Florist marketing is everything you do to get more people ordering flowers from you, instead of losing them to the big order-gatherer sites. The most effective approach for a florist is to own your own website, get found for local and occasion searches (on Google and now in AI assistants), and bring past customers back with reviews, email and SMS. Paid ads help once the foundations are in place.
This guide draws on decades of building eCommerce websites for hundreds of florists, and reflects what is working right now. Our florists have taken over $500 million in flower orders through their own websites.
The seven core florist marketing tactics
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
- Google Ads
- Social Media Marketing
- Google Business Listing
- Social Proof Reviews
- Existing Customer Communication
Below is how to do each one, and at the end, a simple plan and a marketing calendar to tie it together.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO for florists)
SEO encourages search engines to rank your website favourably for the keywords you choose, by building relevance, uniqueness and authority for Google. It comes down to three things: the technical structure of your site, the right content types, and specific, relevant, unique content with organic and social reach.
Metadata on every page. Each page needs a unique Page Title and Meta Description (they can follow a pattern). For a "12 Red Roses" product:
- Title: 12 Red Roses | Florist Name | Sydney Florist
- Description: Buy 12 Red Roses from Florist Name for only $99.95. Same-day delivery if ordered before 1pm Monday to Friday and 11am Saturday.
How florists should do SEO. Most flower buyers search with a location plus a flower term: "Roseville Florist", "Roseville Florist near me", "Roseville Flowers", "Roseville Flower shop". The answer is SEO Suburb Landing Pages: a unique page for each suburb you deliver to.
Critical notes on suburb pages:
- You cannot copy one page and swap the suburb name. Google ignores duplicate content.
- You cannot use thin pages with barely any content. Google ignores those too.
- Each page needs quality, unique, relevant content, with headings that match what people search.
Flower Store In a Box includes built-in SEO tools for metadata, SEO reports, and rapid suburb landing page creation. You add the content.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
AEO is the next evolution of SEO. Instead of focusing only on keywords, it answers the full questions customers ask, which matters more as AI assistants and voice search grow. People now ask things like "Do you deliver flowers to my suburb?" or "What's the same-day delivery cut-off?"
Why it matters for florists: Google and AI engines now show direct answers at the top of results. Clear, factual answers make you more likely to be the one featured. Strong AEO means AI engines effectively start doing your marketing for you.
Best pages for FAQs: delivery pages, product and category pages, suburb landing pages, homepage and About page, and blog articles.
Best practice: keep FAQs relevant to the page they are on, do not repeat the same questions everywhere, keep answers factual and consistent with your policies, and write them clearly in your brand voice.
The Flower Store In a Box FAQ tool lets you add FAQs to any page type, reorder them, and it automatically generates the structured data search engines and AI need.
Google Ads (targeted advertising)
Use Google Ads for immediate traffic and sales, while your suburb landing pages build organic rankings over time.
Example: someone searches "Roseville Florist". Your ad reads "Send flowers to Roseville same day for only $50!" and points to your Roseville suburb landing page. High relevance between the ad and the landing page lifts conversion, and that targeted traffic plus good conversion also helps your organic ranking.
A caution. Google's keyword tool can be expensive. Avoid the most generic terms ("flowers", "florist") and the hyper-competitive ones ("Sydney Flowers"). Target more keywords with lower volume that are more relevant to your business.
What to expect: budget around $10 to $20 for each completed sale on your website (that is average cost per sale, not per click).
Social Media Marketing (including Facebook ads for florists)
Instagram and Facebook are useful promotional channels, but they should not be your whole strategy. They work best for your local community and existing customers. Build a strong local following, then promote specials to them.
On remarketing: for everyday flower sales, remarketing usually does not give strong ROI, because florist customers have short sales cycles. They need flowers for today or tomorrow, so they either order now or they do not. The exception is seasonal: a fast, targeted remarketing push for Mother's Day or Valentine's Day, aimed at people who visited in the lead-up but did not order, can work well. (This is about online flower sales, not weddings or events, where remarketing can be effective.)
Google Business Listing
Your free Google Business listing puts you on the map and shows your details when people search your name. It tells Google you are a real, verified business, helps a lot with local search, and is where customer reviews live (which feeds SEO).
Add your delivery locations. In your Google Business dashboard, use "Add Location", choose "I deliver goods and services to my customers", and add your delivery suburbs. This supports your suburb landing pages.
Post regularly. Add images and blog articles to your listing. It signals to Google that your site is current. Frequency matters more than length.
Social Proof Reviews
In a crowded search results page, reviews help customers decide to click you, and then to buy. But not all reviews are equal.
Google Business reviews are the gold standard. They show up in name searches and on Google Maps, on a five-point scale. Reviewers need a Google account, and they do not have to be customers. Google may remove reviews it believes are fake or against policy.
Automate your review requests. Send an automated request the day after delivery, with a direct link to leave a Google review. Flower Store In a Box can do this for you.
Show reviews on your site. Use a plugin that displays your Google reviews. Be wary of in-built free-text review modules added directly to a website, most shoppers rightly ignore those.
Existing Customer Communication (email and SMS)
Your past customers are your cheapest, best source of new orders. Do not let your lists go cold.
Email. Market to your list at least every three months, or contacts go inactive. Always send pre-holiday emails for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas.
SMS. More task-oriented than email, so use it carefully. It is excellent for delivery-cycle messages (order confirmed, out for delivery, ready for pickup), which build trust and cut support calls.
A word on event reminders. It is tempting to send "order again for last year's anniversary" reminders, but there is a dark downside. Relationships break down and people pass away, and a cheerful reminder of a loss can trigger an upset response. In our experience the small sales benefit rarely justifies it.
Create a marketing calendar
Plan your marketing by date for the quarter or year so nothing sneaks up on you.
| Date | Subject | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Store re-opening specials | Email, GMB, Instagram, Facebook |
| 14 Jan | Pre-order for Valentine's Day, 4 weeks away | Email, GMB, Instagram, Facebook |
| 28 Jan | Early-bird Valentine's Day 20% off | Email, web banner, GMB, Instagram, Facebook |
Brainstorm subjects with your team, set a deadline to create the materials, set the send date, and plan three to six months ahead.
A simple florist marketing plan
- Target your delivery suburbs. Build SEO suburb landing pages and point Google Ads at them.
- Claim and manage your Google Business listing. Add delivery suburbs, post images and articles weekly.
- Automate Google review requests the day after delivery.
- Post on Instagram and Facebook for local offers. Quality of audience over quantity.
- Market to existing customers. Regular emails, pre-holiday emails for the big occasions, SMS through the delivery cycle.
- Build a marketing calendar and plan ahead.
Quick summary
- Build unique suburb landing pages and get the on-page SEO right.
- Add FAQ content (AEO) so AI engines recommend you.
- Use Google Ads to your suburb pages, around $10 to $20 per sale.
- Keep your Google Business listing active.
- Automate reviews the day after delivery.
- Market to existing customers with email and SMS, and never let lists go cold.
- Plan it all with a marketing calendar.
