Official Social Media Marketing Firm for Wedding MBA

The Bridal Marketing Group, LLC. is now the official social media marketing firm for the Wedding MBA.   Starting Wednesday, July 4, 2012 look on the Wedding MBA blog for weekly posts that include tips on booking more weddings, Facebook and Twitter incentives as well as emails with exclusive bonuses.

To celebrate this partnership, the Bridal Marketing Group, LLC is giving all Wedding MBA Facebook fans a 30% discount on all their wedding marketing packages.

Here’s how to redeem the discount:

1. Like the new Wedding MBA Facebook page
2. Go to the Bridal Marketing Group, LLC website and enter coupon code MBA30 on the online contract.

PLUS…all who become fans by July 29th will be entered to win a FREE wedding marketing overhaul by the Bridal Marketing Group {the official social media marketing firm for the Wedding MBA.}

What is the Wedding MBA?  The Wedding MBA is a three day conference in Las Vegas, Nevada with classes that teach wedding professionals how to book more weddings.  If you’ve never been to the Wedding MBA in Las Vegas then mak this year the one you attend.

Questions?  Call (480) 636-1066 and visit their Facebook page for discounted tickets.

5 tips to help your video go viral

I was reading the Entrepreneur.com blog this morning (like I do every morning) and came across the story of young 9-year-old Caine Monroy, who last summer constructed a makeshift arcade out of cardboard in his father's auto-parts store in Los Angeles, created an 11-minute video that features the young dynamo, which caught flames on the web in the last few days.

According to statistics, that video has been viewed more than 5 million times on Vimeo and more than 2.4 million times on YouTube since it went live last week. And more than 25,000 people recommended it on Facebook.

So why did his video go viral and how can you create videos for your own wedding business so that they go viral as well?

Here are their five best tips:

• Look for inspiration. Before you even pick up a video camera, spend some serious time watching web videos. Look for viral phenoms like Chuck Testa's taxidermy video and the Dollar Shave Club's razor video. "If you're genuinely interested in creating a sensation, you have to look at videos that have already done so," says Wood. And take notes, she adds.

• Create awesome content. Obviously, this is easier said than done. But the kind of video you aim to produce should reflect your target audience.  For instance, if you cater to mature women who live in the Northeast, there's a good chance you won't want to produce a hilarious four-minute segment about deodorant. But you may want to offer educational tips on how to dress at a daughter's wedding for instance. The key is to trigger intense feelings. "Content should be extremely funny or extremely moving or extremely useful or extremely entertaining," says Wood. "Ideally you'll elicit a physical reaction from the viewer. They'll be moved to tears or laughter or feel the hairs stand up on the back of their neck."

• Make it portable. Post your content to platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, and ensure that your settings promote sharing -- that is, allow people to upload at will and leave comments too.

• Choose the right platforms. Choosing which social-media channels to post your videos to will also depend on your target audience. In addition to YouTube or Vimeo, consider which social networks will supply an audience that will be most likely to view your content and share it. LinkedIn for instance is often a safe bet for business-to-business videos. Twitter is good for time-sensitive viewing, while Facebook caters to a more general audience.

• Advertise. Not every video will need to have advertising muscle behind it, but typically before a video can go viral it must first get promoted. Simply posting a video on Facebook and expecting people at large to see it likely won't happen. In fact, your followers may not even see it. For something to show up in Facebook users' feeds it has to be trending.  You can put stuff on YouTube, but only if it's taking off is it going to trend and if it trends it'll reach a wider audience. So unless this happens organically, you may need to pay to pump out your video.

What viral-video making tips would you add to this list? Leave a comment and let us know.

5 wedding marketing strategies we learn from Brangelina's engagement

Wedding vendors can learn a lot from celebrities and the PR machines behind them when it comes to marketing their wedding company. As crazy as it might seem, take some time over the next week to listen to celebrity gossip regarding Brangelina's engagement on television and read about it online. Celebrities work hard to keep their names in the spotlight and wedding vendors can learn a lot about wedding marketing from it.

Brangelina finally get engaged | as reported on by ABC News

What can wedding vendors learn about wedding marketing from celebrity branding?
 

1. Word-of-mouth marketing is extremely powerful. You need to create a wedding marketing plan that will keep your brand top of mind among brides and those who will become brides. When the buzz dies out, the brand fades, too.
2. Bad press doesn’t have to destroy your wedding brand. The PR spin machine can wipe up just about any mess. Celebrities like Brangelina do it best.
3. Stay true to your brand message and image...otherwise you’ll confuse customers who may turn their backs on your brand entirely. Take a look at Tom Cruise as an example. Here was a celebrity at the top of his career when suddenly his behavior took an odd turn that ran counter to his brand image. As a result, consumers turned their backs on him, and his box office numbers suffered.
4. Potential customers are always watching. Just like the paparazzi is always following celebrities like Brangelina to feed consumers’ desires for more information about them, brides are always watching your brand, too. Always put your best product out there and make sure your messages support your overall brand promise.
5. Brides are fickle. Your wedding brand might be the most popular one day, but the next, your brand could be at the bottom of the barrel.  (Look at Get Married for example).  A wedding is a once in a lifetime gig (hopefully) and brides will tell their friends of new information that you share with them before AND after their wedding.  Come back careers are not uncommon for celebrities (think of John Travolta), but it’s easier to keep your wedding brand on top with consistent and persistent messaging than to try to climb up again.

Again, I challenge you to take a look at the celebrity PR machine Brangelina for the next week as their engagement news fills the airwaves and internet and see what you can learn from Hollywood that you can apply to your own wedding marketing plan and make the rest of 2012 fab.

Don't have time to build your wedding business brand or just need help doing it?  For a limited time the Bridal Marketing Group is offering $100 off our most popular "social MEdia wedding marketing" package which will soar your wedding brand by up to 400% in less than a month.  Check out the details at www.bridalmarketinggroup.com .

$100 discount to AFWPI members

I wanted to share a special discount for AFWPI members on our "social MEdia marketing" package.  This wedding marketing program is for wedding vendors who don't have time to post to Facebook, Tweet, Blog and email market but understand its importance..

• Monthly e-newsletter design & submission to your bride lead database.
• Weekly Facebook, Twitter & Blog posts.
• Dedicated Accounts Manager
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

You need this package if:

• You understand how important it is for the growth of your wedding business to blog, tweet and post to Facebook but don't have time to do it.
  
  
• You have no idea how to blog, tweet or post to Facebook so that your wedding business grows.
  
  
• You have hundreds of leads from wedding shows but aren't sure what to do with them...or don't have time to do anything with them yourself.
  
  
• You don't have a wedding business blog, Facebook page, Twitter account or email wedding marketing account and need help setting them up.

If you answered yes to at least one of these scenarios then you may want to consider hiring us. How does it work? 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 

Q: What is the process?
A: Once you sign up you'll be assigned an Accounts Manager who will call you every week to ask if you have anything new to tell or show brides. If you don't, then we'll gather information from your website and create something fabulous that will grab brides attention...and we'll post that to your blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. At the end of the month we'll take that information, create an email newsletter with it and send it to your database of bride leads. 

Q: Is the content you post to my blog and Facebook generic?
A: NO! All of the posts we create are geared towards each individual client. You will NEVER see the same information on someone else's blog or Facebook page. The content is personalized to your company and your client base.

Q: Can I send several things at once for you to use throughout the entire month so that we don't have to talk every week?
A: Absolutely! You're the boss. 

Q: Do I have to fill out a long term contract?
A: NO! It's our job to keep you happy and getting results. Our packages are month to month and you can quit at anytime.

Q: If I quit you after a month what will happen to the content you've posted or the social media pages you've created for me?
A: It belongs to you. We don't do anything with it. 

Q: How many vendors in my city do you work with?
A: No more than 4. We don't want all of your competitors receiving the upper hand that we're giving you. It's about the success of YOUR company and that's what we focus on. Knowing that you can quit us at anytime gives us the motivation to keep your brand awareness growing and gives you peace of mind that we're focused on doing that. 

Q: Are you an employee? Do I have to pay taxes on you?
No. We're a wedding marketing firm that works as an idependent contractor. You don't have to pay any taxes, insurance, benefits, or an hourly wage. All you pay is a small monthly fee for dedicated bloggers, social media marketers and an Account Manager overseeing it all. PLUS, all of our marketers and Account Managers have experience specifically in the wedding marketing industry. 

Q: Do you have references?
ABSOLUTELY! Our monthly client renewal rate is 99.9%. Give us a call for a free consultation and we'll show you first hand what we do. 

SPECIAL DISCOUNT for AFWPI members!

 Watch a video about it here!

use discount code -AFWBLOG-

If you'd like to talk with an Accounts Manager who can explain the program in detail call toll free 1-800-431-4628 ext 1

Special ends 4/30/12

The best way to get brides to engage with your Facebook page timeline

To be a star player on Facebook means understanding how to use your business Facebook page to engage brides so that they buy from you.

Here are some key ways to get brides to engage with your Facebook page timeline:

1. Share updates, questions, photos, links and other content on your Page regularly. 
2. Post at least a few times a week so brides who like you see your stories in their news feeds, and visitors to your Page always see something new. 
3. Make sure brides notice your most important content by pinning posts to the top of your Page or starring them so they're bigger. 
4. When brides engage with you, make sure to respond so they know you're listening. 

If you simply don't have time to engage brides on Facebook but you know it's important then you may want to outsource it.  There are several great companies that "ghost post" with their focus being on the wedding industry specifically.  You know longer have to waste your time engaging brides and can focus on booking the weddings.

I know several wedding companies who utilize these types of marketing services and it's grown their wedding business by more than 400% for some of them.  It may be something worth looking into.

How to grow your business with Facebook? an awesome VIDEO

I receive email after email from wedding professionals asking me "How do I use Facebook to promote my wedding business?" and "How do I get brides to buy from me using Facebook?"  After walking them through how Facebook works I thought, "Hey, I'm going to find a video of a colleague and post it here for all of my wedding professional friends to watch...So the search began.

Here is the phenomenal CEO of FEMnominal Women in Business,  Lainika Johnson-Colbert to educate us on business and Facebook and answer the question "How to promote my business on Facebook?"

If after watching this video you still have questions on how to promote your wedding business on Facebook just give the Bridal Marketing Group, LLC a call at 1-800-431-4628 or send me an email personally to jakki@bridalmarketinggroup.com .  We're here to help all of our fellow wedding vendor professionals engage brides and make money using Facebook.

Good luck!

The best wedding marketing piece of advice I can give you..

I'm certain that you've been reading every piece of wedding marketing advice you can find in hopes that by implementing it your wedding business will soar.  As a long time wedding marketer I have one piece of advice for you:

No single marketing effort works all the time, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach.

Brides tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bored.  Wedding marketing can be fun, so take advantage of the thousands of opportunities available for communicating your value to brides. But don't be arbitrary about your selection of a variety of marketing ploys. Plan carefully. Get feedback from brides and adapt your efforts accordingly.

Contributor: Jakki Millo, Internationally known author and wedding marketing strategist

www.bridalmarketinggroup.com

How to measure whether your wedding marketing works

As wedding vendors and wedding marketers, the goals we set for a given marketing channel or specific campaign will inherently frame its success or failure.  Applying the wrong metrics might have us optimizing in the wrong direction, and reducing the impact of our marketing dollars.

 

I hope this post illuminates the pitfalls of using a seemingly meaty progress metric like the mighty conversion to solely determine where you invest.  We'll take a look at campaign investments in paid search and display advertising over a defined time period, and then trace the path of conversions down the funnel to demonstrate that it’s not the total number of leads or the cost of those leads that count — but how much business those leads create, and the implied ROI of those campaigns?

But this is only part of the picture.  We need to dig deeper to understand where and how value is really being driven.

One of the most effective ways to access this larger audience is through highly targeted display advertising. The beauty of targeted display is that it can be deployed as a lead generator, but it is also the vehicle best-equipped for influencing brides at any stage of the marketing funnel. With display you can reach more brides at scale, driving them into the top of your marketing funnel. But the impact doesn’t stop there—display continuously helps to educate and build trust with brides not yet ready to engage with sales—which then sets up the rest of your marketing mix to do their jobs even better.  

Think of it as your display advertising campaigns tossing alley-oops all day long, to set up slam dunk conversions for your wedding website and email and search marketing.

Given that display is actually lifting all boats in your marketing mix, it’s not enough to evaluate the leads that a display campaign delivers. To accurately frame the full value of an investments in display, we need to understand how many brides were directly driven by display (i.e., “post-click conversions”; a user clicks on an ad and converts during the same session), as well as how many brides benefited from a “display alley-oop” (i.e., “post-impression conversions”; a bride views an ad, doesn’t click on the ad, but returns to a website later and converts).

To accurately frame the value of display, you would want to apply tracking metrics that comprehend display’s 1-2 punch.   Essentially, how many brides did display advertising directly drive (post-click conversion) and how much action did display advertising create across the rest of your mix (post-impression conversions).  One way to start measuring post-impression conversions is to create a control group (users that are not exposed to the ad) and a test group (users exposed to the ad).    

By doing this, your post-campaign assessment might look something like this (fictitious numbers used for this example)

What’s happened here? If you just measured display post-click conversions in Test Group B, you might conclude that your investment in display earned you 25 leads (and whatever those leads translate into in terms of downstream pipeline and revenue).  But, by getting a handle on the lift created across your other programs, the picture changes quite a bit.  Your display investment actually netted 25 incremental search conversions (and whatever those search leads translate into in terms of downstream pipeline and revenue), and 25 incremental email conversions (and whatever those email leads translate into in terms of downstream pipeline and revenue).

Here’s another way of looking at the conversions that display drove in the example above:

No doubt, tying program investment to bottom line metrics is key to really understanding the value of your wedding marketing effort, and is critical to making smart decisions about where to invest tomorrow.  But, in a wedding marketer’s bag of tricks, every channel and program has its unique role… so we need to resist the urge to apply the same formula for success and success metrics across the board. 

After all, there were only a few players that make the highlight reel in a basketball game.  But, if you look a little closer, you’ll see someone else in the corner setting up the alley-oop.

For more information about wedding marketing, visit www.bridalmarketinggroup.com and fan us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bridalmarketing .

Top 5 reasons wedding businesses FAIL!

I'm a wedding business owner.  You're a wedding business owner.  I need to sell a product and service to feed my kids and you need to as well.  So we read, and research and pound our heads against the pavement trying to figure out how to keep it profitable.

With the recent failing of Get Married, an online, television and printed wedding advertising company, many wedding vendors have asked, "What went wrong?"  Well, 50% of businesses fail within the first 5 years and working with hundreds of wedding vendors across the United States has shown me that wedding businesses are no exception.

One of the least understood aspects of entrepreneurship is why businesses fail and....

I think there's a SIMPLE answer to that question:
The entrepreneur!

The usual suspects that business owners tend to blame is their employees, the recession, the bird outside the office that just won't stop chirping. BLAH!  BLAH! BLAH!

The finger should be pointed at the owner themselves!  But who wants to admit that they're the one with the problem?  Of course, there are cases where something out of the owner’s control has gone terribly wrong - like a flood that washed their building away or a thief that broke in and stole everything... but I have found those instances to be few and far between.

Here, based on my own experiences and observations, are the top 5 reasons small wedding businesses fail.  This isn't pretty and you may not like it but you may learn something, adapt and thrive:




1. No market research before a launch. If there's not enough demand for your product or service at a price that will produce a profit then scrap the idea and think of something new. Do your due diligence and market research before starting the company. 

2. Owners who cannot see past their own nose.  They may be stubborn, they may be a perfectionist, greedy, self-righteous, paranoid, indignant, insecure. You get the idea.  Business is about adaptability and there's no "I" in adaptability. (ok there's two.  BUT every great business owner knows that success comes from listening to mentors and changing what's necessary, in their own attitude, and then success can follow.

3. Paying too much for labor, materials, rent, etc. Now more than ever, the lean companies are the ones moving forward with their head held high and not their tail between their legs. Not having the tenacity or stomach to negotiate terms that are reflective of today’s economy may leave a company uncompetitive.

4. Out-of-control growth. This would include moving into markets that are not as profitable or borrowing too much money in an attempt to keep growth at a particular rate. I think this is the #1 reason why Get Married failed. 

5. Lack of a cash cushion. If we have learned anything from this recession is that bad things can and will happen.  If a wedding company is already out of cash it may not be able to recover from losing a big client or top producing sales person.

In life, your friends and relatives will forgive you, but entrepreneurship can kick your %^&*#. Eventually, everything shows up in the soup. If people don’t like the soup, employees stop working for you, and customers stop doing business with you. And that is why businesses fail.

What do you think?  Do you agree with me?...or disagree?

How to be "liked" and stay in "like" on Facebook.

These days it seems every wedding vendor is after "social proof," that elusive number of Likes or Followers that will make you seem part of the "in crowd." 

Unfortunately getting brides to like you is only half the battle, you must now get them to stay "in like" with you. 

Studies show that the expectation of content does vary by the age of the bride, but the direction is still the same: it's more than just getting brides to "Like" your page, you now must learn how to keep them. With all the social media options out there it's critical to not just build numbers, but maintain them, too. In order to do this, it's important to know what brides want and when they want to see you post new content. 

Content expectations vary by the brides age. For example, Brides using Facebook between the ages of 18-26 have the lowest expectations of receiving something in exchange for their "Like" endorsement. When you go up the next rung, ages 27 to 34, they are more likely to expect something solid delivered in a Facebook update.

But it's not only about having great content, it's also about creating great engagement. A study done by Roost.com evaluated 10,000 Facebook fans across 50 industries and found that certain posts leverage more engagement than others. 

Here are some of their findings: 

• Photo posts get 50% more impressions than any other type of post
• Quotes get 22 percent more interactions
• Questions generate almost twice as many comments
• Ask questions to spark dialog (questions often see twice as many comments) and consider fill in the blank posts which tend to receive 9 times more comments than other posts.

Now you have the content down, and you know about the types of posts that will get more play than others, is there more to posting than just content and post-type? You bet. There are also time-specific posts that often do better than others. 

Here are some quick tips on how to improve your Facebook Wall posts:

• Posts delivered between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. tend to receive 20% higher user engagement.
• Best day for Fan engagement? Wednesday - up by 8%.
• How many posts does it take to increase user engagement? If you're thinking more frequent posts you are wrong. Posting one to two times per day produces 71% higher user engagement.
• When it comes to Facebook more is not better, sometimes it's just more. Posting with 80 characters or less receives 66% higher engagement. Very concise posts, between one and 40 characters, generate the highest engagement.

If you need help or ideas on how to expand your social media marketing to brides please give us a call for a free :15 minute consultation or check out our social media marketing package for wedding vendors at http://www.bridalmarketinggroup.com/social_media_management_package.htm

What you can learn from Stephen Hawkings about wedding marketing

Rock stars become famous but physicists typically work in obscurity. However, Stephen Hawking, a physicist and cosmologist, is a celebrity. He’s a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the United Kingdom and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. One of his books, A Brief History of Time, was on The Sunday Times best-seller list for 237 weeks—a record that still stands.

When it comes to social networking and social media marketing, what can you learn from this extremely accomplished scientist?

§ Become an expert and be recognized as an expert. In his field, Hawking is recognized as the expert on space and physics. He is currently Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. When NASA held its 50th anniversary celebration in 2008, Hawking gave the keynote speech. As part of your social media strategy for weddings, incorporate tactics that position you and your wedding company as the expert.

§ Speak and travel. Hawking is almost 100% paralysed; he has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Not only can he not move, but he can only speak with the assistance of a specially programmed computer that offers a synthesized voice. Yet despite these difficulties, he travels widely in order to give speeches. It’s an old school tactic but speaking in front of brides remains an effective way to reinforce your social media presence.

§ Overcome all obstacles. Despite his debilitating ALS, Hawking leads an extremely productive life. In addition to speaking, he appears on television, writes, has a family life (he’s written several books with his daughter Lucy), and continues his extensive research. So there’s absolutely no excuse for anyone to feel they are not executing a social media marketing strategy because they have hurdles in the way. Hawking is living proof that we can all deal with any obstacles.  Part of overcoming a hurdle is outsourcing, if you can't do it yourself...just overcome and conquer.

§ Be published. Hawking’s books include The Nature of Space and Time, the aforementioned A Brief History of Time, and The Grand Design. Publishing a book (or books) remains one of the most powerful and potent social media weapons. As an added bonus, the content can be repurposed for other marketing uses. And if you’re not a writer or you don’t have the time to write a book – or, like Hawking, you’re paralysed and you have to write using a special device – you can collaborate or hire a writer. Hawking has worked with co-authors on many of his books. If your book isn’t quite ready, then start a wedding blog on the subject that you're an expert in (what your field is).

§ Get on screen. Hawking is quietly a media star. He has played himself in many television shows including Star Trek: The Next Generation. And yes—he’s been on The Simpsons and there’s even a Stephen Hawking action figure. While you might not have an action figure made of you and your animated doppelganger might not be designed by Matt Groening, you can still “appear” on TV by filming short videos and posting them on your website, blog and video sharing sites like YouTube.

If you’re a physicist and you’re interested in space and time, then you’ll find Stephen Hawking’s work vital. But if you’re “just” a wedding business owner striving to expand your social media marketing reach, then Hawking could provide plenty of inspiration to help your brand reach the stars.

What do you plan to do with this information?  We want to know!

How to write a wedding blog post so that they're read and acted upon.

Blog posts with "How to" in the title gets about 85% more readership than titles like "5 tips on how to" does.  What does this tell us?  That your blog titles are just as important as the content.

Here are a few wedding blog subjects to write about:

1. How to save money on wedding flowers
2. How to create beautiful wedding centerpieces
3. How to dress your body type
4. How to ensure your wedding guests have fun
5. How to enhance your wedding cake table with candy bars
6. How to choose a wedding day coordinator

After you choose a great blog title, make sure that the words you used in your blog title is also in the body of your blog.  That will create the fodder search engines need to index your pages for higher search results.

For more ideas on blog posts give us a call for a FREE :15 minute consultation at 1-800-431-4628 ext 1.  If you don't have time to write on your blog we can do it for you.  http://www.bridalmarketinggroup.com/social_media_management_package.htm .

Are You Ready to Get “Real” About Social Media?

How Real Leads are Possible from the Virtual World

The role social media can play in an effective marketing program is still confusing to some, because the connections to friends or followers happen in the “virtual world.”  So let’s get real about Social Media Marketing (SMM)!

Think about it like this:  When networking at conferences and parties in the “real world,” you connect with people (and/or potential clients) who can serve your personal (and/or business) needs.  But how do you maintain these connections, let alone make them stronger? 

It used to be that you would get a business card, maybe follow up with an e-mail or phone call, but more than likely, due to time constraints, you wouldn't speak to that person (potential lead) again until the next time you saw them at a conference or party. 

However, you can now create and nurture these connections with consistent meaningful communication, while never having to leave your office or home. 

The exact same “real world” networking principles used at conferences, parties and the like, also apply online with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.  Even better, Social Media Marketing gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts (and business message) with these connections at any time and usually right to their smartphone.

As a leading wedding marketing firm, we know that the wedding leads coming from the “virtual world” of social media are very REAL!  In fact, most of our clients wedding business is being built via Social Media Marketing - is yours? 

If you lack the time to build your social media following or have a limited knowledge of how it works, don't worry, we can help you.

Click here for our packages and start growing your wedding business today!

4 Quick and Inexpensive Tips to Growing your Wedding Business in 2012

All wedding vendors intend to grow their business in 2012...otherwise you wouldn't be reading this post, right? The problem may be that you have a limited marketing budget.  No worries, my fellow wedding vendors, you can still accomplish your marketing goals and book more weddings this year.

There are plenty of cost-effective marketing tools to help you promote your products and services. While all of them may not be right for your business, pick a few that align with your corporate goals and culture, and keep track of your results.

1. Blogging

   • According to The New York Times, blogging is a cost-effective, high-return marketing tool you can use to raise your company profile and build your brand. Set up a blog for free using a blogging tool like Wordpress, Blogspot or Blogger or hire a web designer to help you design a custom blog for your wedding company. Ask brides to sign up for your blog on your website, and create a blog post at least once every week. The key is to provide relevant, intriguing content that keeps your readers coming back. Use free tools such as Google Analytics or Site Meter to understand how brides find your blog.

   Email Marketing

   • Email marketing involves sending regular emails to your customer base to update them about your brand, provide interesting content about the wedding industry and offer special deals and discounts. Email marketing is a flexible, cost-effective, easy-to-measure marketing tool. Some marketing services, like Constant Contact, have tools, resources and templates that allow you to create email marketing message yourself. Collect brides email addresses at bridal shows and on your website, then send a weekly email to your database.
     

     
     

   Networking

   • Networking is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools. Create a list of all your contacts, including business associates, clients, friends and family. Place a check mark next to each person on the list who you think would refer business to you right now. Contact each of these people and ask them to help spread the word about your business. Make it easy for them -- draft an email, letter or telephone script and ask your contacts to distribute it for you.

   Partnerships

   • Use partnerships as a thrifty marketing tool for your business. Research the local market and look for other wedding businesses in your area. For example, if you own a flower shop, complementary businesses are wedding attire and wedding photography shops. Contact these companies and propose a mutually beneficial partnership, such as an incentive for referring a paying customer to you. And refer customers to them as well.
     
     

For more information on how to effectively market your wedding business, visit www.bridalmarketinggroup.com.