Are you an ambitious flower farmer looking for hints and tips to grow your business?
Roz Chandler started her flower farming business ten years ago. She will be covering strategy, marketing tactics, pricing, social media and upscaling your flower farm. No matter what point you’re at in your journey, this podcast will give you the information you need to grow your business.
In this easy-to-follow episode, Roz Chandler discusses the importance of brand messaging and helps cut flower farmers build their own messaging. The way you talk about your brand defines your ideal customer. As cut flower growers, not all customers will be your ideal customer.
You will learn:
Connect with Roz Chandler:
Join my Facebook group: Cut Flower Farming Growth and Profit In Your Business
Thank you for listening. I’d love it if you subscribed to the podcast and left a review or rating.
Are you an ambitious flower farmer looking for hints and tips to grow your business?
Roz Chandler started her flower farming business ten years ago. She will be covering strategy, marketing tactics, pricing, social media and upscaling your flower farm. No matter what point you’re at in your journey, this podcast will give you the information you need to grow your business.
In this easy-to-follow episode, Roz Chandler discusses the importance of brand messaging and helps cut flower farmers build their own messaging. The way you talk about your brand defines your ideal customer. As cut flower growers, not all customers will be your ideal customer.
You will learn:
Connect with Roz Chandler:
Join my Facebook group: Cut Flower Farming Growth and Profit In Your Business
Thank you for listening. I’d love it if you subscribed to the podcast and left a review or rating.
Welcome to the Cut Flower Farming Growth and Profit In Your Business podcast. I'm your host, Roz Chandler, a flower farmer for over ten years and thirty years as a business owner and Marketing Director. This podcast is for you if you're an ambitious flower farmer, and looking for hints and tips to grow your business, we'll be covering strategy, marketing tactics, pricing, social media, and upscaling your flower farm. So much more. I'm so excited to introduce you to my amazing guest speakers along the way. All of you will be at different points in your business. Our podcasts will take this into account. We look forward to joining you on your journey.
Hi, I'm Roz Chandler of the Cut Flower Collective part of Field Gate Clowers. And welcome to episode number one. Now what we have is a Facebook group called Growth and Profit in your Cut Flower Business. So we'd love it if you join us over there. And I did a presentation on Saturday, all about brand messaging and all the PowerPoint slides are in there as well as a video of them and a recording too. So do go and have a look. But I thought I'd run through it as well, so you could do it. So if we go slowly, and I'd love you to grab a pen and paper please, and then write this down. You can obviously go back over the recording as well.
So on a sheet of paper, I want you to write down the side, the alphabet letters of A to H. So A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. So I want you to write them down the left hand side of the page, leaving enough room to be able to write what you want to against each letter. So have you done that? It's really difficult to work out on a podcast whether you've got enough time. So I've done it too. So I'm going to write A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Right. So the next thing. Under A or against A, I want you to put my ideal customer is. Now it's really important to be as specific as you can. So let's say you do the wedding market, you might put my ideal customer is a bride to be who has a marquee wedding because that's what you specialise in. You love big floral displays you love bigger weddings. If it's not weddings or it’s local people just having DIY buckets or buying from you at the farm gate, you might put my ideal customer is and you could name this person of what you think of what they look like in your head.
So my ideal customer might be Mandy, and she might live very locally, likes to buy locally, might be middle-aged and is a regular customer of mine. So it's really important that you're really specific about what this person looks like as your ideal customer. And one way of perhaps helping you further down the line is to build a Pinterest board of what this person looks like and call them a name and know exactly all your messaging or the content you ever write, or your marketing you ever do is aimed at that target market. Okay, so A is my ideal customer is. And my advice is to be as specific as you can.
So for this example, I'm going to put a bride that likes marquee weddings, so against being put my offering, or what you're selling, or what you're providing. So for me, I might put something like, that we sell British blooms to brides. That would be it. British natural blooms to brides maybe. Against B. But don't spend too much time. Just the first thing that comes to your head, put it down if that's what you do. What do you do for a living for that audience? See, again, see, I help this person achieve. So what are you doing for this person? What are you achieving? So are we achieving happiness for the bride on a special day? Are we achieving her vision on her special day? What are we actually achieving for this person? Think about your ideal person and when they bought your service and walked away from you, what have they achieved by buying something from you? Again, honestly, the first thing that comes to mind. You could always go back and do it again.
D. The methods I use to make the process of achieving this result feel so what methods do you do? Is it stress-free? Is it hassle-free? Is it easy and simple to buy from you? Are you friendly? What are the methods that you use to make this process of achieving this result? So let's say you achieved happiness for them, how would you have done that? By making it simple and fun? Would you have made it easy? Would you have made it very hands-on? What methods would you have used?
E. Once they successfully use my product, they feel? Once they've successfully used my product, they feel? So here, list as many feelings as you can. Think of everything you make them feel. Do they feel inspired? Do they feel happy? Do they feel contented? Do they feel elated? Do they feel satisfied that they bought something local? What are they feel? And all of those feelings are really important because we buy with feelings. We buy both with positive feelings. So we buy the things that make us feel happy or save us time or, but definitely with feelings. And also with negative feelings. So actually negative feelings is stronger. So the fear of missing out, the limited time, the special offer. What if I don't buy that? Will I feel bad because I didn't do it? So once they've successfully use my product, they feel? And that should go alongside E? So you're down to E for elephant now.
F for Freddie. This work product matters to them. Not because of you. Why does it matter to them? Why does your product matter to them? So for a bride, of course, it matters to them. It’s their special day. But what is it about this product that matters to them? Do they care about sustainability? Do they care about the planet? What is it that matters to them? So that's got us as far as F. So let's go a bit further than F.
Let's think about G. You might want to think what this transformation that we're actually creating matters to me. Why does it matter to me? So you need to put against G, this transformation matters to me because? Is it because you're going to save the planet? Is it because you love making people happy? Is it because you want to leave a legacy for your children? Why does it matter to you personally, okay?
Quite similarly, is H. This transformation matters to the world because so this is really big. So this is about saving the planet or being greener or being somehow different. So you've filled in letters A to H, and if you haven't, just go back and fill them in. And then if you look at our Facebook page, there are lots of examples of people who had a real go at this, and they're amazing. I have to say they're amazing. So go and have a good look and see what other people are writing. So we have had a go at outlining who you like to work with, what you're selling, the transformation you help your customers achieve, what your customer thinks they're buying in other words, how your way is better different or easier, your unique methods, your process, your approach, how you actually achieve the result, the feelings associated with that transformation. Don't forget, we buy with feelings. What your client is actually buying. Not what you think they're buying, what are they actually buying. What do they feel, why that transformation matters to them, and why it matters to the world. So that’s a massive amount going on there.
So if I give you an example, this might help you put it in perspective. So, I’ve put my ideal customer is brides wanting to get married, and then have their reception in a marquee. That's because we know that if they do a marquee wedding, it will be a big wedding for us and involve a lot of our services. What do we offer? What do we sell? What do we provide?
So this was B. We provide beautiful natural British flowers. C. What are we helping this person achieve? And I’ve put as an answer, what they've always imagined for their wedding day. What they've always wanted, what their vision is, what they've imagined is, what we're helping them achieve. D. The methods I use make the process of achieving this result feel. So we've put that we listen. It’s simple. It's easy. We're helpful. We are fun to work with. They trust us. Okay, we've built some trust there. E. Once they've successfully used our service, they feel? So how does this make them feel? You know, they've had their wedding or they’ve bought our service and they've gone away and they're in the car and they're driving down the drive and they bought their wedding with us. What do they feel? We've put that they feel proud, that they feel that they've achieved their dream, that they've chosen a supplier of their dreams. We've made them feel relieved. They're less stressed and worried. Some of our brides don't know one flower from another, so we've talked them through all of their options and they feel less worried now and less overwhelmed with it all. They feel happy and delighted. They feel that all their comment all their guests are going to comment on their flowers and they feel like they've made a really good decision. And then F. This product or work matters to them because and then we put they have a vision of their big day and how it will look. They have planned this for years, and maybe more, they have a vision in their mind. And it really matters to them that achieve and trust the person who's going to deliver it. G. This transformation matters to me. So why does it matter to me? This is about you. Why does it matter to you? And we put something like, we want to put British blooms at the forefront of all brides' choices, and therefore reduce air miles of imported blooms to save the environment for our children and their children. And that matters to me. I am passionate, completely passionate about everybody growing British flowers and us reducing the importation of foreign imports, where at the moment it stands about 90%. So we've got a bit of a way to go. H. This transformation matters to the world. So this is really big, why does what we're doing matter at all? And the answer to that is it's a greener world for our children and their children, which is a big statement, but it's true. So you filled in A to H and now you're going to put it together as a messaging statement. So do this, I believe. So if you write the words, I believe, and then put your answer to H first. Why what you do matters to the world.
Okay, so you put H in first. And so I help A. Put your ideal client there, the person we decided who your ideal client was to, and here you're going to put C and E. So a combination of C and E before and after transformational feelings. So so far, you've got I believe, H, and so I help A to C and E through. You're going to put D. Now the descriptive words about why you made it easier for them be your products and services. So you've used all of your letters there. And then if you care to share them and put them in the Facebook group, that will be lovely. And people will comment on them and it’s great. And people sometimes have come in with three different options. And people have commented, and they've gone away and amended them. And it's really a good idea to get everybody's advice.
So we came up by doing this exercise, I believe that we need a greener world for our children and their children. And so I help brides to achieve what is in their dreams through listening, making it simple and working together by providing beautiful, natural, scented blooms. Now that's a very long messaging statement. So we need to shorten it. So we need to cut out some words. And this is what you need to do, you need to go through it, you have a big statement. And then you need to cut out the words and the fluff and get right to the point. So then it became, I believe a greener world starts with buying local. So I help brides to achieve their vision for their special day by working together to make their dream come true by providing beautiful, natural, scented blooms.
Then we're going to shorten it to the extreme. Think about your Instagram bio, for instance, it's only got 150 characters. You can also add emojis and hashtags, but you know, it's quite short. So you need to go even further. So something like, not necessarily this, but I believe that choosing beautiful British blooms for your magical day, will not only be memorable and distinctive, but it will also make a greener world for us all. And then I might use a hashtag like grown not flown.
So remember, think about your trigger words. Highlight any words or phrases or ideas you think your clients feel something. You know whether that's positive or negative. Remember that negative ones are stronger. Remember, you're selling positive trigger words, alright? You sell the solution to negative trigger words. That's what you're trying to do. You need to understand your customers. You need to understand your customer's needs. No, really, it's about time, if you think about time, spending less time or finding more time is what people are trying to do. Money, they want to spend less make more, they love security. And then most of it is about themselves. Okay, they want to be liked. They want to gain status and prestige. They want to improve their health and fitness. They love praise and recognition. So in our particular case, they'd love it if everybody at the wedding said their flowers are the best I've ever seen. They want love and companionship. They want personal growth and transformation. And they want power, influence and popularity. So they want to be seen to be leading the way. They want to gain praise and recognition. They want to be liked. They're all needs of self. So it's quite important that when you write your messaging statement that you think of that.
So I know that's a lot to take in one go. You can obviously go back and stop this and go through it slowly. But yeah, think about all your messaging. Go through our Facebook group and look at others. Honestly, they're coming in every day now and if you do the same and join our group, then you will see and you can all help each other. So I'd love to thank you very much for listening to me today and hope this has been useful in developing your brand messaging for your cut flower business.
This has been your host, Roz Chandler. If you'd like to know more about growing your cut flower farm, do join our Facebook group. It's called Cut Flower Farming Growth and Profit In Your Business. Many thanks.