Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I have an idea!!

A few posts ago I read a comment about how hard it is to get florists to work together in an effort to promote local-florists over major order gathers. Some of you may be thinking the same thing….how can us little guys/girls make a difference? How can we get our voice heard from behind the design table? The answer is SEO.

How many of you saw the frozen roses video on Proflowers? How many of you saw that video rank 3rd for the search term “proflowers”?

Remember…..ahhh those were REALLY fun days…..


For those florists that were apart of that movement, we saw that video go from only having just over 10,000 views to more than 32,000 views in less than 2 months. Do you think our voices were heard? You bet they were to the extent that Proflowers took issue and had the video removed with a cease and desist order.

What am I getting at? Well, WE need another video!!!

Do any of you know of a video on youtube that promotes local florists over major order gathers in a non-combative tone? If there isn’t one on youtube, can somebody please make a video that promotes local florists over major order-gathers? The video would have to be made in a way that would not frighten customers from buying flowers but effective in local promotion.

My idea would be to rank the video for the search term “florists” as over 2,500 searches are performed each day on that term. FTD.com and Proflowers.com currently hold the top 2 positions but I believe WE can put OUR voice in their stead provided WE have the material to work with.

Are you following me? All we need is a video as the knowledge to rank is already present. Your thoughts?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here we are again.
Engaging in negativity.

So lets take a look at Proflowers.com
and your site.

Proflowers is annually one of the best CONVERTING sites on the entire internet.

Your last post showed an absurdly high bounce rate of 93%! Which then leaves you only 7% of those potential customers, who weren't absolutely appalled at the site, to convert into buyers.

I mentioned earlier about focusing on CUSTOMER SERVICE and watching your profits soar.

Your bounce rate is a symptom of POOR customer service. It's the equivalent of a brick and mortar flower shop in a shady part of town with a run down storefront and non-existent and grumbled greetings when customers enter the front door.

Once again, instead of focusing on bringing people down, which only inhibits your own creativity and success, if you focused on positivity and how you could make your traffic convert better, you'd be much better off (financially and emotionally)

Good INTERNET customer service. aka a site that converts, is the equivalent of a well-kept store with super-friendly employees who go out of their way to help their customers and go over and beyond what their customers expect.

Proflowers ALWAYS does that in the form of a well-converting website that has a bounce rate in the 5% range.

Look at your bounce rate and again tell me what the problem is?

You, and other florists like you, who engage in negativity, excuse-ism, and "we hate successful businesses" thinking?
Or
"Evil" companies like Proflowers that typically overdeliver and keep customers coming back again and again?

Until you, and other florists like you, identify the REAL problem, all the SEO advice in the world isn't going to solve your long term business problems.

Mark McFall said...

Thanks for your comments.

As I said earlier, in the days leading up to a holiday, typical patterns include short stays on the website which indicates a lot of browsing and surfing due to the general interest of the holiday. As we move closer, search volumes will increase and stays will be much longer as searchers will become more serious.

That's the typical pattern.

Dragonfly Flowers said...

I don't think Mark is being negative here, and you have commented a few times on his apparent hate of the big boys. Let's find an industry where the little guy doesn't hate the big boys....

Still thinking? How about an industry where the big boys don't hate the big boys...

Still thinking? What about Microsoft and Apple? Oh, wait, they run ads hammering on each other all the time.

What we are looking for is a fair playing field. One that isn't stacked against the little guy, rampant with false advertising, misleading web sites, poor customer service and general apathy towards both the consumer and the filling florists.

In the case of the online flower industry, it is somewhat maddening as a florist and a CONSUMER MYSELF, that in this business, TRUE VALUE doesn't seem to have any validity any more.

As for what Mark is doing, I like it. He is providing a forum for discussion about what small businesses can do to get together to build something larger than ourselves to compete against these giants.

I am all for it, and I fully support your messages here Mark.

As for the video, I think I could help out with that...

Mark McFall said...

Thanks for your support Duanermb. Yes, if you come up with a good video that promotes local florists that would be great.

If you do, upload it onto youtube.com. The reason we want to use youtube.com, is that the domain already has authority and we can use that authority to our own advantage.

Otherwise, send me the file and I'll upload it.

Dragonfly Flowers said...

There is also the funny little video from Honestflorist (whoever that is)

I have it on one of my blogs.

Boxed Flowers