9 Ways to Maximize Your Floral Sales This Fall
As September rolls in, so does the Fall season—but this is unlike any Fall we’ve ever experienced. While some students are heading back to school, many are attending virtually. Shoppers are venturing out in certain areas but not in others. Fall 2020 is not only a season of uncertainty but also a season filled with holidays. Take Halloween, for instance: While most kids won’t be out and about this year, families will still have a high demand for candy, costumes, and decorations as they create their new kind of Halloween fun.
Yet, there is a bright spot: Flower sales are on the rise. As so many people are unable to celebrate with family and friends in person, they are opting for flowers to show that they care. So, what do you do when faced with an uncertain future and limited marketing funds, but increasing demand for flowers? Get creative! There are many ways to market that are low cost yet have a high impact. Here are nine marketing tips to maximize your floral sales for Fall:
- Stay Flexible with your Planning and Messages
You may have lost a lot of time just keeping afloat over the past few months. You may also have fewer resources than in the past, or continued supply challenges. All that can add up to being unprepared with your Fall marketing planning. Don’t beat yourself up about it, because you still have time—particularly now, when things change daily.
As to that constant change, it’s vital to remain as flexible as possible with your marketing plans. When you’re creating your promotions, focus on social media since you can change your message rapidly. Then keep a watchful eye on your target customers and adjust your advertising as needed.
- Improve Your Online Experience
People are shopping online more than ever, and that will only increase. Many of these customers are new to online shopping and need to feel comfortable navigating in cyberspace. Make sure your site is fast, has clear product information and directions, and has a no-fuss shopping cart experience.
Post beautiful photos of each arrangement on your website, and this includes close-up shots as well. You may also want to add videos of customers receiving their flowers, or of your floral designer creating an arrangement so that customers who aren’t able to visit you in person can still feel like they’re right there.
- Share Promotions Across Many Channels
Social media is a great way to reach people with promotions, but if you only use one or two channels, you’ll miss out on a lot of potential customers. Feature your promotion on as many online outlets as possible.
Take the example of a discount on Halloween arrangements: Create a banner for your website that links to your promotion; send a series of emails to your list in the weeks leading up to Halloween; post to Instagram and Facebook daily, with a link to your website. Don’t overlook any opportunity to get your message out.
- Target Customers who are Ready to Buy
To get the best response to your marketing efforts, target the right customers. Make sure you have a good understanding of who your target customer is, then determine which of those customers are most ready to buy. How? By using high intent-based keywords in your ads. These are words customers use to search for products when they are in a buying frame of mind, such as phrases containing “buy,” “deal,” “coupon,” “discount,” or “free shipping” in them. Do your research, then use one of these keywords in your offer. For example, if “free shipping on flowers” comes up as a top keyword, create a promotion offering free shipping on all Halloween flowers.
- Partner with Discount Coupon Sites
An easy way to increase the number of eyes on your offer is to place it on as many discount coupon sites as you can. Some of the best are RetailMeNot, Coupons.com, and Groupon, but there are many more. Once you’ve made a list of discount sites, find out how to partner with each of them, then post your coupon on their site. Once you have the coupon up, check back regularly to see if there are any customer comments or reactions so that you can respond to them.
- Create High-Impact Blog Posts
Some of the most popular blog posts give tips or ratings on a particular topic from a variety of experts. People often search for these as “best ways to do XYZ” or “Top XYZ in 2020”. Use this type of post to your advantage by connecting with floral influencers in your area.
For example, you could pick the topic of “Best ways to use flowers in Halloween decorations” and contact a few bloggers or influencers that you know would have some great tips. Reach out to them and ask for their best recommendation. Tell them you’ll feature them in your post and tag them on social media. Once you’ve published the post, feature it everywhere, and let your experts know so they can forward the post to their followers.
- Send Follow-up Emails to Buyers
A simple yet highly effective way to get more sales is to send out a targeted email to customers who’ve made a recent purchase. There are many ways you can do this, and each of them can improve customer loyalty, not to mention word of mouth and additional sales. Send a personal email from the owner thanking a customer for their purchase and asking them if they have any questions. Offer them a coupon towards a future purchase with a specific cutoff date. And don’t forget to ask them to review their arrangement on your Google business listing or their social media page, tagging you.
- Use Current Customers to Generate Word of Mouth
Sure, you could sit back and wait for customers to write a review about your floral business, but why not take matters into your own hands? Ask your best customers to share their thoughts about the power of flowers during these unsettling times.
Hold a contest where current customers share a photo or a video of themselves and how they’ve shared your flowers with others. Once you’ve collected all that great content, showcase it across your social media platforms. It’s a fantastic way to generate word of mouth.
- Share some Kindness with your Customers
When you do something special for someone, they appreciate it, and it reverberates throughout their social circle in ways you might not imagine. Try doing something nice for a customer, such as sending a personal thank-you note. Create a video thanking a customer for their feedback and post it on social. Send out birthday cards to your customers. If you do something nice each day, you’ll not only feel great, but you’ll increase social media shares and customer referrals. It’s a great way to share the kindness at a time when we can all use some!
These are a few inexpensive yet effective ways to get your Fall floral marketing done. Here’s to a season of great success!
