A woman in another state just learned her aunt died. The service is Thursday, at a funeral home she has never seen, in your town. At midnight she types “sympathy flowers delivery [funeral home name]” or “funeral flowers [your city].” She is tired and sad and she wants to get this right. She will order from the first page that feels kind, sure and local.
Almost every florist does this work. Almost no florist has a real page for it. The sympathy section is a wire-service category with catalog photos and no words. That is a big gap, and it is the page you can write most honestly, because you know this work.
What the page needs to answer
Write it the way you would talk to her on the phone. Gently, plainly, in this order:
- What should I send? Explain the difference between a standing spray, a casket piece, a wreath, a basket for the service, and an arrangement for the family's home. Who usually sends each. A price range for each, in plain numbers.
- Will it get there in time? Say how it works. You call the funeral home to confirm the service time. You deliver before the viewing. Say what time you need the order by.
- Which funeral homes do you deliver to? Name them. Every one in your area, with the town. This is the part the wire services cannot write, and it is the search the family is typing.
- What should the card say? A few simple examples. People freeze at this part.
- Can I send something to the house instead? Yes, and when that is the better choice.
Name the funeral homes
This is the whole guide in one sentence. The family searches the funeral home's name. A page that lists every funeral home you deliver to, with its town, is the page that shows up for “flowers delivered to [that funeral home].” If you deliver to a lot of them, give the busiest ones a short page each: how to get there, what the chapel is like, what sizes fit well, a review from a family you served there. Keep it respectful and short.
What to say about price
Families worry about spending too little and looking cheap, or too much and looking showy. A short, kind paragraph fixes that: what most families send for a parent, for a coworker, for a friend of the family, with a range for each. Say that the card matters more than the size. Say that you will help them choose on the phone. The page that calms the worry gets the order, and the family remembers who helped.
Keep the photos real
Use your own sympathy work, photographed in the shop before it went out. Not the catalog image every other florist uses. The family can tell, and a real standing spray on your bench says “we make this here” in a way no words can.
Keep the tone right
No “shop now.” No countdown timers. No bright red buttons. A calm page with a phone number near the top and a person's name: “Call and ask for Maria. She has done this for a lot of families.” The family wants to know a human will handle it. Say so. Read the page out loud once before you publish it. If any sentence would sound wrong said to a grieving person on the phone, cut it.
Hospitals are the same search
“Flower delivery to [hospital name]” is the sister search, typed by people far away who want to send something to a room. Same idea: name the hospitals, say what each allows (some do not allow flowers in certain units), and how you handle room numbers. One page, or a section on the delivery page.
Link it to the right places
At the top, a link to the same-day delivery page, because the next question is “can you do it tomorrow.” In the middle, a review from a family, gathered with the reviews routine. At the bottom, the phone number again. Not an order button. The phone.
Want this done for you?
This page is one of the seven every florist site needs, and it is the one I see missing most often. If you want me to check yours, the audit is free.