There’s no one way to Petal It Forward.
On Wednesday, Oct. 14, floral businesses across the country will surprise strangers with two bouquets — one to keep and one to give away — as part of the Society of American Florists’ 12th annual goodwill initiative. The goal is to demonstrate the positive effects of giving and receiving flowers, while generating goodwill and visibility for the floral industry.
Participation doesn’t have to mean orchestrating a major community event. Whether you have a few hours and a few hundred stems or the resources to mobilize partners across town, there’s an approach that can work for your business.
Here are five ways to join in the movement, from the simplest to most involved efforts.
1. Start at Your Front Door
The easiest location may be one you already have: your storefront. Set up outside your shop and surprise customers and passersby with flowers. It eliminates the logistics of transporting flowers and staff elsewhere while giving recipients an introduction to your business.
Keep promotion simple, too. SAF offers ready-made resources, including talking points, flower cards, press materials and social graphics, so participants don’t have to create a campaign from scratch. You can also outfit your team in matching Petal It Forward shirts, available to order through SAF.
2. Go Where the People Are
Have a little more bandwidth? Take the flowers to a high-traffic location such as a downtown business district, park or other busy pedestrian area. Florists have long used off-site giveaways to reach people who might never otherwise walk through their doors.
The approach can still be relatively low lift: Load up the delivery van, enlist a few staff members or volunteers and spend an hour or two handing out bouquets. Or make several stops around town, visiting local businesses and offices.
3. Recruit Extra Hands
Want to distribute more flowers without putting all the work on your staff? Expand the team.
Friends, customers and community volunteers can help assemble bouquets, load vehicles, hand out flowers or capture photos. SAF members have also recruited scouts, sports teams and other youth organizations to help with Petal It Forward.
The benefit is straightforward: More helpers allow a shop to increase the number of bouquets it distributes or cover more locations without substantially complicating the event. And involving volunteers introduces another group of people to the Petal It Forward message.
4. Tap Into a Partner’s Audience
Rather than simply recruiting people to help, form a partnership with an organization that can extend Petal It Forward into a new corner of the community.
Schools, police and fire departments, local businesses, nonprofits and other civic organizations can put florists in front of audiences they might not otherwise reach. Some SAF members have developed recurring partnerships with local police departments, generating social media exposure and local press coverage along the way.
Media outlets can be partners, too. Florists have teamed up with radio stations and other community-minded organizations to help promote and participate in their giveaways.
The key difference at this level: Don’t just ask for helping hands. Look for a partner whose audience, location or community connections can multiply the reach of the flowers you’re already planning to give away.
5. Make a Day of It
For businesses ready to go big, combine the tactics: Recruit volunteers, bring in multiple community partners, stake out high-traffic locations and build a publicity campaign around the event.
Some SAF members have coordinated with schools, police departments, local businesses and other community organizations to turn Petal It Forward into a larger civic event. Others have supported their giveaways with outreach to TV, radio and newspapers and coordinated social media promotion throughout the day.
No matter the size and reach of your event, make sure it has a life beyond Oct. 14.
Assign someone to capture photos, videos and recipient reactions and share them throughout the day using the hashtag #PetalItForward. That content can continue demonstrating your shop’s community involvement long after the last bouquet is distributed.
Register for Petal It Forward here.
Katie Vincent is the senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.
