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Digital Strategy BY RENATO CRUZ SOGUECO, AAF, PFCI DIGITAL HELP, DONE RIGHT
>Digital marketing in today’s market is truly a must and can work extremely well for brick-and-mortar florists. When it’s done right, it can drive consistent orders, improve visibility in your local market, and support growth during both everyday business and peak holidays. The challenge many florists find is
that investing in and executing success- ful Google Ads and social ads requires an expertise many shops don’t have. That’s why working with a digital mar- keting company can make sense — but only if florists enter those partnerships with clear goals, firm expectations and the right questions. Understanding how to budget, evaluate partners, and track performance is essential. Otherwise, a well-intentioned investment can quickly become a costly error.
Set a Budget — and a Goal Digital marketing is not something you “try” casually. For most retail florists, a healthy total marketing budget lands somewhere between 6% and 10% of gross revenue, with a meaningful portion of that — often half or more — allocated to digital marketing. That number includes not just ad
spend, but management fees, creative work and ongoing optimization. If the budget doesn’t work on paper, it won’t work in practice. It’s important to decide what success looks like before any agency is hired.
“More orders” is an understandable
goal, but it’s not specific enough to guide decision-making. Think in terms of cost per order, return on ad spend, deliv- ery volume, and holiday performance. Define what a reasonable outcome looks like for your business. Otherwise, it’s hard evaluating whether a marketing partner is doing a good job.
Evaluate Floral Knowledge A marketing partner doesn’t need to specialize exclusively in florists, but they do need to understand how a retail flower shop operates. If they can’t speak comfortably about holiday spend, prod- uct availability, the importance of same day local delivery, local search behavior, or identify your competitors, that gap will show up in performance.
Look for Strategy, Not Secrecy Strong agencies are willing to walk through their thinking — how they structure campaigns, how budgets are allocated, how conversions are tracked, and how landing pages support per- formance. Weak agencies hide behind vague language or proprietary claims. It’s good practice to ask for their
insight about how they’ll reach your audience. Ask for their recommenda- tion based on area demographics, what they’ve seen as most effective and/or how other campaigns have fared with like businesses.
Look for Transparency Your business should always own its advertising accounts, analytics and data. If an agency insists on running ads through their own accounts, that’s a problem. If you part ways, all the digital assets in which you’ve invested can eas- ily be shared with a new vendor. You should also expect clear
reporting that ties spend to revenue, not just impressions or clicks, and explanations that make sense without a marketing degree. If you don’t under- stand what you’re seeing, ask questions until you do.
Start Small and Short-Term Resist long-term contracts, especially at the beginning of a relationship with a new marketing agency. A 60- to 90-day pilot focused on one or two channels — often Google Search and Shopping, and a social ad campaign — is usually enough to determine whether there’s a foundation worth building on. Digital marketing requires testing and refinement, and a pilot allows you to learn without locking yourself into a long-term commitment before results are proven.
Evaluate Performance Calmly and Consistently It can be hard to tell — at least at the beginning — whether the marketing is yielding results because you may need to adjust campaigns to see what works best. That’s one reason why digital mar- keting should be assessed over time, using trends and data, not based on emotional reactions to a slow week or a tough holiday. The best partnerships are always evolving.
Renato Cruz Sogueco, AAF, PFCI, is a consultant specializing in digital marketing, artificial intelligence and retail technology innovation with more than 25 years of experience serving floral businesses as the former CIO of Society of American Florists and vice president of digital strategy at
1-800-Flowers.com. He can be reached at
renato@sogueco.com.
34 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | Mar/Apr 2026 |
WWW.SAFNOW.ORG
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