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How to maximise sales when things are quiet

All florists have their busy times of the year. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas and other holidays are the times when you know you'll be inundated with orders of all shapes and sizes. These rushes, however, can lead to things feeling a bit quiet at other times of the year.

You don't have to sit back in those quiet periods and hope that the busy times make up for them. With a bit of clever marketing, you can make the most of the slow days. Here are a few tips to boost sales.

Flowers are a luxury

In your marketing material (be it a newsletter, flyer or on your website) remind people that a beautiful bouquet of flowers can be so much more than a gift for a loved one during a special occasion.

Pioneer the idea of flowers to brighten a home, as a treat to oneself or simply as a gift for someone 'just because'. 

Special offers

In order to entice customers in for an impulse buy, advertise a special offer. Perhaps buy one get one free on bouquets or maybe something as simple as 20% off on Fridays so people can bring colour to their homes over the weekend.

Don't over do it on the special offers as you can devalue your business but promote the odd one to entice customers to buy even when there's no special occasion to take into account.

Plan ahead

If you're experienced in your craft then you'll know when the quiet periods are coming up. The trick here is to plan ahead ready for that time. Before you start to get busy, put measures in place to ensure that you're good to go on a new promotion as soon as the busy period is over.

This saves you from any downtime you might have while you recover from big rushes around the time of Valentine's or Mother's Day.

If you can, plan your marketing activities for the year. Create a marketing plan that looks at your activity month on month. You can focus on the busy times but make sure you know what you'll be doing to maximise sales during those quieter periods too.

Use your time wisely

Instead of sitting around during the quiet times in your shop, use that time wisely. If all your orders are prepared in the morning, the afternoon can be spent working on marketing activities. Spend some time tending to your social media or planning sales promotions.

Market research

This is very important if you're going to start making more money outside of the busy times. Firstly, review your sales from the previous year. Other than sales during holidays and special events, what sort of products were you selling the most of?

If you sell birthday bouquets steadily throughout the year, this can be an indication that you need to focus on this. Every month has its own flower, you could promote bouquets of these different flowers on a month-by-month basis.

Perhaps create blog posts about the birth flowers for each month (include birthstones and colours too if you like) and direct readers to where they can buy your relevant products.

You could also conduct some official market research and ask customers what sort of flowers they buy during the quieter times. If they say they don't buy any flowers that's the time to ask why not. Their answers will give you an idea of what you can do to get people buying.

Are flowers too expensive and that's what stops people buying regularly? Or do people simply not thinking about buying flowers outside of special occasions? Take these answers on board and work out how you can change your price points, marketing strategy and promotional material to improve your sales.

Master the upsell

If you could make more money off the orders you sell during the quiet times then your profits are going to be larger. Sometimes, boosting profits isn't about having more customers through the door. Find some low-cost extras with large profit margins that could be added to bouquets. These might be diamanté pins, special cards, chocolates or ever soft toys.

When someone comes in for a bouquet, offer them something extra. Upselling in this way can really help you to boost the profits from each sale.

Loyalty cards

Create a loyalty card system for your customers and give them an incentive to keep buying. This can be as simple as a card that you stamp every time they spend a certain amount or buy a bouquet. Once they receive 10 stamps they can get a free bouquet or a voucher to spend with you.

You can hook customers when they buy for a special occasion but the thought of being able to get a free bouquet will keep them coming back. Even during those quieter times.

Increase your networking

As a florist, it's fairly safe to say you will get loads of custom during Valentine's, Mother's Day and so on. It's the times in between that you need an extra push to keep customers coming through the door.

During these quiet times, get yourself out there and get to events. This might be by providing flowers to fairs and festivals, having a stand at country shows or even going to business networking events. The contacts you make and the more people you expose your brand to will help you grow your sales.

Website sales

If you don't already, consider selling bouquets for delivery via your website. This makes buying flowers so easy and it means you can use it in your marketing push. It'll also help to increase sales overall, not just during the quiet times.

Let's say you're using social media, you could post a beautiful picture of a home brightened by flowers and then link to your website. Someone might be inspired by that and buy some flowers for their home. By allowing them to buy online you make it much easier for them to make an impulse buy.

The key to increasing sales during the quiet times is to be proactive. Adequate planning and a bit of effort can make all the difference.

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How to engage your customers and increase your flowershop brand awareness on Social Media?

People tend to spend more time online today than ever! To engage with your customers and make your brand known, you have to build prospective customers' brand loyalty by nurturing them, getting close to them, and allowing them to learn about your brand. A 2016 research tells us that more than 80% of people won’t buy from brands that are new to them. To increase your brand strength and your customers trust and be able to sell both online and offline, you have to be willing to invest time and (sometimes) money.

What will you learn from our  e-book? 

Let’s start by saying that this is not just an e-book, it’s a guide that was written with a particular focus on what are the most used social media ways today to create a brand or to raise your brand awareness. It is addressed to small businesses, who don’t have too much money or can’t afford to pay someone to do their online advertising, and so, choose to do it for themselves.

 What you will be able to do by downloading our free e-book about Social Media Marketing Strategies?

1.       How to create social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Adsense Account

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4.       Optimizing your Social Media pages and manage to do your own SEM (social media marketing)

5.       Create Ads on Facebook and Instagram

6.       Create a central brand concept that you will use to advertise your brand 360° with a low budget

7.       How to create a successful email marketing strategy

Why to follow our advices and place your trust in us?

Because we know how difficult it is for small businesses to engage with their customers online and that their media and marketing budget is limited in terms of spending. Our e-book guide was developed by professional marketing specialists that work in the Social Media advertising and Marketing advertising. 

We wanted to create an easy to read guide

for flower shops and florists that want to make the shift from offline selling to online selling. You have everything to gain, and nothing to lose if you chose to try online advertising and to create social media pages of your business.

Today, interacting with people online is probably the most important thing that you can do. We are living in a time when time is our most precious resource. That’s why you have to be present online and to be easy to reach for your customers. Clients will also expect and want to place order online, on your website or on Social Media pages so that’s why you have to be online 24/7 and interact with them.

Read and download our  e-book today and don’t waste anymore time! You owe it to yourself and also to your clients!