business matters
use them. Therefore you need to show customers why you are better than your nearest rival. One of the best and cheapest ways is to offer yourself as a speaker or demonstrator at local groups. These could be anyone from the WI to your local Rotary Club. You could even try contacting
the social clubs of large companies in your area, local schools or churches. If you want to do something on a grander scale you could join forces with other suppliers to put on your own show. This starts getting more expensive but is good for special occasions like Christmas.
In-store promotions Your shop is one of your best adverts but you need to use it to the full. Open evenings or show days are not new but well worth the effort and obviously it’s cheaper to use your premises than hire somewhere else. But just putting a poster in the window won’t work as well as if you back it up with adverts and/ or leaflet drops so needs careful preparation.
Public relations The cheapest form of publicity… if it works! PR is incredibly hard and journalists are assailed by professional PR people punting a good story. It is very time consuming if you do it properly, there are absolutely no guarantees your story will run and the media are always on the lookout for the next new thing or person so any success you have may not be repeated so don’t count on PR as the only solution. Always make sure the story
is interesting, has a local feel and has potential for a photograph. The sort of things that particularly appeal are if you’ve won a competition, are
making a presentation on behalf of a charity, or involved in an interesting project – for example the Lonely Bouquet. And before you even start
sending in releases you need to schmoose the media and know you’re talking to the right people. Which means researching the right people at the paper, radio station etc… not just sending in a scratty bit of paper, full of typos and then getting cross it didn’t run. Take the Features Editor out
to lunch, hold a press evening where you run a dem and make sure they’ve a decent goodie bag to take away. Offer to give flowers away to the best letter of the week, run a competition to provide flowers for a wedding (set a financial limit!) or suggest a Reader’s Day in your shop to have a go themselves (assuming it’s big enough otherwise hire a hall).
Sponsorship Used properly sponsorship can be a valuable and economic way of getting your name out there. However make sure it really does give you a return on investment (ROI) and isn’t just a way of organisers getting something for free. Don’t be afraid to be tough
about what you expect in return – the days of giving everything away are long gone. Always insist that your name, address and telephone number are included in any promotional literature and a credit at the function. One way is to offer flowers and
plants as prizes – it looks a lot for relatively little outlay; maybe a bouquet every month for a year or four planted bowls to tie in with the seasons. Alternatively you could sponsor competitions in the local paper or radio station or perhaps work with schools and colleges in your area.
Think carefully about what stunts you do. Dressing up as vicars and tarts at Valentines may seem like a good idea but can seriously backfire. Gentlemen delivering in tuxedos might be far more suitable.
However always monitor the
results and see if spending a bigger amount on one project (such as sponsoring a whole event like a wedding fair) could get you to a bigger market with greater returns.
Stunts Be really careful of stunts. One or two a year is fun; any more than that and you could end up with people not taking you seriously. Remember you are a bespoke florist not a comedy act.
F&wb Autumn/Winter 2013
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