business matters
Advertising... the options
Local papers The odd one-off advert is invariably a waste of time unless you’re taking part in a specific feature or running a special promotion. ‘Little and often’ is best if you’re going to run straight press ads so try to negotiate a good discount. If you’ve got a good advert
don’t change it but equally don’t run it to death. Try to develop a series of three or four different ads with the same running slogan or typeface and mix them around week by week.
Local radio With more and more commercial stations in the marketplace the costs are getting more realistic and radio is a valuable way of reaching younger buyers who do not buy local papers. Short 10-20 second bursts are long enough to
get the basic message across. Alternatively offer to do a talk…
as long as you use evocative words you can still get the message across. But make sure you take some samples in so the person interviewing you knows what you are talking about too!
Cinema With an increase in attendance the cinema is once again a good advertising medium. They usually have a standard set of adverts which can have a special voiceover or wording overlaid but do check what they look like as some of them appear to be out of the ark. Often a single still shot with a good voice over will work better than an advert from the 70’s tarted up.
Newsagents window You may think these are best for selling bikes and prams but people love reading the small ads so it’s a very cost effective way of spreading the word. Have a local studio prepare you an
eye-catching postcard that really stands out.
Church and community
association newsletters Whilst they have a limited appeal, they might be worth considering if the church has a large congregation.
Direct mail Direct mail is the third most important way of selling these days. It is an ideal selling medium if you want to reach a targeted market so should be used to the full. We cover it in full on page 68 but the key rule is make sure you have a clean database – there is nothing worse than sending out information to badly addressed recipients or dead people… that can seriously backfire especially if you did the funeral flowers!
Leaflets Leaflets can be created relatively cheaply and distributed either by hand, with local newspapers or used for repeat sales promotions to your existing customer base. Always put a call to action on them… a % off, % more or free gift... as that way you encourage people to come to you and you can monitor the results.
Street walkers It may sound silly but people doing odd things in the street get noticed! You could either employ a ‘sandwich man’ or ‘personality people’ to hand out leaflets and/ or free flowers with a ‘selling’ tag attached to encourage people to come and see your shop.
Make sure you know what type of customer you are after. If you want young trendies then the church magazine probably won’t be the answer whereas the cinema might.
56 F&wb Autumn/Winter 2013
Demonstrations At the end of the day you are selling not just flowers and plants but the skill with which you can
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