Planning Guide VALENTINE’S DAY 2021
Happy Valentine’s Day FTD appreciates everything you do to create gorgeous bouquets and floral arrangements for your customers. This Valentine’s Day, thousands upon thousands of orders will be sent through the Mercury Network to talented FTD Florists like you, who will brighten your customers’ days with beautiful arrangements. To help make your Valentine’s Day as successful as possible, we put together this planning guide with best practices, tips to help you attract more orders, and tools to help you market your shop. Because Together We Grow. We wish you a successful Valentine’s Day and thank you for your partnership.
CO NTE NT S 3 PROJECTED BEST SELLERS
Executive Vice President, Florist
4 VALENTINE’S DAY CHECKLIST 5 TOOLS & RESOURCES 6 SUBSTITUTION & DELIVERY 7 OPTIMIZING YOUR SITE
STAY CONNECTED Get the latest FTD news,
8 RISE TO THE TOP IN SEARCH 8 LET’S GET SOCIAL
events, education, promotions
9 EMAIL MARKETING TIPS
& more...
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TIPS FOR QUALITY FULFILLMENT
@MercuryNetwork @MercuryNetwork @FTDMercuryNetwork blog.ftdi.com
VALENTINE’S DAY 2021 PLANNING GUIDE
EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR VALENTINE’S DAY Visit FTDi.com/ValentinesDay for additional information — including bouquet‑specific design tips, substitution guidance & more.
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VALENTI N E’ S DAY PROJ EC TED B E S T S ELLERS
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B5428 THE VALENTINE $60 $75 $105
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TSB* TRULY STUNNING $82 $100 $125
6 GMB* GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES $55 $70 $90
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SSB* SWEET SURPRISES $58 $69 $80
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B59 LONG STEM RED ROSE $90 $120 $155 $225
21-V1 BE MINE $70 $90 $110 $140
10 21-V1M ROSE COLORED LOVE $85 $150 $220
21-V2 SWEET THING $58 $73 $93 $123
11 21-V1R LOVEBIRDS RED ROSE $90 $155 $225
21-V3 CANDY HEARTS $65 $80 $100 $130
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E8-4304 LONG STEM PINK ROSE $85 $115 $150 $220
21-V4 ALWAYS YOU $200
NOTE Prices shown reflect delivered prices and are subject to change.
13 21-V5 YOU & ME $200
VALENTINE’S DAY 2021 PLANNING GUIDE
*Florists may fill these orders with similar clear glass containers.
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VALENTI N E’ S DAY C H EC K LIS T
THINGS TO DO Review the projected best sellers for Valentine’s Day and project how much product you need to fill incoming orders. For your shop's order estimate, contact your Marketplace representative at 800.767.4000. Review the ZIP codes where you deliver and same‑day delivery cut‑off times. To view the ZIP codes linked to your shop, go to your FTD Florist Scorecard or call Member Services at 800.788.9000. Update how many FTD orders you can fill on your Order Capacity Tool in Florist Link. Instead of suspending your system, update your order capacity in the Admin Tool. Find more information. Train your staff on the importance of sending delivery confirmations in a timely manner. The deadline to send in a delivery confirmation is 7 pm local time. Familiarize yourself with the substitution guidance for each arrangement. Develop a backup plan in case you need more delivery capacity. Learn more about how our FTD Delivery Service can assist you. Check out our free business-building webinars on YouTube.
TECHNOLOGY Scrub your existing email database & add new customers to prepare for your new marketing campaigns. Merchandise your website with Valentine’s Day products & promotions. If you have questions, call FTD’s Florist Online team at 800.576.6721. Equip your drivers with mobile phones and the FTD Mercury Delivery App. To learn more, download the app or call the FTD Technology Sales team at 800.767.3222. For Mercury Cloud users, make sure your staff is trained to review orders frequently and acknowledge all orders as soon as possible.
PRODUCTS Review results from last Valentine’s Day to determine which items & price points were most profitable. Learn about offers and promotions from FTD Marketplace by calling 800.767.4000 or visiting FTDMarketplace.com. Pre-book fresh flowers or order labor saver bouquets from FTD Flower Exchange by calling 800.767.4000 or visiting FTDFlowerExchange.com.
MORE TOOLS & RESOURCES FOR A SUCCESSFUL VALENTINE’S DAY
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TOO L S & R E SO U RC E S
FTD MERCURY MOBILE Access shop information anywhere.
AS AN FTD MEMBER
Drivers can confirm deliveries while on routes, capture signatures, access real time maps & turn-by-turn directions with the free FTD Mercury Mobile App. More about Mercury Technology.
FLORIST, A WEALTH OF RESOURCES ARE RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
ONLINE LEARNING Take advantage of our free business webinars, design shows and how-to videos on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you never miss a video. FTD FLOWER EXCHANGE Enjoy the best blooms at competitive prices shipped to you directly from premium growers. Utilize the Stem Count Calculator to help you determine how many flowers you need to purchase for FTD arrangements, or purchase time-saver bouquets to reduce labor costs. Order early to secure the best prices and availability by calling your FTD Flower Exchange Representative at 800.767.4000 or visiting FTDFlowerExchange.com. FTD MARKETPLACE A key driver to receive orders is purchasing codified containers, which are promoted on FTD.com and ProFlowers.com. Contact your FTD Marketplace Representative at 800.767.4000 or visit FTDMarketplace.com to place an order.
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S U B S TITU TIO N & D ELIVERY
TIPS & TOOLS Delivering an exceptional customer experience is our top priority. We partner with our florist members to make sure that designers have the tools they need to ensure customer satisfaction with every delivery. The Florist Quality Team, comprised of seasoned floral industry experts, is available to assist any FTD Florist in coaching about order fulfillment and substitution guidance best practices. THREE STEPS TO DELIVERING A QUALITY PRODUCT 1. SUBSTITUTION GUIDANCE It is extremely important that FTD Florists have the flowers available to create the arrangements ordered to meet customer expectations. If you find that you are out of a flower needed for a recipe, it is important to substitute with a flower of comparable color and value. A visual guide to proper substitution is available for all of the bouquets in the Valentine’s Day Collection. 2. COLD WEATHER DELIVERY TIPS As cold weather season impacts many areas during Valentine’s Day, we have some tips for delivering arrangements to help during this time of contactless delivery due to COVID-19 restrictions. • Call recipients in advance of delivery to make sure someone is home or make other arrangements. • Pre-heat vehicle to warm up the inside temperature of the car before loading it with flowers. • Leave the bouquet at the porch only if the temperature is above 35 degrees and safe from inclement weather. • Communicate the status of the delivery with FTD or the sender. 3. PROOF OF DELIVERY GUIDANCE Sometimes deliveries don’t go as planned or the recipient is not at home. Please note that sending a delivery confirmation is not considered proof of delivery. • A photo of an arrangement left on a porch will be accepted as proof of delivery in place of a signature by the recipient. Photos that include the house number are preferrable, if possible. • When emailing a photo to FTD customer service as proof of delivery, the subject line should include the Mercury order number and the recipient’s last name. • A delivery log should include the Mercury order number, date, time and a valid signature for each order. Time of delivery is required for all business and funeral deliveries. • If you have questions about proof of delivery, please contact customerservicect@ftdi.com.
EXPLORE MORE TIPS FOR DELIVERY BEST PRACTICES
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O PTI M IZI N G YO U R S ITE
MERCHANDISE YOUR WEBSITE FOR SUCCESS Increase your Valentine’s Day orders with these optimization strategies. 1. Feature your best-sellers on your homepage for quick accessibility. 2. Make sure delivery areas and fees are accurate and up to date. 3. Post custom products on your website to showcase your artistry. 4. Update online prices for your Valentine’s Day products. 5. Add new content to your site and update SEO keywords to improve your shop’s performance in organic (non‑paid) search results. 6. Consider a pay-per-click online advertising campaign to promote your website to consumers searching for flowers. 7. Use an online listing management tool, like our eBiz Marketing program, to ensure your directory listings are accurate and your shop doesn’t miss out on being at the top of the list in search results. 8. Stay connected to your customers and drive traffic to your site with our Email Marketing services.
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R IS E TO TH E TO P I N S E ARC H
CREATE PAID SEARCH ADS
BEST PRACTICES TO DRIVE FREE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE
Appearing on the top page of search
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing both
results can be very challenging with
the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as exposure to your
so much competition in the market
flower shop, through non-paid, or organic, search engine results.
for flowers. One way to jump to the top is with paid search advertising in Google and other search engines, like Bing and Yahoo. Boost your shop’s ranking in paid results by following these few simple tips. 1. To get started with Google Ads, set-up an account at ads.google.com. You will need your website’s URL, a credit card for billing, and basic business information, like your address and phone number. 2. Include the name of your business in Google Ads to help build brand recognition among potential customers. 3. If you want suggestions for the copy to put into the Google Ads description, you can do a search and see what other florists are using in their ads. It’s an easy way to get new ideas. Bonus Tip: Every time you search, the ads will be different. Feel free to search using the same keywords several different times to see a large variety of ads. 4. Always create a few different ads. Google will show the one that is most likely to work for the person
Follow these tips from FTD’s digital marketing experts to improve your site’s SEO. 1. Ensure you have a Google My Business account set-up and verified for your business location(s). Bonus Tip: Ask for Google Reviews on your website — more high quality and positive reviews will help improve your visibility on Google. 2. Ensure your site’s homepage has content about flowers, your shop’s city and your delivery area. You should also reference the types of events, occasions and services your shop provides. • Pages that have unique and well-written content (e.g. About us) will have higher rankings and will help position your flower shop against competitors. 3. Check that your pages are easy to navigate and easy to find a product, flower type, etc. Always make sure to remove and redirect broken pages. • Link important pages in your navigation. Deeper pages of your site should be linked to category pages so Google and users can find information. 4. Add content to a page that is empty or create a new page for topics like The Meaning of Rose Colors. Leverage your local area for keyword specific content for the holidays, local events and holiday pages. • New pages that target holiday-related information will expand your traffic opportunities, will be less competitive and should be easier to rank for on a local level. 5. Ask for backlinks to your location, events and offerings from local businesses, organizations you belong to, local news sources, and partners, such as a funeral home. Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links from one website to a page on
searching based on keywords.
another website.
By giving Google a few options,
• Backlinks to your website are a ranking factor that Google
you will increase your chances
reviews. Sites with a lot of credible backlinks tend to have
of being served up to a potential
higher organic search engine rankings because the links
customer.
are treated as “votes.” The more votes you have the better, as long as they are not spam or from untrusted sources.
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LE T ’ S G E T SOCIAL
SOCIAL MEDIA IS AN INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE & LOW COST WAY TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS KEEP CUSTOMERS ENGAGED BY CONSTANTLY UPDATING YOUR ACCOUNTS WITH IMAGES OF YOUR BOUQUETS, BEHIND THE SCENES EXCLUSIVES & MORE! DOWNLOAD SAMPLE IMAGES
CREATE A PAID FACEBOOK AD
Post photos of your preparations and promotions on Facebook.
The difference between a paid
For a small fee to Facebook, you can boost your posts to reach a
ad and boosting a post is the
larger audience.
range of analytics offered to track engagement and analyze the campaign’s results. A paid ad also
has more formatting options to
While designing, stop for a moment and post photos of your
present your products like carousel
creations. Instagram has unique editing features so you can
ads, slideshows and call to action
enhance photos before uploading them. You can instantly share
buttons, like “Shop Now.”
your post on other social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Instagram Stories are another way you can reach
• Take your top performing organic
your audience with quick glimpses of your business.
post and turn it into a paid ad. Click here to watch a short video to learn how to create an ad through your Facebook page.
DOS AND DON’TS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA 9 Use content-driven posts to
• Always include your flower shop’s
9 Don’t just ask to “like” or
name and logo on ad images to
gain followers and potential
“follow” your page, give
customers.
them a reason (sneak peeks,
9 Engage your audience with posts that encourage discussion. 9 Focus on sharing your brand story across all social channels. 9 Plan your posts with a social media calendar.
VALENTINE’S DAY 2021 PLANNING GUIDE
giveaways, etc.). 9 Don’t post photos without a caption.
and recognition. • Stretch your marketing dollars by applying audience filters on your ads to reach more qualified users
9 Don’t post personal
and eliminate waste. Start with
information.
targeting users only within your
9 Don’t share content that
deliver zone, then you can get
isn’t about your business
even more specific to target age
or a related product.
9
help increase brand awareness
ranges, interests, etc.
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EMAI L MAR K E TI N G TI P S
EMAIL MARKETING Email marketing is a extremely efficient and cost effective way to directly TOP 5 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR EMAIL SUBSCRIBER LIST 1. Ask for an email when
impact your bottom line and grow your business. It is essential to drive traffic to your website for holidays as well as stay connected with your customers for everyday orders. With 99% of consumers checking email at least once a day, there is simply no competition to email.*
taking a phone order to send an order confirmation
BEST PRACTICES FROM FTD’S EXPERTS
and then a delivery
• Send marketing emails only to customers or leads that have opted-in.
confirmation. 2. Collect an email address for all orders taken on your website. 3. Add an email marketing sign-up on your Facebook Business Page. 4. Run a contest (online or in‑store) to win a free bouquet and require participants to sign up with their email address. Give additional entries if they share the content on social media. 5. Offer a coupon or promotion in exchange for an email address.
• Make the “From” line your store name or one that is identifiable. • Subject lines should be short and concise enough to pique interest, drive subscribers to open the email and learn more. • Entice users to open your emails by including a pre‑header — a preview section that appears in inboxes. • A clear and compelling call-to-action button (e.g. Shop Now) should be above the fold (within the top 360 pixels). This is the area subscribers first see after opening the message. • Test sending your emails in the early morning or late evening to find the optimal time to drive opens and clicks. • Remind past customers of an annual occasion when they purchased flowers from you to drive a repeat purchase for other occasions. • Send your recipients to landing pages that make sense based on your email copy or promotion that provides a seamless transition to making a purchase. • Always include a one-click “unsubscribe” link in every email you send. • Use a professional service, such as FTD’s Email Marketing program, to save time and drive traffic to your site. *Source: HubSpot, 2020
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TI P S FO R Q UALIT Y FU LFI LLM ENT
TOP 10 TIPS Planning and prepping is crucial to a successful business. Increase productivity and customer satisfaction levels for everyday operations with these tips: 1. PURCHASE SMART When possible, purchase your flowers in the correct stem lengths to maximize profit margins. 2. ORDER EARLY Order product to match the timing of your production schedule and the proper stem counts to match your recipes. 3. ENSURE HYDRATION Keep flowers properly hydrated (including floral preservatives) to create a better customer experience and provide for the proper fullness in each design. 4. TAKE CARE IN HANDLING To prevent ethylene buildup, remove any dead or dying petals and leaves, and do not submerge foliage below the water line. 5. SOAK FLORAL FOAM Properly soak your floral foam. When soaking your foam, you should gently place it in a large enough water reservoir to allow room for the foam to fill with water at its own pace. The foam should never be forced underwater. This will cause air pockets to become trapped in the foam. 6. SCALE FOR SUCCESS Keep scale and dimensions in mind when building each design. This is key to your customers’ perception and satisfaction. 7. USE RIBBON CAREFULLY Ribbon should only be used when called for in the recipe and only in the manner in which it is described. 8. PACKAGE CAREFULLY Determine packaging per item prior to each holiday to ensure safe delivery. 9. CHECK WATER Check water daily on all of your premade arrangements prior to delivery. 10. DESIGN ONE BY ONE When a SKU is offered in multiple sizes, concentrate on one recipe at a time to help ensure proper stem counts in each design.
LOOK FOR BOUQUET-SPECIFIC DESIGN TIPS IN THE PRODUCT RECIPE CATALOG
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