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New Direct Mail Options From The U.S. Post Office

Thanks to FSN member Tim, at Botaniq Floral Studio in Santa Rosa Beach, FL for giving us the tip about this new program!

The U.S. Post Office has come out with a brand new direct mail program that could be a huge benefit to local businesses. They call it Every Door Direct Mail.

What is Every Door Direct Mail

Every Door Direct MailEvery Door Direct Mail enables you to extend your customer reach without the need for mailing lists, permits, and the associated fees. With Every Door Direct Mail, you create a direct mail without applying individual names and addresses to each mail-piece.

  • You pay 14.2¢ (cents) for each mail piece you send out.
  • Your target area can be a city, neighborhood or specified distance from your business.
  • Every Door Direct Mail is available only for Regular Standard Mail Flat size pieces.
  • The minimum number of pieces required is the number of active deliveries on a carrier route (not less than 200 pieces per mailing).

Every Door Direct MailHow Every Door Direct Mail Benefits you

  • Target a location without an address list
  • Easily send out local mailings
  • Build more traffic
  • Find new customers

FSN Makes It Even Easier With Direct Mail Templates

If you’re one of our fantastic(!) FSN members, we offer a Direct Mail Template Generator for you in your FSNf2f dashboard. Simply log in to FSNf2f.com and scroll down to the Marketing section in the orange right menu. Click on Direct Marketing Templates and you will see the 3 template options available to you: Build A Marketing Piece, Build A Brochure, and Build A Statement Stuffer.

Direct Mail Generator from Flower Shop Network

All of these are easy to use and will feature your shop’s information! The Build A Marketing Piece is the one you want to use to create your direct mailer. If you are using Every Door Direct Mail from the post office, you will not need to select bulk mail permit. If you need help creating your template, watch the Video Tutorial by clicking the green button. More on the USPS site on Every Door Direct Mail Requirements.

Be sure to contact YOUR local post office before hand to make sure the size and weight of your direct mailer is correct BEFORE mass printing them. You will also need to know how many addresses are on a specific route.

[Update] After talking to several post offices about this, we have found out that pages need to be legal size, which is 8½” × 14″. One post office said a standard paper size (8½” × 11″) would work, while another said no. So.. again CHECK WITH YOUR POST OFFICE!

For much more information about Every Door Direct Mail, visit the USPS Website.

Mothers Day Tips for Florists

Mother’s Day is almost upon us. To relieve some of your stress, we are sending a Mother’s Day Tips sheet for your new or part-time employees. Hopefully these tips will equip your employees with the information they need for efficient customer service while eliminating potential problems with order delivery.

Mother’s Day Tips

  • Place orders early, orders placed after 12:00PM cst Friday cannot be guaranteed delivery before Mother’s Day.

  • Please provide complete delivery information for recipients. We must have street address and telephone number, and a cell phone if possible.

  • Minimum Order for Mother’s Day is $40 with an average delivery fee of $8 to $10 except in metro areas where delivery could be as much as $15.

  • Always provide a 2nd choice option for each order.

  • Please inform your staff that FSN Headquarters may be calling with florist to florist orders during this holiday. These checks will be sent Monday following the delivery date and will be paid at 80%.

The FSN relay team is committed to making your holiday go smoothly.

Valentine’s Day 2007 – Important Order Tips

With the 2007 Valentine’s Day holiday approaching, Flower Shop Network would like to offer these suggestions and tips to ensure your satisfaction as well as your customer’s, on orders placed going outside your delivery area:

  • Delivery fees in metro areas average $10 to $12.

  • Provide recipient telephone numbers. Many shops will not accept orders without a working recipient phone number.

  • During the Valentine’s Day holiday, the minimum order amount is $40, plus delivery which averages $8-$10.

  • Must provide 2nd choice products on orders: this includes flowers, colors, etc…

  • Guaranteed delivery cutoff will be Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 2:00pm CST.

  • Please inform your customers that orders placed after the cutoff date and time will be delivered as quickly as possible according to the delivery date.

The staff at Flower Shop Network appreciates the opportunity to work with you and wish you a happy and prosperous Valentine’s Day.Sincerely,

Julie Ratliff
FSN Relay Manager

Mother’s Day 2006 – Relay Suggestions

With the Mother’s Day holiday approaching, Flower Shop Network would like to make these suggestions to ensure your satisfaction as well as your customer’s, on orders placed going outside your delivery area:

Encourage customers to place orders early.

Consider minimum order amounts of at least $40 PLUS a delivery charge. Shops in METRO areas may require $50 PLUS a delivery charge.

Allow an additional $ 5.00- $10.00 for delivery. Metro and rural delivery areas may run $10 to $15.

Obtain a 2nd choice/ or color for product.

Obtain recipient phone numbers. Many shops will not attempt delivery without a recipient phone number.

Send your orders via www.fsnf2f.com the fastest, lowest cost and most accurate way to send your orders. If you are not setup call 800-858-9925 today for immediate access.

Our Florist to Florist relay department will be on an extended schedule Mother’s Day week to better serve you. Our Mother’s Day Holiday Hours are:

7:00am to 7:00pm CST – Monday, May 1st – Friday, May 5th
7:00am to 5:00pm CST – Saturday May 6th
Relay Office Closed on Sunday May 7th
7:00am to 8:00pm CST – Monday May 8th – Friday May 12th
7:00am to 6:00pm CST – Saturday May 13th
10:00AM to 2:00pm CST – Sunday May 14th

Julie Ratliff
Relay Department Manager

FSN Holiday Email Campaigns

sample valentine's day holiday emailFlower Shop Network is proud to announce the formal launch of our Holiday Email Campaigns program. The holiday email program has actually been in beta since October of 2005. The program experienced tremendous success during beta testing and thoroughly increased traffic to FSN member sites. As a result of that early success, Flower Shop Network is has campaigns scheduled throughout the remainder of 2006.

This is how it works: Before each major floral holiday, Flower Shop Network sends holiday-themed email messages to subscribers, showcasing current featured holiday arrangements.

This helps the local florist by reminding consumers:

that flowers are great last-minute gift ideas for any occasion.

how easy it is to send flowers to someone almost anywhere.

to order their flowers direct from a real, local florist or flower shop.

Flower Shop Network never competes against you by taking orders from your customers. All consumer orders phoned directly to your shop, as well as consumer web orders placed on your FSN Website and sent to you via FSN Relay, represent more flower orders coming into your shop at 100%.

Direct consumer orders are more profitable for your business, and you also receive valuable consumer information that allows you to market to your customers for profitable, repeat business.

valentine's day holiday email sampleFSN Member Florists can also utilize FSN Holiday Email Announcements as a marketing piece that is easy to forward to their own customer address book or database right before the holiday. Please review our terms of use before modifying the email announcements and contact us if you have any questions about forwarding these messages on to your customers.

Click here to view samples of the FSN Holiday Email Announcements, another way that FSN is bringing more and more profitable consumer orders directly to your shop.

The holiday email campaigns are just another valuable service provided to the member florists of Flower Shop Network.

Keep an eye on this news section and the Florists Only section of our site for the latest information about new features and programs provided by Flower Shop Network.