FloristWare News

We're pleased to sponsor Rick Rivers at the Virginia Professional Florist Association show in Lake Charlottesville, VA this weekend.

Rick and his wife have owned a flower shop for 26 years. Their store is on the cutting edge of social media and they have been using unique marketing strategies for many years. Rick has also has published 3 books about succeeding in the flower business: “Blooming At The Top”, 12 Strategies To Double Your Sales” and “No Fishing in My Pond”.

If can make it to this event be sure to catch Rick's presentation for some great marketing ideas.

PS Thank you to all the hard-working volunteers of the VFPA.

We've had great feedback from the LSFA 2011 convention this past weekend.

We sponsored Rick Rivers' session and were very happy to hear that he had excellent attendance for his main stage presentation. It is always great to see florists taking advantage of business content at shows.

Thanks to all the hardworking people at LSFA for making it all possible.

We are pleased to sponsor Rick Rivers Florist Bootcamp at the Louisiana State Florists' Association Annual Convention and Trade Show this weekend in Lake Charles, LA. If you are at this event be sure to check out Rick's presentation for some terrific marketing ideas.

We have added some new material to our website. This material is in pdf form and is of interest to potential FloristWare users.

We hope that florists considering FloristWare will take a look.

FloristWare is pleased to be sponsoring three business sessions at the Great Lakes Floral Expo in Grand Rapids Michigan this weekend. Details appear below:

Marketing Secrets for Today’s Florist
Friday, March 4, 2011 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Presented by: Rick Rivers and Ryan Freeman
Location: River Overlook AB

This high-energy, information-packed seminar will explore the tough choices floral shops must make in order to stay in business and be profitable in the future. Rick has experienced all the ups and downs in the floral industry, just like every other florist.

Ryan will join Rick and show you how to navigate through all those hidden sales on the social media sites. If Facebook were a nation, it would be in the top three. Millions of people are on various social networking sites; and “today’s” customers want a relationship or a “peer referral” before they make a purchase. So, have your pen ready for all those hidden secrets. Rick and Ryan will show you their “peer referral” program and how to implement it within your sales. They will share the secrets of his tried and true money-making systems and programs that really work, including:

The 3 S's Program: How to pull ahead of your competitors and put them in the rear-view mirror for good.

Top 5 Marketing Segments List: Identifies those who have the money to spend, how to build the lists and how to go after them.

29.6 Percent Return Direct Mail Campaign: How to write effective copy that will get you results in the 15 percent to 20 percent range.

Buy Local Campaign: How to get your customers to buy local.

Holiday Planning (Not Gone Mad) System: How to dramatically increase your sales and profits during the holidays.

Bad Boxed Flowers Campaign: How to educate customers and successfully direct them back to the flower shop.

Marketing in Today’s Climate
Presented by: Rick Rivers
Saturday, March 5, 2011
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: River Overlook AB

In this business session, Rick shares the secrets of staying ahead of the trends and how to get ready to shift the “marketing plan” to adjust to economic conditions. Learn where flower sales have gone and where they are headed. Rick, who has experienced all the ups and downs in the floral industry just like every other florist, is owner of an FTD Top 500 floral shop.

Exploring the Affluent Market
Presented by: Rick Rivers
Sunday March 6, 2011
10:00 AM. – 12:00 Noon
Location: River Overlook AB

The affluent in America are unique, and it takes innovative marketing skills to succeed in selling them. Due to their low-profile living, America’s affluent are not all that easy to target with conventional marketing tactics and strategies. Discover where florists can look to find the people who can afford to buy their products and services. He will also share how to “pull up” those customers who are on the brink of being an affluent “buyer.” The affluent buyers are “right under our noses.”

We are very pleased to announce that Tim Huckabee AIFSE - expert sales trainer and founder of Floral Strategies - will present a special free webinar for our users. The session will focus on increasing your average order value - great information as we head into the busy Valentines period.

This webinar is being sponsored by FloristWare and presented to our users free of charge to thank you for your loyalty and to help get you off to a great start in 2011.

Flower Shop Network has provided FloristWare users with excellent service and an outstanding - and very affordable - way to efficiently relay outgoing orders to high quality shops all over the world. We are grateful for their ongoing commitment to the industry.

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com

FloristWare is proud to be one of the sponsors of the upcoming florist Florist Bootcamp in Boston on November 6th and 7th. We hope that all florists in the area can participate in this session.

Please be advised Bloomlink will be under standard maintenance on September 23, 2010, starting at 10PM and ending at 2AM. Bloomlink and FSI will be unavailable during this time. This means that you will not be able to send or receive BloomNet messages through FloristWare or Bloomlink during this period.

After a lot of research we have selected three different print/mail service providers that have proven to provide excellent quality, service and value.

In the months ahead we will be making enhancements to FloristWare that will make it easier for our users to send print jobs and mailing lists to these providers but you should check them out now - they are already offering some great solutions.