FTD.com website vs TF's cookie cutter

[Joe Mioux]

Awhile back, I was criticized for stating on this forum that I do almost nothing with making my website unique, non conforming to all the other florist websites.

Today, a customer from out-of-state called and wanted to place an order for her Aunt's funeral. I assumed that she was on my website and then called. She was not.

While speaking with her I directed her to my "TF cookie cutter" website. Several times she commented what a wonderful website I had. To put icing on the cake, she said "your site is much better than FTD's (.com) website."

I told her that TF does the work for the internet site. Nevertheless, she repeated that she really liked the site.


WHY am I bringing this up.

Because, I was criticized by some of you for having a cookie cutter website. Remember, you, as professional florists are not looking at these websites like the general public. You are looking at these sites from a competitive position or from a florist-to-florist comparison stand point

THe public, doesn't go to floral websites to critique, evaluate, or even compare your site, to your competitors site or to my site. They go to flowershop websites for convenience.

My point is, when dealing with website marketing issues, you need to remove yourself as a florist and look at it from a consumer point.

Joe

 

[BOSS]

My point is, when dealing with website marketing issues, you need to remove yourself as a florist and look at it from a consumer point.

Joe

Dang hard to do, for me anyway...but good point none the less Joe....

 

[CHR]

Joe -

For reference, the thread about utilizing and customizing (or not) basic wire service templates was called 'Is it possible to have too many choices?'. No one said TF templates were unattractive, in fact I think their off-the-shelf arrangement catalog is the best available in the biz today for shops that want to go the wire service-hosting route. Other florists must agree since they choose TF over FTD by about a 2 to 1 margin.

In that thread, you said

I give this issue about zero time in the course of a year because I'm too busy doing everything else. I use TF template and most of their SRPs.

The TF website template is nothing more than TF's selection guide.

You can customize it with your prices, but I prefer to keep most of TF's recommended SRPs. I do this because occasionally you get a customer purchasing a floral arrangement, through my website, that is to be wired out. If you have a "standardized" price, you eliminate a lot of potential problems.

Each shop has to weigh a number of factors to assess if their site is 'effective' for serving the needs of their local customers as well as being found on search engines for relevant keyword searches by distant shoppers.

Your local market
Does the site reflect your style and inventory? Are the products called 'best sellers' really your best sellers? Can your regular customers purchase from the site and find what they typically order at the prices they usually pay? In essence, is the site an extension of you brick and mortar operation serving the needs of your steady customer base?

Leaving higher-than-normal prices on the chance someone might want to send flowers out of town undermines your local customer base IMO.

Competition
In your case, it appears Mioux's is the only shop in Carlyle that has a website. But even in a small town the OG's are gunning for consumers looking to send flowers there. Take a look at these search results:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=flower+shop+carlyle+il
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=flower+delivery+carlyle+il
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=florist+located+in+carlyle+il&btnG=Google+Search

Based on these pages, the odds of your shop being found by surfers are low and it has everything to do with the fact that these OG's are either buy ads targeting your town or optimize their sites for your city name.

It wouldn't take much to increase your position in these searches. A basic template without the addition of relevant on-page text gives search engines little reason to 'see' your site. Unique products can also be optimized to increase rankings. (So can off-the-shelf ones - but generally not on WS templates.)

From the Consumer's Point

when dealing with website marketing issues, you need to remove yourself as a florist and look at it from a consumer point.

Which kind of consumer? It's not clear how she came to call your shop in the first place. A referral from the funeral home or from someone she knows in the area perhaps? Sounds like she was ready to buy from you and was trying to assess her options - which is far different than a surfer comparing a group of floral websites or a regular buyer looking to order one of Mioux's signature designs.

In this case, looking at the TF catalog online is no different than if she'd walked into your shop, sat down and thumbed through the selection guide herself. Nothing wrong with that of course, but a salesperson - you - probably had to give the usual 'we can make similar, larger, smaller, lower-budget, etc...' since there are more than 100 arrangements in the Sympathy category alone.

I'm glad she found the arrangements to be attractive - in general, so do 20,000+ other florists and millions of consumers.

The points about creating a site to reflect your prices, your specialties, your unique shops aren't/weren't about WS pictures being unattractive - they're about branding your operation online to create an image that's indellibly Mioux's.

 

[theRKF]

Excellent response, Cathy

You covered all my points and then some - once again you've saved me a lot of work!!

Ryan

 

[Joe Mioux]

My point was, is and will remain.

She, as well as others like the way the website looked (ease of navigation and the organization of occassions).

She didn't comment on price, she didn't comment on too much or too little product choices.

Most importantly, she didn't say the website looked like other flower websites, which was the point of this thread. Floral consumers do not go to flower websites on a daily basis so they don't see the nuances like other web-savy florists.

Also, I did not start this thread to get into a discussion of branding MIOUX.

I didn't post this thread to comment on the local markets, the best sellers, or my competition.

I started this thread to point out an annecdotal observation of a real customer commenting on my TF supplied website.


Respectfully Joe

 

[bloomz]

I am a bit with Joe on this. The consumer looks from very different perspective. The SEO stuff is important but can be done with template sites (I think). But I can tell you, it's very very tough to build a better site yourself, and the selections I still think are very very good and really all you need.

But Joe, here's something that just ain't right - I went to findaflorist to put in carlyle cuz I wasn't sure which state. Clicked on your site and get this banner at the top for findaflorist, meaning, if your customers find you that way, they are using that banner to take them away from you if they are planning on using you for their long distance needs. If your site is accessed directly the banner isn't there.

I don't have a TF site any more, but I would scream like a banshee if they put their advertising anywhere on a site I paid them for, no matter how it is accessed. Don't you also somehow pay for that findaflorist listing? Then why they be stealing business from you for people that use it?

Go there thru findaflorist and you'll see what I mean. I can see your customers using this as your last name lends itself to several misspellings.

 

[Joe Mioux]

IBut Joe, here's something that just ain't right - I went to findaflorist to put in carlyle cuz I wasn't sure which state. Clicked on your site and get this banner at the top for findaflorist, meaning, if your customers find you that way, they are using that banner to take them away from you if they are planning on using you for their long distance needs. If your site is accessed directly the banner isn't there.

Ah, but if a consumer is looking to buy flowers for someone in my town or surrounding community, they would know the state.

Joe

 

[bloomz]

Go there thru findaflorist and you'll see what I mean. I can see your customers using this as your last name lends itself to several misspellings.

Do you pay them to list you in findaflorist?

 

[Joe Mioux]

Cathy:

Joe -

Your local market
Does the site reflect your style and inventory?

I believe you are a TF florist and thus you have a TF selection guide, have you pulled out the pages that don't reflect your inventory? You may choose not to show your customers the selection guide but I have customers who want to see it.

This TF's website template is TF's selection guide.

Joe

 

[CHR]

Joe -

I truly meant no offense when I posted the remarks above so please accept my apology. Having spent a lot of time trying to understand the web (without becoming a real webmaster), I have volunteered a chunk of time trying to educate florists about the simple things we can do to help their own sites - wire service-hosted or not.

In search engines, I see a sea of wire service bought-and-paid-for affiliate spam with an occasional real florist bobbing amidst the brackish water. Unique content (words and/or pictures) acts like a flair to signal to search engines that a site isn't the same old flotsam.

Always happy to have customers find you, us or any other real local florist. If you're happy with your site, great. I'll try and stop evangelizing.

 

[RC in Dayton and Cincinnati]

Whenever we enter a new age of technology there are winners and losers.

In the flower industry the winners have been the likes of 1-800flowers and Proflowers, while FTD and Teleflora are struggling to be on the winning side. The big losers have been the American florist, you, me, and most everyone else who considers themselves a traditional florist.

This past Valentine’s Day is a prime example how the Internet has changed our industry. On local news all across the nation there were stories on who had the best roses and best value. Was it 1-800flowers, FTD.com or the direct shipper Proflowers? It was as if the local florist is not even in the race anymore.

A couple of years ago ROBSWF, when he still worked for me, and I were on a business trip to Chicago to visit FTD. While we were there we wanted to visit our friends at Phillip’s Flowers. During the ride we quizzed the chauffer asking if he thought Phillip’s was the best florist in town. He didn’t think so. He thought FTD and 1-800-flowers were the better choice. If we would have asked that question ten years earlier the response would most likely been a local florist. If we would ask him today he may say Proflowers, but the fact is the Internet is enabling these changes in perception and as a result is changing the buying habits of the consumer.

Fortunately for us, the race isn’t over, but in order for us to even have a chance we are going to have to embrace this relatively new technology called the Internet. It’s our new storefront to the world. It’s not about getting an order or two but about showing the customer why we are the better choice, why we are different and unique. The Internet gives us the chance to educate, stimulate and entertain. Most of all it gives us a chance to connect to people we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

I’m sure a hundred years ago there were florists who didn’t think it was necessary to embrace their new technology of the age and said they didn’t need a telephone, that their customers enjoyed stopping in. And I'm sure many were quite successful for quite some time, but eventually most realized the telephone enabled them to connect in a whole new way.

Now, I know you will say you have a website, but are you connecting to people the way you should?

RC

 

[hcflorist]

That chauffer's opinion, like the opinions of most "dummied down" Americans, was likely based on nothing more than the names he hears most or sees most on the media of his choice. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with personal experience.

You and I may have a website. And it may be the best website in America. But it cannot and will not be able to successfully compete against mass advertising funded by the big bucks of public companies who are promoting national brands for their own interests.

Until REAL FLORISTS become willing to stop working for, enabling, aiding, and abetting these giant corporations in competing against themselves, the REAL FLORIST industry probably doesn't have much of a future. And any future it does have is probably based on the continued need of these giants to make the same day "miracle" happen for them.

Real florists need a non-competing advertising umbrella (as Knife puts it) if they are to sucessfully make themselves a choice of "dummied down America". Cause in America, you don't need a product. You don't need honesty. You don't need quality. You don't need integrity. All you need to make the American dream of bleeding the suckers dry and making yourself rich is the BIGGEST ADVERTISING BUDGET ON THE BLOCK ! ! !

Since real florists have NO united advertising budget or program for themselves, and none in the works for the future, they're going to be pretty much left out of the American dream of the future, I fear.

 

[CHR]

As always RC, you post a point-on observation. Thanks!

JB - about that findaflorist.com header:

I went to findaflorist to put in carlyle cuz I wasn't sure which state. Clicked on your site and get this banner at the top for findaflorist, meaning, if your customers find you that way, they are using that banner to take them away from you if they are planning on using you for their long distance needs. If your site is accessed directly the banner isn't there.

If you look at 'view source' on any of the home pages of sites hosted by TF you'll see

<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript">
<!--
function targetopener(mylink, closeme, closeonly)
{
if (! (window.focus && window.opener))return true;
window.opener.focus();
if (window.opener.closed){
FindaFloristPopUp();
}
//if (!closeonly) window.opener.location.href=mylink.href;
//if (!closeonly) FindaFloristPopUp();
if (closeme) window.close();
return false;
}
function FindaFloristPopUp()
{

var url = "http://www.findaflorist.com/default.aspx?srccode=tfcom";
var width = 800;
var height = 600;
var winleft = 0;
var wintop = 0;
var winprops = 'height='+height+',width='+width+',top='+wintop+',left='+winleft+',scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,toolbar=yes,titlebar=yes,status=yes,location=yes,menubar=yes';
var win = window.open(url, 'win', winprops);
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>

I *think* that JS code causes the Findaflorist header to display when arriving via a directory link. Took a look at a few of the indy shop sites listed and none of them display the header.

What I'm still not clear about is whether search engines also see that code on our sites as referrer links to Findaflorist.com - which would make it a pretty darn slick way to use all of the real florist sites for SEO. 12,000+ instant backlinks - ya' think?

I looked at MSN for backlinks and found some pages like this: http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=2876686350396&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE5 and
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=2848657173906&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE10
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=2849080607309&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE10
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=2880422985710&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=2875496667276&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE8

What's weird is that when you click on the link from the results page (not the cached pages above) the header is sometimes gone... Does that mean the spider arrived at the pages via findaflorist?

Of course - I could be 100% wrong about all of this. Anybody understand how java works in this application?