You feeling it yet?  I’ve heard several people outside of the biz say that “People will still get married!  Weddings are recession-proof!”  Maybe they’ll still get married, but I’m sure you know by now that it’s a much harder sale and brides are spending less (or they’re postponing the wedding).   Many of you are planning to be at the bridal show this fall.  What are you doing to guarantee your return on investment? 
Your follow up strategy for the bridal show leads is one way you can recession-proof your wedding business.  Your planning determines if you sit around every weekend in 2010 wishing you had work or if you are booked solid.

Get ready for the bridal show NOW.

Your Booth
What will it look like?  Who will be working with you?  What is the layout?

Email Marketing
Email is the best, cheapest and potentially most effective way to communicate with brides, if you do it right.  I’ve been sending an email newsletter every other week for the past three years.  My goal is to stay top of mind.  Right now a bride might be thinking about her reception site.  In three months she’s thinking about photography and flowers.  In another few months she’s thinking about you.  Are you on her radar when that time comes?  Be careful of the legal issues with SPAM and list usage.  I highly recommend using professional email marketing software to deliver your messages and understanding how opt-in emails work to make sure you’re friendly with the FTC.

Handouts
What will you hand out?  What does it look like?  Who will design it?  Where will you order it from?  What is your call to action?  What will entice the bride to look up your website when she gets home?
Are you passing out any ad specialties?  Pens, notepads, cupcakes… order stuff early.

Your Website
If your handout was good enough to cause a bride to look you up on the web, is she still impressed when she gets to your website?  What mechanisms do you have set up so that when she visits your site, you are able to capture her contact info and stay in front of her again and again?  What are you doing to keep her coming back?  Does your website look as professional as other websites that she visits every day?

Social Media
An absurd number of brides use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites.  What are you doing to reach them there?  Do you know how?

This is a lot to tackle.  It would be difficult to do everything perfectly by the time the bridal show rolls around.  Pick one area and bullet proof it and then work on the other areas as you go.  I’d be glad to go into more detail on any one of these topics with you personally or in future articles.  Please let me know if you have questions.  I’m working on all of this myself this, too.  In this economy we can’t get away with not being on top of our game.  We can do this together!

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