Exhibitor Must Do’s Before Brides Say I Do
Now that you’ve mixed and mingled with the best of the wedding industry and soon to be brides follow up with these steps to ensure your company stands out as the vendor of choice.
Triage your leads.
Think of it like this, you want to maximize your time, and only reach out to the leads who you believe are most likely to book your services.
That means crossing out brides whose wedding dates conflict with bookings that you already have (don’t overbook yourself!)
Sequence the list of wedding dates, starting with brides who are having their ceremony the soonest to the furthest out on the calendar.
Do you remember who visited your booth? Contact the leads who expressed the most interest in your services first.
Be sure of yourself!
Tell the brides what you want their next steps to be.
Use affirmative statements like:
“I will call you back on (insert date)…” vs. “Give me a call back when you can” – Don’t leave the option open to call you back. Brides are busy with a million planning tasks, jobs, families, you name it. Make yourself available to them by initiating communication.
“Visit my store at…” vs “If you’re interested, visit my store at…” -This makes you sound unsure. Are you interested in your product? You know that you are the best of the best of the best! Your language will draw the client in. If you don’t sound confident, brides will detect that.
Keep in mind that other vendors from around the area, not just the bridal show that you participated in will be reaching out to couples.
How are you going to make yourself stand out?
First, don’t give up. You may hear a few “no’s” before you secure a booking. Several follow up calls and emails (be sure to use multiple methods of contacting couples) may be necessary.
A word about emails…
EVERYBODY has one. Think of the special accounts that you have for junk mail that you don’t want coming to your business email. Guess what? Brides do it too. They are expecting tons of emails from vendors and wedding registry sites, all blurring into one giant jumble of spam.
Want to maximize your marketing?
Send a friendly thank you card, discount card, or freebie item to brides to be. This can be digitally or through postal mail, but to really draw the bride’s attention in, postal mail is the way to go. If you are offering a promotion versus a giveaway, make sure that it is valuable to your audience, and let them know that it is only available for a limited time.
Vendors often become unsure if they do not immediately make bookings. Remember that wedding dates may span from immediately after the show up to one year following the show. So staying on top of your promotion will give you the upper edge to book more brides.
