One of the funniest story's I have about this subject: One time I was working in my Pomona Flower Store and a man called. He stated he needed to order funeral flowers for Todds Memorial Funeral Home (the local funeral home) and had been burned by a wire service. He wanted to know FOR SURE that I was a florist that was actually located in Pomona, CA. I stated to him that I was in Pomona, CA and that we delivered to Todd's daily. Again, he asked are you (the man 0n the phone) physically in Pomona, CA. To this I again answered yes, this went on for about five rounds before he was satisfied that I was a local florist and place the funeral flower order.
I tell this story not to make fun of a savvy customer, but to show the frustration that many flower customers have when trying to find a local florist. One that they know will take care of their flowers and make sure they are perfect for what ever occasion.
Below are some of the problems I have with each form of local advertising and the ways I have tried to fix the problem. I will use my Pomona, Ca Flower Shop as an example but I am sure that most florist have the same problem in their town or city.
Yellow Pages - Now many people do not like to advertise in the yellow pages I do not have strong feelings about it either way, but you need to make sure as a local florist you are at least listed in the White Pages and hopefully the somewhere in the yellow pages. You also should call your local information line (411) and pretend to be looking for a local florist in your area. If you are not the person they suggest you need to talk to your local phone carrier to find out what you can do to make sure your the flower shop they suggest.
In my town there is about 4 large flower shops and another 5 smaller flowers shops. When I look up FLORIST in the yellow pages I find FOUR (4) half page ads for large flower order gathers, non of which have an actual shop in Pomona. Three of the four are not florist at all just call centers processing orders, but each ad says something like, "We're your neighborhood florist", "serving all local cities (with a list of the local cities), "local and national flower delivery". All the ads are written to trick the customer into ordering from them, and when you go to all of these websites their best deals are SHIPPED flowers. So many of these orders never make it to the local florist. One way to help this is to place your own ad and DEMAND that the yellow pages place your ad first because you are a local florist, also make sure you state in your ad that you are a local florist. Lastly, many of these ads are ran by large order gathers or wire services...If you cant beat them join them. I have contact each of the advertisers in our local yellow pages under florist and seen to it that I am their florist of choice and one of the wire service agreed not to place an ad next year if I put their logo in my ad and send all of my wire outs through their service.
Radio and TV - Many local florist don't advertise on the radio or TV. Many florist don't think they can afford it but in reality this is one of the cheapest places to advertise. If they ran ads on the local radio and local TV then people would know they were local. The best way to advertise on local cable is through a website called www.Spotrunner.com
Spotrunner will produce your florist commercial for about $500.00 and you can run it for as little as $4.00 each time it runs. Prices vary per market but this is the cheapest way to advertise your flower shop on cable. Radio stations are even easier, if you call the sales manager for your local radio station, they will most likely be willing to trade your flowers for air time. They will also produce the commercial for you.Internet - This is the worst!!! When you type in Pomona Florist a local florist does not show up until the THIRD PAGE! None of the sponsored listings are local florist and all of the search results are of florist directories or large companies that have special web pages for each us city that make the customer think they are ordering from a Pomona florist. One reason the local florist are not ranked, is because all of the Pomona flower shops (and most florist in the United State) that have a web site (besides mine) are from one of the two wire services (FTD or Teleflora). Florist pay a monthly fee for a generic websites that will NEVER show up online, because then are not full of original content. When the florist buy these generic websites FTD and Teleflora have complete control and charge for every modification. They don't let the florist sell anything but their items and they make it so your website will not be ranked because if people get to your site without going through them they wont get any money from the order. These websites are just another example of how these companies are just one sided. No support, no real help, just a bill at the end of the Month. Sooo basically, they want you to pay for a website then pay to process the orders, to sell their products..and the funny part is thousand of florist fall for this TRICK. Making these companies millions of Dollars a day!!!
The most "helpful" sites that are listed under Pomona Florist (or your town just check) are the "Floral Directory's". These directory's are usually independent companies that have will list the address and information about a local flower shop for a fee. These fees are not cheap, many charge about $300.00 to be listed and the do not provide much information. They also do not provide "links" to your website, which are very important if you intend on ever having your website ranked (I will explain this process later in the blog). These paid Directory's are a great way to drive business to your local flower shop but there are lot of them so you need to make sure you only advertise in ones that are going to truly drive business.
Things to look for before advertising on at Florist Directory:
1) Is the Directory getting traffic? You can check how many people are visiting a site everyday by going to http://www.Alexa.com This website is owned by Amazon.com but it will show you how many people have visited the site of the next two years. It was also show you the owner, how long they will be in business, and much more helpful information.
2) Check to see if the directory is ranked in your city? If you search for Pomona Florist or you flower shops in your city and they don't come up then don't advertise.
3) Lastly, always ask if they can lower there price (you would be surprised how many people will say yes).
Really, what needs to happen is the search engines and the local florist need to come up with a plan to stop this. When someone goes online to find a local florist the search results should come back with local florist. Google has started a website called Google Local http://maps.google.com/ so again if you search for Pomona Florist you will get Local results for Florist near Pomona, CA in that search it shows the name, address, and phone number of local flower shops. All florist should check this and make sure they are listed. If you are not listed or want to be listed first then you need to visit Google's Local Business Center at https://www.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en_US This is a FREE service to all Florist and I STRONGLY SUGGEST that all local florist sign up, your flower shop will be listed for FREE and and florist can do it, it is not difficult.
Well enough for today have to get back to running my flower shop.
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