A few weeks ago I put a call out on Instagram, asking y’all to send through your questions and ‘if we were to sit down and have coffee, this is what I’d want to ask you’ questions.
Here’s one of my favourites: Kathleen, if you could only do one, which is better: paid Instagram placements, Facebook ads or Google Ads?
Great question.
Different Ad Strategies for Different Offers
One thing I didn’t really appreciate early on in my business is that different audiences go through dramatically different sales processes.
For example, a couple getting married at a big hotel will go through an entirely different research process compared to someone looking to getting flowers delivered to the local hospital. I totally didn’t even pay attention to this in the first few years of my flower business.
I kinda thought that all things were equal and I just needed to get more followers to get more customers.
I spent years in that thought process until I finally sat down one day and asked myself, “If I was getting married at XYZ Venue, what would I do to find a florist?”
I did the same thing for flower deliveries: “If I was a son living out of town and wanted to send flowers to mum to wish her a speedy recovery at the local hospital, what would I do to find a florist?”
Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes is one of the most powerful exercises you can do – and it’s one thing we never really spend much time on (I was too focused on my own insecurities and worried about being called out as a fraud that it never even occurred to me to shift my perspective and put myself in my customer’s shoes.)
At the end of the day, the marketing priorities in your flower business and understanding how to get more florist sales depends entirely on your niche.
Narrow down your niche and get clear on your ideal customer and you’ll start to gain much more clarity in terms of where to focus your time, energy and money to grow your business and get more sales.
How to Increase Florist Sales: Daily Flower Deliveries
Even if you have a flower shop and are able to attract a steady stream of walk-in customers, I’ve found that the volume game is won online.
More and more customers are getting comfortable ordering flowers online and this is one of the greatest opportunities we have when it comes to figuring how to increase florist sales.
In fact, no longer is having a physical retail shop a ‘must have’ for a successful flower business. So many florists these days are launching their businesses from home, investing the time and energy in growing the volume and then a few years in, making plans to open retail shop space.
The truth is, profitable flower deliveries is all about playing the volume game. And being online is the name of the flower game in 2022.
And, when it comes to being online, your website and, more specifically, your online catalogue offering, is super important. I used to believe that more choice was better. But having tested out a few different strategies in a few different cities around the world, it’s clear to see that’s not the case.
In fact, having a core offering of 12 products is my go-to recommendation. It gives you just the right number of options to cover a range of prices, including a mix of hand-tied bouquets and designs in a vase as well as offers a mix of colour palettes. (It really is a great mix and just like Goldielocks said “It’s just right”.)
Once you have your online catalogue set up and sorted through a seamless checkout experience, now it’s time to focus on getting that order volume through the door.
We spent years testing out different options – offering up free arrangements to local businesses in the hopes that exposure would turn into paying customers; paying for expensive print ads, boosting posts on Instagram, setting up Facebook Ads and sorting through Google Ads.
For us, Google Ads was where the magic happens. In fact, these days, I wouldn’t even spend a penny on any other form of advertising when it comes to increasing florist sales for daily flower deliveries.
The targeting available on Google, the volume available, and being able to set up conversions, makes Google Ads one of the single best options for florists. And no, doubt some huge percentage of potential customers immediately jump to Google when they want flowers delivered.
So, if you’re wondering: Kathleen, if you could only do one, which is better: paid Instagram placements, Facebook ads or Google Ads? My answer is obvious: Google Ads. No doubt about it.
4 Google Ads Tips for Florists
Be warned, the Google Ads interface is super complicated. But that’s why we’ve just hit publish on a brand new, step by step training inside our Flower Boss Bootcamp Study Vault. We’ve mapped out the exact ads to start with, how to get your conversions set up and the exact steps to follow to get your first campaign off the ground.
If you’ve already started playing around with Google Ads and you’re not seeing much progress, here are four pro tips to help you refine your approach:
- Make sure your delivery area is included in the search terms. By default, Google is going to offer up your ad to anything who types in “flower delivery”. But, if you only deliver to Cambridge and a customer is looking for delivery to Chicago, there’s no point in paying for that, right?
- Negative Keywords. This is one of those quick shortcuts to getting better results on your ads. Inside the Google Ads interface, you can start to flag ‘negative keywords’. That is, words that people might include in their search phrase that are a definite no and mismatch for your business. It’s a good practice to go in every week or every other week and refine that negative keyword set because it will give Google a better guide on who a good customer is a who isn’t worth any $$$$
- Set Up Conversions. A conversion is a fancy bit of code that give Google the signal that someone who clicked on your ad eventually purchased. That bit of code is super helpful for Google because then it will show your ads to other people who have similar search behaviours as the people actually purchasing your work. I find the easiest way to make it happen is to find someone on Fivrr.com – they can get the whole thing set up for in a matter of days and probably less than $100. So worth it!!
- Play the long game. Google Ads is not an overnight solution. It takes 2-3 weeks for Google to start to figure out who your ideal customers are and, even then, you need to be willing to invest the time and energy to continually refine and optimise your ads and campaigns. But it is by far the fastest way to get that order volume up. Over a matter of weeks, you’ll start to see a difference and, if your online catalogue is set up correctly, you’ll start to see the order rollin’ in more consistently!
Let’s Go Deeper: Get More Flowers Order Faster
Being stuck with a cooler full of flowers feels awful. Knowing you’re a good designer with a great product to sell your customers, while just not having enough customers or getting enough order volume is so disheartening.
Don’t fret! We’re here to help.
In this week’s podcast episode, I’m digging into more nuts and bolts and specific tactics to help you grow your flower business.
Inside This Week’s Podcast Episode You’ll Learn:
✓ How to set a sales target in your flower business
✓ The right strategy to follow when you’re setting up your online catalogue and focused on in creasing order volume
✓ The easiest way to get customers to spend more money so you can increase your revenue and profitability
✓ That fastest way to increase your order volume and where to focus your time and money to get more orders in the door
Listen to the full episode here
Full Episode Transcript
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