Bridal show season is upon us again. What are you going to do with those lead lists this year? Same as last year or do you plan to actually use them this time? Now what the heck has that got to do with the title?
So in the title I call it Spam and in the first paragraph I dole out guilt about your not using the lead lists. That’s right I did just that. I did it because I want to talk about permission marketing yet again and show season seems to be a prime time to revisit it.
Just how valuable are those lead lists you get from bridal shows and magazines? Not much no matter how you look at them. First of all many of those leads are bogus; a bride can fill in anything with out any verification. I mean come on, would you want your regular inbox to fill up with email from every one of those 200+ vendors hawking everything from home mortgages to ridiculously expensive cookware? I sure wouldn’t.
Many times if the email addresses are valid, they are for a third or fourth tier email account that rarely gets checked anyway. These are accounts that brides set up specifically for just this kind of event. What you want is their real email address, one that they actually check. You aren’t going to get that from the show promoter simply because brides aren’t going to give it to them in the first place.
So what is a hard working vendor to do? You have to get the brides to give the right email directly to you because they want what you have. That is permission marketing in a nutshell: they give you permission to send them something that they want. Yes, yes I know, they should be just dying to learn all about your unique business. Ya, right. Sorry, you have to hook them first my friend.
So here is how you develop great lead lists from bridal shows. First off, you have to do the collecting in your booth. The only way to get them to give you their real email address is to make them an offer they can’t refuse: give them something. Sometimes you can do this by just offering a newsletter but at a bridal show it usually takes more than that. The offer of an E-book is a good one, that is if you have taken the time to write one. Coupons are even better. Tell them that you send out coupons every month by email and request their address. You see, you can’t simple ask for their email address with out giving them a legitimate reason why they would want to do so. Today’s brides are way too savvy for that.
One of the best ways is to use your event marketing to build your lead list. Here is how it works. In your booth post snap shot images of some of the in house marketing events you have hosted or ones that you have participated in. Give it a tag line something like “Come play with us.” Show happy, happy women having a great time together and ask if they would like to be invited too. Of course they do! Everyone wants to be on the hot list for fun and free events. Once you have their email you can certainly send them more than an evite.
Another way is to get them to register for a drawing with the winner to be notified by email. The toughie here is that so many vendors at bridal shows do this but they are giving away really lame prizes. You need to step it up a bit, make it worth their while. Remember that you are only giving one of these away so you can put a bit more money into it. Here is the feed back I hear about this from vendors about this technique. Suppose your prize is something as big as a free $350 bridal bouquet, your natural hope is that you will get the rest of the winners wedding. Don’t count on it; not even a little. Your return is not that one wedding, it is the valid lead list the giveaway generated. While you probably won’t get a big payoff from the winner you have gotten yourself a sweet list of real email leads to mine at your leisure. If you work that list, judge your ROI by how many sale the list generated rather than what you didn’t sell to the winner. One more thing, don’t forget to use that happy winner in your future marketing. Put in your blog or on your website and capture images for your next bridal show. Squeeze every drop of marketing you can out of that $350 bouquet.
Here are a few quick tips regarding email marketing campaigns
- Be frequent and consistent. With the window for potential bridal clients estimated to be less that 16 months you have to connect with your lead list on a weekly basis. Your emails should be 75% information and 25% sales. If you just send them hard sell ads every week they are going to hit that “junk” button pretty quickly and you want them to keep reading.
- Include an unsubscribe link in your emails. Any good opt-in email program has one.
- Use good subject line on you emails.
- Track your results. Your mail program should have a really good stat package attached so you know who opened your emails and what links they clicked on.
Permission based email marketing is one of the most cost effective tools in today’s arsenal. If you are using it effectively research shows it can have a $45 return for every dollar spent. Here is an incredibly easy to use cost effective tool at your finger tips. Invest a little time and I think you will like the results.
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