GrayWolf Florist?

Michael Gray, well-known search engine optimization specialist, is offering readers an opportunity to ask him questions. I first ran across Gray's blog when he did an outstanding series of interviews about local search this past winter. My guess is that most local florists missed them since their appearance coincided with the hectic run-up to Valentine's Day. Hopefully many will take the time during our slower summer months.

So Michael, here's my question:

Pretend you're the founder of GrayWolf Florist, a brick and mortar store with an excellent reputation in your community.  (Sorry, couldn't resist including a photo.)

Your competition is fierce, especially online. You're not only competing with other local florists, supermarket flower departments and mass marketers, you're fighting for market share with three types of national advertisers:

• Wire Services like FTD, 1-800-Flowers and others who are willing to spend upwards of $35 per new customer acquisition. (With an average sale of about $60.) Those companies will relay/broker orders to you but you must agree to accept payment of approximately 60% of each total order value while fulfilling it at 100%.
• Affiliate marketers of the wire services that create a second tier of competition. Many have co-opted the markings of brick and mortar stores by running ads saying 'florist in your town' 'family owned and operated' and other tactics that lead consumers to believe they are purchasing direct from a florist in your community. Some will go as far as using phony local addresses and purchasing local phone numbers with remote call forwarding. Again, you have to agree to take fulfillment of their orders at substantial discounts.
• Direct shippers like ProFlowers who focus on low prices but offer far fewer services and a lower presentation experience. Oh, and their model relies on the same wire service scheme for same-day gift delivery.

To make the issue more challenging, you're also dealing with nasty blackhat reviews posted by competitors.

You want to focus on serving your local market, where you have the most customer interaction and satisfaction, and aggressively compete for flower orders from across the globe destined for your area.

With little time and a meager budget compared to the national companies, what key points would your website promote and what main approaches would you use to optimize your site to convey relevance both geographically and topically?

(Sorry for the long question but you did say we were stuck in an airport all night. ;) )

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