Building a strong online presence is imperative if you're a floral business owner—whether you have an online store, a small local shop, or provide flower arrangements for events and weddings. 

Today people rely on the internet for information online regardless if the service provided is online or not. If you want directions, you check out google maps. If you want to check the validity of a business, you check the trust pilot. 

Your floral shop caters to a wide range of clients, whether you're providing flowers for someone's wedding, making a bouquet to send to someone who is ill, or creating the perfect boutonniere for someone's prom date. That means you're aiming for anyone and everyone who wants to make a statement with flowers. With such a large audience, it's critical to reach them in as many ways as possible—and digital marketing is one of the most effective.

The floral industry has been booming, and there is no better time to get into the market than now! According to the Petal Republic, the worldwide floristry market "is expected to grow roughly 6.3% over the next five years[;] reaching $57.4 billion in 2024, up from $42.4 billion in 2019". 

It's a great time to start a floral business or even push to grow your running business. This article is a general guideline for newbies and veterans alike to open up new avenues for new audiences and customers through a bit of investment of effort and time. 

Local Marketing and SEO

The first step is to analyse your business and decide which channels suit you best. A deep understanding of your audience will determine the channels you need to target. 

Next, you'll need to determine your marketing goals as a business.

As a florist service provider, your priority will be connecting to potential clients through groups, social media, and other online directories.

As a local flower Shop, your primary efforts will be on your Google My Business account to make sure your shop pops on top of the maps when someone looks for flowers in your area. 

Directories

Find the right directories and list your business. People rely on directories to find businesses or services they require. Here is a list of niche directories related to floristry:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essentially strategies for increasing your Google ranking. The first step in launching your local SEO strategy is to sign up for Google My Business. When you search for a local term, such as "flowers near me" or "Wedding florist in Stratford," Google returns results for businesses in that area.

Google My Business (Now Known as Google Business Profile)

We cannot overstate the importance of Google My Business Account! This improves your business's validity, increasing the traffic driven to your website.

Google My Business will appear as the first result in a local search. So, of course, you should create an account. Registering is simple! All you have to do is wait a few days for Google to send a verification postcard to your address, confirming that you are a local business.

How to create the My Business Account 

1. Claim your business account if it already exists

2. Increase the visibility of your business account 

3. Offer clients special deals for putting up reviews. Below is an example of a local business search snippet. It supersedes other search results for location-relevant searches.

You will have competitors within Google My Business profiles, and you must distinguish yourself from them. To accomplish this, be sure to complete all of your business information, upload photos and videos, and post updates regularly (like blog posts!).

Add all the relevant information, like timing, locations, contact details, and services. Add a lot of pictures showcasing your work. 

Most importantly, you will need to increase the number of positive customer reviews on Google. Request reviews from your previous customers. You can even offer a discount if they are hesitant! Make a point of asking for a positive review from your clients on all future jobs (as long as you're confident you made a good impression!). The most important distinguishing factor between you and your competitors will be the reviews and ratings. 

If your business is already listed on Google my business, don't worry! You can still claim your business and manage your profile.

Making a Business Profile Claim

To claim an existing profile, sign in to Google My Business using your Google Account on either the desktop or mobile app and click "Add your business" to edit the details. Then, choose your business category and whether you provide goods or services. You can also include the region you serve if you operate from a location.

Finally, read and accept the terms and conditions before clicking "Continue" to proceed to verification. If your company appears on Google Maps, you can claim it here by clicking "Claim this business" in the business information panel.

Website and Content

Optimizing Keywords

Use google keyword planner or another keyword research tool like word stream keyword research tool to look for local and niche keywords with low keyword difficulty and write well-written pieces of content incorporating those keywords.

Make an initial list of keywords people might search for when looking at your business or services. Google keyword planner will make further suggestions that are sorted by their search volume. That way, you'll know which keywords people are searching for.  Start prefixing those keywords with your location to get localised versions of those keywords. For e.g, if your initial keyword was 'Wedding Florists,' prepending the city before the keyword will get you a list of related local keywords people are searching for in that area. 

Be on the lookout for longer variations of keywords.

Ranking for competitive keywords can be difficult and may require more effort than you can realistically put in as a business owner. A better approach might be to focus on variations of the main keywords related to the main keyword. These variations might have a smaller search volume but are usually easier to rank for and also often drive more refined traffic to your website that are more likely to convert to sales. 

While looking for keywords related to wedding flowers, I came across a related, longer keyword of "dried flower wedding bouquets," which has a decent search volume in the UK of 1500 searches per month. 

If you provide this product, it would be a good idea to make a separate page for this keyword. This would provide you with unique content. Of course, be sure the keyword is mentioned at least once within the context of the page as well as in the page title and some of the headings.

If you don't provide dried flowers for wedding bouquets, now you know there is a demand for them! It's something you may think seriously about adding to your portfolio. 

Keyword research will not only help you write better-optimised content but also give you ideas on what's working in the market and ideas for products and services to add to your business depending on actual demand data.  

Answer The Public

"Answer The Public" is a great free tool to look for different questions people are searching for related to any niche. 

Search for questions related to floristry and flower arrangements to find out what questions potential clients are asking. Looking at the questions people are asking will help you structure content more in line with what people are searching for, increasing your chances of ranking on google. 

A simple search for wedding florists will chart out the question nodes with their overall search query. This gives you insight into the types of questions your potential clients are asking. Try to answer these questions with your website content to maximise visibility.

If most of your floral services are offered locally, try to answer questions about the location. Looking for the questions for wedding florist Newcastle reveals a different set of questions that people are asking in the area and will be easier to rank for than general search queries. 

If you write concise answers to these questions, google might feature your content in its question-and-answer snippet. Getting featured in the google answer box can do wonders for your visibility as people get a direct channel to your website!

Get your business listed in Local and Niche Directories

People use directories to find what they are looking for. So if someone is looking for a florist to cover a wedding or a birthday, a quick google search might lead them to a directory site listing relevant businesses and services in the area. 

The two types of directories that work within Google searches are divided into two types: local and niche.

Niche

Niche directories focus on a specific niche and list businesses relevant to that niche. So a niche directory will list all different types of subcategories in floristry and have a sublist of florists in their directory. 

They can be great for finding other people in the industry! Plus, having a link back to your website from a niche directory can be very valuable from an SEO perspective.

Here is an example of a niche directory and how to get a listing:

Here is a list of niche directories within the floristry industry we've compiled

Local

Local directories turn up when we search for businesses or services prefixed with 'near me' or the name of a city. Local directories feature businesses based in a local area, like a town or a city. 

They can be a direct source of business as people search for a service or a product near them. You'll have to search a bit to find local directories for your area. Here is an example of one and how to get a listing. 

Utilizing Review Sites 

Review sites will add reliability and trust to your business as well as increase visibility since review site search results often turn up above other searches.

To get started, make an account on review websites like trust pilot and Yelp.

Trust pilot is more about reviews and ratings, while Yelp is more of a local directory. 

Foursquare is a more localised alternative to Yelp, focusing more on providing reviews and tips about businesses in a particular region. Getting a listing on Foursquare is more difficult but arguably provides more benefit especially if geography has more significance on your business. 

Keep in mind that review and rating sites can be a double-edged sword. The significance of customer satisfaction is magnified and you have to keep a look out for fake reviews from a competitor or a biased customer. Online reputation management is critical, and review/rating sites are important tools. 

Social Media Presence

Flowers are beautiful and eye-catching, so sharing as many great pictures as possible of the ones you sell will not only bring in more customers but will also allow your customers to see a sample of the flowers you have in stock.

Another advantage of sharing photos is that your overall business will be indirectly promoted, which is why many people believe "a picture is worth a thousand words."

The more pictures you post of your flowers, the more people will be interested in ordering some for their special occasions.

Take advantage of special occasions

Holidays such as Valentine's Day, New Year's, and Christmas can be a huge catapult to your social marketing. Try doing special tips for decor and arrangements, and pay attention to the trending social media tags and traffic around that holiday. 

Reward your followers

Consider giving special discounts and giveaways to your followers on social media to incentivise them to keep following you. You could hold competitions where your customers share final floral arrangements as part of their decor and give the winner (the one that gets the most shares or likes) special rewards. 

When your website is fully launched, don't forget to integrate it with your social media platforms by adding some links to the handles, as well as social share buttons, so that your audience can share your content with their friends and family.

Keep a lookout for hashtags and trends related to floristry and contribute what you can. 

Hashtags on Instagram and Facebook

This point is almost a cliche, but still, it's relevant. As a business, your brand name must keep popping up in front of your audience and potential clients. 

Posting regularly ensures that you keep connected with people already following you and increases your chances of gaining a new following. 

Fortunately, floristry provides plenty of opportunities for engaging content that piques people's interest. Even if you don't have the resources to create original content right now, sharing engaging content freely available in the industry on your social pages can also have its benefits. 

Run social media ads to increase your audience

Sponsored posts or page promotions are a great way to inject a fresh audience into your pages. Make sure you have a lot of attractive, engaging content on your pages before you run the ad to maximise their benefit.

Join Floristry-Related Groups and Communities 

Search for groups on Facebook about wedding decor or other groups where your knowledge of flower arrangement and floristry can come in handy. 

Groups can be a great source for highlighting your brand through establishing your authority in the industry, but also a direct source of business as people frequently turn to groups to ask for services they are looking for—especially for event floristry. 

Networking is also an important skill for successful business owners, and the internet provides a plethora of opportunities to network with other entrepreneurs and potential clients. You can easily find floristry-related communities, such as on Facebook, LinkedIn, and online forums (like Team Flower!).

Straight-out promoting your business in a spammy manner on online communities will likely irritate people. Instead, subtly promoting your business by including a link to your website in your signature or mentioning it only when appropriate is a more effective approach. It is also critical to actively participate, contribute, and establish rapport with the community.

Questions and Answer Websites

Question and answer websites are a great place to showcase your expertise and your work.

Look for people asking questions about floristry or looking for information regarding the products and services you offer. You can also answer general questions about floristry or floral arrangements to establish yourself as an expert. 

Here are some of the top question-and-answer websites you can make an account on and search for questions relevant to floristry. 

• www.quora.com

• www.reddit.com

• www.theanswerbank.com

• www.airtract.com

• www.justanswer.com

• www.ehow.com

• www.answers.yahoo.com

Image Sharing and Hosting Sites

Flowers are beautiful, and everyone appreciates a lovely photo capturing their beauty. Sharing your photos on image-sharing and hosting sites can offer a great opportunity to increase your brand's visibility.

Start by creating profiles on image-sharing hosting websites. Share free images you are not using on your website and put them up for free. (As a note, if you did not take the photos, you MUST have permission from the photographer to make them available for free.) Building up these profiles will help highlight your business to a new audience. These profiles can even get you free backlinks from high-authority domains, which are great for increasing search engine visibility. 

List of image hosting sites:

• Imgur 

• Flickr

• PhotoBucket

• Unsplash

• pixabay

• 500px

• Pinterest

• Tumblr

• 1x.com

Hosting Events

Online presence requires content, and coming up with ideas for content regularly is not easy, so you can't be passive. You have to create your news! Holding events, workshops, and get-togethers allows an opportunity to create content that other publishers online will be interested in. 

Create a Business Blog

A business blog is a frequently overlooked digital marketing strategy, despite being one of the most effective. Blogging can benefit your business in various ways, including increasing traffic to your website and SEO, connecting with your audiences, and establishing your brand as a thought leader.

It is critical in business blogging to update your blog as frequently as possible. A dormant or inconsistently managed blog is worth less than a consistent one. SEO and content relevancy are also important factors in running a successful blog.

Compose Press Releases

Write a press release and distribute it online whenever your company does something noteworthy, such as organising a local event or partnering with a new venture. A press release is an effective tool for generating publicity and improving your online reputation and SEO ranking. Several websites offer free press release distribution, such as PR.com, PR Log, and Press Release Point.

Consider Paid Ads 

Search Ads are highly targeted and pay-per-click. That means that they appear only to people who are searching for your product or services, and you only get charged when some click on your ad. 

These attributes make search ads a great option to increase your sales. The most important thing to consider while running search ads is knowing your audience and the type of ads you want to run. 

There are countless agencies online that will help your set up your search ads in a more optimised manner, but if you want to start small and try your hand, many search ad platforms have quick start guides and easy-to-set-up beginner modes that use machine learning to set up ad campaigns for you quickly. 

Research Your Online Competitors

Conduct some market research. Perform a Google search for competitors and other businesses in your area, browse their websites, and add a product to your shopping cart. Is there anything, in particular, you like about the design? Is there any floral service or product you provide that they do not? This is your chance to find a way to provide a unique service or product that your competitors aren't offering.

Looking at your competitors can allow for insights into what your competitors have been doing and which strategies and tactics have been successful. Looking at the top performers, learn from what they are doing. 

As a flower retailer keeping an eye on your competitor's price points and getting up-to-date information on floral trends are vital. Be on the lookout for what's working in the floral scene. Look at wholesale flowers and bouquets online and their price points and popularity to get ideas for what you can do. 

These are general guidelines that, if kept up, will increase your online visibility showcasing your products, skills, and business to a larger audience and eventually increasing sales. 

You may be missing out on valuable business and essential avenues of growth by not focusing on your digital visibility. The return is by far worth the little effort takes to develop your online visibility!

Floral design by Kelly Perry of Team Flower. Photography by Almond Leaf Studios.