Do you still meet your clients at the local Starbucks? Do you invite them into your living room? That may not be the best plan.

For many of us solo-preneurs having a dedicated off site office is just not something we have thought about or built into our growth plan. Heck, I work out of my bedroom but then I rarely meet with clients, it’s all over the phone and internet for me.  If you meet with clients face to face on a regular basis you need to think about the impression you send with where you meet.

This was prompted by a discussion I was following on a photographer’s forum. The original poster was moving into a new place and was wondering if he should turn his old place into a studio.  Great idea, depending on the location.  It was a 2^nd story one bedroom on a side street. No matter how professional he made it, I still worry how comfortable a single woman would be going there alone.  It had better be in a great neighborhood. The thread continued with many people posting about their experiences when they moved into a real office/studio.

Let’s break it down. Brides will tell you that meeting at the local coffee house is OK. It’s a safe, public place that is easy to find. The problem for you is that you project the same image as every other wedding vendor that they meet there. There is nothing there to set you apart, nothing remarkable. There are distractions a plenty and nothing to stick in their mind.

If you meet in your home you are giving them too much information. Every home has its own drawbacks.  Even if you live in a show house designed by the editor of Metropolitan Home there are still a million personal touches that will show. Add to that the safety factor; do you really want to invite perfect strangers into you private space?  I sure don’t. I also don’t know many women that embrace the thought of being alone in a house with a stranger, especially if he is a man. I realize that it is often easier to meet at your home, particularly if you have children.  This is business folks; that isn’t always easy. The exception may be if you have a studio/workspace that is detached from the home.  Then the client is only viewing your home from the outside.

If you have a dedicated, off-site place to meet you set yourself apart. It is decorated in a manner that reflects your style. It screams professional, not amateur. Clients enter the space in a mood to do business, not chat. Unlike a coffee house, you have every possible sales tool at your finger tips. You just can’t carry everything in a briefcase. If it is in a commercial district it is presumed to be safe ground since there are other people near.  Unlike your home, your client only sees what you wish to present them, not everything about your life. All around it is the best solution.

Wait , you say! I can’t afford a place like that! You may be surprised.  I’m not talking about renting a corner office in a swanky high-rise or popping for commercial space in the shopping district; there are a million alternatives.  I know of two different wedding businesses in my small city that have added office suites to their property. They are tiny little spaces design for no more than meeting clients. If there isn’t something like this where you are you may consider doing it yourself.  Rent a place much larger than you need, divide it into small bedroom sized offices and rent them out to other wedding vendors. It pays your rent and they have a “business home.”

Heck, now that I think about it, my editor/publisher started his company this way in a restored mansion near the town square in Franklin, TN. He had one big room on the first floor.  I also remember photographer years ago that landed a similar place. It was a really cool building that a photographer had bought, built a nice studio and divided the rest up into private offices. She rented her office and had rights to schedule use of the studio space.  It worked out well for her for years. You could think of them as small business incubators.

There is a place that can be found if you put your mind to it. Oh, and yes, every single poster to that thread that had moved into professional space had seen a dramatic jump in their close rate. Just though I’d throw that out there.

Marketing for the small entrepreneur has a lot to do with name recognition.  The question I am always asked is how do you get it?

The easy answer is to hire a big PR firm. Right, I know “Not  happenin’.” The harder answer is to do it yourself and that takes really not a lot more than blind perseverance and dedication.

If you are a regular subscriber you already know about using the social networks to build your name. Question is, which name are you building? What? Here is an example: The Rolling Stones vs Mick Jagger; U2 vs Bono; which ones are the rock stars?  Are you out there building your company brand or are you building your own?  Wolverine or Hugh Jackman? Do you see what I am getting at? If you really want to be a rock star you have to make your company identified as a part of you, not the other way around. If you don’t believe me, look at the Trendsetters list in Modern Bride; not one is listed by their company name. Even the write up on the venerable Kleinfeld’s, which is by all rights a major brand, is headlined as Mara Urshel & Ronnie Rothstein.

Now that you have that straight in your mind, what steps do you take to make it happen. Well you start with a small following. Think about being a headliner for a small crowd as opposed to being the opening act for someone else. Seth Godin wrote a great post on this, you can read it here.  Build your small following on your name, not your companies. Companies are thought of a faceless entities, be bold enough to put your face on what you do (of course you have be really good at what you do).

Build audience by getting exposure. Offer to speak to groups like you local NACE or ABC, offer to write articles for your local publications, get to know the producers of your local tv shows, offer to do presentations at local bridal shows. Build you tiny little cult following at the same time you hone your skills.

Take any offer that will get you exposure. You never know who will be in that crowd. I live in a city that understands this completely. The places I have seen songwriters and musicians perform in around here would truly boggle your mind. No matter what the dive, you just never know who will be in the crowd. Randy Travis was discovered singing in a horrible tourist trap catfish dive out by Opryland. He was a dishwasher that talked the boss into letting him sing on a fairly regular basis, night after night for unappreciative half drunk tourists. Now he was doing the other work of hitting Music Row, but ultimately it was someone that saw him perform on that stage that took him over the edge.

Use this exposure to build to the next level.

Here is where the blind perseverance comes in. Except in rare cases, this isn’t going to happen overnight. You need to keep putting yourself out there, keep taking risks. Think about what we all know to be true of actors: 15 years to become an overnight success.  Start zeroing in on larger and larger markets. Pick your targets and keep offering, hit them with an idea on a monthly basis. Don’t be pushy but do be relentless. Believe me, they will remember your name and when the time comes that they need what you have to offer they will look you up. It may feel like you are emailing a black hole. It may feel like they aren’t listening but keep doing it any way.  There are too many stories out there about the PR flack that pitches a client to Oprah/Fast Company/InStyle for a year before they hear anything. Have faith and just keep doing it.

I know that some of you are sitting there thinking how is this going to help my little bakery? I can only deliver in a small geographic area, why do I need to be on Oprah? If you think for one minute that national exposure won’t be felt in your local market you are crazy. The minute you hit primetime, your prices and your booking are going to go through the roof. Besides, there is a great big world out there. Don’t be afraid to think about expanding into it. After all, you just got yourself on Oprah didn’t you; you can do anything!

I do a lot of research on how women buy. Did you know that 80% of adult women believe very strongly that individuals can affect the environment. However, nearly 60% believe that they are personally not doing enough to protect it; this according to an Eco-Insights survey. Further more, previous research has shown that nearly 50% of women say they want more green choices – a sentiment reflected in the recent Eco-Insights study as well.

Another fact about how women but is that they are less price driven than men and more cause driven. An example of this is all the pink ribbon marketing you see. If given a choice between two product, one endorsing the breast cancer research cause and one ignoring it, women are highly likely to pay a bit more to purchase the product that they consider more socially conscience.

Which brings us back to green and the environment and your marketing. If you are offering any choices that are environmentally friendly you need to be sure that you are using that in your marketing.  You should be offering those choices right along with all of your other choices. You don’t have to separate them.  I have this awful image of a big flashy page of “NEW GREEN PRODUCTS.”  Keep it simple, something as easy as a green leaf or asterisk next to the name.  Make it as natural as possible.

Another thing to remember is that you have to be genuine and honest. Women consumers today can smell ‘fake’ a mile away. Not only will they not buy the product, they are activists and may well work to shine a light on your deception. Bottom line, you can’t slap a coat of green on something and think it will work. You are going to have to actually do the work to find the products and choices that really do make a difference.

Now that you have found some environmentally friendly options to offer to your brides the question becomes how you let them know.  Blog about them. Talk about why you choose them, why you are excited about this/these products in particular and why they make a difference. Again, you have to be genuine. Do your homework enough to know why the product or service matters. Give them examples of the difference it will make. Tell them that it saves energy or pollutes less or comes from sustainable resources. Be as specific as you can. Remember, women want information.

It also helps if you can get involved in local events and causes. Remember, they can smell ‘fake’ a mile away. Here is an example, if you are in the culinary end of things, get involved with the local foods movement. Then use that as a talking point in you blog and your About page. Whatever aspect of the wedding industry you are in, a simple google search will turn up some possibilities as will your trade magazines and site.

I realize that not everyone is going to find this an enthusiastic topic. If environmental causes aren’t you cup of tea, find another cause that women in your demographic embrace. You may not think it’s important but every little thing, no matter how small, resonates with women buyers. Every_little_thing.

If you are a regular follower then you know I am electronic media’s biggest fan.  It is everywhere from the demise of newspapers to E-vites and email rsvps.  So what’s with that headline?

It is exactly the fact that online marketing has become so ubiquitous that I think it may be a time to give snail mail a fresh look. We all have our spam filters set and a separate email address that we use when we have to give an email address that we know will result in junk. Junk mail has fallen off and doesn’t crowd our snail mailboxes like it once did. Hmmmm.

So just why do I think a postcard will get any more attention that it did 4 years ago? Well I don’t think a postcard will, but a nice fat “lumpy” mailer will. What’s a lumpy mailer, you ask. A lumpy mailer is a padded envelope or box with something in it. Don’t YOU always open those? I know at one time I had a whole collection of pens that said “Your name here” LOL

This, of course, is not the most budget conscience option but it may be effective. Even that behemoth of the online world, Google, is doing it. They sent out little spiral bound note cards in bright green listing tips for using Adsence to advertise.

So what do you put into a lumpy mailer? Well it has to be unique and it has to have a connection to your business. Ideally it should be something that the recipient will either keep or remember.  Suppose you are a caterer, how about a sushi shaped eraser with your information on the bottom? I know I’d keep that. A bridal salon might have some mini jewelry bags made up out of bridal fabric with a tag sewn in with their information. Photographers might send out picture frame key chains. Get creative.

I’m not recommending that you buy a list and send these out blindly to a couple of thousand engaged couples. I do think you should send them to hot prospects though. Maybe drop one in the mail to a new consult on the day you meet with them.  Or harvest the best from that list you got at the bridal show and send by snail mail rather than just handing it out at the show, for just a bit more money you get a second exposure.

This kind of thing also works great for business to business sales. Think up something that will get the attention of other vendors that you want to refer you.  You might even consider spending a bit more on something for this purpose. Say you are a florist, find a vase shaped pencil cup that you can put your information on and send it out to rental firms, caterers and venues. If it is unique enough they will use it on their desk, keeping you in the front of their mind. Double score if it is on the desk where they meet with clients.

The old rule of thumb with postcards was that you need 7 exposures to be effective. If you add that up you may not be spending all that much more doing one lumpy mailer than you were on the postcard campaign. If you want to track the success, set up a mini page on your website and have that URL printed on your collateral. Then you can simply track how many people enter on that page.

In today’s market you have to think outside the box to get noticed.

Further reading:

What Google Can Teach Us About Printed Marketing Materials

I love email marketing. Getting a well crafted e-mail campaign in the inbox of your potential client is a wonderful thing. In the past we have talked about building your list, not getting blacklisted as spam and why it is an important part of your overall marketing plan. This month I want to give you some tips on bad vs good email design.

You may be doing all the right things in terms of list quality, consistency and e-mail services and still not be getting the open rate that you hoped.  Here are some pitfalls that a lot of people don’t even consider when designing their campaigns.

Subject lines

Think hard about your subject line; often it is the only thing that your recipient will see. If they have the preview pane turned off in their email client (like I do) your subject line IS the headline that will have to grab their attention. Be sure to reference your business name in some way and give them a reason to open it. Tease them. Stay away from spammy words like Free. Click here for a great list of tips on writing good subject lines from the e-mail wiki.

E-mail Length

Longer is not better. In today’s world people want fast e-mail. A couple of paragraphs with links out to more information do the trick better than trying to explain everything in the text body.  Another reason to think short is the growing numbers of people that read their email in hand held devices like Blackberries or iPhones.  No one wants to have to scroll through 4 screens to get to what you want them to read. In fact, most people won’t even bother.

All Images

An increasing number of e-mail clients have the defaults set to NOT display images. If your entire email is an image all you recipient will see is a blank box with an X in it. If you are luck and have included an alt image tag at least they will see that, maybe. Some e-mail clients like Yahoo and Hot Mail won’t even display the alt image tag. A better plan is to use mostly text in your email (especially in the upper left quadrant) and add images sparingly. Any image you do include should carry an informative alt image tag so at least your readers will know what they are missing.

Plain Text

I’m guilty of this one and I  overcame it in 2009. Once you have designed you e-mail in HTML with all its lovely pictures and links be sure to check the plain text version. The system I use allows me to edit the plain text version separately from the HTML version. Take a look at yours. A lot of times what happens is all those links and images end up looking to the untrained eye as lines of gobbledygook.  So just get rid of them. If there are links that absolutely have to be there, write them in plain language.  Ditto the images. Just get rid of any links to outside images since they won’t show up anyway. Next, take a look at the layout. There really isn’t any way to make it pretty but at least strive for clean.  Why is this important?  It’s important because about 50% of e-mails open in plain text. I thought that number was a little high until I considered the number of people viewing their e-mail on mobile devices. Sadly, I expect the number to grow.

These are just a few tricks of the trade. The other thing you absolutely must do is preview and test. Then do it again.  I test every campaign in at least 3 different e-mail clients. I send it to my Outlook acct, my Thunderbird account and my gmail account.  You can set up free accounts on Yahoo and Hotmail as well and then just add those addresses to your test account. Most bulk e-mail programs don’t charge you for your test emails so there isn’t any reason not to test like crazy.

Put these tips into practice and watch what happens to your open and click through rates. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

It is a common fallacy to stop marketing when money gets tight. It is very easy to see your marketing budget as a quick fix place to cut. Don’t do it. You need your marketing now more than ever.

So what do you do when those high dollar spends like magazines and bridal show keep getting more expensive and returning less. I didn’t say you had to keep marketing the way you were, I just said that now is not the time to stop.

Right now the most cost effective way to market is through email, but you need to do it right.

Here are some of the things I have learned along the way.

• Don’t use your regular email. Use a quality bulk email system that has a good opt –out  application.  I like A Weber and Emma. I like Emma enough to become an agency for them. Both offer great tracking and are ridiculously easy to use. I recently started using Constant Contact for a client. I have to tell you, I am not a fan.
• Preview, preview and preview again. A good system lets you send test emails to yourself and a limited group free of charge. In my case I send them to myself at email addresses on three different email programs just see how they look. I use Outlook, G-mail and Thunderbird. Be sure to check how it looks in the various preview panes on your mail programs. Sometimes that is all your recipient will look at. Once I have it tweaked, I add the client to the final test for their approval.
• Have a “Tell a Friend” button prominently placed in your email. Most systems have this feature just be sure you enable it.
• Use good lead lists. The single best way is to build your own list. As I have said in a previous article, the ones you get from magazines and bridal shows are dicey at best. In fact, Emma won’t even let you load them.  If you do bridal shows, have brides sign up IN YOUR BOOTH. Offer them something in return, a discount coupon works well.  Set that up as an auto-responder when they opt in, don’t just hand them to them at the show.
• Make sure you have a lead generator on your website. Again, offer them something to sign up. It can be information, invitations to events or a coupon. Give them something.
• Be regular in your mailings. You can’t send an email blast every now and then and expect it to work. You have to send them out on a regular consistent basis. Remember, brides take between 12 and 16 months to plan their wedding. If you take away the months they spent getting around to thinking about your particular service or product and the months the need to book in advance of their date you have a window of 6 months at best, probably more like 4. Looking at it in that light, weekly isn’t a bad goal.
• Make your emails short, sweet, lively and fun. Make your readers look forward to the next one.  Include a few interesting illustrations but don’t overload it. To high of a percentage of images to text sets off the spam filters.
• Include pertinent links to things you talk about. Say you are having a special on Fondant cake, include a link to your description of fondant and a galley of fondant cakes on your website.  Running a special on Maggie Sottero Gowns, link to their website. You can track those click-thrus to find out what gets your readers interest; then do more like it.
• Tracking. Yes any good system has good tracking stats and you need to be using them.  I’ve said it before, there is gold in your statistics if you would just use them.

Email marketing is easier than you think and it certainly is more cost effective then most other forms of marketing. Here is one more little thought to get you thinking…

Among 18- to-34-year-olds, consumers are more likely to be influenced to make purchases based on e-mail marketing messages and direct mail than from advertisements or marketing messages on social networks according to new research from Ball State University and ExactTarget.

If you would like the Agency @ Think put together you email marketing strategies send me an email here.

I have gotten an earful lately from the photographers about price. I hear too many considering dropping their prices to compete with all the lower priced (read less experienced) options out there. Holy moly!! What are you people thinking?

Are you marketing the intangibles you offer? I have had this conversation over the course of the last few years with the bridal salons.  I still am as a matter of fact; some get it, some don’t. Now I think I need to direct it to the rest of those industry professionals that have been at this for a while, that have built up a sterling reputation, that have become remarkable but are now running scared of the newbies nipping at their heels.

You need to take a good hard look at the intangibles you offer that they can not. I am not just talking about your product, I am talking about all the things you have learned to do over the years that they have not. It may be as simple as the way you package your products. I know a photographer that sends out his proofs in a beautiful custom designed box. I know a florist who deliverers her bouquets in special disposable vases so they stay in water as long as possible, even between photos. I know caterers that never have a wrinkled linen or a water spot on the silver, I know others that can’t say that. What are those things that you do that you don’t even think of anymore. The little touches, the extras that you don’t notice but that make all the difference.

Get your staff together to brainstorm. Ask the vendors that refer you. Ask your clients why they picked you. You may be surprised to find out just how spectacular you are. Make a list of all the things out of the bare minimum that you do for your clients. Let me give you an example…

When I did cakes I always put them on custom cake boards to match the cake. Never thought anything about it, I just hated those I would see with foil on them. One day a florist said to me that they were always happy when they knew I was doing the cake because they knew they wouldn’t have to try and hide the base. I added that to my marketing and the brides loved it. “Oh cool, custom board” To them it was a perk, to me it was just standard procedure.

I know a florist that has had two different brides mention his wonderful collection of containers. Now he is using them in his marketing. Not only are brides finding it a huge selling point but he is making an upcharge on rental. Duh!

Find out what you do differently than all the rest and find out why that may be important to your target market. Then you have to find a way to highlight it.

With bridal salons, one of the biggies that a bride should expect over ordering online was the way their gown arrived. If you order online the gown arrives inside out, compressed into a box that you or I would never believe it could possibly fit it. Needless to say it is a wrinkled mess. A bridal salon receives the gown the same way; the difference is that before the bride see her gown it has been steamed and fluffed and is looking fairy tale perfect. I suggested to salons that they buy a very cheap gown online, unpack it and put in on display just like it arrived along with the box. It made the point.

None of this will stop all the price shoppers. Nothing will; but now at least you aren’t having to defend your price with nothing to point at. Sell everything that you do, that is what makes you remarkable.

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?

I read an interesting article in Advertising Age recently about how Apple is blurring the line between marketing and customer service. It got me thinking about our industry and the same question. Are we seeing our customers from the right point of view.

First off you can read the full article here. Now let’s look at sales in general. Every time you sell a customer a product you are helping them solve a problem. Now that problem may be as big as finding the right gown to make a size 24w look great or as small as finding bubbles for a wedding exit; but it still is a problem you can solve. That makes it customer service.

Every single potential client that calls you or walks through your door is doing it because they have a problem. Solve it and they are yours and so, not inconsequentially is their money. All it takes is a shift in your point of view.

Too often we see a customer and think “What can I sell them?” Instead why not find out what their problem is first. So how do you do that? Well you engage them in conversation of course. One thing about women is that they delight in sharing their problems with any one, shouldn’t it be you?

Think of any purchases you have made, from that quart of milk to your home. Each one had a problem at the root of it that you believed the purchase would solve. The milk solved the problem of your kids eating dry cereal for breakfast and the home solved the problem of getting them into their own rooms or a better neighborhood. That pack of gum you bought at the check out at Target solved the problem of, “I’m afraid I have bad breath.’ Silly, but still a problem.

Now let’s translate that to bridal. A potential client isn’t just hiring a photographer they are solving one or many problems. They need to capture the moment, they are concerned that they won’t look good in the photos, they are afraid they will miss something or forget a moment. Their problem is that they want you to make sure that they never forget this day and that (in most cases) they look as good in the photos as they do in their mind.

Or their problem may be that they don’t want a photographer to get in the way of their good time. Their problem is again that they don’t want to forget a moment but they don’t want their whole memory of the day to be of your lens in their face. You won’t know if you don’t engage the conversation. It is up to you to get to the root of their problem and then solving it is an easy thing.

How about bridal salons, you know as well as I do that you aren’t so much selling a piece of fabric as you are selling a feeling. Find out how she wants her gown to make her feel. You can parade out 50 gowns but if you don’t know how she wants that gown to make her feel you may never hit the one. Find out what her problems are, seek out her insecurities and solve them. Remember, what you perceive as her flaws may have nothing to do with her insecurities. You may see a butt the size of Montana but what she worries about is a distinct lack of cleavage. Find out her problem and solve it.

It all rolls back to customer service. You have to be there and engage the client on a personal level. If you can successfully uncover the root problem they are trying to solve you will be the savior that solved it for them. You are the expert after all, they have come to you to fix something. Rather than put on you sales hat put on your customer service hat and find out the problem first.

One of the tools that marketers are using to successfully reach the demographics of our brides is Event Marketing. It has been filtering down into the wedding industry for a while now and is starting to work. Would you like to look at the anatomy of one such event?

Event marketing isn’t about big annual bridal shows, it is more intimate than that. It is about parties and showing your guests a good time. It is about making them feel all warm and fuzzy about you.

There is a young entrepreneur in my market, Ashley, which has been doing a really good job at this. I attended one of her events last night and to be honest, I wouldn’t miss them. She has her finger on the pulse of the market and knows what to do to get that pulse racing.

Let’s think about her market. Standard demographic, women 18-34 with special emphasis on the style minded 24 to 30year old young professionals. Why style minded? The style conscious bride is always going to be willing to spend more than a granola munching earth girl. What else Ashley realizes is the even though they are brides, they are women with interests besides weddings. That is the key.

Last night’s event was a Sex and the City premier party. What does that have to do with weddings? Absolutely nothing. It does however have everything to do with the passions of her target market.

An extremely well done event, Ashley pulled in a long list of wedding vendor to pull it off; vendors that fit in with the theme. There were wedding and event planners, floral décor, caterers, cake designers, a DJ and a lighting company helping to put the event together. Oh and let’s not forget the limos to take the attendees to the theater in style. Every one of those vendors got a ton of exposure to a core group of influential’s in the exact market they want.

The event was by invitation and also promoted on her website. The guest list was brides from her lead list. Over 100 brides jumped at the opportunity to sip Cosmos and shop before arriving at the premier of this much anticipated film in limos surrounded by their sisters in the SATC cult. Let me tell you, when they arrived the buzz among the other women waiting in line to get into the movie was intense. I am willing to bet that a large percentage of them now know all about Ashley’s Bride Guide.

Here is the pay off. Ashley raised the profile of her website tremendously. The women that attended will talk about the event to their friends and want to be in on the next one. Her traffic is going to spike like crazy. As a result of this event Ashley is building her reputation of being hip and capable and in the know. In short, she is becoming trusted by her target market. The advertisers on her site will reap the benefits. “If Ashley likes them, so will I.”

Part of what makes these events so popular is that they are not wedding-centric. By using non-wedding events to bring brides together she is able to reach them on a different level and earn their trust. When their mind does turn to their wedding planning, Ashley is already a trusted source.

Stop thinking about your future clients as “just brides”; mine that niche a little deeper. Realize that just because they are brides doesn’t mean they stopped being the women they were before they got engaged. Welcome to the new world of marketing.