When I first started in this business the single best way to market yourself was through personal engagement with your customers. That meant one thing: Bridal Shows. Websites barely existed and at best they were an after thought. The more things change, the more some things stay the same.

The single best way is once again through personal engagement, the difference is that now it is ALL about the internet. Let’s take a little look at where bridal marketing has been and where it is now.

We all loved bridal shows because we got to talk to the brides. We got to show our personality and our passion. In truth, it was about the only way to market. Oh there was the Yellow Pages and maybe one local magazine put out annually by the newspaper, but other than that there was little else.

Next came the influx of pretty, glossy local magazines. Before you knew it there were so many that you were having a hard time figuring out which ones to give your money to, lord knows you couldn’t do them all! So we did what we could and let their art department design our ad, virtually handing over control of our branding to someone else. Heaven forbid they got it wrong because we were stuck with their mistake for at least six months. Trust me I know, it happened to me. Even if it was right, it still just lies there hoping someone would be inspired to call you. What’s more, you were dependant on how good of a job the publisher did at distributing the book.

Then we were told that we had to have a website to be competitive and so we got a small site that was static and couldn’t be updated. It really wasn’t much better than the magazines. There was no customer engagement, we couldn’t change them and again, they just lie there hoping someone would find them.

Then came the holy grail of Search Engine Optimization and all the little tips and tricks to drive traffic to your static website. Get that baby on the first page of Google and we were home free. Ya, right. You bought into that too, didn’t you? Magazine sales reps said we had to have an ad to publicize our web site; web designers spoke lovingly of keywords and metatags. The Gurus preached Google AdWords to us in hallowed tones. Yet with all this, most of our brides were still coming from the bridal shows. Customer engagement still ruled the day.

That much hasn’t changed. What has changed is how we go about getting that personal customer engagement. Part of that is due to how today’s bride uses the internet and partly because of how the internet itself has changed.

The rise of social media and its influence on how our target market shops can not be underestimated. Today’s bride is interconnected and interactive. Her influencers are all over the world. She is as likely to keep up with friends around the corner as well as around the globe on Twitter or Facebook. She expects to find her vendors there as well.

Much has been written in the last few years about the plummeting readership of newspapers and magazines. Gone are the days when you could count of your market being plopped in front of the TV for 6 hours a night.  If today’s bride isn’t using her time to read periodicals or watch mindless TV what the heck is she doing with all those freed up hours? She is sitting in front of her broadband connection talking to friends all over the world in one window, shopping in another and looking for advice in a third. All while playing around in a graphics program working on her save the date cards.

So what has all this got to do with you, your marketing and customer engagement?

First you get that you have to be out on the internet, right? Now think about it, your brides are engaging with people all over the world, all the time ; at work, at home,on their iPhone on their commute. Shouldn’t you be one of the people they are engaging with? “Now just how do you expect me to do that Christine?”

First off, your website needs to be interactive and change frequently. By Frequently I mean at least every third day. The best way to do that is to have a blog based website. One that can be syndicated for feed readers and that you can update yourself easily. The more often you post the more often the search engines take notice of you. Every picture you add and every word you type sends them a signal that you are alive. As you build a following of brides it also sends them a signal that you have something new to add to the conversation. That keeps you in the front of their mind. It gives you an opportunity to engage and connect with them. Just like at the bridal shows; except that instead of talking to one bride at a time you are speaking to many at once. What’s more, your words hang there in cyberspace until she is ready to hear them.

Once you have that down I highly suggest that you think about either Twitter or Facebook. I have a coaching client that has been diligently taking my advice since the first of June. In that time she has made connections with wedding planner all over North America, been featured on Wedding Bee and Ritzy Bee, been contacted by Alexis with Martha Stewart, the editor for Grace Ormond and Stacie at Get Married. She just did here first taping for the Wedding Podcast network. In short, she is making some very valuable connections through her blog and through the other social networking sites she is mining. Put another way, this is just like the time you spend at bridal shows meeting the other vendors. Just like in the real world, you network with the other professionals and they in turn get your name out. You can do the same thing in about an hour a day. Before you even ask me where you are suppose to get the time for that, why not try thinking like a bride. Drag your laptop out to the couch and network while you catch the latest installment of you favorite must see TV.

Once again, it is about personal engagement. Isn’t that where we started?

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