Ordering directly from a "real" local florist

[marie g bushnell]

In the past couple of months I've had three people call me for flowers for local deliveries. All three told me they checked my web site to make sure I was a "real" local florist delivering to Warminster and Ivyland. They also saw some other web sites of florists or OG's that delivered all over the USA. I explained that they just gather orders and charge for that and call a florist to take the order.
They also said they do not like what they have gotten from, you know , the "Big" Wire services. Not many flowers in the container, skimpy. They wanted a "real" local florist, and I told them, they found one.

I think people are becoming more aware of the unregulated mess of ordering "on Line". Too many scams, too many over charges. I do get orders from FSN "on line", but not many. Most of my calls, come directly over the phone, looking at my web site.

 

[mikec]

We have a small Google Adword campaign and I include this line "Local,Real, Real Local". I wish I could increase the budget because it seems to be working better than a more "standard" message, interms of clicks.

And yes, We receive similar comments about our website being "different" from most of the others here in Asheville from people.

Its all good news and good trending. Just wish it was trendiing a little quicker.

 

[JoycesFlowersKC]

I completely agree that people are catching on. Slowly, but surely. I get a handful of people every month that ask EXACTLY where I am located, and ask how far I am away from the delivery address. Online, on anything and everything, I put pictures of my shop, my delivery van and me. That way people can see...hopefully!...that I am a honest to goodness B&M...and hopefully see that I am not a fuddy duddy, lace and doiley florist, as sometimes I think my name implies. )
Social networking also helps...though I don't do a ton, I remember a few years ago I put a big blurb on my personal Myspace page about 800flowers....and the response I got from my friends was amazing...not a single of them knew. But they all passed it on.

 

[lori042499]

As wth most things, people very rarely weigh out the cost of things until they are forced to...The economy has forced almost everyone to look more closely at what they are paying for...People are looking more closely at bank charges, interest rates, billing cycles, shipping charges and questioning it all...Sad to say that maybe the economic crash will do two things, thin out the herd a bit and get rid of non-viable competition(read as florists who shouldn't really be in business anyway) and make people more aware of what they are paying for and value what they are buying( that can only help the remainder of us)...It may be good times for those of us who make it through, with people valuing what we do and the service and honest prices and marketing we offer, but only if we let them know...but not jam it down their throats...

 

[CHR]

A couple weeks ago two young guys (late 20's) came into our shop and were in need of an arrangement for their trade show booth. They carried in their own container and we made the design while they waited.

I asked how they found our shop. They said they'd tried using their smart phones but kept getting call centers instead of local florists. They finally went to the hotel guest services staff, who referred them to us.

One of the guys recounted how challenging it had been to find a local florist to send flowers to family members in rural northeast PA area. He did not want to use a 'national company' and finally remember the name of a local florist in the area, so he looked for their info on a search engine.

He explained, "Even then I had to go through a national company because the web site was run by one and it was just their same stuff. I remember them doing much more interesting arrangements."

These guys are techies (software and gaming developers) so they want to order online for convenience and info tracking. I realize they're not like every consumer, but how many younger shoppers think florists are all the same (since we look so much alike, be it local or dOGs). In their minds, they might as well just take the 20% off discounts offered by national companies, especially if they only have the same product choices.

 

[LJVF]

We have a small Google Adword campaign and I include this line "Local,Real, Real Local". I wish I could increase the budget because it seems to be working better than a more "standard" message, interms of clicks.

And yes, We receive similar comments about our website being "different" from most of the others here in Asheville from people.

Its all good news and good trending. Just wish it was trendiing a little quicker.

Each area may generate different results, but I've tried the "real local" experiment with adwords for about a year. I found through analytics that it was my worst performing ad. I don't know why it didn't perform well, perhaps the word "local" made it too cluttered? My best perfomers were the ones that were straight and to the point. But again, my demographic may be different than yours.

I made a couple of screen shots for Asheville NC Florist and what I found was typical for most cities, the majority can be perceived that they are a local florist. Many actually use the word "local" like you do: