If you are a florist, then you must understand the importance of local SEO. Let’s face it! Your business is local and if it fails to attract your potential customers, your existence would be as good as nothing. Moreover, if your customers cannot find you online, they would end up finding your competitors.
- More than 100 billion global searches are generated every month.
- 93% of online encounters start with a local search on search engines.
- Marketing Charts confirmed that 39% of their customers come from online searches.
Let’s start with a fun fact.
Flowers are the third most-popular gift item, as 31% people said that they would prefer to gift flowers to their loved ones on Valentine’s day. And this is just one occasion. There are birthdays, weddings, holidays and festivals, where people consider gifting flowers more than anything else.
So, your prospect is huge, provided you do everything right to get your target customers’ attention.
Here comes Digital Marketing for Florists!
Florists don’t need SEO, PPC or social media, but they need the right mix of digital marketing. The simple reason is, every business is different and so should be its roadmap.
SEO is now divided into two segments with two subdivisions each.
- First part is based on search results: Organic SEO and PPC
- Second part is based on search media: Desktop and mobile
Both organic SEO and PPC is important for a florist. The former promises a slow and steady growth while the latter shows an instant boost in search ranking. But determining if you need any one or both is a daunting task.
For most of the businesses, SEO works better than PPC, simply because more people rely on organic results than on paid ads. Organic results are decided by search engines on some merits while anyone can appear on search results with ads.
PPC delivers immediate results and works fine for local businesses, where competition is high. However, if you want to know what would suit your business, contact us. We will provide you with a full analysis.
After SEO and PPC, comes mobile SEO, which is all the more important now. Google recently launched mobile-friendly labels for mobile searches. Apart from that, they announced that they are planning to reward mobile-compatible sites by giving them a ranking boost.
So, if you are not thinking of mobile SEO, it’s high time. Here are five reasons to start mobile SEO for your flower shop.
Mobile searches will soon overtake desktop and laptop searches by the end of 2014. Besides, mobile users are more efficient shoppers, compared to PC searchers.
Social media marketing is another important and not-to-miss digital marketing channel for florists. Wondering why it’s so important?
That’ right. 63% online searchers confirmed that they settle for a local business that has social footprints. However, having a compelling social media presence is the key here, else you will lose your identity in the crowd.
To outshine others, you need the right mix of social media marketing, because you don’t know how your customers search on social media. It might be Facebook, or Twitter or a blog. Focusing either on one channel or on every possible ones may ruin the entire game for you.
Go where your target audience is. Analyze your niche market and target demographics. Facebook marketing has almost become a synonym with social media marketing because of its 1.35 billion active user base. Apart from Facebook, there are also a number of channels that can prove highly effective for your shop. Explore the possibilities here (backlink to SMM page).
For any small business, mobile strategy is a must, where it can offer its premium services to its users. For florists, a mobile app is just perfect to allow their customers order flowers right from their mobile devices.
How Peachtree Petals’ mobile app sets them apart
The Peachtree Petals is a leading floral arrangement shop, based in West Los Angeles. They recently launched their mobile app to increase their sales via mobile. But instead of being just a flower ordering app, they did something interesting to reach their customers.
The mobile app automatically appears on your mobile screen, if you visit Peachtree Petals’ mobile website. This is a killer step to create awareness around the new app. Once you hop on the app, you will find a banner advertisement for their new floral shop. Again a great attempt to create a buzz around a new shop.
When it comes to digital marketing, email marketing cannot be ignored. Watch this video and you will understand why it’s a must do for you.
So, you saw that almost every florist is trying to get as many emails as possible from their website. Be it a promotional deal for the festive season or a new store launch, email marketing always works to draw your customers’ attention.
But there are quite a few points to remember and consider like avoiding overselling, mobile users, CTA etc. If you need professional help in building your email database and conducting successful email campaigns, contact us or fill in the free and no-obligation form below.
Last but not the least, play with your creativity
Now every single business is trying their hand at digital marketing. But only a few succeed in their effort to make a mark. It proves that tools are not the only requirement here. You need something extra to use these tools for optimum results.
Technology and creativity are the two major players here.
Red White & Bloom did it when they found out a way to help their male customers to choose floral arrangement in rush hours. They introduced a customer intimacy solution with proactive customer service policies. They launched a new program Frequent Flower Gift Program Member to speed up the entire process.
Then there are Facebook contests and sweepstakes. Real Maine Florists is one of the few florists who often conduct social media contests to win the hearts of their customers. March Madness contest is one of them.
Over to you
Now it’s your turn to go digital. We have been assisting a number of local businesses to reach their sales goal for years. If you want a full-proof plan for your digital marketing, contact us. Our experts will contact you and will take it forward.