TAKING THE LEAD

Wedding Trader welcomes on board retailer Abi Neill who is widely regarded as an industry influencer. With a vast number of awards under her belt, she has a clear vision of what is needed in today’s environment to build a better business

When I launched my little bridal shop way back in 2005, the UK bridal landscape looked and felt very different. So much has changed and those of us old enough to glance back a few bridal decades will conclude that not only has bridal evolved but the marketing efforts and activity we are now required to carry out as retailers in order to engage with our customers and drive brides into store is quite different.

Once upon a time a speedy, wellconstructed website packed with enticing visuals and a few regular print ads was largely what it took. That, in addition to the acquisition of a well-advertised and sought-after bridal brand on your rails, plus a few Sunday wedding fairs at local venues was the icing on the cake for many of us bridal retailers.

Lead generation, or enquiry building, is an entirely different game now. It involves a seamless blend of both traditional advertising and digital methods and it all starts with understanding your target bride and knowing her habits. Understanding things things like what she likes, where she shops, how she lives her life (virtually and literally) is important. In marketingspeak this is often referred to as your ‘customer avatar’. Once you understand your customer avatar you can begin to develop your brand with consistent messaging and create appropriately-curated social media content that will appeal to her.

The physicality of your store, your collections and products that you sell and your online style and social media content all need consideration and must be cohesive. Communicating the story behind your retail store and the ethos is important. Ask yourself – are you attracting the right customers? And does the design of your shop and online presence align itself with the style and personality of your target bride?

Leading labels

We all know who the enquirygenerating brands in bridal are these days and if you’re lucky enough to have dresses from a strong name on your rails you may have to work less on your digital, advertising and marketing strategy. Secure the right brands, back them up with a fantastic experience in-store with a savvy sales team and providing your sales approach is on point, the sales may come relatively easily.

Website

A well-constructed, visually pleasing, up-to-date,quick and impactful website is essential. There’s no point working hard to generate enquiries but then falling at the last hurdle with a poorly-performing or unprofessional website. Brides will want to learn more about your brand and your values and in addition to your social media they will visit your site and assess what you have to offer.

Owning a well-designed website is a priority and ensuring it is mobilefriendly is a must! Don’t forget to sign up for a free listing on the Google business directory as this helps improve your organic search ranking. A properly-written and fullyoptimized Google My Business page can help your business to appear in local searches and research indicates that four out of five consumers perform a local search before committing to an appointment or a purchasing decision.

You must ensure that you have an SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy in place for your website. Your aim should be to ensure that your site will rank well ‘organically’ when the relevant search terms are typed in the search bar such as

‘wedding dress shops near me’. It isn’t enough that your site looks good, it also needs to perform well to drive brides to your boutique.

Social Media

In the business and marketing world of today social media is king! The content you generate on your social platforms is one of the keys to driving bridal enquiries. The most popular platform is Instagram followed closely by Facebook and Pinterest. Tik-Tok is certainly where the most fun is and although the content is entertaining you do need to keep an eye on time spent versus the enquiries received.

Social media is a daunting prospect and is all consuming! Knowing what to post and when can cause a headache. Remember, it needs to be on-brand, relevant and of interest!

Strive to inform or entertain and create content that covers all areas. Share behind the scenes info, your beautiful dress images, inspo pics and boutique pics. Upload entertaining content and utilise the marketing assets that your designers make available. Don’t be afraid to share glimpses of your home life and your team as well as real bride images too. This mix will really showcase your boutique’s personality. Brides want to shop at relatable businesses and connect personally with your people in order that they can enjoy real experiences. Let your guard down. Be authentic, be real and be you.

Digital advertising

Paid digital advertising is a strong and consistent lead-building option but without understanding the technicalities of social media advertising your money will be wasted!

Ensure that you know what you are doing before you spend on Facebook or Instagram advertising or invest in someone who can teach you or, budget permitting, do it for you. Ensure that you can access and interpret the stats and analytics or have an expert take a look at these – it is wise to learn what works so that you can spend your future pennies wisely.

Strategic partnerships

Building relationships with local businesses such as hairdressers, photographers and venues could be useful. Working in tandem on social media projects or formulating a mutual recommendation partnership may prove fruitful for all and could drive enquiries. Becoming a recommended partner or, even better, a sole supplier can be really advantageous and although those relationships are hard to find they are certainly ones to aim for.

Email marketing

Thanks to email software like Mail Chimp (compatible with Bridal Live), it’s really easy to set up email marketing campaigns. Potential customers can opt to sign up for newsletters through your website and you can use your email campaigns to advertise promotions, designer events, and news stories that relate to your brand and its core values.

A captivating subject title really pays off and will improve open rates so take some time to think about how to grab attention..

Often underrated, newsletters can be really effective in developing your business fan base and an informal customer referral programme long after a wedding has passed.

Wedding shows / Open days

Providing you’ve conducted show or venue research and asked the organiser relevant questions and understood anticipated footfall, these can be a Sunday well spent. Even generating a handful of prequalified appointments or leads where you have the opportunity to talk to and connect directly with your target market might be beneficial.

Agreeing to attend an open day to assist the venue by showcasing wedding dress mannequins throughout the building would be a great opportunity to catch the eye of your potential brides. Add to that a competition or product giveaway in exchange for an email address and you are on the road to developing a marketable database lead list

Recommendations and reviews

Never underestimate the power of recommendations, referrals and online reviews. Develop a strong instore experience to impress your brides and you will automatically create loyal fans and store advocates. They will spread the word and tell their friends and family.

Often retailers find that grateful brides who have been made to feel really special love being asked to write reviews. In many cases brides are happy to be given the opportunity to do something for the retailer in return for the memory of an amazing experience so don’t be too self-conscious about politely and directly asking for reviews.

Press / editorials

Developing good relationships with local press and lifestyle magazine editors is worthwhile. Google ‘press release templates’ and gem up on how to write a good press release and you could find that your charity efforts, most recent award win, business birthday, new label, special wedding couple or your latest competition are considered newsworthy. And your existing customer base will love seeing you in the papers!

As you can see there are many ways to lead generate and drive brides into your store and the list above is in no way exhaustive. We all know that the bridal business is competitive. Perhaps consider finding your marketing niche or establish which of the above suits your business and focus some effort there.

Trying to do all of the above will be ambitious so don’t feel inadequate if you are ticking the boxes on only ‘some of the above’ – most retailers are doing the same.

Abi Neill of Abigail’s Collection is available for coaching and advice at www.abineill.co.uk – she specialises in new business start-ups, staffing matters, marketing and social media. Connect with Abi on Insta @AbiNeill or DM with enquiries.

Embracing Your New Normal

US guru Myrna Plaisir Daramy advises on the best ways to get your message out there to a wide and interested audience and to thrive in the wake of Covid-19

COVID-19 has caused us all to pause. I, like you, have been going through the motions of various emotions throughout each day as we all navigate through the current pandemic. But one thing that does bring me comfort is that we are all in this together… the entire world is facing this right now and globally we must face this new normal.

Here in the US, our bridal industry has been hit very hard, as salons have been forced to close and figure out how to serve their brides while social distancing.

In an industry that is based on tradition and relies heavily on hightouch service, business owners have had to get really creative in order to survive. One thing for sure, technology has had to play an instrumental role in keeping businesses connected with customers, communicating what actions are being taken, and maintaining some sense of community. In fact, it has been the one thing that has kept us going during these turbulent times.

Based on what I have learned from my clients, it appears that virtual appointments, live-streaming bridal trunk shows, recording designer interviews, and engaging more on social media have been the most popular ways they continue to serve their brides. But this leads me to pose the question…

With all this great content being created online for brides, what has been happening on the single most important real estate that you own on the web? I’m referring, of course, to your digi-home also known as your website. Business owners have been so proactive towards serving their existing brides online, that they have seemed to forget about the webspace that plays an essential role in converting prospective brides into customers… their websites.

In order to be proactive and prepare your web presence for what is to come after COVID-19, I have several tips to share on what you could be doing now in order to thrive in the months ahead.

1. While you have the time, take a moment out and audit your website from your mobile device. It’s important to do this from your cell phones because mobile-optimised websites are more trusted by 51% of consumers than those that are not. In addition, it is more likely that brides will visit your website from their phones first.

Here are some important things to ask yourself while you review your website: • Is my site responsive? Does it respond or change in appearance when I am on a different device? • Is the content on my homepage still current? Do I need to refresh any of the information?

• Do my social links take visitors to where they should go? • Am I even active on those social platforms? (If not, remove them from my website) • How many clicks does it take for a visitor to convert? Three or less is ideal) • Do I have CTAs (call to actions) on my site? Am I helping to steer my website visitors along or are they left to figure out what I would like them to do? • Do I have any testimonials? (They help with authenticity and trust) • Is there any old content on my site that I should repurpose or just remove? Google looks at your site as a whole and old content that is no longer relevant may be hurting you. • Do I need to add additional FAQs (frequently asked questions) that provide insight on how we will be addressing social distancing, store closings, etc.?

2. Make sure to take advantage of local SEO (search engine optimisation) strategies. I strongly suggest that you create a Google My Business Profile – if you do not have this already – and make sure that it includes your updated hours of operation as well as any updated details about how you are serving your brides.

I also recommend that you make sure that it is very clear on your website how brides can connect with you, whether it is by appointment request, call, or email. The way to do this is by making sure that your phone number is clickable on both the desktop and mobile version of your website and making sure that your address is in several places of your website like your contact page and home page in the footer. 3. Update your FAQ section on your website and make sure that you are informing your brides on how your business is handling social distancing. There may be several new policies and procedures that your brides will need to be aware of. In addition, I suggest that you create a checklist for your customers that you send them prior to their appointment with clear directions on what they need to know.

4. Now that you have had a chance to see how technology has played a role in how you can connect with your brides, consider keeping some of these practices in order to continue to offer exceptional customer service. Consider incorporating what you have learned by having virtual bridal party Zoom sessions and virtual stylist appointments in order to keep the quantity down of store visitors as well as streamlining the process so that appointments are more effective.

5. Be sure to incorporate video into your marketing strategy. Stats show that it is the preferred method of communication these days and one of the gifts that this pandemic has given us is learning how to feel more comfortable in front of a camera as well as more forgiving with the production quality. In fact, 72% of all consumers between the ages of 18-34 prefer to watch a video in order to learn about a product or service.

You have the opportunity to showcase your beautiful store as well as the one commodity that brides view the most online - wedding dresses! So I highly advise that you become creative and have fun with video.

Now that governments are starting to emerge out from quarantine and the reopening of businesses will begin, I can’t stress enough the importance of preparing your business now in order to thrive in the

months to come. Myrna is widely regarded as the expert when it comes to retailing techniques in the US. You can connect with her as @ myrnapdaray

WOW FROCK!

We Love...

Madeline Gardner was running some brilliant virtual presentations during lockdown, which gave such a good feel for the new collection. This one, Anastasia, was of our many favourites. morilee.co.uk

B R I TIS H B Y D ESI G N

View our stunning new 2020 A/W collections digitally, with beautiful images and gorgeous videos at your fingertips. Please go to: romanticaofdevon.co.uk to explore the collections. Our stunning gowns wholesale from £150 to £425.

Please contact our Sales Director James Waddington for further information, tel: 07977 139 403 - email: james@romanticaofdevon.co.uk

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