Samantha's Story "The Tale of the Florist" | OnlineKix Digital Marketing

The "Blooming Biz Breakthrough"

How floral designer Samantha turned her business around and exploded her monthly sales using clever digital marketing strategies.

Part 1: 
The Best little "Failing" Floral Designer I've ever used.

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This is Samantha.

(a cartoon version of her anyway)

Samantha is an amazingly talented floral designer that I met a few years ago when I happened onto her Instagram when I was on the hunt for a special touch for an upcoming event.

As I scrolled through her feed, each image spoke of craftsmanship and care, the kind you can't find in those mass-produced arranged offered by big-name online flower services.

I longed for something more unique. Something that would arrive fresh and beautiful. I didn't want to risk it arriving nearly dead or half as full as it was illustrated on the website store page. And I really wanted a touch of local charm. But I really couldn't tell from a little online research if I was going to like what I would actually receive.

"Oh well" I thought... 

Determined to support a small business and optimistic I would experience the luxury of personalized service, I reached out to Samantha to discuss my vision.



"HOLY COW"

Our conversation flowed effortlessly, and we instantly had a heartfelt connection. It's like she knew exactly what I wanted (but couldn't actually describe myself).

Samantha's enthusiasm for her craft was palpable, and her commitment to sourcing the freshest blooms from local growers resonated deeply with me.


Being a marketer and lover of all things entrepreneurial, I couldn't help but inquire about her business journey as we discussed my floral needs.

With a mixture of pride and vulnerability, Samantha shared her story with me. 


She told me that she had started her business about 8 months ago and while she had gained some very loyal customers over the past months, she also had made a grave error. 


With a mixture of pride and vulnerability she shared that she hadn't correctly accounted for all the competition in the area and she was having a terrible time getting the word out to get people that just needed to try her service for the the first time.


Despite her undeniable talent and unwavering dedication, she faced the harsh reality of running a small business in a competitive market. Inconsistent orders and bookings for wedding events, and the looming shadow of big online floral giants cast a shadow over her dreams of success.

She was nearly in tears as our 10 minute convo was wrapping up. She told me she was afraid she wasn't going to make it and that she felt her dream slipping from her hands.


Moved by her sincerity, I knew I had to do something to support her blossoming business.

I told her that I had to get to a meeting and asked if we could set some time to chat about navigating the challenges she faced. She agreed to meet me at 9 the next day and went onto my meeting.

Over the next few hours, I felt myself get more and more excited. This florist service was amazing. It just needed a little marketing push and I knew exactly what that push was because I'd helped lots of businesses like Samantha's before.

Part 2: 
The clever "Google Reviews to Growth" strategy that we implemented that immediately exploded Samantha's floral business and skyrocketed her weekly flower sales.

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As promised, I Samantha and I reconnected for our chat about her business.


We sat down and I laid out the following digital marketing plan to Samantha and she agreed to give it a shot over the next few weeks.


The Floral Review Explosion Strategy

I wanted to keep things simple for Samantha in the beginning so I recommended a strategy that wouldn't add additional work to her plate. This strategy leveraged the fact that her existing customers loved her and made it easy for those customers to send a ton of new people her way.


For this reason, we decided to focus entirely on getting Google Reviews from her existing customers. 


This would instantly boost her business from several angles.


A) The "Back up what I said" Psychology Trick.
Getting her best 20 customers to leave her a glowing review would open up an easy way for them to think about why they loved her arrangements. Once they put it into words, it would instantly lock them in psychologically to wanting to re-order more often (getting a customer to say out loud and publicly that they recommend a business leads to them to buy more often -- backing up what they had said in their review).

B) The Review on Google "Ranking Boost" Trick.
Those reviews would be posted online instantly. Doing that would send a clear signal to Google that something important was happening at that local business. This would cue the search engine's algorithm to show Samantha's establishment more often when people searched for "Florist".


C) The Review to "Social Media Leverage" Trick.
Once we had those reviews on Google, we could instantly turn them into a social media post on Facebook and Instagram. Posting that kind of content would trigger the "Big Tech" algorithms to show Samantha's profile in the Social Search rankings more often too. Most people don't even realize that Facebook and Instagram are a major place that people "search" for businesses when they are in a new area. Leveraging "review social posts" would lead to a ton of new business once we triggered the algorithms with this new content.


D) The Review "Chain Reaction" Trick.
The customers that came in from those early wins would in turn be asked to review Samantha's floristry service themselves. This would trigger a chain reaction that would continue to grow exponentially.



The Step-by-Step Floral Review Explosion Strategy

The trick to all of this was to make it incredibly simple for Samantha to ask for a review and for people to give her a review without having to jump through too many hoops (this is where a lot of florists miss the boat).

So... 
How did we make it easy for people to leave reviews for Samantha's floral service?


This is how it would work...


  • Step 1: 
    We create something called a "NFC Business Card". This is a special kind of business card that can be scanned with a phone's camera or hovered above a phone -- and in turn will lead people directly to the page where they can leave her a review on Google.

  • Step 2:
    We give Samantha and all of her staff one of these cards to have on hand for opportune moments. Every time a customer has a noticeably good experience or reaction at flower delivery/pickup, they will ask the customer "hey, do you have your phone on you?" They'll say "yes". Then Samantha or her staff would say "would you mind giving us a review online?".

  • Step 3:
    When the customers agree to give the review, the floral staff pull out the cards and have the customer hold the top of their phone near it. 

  • Step 4:
    This face to face interaction works better than giving the customers a website to go to later on the receipt or a business card.  We put the link right on their phone while they are still in front of us. This nudges them to give the review right there on the spot.

  • Step 5:
    After the review is published on Google, we also send an email to Samantha with a draft owner's response that she can approve from her phone or edit before publishing. This is a little-known ranking secret signal that Google looks for in reputable businesses, and it's an "Owner Trust Signal" that potential customers look for as well.

  • Step 6:
    Because we have a flood of positive reviews coming from our best and most satisfied customers every single day (because we never stop proactively using the card and leading them to the Google Review page instantly), we see a huge boost in online ranking activity on both Google and social media.

Part 3: 
The Results for Samantha's Floral Sales

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Within a few week's of Samantha implementing the NFC Business cards, she started to see traffic pick up from her existing customers re-ordering more often (and bringing more friends and family when they did).


Within four week's the Google and Social algorithm changes started to take effect and lots of new faces started to reach out. 


As Samantha and her now growing staff repeated the NFC Business Card technique, her 4 and 5 star reviews started to explode, which compounded on top of each other. 


Within a few months, Samantha's floral business was off to the races and it's been thriving ever since.

Part 4: 
Do you have a Floral Company that you'd like to grow faster and want to use our "NFC Business Card" trick starting as soon as next week?

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My team and I love helping businesses grow and we specialize in Floral marketing.


The Best Part?

You can get started with your own set of NFC Business Cards to use this strategy for around $100. 

Use the contact info below and call or text me or Order Your Cards Here.


We'd be glad to hop on a call and get you set up with your own "Review Cards" to get you the same kind of results that Samantha got.

Lauren Dillon
Owner at OnlineKix

Call or Text me at (888) 417-2305

Learn how we help Floral Businesses add an extra $3-5k in sales every month with our anniversary reminders campaign!