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Extra Features and Video Online FloristsReview.com R E A D O N L I N E 53 We contacted two providers of business solutions for retail florists to get their unique perspectives and advice on email marketing in our industry. Art Conforti, PFCI, president of Bloomerang Solutions in Sarasota, Fla., is a second-generation florist with more than 35 years of experience in floral retailing (Beneva Flowers). Ryan Freeman is president of Strider, an online- marketing services provider with offices in Wilmington, Del., and Toronto, Ont., Canada. His family's five- generations-old flower business, Martin's Flowers, in Toronto, was founded in 1898. Both Conforti and Freeman agree that email marketing is a fantastic tool for flower retailers, but they each have slightly differing views on its implementation. As noted in Benefit No. 5 on the opposite page, a 36x to 40x ROI is the average for email marketing campaign, in general. Conforti agrees that email marketing can provide a great ROI but suggests that florists can expect an ROI in the range of 25x to 40x. "Whoever puts in the time reaps the rewards," he says. "Email marketing does take some effort and requires more than a simple message. You have to provide a reason for consumers to not only open your emails but also act on them." He continues by noting that timing is everything. For example, retail sales for florists in January are typically slow. "People have just spent their money at Christmas. ey are sick of seeing offers such as $25 off a single purchase in January, so this type of promotion won't generate many orders, and it might result in customers requesting florists to remove customers' contact information from their email lists." Conforti's solution is a December promotion that hits prospective customers while they're still in the giving spirit rather than when the post-yuletide hangover arrives in January. His plan involves sending out an email marketing message every week in December— just one per week. "During Week 1, provide the best offer of 20 percent off, but have the offer end on the nearest Saturday," Conforti advises." For Week 2, the discount is 15 percent; Week 3 is 10 percent; and Week 4 is no discount—but the messaging is that there's still time to shop." Within their emails, Conforti recommends that florists include codes for customers to use—ones that are easily understood by the flower shop staff who may be taking orders on the phone, in person or online. "Develop codes that denote the year, expiration date and store number [if you have multiple locations]," he explains. "at's it. at way, you can better determine not only which discount to apply each order but also to which email blast customers are responding." Neither Conforti nor Freeman recommends using your business email to send out the marketing to customers, saying, instead, that you should always use a third- party company. Many companies offer free or relatively inexpensive options for sending email advertising to small-business subscriber lists. For instance, SendPulse offers a free option that includes sending up to 15,000 marketing emails per month to a maximum of 500 email contacts. Similarly, the previously mentioned MailChimp offers a no-cost option that includes sending up to 2,500 emails per month to a maximum of 500 contacts. Note that these free options include just the basic services in email delivery ; SendPulse, MailChimp and other companies all offer more premium email marketing services for relatively low fees, which are dependent on how large your email list is, the total number of emails you send per month and any other specific needs you may have. Conforti also advises that if you send email marketing via a third-party company, "Never use your own email address or password. e password could get stolen and then your email hacked. Why invite trouble?" Instead, he recommends creating a separate email address and password exclusively for your business emails when dealing with a third party. Google (Gmail), Outlook (Hotmail/Live/MSM), Yahoo! (Yahoo! Mail) and iCloud (iCloud Mail) are just a few of the many companies that offer free email accounts. Florist-specific Perspectives

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