Indoor houseplant business has a store but no online presence

Aaron talked to Kate the owner of Fern and Ivy, an amazing houseplant store in the Cotswolds with barely any online presence!

Here’s some of the key advice given to Kate to increase her online space and how she could be doing digital marketing:

Focus on driving foot traffic to the physical store:

• Use localised paid social media advertising (Meta/Facebook/Instagram)
• Target a 5-mile radius around the store
• Start with a budget of £20-30 per day
• Use Advantage Plus campaigns for both prospecting and retargeting

Create and promote events:

• Host open days, workshops, or special promotions
• Use these events as reasons to advertise and drive foot traffic

Improve email marketing:

• Collect email addresses from store visitors (e.g., through competitions)
• Increase email frequency to 1-2 times per month
• Promote workshops and new products through email

Leverage existing customer data:

• Upload email lists to Meta for retargeting
• Analyse customer purchase frequency and work on increasing repeat purchases

Optimise online presence:

• Improve product titles and descriptions in Google Shopping feed
• Use Google Search Console data to understand how people find the website
• Consider adding Google Ads in 6 months after establishing Meta ads

Focus on increasing lifetime value:

• Create initiatives to encourage repeat purchases
• Track and aim to increase the percentage of customers who buy more than once

Analyse and use data:

• Track store performance over time to measure the impact of marketing efforts
• Use competitor ads for inspiration on ad creative

Prioritise and execute:

• Create a 12-month plan with clear priorities
• Break it down into 3-month actionable goals
• Focus on no more than three priorities at a time

The overall advice was to start actively marketing the business, particularly focusing on driving local awareness and foot traffic to the physical store, while also laying the groundwork for future online growth.

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