Most FloristWare users want to take advantage of the advanced e-mail marketing features contained in the software. Unfortunately in order to take advantage of these features you first need to have customer e-mail addresses on file.

So, the process of e-mail marketing typically begins with the process of collecting e-mail addresses. This is something that is usually best done on an ongoing basis - each time you make a sale or take an order you should be collecting (or confirming) the customer's e-mail address.

I think you always have to look at is a little negotiation. The customer has something you want (the e-mail address) but - given that most people are tight with personal information in general and e-mail addresses in particular - they're reluctant to give it up.

You need to "buy" it from them by giving them something they want. And - of course - you want to pay as little as possible!

All of the ideas above are excellent. Here are the things I can think of, some of which overlap with what has already been said:

1. Points/Incentive Program

If you are running a points/incentive program you can explain that a customer has to share their e-mail address to take part. You can even copy the credit card companies (very good at this kind of thing - it never hurts to copy what works!) and offer something like a "new customer sign-up bonus points" - extra points for customers who are joining the program for the first time and sharing all of the information that you want. The thing I like about points is that they are "cheaper" than a straight up discount and tend to keep the customer involved.

2. Fundraising Program

Same as above - if you have a fundraising program and the customer wants to take part explain that your system requires you to enter their e-mail address for record keeping.

3. Reminder Service

If you offer an electronic reminder service to your customers (reminding them about birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) then present it is a valuable service you are offering them free of charge - once that requires you to collect their e-mail address.

4. Electronic Receipt/Invoice

When dealing with phone orders an electronic receipt/invoice sent to the customer can be very appealing. Not just for the records but to catch any mistakes. Tim Huckabee - a sales trainer I really respect - encourages shops to tell the customers to review the receipt/invoice for potential errors (delivery date, address, card message, spelling of names, etc.) very carefully. It's a great idea and you know what? It works - the customers often catch something!

5. Photograph of Product/Delivery

You can also use photographs to get their e-mail address. You might want to e-mail them photos of products they should consider during the sale process or you could promise to e-mail them photographs of the actual finished product and/or delivery.

6. Delivery Confirmation

Explain that if you have their e-mail address you can automatically send a delivery confirmation once the flowers have been delivered.

Another popular article of interest to all florists is our guide to designing successful fund-raising programs.

It has been updated and is now available in revised form. We hope you find it useful.

This doesn't relate specifically to FloristWare but - since so many of our users (like Adam of Belvedere Flowers) have been using online video to promote their stores - we want to share it.

Guy Kawasaki posted a great article on creating online videos that will enchant your customers. There are some fantastic pointers that anyone who is creating video should keep in mind.

Two things that seemed very relevant (and easily applicable):

Keep It Short
The second thing Jarboe taught me is that the most popular videos are short. According to a study by TubeMogul in December 2008, an average 10.4 percent of viewers click away after ten seconds and 53.6 percent after one minute.

Documentaries are the exception to this rule, but the dataset is clear: make your videos short and sweet.

The reality is that flowers, flower prep, flower design, etc. is of much more interest to florists than to your customers. If you are targeting consumers keep it short - a five minute video on flower prep or the creation of a beautiful arrangement may interest your fellow designers but it probably won't grab your customers.

Also:

Education: Educational videos show how to do things and use products. Example: how to fold a t-shirt in two seconds.

This seems like a great opportunity for florists that want to create a short video - you could demonstrate how to cut stems and arrange flowers in a vase. This would also give you a chance to showcase the quality of your product and packaging and, possibly, subtly point how much better it compares to direct-shipped product.

We talk a lot about the power of the Fundraising feature. We really believe in it - many of our clients use it very successfully and we'd like to see still more benefiting from it.

This article "Investing in Your Community Will Boost Your Sales" on the American Express OPEN site contains some great and very relevant information.

If you are already using the Fundraising feature in FloristWare should give you some tips for maximizing results. If you aren't yet using the Fundraising feature we hope that this article encourages you to give it a try.

There is a very good article on the Inc. magazine website about buying radio advertising at a discount. Radio often works very well for local businesses and I know a few florists that have used it very successfully.

The most important thing about referrals is the timing - asking when you have just blown the customer away with service, product, etc. That is when they will be most excited and feel the most obligated.

Are you using the FloristWare follow-up feature? This could be the place to work it in. When you follow up with a customer or recipient and they say you guys are great you ask them right then - they just volunteered how great you are and they are almost obligated to provide something just to appear consistent. You can also offer a credit, bonus points, etc. at that point without looking like you are buying testimonials.

Lately it's been great to see so many users preparing for the busy season with the marketing features in FloristWare. We have had a lot of inquiries and traffic on our new support site about generating customer lists for email campaigns and physical mailings.

We often get included in the emailings. We love to see what the users are up to but it can be surprising to see how often florists lead with price. Price can be a powerful motivator but please don't cheapen what you do. There are other vendors out there that can always be cheaper but they will never be able to match the quality and service provided by a real local florist.

The MarketingProfs.com website has a great article on the downside of leading with price. Please take a look.

There is a very good article on the Amex Open site called How to Take Advantage of the Holiday Sales Frenzy.

Points two and four offer great tips for users who plan on taking advantage of some of the marketing features in FloristWare to maximize holiday sales.

Please think about number four first:

4. Offer an anti-frenzy experience.
One thing that online retailers are pushing hard right now is the idea that you can shop from the comfort of your own couch and simply choose the products you want...

How do you take advantage of this? Any advertising you do for the holidays should stress convenience. You don't have to sell on price right now. Instead reinforce that the customer can take care of their Christmas shopping with a simple phone call or visit to your website.

Number two is also relevant:

2. Use more limited time offers.
Thanks to all the other retail offers in the market right now, people are more willing to see and respond to offers with a deadline. Deadlines can also help to create urgency for your offers. This doesn’t mean you need to be a dictator about sticking to the timing, but using the idea of limited time promotions may be more likely to work now.

When you are pushing the convenience of your service also stress that time is precious! Yes, you can take care of the customer but you need to do it now because you won't be able to take any more deliveries after December XX. Don't make it too easy on them by promising you can take orders right up until the last minute. Reinforce that your service is valuable and in demand - something that they need to take advantage of immediately.

Good luck!

Christmas is fast approaching and we're seeing many users take advantage of the marketing features in FloristWare to e-mail their customers. E-Mail marketing is a powerful tool and we are happy to see our clients using it.

Many retailers ramp up the frequency of their e-mail marketing efforts during peak buying periods. It makes sense - customers are looking to buy and are probably going to be more receptive to your offers.

Be careful though - it is possible to send too often. Remember - if someone feels they are getting spammed and asks you to remove them from your list now you won't be able to e-mail them for Valentines.

Keep a close eye on the unsubscribes for each campaign. If you e-mail your customers regularly your list should be fairly stable - you should not be seeing a lot of unsubscribes. If you start to see the number go up as you increase the frequency you probably need to back off a little.

Pay close attention to the content too. Don't just focus on "buy, buy, buy". Focus on the value you offer - specifically the convenience (don't focus on low prices alone).

More Information: Four Tips for Successful Holiday Email Campaigns from MarketingProfs.com

Ever since we introduced website integration in FloristWare v3 (the ability to retrieve orders from your website into FloristWare) we have learned more about our users and their websites.

One pattern we see involves multiple domain names. We see that many florists have - over the years - purchased and used multiple domain names. This can be a good thing but it can also create problems - specifically when florists lose track of them, let them expire, fail to redirect them, etc.

This article from the MarketingProfs.com website explains why keeping track of your domains is so important and makes some excellent suggestions on how to best go about it.

We often hear from users that want to use the marketing features in FloristWare to promote special in-store events. There is a great article on the AMEX Open forum on this very topic and we encourage you to check it out.

FloristWare can really help you with step 1 (Start early and go viral). The marketing features make it quick, easy and free to notify your customers about the event.

FloristWare can also help with step 2 (Call a charity). The fundraising feature is an ideal way to get a charity interested in partnering with you.

One idea that we have seen used really well for step 6 (Offer a game) is a "name the flower" contest. There are lots of varieties most people have seen. One shop had a few different arrangements featuring some less common varieties and they went home with the people that could identify the contents.

Good luck and have fun!

We heard from a few FloristWare users today who were looking to send one more e-mail blast prior to Christmas.

This is a great idea. Until recently many shoppers seemed to believe they had more time to shop than they actually did. Now they realize time is running out and they are starting to panic. This is the ideal time to catch them - you can make all their shopping problems go away with a quick phone call.

But there isn't much time. You will need to get the message out asap. At this point - two days before Christmas - that means e-mail.

Fortunately FloristWare has great tools for creating lists of customers and then sending them marketing e-mails. And, in a situation like this, there are some advanced features that can really help. For example:

1. When you create your list consider excluding people who have already purchased in the last week or so. If they have purchased that recently there is a good chance they already bought something from you for Christmas and you don't want to risk alienating them by seeming greedy.

2. Look for customers that are flagged as being interested in Christian holidays - there is a feature for this.

When it comes time to write the content there are some great e-mail marketing tips here. This section in particular is very good:

Instead of pitching an blatant sales message you use a gentle tone so the email marketing message reads like a customer service-oriented message.

Don't go with a "Buy! Buy! Buy!" approach. Instead explain that you are ready and able to help make their last-minute shopping problems go away!

Good luck.

Some of our favorite users create short video clips that they then post online to help promote their stores. The article 5 Sixty Second Video Ideas to Help Sell Your Business from the Amex OPEN Forum offers some great points that will help anyone who is thinking about trying this.

There is a great article on the Business News Daily Site about Search Engine Marketing and how it is vital for brick-and-mortar businesses.

When you are looking ahead to 2011 please give some thought to taking some (or maybe most) of the budget that you used to direct to more traditional forms of marketing (like telephone directories, print advertising, etc) and exploring some of these newer options.

There is a great article on the Amex OPEN site called 7 Key Lessons Super Bowl Ads Can Teach Small Business Owners.

All the points are good but two really resonated for us:

1. Don’t Risk Everything At Once
In small business marketing, it is far safer and more effective to spread your bets by testing many different marketing methods... For your small business, it is far more effective to take patient interim steps. After your company has learned what works and doesn’t work in your marketing campaign, plot the next step. With limited capital, small businesses can’t afford the risk of a “one and done” strategy.

Florists frequently commit a huge portion of their annual marketing budgets to telephone directories. The payments are typically spread out over a year and often leave little left over for other marketing efforts. Directories are great but it may be worth considering devoting a little less to a single year-long effort so that you can stay agile and explore some different opportunities.

2. Track How The Marketing Tactic Performed
Most companies have a variety of things they do to promote their business. Spending money on marketing is worthless unless your business knows what worked and what did not work. It is essential to get feedback on all aspects of your campaign.

FloristWare can help with this one - the AdTracker feature is a powerful marketing tool that monitors the performance of each of your campaigns and even shows you sales generated per dollar invested. It helps you find out what works and what doesn't so you can target your marketing budget where it will provide the greatest returns.

There is a very interesting article on the MarketingProfs website about how referencing your loyalty program in marketing emails can improve performance dramatically.

What does this mean for you? If you are using the points program feature in FloristWare (and we hope that you are) you should reference it in your email campaigns to improve your results.

We just heard from a user in an area with a lot of Scottish customers who shared something he had just tried for the first time. He also gave us permission to share the idea with our other users.

Knowing that Robbie Burns Day (important to people who are interested in Scottish heritage and history) was approaching he searched his customer database for all names that started with "M". He then quickly pared the list down to names that looked Scottish (MacDougal, MacLennan, etc.) manually.

No doubt this left many Scots out (Stewarts, Campbells, etc.) but it was a quick way to do an experiment. He thinks that next year he may start with the full list and select all Scottish sounding names manually.

He then sent these customers an email reminding them about Robbie Burns Day and got some orders as a result. He also received some emails thanking him for the reminder and he believes that even when he did not get an order his email strengthened the bond with the customer.

I wish we could have got this one to you sooner but we only just heard. Please mark this in your calendar for next year!

PS Burns Day is January 25 each year.