Most U.S. employers recognize at least five national holidays a year including the Fourth of July, Christmas, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. But, in the floral industry, we have many more “floral” holidays. These are special days of the year when people are more likely to stop in or give us a call to pick up or send flowers to someone special.
Promoting Smaller Holidays Can Be Profitable for Your Flower Shop
The spring/summer floral holidays include huge sale days like Valentine’s Day, Mother ’s Day, and Administrative Professionals Day. It also includes some smaller floral holidays like Memorial Day, Easter, Fourth of July, and Passover. It can be easier to promote the bigger holidays and a little more difficult to market the smaller ones, but anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort can make these holidays more profitable for their business.
Make People Aware of the Upcoming Flower Holidays!
The most important thing is to make people aware of the upcoming holidays. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are a great way to keep your customers aware of the upcoming events, holidays and sales. It is important to collect emails and get people added to your network so that you can keep florals on their mind especially when they need to celebrate a holiday or special event. Blumz…by JR Design runs a lot of contests on the website to keep people involved and to get more followers. The more people that see your message the better. Be creative and smart about what you post and when you post it. If you are doing it right, your following will grow and so will your potential customer base.
Promote Different Flower Holidays
This past June, we gave away a dozen roses every day of the month in celebration of National Rose Month. By doing so, we gained a lot of new followers and saw an increase in sales from last year. We also do a lot of DIY marketing at Blumz. If we find out there is a local event going on that needs florals we might team up with the creators to sponsor the event and feature our flowers.
Give Back to your Community and Attract Potential Floral Customers
Always use the freshest, longest lasting flowers when making that donation. Market research repeatedly shows consumers rate long life at the top of their list in reference to fresh floral products.This is a great way to get your name out into the community while showing off what you can do in the design room. When you are showing off your work make sure you are putting your best foot forward, go big and show them the full potential of what your shop and designers can do. We try to make sure to have a Blumz ribbon featured on each display so everyone knows who made the event look so pretty. This is a great way to attract potential clients while giving back to your community.
Step Out of the Box and Gain Some Attention for your Shop
Sometimes we step it up, get out and make a scene to get some attention. This past year we had a person in a daisy costume dance in the heart of Campus Martius in downtown Detroit to celebrate the first day of Spring. The “Daisy” invited people to visit our store to get a free gerbera. People really enjoyed taking pictures and a lot of new people visited the store. It went so well that we had a Easter bunny dance in the park for Easter. We have also had a “Rose” dance in front of our Ferndale location to help raise awareness for National Rose Month. Getting potential customers to know that you are there is half the battle, getting them into the store is the other half. We run all sorts of specials throughout the year to get people to come in and say hello. We have invited pet owners to come into the store with their puppies to get a free rose, and we have given discounts if people show us that they rode their bike to the store.
It is important to find creative ways to get people to come in and see what you have. Blumz does a lot more than make arrangements and deliver flowers, and once people know that they are more likely to stop in when they need a small gift, or are planning a big event. Getting your name and the quality of your work out there for people to see is the most important step in growing and maintaining your business. There are lots of ways to do that, these are just a few that have worked for us and will likely work for you. Do not be afraid to try new things to get people in the store, once you have them there you are much more likely to make a sale!
By Sadie Quagliotto, Blumz…By Jr Designs, Detroit/Ferndale Michigan
Reprinted from our Volume 5 2015 The Professional Florist