How to use Instagram to market your business at RHS Chelsea
Having worked with a number of award-winning garden designers, we know how much time, effort and work goes into presenting a show garden for a flower show, especially the flagship RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Managing the build, landscapers and all the behind-the-scenes logistics is a huge undertaking. However, garden designers and garden brands often get to a few days before the show only to realise they’ve neglected how to market their garden business on Instagram.
Obviously the show garden result is the first priority, but we want to encourage you to get your ducks in a row: a garden show is an amazing opportunity to boost your brand recognition and fuel future enquiries or sales.
With the huge crowds that RHS garden shows attract, Instagram is a key part of marketing your garden brand, as it not only engages those present at a show, but all those looking on digitally from home. Instagram also gives you a wider window before and after a garden show to be getting your garden brand out there and engaging with potential customers.
In short, social media - in particular the photo-sharing app Instagram - needs to be part of your marketing approach when it comes to RHS Flower Shows. Make sure it’s not an after-thought and ensure it’s all linked up with the preparations you’ve made on your website (see the previous posts in this series for lots of advice on that aspect).
Given that RHS garden shows attract thousands of people, now is the time to make sure you are harnessing the power of Instagram for your business. Whether you are exhibiting, helping create an incredible RHS show garden, acting as a supplier or just visiting an event for business inspiration, you are missing a trick if you don’t take advantage of the huge surge. With a little planning and some easy steps you can make sure you don’t miss out – check to see if you’re missing any of the points on our checklist.
Here are six top tips for upping your game on Instagram and how it feeds into your website for your big RHS flower show:
Make sure your Instagram bio is up to date & ready to go!
Start talking about your RHS garden show to your Instagram followers now!
Don’t just post photographs on Instagram
Be clear, concise & engaging on your website homepage
Start talking about your event or campaign everywhere on your website
Start writing website content for your audience now!
Wildings is a website design agency in Devon. Based in Torquay in South Devon we design standout websites for small businesses like garden designers, interior designers, florists and architects (garden, interiors and lifestyle brands). In this series, we’re looking at how to market your small garden business or brand off the back of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show or the Spring rush: catch up on the previous article, ‘Media kits: how to sift website enquiries from RHS Chelsea’ or explore the rest of our series on how to market your garden brand at the Chelsea Garden Show →
1. Update your Instagram bio before RHS Chelsea!
With just 150 characters to play with, getting your Instagram bio right is harder than it looks, but don’t overlook it! It can be the first hurdle that stops potential customers from an RHS garden show following you
First of all, make sure you have a clear, high quality image as your profile picture that ties into your brand. Then make those 150 characters work hard for you. Explain exactly what you do – think of it as your elevator pitch! Remember Instagram isn’t a website though, avoid corporate language and instead write like you are talking to a friend. Also steer away from strange fonts that are hard to read and use key words that Instagram’s SEO can pick up on.
Your bio should also feature any social proof about what you do – qualifications, awards, magazine or newspaper articles and testimonials all help position you or your business as experts in what you do.
Always include a ‘call to action’, which is yucky marketing speak for giving the viewer something to do – whether that’s to sign up to get a discount code, click to buy something in your shop or register for your newsletter. It’s all too easy to forget to keep your links and contact details up to date so give them all a spring clean to check they’re sending people to the right place before the RHS garden show.
Give your Instagram highlights a revamp. If any of them are more than 6 months old then it’s time for a change. Delete them and bring them up to date. Key highlights should include ‘about us’, ‘how we work’, ‘the team’ and depending on what you do information about your products or services.
2. Start talking about RHS Chelsea to your followers now!
If you are attending the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, exhibiting at an event (such as at a BBC Gardeners’ World even) or launching a campaign, then now is the time to start creating and sharing content.
Once the RHS Chelsea show opens, Instagram will be flooded with posts and Reels and stories all about the show, so get in ahead. Behind the scenes content is a great way of building a closer relationship with your existing followers to create a buzz around the event.
Here are some ideas of content you could start sharing:
Start a video diary on your Stories for each day of the build-up with a countdown to RHS Chelsea
Visit other stands and gardens at RHS Chelsea and share what they’re up to
Think about going live with another exhibitor from the RHS Chelsea exhibition ground
Share anything beautiful or inspiration in and around the venue, such as floral decorations outside the RHS Chelsea site on the King’s Road and other parts of Chelsea
Host a Q&A from RHS Chelsea – ask for questions from your followers and answer them in your stories to illustrate your offerings and allow people to engage with you at different price points according to their budgets
3. Post Reels about RHS Chelsea on Instagram
Don’t jut post photos - prioritise Reels (short videos)! Instagram has become a social media platform that prioritises video (Reels) for a while now, so if you want to reach more people at RHS Chelsea with your content then Reels are absolutely the way forward. I’m not kidding – you are really making things hard for yourself if you are avoiding video.
There are lots of ways to use Reels and video content and you 100% don’t need a TV production crew to get going.
Key bits of equipment that help are:
A tripod
A remote control button
Your phone
That’s it!
You can find tripods and remotes online for less than £50 combined and they will make your life much, much easier.Also – download an app called InShot from the App Store that will help you edit your videos really easily.
If you’re yet to share video content on Instagram don’t panic. It’s easier than you think. Start by sharing some clips of your business on your Stories. Stories are meant to be less polished and a behind the scenes video diary of your day at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a brilliant way to start.
But if you want to reach the most people and maximise your exposure during the flower show you need to get Reel-ing! Instagram Reels were rolled out in August 2020 and they are short 90 second-max videos that you can scroll through. They are super, super popular and the fastest way to get the most eyes on your brand on the platform.
Ideas might be:
5 ways to… (teach something your audience will love in this Reel)
4 plants we’ve LOVED at RHS Chelsea this year…
What really goes on behind the scenes at RHS Chelsea (include all the non-glamorous parts)
3 things you didn’t know about the Chelsea Flower Show
A Reel with short clips of your customers on the stand or at RHS Chelsea, showing how busy it is
If you’re exhibiting or have a stand at RHS Chelsea then try to create some of your Reels in advance that you can post during the show when you’ll be flat out. Remember to always add hashtags that describe the content and captions that will engage your audience.
4. Be clear, concise & engaging on your website homepage
In the same way that your bio in your Instagram profile can win or put off a potential client from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, it is crucial that your homepage communicates clearly and effectively. Otherwise say goodbye to all those visitors coming your way after the flower show!
The good thing is that these improvements can be made relatively easily before RHS Chelsea. Here’re our top tips on optimising your website homepage to back up what customers see on your Instagram profile.
Be ultra-focussed at the top of your website homepage
‘Above the fold’ is the phrase used to describe the area of a webpage that is displayed on first load without having to scroll down. This area of your homepage is prime real estate - use it to say in a nutshell who you are, what you do and how you help clients. Think of it as another place for your elevator pitch so be concise; write with your audience’s problems in mind; and aim to build a connection as quickly as possible, especially if people are looking you up after the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Use client testimonials on your website to do the hard work
As humans, we are social creatures and have a strong in-built sense to follow the crowd or trust what prominent figures say. Your website is an excellent place to use testimonials from previous clients to build that social proof with prospective clients after RHS Chelsea. If you don’t have any, ask for one! Better yet, give them some prompts on how to write it. It’s much easier to copy and paste that onto your site than write it for yourself. Plus, people will perceive less of a vested interest when someone else is talking about how great you are.
Make next steps clear & obvious on your website
A Call to Action can be a bit of an off-putting phrase, but they are very useful and effective on your website. After doing all the hard graft of getting people to visit your lovely website from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, you want them to achieve something, don’t you? Ideally, making an enquiry, joining a workshop or perhaps buying one of your awesome products. A call to action is a timely signpost at a critical point which helps people get to the end of a small journey on your site. Use them at the bottom of your pages as springboards to the next step or key place you’d like people to visit.
5. Start talking about RHS Chelsea everywhere on your website!
We all love stories, so start telling your story now. What’s your journey to your RHS Chelsea? What are your hopes? How do you want to benefit or impact people this year? There are so many ways to say you’ll be at an event or doing a campaign, and to keep talking about it so your audience really know you’ll be there and what you will be doing.
Here are some quick ways to tell people about RHS Chelsea or remind them that you’ll be there. Utilise the many handy features on your site to steer people to read more about what you’ll be doing; how people can meet you in person; or learn more about what you are up to.
Activate an website announcement bar
This appears at the top of your website and as it sits next to the navigation menu, is an easy way for people to see a prominent message. For example, ‘I’ll be at RHS Chelsea this year - find out what I’ll be up to!’.
Activate a pop-up on your website
Love them or loathe them, website pop-ups are a really helpful way of jolting the user to view a piece of information and engage with it. These can be used to announce a message, direct the visitor to a blog page or sign up to a piece of marketing, especially in and around RHS Chelsea. Consider the timing so it doesn’t pop up straight away. You can delay them or have them activate on a section of a page. So perhaps delay for 30 seconds until after the user has had a chance to engage on the website first.
Add a website marquee banner
Sometimes called a marquee banner, a scrolling block (in Squarespace) or a ticker tape, these are now standard blocks on Squarespace websites and can be added to share a piece of news. These can be linked to pages online and overall are a great way to get people’s attention, add some dynamic movement and highlight key info to do with RHS Chelsea.
Tailor your website enquiry submission form
After people have made an enquiry or signed up to a newsletter via your website, consider sending them to a post sign-up page that thanks them and also says where you’ll be or what you’ll be doing at RHS Chelsea. Offer them a short bit of your story and invite them to read more about what you’ll be up to or ways they can meet you in person at the event.
Tell people in your newsletter (make sure they can subscribe via your website!)
In a previous post in the series we talked about turning website visitors into avid followers. A newsletter is a really powerful tool to tell your story and share your message with people who have actually signed up to say they are interested in hearing more from you after RHS Chelsea. Your email list allows you to communicate what you want, when you want and in your own way. Don’t forget to make it easy and obvious where to sign up on your website!
Write some website blog posts with helpful, relevant content
Share your journey, share your hopes; what do you want to achieve through RHS Chelsea this year? Share a diary in the run up to the flower show; what’s going on behind the scenes. These are powerful ways for your audience and those interested in your particular industry to learn more about how you are getting ready for RHS Chelsea this year or your marketing campaign.
6. Start writing RHS Chelsea-related content on your website now!
In previous articles in the series, we’ve talked about how Google loves sites with regular, fresh content and how you can engage visitors with it. Plan ahead for the big surge in and around the RHS Chelsea Flower Show or the busy Spring season with some meaty content just for your ideal kind of website visitor.
This means that you can stand out as an expert in your industry as well as help people really practically, which both drive enquiries and sales. Go beyond what you can Google; be a human; show your expertise.
Just in case you’re worried, there will always be a good percentage of visitors who decide they don’t have the time, capacity or desire to do things themselves - that’s where you step in.
Here are some ideas for garden brands, such as garden designers, about how you can use content on your site to take advantage of a surge in interest from the flower show.
How to commission a garden expert
This is a great topic that can form a mini-series which answers the question ‘how do I get the best results and the most for my money?’. The reality with the garden sector is that there is a lot of competition and lookalike brands. Distinguishing between them is tough and customers need help with decision making. Content on questions to ask, what to look for and what to avoid is very useful and insightful. By doing some of the heavy lifting for people sets you apart and gives them a great reason to choose you above others.
The differences between different kinds of brands in the horticultural world
Only after working with a garden designer did we fully come to understand the nuances of the garden world, such as the differences between garden designers, landscape gardeners and landscape architects. It can be quite confusing, so why not anticipate this and help your potential clients! This topic gives you the chance for a minimum of three meaty topics unpacking each area and positioning yourself in pride of place where needed within those interconnections. You can also use Google to find suggested topics when you type in search terms.
In-depth buyer’s guide to garden services or products
As with the commissioning guide, this is another excellent way to make life easier for clients you’d like to work with. It can be quite daunting for the average person standing at the start of a big-ticket commission. People need quality advice and help at this point to help them make good decisions they won’t regret. A blog series on the ins and outs of buying a particular service is an excellent way to reduce worry and anxiety in visitors who are in the market to buy. By reducing those emotions, you build trust and that is a surefire way to generate sales.
Anything else I need to know about using Instagram to market my business at RHS Chelsea?
That’s all for this time on using Instagram (don’t forget Reels!) to complement your garden design website, especially if you’re involved in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It’s part 5 in our ‘How to market your garden brand at RHS Chelsea Flower Show‘ series, helping your business make the most of the Spring surge, if you’re a garden brand or preparing for RHS Chelsea or a big industry event. If you’d like to get more helpful tips from us or visual inspiration, follow @wildings.studio on Instagram; or read more of our garden designer-focussed blogs on website design below.
