Flyline Clients Set New Valentine’s Day Online Sales Records

Valentine’s Day Is The Second Largest Floral Holiday Of The Year

Valentine's Day, Marketing For Florists, New Sales Records AchievedCelebrations are in order as Flyline Search Marketing’s clients, including Bussey’s Florist, In Bloom Flowers, Pugh’s Flowers, Radebaugh Florist, Steve’s Flowers, Thrifty Florist, Watsons Flower Shops and other shops in the group, smashed previous online sales records this Valentine’s Day. Their unprecedented sales heights serve as a testament to the potent combination of strategic marketing and the vibrant appeal of their floral assortments during the season of love.

The success of Flyline Search Marketing’s clients during the Valentine’s Day season is a clear demonstration of the power of strategic marketing. In today’s competitive landscape, having a strong online presence and effectively utilizing digital marketing strategies has become crucial for businesses to thrive.

With the rise of e-commerce and online shopping, it has become increasingly important for floral shops to have a well-established online presence in order to reach a wider audience and drive sales. This is where Flyline Search Marketing’s expertise comes into play. By utilizing various digital marketing tactics such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing, they were able to create targeted campaigns that resonated with their clients’ target demographic.

In addition to implementing strategic marketing strategies, Flyline Search Marketing’s clients also owe their success to the alluring and high-quality floral assortments they offer. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and in the case of online shopping, this couldn’t be more true. With eye-catching visuals and enticing product descriptions, customers were drawn to these florists’ websites and compelled to make a purchase.

Furthermore, Flyline Search Marketing’s clients have also made it a point to prioritize customer satisfaction and provide exceptional service. This has resulted in not only repeat business but also positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations, further driving sales during the Valentine’s Day season.

As the floral industry continues to evolve and adapt to the digital landscape, Flyline Search Marketing remains at the forefront, helping their clients stay ahead of the competition and achieve record-breaking sales. With a proven track record of success and a dedicated team of experts, it’s no surprise that Flyline Search Marketing is the go-to agency for floral businesses looking to thrive in the digital age. And with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we can only expect even greater things from their clients in the future. So here’s to a successful Valentine’s Day season for Flyline Search Marketing and their impressive roster of clients! Cheers to many more years of success and growth.

The strong performance of Bussey’s Florist, In Bloom Flowers, Pugh’s Flowers, Radebaugh Florist, Steve’s Flowers, Thrifty Florist, Watsons Flower Shops and other shops in the group this Valentine’s Day is a testament to the power of strategic marketing, high-quality products, and exceptional customer service. As digital marketing continues to play a crucial role in the success of businesses, Flyline Search Marketing serves as an invaluable partner for floral shops looking to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. Let us all raise our glasses to celebrate their achievements and look forward to even greater accomplishments in the future. So, cheers to Flyline Search Marketing and their clients for a successful Valentine’s Day season and many more to come!

Celebrate love, celebrate success! Let’s continue to spread joy through beautiful flowers and effective digital marketing strategies. Here’s to many more successful seasons for Flyline Search Marketing and their impressive portfolio of clients. Cheers to love, happiness, and flourishing businesses!

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day or any other occasion, the success of Flyline Search Marketing’s clients is a testament to the importance of effective marketing and a strong online presence in today’s business landscape. By continuously adapting to the ever-changing digital world and staying ahead of the competition, Flyline Search Marketing helps their clients achieve remarkable results and reach new heights.

BUSSEY’S FLORIST

Bussey’s Florist, with locations in Rome and Cedartown, Georgia, is a family-owned business renowned for its exceptional floral arrangements and dedicated customer service. They offer a wide selection of flowers, plants, and gifts for all occasions, from weddings to sympathy expressions. Bussey’s is deeply rooted in their communities, with a reputation for quality and artistry in their designs, and their florists pride themselves on creating beautiful, fresh bouquets that bring joy to both the giver and the receiver.

At Bussey’s Florist, they understand the importance of personalized service and attention to detail. That’s why they work closely with their customers to ensure that every arrangement is tailored to their specific needs and preferences. Their skilled florists have years of experience in crafting stunning floral designs that are sure to make a lasting impression.

Bussey’s Florist has established a lasting partnership with Flyline Search Marketing, leveraging their expertise to enhance visibility and drive growth. This collaboration has been instrumental in expanding Bussey’s digital footprint and fostering strong customer relationships through targeted marketing strategies.

Bussey’s Florist is committed to providing its customers with the best products and services possible. With Flyline Search Marketing’s help, Bussey’s has been able to elevate their online presence and attract new customers through effective advertising campaigns.

One of the key benefits of working with Flyline Search Marketing is the team’s extensive knowledge and experience in digital marketing. They have helped Bussey’s Florist to develop a strong online brand and continually optimize their website for maximum impact.

In addition to digital marketing, Flyline Search Marketing also provides valuable insights and analytics to track the success of Bussey’s advertising efforts. This data-driven approach allows Bussey’s Florist to make informed decisions about their campaigns and adjust strategies as needed for optimal results.

IN BLOOM FLOWERS

In Bloom Flowers, a prominent florist known for its exquisite arrangements and superior service, has become a household name in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Since initiating their partnership with Flyline Search Marketing in 2023, In Bloom Flowers has significantly enhanced its online presence, effectively capturing a large piece of the DFW floral market. Utilizing Flyline’s comprehensive marketing strategies, the company has not only heightened its visibility to potential customers but also optimized the customer experience, leading to substantial growth in market share and customer loyalty.

At In Bloom Flowers, customer satisfaction is the top priority. The florists at In Bloom Flowers are highly trained and skilled in crafting stunning arrangements for all occasions. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or wedding, the team at In Bloom Flowers will work closely with customers to create personalized and breathtaking floral designs.

In addition to their exceptional floral arrangements, In Bloom Flowers also offers a wide selection of gifts, including gourmet chocolates, luxurious bath and body products, and unique home decor items. These carefully curated gift options add an extra touch of elegance to any order and make In Bloom Flowers the go-to destination for all gifting needs.

Moreover, In Bloom Flowers prides itself on its commitment to sustainability and environmentally-friendly practices. The company sources their flowers from local and sustainable farms, ensuring that their products are not only beautiful but also ethically and environmentally responsible. In addition, In Bloom Flowers uses eco-friendly packaging materials to reduce their carbon footprint.

Furthermore, In Bloom Flowers is dedicated to giving back to the community. The florist regularly partners with local charities and organizations, donating a portion of their profits to various causes. This commitment to social responsibility has not gone unnoticed, as In Bloom Flowers has gained a loyal following of socially-conscious customers.

In Bloom Flowers continues to set the standard for high-quality floral arrangements and exceptional customer service. With their dedication to customer satisfaction, sustainability, and community involvement, it’s no wonder why In Bloom Flowers is the preferred florist in Dallas and Fort Worth. So whether it’s for a special occasion or just to brighten someone’s day, let In Bloom Flowers be your first choice for all your floral needs. Let their expert team create a one-of-a-kind arrangement that will leave a lasting impression on your loved ones. With In Bloom Flowers, you’re not just getting flowers – you’re getting an experience that is truly exceptional and unforgettable.

PUGH’S FLOWERS

Pugh’s Flowers is a renowned family-owned and operated florist based in Memphis, Tennessee. With a rich history and a commitment to quality service, Pugh’s Flowers has been serving the Memphis community with an exquisite array of flowers and gifts suitable for every occasion. Through their long-standing partnership with Flyline Search Marketing, they have significantly expanded their online presence, optimizing their reach and enhancing their marketing strategies to connect with clients digitally, ensuring that the beauty of their floral arrangements is just a click away for their cherished customers.

Pugh’s Flowers has been in operation since 1976, with three generations of the Pugh family dedicated to providing exceptional floral services. With their unwavering passion for flowers and commitment to customer satisfaction, they have become one of the top florists in Memphis.

Their team of experienced florists meticulously handcrafts each arrangement with fresh and high-quality blooms sourced from local farms and growers. From elegant bouquets to lavish centerpieces, their unique designs are tailored to suit any occasion, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and sympathy.

In addition to their stunning floral arrangements, Pugh’s Flowers also offers a wide selection of gifts, such as gourmet baskets, fruit baskets, and unique planters. These add-ons make the perfect accompaniment to any floral gift and are a great way to make your loved ones feel truly special.

Pugh’s Flowers is not just a florist, but also a part of the community. They actively participate in local events and donate to various charitable causes, showing their dedication to giving back and making a positive impact.

RADEBAUGH FLORIST

Radebaugh Florist and Greenhouses, a family-owned business located in Towson, Maryland, has been a blooming pillar of the community for decades. Renowned for their wide selection of fresh-cut flowers, ornamental plants, and bespoke floral arrangements, they cater to everything from everyday bouquets to grand events. With a reputation built on quality and customer service, Radebaugh is a local favorite for garden enthusiasts and those looking to add a touch of natural beauty to their lives.

Radebaugh Florist and Greenhouses has been providing exceptional products and services to the Towson community since 1924. With over 95 years of experience, they have become a trusted source for all things floral.

Their team of skilled florists carefully curates their selection of fresh-cut flowers, ensuring that each arrangement is vibrant and long-lasting. They also offer a wide variety of ornamental plants, ranging from succulents to exotic blooms, perfect for both indoor and outdoor spaces.

But what truly sets Radebaugh apart is their commitment to creating personalized floral designs. Whether it’s a wedding, birthday, anniversary or just a simple gesture of love and appreciation, their team will work closely with customers to bring their visions to life. From classic red roses to unique and modern creations, Radebaugh caters to all styles and occasions.

In addition to their retail services, Radebaugh also has a strong presence in the community through their involvement in charitable events and partnerships with local organizations. They believe in giving back to the community that has supported them for so many years.

STEVE’S FLOWERS

Steve’s Flowers, a beloved local florist in Indianapolis, Indiana, is renowned for its exquisite floral arrangements and top-notch customer service. Established over 40 years ago, this family-owned business has flourished by cultivating a wide variety of fresh blooms and plants, catering to every occasion, from weddings to sympathy expressions. Their commitment to the community and passion for floral design make Steve’s Flowers a go-to destination for those looking to add a touch of nature’s beauty to their lives.

At Steve’s Flowers, every arrangement is created with care and attention to detail. The team at the shop comprises experienced florists who are dedicated to crafting unique arrangements that reflect the individual personalities and preferences of their clients. From classic roses to exotic orchids, each bloom is selected for its quality and freshness, ensuring that every arrangement stays vibrant and beautiful for as long as possible.

But Steve’s Flowers is not just about flowers – they also offer a diverse selection of indoor and outdoor plants, perfect for adding some greenery to any space. Their knowledgeable staff can assist with selecting the right plant for a specific location, as well as provide tips on how to care for it. With their wide range of plants, customers can find everything from succulents to tropical plants, making Steve’s Flowers a one-stop-shop for all their floral and plant needs.

THRIFTY FLORIST

Thrifty Florist, with its strong presence in Detroit, Michigan, stands as a testament to the beauty and business of blooms. Boasting 16 floral design center locations, this family-owned success story has become synonymous with quality and care in flower arrangements and gifts for all occasions. Their longevity and growth can be attributed to their savvy marketing strategies, including their ongoing partnership with Flyline Search Marketing, which has helped solidify their brand as a top choice for consumers seeking a touch of floral elegance and exceptional service.

The success story of Thrifty Florist in the Valentine’s Day 2024 season stands as a testament to the power of innovative marketing and customer engagement. By implementing a customer-centric strategy and leveraging social media trends, Thrifty Florist achieved a remarkable double-digit sales increase. Their focused approach on affordable yet quality offerings tapped into the growing market demand for value-conscious choices without compromising the essence of the occasion.

The Valentine’s Day 2024 season witnessed a surge in sales for Thrifty Florist, thanks to their innovative marketing techniques and customer-driven approach. The florist leveraged the power of social media to reach out to their target audience and engage with them effectively.

In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses to succeed. Thrifty Florist recognized this and capitalized on the popularity of social media platforms to promote their Valentine’s Day offerings. They created a buzz around their products by running targeted ad campaigns, collaborating with influencers, and organizing Instagram contests. This not only helped them reach a wider audience but also fostered meaningful interactions with potential customers.

Additionally, Thrifty Florist made sure to provide value for money to their customers by offering affordable yet high-quality products. This approach resonated with the modern consumer who is increasingly conscious about making cost-effective choices without compromising on quality. The florist’s focus on creating personalized experiences for each customer also contributed to their success in retaining loyal customers.

Aside from their brick-and-mortar stores, Thrifty Florist also offers online ordering for added convenience. With their easy-to-navigate website and efficient delivery options, customers can easily send a beautiful bouquet or gift to their loved ones from anywhere in the world.

Moreover, Thrifty Florist continuously strives to stay ahead of industry trends and cater to evolving customer needs. They offer a wide range of floral arrangements for every occasion, as well as unique gifts such as gourmet baskets, plush toys, and personalized keepsakes. Their team of experienced designers are always ready to create custom arrangements based on specific preferences and budgets.

But what truly sets Thrifty Florist apart is their dedication to giving back to the community. They regularly donate flowers and other resources to various charitable organizations and events, spreading joy and happiness through their beautiful creations.

WATSON’S FLOWER SHOPS

Watson’s Flower Shops, a well-regarded florist in Tempe, Arizona, has expanded its reach by serving the community in neighboring Mesa and Gilbert. By partnering with Flyline Search Marketing in 2022, Watson’s implemented a series of innovative marketing strategies that resulted in a remarkable growth trajectory, with impressive double-digit increases in sales and customer engagement month after month. This growth not only highlights Watson’s commitment to quality and service but also underscores the effectiveness of tailored marketing solutions in the floral industry.

Watson’s Flower Shops has been serving the Tempe community for nearly 100 years, providing customers with beautiful and fresh flowers for all occasions. The shop has become a household name in Tempe, known for its high-quality products and exceptional customer service.

Over the years, the Watson family’s humble enterprise blossomed into a cherished local business, with the farm becoming a well-known landmark between Tempe and Mesa. Charles and Irene’s dedication to their flower farm did more than yield vibrant roses; it nurtured a sense of community and continuity. Their children grew up tending to the rose bushes and learning the family trade, planting the seeds for a tradition that would continue for generations to come. To this day, “The Rose Lady’s” legacy thrives, with the Watson farm being synonymous with quality, beauty, and familial warmth, a testament to the enduring power of one woman’s entrepreneurial spirit.

To achieve this goal, Watson’s partnered with Flyline Search Marketing, a leading digital marketing agency, in 2022. Together, they implemented various innovative strategies to increase brand awareness and attract new customers from Mesa and Gilbert.

One of the key strategies utilized was search engine optimization (SEO), which focused on improving Watson’s online visibility and ranking in search engine results. By optimizing their website with relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and building backlinks from reputable sources, Watson’s saw a significant increase in organic traffic to their website.

In addition to SEO, Flyline Search Marketing also helped Watson’s develop a strong social media presence, utilizing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to showcase their products and interact with customers. This not only helped increase brand awareness but also allowed Watson’s to engage with their audience on a more personal level.

Another successful strategy was email marketing, where personalized emails and promotions were sent out to subscribers. These emails have helped keep Watson’s top-of-mind for customers and encouraged repeat business. the promotional offers have helped increase the frequency of purchase from existing floral customers.

The partnership with Flyline Search Marketing has proven to be a success, as Watson’s experienced double-digit growth in sales and customer engagement month after month. This growth not only solidified their position as a top florist in Tempe but also allowed them to establish a strong presence in Mesa and Gilbert.

 

Florists Achieved New All-time Highs For Valentine's Day Sales

 

Allen’s Flowers Signs New Multi-Year Contract Renewal

Flyline Search Marketing

Allen’s Flowers Renews Contract

The Allen’s Flowers organization has signed a new, multi-year service agreement with Flyline Seach Marketing. We have been working with this incredible family since 2012. Over that 9 year period, we have helped them grow their online flower shop sales and revenues to new heights. Today, Allen’s Flowers is easily the most dominant florist in the San Diego, California market.

Brad Levy hired Flyline Search Marketing in April of 2012. At the time, Allen’s Flowers was pretty much just getting started with online marketing. They had generated a modest amount of online revenue in 2011 and were eager to grow. They brought us in to help create a sustainable lead stream, which we successfully did. Brad wanted to grow his online sales and revenue, in a sustainable manner. We did that as well. Allen’s Flowers uses an e-commerce website built by Gravity Free. They had heard the stories about how we helped Carithers Flowers in Atlanta grow into an online giant. They wanted us to help them do the same. During our first year serving Allen’s Flowers, we successfully increased online sales revenues by 116.53%. Over the past 9 years, we have helped Allen’s Flowers grow into one of the largest and most successful online floral marketers in the United States.

Our History With Allen’s Flowers

We began our working relationship with Allen’s in April of 2012. The our first year of working for Brad, we grew his online revenue by 116.53% and grew his online sales by 100.25%. In April of 2013, the Levy family renewed their service agreement with us. Not only did they renew, they actually requested and were granted, a multi-year service agreement. The Levy’s were thoroughly satisfied with our performance and wanted to secure a long term, strategic partnership with us. In 2015, they renewed again. This time, instead of a two year service agreement, they requested and signed a three year service agreement with us. Working with the Levy’s has been a wonderful experience. They are incredible people. One of the things I love most about Brad is his willingness to allow us to push the envelope. He is always open to our ideas and thoughts on how to grow his online presence. That has allowed us to continuing testing and fine tuning our comprehensive program, tactics and strategies. That partnering spirit has factored into our ability to create and deliver eye popping results for flower shops all over the United States.

 

Send A Fresh Flower Arrangement This Season

Flyline Search Marketing

Supporting Flower Shops All Across America

The year 2020 will go down in history as one of the most challenging that America has ever known. To say that we are living in challenging times is a total understatement. Our country has rarely ever experienced such troubling times. We are in the midst of a full blown pandemic. Everyday we find ourselves wearing masks, washing our hands and using hand sanitizer, literally all day long. States all across the nation have mandated lock downs. In many cases, schools are closed, businesses are close and even places of worship have been forced to close. Even when we do simple tasks, like going to the grocery store, we are asked to wear a mask while we shop. Bless our poor children’s hearts that they are asked to deal with such trying circumstances.

One thing that will never change about this great country we live and that is our fighting spirit. We are Americans and regardless of the challenges we face, we will always be Americans. Our country and our culture has a rich history. We can innovate and adapt as well as the very best nation’s on earth. That is never more true than when we are faced with trying circumstances. Our greatest achievements have often come during times of adversity. We love our celebrations. I hope that never changes. Our great American holidays and traditions, such as; Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day provide a huge lift for the people of our country. Regardless of the environmental challenges we face, these holidays will hopefully always bind us all together. In a way that only Americans can fully appreciate.

We Support Some Of The Greatest Floral Families In America

Rockcastle Florist, Rochester NY Flower Shop, Best Florist In New YorkFlyline Search Marketing is very blessed. We support some of the finest floral families in America. Our firm was created back in September of 2008. The day we opened our doors we didn’t have a single client. Now we support customers all across this great nation. Many of the customers we serve are flower shops. Our expertise with marketing for flower shops has really grown over the past 12 years. We took on our first flower shop customer back in January of 2009. That being Carithers Flowers. We helped Carithers to build their online marketing program. During the 10 years we served the Carithers family, we constructed one of the greatest floral marketing programs ever invented. Over the 12 years we have been in business, we have taken on more and more flower shop clients. With each new client we have taken on, we have further and further refined our marketing approach. We now have the most comprehensive marketing program for flower shops that you will find anywhere in America.

Bussey's Florist, Rome GA Flower Shop, Best Florist In GeorgiaWe support our flower shops through a comprehensive program. Our employees are some of the brightest, hard working folks you will ever meet. They are dedicated and relentless in their pursuit of achieving success for those we serve. Flyline is definitely a group you want on your side. Not a team you would ever want to find yourself competing against. The data is very clear. Every flower shop who has ever been supported by Flyline has out performed their peer group in the industry. Some of the clients we serve were actually referred to us by third parties. These third parties were uniquely positioned to have access to actual industry financials. They have seen first hand how Flower Shops supported by Flyline have far outperformed the industry.

Our Customer Retention Is Amazing

Penny's By Plaza Flowers, Philadelphia Florist, Chris Drummond President of SAFI have always felt that the mark of a truly successful company is evident by the percentage of customers they retain. If we had our way, we would retain 100% of the customers we take on. Obviously, there are always issues and challenges that we encounter that make that impossible to do. The very first client that Flyline took on was a small, female owned plumbing firm. Pete’s Plumbing signed up for our service, the second day that we were open for business. Twelve years later, Pete’s Plumbing is still a customer. We have helped the Lippitt family to achieve growth and a sustainable business model.

Pugh's Flowers, Memphis Florist, Best Florist In TennesseeAs mentioned earlier, our first floral design customer was Carithers Flowers. They remained a customer of ours for 10 years. Our second flower shop client was Allen’s Flowers in San Diego. They remain a Flyline customer to this day. In fact, this year we expect Allen’s Flowers to achieve a revenue milestone for flower shops we have supported over the years. Their online revenue will exceed anything ever produced by a Flyline supported flower shop. Speaks volumes to the talent that our customer puts on display each and every day. The shop owner, his family and employees are some of the most talented and creative folks in the floral industry.

The story doesn’t stop there. This year, every single flower shop that we support will achieve similar financial milestones. Even in the face of a pandemic, the flower shop families we support will all achieve the highest online revenue numbers in their history. Amazing to think about! I am so proud that the Flyline team has been able to contribute to the success of these incredible families. We are truly blessed to serve and to be associated with them all. That is a privilege to say the least. I believe that the Flyline team is the best in the business. We relentless pursue every possible way to grow our strategic floral partners. The passion that our team operates with is unmatched in the marketing industry. We believe that strategically partnering with our firm, is a very smart move.

In part, I also believe that the growth we are seeing with our floral clients is also being fueled by America’s love and need for beautiful fresh flowers. Our customers sell some of the prettiest floral designs you have ever seen. People love farm fresh flowers. They love the vibrant color. They love the wonderful aroma. Flowers brighten up the room and lift everyone’s spirits. Nothing could be more important during the times we are living in.

Why Flowers Are Important During Holiday Celebrations

People love beautiful, farm fresh flowers. We love the gorgeous, vibrant colors that a fresh flower bouquet can offer. Fresh flower arrangements also fill our homes with some amazing aromas. The floral industry has done study after study. In every case, people have noted that fresh flowers are one of the most popular and appreciated gifts they receive. During 2020, sending flowers to a friend or loved one is a great idea. With lockdowns, social distancing and general concerns about being in crowds, many people will not be shopping in stores this holiday season. They will be looking for great online options. One historically great option continues to be sending a gorgeous bouquet of farm fresh flowers. Flowers are guaranteed to deliver a smile.

Holiday Table Centerpieces

One of the most frequently purchased items from flower shops during the Christmas holidays are gorgeous holiday floral centerpieces. Historically, people have purchased beautiful holiday table centerpieces to adorn their kitchen or dining room tables. These centerpieces always provide the perfect decor. We would argue that this year should be no different. Even though you may not be hosting large parties or inviting large groups of people to your home to celebrate the holidays, the need for holiday celebration this year could not be more important. During challenging times, our great American traditions and celebrations are what often carries us through. This year, more than any other is the perfect time to adorn your tables with gorgeous, fresh flower holiday table centerpieces. A Christmas Table Centerpiece is also a great gift to send to a friend or loved one. Think about it for a moment. A beautiful, aromatic Christmas table centerpiece could really brighten the spirits of someone you cherish this holiday season.

Poinsettias

A poinsettia plant  is a great holiday decorating or gift idea. First, they are absolutely beautiful. This year, we have a great selection of gorgeous red poinsettia and white poinsettia plants. These beautiful plants have a long history of being part of our great American Christmas holiday season. People all over the United States have come to love these gorgeous plants and many include them as part of their annual Christmas and New Years holiday celebration. Poinsettias come in many different sizes and are very easy to care for. We generally recommend they be kept indoors, as they are somewhat temperature sensitive. Poinsettias usually hold their blooms for several weeks, which is another reason they are such a great holiday decorating idea during the holidays. Most poinsettias can also affordably priced, which is why many churches, businesses and home owners love using them as part of their holiday decorations.

Mayfield Florist, Tucson AZ Flower Shop, Top Florist In ArizonaDon’t Let The Pandemic Dampen Your Celebration

If we look back through history, the United States has survived multiple world wars and navigated our way through several earth scattering pandemics. Not once during all those trying times did we fail to celebrate our great American traditions and holidays. This year should be no different. We may not be able to have a large group of people over for a big holiday meal or celebration, but we can still find ways to keep our traditions and celebrations alive and well. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and other end of year celebrations are part of the fabric of our country. They are holidays that must be celebrated, treasured and maintained throughout the years to come. Celebrate folks. Enjoy the moment, reflect on the wonderful gifts we have, not the pandemic or things that try to pull our spirits down. Holiday decorations can really help us all to feel the joy and love that should always accompany this very important time of year.

Steve's Flowers, Indianapolis IN Florist, Top Florist In IndianaAs for the pandemic, I think we all pretty much agree. We all should try to do our part. Lets wear our mask whenever we are out in public. The experts say that masks can help to protect us and those around us. They say we should wash our hands and use hand sanitizers as often as needed. The idea being to keep unwanted germs from building up on our hands. None of us want to catch this thing and none of us would ever want to spread it to another unsuspecting soul. Lets responsibly keep our businesses open so that we can serve our communities and provide for their needs. Most importantly, lets all agree that even during this challenging time, we are Americans. Strong, proud and patriotic. All in this together. Celebrating during the holiday season is really important. Maintaining our great American traditions is equally important and very much a part of who we are.

Charles Carithers, My FriendI believe that we owe it to our children and grand children to keep these traditions alive and well. Decorating our homes for the holidays is something that our kids have come to expect. This year should not be any different. We should decorate and celebrate. Holidays are a big part of what keeps the joy in our personal lives and helps fuel our national spirit and pride. This year, lets all decorate. If you want to include some gorgeous Fresh Flowers in your holiday decorations, we hope that you will check out our website or give us a call. It would be an honor to help you decorate your home this year. Flowers are so beautiful. They bring vibrant color to our world. Flowers add a wonderful sense of warmth to your holiday decorations. Not to mention that they fill your home with an aromatic scent that is just fabulous.

 

 

 

Photo Taken At Our Last Emerald City Website User Group Summit

This photo was taken at the Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge. That was the site of our latest Emerald City website user group meeting. Flyline hosted the meeting and we had great participation from the user group side. The results that we have been able to produce for customers using the Emerald website platform have been nothing less than amazing.

 

 

Meet The Future Of Flyline Search Marketing

The current team at Flyline is one of the strongest in the floral industry. We are a very talented and highly skilled group. While there isn’t any immediate changes coming to the leadership team at Flyline, over the next ten years, you need to become familiar with these new names. The newest members of Flyline Search Marketing are, Matthew Lein, Brandi Lein, Payton Lein and Madison Lein. These guys are the future of this great company. They are already working hard for Flyline, earning their strips the old fashion way. They are learning this business from the ground up. You guys are going to love these guys when you meet them. They are young, energetic and super talented. We love the fact that the future of our business will someday be in these capable hands. If you have always thought that the current generation of Flyline leadership is relentless in helping our customers succeed, wait until you see how these guys operate. They will bring a new meaning to the word relentless. I predict that they will help deliver incredible success for the clients who join us in the years to come.

 

Valentine’s Day Delivers Stunning Financial Success For Florists

Flyline Search Marketing

2020 Valentine’s Day Sales Results Dazzle

Flyline Search Marketing delivers comprehensive marketing solutions for florists all across the United States. We serve some of the nation’s top family owned and operated flower shops. Our comprehensive program was originally created back in January of 2009. We built it for a flower shop known as Carithers Flowers. They operated their floral design business in the Atlanta area.

When I first met Charles Carithers, my first reaction was that he was warm, friendly and energetic. Charles had recently taken over management of the family flower shop business from his mother and step father. When I signed on to help, Charles had just closed all but one of the 6 flower shops they had been operating. Turned out that Charles was doing all he could to prevent the family business from going out of business! As my team engaged in the project, we quickly realized that Charles was going to need a sustainable lead stream. We were also going to have to rebuild brand recognition, fully optimize his website, build and deploy various social media platforms and create the tools to effectively index information with the major search engines. In addition, we were going to need to set up the proper tracking technologies so progress could accurately be measured. From all that activity grew the foundational elements of the comprehensive marketing program Flyline delivers today.

Over the next 10 years, the Flyline team helped Carithers Flowers transform their business. Online revenue grew from $174,000 in 2008, up to more than $3.5 million in 2018.  During that 10 year period, we continued to refine our program. We deployed it in market after market. Each time we deployed with a new flower shop, the program delivered eye popping results. We now have a long track record of turning small to medium flower shops into large shops that dominate the markets they operate in.  The 2020 Valentine’s Day holiday marketing campaign provided another great example of how impactful our marketing program really is.

During the first 14 days of February 2020, our flower shops far out performed their industry counterparts. Every flower shop in the Flyline floral group achieved record online revenue numbers. One of our newest shops, Hall’s Flower Shop in Atlanta, actually finished at 231.56% of their Valentine’s online revenue objective.  They also achieved 197.46% of their Valentine’s online sales objective. We have been working with Betsy and Ken at Hall’s since June of 2019. They are easily now one of the fastest growing flower shops operating in the Atlanta area. The good news for them is, the program is just getting started. The program is designed to build long term sustainable growth. Those building blocks are clearly in place for Hall’s Flower Shop. We predict many years of sustainable growth to come.

During the 2020 Valentine’s Day marketing campaign, we had several shops establish new all time performance highs. One example. Pugh’s Flowers generated more than 540 online orders in one single day, during the Valentine’s Day campaign. You can count on one hand the number of independent family owned flower shops who achieved a 500 plus online sales day during the first 14 days of February 2020. In fact, I would argue that you wouldn’t even need all five fingers to complete your count. The 2020 Valentine’s Day campaign was arguably the strongest ever for Pugh’s Flowers. The Pugh’s family operates 3 floral design centers in the Memphis, Tennessee area. They have another flower shop located in Southaven, Mississippi.

Another performance benchmark was established by Allen’s Flowers.  I have argued for a number of years now that Allen’s Flowers is the fastest growing independent family owned and operated florist in the United States. They set an all time high for most gross revenue during the 14 day Valentine’s campaign period. It wasn’t always this way for Allen’s. Back in 2012, their total annual online sales were less than $175K. Today, they are easily one of the top 20 – 30 largest independent florists in America.

We support the Ozment family. They operate 4 Flowerama floral design centers in and around the Columbus, Ohio area. This year, they took in more than 350 online sales orders on February 14th. There are only a handful of flower shops in America who accepted 350 online orders on Valentine’s Day. Especially in light of the fact that most flower shops are completely swamped with Valentine’s orders long before the 14th. The really amazing thing about this performance high was the fact that they already had thousands of orders on hand that needed to be filled, prior to accepting another 350 on the 14th. We are always amazed with the way the Ozment family handles all of the production, delivery and customer opportunities that come with the Valentine’s holiday. These folks are truly some of the smartest and most talented floral operators we have ever met.

Lets talk about Veldkamp’s Flowers for a moment. Want to hear an amazing 2020 Valentine’s campaign fact about them? They delivered more than 2,700 orders on Valentine’s Day. That’s right, I said more than 2,700 orders delivered in one single day. Again, if you start counting fingers as to how many Independent family owned flower shops delivered 2,700 orders in one single day, you won’t need all five fingers to complete your count. John Veldkamp is the CEO of Veldkamp’s Flowers. He is one if the brightest minds in the floral industry. You won’t meet a floral operator with more grit, determination and intelligence. Keep in mind, Denver experienced several major snow storms during the first 14 days of February. None of that bothered John and his team. They powered through it, like they do with all challenges they face. So proud to be associated with John, his beautiful family and his talented employee team. Great folks for sure.

We use paid search as one element of our comprehensive marketing program. Just looking at the data from Google. We generated more than 415,000 ad impressions for our flower shops during the first 14 days of February. That is a lot of eye balls looking at Google ads relating to our clients. More than 31,600 people clicked on one of those Google ads. Conversions from all those impressions and Google ad clicks were up by more than 50%, over the previous year. Mayfield Florist operates 2 flower shops in the Tucson, Arizona area. They enjoyed an overall online conversion rate of 10.46% over the first 14 days of February. Even though 10.46% is amazing, they didn’t achieve the highest overall conversion rate in the floral group. That honor went to Pugh’s Flowers. In Memphis, we achieved an overall online conversion rate of 12.93% during this year’s Valentines campaign. You won’t find many shops in America that have an overall online conversion rate in the 10% range or higher. More than 30% of the shops in our floral group achieved overall conversion rates that were 10% or higher.

Here are some interesting trends from Adwords that might be helpful for you. During the first 14 days of February, impressions were only up by 1.87% over the previous year. Clicks were a completely different story. Clicks were up by 47.01% over the previous year. We attribute much of that improvement to the efforts of our PPC management team to further strengthen an already ultra productive platform design. It could also be argued that people are also getting more comfortable with shopping online. A few years ago, there were many in the industry who said people just didn’t trust PPC ads. We never bought into that argument. Our team always knew the truth. People who click on a listing or ad are simply looking for the most relevant answer to their question or issue. With that knowledge in mind, our staff has always expertly designed PPC ads that provide great information to shoppers considering all their online options. Click through rates on our ads improved during the Valentine’s holiday season by 44.30%, year over year.

The impressions signaled strong demand this year. The clicks and improved click through rates provided further evidence that demand this year was high. Knowing that we were achieving world class conversion rates for our clients, we felt very confident in recommending higher ad budgets for our clients this year. They listened to the facts we provided and all agreed that the signs were pointing towards increasing ad spend. During the first 14 days of February, we increased overall ad spend for the floral group by 41.60% over the previous year. The results achieved by the floral group provide direct evidence that our more aggressive approach was a very smart move.

We get asked all of the time, what is the top selling product during Valentine’s. Based on the data from the shops, I think a strong argument can be made for roses. More specifically red roses. For example, the top selling product during the first 14 days of February for Pugh’s Flowers was 12 Long Stem Roses. We display that particular product on the site with Red Roses. The Pugh’s 12 long stem rose design is a more traditional rose arrangement. Contrast that with Allen’s Flowers. Their top selling product also included red roses, however the Allen’s product also included white lilies and beautiful white gerbera daisies.

Even though the floral industry as a whole worried about Valentine’s Day falling on a Friday, our flower shops remained steely eyed focused. They didn’t even consider the possibility that this year wouldn’t produce the best Valentine’s Day results ever. Turns out that our flower shop owners were right to think that way. Virtually every shop in our group enjoyed a lucrative and financially productive Valentine’s Day campaign. For the majority, it was the best in their history.

 

 

Is Allen’s Flowers The Fastest Growing Flower Shop In America?

Flyline Search Marketing

Helping Allen’s Flowers To Achieve Industry Leading Growth

Allen’s Flowers is a second generation, family owned and operated floral design firm. They have been a client of Flyline Search Marketing since April of 2012. Over the past 7 years, Flyline Search Marketing has delivered stunning sales and revenue growth for Allen’s Flowers. The Levy family operates 3 flower shops in San Diego, El Cajon and La Mesa. They also operate a design and distribution facility that they opened a few years ago in downtown San Diego. The new design and distribution center was needed in order to properly manage the rapid growth.

A review of the online sales and revenue data for 2019, makes is abundantly clear. Allen’s Flowers is absolutely one of the fastest growing floral design firms in the United States. From January of 2019, thru November of 2019, online sales for Allen’s Flowers are up 47.56% and online revenue is up by 53.63%. Pretty impressive numbers. Especially when you consider the fact that these performance stats are being produced in year 7 of the contractual relationship between Flyline and Allen’s Flowers. The future in bright for Allen’s Flowers.

What are the factors that contribute to the incredible success that Allen’s is enjoying. We asked Flyline CEO, Mark Lein, to give us his thoughts. Here is what he had to say. One of the biggest keys to success is aligning with a great florist. Brad Levy, CEO of Allen’s Flowers, absolutely fits that description. He is smart, innovative, willing to be aggressive and open to new ideas. Brad is also incredibly loyal to his staff and to his vendor partners. He believes in people and empowers them to do their work, free from micro-management. Brad is an incredible leader. He has a keen sense of when to praise and when to push. Brad is a family man who he is always there for those he treasures. He places a high level of importance on building and maintaining great relationships.  Our team loves working with Brad and his awesome team.

2016 Mother’s Day Flower Sales

Year over Year Sales Growth Objectives Achieved

Flyline Search Marketing® provides comprehensive marketing services for florists all over the United States. We serve a very distinguished group of flower shop owners. That group includes firms like; Carithers Flowers in Atlanta Georgia, Allen’s Flowers in San Diego California, Veldkamp’s Flowers in Denver Colorado, Allen’s Flower Market in Long Beach California, Flowerama of Columbus Ohio and Flowers and Company in Houston Texas.

These are not your average independent flowers. They are some of the floral industries most successful, lead by some of the industries brightest minds. These florists are also some of the most creative flower shop owners in the flower business today. We consider it to be a huge honor that these florists have strategically partnered with us. They brought us in to handle their online advertising, lead generation, social media marketing, brand management, content development and public relations duties. Our mission is to help our florists win today and build for the future.

Even though each of these flower shops is unique, there is one consistent theme that each of the owners is focused on. That theme is growth! All of the shops owners we support are experiencing growth rates that exceed industry averages and all have either achieved a dominate position within the cities they market to, or are on the path to doing so.

This year, Mother’s Day fell on the 8th of May. In 2015, Mother’s Day fell on the 10th of May. That lead most florists in our group, and many around the country, to project lower estimated sales for the period May 1st through May 8th 2016, versus May 1st thru May 10th of last year. Well, the final sales numbers are now in. Flower shops we support actually generated more sales transactions and higher revenues this year than last, during that time frame. When you think about it, that was no little task. Especially considering each of our florists all enjoyed solid Mother’s Day sales campaigns in 2015.

CMS design over white background vector illustrationHow did we do it you ask? We did it by utilizing a comprehensive approach to marketing these flower shops. That program is designed to generate sales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. We do make very specific tactical adjustments for the holidays, but, work to maintain our focus on growth all year long. We would be remiss if we also didn’t mention that the shop owners we support are some of the smartest, hardest working folks in the industry. All of them work relentlessly during the holidays to exceed the expectations of the clients they serve. I have never met a more dedicate or harder working group of business owners. These folks are some of the best and brightest in the floral industry.

I love being around the group of shop owners that we support. They are innovators and are always willing to try new ideas, strategies and tactics. Especially if they believe that the new idea, strategy or tactic will make for a better customer experience for the people buying flowers, as well as for the people they want us to deliver them to. Charles Carithers is always telling me that he truly believes that for his business to succeed, we must focus on innovation and marketing. I think Mr. Carithers is an extremely bright man! The fact that his sales, revenues and customer satisfaction results are continually some of the best in the country, I might not be alone in that thought.

Lets talk specifics about Mother’s Day sales and performance for a moment. In Atlanta, we generated more sales and revenue from May 1 – May 8 of 2016, than we were able to achieve from May 1 – May 10 of 2015. How much more you ask? Can’t provide the exact numbers, but, I will say this. Our online sales transaction totals during that time frame were 9.2% higher in 2016 than 2015. More importantly, our online revenues were 13.2% higher. In San Diego, online sales were up by 11.8% and online revenue was up by 13.5%. I think you get the point. Over an eight day span, we generated significantly more sales and revenues this Mother’s Day, than we did over the 10 day span in 2015.

Again, the flower shop owners in these markets are relentless in their efforts to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction possible. They are not just focused on selling more product. They are focused on delivering a great customer experience, while striving to connect with an ever increasing client base. We are thankful that they choose to include us as part of their team. We and they see the relationship as a great fit. Our team matches their intensity and operates with the same tenacity and relentless approach. We don’t sleep much during holidays like Mother’s Day, but, we tend to think the challenge of achieving something special for one of our clients, trumps (no pun intended) getting some beauty sleep.

Depositphotos_31562021_xs (2)Our team focuses on all aspects of the buying process. We run advertising targeted to desktops, laptop and mobile smartphone devices. Why you ask? The reason is simple. Shopping patterns are changing dramatically. In-store shopping is dropping and shopping from mobile phones is rapidly increasing. Google advises that from “2011 to 2013, smartphone adoption in the U.S. grew from 36% to 61%. They also advise that tablet ownership has also increased. Tablet ownership is typically associated with high disposable income. As a result, shoppers are now using these smartphones and tablet devices to conduct their research and to connect with businesses offering products and services that match their interests and hobbies.

Lets look at some actual Mother’s Day phone data from San Diego. We utilize a number of tools that allow us to capture phone calls, phone sales and revenues attributed to mobile devices. Tracked and recorded calls for San Diego increased from 371 (May 1 – May 10 2015) up to 492 (May 1 – May 8 2016). More than 30% of those calls lead to actual online sales conversions. The importance of this data is simple. From one year to the next, calls grew by 32.6%, year over year. That would seem to confirm the data provided by Google about the rapid growth in smartphone usage and the need to focus a portion of your advertising program budget to reaching this segment of the market. While we shared some basic stats from San Diego, this same trend played out in other large markets like; Atlanta, Denver, Columbus Ohio, Long Beach and Houston as well.

 

 

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Valentine’s Day Flower Sales Results

Flower Shop Sales Blossom

Even though Valentine’s Day fell on Sunday this year, the vast majority of the flower shop clients we support experienced at least some upward growth in year over year net revenue. Most other flower shops around the country were probably not so lucky. Our bet is that flower shops who depend on the wire services for volume likely felt a sharp decline in sales, deliveries and year over year revenues.

Florists in the U.S. went into this years Valentine’s holiday feeling a bit apprehensive. Some we spoke with were openly discouraged by the floral industry projections for the coming holiday. Historically, the floral industry almost always projects lower than normal holiday sales, anytime Valentine’s falls on a Saturday or Sunday. The Society of American Florists (SAF) put out an article in January of this year, which highlighted industry concerns on this point. The article lays out a pretty compelling case that a very negative mindset existed prior to the 2016 Valentine’s Day holiday (See Article)

Google Conversion CodeFlyline Search Marketing® flower shop clients all told us that they were planning to approach the holiday with caution. All felt the weekend issue would create problems. Most honestly felt going into the holiday that industry projections would likely prove accurate. All of our shop owners have years of experience in the industry. They all have years of historical industry trend data of their own. Many commented to us that their data supported the probable decline theory.

Now for some great news. For the flower shop clients we support, the decline did not happen. Why you ask? Our shop owners are some of the most progressive, high level thinkers in the floral industry. They are intelligent marketers and always open to new ideas. All are motivated to find ways to improve and grow their flower shops. Even though they approached Valentine’s with a cautious eye, none asked us to back off of our aggressive, comprehensive marketing approach. Instead, all opted into the notion that this weekend thing was simply another obstacle in the road that needed to be overcome. For the record, we have a great track record of overcoming obstacles and bucking industry trends.

Virtually every flower shop in our group had solid holiday sales results during February. Almost all experienced at least some level of year over year growth in net revenue. While I cannot share the actual numbers with you, lend it to say that all of our shop owners came away feeling like they had significantly beaten industry projections.

When you look at where our shop owners shined, almost all saw increases in credit card sales, call-in sales and online sales results. A few saw nice gains in their wire-out sales volume. Even though Valentine’s Day is the second busiest sales holiday of the year, almost every shop in the group saw a slight decline in in-store shopping.

The only shops in the group that continue to experience positive growth in walk-in sales are our florists in Long Beach and Denver. The Long Beach shop takes a very unique approach to Valentine’s and Mother’s Day. Beginning 48 hours before the actual holiday, they remain open 24 hours a day over the last two days. You would not believe how many people in Long Beach actually shop in the middle of the night. Pretty crazy and not something that would likely work everywhere, but, a solid idea in that unique market. In Denver, they opted for a multi-million dollar store renovation a year or so ago, that has proven to be a great idea. The store is absolutely fabulous. Truly one of the nicest flower and gift shops you will ever see. In-store sales have nearly doubled since the renovation occurred.

If you study enough Analytics data for flower shops, it is clear that most shops across the U.S. are experiencing a decline in-store sales. That seems to be a universal problem throughout the floral industry. A further review of the data will point to the reason for the problem. The data clearly points to a shift in shopping patterns of folks purchasing flowers. More and more people are opting to make their purchases online, in lieu of coming into the shop. The driver behind the shift appears to be the rapid growth in smartphone and tablet usage.

In speaking with our support team at Google, it is clear they are seeing the same trend. They talk often about the continuous growth in overall Internet search traffic. They point to the enormous growth in smartphone usage as the major driver of the ever increasing search traffic.

Did any of you use mobile friendly ads in your Valentine’s PPC campaigns this year? If so, how did those ads perform for you? Did you see increases in click through rates on your mobile ads, as say compared to your desktop and laptop focused text ads? Did any of you try “Call Only” campaigns? If so, we would love to hear how those campaigns performed as well. In our case, we utilize both of those elements, along with a ton of other tools like RLSA, mobile bid adjustments, call extensions and some very sophisticated call tracking scripts and phone tracking platforms.

It is my humble opinion that flower shop owners across the country really need to find a marketing firm who understands the floral industry and partner up with them. The floral industry landscape has become extremely complex. You face challenges that you may not even fully understand. The national order gatherers are becoming more and more aggressive in advertising in your local communities. Most of you are now starting to realize that their presence in local search results is affecting your ability to drive local sales volume. You just cannot stay in business if your only plan is to continue taking orders from them off the wire services. Those orders are becoming less and less valuable. Most of you are starting to figure out that you cannot pay your bills based on the ever decreasing revenue share those orders are providing to you.

We have partnered with a number of shops located throughout the United States. Those flower shops are flourishing, even in these difficult times. They are growing, while at the same time the floral industry continues to see a rapid increase in the number of local flower shops who are closing their doors. They are closing because they can no longer figure out ways to generate a profit. If you are a local flower shop owner, we are here to tell you that there is a way to grow again. We can help you grow, assuming you are willing to strategically partner with us in building your brand and comprehensively marketing your business. We don’t take on all flower shops, but, we do strategically partner with one shop owner in each major market. When we take on a client, our mission is to help that flower shop and the family who owns it to grow and thrive! It might be that Flyline Search Marketing® could be a good fit with you!

Another Valentine’s Day is in the books. I know most of you are happy to get back to normal work schedules and regular delivery volumes for a few months. I know our team didn’t get much sleep during February, so we are definitely ready. With Valentine’s Day behind us, it’s time to start planning for Mother’s Day!

 

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The Digital Advertising Arena Holds Great Promise

Blue www and EarthSmart Firms Go Digital

Business owners who insist on sticking to the old traditional way of selling are finding it harder and harder to compete in today’s fast paced environment. We meet folks like this everyday. They are honest, hard working people. They have each built successful businesses by the sweat of their brow. Almost all of them feel they understand their business better than anyone else, yet they find themselves wondering why their revenue growth has seemingly stagnated. Most are afraid of change and thus stuck in proverbial quicksand. They know change is needed, but, don’t have any real  idea of what that change should be.

Please don’t mistake what I am saying. These are some of the brightest folks you will ever meet. Most are college grads, all have built successful businesses and lead happy, productive lives. Yet they all seem to find themselves at that same intersection in the road. For years their businesses have grown and flourished. The need to change approach has arrived though and they are simply not sure which fork in the road is the right one to go down. Change seems to be one of the hardest things for the human mind to wrap itself around. Many find it so much easier to just ignore the need for change because they are comfortable with how they have done things over the years. They know that change sometimes brings pain. Change means reinvestment in the business. Change means they are probably going to have to work more hours, like they did when they were first getting started with their businesses.

0f0d452One of the smartest folks I am blessed to work with is a man named Charles Carithers. He is the owner of Carithers Flowers. Charles has built one of the most successful flower shops in the southeastern United States. We have been right there by his side, helping him to accomplish that impressive feat. Charles often says, there are two key things that he focuses on. The first is reinvention and the second is marketing. He is convinced that maintaining a keen focus on these two things has helped him to grow Carithers Flowers into the successful flower shop that it has become.

Depositphotos_8588374_s (2)Lets talk for a minute about the reinvention piece of the equation for a minute. If you are the owner of a flower shop, or any other business, you probably have certain practices and procedures that you have historically followed in running your company. Many of you have spent years of your lives, honing these practices and operational procedures into a fine edge. You are proud of that accomplishment and have made money sticking to what has worked to keep your business growing all these years. Now, all of the sudden, things have started to change. You are seeing less walk-in traffic in your stores. Competitors are popping up in your industry and they seem to be very tech savvy. These firms have deployed websites. Armed with a website and a high tech work team, these new kids on the block are fast gaining ground on your business and that concerns you. The truth is, they will catch up to you, and pass you, if you don’t embrace change!

businessmove2Reinvention can mean a lot of things to different people. For the sake of this discussion, I choose to think of it as a means of challenging yourself, and your employees, to find ways to drop the traditional methodology in favor of a different way of doing things. Here is one example of how Charles Carithers approaches reinvention. For years, he built his business around the traditional brick and mortar approach to growing a flower shop. As his business grew, he opened store after store, all over the Atlanta area. To provide flower orders for each new store, he traditionally counted on walk-in traffic and wire in flower orders from BloomNet and other sources. This approach worked for years and Carithers grew into a huge flower business. Then one day, Charles realized that growth had stagnated. Instead of living off his past success, he smartly realized that change was needed. He quickly began to dismantle the traditional business he and his family had worked so hard to create. Charles hired our firm to help him compete and evolve his firm, using growth opportunities offered via the new digital advertising space.

What I am telling you is this. Charles literally scraped the traditional business approach and started all over again. Most would never have had the courage, nor the conviction to do such a thing. It’s not unusual to see business owners unload and sell off their businesses at that point. Most would never have the energy to go through the pain of the reinvention. That is what I love about Charles Carithers. He isn’t afraid of any challenge! Instead, he embraces change and makes it a part of his operational strategy. The employees who work for him have come to realize that change is a good thing. He challenges them all to find ways to be better at what they do. His management style and approach is designed to encourage employees to evolve and to compete and I am telling you, it is working!

Marketing signNow lets talk about the marketing piece of the equation for a minute. I am going to use flower shops as an example for the sake of this part of the discussion. Many of the flower shop owners I meet tell me that they are willing to dedicate 5% of sales, back to a marketing program. I ask them where they came up with 5% of sales as the magic number. They give me all kinds of reasons for it, but, at the end of the day they are just trying to do what others in their industry are telling them they do. Most flower shop owners belong to various floral groups. These floral user groups share information about tactics and strategies and things like marketing budgets. Oh I don’t blame flower shop owners for going to these group meetings. They do learn lots of things that are helpful.

If it were me, I would watch what innovators like Charles Carithers are doing. If I owned a flower shop, I would also study what the largest florists in the industry are doing. That would require spending time and energy analyzing companies like 1-800 Flowers, FTD, Teleflora and ProFlowers. These firms are all enjoying huge success in the flower business. Yes I agree. Studying these firms isn’t rocket science, it’s just common sense. A number of these large florists are public companies. That means they are required to publish an annual report. These annual reports include information about those firms strategies. They also contain statements about anticipated benefits and future financial projections on revenues, operating expenses, market trends, cash flows and uses of cash. That means you can glean information from their annual reports to help you better understand how much they spend on marketing. Let is suffice to say, they are not reinvesting 5% of their sales back into marketing. In fact, they are spending more like 12% – 15% of sales on marketing.

 

[button link=”http://investor.ftdcompanies.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1047469-14-2022&CIK=1575360″ color=”custom” size=”large” type=”” shape=”pill” target=”_blank” title=”” gradient_colors=”#8224e3|#8224e3″ gradient_hover_colors=”#dd3333|#dd3333″ accent_color=”#b5b5b5″ accent_hover_color=”#8c8c8c” bevel_color=”” border_width=”2px” shadow=”no” icon=”” icon_divider=”yes” icon_position=”left” modal=”” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ alignment=”center” class=”” id=””]Peruse The 2014 Form 10K Annual Report Filed By FTD[/button]

 

Let me ask you this question. Does it make more sense to follow the lead of ultra successful florists, or should you stick to the traditional way you have always managed? I guess the answer to that question will lie in whether you are open to change or stuck in quicksand. Business owners with an open mind can evolve and win. If you choose to avoid the fray, you may find yourself owning a company that is becoming increasingly less productive and valuable. My advice, embrace change and evolve. The new digital advertising arena is kind of rocket science stuff, but, it offers change and possibility for growth and success.

Image converted using ifftoanyIf you are ready to take the next step, but, realize you aren’t knowledgeable enough to head in that direction on your own, give us a call. We can help you. Our approach is unique and our track record of success is on record for all to see. When we agree to take on a new client, we don’t just view ourselves as a vendor. Instead, we focus on becoming an extension of the business owner. To that end, we seek to find business owners who are actually looking for a strategic partner, and not just another vendor to do a task. When we find those types of folks, we step right in and take ownership and responsibility in helping them grow their firms. Not to sound redundant, but, our work, effort and performance are second to none! Ask companies like Carithers Flowers, Veldkamp’s Flowers, Flowerama of Columbus and Allen’s Flowers. We have helped these firms to achieve new levels of success. We also help lots of firms in other industries, such as; Gwinnett Medical Center. All will tell you that we have stepped right in and played a major role in helping them to implement growth strategies and achieve their goals. For us, it’s about relationships and driving success for those we serve. We see ourselves as servants and appreciate the chance to be part of the team. Money is a secondary component and not what motivates us. We just love finding family owned businesses who are worth spending our life energy to help. We enjoy helping other families and thrive on bringing these types of businesses back to a vibrant state. It’s friendship, trust and respect we seek, not a paycheck.

flyline_search

 

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By |2015-06-11T13:05:22+00:00June 11th, 2015|Categories: Advertising For Florists, Affordable Web Design, Digital Marketing Agency, Google Partner|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on The Digital Advertising Arena Holds Great Promise

Florists Enjoy Strong Mother’s Day Sales

Mother’s Day Sales Hit New Levels

The floral industry seems to be in a constant state of change. Many small to medium flower shop owners find themselves struggling to make a profit. At the same time, a number of large order gatherers appear to be flourishing. Even with all the turbulence, florists we serve are all experiencing strong, steady growth. The week of Mother’s Day was no exception. Each shop in our floral group achieved solid growth in sales and revenues. Several reported the strongest Mother’s Day sales in their firms histories!

Roses Harvest, plantation in Tumbaco, Cayambe, Ecuador, South AmThe two largest flower occasions of the year are Valentine’s Day and Mothers’ Day. Both are extremely challenging for flower shop owners. For example, our florists all buy farm-direct. Buying direct has some huge benefits in terms of the quality and variety of flowers they can offer. It also comes with risk during a week like Mother’s Day. Most of the flower farms require a partial payment for each flower order at the time the order is placed. With final payment being due at the time the flowers are actually cut, wrapped and shipped. Meaning, florists who buy direct from the growers spend huge sums of money before the first Mother’s Day order has ever been taken.

8Once the flowers arrive, the next big issue becomes inventory management. How do you store thousands and thousands of fresh cut flowers, and not loose them to spoilage before the Mother’s Day orders begin to flow. Our shop owners are incredibly bright folks. All have installed massive cooler systems, capable of maintaining the precise temperatures needed to effectively store fresh cut flowers. The secret is to ensure the blooms stay closed while in storage. The goal is the design the arrangement and have the blooms open precisely when the arrangement is delivered to the recipient. During Mother’s Day, flower storage capacity is always an issue. The sheer volume of product needed to fulfill all the orders that come through during the holiday is staggering. Solving that problem requires creativity on the part of each shop owner. For most, the answer lies in positioning huge refrigerated trailers on-site. These refrigerated units provide the additional temporary storage space required to handle the massive influx of product.

Call Tracking & RecordingThe challenges don’t end there. In fact, the difficulty factor just seems to keep ramping up for the flower shop owners during Mother’s Day. The next major issue the face is manpower. Most flower shops maintain staffing levels designed to get them through the everyday business of designing and delivering fresh cut flowers. Mother’s Day requires a far different strategy. Our shop owners are extremely busy year round. When Mother’s Day rolls around, they are always under pressure to find a way to effectively increase staffing levels, while maximizing the available floor space in their shops. That isn’t an easy task.

For our shop owners, holiday hiring begins well in advance of Mother’s Day week. The call center has to be beefed up. These sales people have to be trained and field tested before the holiday arrives. Floral design staff schedules have to be tweaked. Holiday production runs have to be completed, while still fulfilling other commitments, such as; weddings and events that may also be on the May calendar. Most of the shop owners we support maintain a staff of part time designers. During Mother’s Day, full time and part time designers all come together in concert to handle the spike in work loads. Staffing challenges are also something shop owners have to deal with in other parts of the operation. Delivery is a mission critical component of every flower shop. This is a task that often keeps many a flower shop owner up late at night. During holidays like Mother’s Day, it not unusual to see one of our florists personally work 80 or more hour during the week. We would know that because our staff is also at it day and night working to ensure our marketing program is delivering optimal results. We routinely trade emails with our shop owners in the middle of the night during Mother’s Day week. Really!!

van-bigThe flower shop owners we support all enjoy a steady stream of business each day. We focus much of our energy teaching them how to successfully make money year round. Keeping the shops busy during normal months is mission critical to having them ready for peak periods. The busy daily schedules have lead to the development of some pretty sophisticated delivery operations in most of the shops. All of our shop owners provide nationwide same day delivery. Most offer local rush delivery, and several offer express local delivery. The express delivery option enables customers to select the actual time of day they want the arrangement to be delivered.

iStock_000006102941XSmallFlower delivery is to say the least a very challenging piece of the business. You are dealing with a perishable product. That perishable product has been expertly designed into a magnificent floral arrangement. Then that gorgeous flower arrangement must be carefully loaded into a delivery vehicle, with no damage to the flowers. It must be kept stable during transport to the recipient. The flowers must not get too hot, nor too cold during this transportation process. Delivery routes must be constructed to ensure the drivers can get the arrangements to the intended recipient within the agreed to time frames. During Mother’s Day, drivers are expected to handle multiple delivery runs each day. That requires the delivery management team to build delivery routes that maximize the value and effectiveness of each drivers available hours.

9Holidays like Mother’s Day challenge every single department within a flower shop. If all departments aren’t properly managed, the end result can be disastrous for the shop owner. If you are a flower shop owner, the last thing you want is to have hundreds of unhappy customers who either didn’t receive their Mother’s Day flowers on time, or received an arrangement that wasn’t in top condition. The thing I love most about the shop owners we support is this. For them, Mother’s Day isn’t just about trying to make money. There vision of Mother’s Day is much more than that. It’s about keeping a commitment to customers they value. That commitment is to ensure that each Mom they serve receives a masterfully crafted fresh cut flower arrangement. Each arrangement is crafted with love and designed to exceed the expectations of the sender and recipient. Our shop owners focus on quality, luxury and customer satisfaction. They steer clear of the tactics and strategies used by the large order gatherers and drop ship florists. Mother’s Day is special. It’s about celebrating relationships with the special people in our lives that make this world a better place. It’s awesome to be working with florists who have such lofty ideals.

In truth, we are extremely blessed to serve such a distinguished group of flower shop owners. Our firm is fortunate to work with companies like Carithers Flowers, Veldkamp’s Flowers, Allen’s Flowers, Flowerama and a number of others. Every single florist in our group is currently experiencing strong growth. They all enjoyed nice increases in sales and revenues during Mother’s Day. These increases weren’t just from online sales efforts. Our marketing program also delivered significant growth in their call-in’s, walk-in’s, wire outs and credit card sales as well. How do we know that our shop owners are out performing their peer group? Each shop owner we support participates in various floral industry user groups. These user groups all share high level financial and operational results data. Our shop owners indicate to us that their Mother’s Day sales performance far outpaced other shop owners in their user groups.

It is our mission to be the very best marketing firm in the floral industry. We won’t stop until we achieve that mission. When you work with our team, it won’t take you long to see just how relentless we are in pursuing success for your firm. Don’t take our word for it. Just ask the shop owners we support. Every flower shop owner we currently support is extremely happy with our performance. Most of them are now opting for multi-year service agreements with us. They have seen the value we deliver and know first hand how dedicated our team is to generating results for them. We aspire to be a true strategic partner to all those we serve. Nothing is more gratifying than when one of our flower shop owners decides to tell others about the great work we are doing for them.

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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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