Week 4 Project Update

Sep 28

This is the fourth blog in a series I’m creating on improving operations & marketing at a Flower Shop. I will be tracking my progress over the course of a month. Visit my Portfolio to learn more about this project.

I’ve reached the final week of my project and the finish line is in sight! This week I am finishing up one final marketing deliverable and then my focus will shift to putting the finishing touches on my Portfolio page. I’m feeling good about my progress so far and want to finish up strong.

My Goals For Week 4

This week I plan to:

Ask the owner to write a “review” of my project to post on my landing page
Design a holiday email campaign using Mailchimp
Write a blog post & record a Loom video explaining my email campaign
Finalize my landing page

What I Accomplished in Week 4

I achieved 3.5 out of 4 goals this week.

Goal 1

I reached out to the owner and sent her a link to my (unfinished) landing page. I asked her to look over what I made and give me some feedback I could quote on my website. She responded with enthusiasm and said she was too busy this week but promised she would get back to me soon.

She complimented my social media posts and I sent her an email and attached my designs in case she wanted to use them. I saw a few days later that she posted one on her Facebook page. I had a very satisfied feeling seeing one of my designs officially used. I am still waiting for her “review” but I am expecting it to take until next week.

Goal 2

Next, I designed an email campaign to boost holiday sales. I used Mailchimp before so I was already familiar with the platform. I chose the three busiest holidays: Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas and created two emails for each of them. The goal is to encourage people to pre-order their flowers online but a secondary goal was to make the emails feel more personal unlike other promotional emails that end up in someone’s spam folder.

I took the idea of a newsletter and applied it to this email, leaving space for the owner to write her thoughts and including a picture of the team who makes all the flower arrangements. I wanted to emphasize that this is a local, small business run by humans and not a large faceless corporation; I think this will mimic the experience of going to the shop in person and encourage people to order.

Goal 3

After that the next step included writing a blog post explaining my holiday email campaign. I also recorded a Loom video to better showcase the designs on Mailchimp by scrolling through them like in a person’s inbox. You can read my full blog post here and watch my video here.

Goal 4

My final task this week was to redesign my landing page. I was happy with my first 4 sections: an introduction, why I chose this project, my weekly progress updates, and what I did this month; I only needed to update links whenever I added a new blog post. Below that I completely changed the format of my landing page.

I added a quote section for when the owner gets back to me. Then I wrote a paragraph each about: the skills I gained, what I would have done differently, problems I overcame, and my final thoughts overall. The last thing I did was pick some nice photos of flowers at the shop to break up the wall of text. Once I was satisfied with how everything looked, I double checked that all my links worked correctly.

Problems I Ran Into Week 4

I didn’t run into any major problems in week four, just a couple minor ones. When I tried to take screenshots of my designs on Mailchimp I had to zoom way out to capture everything. This made it difficult to read some of the text I wrote. To solve this problem, I recorded a Zoom video where I scrolled through each design so people could see everything at a normal size as if it was sent in somebody’s inbox.

My only other problem was rushing to complete everything before hurricane Ian struck central Florida. I finished most things over the weekend with no problem but since the last day of my project (Wednesday, aka today) is the same day the hurricane will strike I am hurrying to post this blog before the power goes out while also preparing for the incoming storm. Once this blog is posted, I am going to a “hurricane party” at a friend’s house.

hurricane preparation- aka throwing deck furniture in the pool so they don’t blow away

Key Takeaways From Week 4

The idea to combine a newsletter & a promotional email was an idea that came to me as I was almost finished with my email designs but I ran with it and it made them so much better.
See what the landing page looks like on desktop and mobile devices when changing the format. Also, double check all links to make sure none are broken and they all go to the correct place.
Hurricane tip from a native Floridian: make sure the house is stocked with plenty of food, water, batteries, and candles. Throw a “hurricane party” by baking desserts, listening to a curated Spotify playlist, and playing card games.

Plans For Finalizing My Project

Overall I am very satisfied with how my project is shaping up. I am hoping to hear from the owner soon so I can add her “review” to my landing page. Once that is done I will be excited to share my finished Portfolio piece on social media and to potential hiring managers. I learned a lot during this month and am glad I documented my entire learning process so I can look back and see how far I came from the beginning of the project until the end.

Jessica Haley