The Ohio Flower Girls is a farmer-florist business owned by two sisters in Bucyrus Ohio. They grow and sell flowers in a variety of ways: U-pick, wholesale stems and bouquets, weddings, workshops, and flower delieveries. One of those sisters is my wife, Haley, and I've been able to be very hands-on with their marketing over the last couple of years.
Still a relatively new business, the business needed to define their offerings and gain awareness from the community. Furthermore, with no full time employees of the business, efficiency in their product offerings was and is key.
While flowers have the potential of being a commodity, our work has been largely focused on creating a recognizable brand ecosystem which sets their flowers apart. Secondly, top-of-funnel awareness building has been key to our approach, particularly as they are a relatively new business and as their offering is quite compelling once there is awareness of it. This has been in-depth work, utilizing various tactics, including:
• branding
• website design and development
• social media
• email marketing
• content creation (videography/photography)
• tourism marketing
• earned media (PR, influencer marketing)
Read on for project details and results
Branding is first on the list as it is core to the marketing plan. We want to make sure that the flowers from The Ohio Flower Girls aren't just lost in the sea of other flower options, but rather are identfyable and come with a meaningful story. There are many parts to this process - shown here are the tags that I designed and are used on their flower arrangements. It includes a short list of their other product lines, their website, social media info, and a QR code which leads to flower care tips on their website.
This is just a sample of how we intentionally try to establish their brand identity and create an ecosystem rather than individual one-off purchases. Product lines include U-pick, wedding flowers, deliveries, wholesale, and workshops.
The marketing hub for this ecosystem is their custom website. It serves a quality spot to send leads; pulls their different product lines together; and, importantly, allows for their two main calls to action–purchases and email subscriptions. Email subscription CTAs take a prominent position on the website and have been very effective.
In the previous 12mos.
• 13k individual users
• 61.03% bounce rate
• 1min 16sec session duration
see the site
Social media should typically go far beyond just a chance to push products. And with The Ohio Flower Girls we've tried to create content that people will enjoy following along with. In turn, we've seen steady growth over each year in followership and, antectodally, an increase in back-and-forth interactions and mentions in the previous year of the project.
Additionally, we utilize influencer marketing. This is a great fit for their product lines, and a cost-effective way to a win-win with our influencer partners.
• Instagram previous 90 days:
495 new followers, 25.1% increase
That time period overlaps the busy-season and advertising efforts
Email marketing is a key component in the marketing strategy and we've given alot of focus to growing our email contact list. For example, email signup options have a prominent role throughout the website and we've been getting solid sign-up numbers as a result.
We also have intentionally designed an initial follow up email and encouraged a method for the recipient to participate in helping our emails avoid spam and promotional folders. And participation has been solid.
With such a visually appealing set of offers, and great personalities behind the business, photography and videography fits right into the project. Video topics include promotions, flower care instructions, a silent website background film, and behind the scenes of farming. All of which enrich the story behind their offerings and help to set them apart.
For more, see my portfolio
With awareness building as a main compentent of the marketing plan, advertising has played a major role. Beyond social media advertising, this has included coordinating a partnership with the state tourism department's advertising coop, greatly increasing our reach and cost-effectiveness.
Not to be overlooked has been the importance of covering the basics on-site at the U-pick patch. This includes standardizing hours and creating on-site signage and instructions which clearly label the business and U-pick opportunity. These are tactics that help set up the business to be "contagious" - removing friction, allowing for growth to happen more naturally, and capitalizing on traffic already on site.
After several years of consistently high growth, we are currently seeing a significant growth rate of approximately 45% YOY.
"When Tad started working with us, we knew we needed help updating our website. He took our ideas and created an eye-catching and user-friendly website. Tad has been easy to work with and is dedicated to his projects/clients. We have seen an increase in our website orders/traffic and have received several comments on the design from our customers. Besides being a pretty cool brother-in-law, Tad has been a great marketing partner!"
Hannah Stuckey
Owner, The Ohio Flower Girls
