Think Like A Bride-Wedding Marketing Done Brilliantly
Everything you need to know to market and grow your wedding business
This site was a redo for a site I originally built back in 2009. Sarah Morris, The Something Blue Shoppe in Hartselle, AL still loved her site but she came back from Bridal market full of ideas and energy. Well you know how we women are, fill us with ideas and energy and the first thing we do is redecorate! It was time for an update anyway so off we went. I added a few features and made the look a little sleeker.
Let me know what you think.
The short answer is that I’ve been playing!
The long answer is a bit more complicated. Have you ever heard the old saying “The cobbler’s children have no shoes?” What that means is that way too often, people are very good at what they do but they stay too busy to get around to doing whatever ‘it’ is for themselves. The classic example is that in all those year that I owned one of the top bakeries in the city, my kiddos usually got a cake from Baskin & Robbins for their birthday! I know, it’s pretty sad!
It’s the same thing now that I do marketing and design website. I can’t remember the last time I updated Think, a year and a half maybe. Sure, I did a tweak here and a tweak there, but nothing major or thought out. Besides, I really like the way my site looked. 
Two things caused me to get in there over the weekend and start rooting around.
Call to action. I preach it all the time that all of your marketing material needs really clear calls to action. No,duh! You would think I would have had mine front and center. I imagine it was a bit of not seeing the forest for the trees. I had a session with one of my consulting clients last week and in the course of conversation it came up that they didn’t even know I designed web sites. Well Shit! How are going to sell something people don’t even know you do?
Mobile Responsive. The second thing that made me do it was the recent launch of some really sweet mobile responsive child themes for the Genesis framework. What is mobile responsive you ask? I am not just talking about having images that show up on iPhones and Androids. My new site will resize itself depending on what device you are viewing it on. No more scrolling from side to side. Really, try it out.
That is a really cool thing, but there is a learning curve and I wanted it on my site, not a clients. There are still things to tweak, like I have to find a new way to display my portfolio. That will come.
Anyway, that’s what’s been going on. I’ll continue to play, especially with the graphics. I’m not in love with those, but you see one of the things I love about the web is that it’s “liquid ink.” Don’t like something, you can change it on the fly. Keep watching as the new site and framework evolves.
I am sure you know that I am part of an interesting discussion group, The Wedding Water Cooler. We have some pretty serious back and forths. interestingly enough, the same day I published my post on Pinterest, the group got into a fairly heavy discussion of copyright infringement.
Pinterest and copyright infringement is an issue that is all over the internet right now. This article on theverge.com explains it pretty well. Recently Pinterest has created a snippet of code to place on your site that will disable pinning. That won’t prevent people from downloading the image and uploading it anyway. In light of this from The Wall Street Journal, why would you want to?
It has also been a boon for some small businesses. “Our traffic converts to sales,” said Amy Squires, co-founder of The Wedding Chicks LLC, which posted about $540,000 in revenue last year, up from $340,000 in 2010. The four-year-old online retailer of wedding-party gifts, which joined Pinterest last summer, said
Pinterest now brings in more than double as many monthly visitors to its website than Facebook and Twitter.
Here is what I told the Water Cooler.
see disclaimer
Copyright infringement sucks. Having said that, I have to say this…
I am speaking only of images here.
The more ways people spread images of your work the better it is for you in terms of marketing, branding and SEO. That is why I believe so strongly in Pinterest. I think you should have the Pin It button on your site and encourage your visitors to use it.
I can set a site to lock down images but a semi-savvy geek can still lift them fairly easily. Trust me, I do it all the time for bridal salons to show images of gowns they stock.
My advice, share your images and encourage people to share them for you BUT watermark anything that goes on the web. The way stock photography sites do it is great. (see above) They use a semi transparent all over mark that is unobtrusive to viewing the image but damn near impossible to Photoshop out.
One more thing to think about is how are your images being used. Is a bride grabbing your image for her pin board with a link back to your site to say she loves this bouquet or is another florist putting it on their site and saying they created it? Big difference. Either way, having that watermark will mean a lot.
The written word is another story.
You can embed it in a watermarked image but that does nothing for your SEO, maybe even hurts it. So you may try using it for your packages, but not for content you are writing for SEO like your blog post. My only answer is to write in your own distinctive voice and be vigilant in checking with utilities like Copyscape. Computerhope.com has some more great tools.
This is a conundrum that is going to continue for a long time to come.
Let’s add to the conversation the very nature of the internet and the effect it has on the generation that are our current brides and grooms (and most likely all the ones to come after them) The internet is inherently about sharing and connecting. Today’s generation of brides grew up with torrents and Pirate Bay. They view any content on the internet as fair game. Convincing them otherwise is going to be a bitch, to put it lightly.
disclaimer: The image above is a fully licensed image. I spoke with iStockPhoto to get permission to use one of their watermarked images in this article on the condition that I also purchased a licensed copy of the image. As you can see by the unwatermarked version in the thumbnail on the homepage, I did just that.
For the un-initiated, Pinterest can be a confusing mess. Some see it as a time waste, while others can’t figure out why it would even be popular or useful. Maybe I can help.
I am going to approach this from a marketing stand point. Be warned once you are hooked it will go way beyond that.
A poll just out from Shareaholic shows Pinterest refers more traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. That should certainly answer a part of the ‘why’. The rest of that answer has to do with today’s brides. Pinterest is over 90% female. Today’s bride and millennials in general are very visual. They look at the pictures rather than read content. Pinterest is right up their alley. What once was a wedding planning binder is now a pin board. Got it? Good.
The next thing I keep hearing is “I signed up but I don’t know what to do”
Give yourself an hour or four to get familiar with it. In this image you see a couple of things I am going to point out to get you going. Hint, click the images to enlarge.
At first you have nothing, no boards, no pins so hold off on finding friends until you populate a little bit.
In the middle top under the word Pinterest you have some options. Click on ‘Everything’ and a drop down menu opens, you probably want to choose weddings & events as a jumping off point. An entire page of images will open. Now just start pinning stuff you like. Click on a picture, you will have the option to Pin it, Like it or Comment. You will also have a button to follow that person. If you like the stuff they are posting, by all means follow them. You can always unfollow later.
When you pin something it will ask you what board you wish to pin it to. Better create some boards! You can create boards on the fly when you pin something. So maybe “table decor”, ‘cakes’, ‘gowns’ whatever you fancy. It really is easier to create boards this way because you will be able to see what you’re pinning and organize it accordingly.
Now that you have a bit of a feel for it and some boards and pins it’s time to start connecting to people you know.
How, Christine, is this marketing my stuff?
It isn’t yet, that was just learning the ropes.
At the top left it says Add+ Open that and you have a screen that gives you the option to Add a pin, Upload a pin or create a board. You want to Add a pin. Just copy the url for an image on your website and paste it in. Rather that choosing the Upload option, the pin will link back to your website.
You need to have a Pin it button on your website so visitors can share your images and they will also link back to your website.
One more thing, when you set up your profile, you did make sure to include the name of your business and your website address, didn’t you?
When you open a pin, it show you who all has pinned it. With a little luck and a bit of intuition, you can tell which pinners are brides and which are in the industry. See how this one calls the board “Our Wedding?” Dead giveaway. Just takes a bit to get the hang of it. Check out the boards on the ones you suspect are brides. See what they are pinning. It should give you a decent read on the pulse of the market, both their dreams and their reality.
Also pay attention to which of your pins get repinned. Obviously something in that pin is worth paying attention to, it may just be a coming trend. You can change your email setting in your profile to notify you when certain actions take place.
I haven’t even touched on the search function.
Just like any other social media, if you are using this for business, think about what you pin. The pins you choose will show your personality in a way you can only imagine.
Let me know if you need an invitation.
For the un-initiated, Pinterest can be a confusing mess. Some see it as a time waste, while others can’t figure out why it would even be popular or useful. Maybe I can help.
I am going to approach this from a marketing stand point. Be warned once you are hooked it will go way beyond that.
A poll just out from Shareaholic shows Pinterest refers more traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. That should certainly answer a part of the ‘why’. The rest of that answer has to do with today’s brides. Pinterest is over 90% female. Today’s bride and millennials in general are very visual. They look at the pictures rather than read content. Pinterest is right up their alley. What once was a wedding planning binder is now a pin board. Got it? Good.
The next thing I keep hearing is “I signed up but I don’t know what to do”
Give yourself an hour or four to get familiar with it. In this image you see a couple of things I am going to point out to get you going. Hint, click the images to enlarge.
At first you have nothing, no boards, no pins so hold off on finding friends until you populate a little bit.
In the middle top under the word Pinterest you have some options. Click on ‘Everything’ and a drop down menu opens, you probably want to choose weddings & events as a jumping off point. An entire page of images will open. Now just start pinning stuff you like. Click on a picture, you will have the option to Pin it, Like it or Comment. You will also have a button to follow that person. If you like the stuff they are posting, by all means follow them. You can always unfollow later.
When you pin something it will ask you what board you wish to pin it to. Better create some boards! You can create boards on the fly when you pin something. So maybe “table decor”, ‘cakes’, ‘gowns’ whatever you fancy. It really is easier to create boards this way because you will be able to see what you’re pinning and organize it accordingly.
Now that you have a bit of a feel for it and some boards and pins it’s time to start connecting to people you know.
How, Christine, is this marketing my stuff?
It isn’t yet, that was just learning the ropes.
At the top left it says Add+ Open that and you have a screen that gives you the option to Add a pin, Upload a pin or create a board. You want to Add a pin. Just copy the url for an image on your website and paste it in. Rather that choosing the Upload option, the pin will link back to your website.
You need to have a Pin it button on your website so visitors can share your images and they will also link back to your website.
One more thing, when you set up your profile, you did make sure to include the name of your business and your website address, didn’t you?
When you open a pin, it show you who all has pinned it. With a little luck and a bit of intuition, you can tell which pinners are brides and which are in the industry. See how this one calls the board “Our Wedding?” Dead giveaway. Just takes a bit to get the hang of it. Check out the boards on the ones you suspect are brides. See what they are pinning. It should give you a decent read on the pulse of the market, both their dreams and their reality.
Also pay attention to which of your pins get repinned. Obviously something in that pin is worth paying attention to, it may just be a coming trend. You can change your email setting in your profile to notify you when certain actions take place.
I haven’t even touched on the search function.
Just like any other social media, if you are using this for business, think about what you pin. The pins you choose will show your personality in a way you can only imagine.
Let me know if you need an invitation.
I am always talking about change and thinking differently; well here is an example that seems to be working.
BHLDN, the bridal and party dress line from Urban Outfitter, parent company of Anthropologie turned a year old on Valentine’s Day. They took the position of being centered more on changing things and offering new options than just trying to jump into an already saturated market.
“”What we saw was a limited market,” said Kristin Norris, chief creative officer at Anthropologie and the creative force behind the BHLDN concept.
Elizabeth Cooksey works to set up the new bridal and event dress store BHLDN from the owners of Anthropologie on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012 in the Gold Coast.
“We saw a lot of space for dresses that weren’t the princess dress, maybe with details and embellishments that are less expected. Maybe the bride didn’t want to pick up the dress nine months ahead of time.”
The chain launched the concept online to test the waters, followed by flagship stores in Houston and Chicago’s Gold Coast. While they state no plans for more stores in 2012, if the concept holds strong they would like to increase to between 50 to 100 locations.
Also from the same article
The idea behind the BHLDN shopping experience is to erase the intimidation that can often accompany shopping for a wedding dress, said Elizabeth Cooksey, director of stores.
In contrast to bridal salons, where a sales clerk sizes up the bride, disappears into a stock room and brings out gowns she thinks the bride will like, BHLDN keeps its wedding dresses on the racks so shoppers can browse on their own. And one room is devoted to a dozen mannequins dressed in wedding gowns and posed as if at a party, allowing shoppers to walk among them.
In a nod to both nostalgia and modernity, sales clerks are dressed in gray pinafore shopkeeper uniforms, while oversized dressing rooms tout iPod docking stations that allow the bridal party to listen to their own music selections as they shop.
Party dresses are near the entrance so shoppers don’t feel they have to be a bride to enter the store. Dresses and gowns range from $400 to $7,000.
Thinking differently seems to be working out for Urban Outfitters. ”According to the Chicago Tribune article, “ the company has said initial sales exceeded their expectations.”
How are you thinking differently? Are you trying new things, boldly and fearlessly? You better be!
You can read the full article here.
Sometimes no matter how hard you plan, things go wrong. You work like crazy to put the right pieces and people in place. Sometimes, those people drop the ball and make you look bad. Such is the case here. The bridal show was a hit without doubt, the fashion show (duh, an integral part of a bridal show) was not.
As you can see by the people sitting on the edge of the catwalk, this wasn’t a dress rehearsal.
Beyond that I am going to hold my tongue because I may be looking at this all wrong. Maybe it doesn’t matter if the gowns fit the models or that they are pressed. I’ll let you provide the commentary in the comment section.
Oh, hell, I can’t hold my tongue!
It blows my mind that these things even need to be said. If you are given the honor of producing the fashion show you need to realize this is a HUGE marketing opportunity for your business, take it seriously. Hire professional models that fit your gowns. Press the gowns. Really? I need to say these things???
Before the show opened, I visited a booth that had a nice display, but failed on my pet peeve, NO SIGNAGE. Not bad signage, none! Hmmm.This was a cake booth and I know just a little more about cake booths than most. There were no pre-cut samples, there was a table in the front of the booth with ~gasp~ a chair behind it. This I had to keep an eye on.
This is the line outside her booth an hour later.
Here is why…
Because she was hand cutting those samples, she got to talk one on one with every person that sampled her cake. Her booth placement helped; she was the first cake booth. I am sure she gave out far fewer samples than the other cake vendors, but every single one counted. (I checked. She gave out about 50% of the other cake vendors.)
Unconventional thinking; I love it. This was an interesting twist and I doubt that it would work on a really large show or for a different type of vendor, but for a smaller more elite show…maybe.
Marketing is tough. How do you decide where to start, where to invest and how to design your marketing material.
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