Earle’s Loveland Floral & Gifts Email Marketing Case Study
Earle’s Loveland Floral & Gifts (Earle’s) is a family-owned business that has been a part of the local community (Loveland, CO) for over 30 years. Beth, the owner, is a talented florist specializing in beautiful arrangements and wedding florals. Kathi, her partner, manages the shop and focuses on gifts, plants, and flowers. In 2021, they expanded by adding a cozy coffee shop next door, creating a welcoming space for customers to enjoy coffee while shopping for flowers and gifts.
Challenges
Earle’s locally-owned floral shop experienced some key challenges in their email marketing:
- Limited Reach and Visibility: As a small, local business, Earle’s had an organic email list of past customers and genuine newsletter subscribers. Earle’s struggled to reach potential customers beyond their immediate community through email marketing. Without targeted campaigns or list-building strategies, they were missing out on new potential customers who may be local and who would appreciate their products and services.
- Inconsistent Engagement: The floral shop’s inconsistent marketing resulted in inconsistent engagement from their existing email subscribers. They might have sent out newsletters or promotions that didn’t resonate with their audience and lacked in branded designs or content flow, leading to low open rates, click-through rates, and, ultimately, a lack of sales growth.
- Seasonality: Floral shops depend heavily on seasonal events (e.g., Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and weddings). Managing email marketing around these busy seasons without overwhelming or under-communicating with customers can be a challenge. The florists are busy doing their thing and handling the marketing on top of being slammed with orders, which can lead to either missed opportunities or excessive emails that could turn off subscribers. The other tricky aspect of this business is that they do have a lot of seasonality and we need to create and nurture ways for them to stay busy in the off-season.
- Lack of Personalization: Without proper segmentation, their emails might not have been personalized, which would make it harder to target specific customer groups effectively. For instance, a customer who bought a bouquet for Valentine’s Day might not be interested in a message about a spring garden party but would likely appreciate something tailored to their previous purchases.
- Mobile Optimization: Floral shops often have customers who are browsing and shopping on mobile devices. If their emails were not optimized for mobile viewing, it could lead to a frustrating experience and lower conversion rates.
- Missed Automation Opportunities: Without email automation set up for key events like birthdays, anniversaries, or seasonal reminders, the shop may have been manually handling communications that could have been automated, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for timely engagement.
Before partnering with us, Earle’s Loveland Floral & Gifts struggled to implement cohesive and effective email marketing strategies, resulting in low engagement and inefficient resource use.
Objectives
- Objective 1: Expand Reach & Build a Targeted Subscriber List
- Increase Earle’s visibility by implementing list-building strategies that attract new, local subscribers beyond their existing customer base. Focus on growing a high-quality list through in-store signups, website popups, social media lead magnets, and community-focused campaigns to connect with floral, gift, and coffee lovers in the area.
- Increase Earle’s visibility by implementing list-building strategies that attract new, local subscribers beyond their existing customer base. Focus on growing a high-quality list through in-store signups, website popups, social media lead magnets, and community-focused campaigns to connect with floral, gift, and coffee lovers in the area.
- Objective 2: Improve Engagement & Nurture Customer Relationships Year-Round
- Create a consistent email content calendar that aligns with seasonal trends and everyday moments, providing value, inspiration, and connection. The goal is to drive higher open and click-through rates by using warm, branded messaging, consistent visual design, and content that resonates with both gift-givers and plant-lovers throughout the year—even during off-peak seasons.
- Create a consistent email content calendar that aligns with seasonal trends and everyday moments, providing value, inspiration, and connection. The goal is to drive higher open and click-through rates by using warm, branded messaging, consistent visual design, and content that resonates with both gift-givers and plant-lovers throughout the year—even during off-peak seasons.
- Objective 3: Automate Key Touchpoints & Personalize the Customer Experience
- Implement automation workflows for birthdays, anniversaries, and major holidays while using segmentation to deliver more relevant content to specific audience groups. Ensure all emails are mobile-optimized and visually appealing to boost conversions and create a smoother shopping experience, whether customers are buying blooms or just grabbing a latte.
Approach & Strategy
Strategy Overview
To address the challenges Earle’s Loveland Floral & Gifts was facing, our approach centered on building a strong, consistent foundation for email marketing that felt as warm and personal as the in-store experience. We focused on increasing engagement, expanding reach, and streamlining efforts for Beth, Kathi, and the team—especially during peak floral holidays when time and resources are limited.
Our strategy combined practical automation with thoughtful, brand-aligned content. We aimed to create emails that felt like friendly notes from a neighborhood favorite, while subtly guiding subscribers to discover and engage with Earle’s offerings year-round.
Email Content Calendar
We developed a year-long seasonal email content calendar tailored to Earle’s unique business cycle—highlighting major floral holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and the winter holiday season, while also nurturing interest during slower months through features on indoor plants, gift ideas, and coffee shop specials. Each email was crafted with consistent, on-brand language and visuals, reinforcing Earle’s inviting and community-focused personality.
In addition, we focused on:
- Segment-specific messaging (e.g., past floral customers, coffee shop fans, wedding inquiries)
- Celebration themes (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, local events)
- Engagement tactics such as review requests, behind-the-scenes stories, and “sips of the season” coffee highlights
Execution Plan
We implemented our email marketing strategy and messaging to align with our content calendar. We also implemented mobile-optimized templates and tested them before scheduling to ensure optimization and appearance across all email providers displayed properly. We automated some workflows for welcome emails and thank-yous for customer orders. This saved time for the in-store team and ensured timely, relevant communication with subscribers outside of our sales focused messaging.
Each email was tracked for performance, with open rates, click rates, and engagement trends informing future content decisions to improve results and relevance continually. Taking note of best send days and send times for reader engagement and opens.
A significant effort was put forth to gather customer reviews and bolster their online review presence within Google My Business.
Results
Consistent Subscriber Growth in the positive despite subscriber churn.
Client Testimonial
We have used Alex and Bobby to help us with our marketing for the last few months, and we have seen constant increases in our customers to our website and increasing monthly profits. Alex is our primary contact and is very responsive and professional, offering all kinds of ideas and advice to us all the time.
Positive:
Responsiveness, Quality, Professionalism, Value