The corona crisis has set the entire floriculture, from grower to florist, upside down. Many countries were (partially) closed and not every florist worldwide is allowed to fully practice what they love to do most. To work with flowers, open their flower shop doors and design a spectacular floral centerpiece at a public event. Either way, we bet you are always in search of good ways to attract your potential clientele. This intense and uncertain period in time probably makes you floral artists think about what you could do with one of the most beautiful products in the world - flowers! And how to best showcase those beauties and your design work to those flower lovers online.
Instagram to Help Grow your Business
Hamifleurs believes that Instagram can help your business and alongside your physical sales. It can also stimulate online sales and build up good exposure for your shop. There are many examples to be found of florists that have become very successful on Instagram. But where to start? We have set up this whitepaper for florists to help make a start on Instagram. We give tips and tricks that will help you to have a good basis for your Instagram account. The first steps allow you to think about the following three things: what is your goal, who is your target audience, who are you and what do you want to project and share?
1. What is your Goal and who is your Target Group?
It is probably not for nothing that you are taking the step to start on Instagram. Think carefully before you start what you want to achieve. Do you want to stimulate your online sales via the webshop? Or do you, for example, want more exposure for your shop? It is important to have a clear vision of this, as you can keep this goal in mind when following the next steps. It is also important to consider who your target audience is. Are these men or women and in which age category? Or do you have a wider target audience? Think about who of this group is on Instagram and who you want to reach. What information or style are they interested in? Through deciding this yourself you are making it easier to make choices in the steps to follow. 
2. How Do you Want to Portray your Business?
What do you represent as a florist? Do you have a unique style? Are you modern or classic? Decide what style you want to portray online so that your followers can easily recognize you and project yourself as the unique florist you are. Below are a few examples of accounts portraying their own distinctive style. 
3. What do you Want to Share?
And lastly, it is important to think beforehand about what you want to share. It is helpful to share items that are relevant to your followers. That means not to share things you like to see but to think about what your followers will find interesting on Instagram. If, for example, you only show special offers and that does not interest your followers then they may lose interest and unfollow you. So think carefully about what information you share. It does not matter if you make a wrong judgment here as Instagram shows you your statistics, so you can see which messages do better than others (read more how to do this in our other whitepaper). This is the only way to learn. It is important to have a clear vision of your Instagram strategy before you start. Following, you can start to create an account in the next steps. Do you already have an account and do you just want some tips and tricks to attract more followers? Then just read our other Whitepaper: 10 tips on how I, as a florist, attract more followers on Instagram.
