By Molly Lucille 

In the marketing world, everyone knows faces and voices help sell. Human connection reminds customers that there’s a real person on the other side of a business transaction. In today’s oversaturated digital landscape, putting a face to your brand is more important than ever.  

Customers are inundated with options, and the resulting paralysis of choice plagues every part of our industry. Looking for a wedding florist? Pinterest and Instagram overflow with countless recommendations. Curious about new flower farms or wholesalers? A google search provides dozens of hits. Looking to send a bouquet to a friend in another city? Far too many suggestions become an absolute blur. In the midst of this internet chaos and a market where consumers are increasingly selective with their spending, people are looking for brands they can trust. Buying flowers is an emotional decision—you’re there for the most meaningful moments in their lives. Customers want to know who they’re buying from and to feel that their florist genuinely cares. 

Incorporating your face and personality into your online marketing strategy can be a true game changer. It helps your audience get to know you and your team, building familiarity and trust. If you’re feeling a bit of panic reading that, this article is for you! Putting yourself out there can feel a lot like stage fright—especially if you’re camera-shy or not particularly tech-savvy. But this strategy is far too valuable to let fear hold you back from connecting with your audience. Here are some simple, practical tips to help you overcome those nerves and start standing out amid the online noise. 

Your Presence Is Power 

If showing your face or recording your voice is entirely too intimidating, that’s OK! An easy baby step is to just introduce your presence in your social media marketing. For example, film your hands designing an arrangement, or even a timelapse of you and your team completing an install. We often forget that our clients know very little about “how the sauce is made” and that they’re fascinated by our processes. Showing them your team hard at work can convey your passion and shop personality—in turn, building trust. 

Consistency Is Key 

In the digital world, consistency equals authenticity. While showing your face in your online marketing is a valuable addition to your scheduled content, not every single post needs to include it. Depending on your strategy and schedule, consider adding a weekly “chat,” where you dedicate a single day to filming yourself speaking to your customers. Quick check-ins and reminders of your existence can be so helpful in making customers feel like they know you. Maybe a Monday post celebrating a team member or explaining why you appreciate a certain flower—anything that can help introduce people to your story and your vibe. 

Humanize Your Business With Stories 

As AI proliferates online, customers crave real interactions. What does this mean for your business? A focus on the rawer side of running a flower business, for starters. Previously, a more polished, idealized form of reality was the go-to strategy. But the strategy has shifted—and is predicted to continue to shift. The more “lived in” and “real” your content can feel the better. No more makeup-perfect filters, no more spotlessly clean spaces. What’s hot now is to just be yourself and allow your space to appear the same. You want your clients to feel like they know you, so show them the real you, flaws and all. It can be scary to be that vulnerable, but it’s worth it. Stories are the perfect place to really show this “behind the scenes” magic. Quick, authentic clips on your Instagram story can help you build confidence (since they aren’t part of your permanent feed) and allow you to show real glimpses of yourself without disrupting your feed. Besides, stories have shown for the past few years to be one of the most engaged with platforms on social media, so don’t forget this helpful use of social media! 

From small studio florists to flower farms, wholesalers and retailers, these simple adjustments can elevate your social media marketing strategy—especially in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. It’s easy to forget that buying a bouquet isn’t an everyday occurrence. Many customers purchase flowers only a few times a year, if that, making each interaction deeply emotional and special. Building trust and meaningful relationships with your clients takes time, effort and confidence, but it’s essential as you grow your online presence and dive deeper into social media marketing. So, take a deep breath, stay confident and let your face and personality shine! 

Easy Content to Boost Your Confidence 

Follow this checklist—one step at a time—to get comfortable incorporating your voice and face in your social media posts. 

1. Simply record your hands completing a simple task, such as crafting an arrangement or processing flowers. Or post as a reel with your favorite work song and explain what you like to listen to when you design. 

2. Record a timelapse of you completing a more extensive project, such as a large arrangement, an installation or even pulling a large floral order. Post with a caption describing your thought process while tackling a big project. 

3. Try a voice over! Instagram has an easy voiceover option in the reel, just record a quick video of your favorite flower, or your team’s favorites and add a voiceover explaining why! 

4. Show your face! Record yourself—or you and your team—having fun in your workspace. Don’t be afraid to show your personality, and the synergy of your space and team. Try posting it as a story to help build confidence and then work your way up to a reel. 

5. Begin to schedule regular “check ins” showing your face, and see the conversation unfold. Remember, consistency is key. You’ve got this! 

By Jill Brooke 

Everyone finds their aha moment in unexpected places, and for Brenda LaManna, founder and president of Damselfly Flowers, which is headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., and currently has seven retail “pop-up” stores throughout New York City as well as in Greenwich and Wilton, Conn., it was while reading the book, Borrowing Brilliance: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others by David Kord Murray.

A talented award-winning florist whose credits include designing the Hamilton-inspired design for the Fleurs de Villes event at NYC’s Hudson Yards, LaManna was looking for creative ways to stretch her business in what was clearly becoming a changing environment. After all, supermarkets had been expanding their floral offerings and at discounted prices. The daily grind—and cost—of managing a stand-alone business with rent, utilities, snow removal, etc., were sobering and increasing.

LaManna was open to ideas and was seeking solutions. Just like she researched the most prolific blooming rose or interesting parrot tulip, she wanted to dig deeper into her business model. “While reading the book, I learned that so many successful business models were franchise businesses,” she states. “Multi-locations were the secret.”

And from that moment, the seed was planted to develop pop-up flower shops in several locations. Instead of going with the flower truck concept, which many enterprising florists are using, LaManna wanted to find and create “stores within stores.” She wasn’t going to go to a large chain supermarket. No, LaManna reasoned that it would be better to pursue other similar-sized businesses where they could collectively benefit. 

While visiting her daughter in Connecticut, she often visited a specialty store called Village Market, in Wilton. Being enterprising, and fueled with the knowledge from this book, she suggested a flower partnership. 

“We provide a full-service high-end flower shop,” she says. “We offer something a supermarket does not: customized handheld bouquets designed with European-quality flowers, with their own packaging containing water, to just pop into a vase. That store has 10,000 people who shop there regularly.”

It became such a success six years ago that now she has branched out to six other retail locations, including in Grand Central Terminal, in the heart of New York City; Chelsea Market; Moynihan Train Hall; and Fulton Center. And more are lining up. 

Customers can also ooh and aah over the unique offerings that LaManna strategically makes sure Trader Joe’s doesn’t have so that clients can also “see it, want it, and then we wrap it up.” 

Now, LaManna is quietly but effectively running a major business that is also churning profits and now also comprises Damselfly Designsand Damselfly Direct. With multiple retail locations, the amount of flowers she orders allows her to get better pricing, which then is passed along to customers. 

Paulino Gaspar’s story was very different than LaManna’s. Although in his native country of Mexico, he remembers working on his grandfather’s farm, coming to the United States, he didn’t think of a career in floral design. However, fate had other plans. While bicycling to work, he got hit by a car, putting him in the hospital and rendering him unable to work. To complicate matters, he was the father of a three-year-old daughter, Angelina, and he soon became homeless without steady work. A homeless shelter was not where he wanted to raise his beloved daughter.

“It was a tough time, and I was looking for something to do,” he remembers. A friend was working at a small flower shop in New York, and Gaspar asked him if he could buy some flowers wholesale to resell. He put them in pretty bouquets and literally sold them from a shopping cart that he would wheel around New York City with his daughter in the front shelf of the cart.

As the bouquets sold, he started saving and saving. Although his “pop-up” may have initially been a shopping cart instead of a truck, a “pop-up” business was born, which he named Angelina’s Petals. “[A pop-up] reduces cost,” he says. “You don’t have to pay insurance, utility bills and can just sell flowers and see what customers want.”

In just a few years, Gaspar saved enough money—and generated a loyal clientele—to open his own floral shop, natch, called Angelina’s Petals. He also was impacted by the “pop-up” experience, especially during the pandemic. “I realized that a lot of shops had closed and people were out of work,” he says. “I started asking smaller food markets if they wanted to have a flower section, to split costs and make sales.” 

Now, aside from his brick-and-mortar shop in uptown NYC, he also has a “pop-up” flower shop at The Market @ Mercedes House in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, and he is looking for other places for this model. Al Vora, owner of The Market @ Mercedes House, says that customers like seeing Gaspar’s flowers when they enter the store. “There’s definitely a wow factor, and people like it,” he says. 

“A friend gave me a chance, and now I want to be the person helping others to sell flowers in these markets,” he says. “Flowers are therapy, in many ways.” And they are good for sales, too. 

Vora says the relationship is mutually beneficial. During the pandemic, supermarkets were a refuge and also where customers started buying more flowers as indulgences for themselves. Grocery stores have now evolved to be one-stop shopping experiences. 

“These days, we’re competing not only with the bigger supermarkets but also Target and Walmart,” Vora says. “Having flowers keeps us competitive by offering something special.”

For Vora, choosing someone like Gaspar proves that the design-focused florist is an added bonus for customers. LaManna agrees with this strategy. “The florists at these stores know how to preserve and take care of flowers,” she says. This also makes the flower experience more of a boutique special purchase than at the large supermarkets. 

In fact, at some stores, according to the International Fresh Produce Association (formerly the Produce Marketing Association), cut flowers may account for only “1 percent to 3 percent of total sales, but get a gross margin of 47 percent.” 

FLOWER TRUCKS

Although the demand for “pop-up” flower areas in stores is likely to expand in 2023, the old-fashioned fun pickup truck is still as popular as ever. Not only are they used to develop small businesses but “pop-up” trucks are now rented out, creating another revenue source. In Boise, Idaho, Roni Pladsen, who owns Posy Blue, rents out the flower-filled truck to come to wedding showers, birthday parties or any celebration, to create flower activities. 

Charlotte Hall, managing director of Alexandria, Va.’s Old Town Business association, was a fan of pop-up flower trucks when a main street in 2020 was converted for pedestrians to eat and enjoy activities. She endorsed Lily’s Flower Truck, which is now a fan favorite and was started by Catherine Soltesz in June 2020. Furloughed during the pandemic in the spring of 2020, Soltesz decided to experiment with her passion for flowers and, as she says, “bring happiness to others.” It now has become a popular weekend activity. 

Hall says Lily’s Flower Truck has been a great addition. “We can support pop-up flower trucks, and then, in time, [an owner] may rent a store and become a business in the neighborhood.”

Soltesz has been expanding her business and has purchased a second truck, which travels throughout Washington, D.C.; Maryland; and Virginia. 

“The demand for beautiful flowers continues to grow,” says Ashley Greer, a celebrated floral designer and owner of Atelier Ashley Flowersin Alexandria, Va. “Pop-ups help people get started. But this is a business where consistency and talent prevail. You need both a business and design sense, especially if you are going to produce bigger events, and you must understand your clients and your particular market.”

As Greer and others say, success means also being adaptive to change; otherwise, you become stale and stagnant, especially as more designers enter the marketplace. As Anaïs Nin, the French-born American diarist, novelist and writer of short stories, wrote, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” 

By Tonneli Grutter

On Monday, July 25, 2022, mega influencer Kylie Jenner said the magic words that thousands of florists and small-business owners have been feeling the crushing weight of for months: Make Instagram Instagram Again. Suddenly, users of the popular social media app could breathe a sigh of relief. 

No: It is not in your head.

Yes: Your numbers are down.

In Fact: Even top celebrities are down.

Most Important: It’s not your fault!

In recent months, many celebrated photo-based Instagram accounts have seen major throttling by the app to force more users to create video content. Likewise, users report that their carefully curated feeds, once filled with flowers, friends and family, have now been overrun by random videos unrelated to their interests. Suddenly, creators with 50,000 or more followers were seeing their most beautiful photo posts shown to less than 10 percent of their subscribed audience. This inspired the original author of Jenner’s statement, a 21-year-old L.A. photographer named Tati Bruening—known professionally as @Illumitati—to create the now viral meme urging Instagram’s parent company, Meta, to stop mimicking TikTok’s focus on video-oriented content and to return to prioritizing photos.

The viral meme reads, “MAKE INSTAGRAM INSTAGRAM AGAIN. (stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends. SINCERELY, EVERYONE” It even resulted in a Change.org petition with nearly 300,000 signatures. For some time, users who came to love Instagram as photographers have been grappling to find a similar passion for video, but recently the app began taking things a step further: Instead of showing users the content they follow, newly developed AI would begin to fill an ever-expanding portion of their already ad-saturated feeds with suggested video content to compete with TikTok. The results: Many unhappy users asking themselves and, often, their followers, via Stories, “Is Instagram over?”

In the early days, Instagram gained steam in the floral community as something special that went beyond what current tools of the era such as Yelp and Facebook could offer. Instagram made its name as a photography app where people could share and view square-ratio-cropped images from friends, family and favorite brands. In a revolutionary move and, perhaps, the most vital to its success among florists, the app became an early adopter of hashtag searching, too, which allowed customers to easily look up phrases like #weddingflorist and #flowerwall. The platform opened the door for florists to dive deep into their creative practices, build collaborative relationships, exchange educational content and, most important, showcase the work they always dreamed of creating but could never fully put to words. In short, florists finally had the power to show consumers what they are capable of. Instagram broke down the gates that kept bespoke full-service floristry locked away for the privileged few. It showed consumers across the globe not only what flowers can be but also that there are floral artists waiting to work with them closer than they realized. No longer did customers need a Beverly Hills address to locate floral design teams willing to create the installations of their dreams because Instagram provided the perfect platform. Any florists brave enough to push their creative limits and invest in their portfolios had a chance to shine. At its peak, Instagram was a thriving machine that led to fantastic opportunities for many. It seemed the sky was the limit for those with talent willing to put in the effort.

During the 12 years since Instagram was launched, in October 2010, the app has had mixed success in mimicking other competitors such as Twitter, when it adopted hashtags; YouTube, with long-format IGTV; and Snapchat, when it rolled out Stories. So, it came as no surprise to social media experts when TikTok broke the 1 billion-user benchmark that Meta went into a copycat tailspin. Throughout this struggle for dominance, it is widely believed Instagram began a mission to do the unthinkable: abandon its origin as a friends-plus-photos-based app. Each social media app has its unique vehicle of delivering content; for Instagram, that vehicle has always been photography. Over the years, the app has consistently tried to pressure users to upload video in addition to photos through an ever-changing algorithm, but it cannot change the fact that Instagram without photos is as appealing to its core users as Twitter without the written word and YouTube without video. 

Just one day after Jenner’s now infamous callout to the company using Tati’s meme, Instagram’s top boss, Adam Mosseri, released the following statement: 

“Now, I want to be clear: We’re going to continue to support photos—it’s part of our heritage, you know, I love photos; I know a lot of you out there love photos, too. That said, I need to be honest—I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time. We see this even if we change nothing. We see this even if you look just at chronological feed. If you look at what people share on Instagram, that’s shifting more and more to videos over time. If you look at what people like and consume and view on Instagram, that’s also shifting more and more to video over time, even when we stop changing anything. So, we’re going to have to lean into that shift while continuing to support photos.”

Only time will tell what changes this statement will result in long term, but one thing is clear: Roughly one week later, at the time this article was drafted, we at Florists’ Review are happy to report that we can see you again! Our feed, which was overrun by random videos, is suddenly showing us the work of floral community members that we hold dear.

Would you like to share your thoughts on this story or social media trends? If so, reach out to us on Instagram @florists_review.

By Tonneli Grüetter

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google My Business, Yelp—the growing list of available social media platforms becomes more diverse each year. For many small-business owners, it can be overwhelming to determine where to direct your attention regarding social media strategy. Deciding what to post and which social media platform to share it to can be a lot like staring into space. With such limitless options, decision fatigue is real, but do not let it lead to the fatal error of sharing nothing at all. 

In today’s marketplace, consumers increasingly look to smart devices for leads on where to spend their dollars. There is no guarantee that a great website will be enough to land yourself on the top Google results page for consumers in your region or that your next customer is even using a browser-based web search to make their purchase decisions. Opting out from the world of social media will create a shrinking customer base for your business. Likewise, starting a social media account and then neglecting it by posting erratically, with large gaps of time between activities, can cause potential customers to fear that you are no longer in business or that you are not a reliable source from which to shop. Whether your business caters to a hyper-local customer base or a global clientele, creating a cohesive social media plan is the first step to building a pool of loyal repeat customers. 

STEP 1

Effective social media strategy begins with setting aside the time to create a cohesive plan. I recommend setting aside an entire day to begin if you are starting from scratch or a few hours a week if you are simply reviving accounts that already exist. One of the most important steps is deciding which social media platforms to participate in and become discoverable to new customers on. The apps mentioned at the beginning of this article are the ones I currently recommend for most floral businesses to maintain a presence on. For those looking to do less, I recommend staying active with Google My Business (google.com/business) and Facebook, at the very least.

When determining which accounts are right for your business, it is important to know the type of information that consumers use each app to get.

WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT BELONGS ON EACH APP

• Facebook: Sales-related content, direct links to products, special hours, job postings, design portfolios, events and press

• Instagram: Design portfolios and sales-related content

• Stories (Instagram and Facebook): Press, reshares, special hours, job postings, behind the scenes, design portfolios, events, live streaming, humor and struggles

• TikTok: Design portfolios, behind the scenes, humor and live streaming

• Google My Business: Design portfolios, special hours, health and safety policies and responses to customer reviews

• Yelp: Design portfolios, special hours and responses to customer reviews

STEP 2

Next, create your social pillars. A social pillar, sometimes called a social bucket, is simply the themes by which you want to categorize your work. I recommend starting by identifying six or nine pillars (staying in multiples of three). Beginner examples of what your pillars could be include:

• What’s New 

• What You’re Famous For

• What’s Keeping You Busy

• What’s Coming Soon

• What Makes You Happy

• Sales

STEP 3

Once you have determined your pillars, come up with post subjects that could fit in each category. These can be hyper-specific ideas, like a photography shot list, or they can be broader ideas used as themes that can be executed with more spontaneity. The important thing is to think of each of these pillars as a square in the net you will be using to capture customers. By creating and committing yourself to using the pillar system, you will ensure that you share all your business instead of limiting your content to one type of post. As your social media marketing plan begins to take hold, you may notice that something specific, like photos of thrilled customers with bouquets, performs well, but, in this example, unless your business sells bouquets only, it is important to grow awareness for other products and services you may offer, as well. Tapping into your pillars will help with this. Using the example pillars mentioned in Step 2, I have illustrated three subjects with which you could begin your plan.

STEP 4

After you have named your pillars and decided the type of posts you would like to make, it is time to start building them. In building the perfect posts, determine what your look and voice will be. To keep these consistent, limit the number of people who author social media content for your business. Decide if, in captions, your voice will be playful and use a lot of emojis or if it will be more scientific, focusing on botanical names, for example. Your voice can be whatever feels authentic to you, but be sure to keep it consistent. 

Next, decide what your style of images is. For a beginner, this can be remarkably simple. What will be the glue that makes all your images and videos look like they belong together, regardless of their subject matter. An example of this is a color scheme. You can a) brighten all your photos to appear light and airy, b) stick to a dark and romantic mood via the use of a specific background such as an exposed brick wall, or c) make them brand-consistent by using a specific person or item—such as a custom shop apron—that represents your brand and will be captured in most images and videos. 

STEP 5

Finally, determine where you will be posting your newly planned content and how often. While I recommend keeping as many social media profiles active as possible, it is not necessary to give all the same attention. Here are my suggestions for the ideal frequency to post to each platform.

HOW OFTEN TO UPDATE EACH BUSINESS PROFILE

• Facebook: Up to twice a day

• Instagram: Four or five days a week

• TikTok: Up to three times a day

• Google My Business: No less than once a week

• Yelp: Once a month

To stay on schedule with posting to your targeted apps, I recommend either a) making calendar reminders on your smart device, setting dates up to a month in advance, or b) using a social media scheduling software, which can give you the ability to bulk create posts, tailor them to each social media platform and schedule in advance for auto posting. Before committing to a paid subscription to a social media scheduling software, first try one of the free beginner-level options, to decide if it is right for you. Examples of software options with free services for small businesses include Later (later.com), Buffer (buffer.com) and Hootsuite (hootsuite.com). 

NINE SIMPLE STEPS TO BETTER FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY

1. Start with exceptional flowers. If you want to grow your business by sharing more and better photos of your flowers, you must start with “share-worthy” blooms. Avoid using aging, bruised or otherwise damaged flowers in the foreground of your images. Source flowers that are visually compelling, highly textural and colorful. Seeking out a premium-priced trendy flower to star in each photo is a great tactic to employ when hoping to attract more premium-tier flower sales.

2. Design with photography in mind. Consider what you will be using each photo for and if and where it will be published. What orientation or ratio would you like to shoot in? For platforms such as Google, anything goes, but for others, such as Instagram, a 1:1 square ratio is favored. When attempting to capture a beautiful image, you will do yourself many favors if you first take the time to consider the “canvas” you would like to fill; this begins at the design phase. A great tip is to design your arrangement to be viewed from a single side, balancing well in a square photo frame. After you have documented your work, make a few strategic changes to better suit your floral design to a portrait or landscape orientation.

3. Background matters. While there is no fixed rule discouraging real-life, studio or retail-shop backgrounds behind your floral designs, it is much trickier to ensure your flowers will win the full focus of potential customers if an image feels busy. To avoid visual confusion, take advantage of photo-editing software with a background-blurring feature, but be sure to practice moderation: Turn up background-blur features no higher than 5 points. When possible, opt for a monochromatic background; it will make you flowers pop! Embrace textured city streets washed in gray tones, custom-painted canvas in a contrasting color or even the blue sky with a light background blur. Take it to the next level by investing in a dedicated photo backdrop you can use consistently.

9. Which camera is best? Artists have long held the belief that “The best camera is the one you have,” which is valuable advice, indeed. While it can be tempting to think your photos will only be share-worthy if shot on a fancy camera, the truth is that most smartphone cameras are fully capable of bringing out your best work. If it is in your budget, upgrading to a lightweight mirrorless camera—such as the Sony Alpha, Canon EOS and Panasonic LUMIX series—will ensure that you can consistently capture high-resolution professional-quality images, but it is not necessary to your success. The most important thing is to use the camera you have—and use it more often. Every time you design something beautiful and let it slip away without photographing it, you are losing potential future customers who may be inspired to order your flowers based on that work.

From beginning florists to experienced certified floral designers, we can all benefit from documenting our work more often and improving our floral photography skills along the way.