Marketing with Intention: Tone, Templates & Timing for Florists

Episode 296:  Marketing is so much more than pretty Instagram posts – it’s the way your team answers the phone, the words you choose in an email, and the vibe customers feel when they walk through your door. In this workshop-style episode, Ellie LaFever PFCI, breaks down how to create intentional marketing that feels true to your brand and shows up consistently across every touchpoint.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by what to post, when to post it, or how to make your marketing feel more authentic, this episode will give you clarity and a practical roadmap to move forward with intention.

View the session

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When it comes to content, not all photos are created equal, right? So we have product shots and lifestyle shots. And I think they serve very different purposes. And so knowing where and when to use each one is key.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your host, Bonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

And Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Here we are at Monday again, getting ready for our Tuesday podcast. And I'm really glad you joined us again today. Boy, it was a busy weekend on my part. I was checking tasks off the list, right? As I do, it seems like every time I check one off, I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to do that now. I need to do that now. And as we all gear up for fall, it seems like there's more things on that list that need to be accomplished to get us ready as we start getting a little bit busier when the calendar turns to September. So one of the things that we all need to focus on all the time, including FlowerClick, which we're doing, is marketing. And not just marketing, but intentional marketing. And last week, Ellie did an amazing session called Intentional Marketing that we shared with our members and our flower friends. In case you missed it or you want to hear it again in a little bit of an abbreviated session, please take a listen here. Great information on how to market yourselves, market intentionally. So let's take a listen.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Thank you, flower friends, for being here. Today's workshop is all about intentional marketing, as the title states. Marketing isn't just your Instagram pictures and captions or the promo email that you sent last week. It's the way that your team answers the phone. It's the vibe of your shop. It's the way that someone talks to a walk-in customer, the tone, the timing, the consistency of everything that you put out there. So that's what today is about building the kind of marketing that feels true to you and that shows up in every part of your business. I think a lot of us struggle with marketing. A lot of us struggle with what to say or how to say it. But when marketing is intentional, it works. Real quickly, for those of you who are new to Flower Click, we're a team of retail floristry experts who believe that retail florists deserve great support and that your business should look beautiful behind the scenes and online. We offer services, tools, resources to help you with everything from website management and merchandising with thousands of product images for everyday and sympathy. We do education, we do email marketing, socials to sales training, and a lot more. And today's workshop is designed to give you a free slice of that support, starting with how to make your marketing feel a little more doable and a lot more effective. Okay, today's focus is about simplifying your marketing so that it feels intentional and not overwhelming. First, we're gonna talk about how to talk to your customers. This includes tone, timing, and how to use your voice across platforms like social media, email, and especially in person. Next, we're gonna talk about how to make content your customers actually want to see, content that builds connection and adds value. And then finally, we're gonna get into the execution of actually how to do it. So let's just jump into the first section, which is how to talk to your customers. And I know how much Lori loves an alliteration. So all of these have three items. This first one is tone, templates, and timing. So, first, it's about tone. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. Tone is what I would think is one of the most overlooked parts of marketing, especially now that we have Chat GPT, but your tone is the personality behind your message. It's how customers emotionally connect to your brand, whether they're reading a caption on their phone or skimming an email or looking at a sign in your shop for how your employees are greeting those customers. So if you're a local family-owned business that prides itself on warmth and connection, your messaging really needs to reflect that in all that you're doing. And like I said, it shouldn't sound robotic or overly formal. And this is where those tools like Tchatch Kate can get a little tricky because it's super tempting to just copy and paste and cross stop your list. But I think customers are recognizing this disconnect, and that's the opposite of intentional marketing, right? So today I want you to think about what your voice sounds like. What words do you actually say out loud in your shop? That's a tone that you want to carry across every touch point from Instagram to your website to your emails. So let's bring it to life from one tone to many others. This base message is neutral. We just launched our ball collection. It's filled with seasonal colors and is available now for delivery. It's fine, right? But it's also a little flat. What happens when we apply it different tones to it? From warm and friendly to quirky to elevated to sentimental. And they all are a tiny bit different, but they all convey that same message. You'll see that the words shift slightly and the feeling of it changes. Your customers are picking up on, even if they don't realize it. And also, I want you to be aware of the use of exclamation marks, whether you are super enthusiastic or not, how many exclamation points you use, being intentional about capitals and lowercase. Those things all make a difference in your tone. And so the question to ask yourself or the little bit of homework, your first bit, is to kind of identify your tone. And you don't have to reinvent the wheel here. It all has to go back to how do you talk in person? What's the vibe that you want to give off with your brand? Okay, so that's tone. We're gonna build upon tone with templates. Templates are really going to take that voice that you've defined with your tone and scale it across your whole team and your content and your customer experience. So templates, they're not robotic, right? Now that you have your tone, templates are really just the basis that gives your team confidence, it establishes consistency, and it's a good starting point, especially in moments where your team, whether it's someone who's writing an Instagram caption or somebody who's answering the phone, if you don't have these brand guidelines in place, templates come into play for that. Think of them as tone in action. So, what does a price explanation sound like in your voice? What words do you use when you ask for the sale or when you're closing a conversation? Once you define these templates in your tone, you can use that same phrasing again and again. Of course, with a human touch that's naturally going to be layered in from employee to employee. Everybody's a little bit different, but the consistency in the template is still there. Templates are your shortcut for staying on brand without starting from scratch every time or having to remember it. I think a lot of times people, even me, like you freeze when you answer the phone or when somebody says something back. And so templates are kind of your cheat sheets all the way through every interaction. Um, in person, something that I just took away from Kristen at Wildflower at SAF. She said, every time somebody greets a customer in person, they ask, what brings you in today? It's an open-ended question that isn't a yes or no answer that people can really start the initial conversation rather than it getting shut down immediately. So, of course, I'm sure a lot of you already have this kind of stuff in place. But if you don't, I would highly recommend putting in the time to build it out so that your marketing is intentional at every touch point. And then next is the written scripts. So these are more of what I would suggest you refer back to if you're using Chat GPT, say for your captions, that's great. It'll generate those lists of ideas, but kind of have these written Mad Lib style templates that you can kind of cross-reference with so that you are still using that tone that you've developed. And remember again, your tone and your templates, they don't have to be entirely groundbreaking or unique. They just have to be consistent. I know this was a crash course, but first you're going to establish your tone. What do you want your tone to sound like? And also, I know I keep bringing up ChatGPT or AI because I think more and more of us are using it every single day now, but you can also remind your robot friend of your tone so that eventually you're training it to sound more and more like you and the less cross-referencing you're gonna have to do. So once you have your tone, then you'll make your templates. You're gonna build out your base communication templates using your tone for all the different things. I would recommend using something like Google Docs, where you can have multiple tabs within a document that you can build out all of these templates so then you can share it across your team. And then lastly, in this section is timing. So I think a lot of times people struggle with when do I start talking about this? How do I talk about it? So timing is everything. Uh, when you show up, it matters just as much as what you say. And I think a lot of times florists are reacting to holidays instead of preparing for them because we're so busy. And so when we're marketing in real time, we're already a bit behind. I know that a lot of holidays are last minute, but the more marketing we can do ahead of time, hopefully, the more streamlined your order process, production process, all of that is. So having a floral occasions calendar mapped out for the year helps you shift from scrambling to strategic. It lets you prep your content, get your team aligned, and create space for that connection with customers. And of course, it's not just the big ones like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, you know, we've got Grandparents' Day, we've got Sweetest Day, some places back to school. These aren't just like extra dates, they're real opportunities to stay top of mind. I just wanted to call real quick to sales prep school. If you're enrolled in sales prep school, we actually have a handout and a video all about every month with the major holidays and things like that. So definitely use that as a resource. If not, there are other things that you celebrate or want to market, definitely add them in. But make sure that you're carving out when to start the marketing. So for email and for social. You can easily put this all into AI, have it give you the breakdown of floral occasions, when to start each marketing, give me ideas for each marketing effort and initiative, and then kind of build out a Google Doc that way. But you can create this in a day for the entire year. And then plugging all of that into Google Calendar or whatever calendar you use is super helpful in making you feel like you're already ahead, right? So even creating another calendar that's just for marketing, and then putting that all in, you can share the calendar with different people. I think it's just a very easy and effective way of organizing the year in a marketing way that makes sense. So with that, you've established your tone, you make your templates, and you plan your timing. And this is establishing your communication foundation rooted in intention. Our tone is direct, confident, empathetic, and passionate, I guess I would call it. I don't know if Florian Bonda would agree. I'm sure they have other ones to also describe it, but you can see how there is the verbal and written communication side of things. So the little slogans we use, the details within email marketing, our business and pleasure of flowers newsletter that people love every month, and Lori and Vonda really right from the heart in that. And I think that's one of the main reasons that it does have such a high open rate is because you're hearing their personal thoughts or opinions on something. So those are kind of the tone in the templates. You know, we're not reinventing the wheel with things, we're using templates to communicate our brand. And then on the flip side of that is visually how our brand is represented. You can make something like this for your own brand to kind of make sure that they align the verbal and the written communication side of things with the visuals. For the next section, how to make content your customers actually want to see. So within this, we have courtesy, connection, and care. So courtesy means that you're not wasting your time putting content where it shouldn't be, and that you're maximizing the energy that your followers and consumers spend on your business in a thoughtful and productive way. So it's the right content in the right place. And some of this will be a refresher, especially for our clickers, but I think it's worth mentioning and just refreshing your memory on. So when it comes to content, not all photos are created equal, right? So we have product shots and lifestyle shots. And I think they serve very different purposes. And so knowing where and when to use each one is key. So before you post, ask yourself: are you trying to sell the product? Are you trying to inspire the customer? That answer should guide you on which photo to use. So we'll start with product shots. We all know what these product shots are. They are your studio style, clearly lit, everything is visible, type images. And these types of photos belong on your website. Their job is to eliminate questions, such as what size is it? What color are the roses? How many roses are there? Does it come in a vase? These product focused shots are your digital salesperson. And the goal with these isn't to tell a story, but it's to make the customer confident enough to buy them. On the flip side of that, we have lifestyle shots. These would be your content that you share on social media. These are more casual, natural, in-the-moment shots. So front door deliveries, flowers in their environment, somebody holding the bouquet outside. These photos are for organic content. They create connection, they tell a story, they show the product in real life, which then in turn helps the customer picture themselves or someone they love receiving it. And it's important to note that these don't convert on the spot, but they build the brand trust and keep you top of mind. And then, of course, we all are on social media all the time. So, in terms of creative content, I think we do all have a thousand inspiration videos or photos saved on our accounts. At least I do. So I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on this. I think the most important thing with this, and the thing that, you know, is difficult for us at Flower Click as well, is making the time to create that content. But this is the imperfect, this is the funny, the heartfelt, the real kind of content. And this is where you can vary, like it's not the curated look. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it still has the same tone, right? I'm gonna shout out Flowers by Michelle real quick. They kind of have the same three lines of text or two lines of text, short, sweet on all their reels that kind of as you're scrolling, you know exactly where to look, takes your eye right in, and there are these cute videos with all kinds of fun content. Um, so definitely check them out if you're looking for inspiration. But they're all in different places in their shop or outside or with different people, which I'll talk about as well in a little bit later. When it comes to e-commerce consistency, that's where those clean, clear product shots go to work. So if you're not lucky enough to have FlowerClick make your banners and your products and your product tiles, that's definitely something to prioritize making sure that you have consistency in all these places. So you need those shoppable product photos, the web banners that promote the same products that are in that category, and then tiles for things like designer's choice that are creative. Everything has kind of the same aesthetic, same font selection, things like that. Okay, email marketing. It's still one of the most powerful tools you have as a florist. But here's the truth: I know you and I are both sick of the promotions tab in Gmail. Sometimes it's just never-ending. So you got to break through the noise. Customers want emails that feel like they're from you. They're in your shop's voice, in your shop's personality. So that's where your tone comes back into play, right? So the key is consistency. It should be a natural extension of the way that you talk to a customer in store. And briefly, before I talked about templates in speaking templates and caption templates, but I'm also going to talk about templates like on Canva. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you can have a structure. So for things like important communication, say there was, you know, the tariffs going on and we had to communicate some substitution situations going on with the shops. So we have templates for communications, we have templates for the monthly newsletters, and then, of course, holidays, gift guides, all of that fun stuff. So that is on email marketing. Sales resources. So I don't want you to forget about marketing tools for your own team. Designer resource guides and sales sheets are wonderful for having your staff be an extension of your brand naturally so that they can confidently recommend arrangements, they can upsell designs, they are speaking clearly about pricing and features. And they're also great for internal training, right? If you have new hires or part-time seasonal help, you don't want them to be completely disconnected from your brand and who you are and the way that you speak, right? So these kind of tools are really great for that internal training quickly before holidays. Everything should not live in separate worlds. It should all work as one cohesive system. So I would highly recommend do a little whiteboard on Canva or on, you know, whatever you use for visual communication, even Google Doc. Throw all of the assets that you have on there. Do they work? Do they all look like they live in the same world and they're from the same brand? If not, maybe that's where you want to lean in and evaluate how you can improve that ecosystem. Okay, so real quick connection. Connection is obviously everything. Connection points can be big, they can be tiny. So things like doing a day in my life, I think people are so fascinated about what goes on behind the scenes in a flower shop. So if you're not doing a day in the life at least once a month, I would highly recommend that you do that. People just love eat that content up. Things like incorporating card messages, I think that's just great because it's incorporating customers into it. It's like they feel involved in it. And then wildflower here, supporting a local cause in her community and showcasing it. So connection, I don't think I have to explain to anybody how important connection is and leaning into that, whatever sets you aside from everyone else, really marketing that. Care, showing your passion, your celebration, your artistry, causes that you stand for, communicating important updates. And if you're going to be closed or open even, that's showing that you care, that they're not just gonna stop by your shop when you're closed and they're wasting their time driving there, you know? So again, Moments of care can be small, they can be big, they can be charities or events or galas that you support, or as simple as educating your customers on how to take care of their Valentine's Day flowers. So just remembering to incorporate connection and care into your content. We have moved on to the last section. I know I've been talking fast. So if there are any other questions related to this, Lori, feel free to interrupt me.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

I do. I didn't say it earlier because I was muted. I really am loving these alliterations. They just bring me joy.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Thank you. Every time I say I wanted you to love them. Good. And you will know that I came up with these on my own. I did not have Chachi Play. Wow! That is even more joy in my heart. I know. I know. Okay, so the last section, how to actually do it. I'm gonna combine easy in execution because they overlap. I'm gonna go through some productivity tools. So, as I just mentioned, Canva is really great for this. I know a lot of you already use it. Things like posters, logos, documents, presentations, of course, the social posts, the email templates, all of that can be done in Canva. I know everybody always asks how much it is. And it's very affordable, especially when you compare it to like professional design software like Adobe, hundreds, thousands of dollars less. So it really is accessible for everybody with the amount that you're getting into it, even with photo editing, background removal. I mean, there's so many small little things that make Canva absolutely worth $120 a year. We had the templates in the beginning. Templates in Canva are your training wheels. So you're not having to just stare at a blank white document. There's also just florist templates that you can use. So they're really great. I would recommend that you always duplicate the template before you start editing so that you're always able to refer back to that original template. Because a lot of times what happens is you start changing too many things and you've lost the plot, right? You've lost the template completely. So always just duplicate it, work off of the one. And then if you need to refer back to it or go back to the original template, you have it there still. So that's just a little tip. We use it for all of our product tiles. So you're establishing brand consistency, right? In the fonts that you use for each season or the messaging, you can duplicate these, change out the photos, change out the color of text and what you want it to say, keeping the brand consistency there. You're saving a ton of time. You're just duplicating, adding in those little assets. If you, you know, you search for daisy and a daisy comes up. You search for a daffodil, a daffodil comes up. Everything is right in Canva. All these assets, fonts, colors, backgrounds makes it super easy for you to execute fast. Additionally, the Canva brand kit is great because you can add your logos, your brand colors, brand fonts, brand voice, and all kinds of things so that it constrains your team to only using those certain colors and those certain fonts so that it's um seamless for you to actually stay on brand and consistent and not go crazy with 25 different fonts.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

I want to then interrupt you right there and let people know from my perspective as like an employee, having that is so great. The brand. So Ellie creates the brand colors. So when I'm working on like our podcast newsletter, and I'm trying to go in and change out things, all I do is go into the podcast brand kit that she's created. And I know, hey, these are my choices. These are my only choices, but these are my choices, and it makes my life easier. And I know I can use anything from this palette, which there's a lot of color in there, but I know that Ellie, as our director, has already pre-approved all of these colors, and I'm not gonna have to track her down virtually and get approval for anything I've put in here. So I think that's important for managers and owners to understand why this little brain kit thing is so great because once it's done, you don't have to micromanage that part.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

That's a great point. Yep. Okay, so that's Canva. Then we have Trello. Trello is what we use and recommend for kind of the project management and the content management. So once you've made your tone, made your templates, made your content, whether they're photos or graphics in Canva, then you can throw it all into Trello visually. We have one for email marketing, which has them broken down by every month, and then all of the emails that go out in that month. We have one for social posts, so keeping track of every month again, and then every date within that month that we're posting. And then how it works is you have the board, which email marketing is the board. That's the big picture. Within that board, you have lists. Lists are like a container for the different stages of a task or project. So they're just a list. And then within that list, you have cards. Each card represents an individual task or date or topic. And that card holds all kinds of information. You can add a description, you can add photos or videos or attachments, you can make custom fields with things that you want in it, you can add due dates, all of that. So it's it sounds complex, but it's actually very easy. I've tried other project management tools and I found this one to be the most simple and straightforward. So I would definitely recommend if you're looking for something to kind of be your home for marketing, I would recommend Trello. And then finally, we have social scheduling. I just wanted to bring this up because I felt like there were gonna be questions on scheduling platforms or what to use. There are so many. And whatever you have, if it's working, like don't change it. Plan only is one that's really great. They have been around forever, and now they do all different platforms. So, whatever platform you have, you can have an account on Plan OLE and have everything in one. Plan E is nice, it's very visual and it's great. The other one is sendable, which is what I would say is much more robust. So if you have multiple locations of a shop or multiple Instagram accounts for your business for different locations or brand extensions or whatever, sendable has more robust features, I guess. And so I would recommend that as well. And then finally, we have everyone. The E is everyone. Again, I'm bringing up Flowers by Michelle because as I was scrolling through their feed, I was amazed at how many different employees they have on their Instagram. And it just made me realize that that's such a huge impact and connection point when you can show the passion and the creativity of everybody involved. You can show that you're a tight-knit team. It really is a unified presence, I think. And I thought it was just great that they do that. So definitely for a small business that drives customer loyalty, it connects, pulls at the heartstrings. It does all the right things in connecting your brand, making you human to your customer. So don't forget to remind your team of this. And, you know, even show Flowers by Michelle as an example and kind of get the whole team involved and because they make it look so fun. So definitely try that if you aren't. And remembering to do it in your own way, in your own tone, of course. So the hardest part of marketing isn't uploading the photos or pressing post. I think it's everything that lives in our heads before that as a to-do list. So, how do I communicate this announcement? How many exclamation points or emojis should I add? What colors should I use? You know, too many tools I don't even want to try. But hopefully, today you've learned that you need to identify your tone and how you talk to your customers. You have on your to-do list to make templates to implement that tone and keep consistent, building out the timing for each month so that you know when to market, you have an overview of what content lives on what digital home, how to connect and show your care, those tools to make it easier to implement, and then just an overall easier methodology to execute with intention. So this would be what I call eating the elephant one bite at a time. So if you break it down into this, by the time that you are ready to create that piece of content, all of this, you've done all of your homework beforehand. You know how to mark it intentionally so that you aren't just throwing spaghetti at the wall and you're actually connecting every time you share something. So that's all I have for you today. Thank you everybody for being here.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the Business and Pleasure of Flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.