Everyone loves a bouquet of flowers, but your sales may not be reflecting that. Customers are getting more frugal, and more focused on convenience with online shopping. With a hard economy and commercial competition, it’s more important than ever to be that red flower in a field of daisies. These tips not only can help you market your fully unique business, but also keep your sales up regardless of the season. Stand out from the crowd with these bold florist marketing ideas made to make your business bloom all year long.
How to Get the Most Out of Key Holidays
Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, and Christmas are among some of the most popular holidays for florists, but are you taking full advantage of the sales opportunities they offer? Here are a few florist marketing ideas to help you stand out from the competition and increase your customer appeal when those big holidays are coming around.
- Offer Holiday Bundles: Offer the complete package for any holiday with chocolates, cards, gift baskets, and whatever else you can add to make holidays extra special. When customers can buy all they need from one store, they’re more likely to pay up for that special gift.
- Promote Advance Sales: Keep cash flow steady by offering the chance to make orders in advance at a promotional discount. Not only does this help even out those spikes in seasonal sales, but it helps keep your business top of mind as return customers mark their calendars for yours sale.
- Create Unique Flower Props: Go beyond the typical flower arches and necklaces. Create flower dresses, elaborate flower crowns, flower sculptures, anything you can put flowers on, do it. Unique flower creations not only help you stand out from the competition, but also make your business a can’t-miss experience customers will line up for.
- Sell to High Schools: Nothing sells flowers like young love, and most high schoolers have the pocket money available to spend on their homeroom sweethearts (and to butter up their parents on Mother’s Day.) Set up shop at your local high schools for major holidays, dances, and more for convenient access to a demographic that loves to show off.
- Promotional Giveaways: Make those holidays extra special with promotional products branded for both your business and the holiday. Custom gifts like trendy totes and branded wine glasses will keep your business top of mind while enhancing your customer experience.
Looking for more ideas on how to take advantage of the holidays? Check out our other blog post featuring small business marketing ideas for the holiday season.
How to Make Every Season a Busy Season
Being a florist isn’t just about Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. There are sales opportunities that happen all year long that you can’t afford to miss. Learn how to be a more successful florist and expand your business throughout the year with these exciting marketing ideas.
- Get Year-Round Contracts: Real estate companies, hotels, fancy restaurants, retirement homes, furniture stores, and other similar businesses enjoy keeping fresh flowers on display, so reach out and get year-long contracts that keep your flowers in steady rotation.
- Promote for Fluid Occasions: There are lots of events that need flowers that aren’t tied to any particular date or season. Weddings, birthdays, theater events, romantic dates, conventions, and more can happen any time of the year, so make sure you’re advertising for these events all year.
- Get Creative With Culinary Bouquets: I’m not talking about selling bacon flowers (though that can’t hurt.) Make your business more unique with bouquets made entirely from edible flowers such as chamomile, marigold, roses, johnny jump-ups, honeysuckle, and more. Go a step beyond and pair flowers with complementary edibles like chocolates, mints, etc.
- Offer an Experience: Increase your foot traffic by being more than just a flower shop. Encourage customers to stick around with coffee and pastries, or partner up with a bookshop to create the ultimate sit and read environment. You can also encourage customers to come and browse by storing your flowers in large decorative displays for a gallery of living art customers can view for free.
- Expand Your Key Holidays: Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, and other major holidays aren’t the only flower-centric holidays you could be promoting for. The US is a diverse mixing pot of cultures, and you could earn a lot of extra sales by promoting for holidays like Holi, the Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and more.
- Be Insta-Worthy: Instagrammers love taking pictures with beautiful backdrops. Get free promotion by inviting instagrammers to come and get their pictures taken with your gorgeous creations and seasonal bouquets. The more your shop is circulated on social media, the better for your sales.
Want more ideas for amazing promotions? Check out our other blog post all about how to make winning promotional messages.
Marketing Ideas for Any Season
Marketing never stops if you’re looking for real florist success. Just a few adjustments to your in-store décor, business connections, and marketing initiatives can increase your foot traffic and yearly cash flows. Take your flower power to the next level with these fun marketing ideas that can happen all year, every year.
- Show Your Merchandise: There is no more important place to have flowers on display than a flower shop. Make sure customers can tell at a glance what you sell and how amazing your products are whenever they pass by your shop. You can also paint the outside of your building with floral patterns to make your business more visible beyond window displays.
- Turn Rejects into Promotions: Do you have excess merchandise ready for the trash? Turn them into pressed flower bookmarks, pressed flower encyclopedias with real flowers inside, dried flowers for wall hangings, and more. You can also offer individual flowers and bouquets on clearance when you know they’re close to expiration.
- Partner With Other Businesses: Photographers, sweet shops, local ceramic artists, and more are great business partners to help expand what you offer to customers. By working together, you increase the value of both company’s products and services, creating a win-win situation for everyone.
- Bring Out the History of Flowers: Flowers have meaning, and people love to explore deeper meanings in their gifts (think birthstones, zodiac gifts, etc.) Reach a new demographic of gift givers by offering custom bouquets based on the language of flowers, giving unique meanings to every bouquet.
- Find Ways to Deliver: While flowers are supposed to be a gift that shows effort, customers prefer convenience. Find a way to offer delivery, whether through a service like Postmates or by delivering yourself, to cater to those customers that prefer to shop from home.
Whether your business is a new bud, a late bloomer, or just ready to grow, there’s always plenty of new ways to get more customers in and send more flowers out. Explore ways to get more exposure, attract more foot traffic, and stay relevant throughout the year. If you’re ready to see your business blossom, try implementing some of these florist marketing ideas for this season and every season after.
