Follow the lead of Texas florist, Va-Va Bloom, and reach out to the newly engaged as soon as possible.
Champagne and tinsel weren’t the only things sparkling this holiday season. Chances are a substantial number of women in your community received a diamond ring in recent weeks — or will soon.
According to WedInsights (data from Wedding Wire), 40 percent of proposals occur between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day.
Mindful of this longstanding trend, Va-Va Bloom in Kingwood, Texas, kicked off the year with a timely Facebook post that featured a close up of an engagement ring and a note of congratulations. The post offered advice, encouraging brides planning on a summer wedding to book a consultation soon and advocating that they choose “vendors who will care as much about making your wedding day as special as you do.” It also included a 15 percent discount for anyone who books by the end of the month.
A social media post like this is a good starting point to build up your bridal biz for 2018. Here are a few other things to try:
- Evaluate your wedding portfolio online. Do you have a Pinterest account? If not, get one stat, then get to work building boards that reflect various color schemes and styles to entice the newly engaged. Does your Facebook page include albums of past wedding work? If not, start uploading! Does your website have a special landing page for your wedding services? (You get the gist…)
- Email your former brides. Say you hope they had a happy holiday and kindly remind them how much their referrals can help your business. Share a link where they can write a review. Offer them a small incentive (a $25 gift card, complimentary bouquet, etc.) for each one of their friends who picks you to style their wedding.
- Set up a Facebook ad. Five years ago, Facebook tweaked its algorithm, significantly dropping organic reach. But the site still outshines all others in terms of traffic for people between the ages of 18 and 34, said Crystal Vilkaitis, founder of The Social Edge. The way to reach them? Facebook ads. “They’re not that expensive and you can really target a specific audience, such as people who updated their relationship status to ‘engaged’ in a certin age range and mile radius,” she said. Vilkaitis offered detailed instructions in an SAF-sponsored webinar last summer. You can watch it here.
