The biggest difference between me and any other digital company you are considering to help you with your retail business, is that I am a florist - JUST LIKE YOU. Why does it matter? Because anyone who is not a florist does not understand:
The cost of an order breakdown
Insertion considerations to building a bouquet
Availability of items locally, across the country and/or Seasonally.
Create a voice to help you and the industry improve. NOW, allow me to explain.
The floral industry is facing a big problem when it comes to wire orders. We have a broken model that used to work well before customers were able to see what they were receiving.
Now, the expectation has increased, but the production expectation has not been modified. Now, to explain this - YES, we produce products. We are (or need to be) assembly lines. You can still be creative and mass-produce high-ticket items, as long as you can sell them. We still have florists today who are selling this product for an up-sell. Yes, a $170 vase without any explanation, no copy for SEO, no explanation for the sales associate to read to the customer.
The cost of sending and receiving an order 73-27 split - that speaks for itself. It's a paid advertisement and filling the order makes the floral world go around. So if you like to send, then do your part and receive. If all you do is send, give the shop enough to make money at it.
It's time to sell, FILL TO VALUE bouquets. Request a color and assure the customer that the florist will use the very best hand-selected and designed seasonal blooms to create a lovely bouquet and ensure delivery in the timely fashion. Yes, focus on the hand delivery. Now, if they want to ask for specific bouquets, custom designs start at....you decide, $75, $85 or $100.
Here is an example for the price-sensitive shopper looking for a blooming plant:
Now if there is one they just dislike, let us know.
Next, a nice seasonal mix? Sure.
This slows everything down a bit here, it's what we need now. If ANY florists think they can make a profit designing single orders for $39.95 with 5 lines of requests, you can't do it.
You are an assembly line and we need to combine expectation and the realistic end result. It needs to be focused on the service. After all, as much as we all want to believe otherwise, the message is most important element in almost all orders.
This is the difference! Even companies that specialize in the floral industry, seeing the challenges through the eyes of the owner us what I feel is my greatest strength. Explaining and convey the new model is my greatest challenge.
Let's face it, most TV ads have moved over to You Tube. Those ads you see disrupting your view of any video clip are the new VIDEO ads and they work. Yellow Pages? That's right...Most people have moved over to Google ads. Who you trust is the biggest challenge. Just because your friend has someone, doesn't mean that someone has the results you need.
Most importantly, while most businesses used to be done over the phone, today more people are comfortable completing the order online. BUT, this has now affected BOUNCE RATES. Bounce rates are one of the first things people used to jump up and down about because it was what they thought was EASY TO UNDERSTAND. They would ask me what my bounce rate was and I would just smile and tell them I don't know. How do you measure the phone-in order. So they clicked, liked your website and decided to call you because they felt more comfortable speaking with someone. Now, is that really a bounce?
Last but not least. NEVER trust your web developer for SEO results. Web developers design, create, and write code that needs to be effective, fast and return results. they are (and should be) focused on a solid, expandable code base. On the same hand, don't expect your digital marketer to be able to write code, HOWEVER, they can and should have an expectation of how the results need to appear and the design.
For example, I like to see every page written as if each were a landing page. THEY are so that is a great start when developing a website so when you target your keyword results, your channel and direct them towards the content you need to get back from the visitor.
Now before I lose you and you BOUNCE away, feel free to give me a call and let's see what we can do together! Don't be fooled. Trust your gut and ask questions. Call me today at (941) 806-1911 and let me know how we can help your business bloom.
-Art