Digital Marketing Tools for Florists:

According to the National Retail Federation, Valentine’s day is the number one holiday for a florist and floral purchases in the U.S. with consumers spending on average two billion dollars. With the holiday right around the corner, the question is how does one make their florist shop stand out? You may be familiar with some of these tools, but here are our favorite web marketing tools for florists as Valentine’s Day approaches.

Constant Contact

This tool can elevate any small businesses email marketing through its simplistic editor function and powerful list building tools. Constant contact allows you to send visual emails to your customers and segment your customers into lists such as a wedding, repeat customers, or Valentine’s Day promotions. With templates widely available, paste your pictures and promotions, then send it out to all your customers so they know where to get their fresh flowers for the coming Valentine’s Day. Try Constant Contact free for 60 days. Over 550,000 small businesses use Constant Contact for their business. We think you should too!

Wedding Wire

With over five million monthly users Wedding Wire’s global marketplace connects engaged couples with local wedding professionals, but vendors to such as florist. Sign up as a vendor get exposure to millions of couples through a FREE WeddingWire listing. Also upgrade to the premium, to gain features and benefits that will drive leads and bookings directly to your florist business, highlight consumer reviews and more.

Instagram

Are you using Instagram to connect with your customers? This free application has over one billion users and is the perfect way to display your beautiful bouquets. All it takes is a picture, and your customers can see what’s available and new in store. Given how visually the florist business is, Instagram is a logical platform.

Instagram is a fantastic tool to showcase your work, add a location and include hashtags so you can discovered. Hashtags aren’t just for fun. Hashtags are a great way to include your business in a conversation or help new users discover your service. Think about a recently engaged woman looking for a florist. A simple search for #MiamiFlorist or #BostonWeddingFlorist, gives the bride-to-be a live list of possible florists for her wedding.

Instagram is also an effective tool to find partners for your business. Florists / flower businesses rely heavily on partners (wedding venues, wedding planners, funeral homes, etc) so getting your business involved in the conversation on Instagram could also help you find and develop partnerships.

Alignable.

Speaking of partnerships…. Alignable is a fantastic tool to find local businesses to partner with. From their website, Alignable is a “great resource for small businesses to network and get referrals,” and we agree! Go check out Alignable and start connecting with potential partners today!

Google My Business Listing

A Google My Business Listing is a fantastic tool to showcase your local business on the web. This FREE service from Google literally puts your shop on the map. It helps new customers find you, displays your hours and services, showcases online reviews and photos, and comes with an incredibly easy to use the app so you can change your holiday hours, upload photos, and more. Short on time or worried you can’t do it? Let us set up your Google My Business Listing!

A Google My Business Listing is a must for any business who serves customers locally. Google understands that certain searches require local results (florist, restaurants, coffee shops, etc) and a Google My Business Listing is the best way to appear in local search results.

Yelp

72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Yelp’s users have contributed over 100 million reviews of every type of local business so why not add yours?

Consumers’ find the ease of use and experiences of past consumers extremely valuable in the decision-making process. Businesses thirst for “word of mouth,” referrals which usually take place offline among friends, family or colleagues, but online reviews have a longer life-span and reach more people than word of mouth referrals.

Having a sign asking clients to review us on Yelp can help encourage more feedback. It’s generally frowned upon to offer a reward for a positive review, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with reminding your best customers that you value their feedback.