself during this busy Mother’s Day week.

• Wear comfortable clothes and shoes. Avoid open-toed shoes, as this can be an insurance liability in some areas.
• Make sure you eat! Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner are important—don’t skip meals!
• Get enough sleep. No one is at their best with lack of sleep.
• Take mandatory breaks.
• Do not sweat the small stuff. Regardless of how hard you try, there may be a complaint here or there. Do not let this get you down. It’s the nature of the business. The world can’t survive without florists!
• Try to enjoy Mother’s Day week by keeping a journal of all the funny things that happen or mishaps that take place to reflect on for next year.

Tip: Bring in extra shoes and store them in your cooler to remedy those aching feet. 

 

We would like to wish all florists a very successful Mother’s Day!

 

Florists, do you have any great Mother’s Days tips to share with our readers? Please post any of your Mother’s Day tips or feedback below.

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Using Google My Business is one of the best ways to improve your floral business website’s visibility.

 

Google My Business (formerly called Google Places) is the number one platform for listing your flower shop on Google searches, and Google Maps! Google My Business allows you to improve your business’s credibility and visibility, by showing you are verified on one of the most trusted platforms on the Internet.

 

 

Signing Up for Google for Business

If you are just starting your floral business, whether or not you have a floral website set up or not, start your application here.

Click Manage Now and enter your Business Name.

 

Next, you will be asked if you want to add a location that customers can visit, such as a store or an office.

If Yes – Enter Store Address. This will be displayed on Google Search and Google Maps

If No (you do NOT have a physical location that customers can visit you at), just click No.

 

Regardless of your answer, you will next be prompted to add areas that your business may service. Say Yes to this, and be sure to use the search bar provided to type in ALL applicable Delivery Areas for your Business.

 

Next, you will need to choose a business category. Just start typing and you will see many suggestions pop up that could be applicable. You can only add one at this screen, however, it is easy to add more after you have completed signing up.

 

Once you choose your category, you will be asked which contact details you’d like to show to customers. If you already have a website, go ahead and enter your Website Domain URL in the provided space. If you have a phone number for your business, go ahead and enter that as well.  If you don’t have a website yet, simply select “I don’t need a Website” (you definitely need one, but not for the purposes of signing up here). You can add in a website later at any time by using the Info Section.

 

Once you have completed the application process, you will likely be prompted to Verify your new listing. This is almost always done by sending a Verification Code by Post to your Business’s mailing address. Once you receive the Code in the Post, you can then enter that code onto your Google Business Verification page, to confirm the verification. This can take between a week, or sometimes two weeks for the code to arrive via post, so it is important to begin this process with Google My Business ASAP.

You’re done! You now have a Verified Listing on Google Business, that will show up for customers who are searching for your type of business in your local search area!

Now that we are signed in and verified on Google Business, let’s take a look at the various sections of the GMB Dashboard that will require our attention.

 

The Home Page

This will be your Main Hub for your Google Business dashboard. Here you can do a little bit of everything, such as: quickly see how your Business is displayed on Search and Maps, respond to reviews directly, answer questions, manage customer submitted photos, and create posts to share with your customers who view your business on Google Search.

Google Business is constantly adding new features, and many businesses, small and large, fail to take advantage of them! The next section is going to examine some of the important features you can access on your Google Business Dashboard.

 

POSTS

Business Owners can now create Posts that show directly with your Business Listing when customers view it on Search or Maps. These posts can be used to advertise special Products (including a URL to directly buy from your site), or to notify your customers about Events coming up, or special offers you may have (such as coupons or discounts). There are lots of possibilities with this new function. Keep in mind, a post made here will only last for 7 days maximum, and can only be 1500 characters MAX. So it is important to be concise, and to have good timing with your posts! Consider this, if you have a promotion that coincides with a major holiday, such as this upcoming Mother’s Day!

 

INFO

This is one of the most important pages for your Business Listing. Everything that is in the main column, under the Business Name, should be filled out ASAP. This includes: Business Name, Categories, Business Location, Service Areas, Hours and Special Hours, Phone Number, Website URL, Payment Methods Accepted, Short Description, Opening Date, and Photos.

As a Business Owner, it’s in your best interest to make sure all of this is filled out. All of this information can be shown with your Google Listing.

I’d like to quickly highlight a few newer functions from this page that are not utilized as much we think they should be:

Service Areas: Previously Google prompted Businesses to choose a Radius on their map to indicate how wide their service area could be. Now GMB seems to prompt you to choose from Delivery Areas such as Cities and Zip Codes. It is advantageous to type in as many as are applicable to your business. Be honest, of course. But don’t short sell your business’s reach by only including your primary area.

Opening Date: This one is applicable to up and coming businesses, that are still getting their ducks in a row. Our advice to you, start this as soon as you are able! Your Local SEO Ranking can be influenced by how much people engage with your Google Listing. If you start building this momentum before your business is even open, you may find that people in your area become aware of your business and ask you questions before it is even open!

 

INSIGHTS

From this page you can quickly get a view into how people engage with your Business Listing on Google Search, and also Google Maps. When people see your listing from Search or Maps, do they call you directly? Do they click on your Website button? Do they ask for directions? Having this information can be helpful while you are getting to know your customers, and learning how people find your business.

 

 

REVIEWS

It is important to engage with the people that offer you reviews. Make sure to respond to both positive as well as negative reviews. Believe it or not, people take notice when they see that a business owner has responded personally to a negative review. Don’t just leave them there to rot, take the time to write a personal response, to show that you care about the quality of your business, and its reputation!

Thank customers for their positive reviews, and encourage them to come back!

MESSAGING

Customers can now send messages to your Business directly from the Search page. This is a legitimate way to directly communicate with potential customers! You may find that people reach out to you directly through this Messaging function, make sure to pay attention to your Homepage, to see when you get new messages directly from customers searching online.

 

PHOTOS

Upload your Photos! This is extremely important. Businesses that don’t have many, or ANY photos will find that they have a harder time ranking highly in the Local Search Results. You should have the following photos that you upload yourself:

Logo – Your Business Logo

Cover Image – This is the grand feature photo and should correspond to the services you offer.

Product – Upload photos of your arrangements that you yourself have created for customers. You can also upload photos of the products as seen in your store.

 

Why is Google My Business Important?

There are so many reasons why all business owners absolutely must be on Google My Business, especially if your business is location specific. The biggest reason of all is the impact it has in increasing your search engine ranking, but below are some further reasons.

Improved Search Visibility: Try any of these keywords in a Google search: city, state, florist, flower shop, zip code/postal code. Notice who comes firsts under the map. These results are Local Search Results, courtesy of Google My Business. You cannot pay to place in these results, but having a Google My Business profile will enable you to.

Maps Your Floral Business Location: This allows the customer to find and navigate to your brick-and-mortar store and website more easily.

Allows for Customer Interaction: Google My Business allows for customers to interact with your business by leaving reviews and uploading their own photos. Every review counts, and every photo upload counts! How does it count? By improving your SEO, remember you want to list in the top 3 records on Google Local Search.

 

Florists, how has Google My Business helped your floral business in the past years? Please share your feedback in the comment section below. If you have any questions please post below as well!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Flower-infused drinks have been around for centuries, but they’re enjoying new popularity today!

Over the last couple years you may have seen flower-infused drinks popping up more frequently at bars and restaurants, and on television, social media and more. Flowers like rose, lavender, hibiscus, and daisy are leaving their mark on the shelves, but is this beneficial for florists?

With Spring just now arriving, why not learn how to floral infuse not only food but beverages as well!

 

Floral Drinks—Is it Possible?

Infusing floral notes into any beverage can be a simple process depending on the method you choose. Not only can you infuse flowers into drinks, but florals can use them as garnishes or rim dressing on glasses.

Oils that give flowers, herbs, and spices their aroma, flavor, and other beneficial properties, are soluble in alcoholic spirits, which makes them the perfect mix-ins for a cocktail that is functional and gives you that artistic feeling!

 

Flowers With Flavor

So what edible flowers give the best flavor, and which edible flowers pair with what? Think of it as an experiment! There are some tried-and-true floral infusers that work well, and a some that don’t pair well. You just have to try and taste. You may prefer some floral infusers over others.

(Make sure when selecting flowers that you choose flowers that have not had any chemicals or pesticides used, or were growing in a pet “potty” area!)

For a list of edible flowers and what parts won’t make you sick, please click here!

 

How to Make a Floral Simple Syrup

Simple syrups are the best way to sweeten a drink. Use the basic 2-to-1 ratio of sugar to water, heated to a brief boil in order to dissolve the sugar. You can add any edible dried flower, herb or spice into the simmering syrup to extract flavor and aroma your cocktail.

An example of a floral simple syrup:

Violet Simple Syrup

• 2 Cups of Sugar
• 1 Cup of Water
• 1 1/2 Cups of Violets

Dissolve sugar in water over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a simmer.

Place flowers in a nonreactive bowl (glass, enamel, or stainless steel).

Pour hot syrup over top and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Strain mixture and discard flowers.

Simple syrups can be stored in the fridge for 1 or 2 months. If it begins to crystallize, simply heat it again until smooth.

 

Out With the Water, In With Tea

Some drink recipes call for a water mixer. For water, mixer tries substituting the recipe with a tea-infused flower, herb or spice of your choosing and that best fits the drink you are making.

Want to stock up for a warm day—amaze your friends, family, co-workers and more by freezing some of your floral-infused drink in an ice cube tray.

 

Flower It Up!

Many of you have seen the sugar or salt-based garnish on the rim of a cocktail glass at restaurants and parties. This garnish is called a “rimmer” and it provides a sweet or savory garnish to enhance the taste of the cocktail.

Add a bit of crumbled or powdered edible flowers, herbs and spices that work well with your cocktail to your glass to give your drink even more artistic appeal and additional flavor

An example of a floral rimmer:

Frozen Hibiscus Margaritas 

• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp dried hibiscus flowers
• 1 vanilla bean, split
• ½ cup sugar
• Zest and juice of 3 limes
• Juice of 1 orange
• ½ cup tequila

Place hibiscus flowers and vanilla bean in a saucepan with the cup of water and bring to a boil. After water is boiling, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes.

Strain mixture to remove hibiscus flowers and vanilla bean. Add mixture back to pan and add sugar.

Simmer for about 5 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add lime zest, lime juice, orange juice, and tequila. Chill the mixture until it has cooled completely.

Once the mixture is cool, pour over ice in a rimmed margarita glass (or freeze and eat as a sorbet)!

Use zest of lime, hibiscus flowers, and salt to rim the glass.

 

How Can Florists Tap Into This?

So can florists really tap into this trend? It all depends on your source of flowers. Reach out to your wholesaler or flower market to see what flowers have not had chemicals or pesticides sprayed on them. These flowers can be used or sold for infusing with beverages, food, and decorating.

Also, remember the 2019 unexpected trend of dried flowers we discussed last month? Well, this is another way to incorporate edible dried flowers in your business.

So why not tap into this additional revenue source? If the resources are there, this could be a great tactic is working with local restaurants, bakeries, bars, and more to offer edible flowers whether it be drinks or food. This is a great marketing tactic and gives those businesses a source to come to your business to purchase flowers and increasing your business sales.

 

Florists, are you working with local companies in regards to edible flowers or seeing a trend in edible flowers? If so, share your comments below!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

The 2019 Florist Valentine’s Day Survey Results Are In!

A big thank you to everyone who participated in our annual Valentine’s Day survey. Once again we received a strong response from our readers and members.

Results were based on the 347 retail surveyed by Floranext between February 15th through February 17th.

 

Were 2019 Valentine’s Day Sales Better Than Last Year?

• Lower – 20.8%
• Same – 17.9%
• Higher – 61.3%

 

Were Valentine’s Day In-Store Retail sales greater than last year?

• Yes – $65%
• No – 35%

 

Aside From Red Roses, What Were Your Top-Selling Products This Valentine’s Day?

• Arranged Flowers – 71.4%
• Hand-Tied Bouquets – 11.4%
• Other Roses – 16.6%
• Other – 0.6%

 

What Did you Charge For  Dozen Long Stem Roses Arranged

• $88.00 (average total from participants)

 

Did You Sell Short Stemmed Roses?

• Yes – 42.2%
• No – 57.8%

 

How Many Extra Temporary Drivers Did You Hire This Valentine’s Season?

• 0 – 9.7%
• 1 – 14.3%
• 2 – 25.1%
• 3 – 21.1%
• 4 or more – 29.7%

 

How Many Extra Temporary Shop Staff Did You Hire This Valentine’s Season?

• 0 – 16.7%
• 1 – 23%
• 2 – 25.3%
• 3 – 14.9%
• 4 or more – 20.1%

 

Did You Use/Rent Delivery Vehicles / Trucks This Valentine’s Holiday?

• 0 – 61.3%
• 1 – 6.1%
• 2 – 16%
• 3 – 5.5%
• 4 or more – 11%

When Did Your Floral Business Start Receiving Valentine’s Day Orders?

• First Half Of January – 6.9%
• Second Half Of January – 32.6%
• First Week Of February – 45.7%
• Valentine’s Day Week – 14.9%

 

What, If Anything, Would You Do Differently Next Valentine’s Day?

List of a few randomly selected comments:

• “More budget friendly walk-in options.”
• “Have more staff and grab & go items ready.”
• “Order less colored roses. Make even more premade arrangements.”
• “Pre-make more arrangements.”
• “Get more drivers to deliver early.”
•  “Keep marketing as much as possible, locally & with technology.”
• “Order less being that it will be a Friday next year.”
• “Hire an Additional Designer.”
• “Not panic that you did not receive very many pre-orders. This year I wrote it down when the guys started to order.”

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Florists, was this Valentine’s season successful and resulted in more sales? What would you consider to implement that next year? Do you have any feedback on your 2019 Valentine’s Day sales season? Your fellow florists would love to hear about it—please feel free to share in the comment section below.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Florists, are you marketing to the younger generations?

These days it may seem as though flowers are becoming a vintage luxury that only older generations seem to care about or can afford.

Currently, the trend among Millennials seems to be houseplants. Their charm is that they require little maintenance to thrive, a tempting proposition for people who live busy and fast-paced lives. 

The virtual spaces that we now inhabit changes the landscape of living, requiring businesses of all kinds to quickly adapt their products and marketing strategies. If you haven’t, it’s time to begin thinking of ways for your business to reach young people.

Keep an Online Presence

The touchstone of the Millennial generation is the Internet, enabling people to be connected wherever they may be in the world. This makes the Internet one of the best tools of communication, and of course, marketing. Knowing how to fully utilize the Internet to make an impact with your brand is fundamental to letting yourself be known to your target audience.

Engage With Social Media

Social media platforms are by far the most visited websites and tools in today’s society, and florists should take advantage of that traffic to bring attention to their brand. Although it is good to have an account with all the large social media platforms, the most critical are Instagram and Facebook. Their impressive support for images (which you should rely heavily on) and extensive ad programs make them the go-to for almost any business.

Your shop’s Facebook page is going to be the face of your business, so take your time tailoring the page’s picture and cover photo. For any other day, you can use a default design, but you can also utilize these photos when running campaigns or promos. Usually, the profile photo can be your logo.

The content of these profiles will be the most important. Whether it be on Facebook or Instagram, your posts should endeavor to tell a story. Millennials are loyal to brands they trust, and they trust brands that tell their stories.

Share Your Floral Knowledge

Millennials are DIYers and reliant on gathering information on the Internet, thus you should take this opportunity to consider putting up a blog, where you can teach people how to take care of flowers, content about which flowers can be useful for specific occasions, how-to/DIY guides, and much more. Putting up content is both a service to your customers and a boost to their loyalty to your brand (besides being good for your search engine ranking!). Once they find your content helpful and useful, they can learn to trust you over time.

A trend that you can also ride on nowadays is the do-it-yourself trend. People believe that when they can do it themselves, not only can they have potential savings, but they can also have the satisfaction of having done it themselves. In order for you to fully utilize this trend, you should have good DIY content, where you teach people how to set up flowers and maybe even teach them a few tricks in floral arrangements. For people who might be apprehensive in the DIY approach, give them a flexible option that lets you do it but still gives them control over the flowers. The key here is customization: give people a way to express themselves through the flowers, and try to give them more options to give more customization!

Build Florist-Customer Relationships

After gathering a following, you should engage with them! You should excel in customer support: dealing with errors in orders and delivering, helping provide information on the flowers, and even helping them out pick the right flowers for specific events. Going over and beyond, you should also learn to engage with your customers in the social media platforms. People appreciate replies to questions they ask about your service or product. 

Part of relating to them is talking with them when they share their own experiences. By encouraging people to share their own stories, then commending them and appreciating their effort, they are more likely to interact with your brand more, earning yourself a potential customer. Don’t force people to do so, though; let them come to you naturally so you can ensure that they will stay.

Through these interactions, you can also get feedback as to how to improve your products further. Letting them voice their opinions and recognizing them can be great in knowing how to make your service better for them.

Emphasize Convenience

Convenience is one of the millennials main focus when choosing or purchasing a product. Anything that could cause any brief delay will detour this generation in finding a competitor.

Just like in other industries, you might be also interested in setting up subscriptions and or loyalty programs. Subscriptions are perfect for the floral industry and can entice newcomers since they will be bound to be changed every so often. You can feature flowers every month and have them sent to everyone who subscribed, with complimentary brochures on how to take care of them, information on the flowers or advertisement of your upcoming events or classes.

Loyalty programs can be less effective than subscription, but they can help add more incentives to customers who frequent your place, which will keep them returning.

 

Marketing to Millennials and the younger generation may seem too much work, a pain, or even frustrating. However, simply following some of the recommended marketing tactics above can help increase a younger clientele and will help increase profits and allow your business to bloom in the future!

Florists, what are you doing to reach young people? Please share your comments below!

When will your flower shop be ready for the holidays? What month do you start preparing for the holidays? Which holiday is best for sales (hint, it’s Christmas). See the items most florists sell during the holidays and most-sought decorations and decorating services. Does your shop run an end-of-year sale?

In this age of technology, florists need to step up their design game to stand out from the competition. Below are some design resources for florists to help you brand your business.

As a florist, you have a good idea of what makes a beautiful floral arrangement, and how to communicate with types of flowers and their placement.

The next step is to achieve awareness of your floral brand. You need to look different, striking, and eye-catching to rake in these customers just like your floral arrangements. The question now is, how?

There are many options for graphic design out there, and fortunately he great thing about them is that you can go about it in many different ways, from DIY (Doing It Yourself) to hiring professionals to design your shop’s look. Here is a guide – a set of design resources for florists.

DIY Design Options for Florists

You should understand that doing the design yourself means more than just thinking of the design. You also need to know the technical skills required in using the tools and software needed to make the design. Luckily, these tools are getting easier to learn and use. 

Florist Graphic Design Tools

Design and photo editing software Adobe Photoshop is powerful but the user interface of the program can be overwhelming to first-time or inexperienced users. Thankfully, the Internet is bustling with easy graphic design software:

• Canva
• Piktochart
• Snappa

The upside of these sites is that they provide templates from which you can start building upon. There’s a huge array of choices available from their catalog, each designed for specific purposes and with modifiable text and/or images. These websites also provide extra graphics assets readily at your disposal. With a theme as flowers, you are sure to have a template or two ready to be edited!

The downside of these is that you have limited control over the assets; most of these websites do not have the full breadth and robust tools that something like Photoshop has. With a badly done design, this can be a disaster. However, you can do most of the work that you want to be done on these sites. Also, free members and guests might need to attribute the design to the website, with some watermark that you don’t want to have. These websites are great for simple work that can be done with a template, and they do it really well.

These websites usually offer these services in memberships, likely in two tiers, a free one and a premium one. Needless to say, free members get limited access to templates and assets, while premium members can access their entire library and even ask for professional help in the website.

Graphic Design Templates for Florists

If you are confident with your editing skills, you probably wouldn’t be here. However, if you are willing to expand your skill set, you can take a swing at learning Photoshop or Illustrator (a similar program, used to open most assets from design sites). You can actually get decent work done after a few YouTube tutorials or so.

Of course, Starting from scratch is a monumental task. You can take a look at several graphic design sites like Freepik and Creative Market and see some templates that you can modify. Graphical assets like icons are also readily available in these sites. You can download these files and modify them in the program, making it into the design you want.

This can be the most taxing option available, because of the nature of these programs that are aimed at professionals. Plus, just like the maker websites, you will need a premium membership to access all their assets. This option is certainly not for quick jobs, but if you want to really do it yourself, then you can just make it yourself.

Hiring Design Professionals for Your Floral Design Needs

In all honesty, we don’t have the luxury of time to actually do the design ourselves. Plus, the design can easily go horribly wrong in the hands of inexperienced users. Hiring professionals for graphic design services can be quite the number in your financial account, but for the sake of exposure and gaining customers, this can be a worthy exchange.

Contracting a Graphic Designer for your Flower Shop

The easiest way to hire professionals is to go to a freelance website and scroll from the long list of freelancers willing to do your bidding in a heartbeat’s notice.

Consider using a freelance platform like:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Behance
• Dribbble

Upwork and Fiverr have a healthy population of freelance graphic designers that would jump at your job posting. Behance and Dribbble also have designer portfolios, though are harder to navigate. The positive thing about hiring freelance graphic designers is that the price can be relatively cheap, and you can state that they do not hold any rights to the work done.

However, revisions with freelancers are usually also paid, unless stated otherwise beforehand. You need to talk with your freelancer before getting the job done.

The first thing to look for in a freelancer is their portfolio. Freelancers usually have them posted in their profile, and you can also ask for samples during the interview phase. This helps you identify the right freelance graphic designer whose style that you prefer, although most professional designers should be able to do what you want to be done.

Because freelancers work in contracts, hiring them is great for designing quick things like posters for an upcoming promo. Turnaround times are also good because the competition in the market is rather tight. 

Hiring an Graphic Design Agency or Team for your Flower Shop

This is as professional as professional design can get. These teams offer packaged deals in graphic design, like getting a logo, poster templates, and business cards done for one payment. These deals are also usually very flexible, like letting you order just a logo, or letterheads and business cards. They also allow revisions of the design, in case you didn’t like the first designs.

Out of all the options presented, this one is the one that you can get the most professional designs from. With design teams, one person may be doing the design, but then passed on to another for quality checking in order to maintain a standard set by the team internally.

Well-established teams also have great customer support, in order to create a positive reputation around themselves. Having a design team make your creative works also makes any design to be done, with little to no effort at your side. Of course, this convenience may come at a high price. 

Design teams usually have a dedicated website, and you can easily scroll their portfolio to see if they are a great fit to your job. They are great for having work done about your brand, and they can produce design materials like templates that you can use for the future. Plus, you hold all rights of the designs, so you need not to worry about copyright. 

How to Work with a Designer? Florist Design Requirements

What do you need to be designed? For a field as varied and subjectively beautiful as design, you need to clearly delineate your requirements and express what you want to see in your design.

If you have a particular design in mind, clearly communicate this with your graphic designer:

• Write down a design brief explaining your business and what look and feel you are aiming for
• Find inspiration from the design work of other places.
• You can also do a rough sketch and present it to them.

The idea here is that you explicitly told them of what you expect from them; this helps build a clear understanding of your end-goals.

Floral Design Resources Summary

We hope our how-to guide on floral design resources was useful – there are lots of tools now to design it yourself or hire a professional. But more than ever, for the floral industry branding and design are at the heart of a businesses’ success!

Florists, what are some ways you use graphic design in your business and what options do you use? Please post your comments below!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

 

Halloween is one of the top holidays for business retailers, with sales outperforming every holiday other than Christmas.

An ever-increasing number of individuals share in this fun occasion by spending millions of dollars per year on sweets, home decor, costumes, and more. Couldn’t florists take advantage of Halloween?

Is it because of lack of inspiration or interest, or is Halloween outside the brand? Not everything needs to be in black and white…or purple and orange!

Instagram is a great source of inspiration for some frightening floral arrangements that can generate some interest with customers while helping you stay true to your brand and style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Florists, are you selling Halloween arrangements at your flower shop? Are you seeing an influx in sales during this holiday? Share your comments below!

 

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.