5 Steps to Building Your Personal Brand as a Florist

There is a lot of talk about personal branding these days. Even in the floral world, we stand in awe of the gurus like Jeff Leatham, Karen Tran and Preston Bailey and the globally renowned empires they’ve been able to build around their personas.  

With the rise of social media, anyone can harness that type of mega reach if only they aspire and commit to the hard work that it takes. There is no such thing as an overnight success! What we do not see is years and years of hard work, perseverance, perfecting your craft, reinventing your approach and being a person of integrity who nurtures relationships along the way instead of competing against others. 

Whether the worldly fame and riches are a dream of yours or you are happy to be known as the best local florist in town, we have done the homework to bring you tips and advice on how to differentiate yourself from your competition and build your unique personal brand. 

Are you in for the challenge? Get your pens ready, because we have a whole printable worksheet for you to DO THE WORK today and not put it off any longer. Keep reading!

First, let’s simply the goal of this exercise…

What exactly is a personal brand?

Contrary to the popular misconception, your BRAND is not your logos, colors, fonts or even product –  it’s much more than that. 

A personal brand is an IDENTITY that represents your values, actions, expertise and achievements by which your customers, industry and the public know you. 

Your brand is then defined by the logo, colors, fonts, products and whatever other tangible assets you choose to represent yourself with, known as the Brand Identity.

While the process for defining and establishing a public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority and option-leader in their field is referred to as Personal Branding.

Now that you understand the foundation of personal branding, here are 5 tips to help you stand out from the crowd.

Tip 1: Define your niche

Let’s start from the basics: what are you really good at? And don’t just say “floral design” – that’s the obvious thing.

You cannot build a unique brand if you are trying to be everything to everybody. You need to do the meticulous work of defining your expertise, values and skills as well as narrowing down your target audience and customers. This is where you will be able to position yourself as an expert in the ONE MAIN THING you want to be known for.

While you may offer multiple products or various services, establishing yourself as an expert in one main core specialty is going to give you an edge over others who mass-market. We’ve created a worksheet to help you define your unique personal brand through a set of guiding questions.

Take the time to narrow this down for yourself. Pick the exact specialty that meets your skills and values, then build your personal brand in that niche. This is what you do best after all. Perfecting that craft further while letting others know this is your best work is what’s going to set you apart. You are not everything to everybody, remember that!

Tip 2: Tell your story

Now that you know what your specialty is, you can start working on how to share that with your market and the world. This is where the BRAND IDENTITY (see definition above) comes in the picture. Your logo, colors, slogans, manifesto and fonts matter here. All these elements combined help you tell your story!

Find someone who is a pro to help you create your unique brand identity and help you define your voice, write your bio, and streamline your professional messaging. If you aspire to scale your personal brand, you want to make sure your brand identity matches the values you defined in Tip #1.

Then make sure your website and social channels reflect your brand identity, especially on visual platforms like Instagram. Consistency is key throughout all of your digital presence. Are you posting photos of your food and children in the same feed as your design work? STOP NOW! Stick to your purpose and values. Everything else goes to your story highlights or on your personal Facebook feed.

We have provided a checklist for things you should keep in mind when working on your brand identity.

Tip 3: Establish your influence

You’ve probably heard the word “influencer” being thrown around all over the internet. Do you understand the term as it applies to you?

An influencer is simply a fancy term for “opinion-leader” who had built her/his authority in a specific industry, field or subject-matter.

When you master your unique specialty and establish credibility, others look up to you as the expert whose opinion is valuable and highly sought-after.

See, it’s not that complicated and anybody can become influential. And no, this doesn’t mean you need a million followers or revealing photos of yourself. Just the opposite. You become an expert by being your authentic self while zooming in on your unique competency.

Start slowly but fearlessly. You already know from Tip #1 what your personal brand is, and from Tip #2 what your brand identity looks like. Now work on becoming known for your expertise.

• Is there a local conference for small business owners where you can be a speaker? Having local speaking experience opens doors to more press and publicity.
• Can you find an influential photographer to style a shoot with? Connect with other talented locals who are already doing big things.
• Is there a local magazine or newspaper that needs a guest writer with your specialty? Start writing a monthly column to maintain constant visibility with that audience.

More tips included on the worksheet:

Do local research. Think outside the box. Step up your game. And become the person others go to for advice.

Tip 4: Build an engaged following

Now that you have identified who your key audience is (from Tip #1) you need to figure out how to reach them, make your purpose and values known to them, and keep their attention.

This is one of the hardest steps in the process because you do not control how people behave or respond, but you can control your own effort and commitment to the brand vision you defined for yourself. Consistency is key, we cannot stress that enough. If the momentum is slow at first, don’t give up. Keep reminding the market what value you provide with your product or service.

Few tips to keep in mind:

1. Build an email list: get your followers to go beyond Facebook and Instagram and give you their email address so you have a direct channel of communication with them. While being a growing social media following is important, a new algorithm change can take the power away from you and limit the visibility of your beautiful content for your followers (true story!)
2. Engage in two-way conversations: if you want people to care about your content, you have to show them you care about theirs. Explore existing communities whose members may already be your ideal audience. Pick several accounts on Instagram and a couple of Facebook groups to stay active in, like and comment on others’ posts to drive engagement back to your accounts. But never try to sell. Remember, when you establish your credibility and expertise by consistently showing up for others, they will keep you top of mind when they need your service or product.
3. Always respond: if someone took the time to direct message you or comment on your post/video, you must take the time to respond. That’s an engaged follower right there already knows about you, understands your purpose, and has their interest peaked. Don’t leave them hanging! That’s a no-no in the digital world, the same way you don’t just ignore the person who asks you a question face to face. Show your followers that you care.
4. Video content is key: this is the form of content that has the strongest organic pull across all channels, especially Instagram and Facebook. Become comfortable with video content, from Instagram stories to Instagram Live to IGTV – you have so many options. Videos are consumed at a much faster rate than written content. They add value to your audience. So next time you want to share a DIY tip or talk trends, instead of a long-form blog, film a video for your channels.

Tip 5: Invest in branded experiences

The final key step in building a personal brand is creating unique experiences for others to be a part of. Remember, all great artists offer an experience, not just a product or service. Whether it’s a showing, workshop, masterclass, a new launch, a competition, public art, pop-up event or any other type of occasion, make sure to add your unique signature to it.

Inviting your audience to a tangible manifestation of your brand’s purpose establishes social bonds and builds loyalty in the long run. Unique experiences, when done right, can generate a lot of exposure and publicity for the floral professional which is essentially a form of free advertising.

Plus, people gravitate toward success. If you’ve been working in the floral industry for at least 5 years, you probably have a wealth of knowledge to share with others. Start small and build your way up. Create a webinar teaching some basic tips, do a giveaway, offer web or in-person training, start a mastermind group, etc.

And finally, collaboration is critical! Why do great artists collaborate? Why do talent agents exist? Why are projects more successful when done by a team?

No one has ever built anything great in a silo. It could take you YEARS to grow your personal brand from your solo efforts. In our busy, fast-paced world, it’s very hard to break through all the clutter. But that should be your exact mission when you are building your personal brand.

Find other passionate, committed and like-minded professionals to partner with so that you can achieve mutually beneficial results.

More tips included on the worksheet:

No two brands are ever the same but don’t make the audience do the hard work of figuring out what makes YOU special. Rise to the occasion of establishing your own personal brand in whatever industry you are in. This is a winning strategy that will set you a part of being “just another florist” to being the floral expert people seek out.

Take your time to complete the attached worksheet, as it may take some time to think through all your options. Keep it close as a guide to remind you of the 5 steps you need to keep working on.