Coronavirus has changed the world. People have been at home social distancing, and the flower market has been one of the most affected. In the news, we have seen flowers being discarded due to the declining demand and limited commercial flights. However, we must bear in mind that this is something transitory that will soon end and that we will return to normal.
At Virgin Farms we are committed to our community, to the progress of our clients’ businesses and to all those who are part of our company. For this reason, in this article, we share some ideas that will help you improve your online flower sales. In addition, you will find some tips that will be very useful during this challenging time.
We want to invite you to take advantage of this time to create a solid sales strategy through your website and social networks. Keep in mind that in times of crisis we use our ingenuity and creativity more to get ahead.
Create Content
Content is essential to make your consumers fall in love. If you create interesting content, you will gain organic followers, and with the appropriate strategy will become your consumers.
The purpose of creating quality content aims to attract as much traffic as possible to your website, your blog or landing page. To achieve entertaining content, help yourself with the different tools and apps available on the market, which are mostly free or inexpensive, but above all, easy to use.
You can do it with the means you have within reach. For example, you can produce an impressive video with your cell phone. The consumer is not looking for perfect videos, but instead quality content and topics of interest. Try filming a short video of about 20 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, followed by a longer segment to achieve loyalty and viewer retention.
Make a calendar planning all the content that you are going to produce and the channels you will use to distribute. Take advantage of your knowledge and your expertise, to make content according to your client.
Here we suggest some topics:
• How to preserve flowers or extend the vase life
• How to make simple but lovely arrangements
• Show a before and after of a home space without flowers and how it can brighten up space with flowers
• How to turn any type of object into a floral vessel
• How to decorate a home with flowers
• Host a webinar on how to make flower arrangements
• Take advantage of special dates, with the upcoming Easter holiday, and create content according to this important date
• Benefits of having flowers in the house
With this type of content, you will achieve engagement and generate sales or traffic to your social sites, such as YouTube (another way to generate revenue from ad sales in your videos).
An important factor that you should take into account is that the content you generate must be unique to you. Try to set yourself apart from other content creators to avoid being categorized in the lower ranks or similar topics. The goal is to promote your business in a way that interests and retains your audience and more importantly, satisfies the need of your client for interesting resources.
Define your strategy
Update your e-commerce channels and your social networks to sell. This can be a good time to create a professional blog and become a content generator.
Online stores. Right now your online store must be fully optimized because it is going to be your the face of your business while your brick and mortar location is inaccessible for the time being. Check prices and inventory. If you do not have a product available to sell, it is better to withdraw it from your online storefront until you have the necessary inventory. If you have any affiliations such as delivery couriers, make adjustments on your website to clarify if those services are still available to your consumers.
AÂ professional blog. Using a blog with a hosting and domain as a platform to reach your audience is the most recommended method. Create impressive articles with topics of interest to your users. This will help you gain followers, who will, in turn, read your posts. Be sure to share posts on social media linking back to your blog post to drive traffic to your website. Additionally, seek an SEO professional that can help you optimize your keywords to increase your search engine ranking score on Google and other search engines. The goal is to get your page to show up in the top 10 search results.
Social networks. If you want to promote yourself through these channels, you must first focus on having a considerable number of followers and that they are of quality. You can achieve this with giveaways, and invite your followers to post their photos with the arrangements they have bought from you for social word-of-mouth.
Make a publication and content calendar, propose to put at least three posts per week. It can be a video or photos. Lean on all the technology at your fingertips. On Canva, for example, you can use free templates to create your posts for Instagram and other social networks. There are pre-made templates, or you can create your own from scratch, complete with visually appealing typography and free or paid stock images.
Later, if you have really become an expert content creator, you can start a YouTube channel. But if you are just starting or you do not have all the resources, focus exclusively on your social networks such as Instagram and Facebook.
Take advantage of social networks because they provide visibility to your posts. It allows the facility to effectively share content and reach your users of interest. Soon your followers will ask you for content on topics that interest them.
SEO Strategies. It is very important that you work on SEO strategies so that you can position yourself in the first places of search, with the correct use of the local keywords the consumer will find you easily and navigate your website or blog.
Take advantage of the marketing and CRM tools to continue building customer loyalty. If you do not currently have a CRM tool, this may be the time to implement it. You can use an easy and simple tool such as Mailchimp, where you will enter data such as emails or phone numbers so that you can offer personalized offers or discounts. For example, offer a discount for birthdays or customer loyalty rewards for repeat purchases.
Product delivery
Create an alliance with a courier service to personally send your customers the tracking number, always stay in touch until the product reaches the final destination. Review your financial calculations so shipping is free or relatively low-cost right now.
Tell your consumer that floral arrangements are a perfect way to show affection or gratitude since we are not able to personally visit our loved ones at the moment.
Take advantage of social distancing and quarantine to devise differential strategies for your flower shop. It is the perfect opportunity to gain followers and turn them into consumers.
We are going through difficult times, but we must be aware that this is something temporary and just as flowers bloom even in the most adverse environments, we will flourish, and it will be a better future for everyone. Stay strong, stay safe, and let’s spread joy with flowers.
