Our Time Serving Carithers Flowers

Flyline Search Marketing ®

Marketing For Carithers Flowers

Flyline Search Marketing was originally hired by Carithers Flowers in January of 2009. The owner of Carithers Flowers, Charles Carithers, brought us in to redesign and manage his Google Adwords marketing program. During our first year with Carithers, we lite up the scoreboard. Our team successfully increased online sales revenues for Carithers from the $164K that Charles had produced in 2008, up to $1.1M, by the end of 2009. That represents an increase of more than 385%, making Carithers one of the fastest growing floral design firms in the country in 2009. Over the next ten years, we continued to produce stunning online growth for Carithers. We delivered one record result after another. In fact, our efforts helped to solidify Carithers Flowers position as one of the fastest growing and most successful online florists in the United States. By the end of 2018, we had successfully guided Carithers to online revenues of approximately $3.5 million. That helped Carithers Flowers to become one of the top 20 independent florists in the entire country. These stunning results were achieved through the dedication, skill and relentless efforts of the incredible Flyline Search Marketing team.

Comprehensive Marketing Program

Many have asked me how we created such stunning success for Carithers Flowers. The answer is simple. We are one of the very best in the country at what we do. The comprehensive set of marketing strategies and tactics we use works. It has delivered success for flower shops in market after market. That program is specifically designed for flower shops. We have a proven track record of growing flower shop after flower shop.

This program includes the use of lead generation tools like Google Adwords and Bing Pay Per Click. The program is also focused on organic marketing as well. We expertly optimized the Carithers Flowers website in a very specific way. Our goal in optimizing the site was to allow the search engines to better understand the exact products Carithers offers and the precise services they provide. Our team expertly managed social media for Carithers. That included managing Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media platforms for them. We handled public relationships for them and created many extremely productive micro-sites for Carithers. Our staff built and deployed a beautiful wedding site, a separate corporate events website, a free standing blog and several other platforms that were designed to grow specific pieces of the Carithers business.

The program that we deliver is extremely high touch. By that I mean, we spend a ton of time getting to know our client and their business. We delivered thousands of hours of consulting guidance to Charles Carithers. This consulting guidance allowed him to better understand industry trends. Because we serve lots of other flower shops, we are uniquely positioned to share industry data and trends with our clients. Every piece of advice we delivered to Charles was designed to help he and his family maximum their results. Our expertise of the digital marketing arena proved to be a huge value for Charles. We poured everything we had into helping he and his incredible family. Based on the incredible online numbers we produced, I would say we not only succeeded in our mission, we actually helped to change the lives of the Carithers family in a very positive way. For us, making a positive impact on their lives was the ultimate goal. Over the course of 10 years that we served Charles Carithers, we never once raised our rates. We consistently went way above and beyond anything required in our contract with him. For us, money was never the object. Our sole focus was on helping Charles and his wonderful family to find success. Even though we ended our working relationship with Carithers in 2019, I feel sure that we succeeded with our original mission and left the Carithers family in a very enviable position.

How Our Story Unfolded With Carithers

In 2009 Carithers Flowers hired our firm. We grew their online revenue by 385% in our first year with them. In January of 2010, Charles Carithers decided to renew the service agreement with us. He also decided to greatly expand our marketing responsibilities. That year, we were tasked with creating a truly comprehensive Internet marketing strategy, that would propel Carithers Flowers into a dominate position as the premier floral brand in the Atlanta, Georgia market. The program we created was designed to reduce dependence on wire in flower orders, create a sustainable stream of online sales transactions, enhance communication with current and prospective customers, increase information indexing capabilities and drive sustained, long term growth in Carithers Flowers revenues. The sales results we achieved in 2010 were simply stunning. The marketing strategy and tactics that we created for Carithers served as the springboard for what became a very long term and strategic relationship between Flyline Search Marketing and Carithers Flowers.

Carithers Flowers signed contract renewal after contract renewal with us. We rewarded that loyalty by delivering steady and sustainable growth for Carithers Flowers. Each year, our efforts resulted in significant increases in the overall online revenue and online sales results. Each year, we also improved the overall e-commerce conversion rates as well. By the end of 2018, online revenues had grown to approximately $3.5M dollars and conversion rates had reached levels achieved by only the most successful floral design firms in the United States.

Online Sales Up Dramatically for Flower Shop Clients

Flyline Delivering On The Promise

Online sales results for the Mayfield Florist, Rockcastle Florist and Williams Flower & Gift, formerly Flowers To Go, are up dramatically since bringing in Flyline Search Marketing. These flower shops were looking for a marketing organization who could drive up brand recognition, eliminate their dependence on wire in orders, generate a robust online presence and improve top line revenue growth. That is precisely what Flyline has delivered for these flower shops.

 

Rockcastle Florist

Flyline Search Marketing was hired by Rockcastle Florist in March of 2017. We immediately deployed our comprehensive marketing program, then built a new website for them. They had previously been using a TeleFlora website platform. We created their new website on the Emerald City floral platform. Our team took that site live on May 1, 2017.

The comprehensive marketing program that we use for florists was first developed in January of 2009. We built it originally for Carithers Flowers in Atlanta. Carithers is still a client today. Since January of 2009, we have steadily improved and perfected the flower shop marketing program. Over the past 9 years, the program has evolved into a real tactical weapon that has given our florists a huge strategic advantage over their competition.

Here are the online results since May 1st for Rockcastle Florist 

  1. Web Traffic has increased by 30.49%
  2. Online Revenue has increased by 75.43%
  3. Online Sales have grown by 57.27%
  4. Average Order value is up by 11.55%

 

Mayfield Florist

Flyline Search Marketing was hired by Mayfield Florist in May of 2017. We immediately deployed our comprehensive marketing program and created a new website for them. They had previously been using a Media 99 website. We created their new site on the Emerald City floral platform. Our team took that site live on July 1, 2017.

Here are the online results since July 1st for Mayfield Florist

  1. Web Traffic has increased by 4.58%
  2. Online Revenue has increased by 117.59%
  3. Online Sales have grown by 42.16%
  4. Average Order value is up by 18.23%

 

Williams Flower & Gift, formerly Flowers To Go

Flyline Search Marketing was hired by Flowers To Go, Inc in July of 2017. We immediately deployed our comprehensive floral program for them. Next we built then a new e-commerce website, using the robust Emerald City floral platform. They had been using a TeleFlora web platform, prior to bringing us in. Our team took the new website live around August 1, 2017.

Here are the online results since August 1st for Williams Flower & Gift

  1. Web Traffic has increased by 168.93%
  2. Online Revenue has increased by 111.38%
  3. Online Sales have grown by 99.34%
  4. Average Order value is up by 6.04%

 

The data shared for these 3 florists comes directly from Google Analytics. Meaning, this data only reflects online sales that processed through the florists website shopping carts. We also track call-in sales, driven by elements of our comprehensive marketing program. If we add in the call-in sales data, the numbers shown for the 3 flower shops above go dramatically higher!

 

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Trends In Web Traffic – Shift To Smartphones

 Close up of a man using mobile smart phoneSmartphone Usage Is Rapidly Increasing

Do you ever study the Google Analytics data for your website? If the answer is no, we recommend you begin reviewing analytics data on a regular basis. One of the trends you will find in your analytics data is a very definitive shift in the origin of the web traffic on your site. Historically, the vast majority of people who accessed our clients websites, did so using either a desktop or laptop computer to make the connection. Over the past few years, that trend has dramatically shifted. The number of people accessing those same websites via a smartphone or mobile a tablet device, is simply staggering.

technologies in officeIn March of 2015, comScore reported that 184 million people in the United States owned smartphones. That number is expected to continue rising over the coming years. Ten years ago, many of the mobile phones in the market were not web enabled. They were simply used as communication devices. Over the past few years, we have seen people trading in older mobile phones for new, high tech, web enabled smartphone devices, such as the I-phone and Samsung Galaxy series. With the improved technology, people are finding it far easier to surf the web, directly from their mobile device. Wireless phone companies have recognized that fact and are increasingly offering mobile plans that are designed to allow people to surf, talk and share data usage via family plans.

IphoneEarlier this year, it was reported that Apple held a 41.9% market share, in the smartphone device market. Samsung came in a strong second, with a market share of 29.3%. That would lead you to believe that the Apple smartphone platform is the most popular, however, the statistics actually show that the Android platform is the overall leading platform in the smartphone arena. The Android folks enjoy the number one position and have 52.3% of the market using their platform.

Modern communication technology mobile phoneWhat are people doing on these smartphone devices you ask. They are shopping, listening to music, watching videos, texting and using social media apps to communicate with their friends. The top 15 smartphone apps in the market currently are Facebook, YouTube, Google Play, Google Search, Facebook Messanger, Google Maps, Pandora Radio, Gmail, Instagram, Amazon Mobile, Twitter, Itunes Radio & Icloud, Apple Maps, Google + and Pinterest. Facebook holds a commanding lead in the mobile app market place. They have achieved a 71.1% reach share with their Facebook mobile app. YouTube has consistently maintained a strong second place position, with a reach of 57%.

Why is this important to me you ask. It’s important because many of the folks using these smartphone devices are using them more and more frequently. Meaning, they are becoming far less dependent on their desktop or laptop devices for Internet access. With traditional patterns of Internet usage shifting from desktops and laptops to smartphones, marketers are having to find new ways to reach their target audience. Businesses have always had to adjust to market trends, but, never in the history of our country has technology driven such rapid changes to shopping habits and patterns.

Buying air tickets via smartphoneDo you have a mobile friendly website? If the answer to that question is no, you could find yourself in real trouble in the near future. Google and other search engines are adjusting their search algorithms to meet the ever changing needs, wants, preferences and surfing habits of their customers. The search engines must pay attention to these evolving trends. If they don’t, they run the very real risk of producing search engine results that are less relevant for their end users. Loosing relevance is not an option for search engines like Google. Their entire existence depends upon providing the most relevant answers possible to the questions and information requests people are querying about. Google execs realize that if people can find other tools that provide a more relevant answer than Google does, these people will likely migrate to using those other tools.

I say all that to simply advise that you need to make your web content mobile friendly. You need to do that today and not a year from now.  The search algorithms are looking for highly relevant, mobile friendly content to serve up to smartphone device users. If you don’t have a mobile website, you could find yourself in the position of watching your hard earned web page rankings becoming less and less valuable. If you will check your Google Analytics data, I am pretty sure you are going to see the increase in Mobile device usage that we are talking about.

graphs and chartsNot sure of how to find the information I am talking about? Open Google Analytics. In the left side navigation column, slide down to the “Audience” tab. Right click that tab with your mouse. That will open all of the sub categories available under that section. Mouse down to the tab that says “Mobile” then right click that option. You will then see another set of sub categories, including one that says “Devices”. Click that tab. You are going to see all kinds of information about people who have visited your website, using some form of smartphone or mobile device. You can look at any date range you want by going to the top right of that reports page and adjusting your date settings. You can also click the “compare to” box, located just below the date range and compare your selected date range to the previous year or previous period.

We tell our customers that the answers to the questions that perplex us most are often found while analyzing the Google Analytics data. Our team uses that information to ensure that we keep our marketing approach, tactics and strategies on the cutting edge. Customers we serve are flourishing, especially the florists we work with. We ensure that they are using the top e-commerce platforms in the industry. We ensure that each customer has a fully functioning mobile website, that runs in tandem with their primary online storefront. The sites we place our clients are equipped to deliver content to any type of device, in a manner which generates maximum value for each flower shop owner.

If your website isn’t mobile friendly give us a call at Flyline Search Marketing®. We can either help you in building a new site, or can at least give you some advice on what you need to do to update your platform.flyline_search

 

 

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By |2015-06-28T18:25:03+00:00June 28th, 2015|Categories: Advertising Programs For Florists, Affordable Web Design, Digital Marketing Agency, Mobile Apps, Mobile Web Surfing Trends|Tags: , , |Comments Off on Trends In Web Traffic – Shift To Smartphones

Mother’s Day Marketing For Florists

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Carithers Flowers Luxury Collection

Secret To Marketing Flower Shops

What does Mom spell when turned upside down? It spells WOW that’s what!

The Flyline Search Marketing team is hard at work, deploying well thought out tactics and strategies, specifically designed to support Mother’s Day flower sales for the flower shops we support. We offer a comprehensive marketing program for florists that is highly effective. This program is delivering stunning results for our clients. Our customers routinely tell us that their monthly and quarterly sales and revenue growth numbers far exceed those of other flower shop owners who participate in floral industry groups they data share with.

What is our secret you ask? It’s starts with first strategically partnering with GREAT clients, such as; Carithers Flowers, Allen’s Flowers, Veldkamp’s and Flowerama. Next we deploy an incredibly well designed strategy that is unique and comprehensive in nature. Add to that, our talented and dedicated staff. Who might I add are absolutely relentless in their efforts to drive success for every florist we serve. If you do decide to work with us, that will be the best decision you ever make. Like one of our flower shop owners told a prospective client not too long ago, if they do offer to serve your firm, sign the contract as fast as you can! That is absolutely true by the way. Our goal in strategically partnering with shop owners is simple. If we invest our lives and energy in you, we just want to know that you equally value us and the contribution we make to your business and to your family. Those who have hired us will tell you that we educate our shop owners along the way and approach the relationship with a spirit of teamwork and open sharing of ideas and information. We find that approach leads to florists who are informed and empowered!

2009%20FTD%20Top%20100%20Award[1]The marketing program we deliver was created with the help of one of the brightest minds in the flower business, Mr. Charles Carithers, owner of Carithers Flowers in Atlanta, Georgia. We first met Charles in January of 2009. He brought us in to revamp his Google Adwords program and our eye popping first year results provided us with an opportunity to grow the relationship. From that point forward, Charles taught us the flower business and we shared our digital and traditional marketing expertise with him. As you can imagine, Carithers Flowers has really grown during the past 6 years. They are now arguably one of the top and largest independent flower shops in the United States. As Charles will tell you, growing your flower shop requires an unrelenting commitment to innovation and marketing. From our perspective, Charles is the best in the business at both.

 

Comprehensive Marketing For Florists!

Comprehensive Marketing For Florists!

The advertising program that we began creating for Charles back in 2009, has morphed from an extremely productive tool, into a tactical marketing weapon. This program has been field tested over the past 6 years. We have expertly refined it over the past few years, using data gathered from real life experience, from all over the country. The program has delivered results in market after market. Shop owners from the East Coast to the West Coast have seen first hand how the program drives growth in all areas of their business. Our program is designed to grow walk-in, call-in, credit card, online, wedding and event sales and more. The program has delivered results in market after market, increasing overall sales and revenues for every single client who has hired us.

Want an inside tip? Work with us to strategically grow your business 365 days a year. Our approach is focused on growing our clients sales and revenue every single day of the year! While our efforts do produce incredible results during the two biggest floral holidays of the year, Valentine’s and Mother’s Day. We prefer to maintain a keen focus on driving day to day sales results.

 

The Floral Wire Networks

The Floral Wire Networks

Holidays like Mother’s Day require a very specific game plan in order to win. Historically, most small to medium sized flower shops relied on wire-in order volume for the majority of the daily and holiday flower orders. That reliance on wire-in orders is at least a major factor in why so many small and medium sized flower shops have closed over the past 5 years. The national order gatherers spend a ton of money on advertising to secure those orders. They keep an ever increasing percentage of each order they take in order to cover their cost of order acquisition and to provide the profit margin their owners demand. That leaves the poor local florist creating and delivering many arrangements at, or sometimes below cost. Not a formula for success.

all months of the year

Working For Florists 365 Days A Year!

Our team has developed both a year around approach for our florists, as well as a holiday strategy as well. Then we customize the holiday program, based on the specific needs and operating issues that each of our shop owners is facing. The goal at holidays like Mother’s Day is not just to survive, but, to help our shop owners thrive! If you are a flower shop owner, you know what we are saying here. Many of you work ridiculous hours during Mother’s Day week and walk away at the end of the day with little to no actual profit. The flower growers and wholesalers want more money for the flowers you need to buy. Your floral design staff expects to be paid overtime for the crazy hours you are going to need them to work. You don’t have enough delivery drivers so you either temporarily bring in a bunch of untrained drivers, or you give in and pay the exorbitant fees required by third party delivery firms. Everything is working against you making a profit!

I mentioned the term “Strategic Partnering’ with our shop owners, earlier in this post. A big part of what we bring to the table is the expert consulting advice and guidance that we share with our florists. We spend hours working with each individual client. Making sure that they have defined the end result they wish to achieve and have everything in place to achieve the desired financial results. We help them set up their websites for each holiday. That means ensuring the products being offered for sale are in alignment with the flower orders being submitted to the growers by the shop owner. Graphics on the website need to be updated, social media platforms need to themed for the occasion, blog posts must be written, press releases submitted, tweets must go out, radio spots must be created and recorded. The list of details sometimes seems endless. What makes this work is our relentless approach. We focus on the details and are just relentless in our pursuit of success for each client. Everything we do, must work in concert with the flower shop, if we are going to drive financial success during a holiday such as Mother’s Day.

Check out these Mother’s Day themed radio spots that we helped put together for Carithers Flowers. These are just one example of the customized approach that I mentioned earlier in the article. We run radio spots on multiple stations in the Atlanta market to drive increased brand awareness for Carithers Flowers. These spots are primarily targeted for year round sales opportunities, versus holiday flower sales. These particular spots will stop running the week leading up to Mother’s Day. We choose to end the spots early because we don’t anticipate needing marketing support from radio to achieve the tactical holiday objectives set by Carithers Flowers.

At the end of this coming week, we will reach Mother’s Day. The vast majority of the flower shops in the country will sell more flowers this week than during any other week this year. Most will struggle to actually make a profit from all of the work.

Flower shops that Flyline Search Marketing supports will thrive this week, next week and each week after that!

 

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