Growing Your Flower Farm Email List: Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about the importance of collecting emails and not relying solely on social media to market my flower farm business. Today, I want to dive into how I gather and grow my email list!
Our Email List Stats
- Currently, we have just over 700 email subscribers after two full growing seasons.
- On average, 50%-60% of our subscribers open our emails, and 8%-15% click through to links in each message.
- We typically lose about 1-3 subscribers with each email, which is actually helpful for keeping our list fresh and filled with folks truly interested in our farm and products.
How We Gather Emails Beyond Our Buyers
Here are the main methods we use to grow our list:
- Email Sign-Up Sheet
- Sign-Up Box on Our Website
- Free Resource Download Shared on Social Media
- Giveaways
Let’s look at each in a bit more detail.
1. Email Sign-Up Sheet
Starting with the basics! This low-tech method was very effective when we were just getting started. At local farmers’ markets, where we sold our flowers for 1.5 years, we could gather about 10-20 emails each week from interested customers. It did mean extra data entry time, but it was a great way to start building a list. With a little more tech savvy, you can generate a QR code that takes the scanner to a Google doc for collecting their information.
And wherever we have a physical presence (pop-ups, flower stands, etc.), we always bring along a sign-up sheet!
2. Sign-Up Box on Our Website
If you don’t have a website, I highly recommend getting one! It’s much easier now, with so many affordable services available that often come with an e-commerce option. Sign-up boxes require integrating with an email marketing service, like Mailchimp, Substack, Beehiiv, or Constant Contact. Right now, we use Beehiiv, which is free at our current volume. When it’s time to pay, we’ll likely switch to Substack, which has a free option no matter the list size. Both are very user-friendly and budget-friendly!
3. Free Resource Download on Social Media
We use our flower expertise to offer a free resource for download, like a gardening guide or a seasonal care checklist. Before downloading, visitors provide their email addresses, and we add interested potential customers to our list. It does take time to create a quality resource, and it requires a little tech-savviness, but the high-quality emails make it worth it. We’re still experimenting with topics to find the one that generates the most sign-ups!
4. Giveaways
We saved the best for last! Giveaways are a fantastic way to attract new emails (plus, you get extra social media follows, likes, and shares). They’re also a great way to gauge interest in a particular product or service.
For example, our first giveaway was a Winter Wreath Workshop for two, which brought in over 60 new emails just from Instagram and Facebook. This response turned out to be a good indicator of high interest in the workshop, which ended up having a record number of attendees. A Thanksgiving centerpiece giveaway brought in about a dozen new emails, but as it had a smaller response, we saw that interest in this product wasn’t as high.
If you’re just starting and want to quickly build your email list, try frequent giveaways! We plan to use them to promote upcoming seasonal offerings, like spring subscriptions, U-Pick events for bridal parties, Mother’s Day flowers, and holiday gift options. Giveaways give us insight into what services and products are most popular while helping to grow our audience.
Hope these tips inspire you to cultivate a flourishing email list of your own!
Do you use other methods for gathering emails? Share in comments below.
Stay tuned for the final part of this series. You won’t want to miss how and why we quickly pivoted out business model from what we originally thought would be the focus of our market to where we are now.
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