Since the topic of the day seems to be lead lists and email I thought I would gather together some of my best posts on the subject.

Happy reading. Oh and don’t forget, the people that are telling you how many names are on their lead list are trying to sell

you something.  Just sayin’

The Truth About Lead Lists

Bridal Spam. Get Out of My Inbox!!

I have been following the articles over on eWedNews concerning the demise of the formal wear industry. So, you know me, I started looking at their marketing.

First question: What marketing? Why isn’t there a gorgeous man in a gorgeous tux in every bridal gown ad? Isn’t there usually a groom at most occasions to wear a bridal gown?.

Second, the ad I do see most is the Men’s Wearhouse ad that speaks directly to men. Pffffft! If you want men to wear tuxedos you have to pitch the brides.

Which brings us to the Old Spice Man. If you haven’t caught this bit of viral brilliance then you have been living in a cave. What started as an ad on the Super Bowl transformed itself into a social media phenomenon with the Old Spice man responding to tweets in YouTube video spots. Brilliant social media marketing, but that isn’t the point I want to make.

*pause for random opportunity to include gratuitous half naked hunky guy video

This is: 80% of the purchases made in the US are made by women. The Old Spice campaign is aimed at women. Yes it is a product for men, so are tuxedos. However, body wash isn’t something that most men think about, neither are tuxedos. They are both something women think about. Whether it is a wife or partner that does the shopping and decides which body wash to buy or a bride deciding what to dress the men in the wedding party in, it is the women that make the decision. That is why you need to pitch to her.

Seriously, do you really think that an ad with a hunky half naked man was created to appeal to MEN? I didn’t think so. But what happens to the single guy that sees his date pay attention to said hunky half naked guy? He is going to pick up that product thinking that he may get her to pay that kind of attention to him. Either way, it was the woman’s influence that drove the sale.

Back to formal wear. If you want men to start wearing tuxedos, you are going to have to sell women on the idea first.

Say for instance, when the most recent Bond movie came out, why wasn’t there a tie in with how sexy Daniel Craig looked in formal wear? I mean come on, he had on a tux in the poster for Casino Royale!!! Sexy man> sexily dressed. Pitch perfect for a campaign directed at women.

Here is another, I ran across a couple of beach wedding pictures that had the bride in a traditional formal gown and the groom in cargo shorts and a bowling shirt. How about a picture like that with the tag line, “Don’t you deserve better?” Maybe if the tuxedo manufacturers produced a line specifically for the beach weddings, after all the gown manufacturers have.

Back to the gown ads. Those ads I do see in magazines with men in tuxedos usually have him looking disaffected and women fawning over him. That is pitching to men. Let’s turn it around, how about have him looking on adoringly at her? Every girl is crazy about a sharp dressed man, but on her wedding day the last thing she wants is all of her bridesmaids fawning over her new hubs. The better story is “Look at this gorgeous man that only has eyes for me.”

More important than the end user of your product, think about who is most likely to influence that purchase. That’s where you aim the pitch.

Yep, more proof that Facebook is still a good bet. The above title is from a Media Post Study released 7/7/10.

Here is the juicy quote:

Showing the degree to which Facebook has become the gateway to the greater Web, nearly half — 48% — of all respondents now claim to get more news through Facebook than from traditional news outlets.

In addition, shedding new light on the dynamics of female social networking behavior, 50% of respondents believe they could rely on a “Facebook friend” for their help in a crisis; while 46% say it’s okay to be Facebook friends with someone they don’t like in real life.

Read the whole article for yourself

Tomorrow I’ll have some things your can do to spice up your Facebook page.

We all know about lead lists. I’ll bet most of you do one of 3 things: Ignore it, Email blast it or send out a single post card. Suppose you did something outrageous instead?

It’s tough/expensive to do much more than the three things I just mentioned with a lead list of 500 to 2000. With direct mail, you have to put together a piece that will get noticed. How many postcards do you think brides get right after a bridal show?  What is going to make yours stand out enough to even get noticed? Add to this, it is proven that you need multiple mailings of standard direct mail before you have any chance of the lead acting on it. So now it isn’t just about sending out 500 to 2000 post cards; it is about multiplying that by at least 5 to get the response you need.  Now that is starting to get expensive.

Blast email can work with a couple of caveats. For one, you have to have permission to send them. Any reputable bulk mailer will require that you have gathered the leads yourself. That means that the list that you get from the shows or from bridal mags you advertise in are usually prohibited. What’s more, even if you found a way around the system, about half of those email addresses are bogus or are just junk mail dumping accounts. The second caveat is to get around the spam filters you really have to know what you are doing when you craft your email. That is particularly true in crafting your headline.  If you start getting caught by the spam filters you may well find your email address or isp blocked altogether.

Of course at least these two options have a bit more of a chance than doing nothing. Unfortunately, that is what most people do with the lead lists.

Now suppose you really analyzed those lists ,compared a few different lists, pared them down to only the really juicy prospects, and separated them by wedding date? You may end up with maybe 3 leads some months, maybe 7 to 10 for others. Now that is a doable number. You could pull out all the stops to get their attention then, couldn’t you?

So now what? That is where your unique creativity comes in to the equation. How outrageous do you want to get and how much are you willing to spend to get a great client?  I read something recently about a house cleaning service that would cherry pick their leads and send the ripe ones a DVD player with a DVD full of testimonials of happy clients shot in their clean homes. Now that is pretty dang outrageous, but if you get one out of 3 and stand to make a good bit of money on their weekly service, it was worth it. They did this once a month and grew their business by at least one or two new clients a month.

Now I am not saying you need to send brides DVD players but there are other outrageous things you could do. I spoke with a florist recently about sending out a small floral arrangement to 3 leads a week. She would just order a bit of extra flowers and deliver them herself. I can guarantee that she will be on that bride’s radar so much more that an email or postcard would have done. If you are a baker, how tough would it be to send out a few boxes of cupcakes a week?  Hey DJ’s, how about a CD of the 15 Best First Dance Songs?  Caterers, could you invite 4 couples to a tasting a month? Remember, you are only hitting the very best prospects, those prospects that your close ratio should be high on if you can get their attention.

I know a bridal salon that does appointment only champagne shopping on Sundays. There are signs posted and she tells the brides that come about it. How much more effective would it be if rather than waiting for brides that already had been in her shop to book an appointment she started sending out selective invitations to good prospects off of her lead lists. Maybe do a private fashion show once a week for a select number of girls.

Yes, all of this costs money; all marketing does. This kind of marketing is done on a small scale and is highly trackable. It is also so outside the box that you are bound to get noticed. Or you can keep doing what you have been doing and hope it works.

I have had several people contact me after buying Bridal Show Success or reading my posts on outrageous marketing that wanted more specific direction.

The whole point of outrageous marketing is to stand out from the crowd. Perhaps the best way to get your creative juices flowing is to catalog what the ‘crowd’ is doing.  Let’s start with bridal shows. In the book I suggest that you have one statement piece in your booth. Go to the next show you can find and see what everyone else is doing; then do something else. OK, that sounds pretty lame, but think about it. If you look at the photographer’s booth every one of them has beautiful wedding images hanging in their booth and after a while they all look alike. Hang something different.  I am not saying don’t put wedding images up, I’m just saying as your statement piece do something completely different.  If you do fine art photography, use one of those, blown up to an outrageous size.  If you have some award winners put them on one wall with the awards. In a sea of wedding photographs you booth will be the one they remember.

If all the sugar artists in your area fill their booth with 3 or 4 full size cakes make one larger than life dummy and than a wall of centerpiece size cakes that are all different. Get some vertical shelving (I used to pull the chrome shelves out of my shop) and fill the shelves with different thing that you do: cookies, small cakes, examples of sugar flowers and put something amazing on that top shelf that will be seen above the crowd.

Are all the florists doing a major statement piece arrangement in the center of their booth? Do a variety of smaller, more realistic ones. A client of mine gets a corner booth and takes down the outside wall. On that point she puts a 7 foot tall wrought iron tree hung with bouquets and boutonnières. Smaller arrangements and tabletop décor line the back wall, again going vertical with stands. They are grouped to go with the various bouquet styles. Trust me, that tree draws a lot of attention. Brides first see it as a whole and then start discovering all the parts that make it up. If a bride zeros in a particular bouquet, she can show her ideas for centerpieces that go with it.

If you are looking for follow up ideas, send in an accomplice to sign up. Seriously.  The only way to know what kind of follow up your competition is doing is to get on their list. Find an employee or friend or daughter of a friend and have them sign up for services in your category. Use an email address that can be forwarded to you. Once you know what they are doing, again, do something different. You should read the article on Cherry Picking Your Lead List for more ideas on outrageous follow up.

This is for the July issue of Think, so in a perfect world, you can go scan the late summer shows and start planning your booth for January. If not, you may have to see if you can dig up some images from last season.  If there are multiple shows in your area, go to the ones you aren’t doing. Sign up to their mailing list off their website, that may give you some indication of what they are thinking.

Some of you may think this all sound a little shady. If I were telling you to go steal their ideas I would agree with you; but I’m not. I’m telling you to do this kind of research so you can zig when they zag. Marketing is about making you stand out from the herd. If you are doing the exact same thing as everyone else you are just going to blend in. Be outrageous, be flamboyant, be uniquely, marvelously YOU!

In a recent post, Why You Should Cherry Pick Your Lead List, I wrote a bit about Outrageous Marketing. That prompted this question from Debi,

“How would you be outrageous as a wedding planner? I can’t think of a “product” to send/email/provide. Any ideas?”

You have to put your thinking caps on and get creative. What I told Debi was to sit down and brainstorm with her network of vendors and see what they could come up with collectively, sort of a “Congratulations on Your Engagement ” swag bag.

Another idea would be to plan a little intimate meet and great with 4 or 5 of your favorite vendors. Heck, you’re a planner-plan something.

You just have to be creative to get their attention.

I was talking to a friend with connections in the formal wear industry and I suggested that he put together a short video on how to tie a bow tie and send it with a tie for them to practice on.

Another formal wear vendor I know each year assembles a troop of young men and women from the local high schools and turns them into a little dance and modeling team. Then she sets up prom fashion shows at all the highschools and colleges for prom, evening gowns and formal wear with her Ambassadors. Brilliant!

I have a florist that monitors all the local bridal salons and takes in fresh bouquets on any weekend that they are hosting a trunk show.

If you are in the food end of the industry, it’s really a no brainer. Get your portfolio in their face and you food in their mouth. Cookies, truffles, cupcakes; anything along those lines beautifully packaged that arrives at their door will get their attention.

If you are a calligrapher, send them a pack of 6 handmade note cards.

No matter what you do, there is something outrageous you can do to capture their attention.

Don’t even think about

doing a bridal show until you read this book!

I know you have heard what I have had to say about bridal shows. How they are a crap shoot at best, how there are way too many, how they aren’t the sure bet they used to be. Well all that is true!

Unless you know the secrets

Bridal shows can still be a tremendous way to market your business if you pick the right one and use every tool in your arsenal to get it right.Here are the tips and trick you have been searching for, all in one easy to follow guide.

Nothing vague here, just good solid information to take you every step of the way from choosing the show to closing the sale.

I tackle everything from what makes a show worth doing (and how you can get even more publicity before the show) to why your old email campaigns just didn’t work.

One of the questions I see popping up all the time is “How should I design my booth”. This book has the answers from how to lay it out to what you absolutely have to include to be successful.

Want to know how to squeeze every last marketing opportunity out of your costly investment? Of, course that’s covered. I’ll tell what extras and freebies you can get before you sign on the dotted line to do the show.

Let’s face it, bridal shows are an expensive way to market your business. It’s not just the cost of the booth, but what you put in it and your time and that of your staff. Don’t you deserve to get the best return on that investment you possibly can. Yes you do!

I will share with you my personal secrets for bridal show success. Secrets I have learned in years of doing these things as a successful wedding vendor down in the trenches, right where you are.

When you consider the investment you make in a bridal show, whether is is a single booth at a tiny show with 100 brides or a quad booth at one of the mega-shows with over 1500 brides, $14.95 is a drop in the bucket. This book will more than pay for itself before you even do your first show.

How can I say that? Because not only will it keep you from doing the wrong show but my tips on email follow up can translate into a year round campaign. (that alone makes it worth the read)

What are you waiting for? Don’t you want to get the biggest return on your marketing investment that you can? Or would you rather just complain that bridal shows don’t work?

Like I said…

Bridal shows CAN work, but only if you know the secrets!

Go on, click the button. You know you need to.

Are you ready for the late summer round of bridal shows? If you haven’t already booked a booth I can guarantee that your sales rep is on their way to get you to sign up.

Don’t do a thing until you read the book! I’m putting the finishing touches on the one eBook you need to maximize your bridal show investment.

Everything you need to know from how to pick the right show, design your booth, do the follow up and get as much traction as you possibly can.

Set for a May 20th release, this is the definitive guide to doing a bridal show and making it profitable.

I got another one in my inbox yesterday: a completely lame email blast that instead of making me want to buy,  made me lose respect for the sender. How sad is that?

What, you ask did they do that was so horrible? Dang near everything.

First, the greeting: Dear Valued Important Prospect

How funny is that? I felt neither important nor valued. I felt like they couldn’t even be bothered to use the personalization option on the email platform. OH WAIT! that is because they didn’t use a qualified opt-in bulk email program. They sent it from their regular email.

I wonder how valued and important the other 34 people they sent it to felt? How do I know they sent it to 34 other people? Because they didn’t even bother to use the BCC feature that would have hid all the other email addresses. Gee, now I know who is on their lead list. Come on, that is just standard email etiquette.

The email said that there were pictures attached. Whoops, they forgot to attach then, they came later in another email.

There is really no excuse for this. Good opt-in email programs like Emma and AWeber are not that expensive, cheaper than direct mail. Some, like Mail Chimp are even free for small accounts. They aren’t hard to use and they can be formatted to look lovely and carry your branding. What is the problem folks?

Everyone is working hard to build a strong lead list of “Valued Prospects” but calling them that to their face is not the best way to ingratiate yourself with them.

Email is really not that hard. Far harder is generating a nice fat lead list to send it to; but that’s another rant for another day.

Here is a some more reading on the topic of crafting your email blasts from the gurus at MediaPost  Publications.

I see it all the time, wedding professionals tweeting like crazy but never really getting it. Twitter is really a powerful tool for marketing if you take a little time to understand it.  Here are some pointers if you want to use Twitter as a marketing tool.

I see so many people using Twitter as a platform for chat. Fine, that’s fun and a great way to make friends but it isn’t really a marketing tool.

The other thing I see is the ones that pretty much do nothing but tweet spam. Wow, that’s annoying.
So what is the right way? Share your passion with me. Chances are good that you are passionate about your business or you wouldn’t be trying to grow it. So show me!

I teach best by example so here we go.

Last night I spoke with a chef for a catering company that had been assigned the twitter account. She was at a total loss. I told her to tweet about the fabulous artichokes that came in today and the ideas she had for them. I told her to tweet about the new recipe she was developing. I told her to tweet about how amazing the spring lamb smelled as it roasted for tonight’s party. I told her to make me drool.

I have a client that is a floral designer that always takes pictures at the wholesaler of anything that looks particularly lovely and tweets it. She tweets pictures of brides reaction as she hands them their bouquet on the morning of their wedding. She shares her passion. Sometime she tweets about the madness that is a floral design studio on the day before a huge function.

Another  tweep I have been coaching to talk about all the amazing changes taking place at her venue. They are doing some moderate renovations and everything in the garden is coming to life. I suggested that she talk about the interesting way each bride transforms the space into her own. I suggested that she tweet that some of her brides are renting the place for an afternoon well before the wedding to use a setting for boudoir photo shoots. In the telling of these, she is intriguing me enough to want to find out more about her property.

Talk to me about your passions; show me why I want to join you in your world. Invite me in and inspire me.
No matter what you do, if you share your passion with me I will feel it and most likely become engaged enough to want to explore you and your product or service further.

That is what customer engagement is all about in the time of social media.