10 Bridal Expo Success Tips From Wedding Professionals

 

1. Have a booth that stands out from the crowd and announces what you do immediately.

Go VERTICAL if you can because tall booths stand out from across the room. Lots of booths look exactly the same and you NEED to stand out because there will be many people in your same industry there. Ideas include using a different colour background or table cloth over the standard linens.  You could also try something that’s vertical standing at about 1.5m  from the top of the table (lights, candle centrepiece, floral design)…

 

2. Give away something people will want.

Cool freebies and sweets work well.  The idea is to give away something that will draw brides to your booth.  Suggestions include decorative magnets to put on the fridge, bobble-head toys, cool environmental carry bags, a hat, or a balloon. Make sure that whatever you give away has your business name and contact information on it for promotion.

 

3. Collect your own leads (name, wedding date, email) with a contest at your booth.

Invite brides/grooms to enter a drawing for a valuable prize that has no strings attached.  In other words, they don’t have to book you to use it, because it will attract more entries.

“We exhibited at 4 wedding shows last year and we partnered up with other businesses to give a romantic meal for two plus and overnight stay in a top hotel…entrants had to go on to our website to enter. It was a great success…”  Patrick Hardiman

Think about offering an Expo Special…some sort of discount or freebie if the book an appointment with you.

 

4. Qualify people immediately when they get to your booth to make sure you’re available and they actually need your services.

“What’s your date? Are you looking for a florist?” If not, wish them well and move on quickly so that you can meet as many people as possible.

 

5. Set goals.  Go for a meeting rather than trying to book right at the show.

I have seen wedding suppliers work for 15 – 30 minutes trying to get one client to sign on the line, and 20 clients walked by…. Talk to as many as you can, do follow up and then set meetings to sign the paperwork and close the sale….

 

6. Be friendly, approachable and engage the bride/groom and stand in front of your table.

Be sure to stand up during the expo and do not cross your arms. You would be amazed at the negative impact such body language has on a bride’s willingness to talk to you.  Be friendly, smile, stand, engage and let them know that you are there to help them find what they are looking for.

 

7. Bring your own food and water.

Walking away from your booth to line up with the crowds to get lunch can mean missing out on speaking with a client.  Bring your own food, and eat it when there is a lull in the crowd. Your voice will get a workout as well. You will be talking a lot all day. Keep water on hand.  Another idea is to have throat lozenges with you.

 

8. Stay all the way until the end and don’t leave your booth.

Packing up early looks unprofessional, and there are always couples who come in at the very end.  If you abandon your booth during the bridal show, you’ll miss out on the “quiet time” to speak “one-on-one” with the couples who are still browsing.

9. Network and introduce yourself to as many other wedding suppliers as possible.

One of the biggest benefits of a bridal expo is that it gives you a chance to network with dozens of other wedding suppliers.

Arrive extra early so that you can meet new people and reconnect with other professionals.  Try to find a way to help them and follow up with them after the show.  This builds relationships that lead to referrals.

 

10. After the show, follow up fast!

Most of the work is done after the show.- so be sure to pencil out your dairy just for bridal expo follow up- the next day.  Send a  email with a picture that reminds brides of your booth, and include a personal note.  Confirm any appointments you’ve set.

Read the tips below for how to follow up with your leads from the Bridal Expo.

 

How to Increase Your Bridal Expo Bookings By 25%

Tip #1:  Trying to book the wedding at the show is a mistake.

Attempting to book on the spot means you miss the opportunity to connect with the other couples walking by.

There simply isn’t enough time to spend with each individual couple when you want to maximize your leads.

 

Tip #2: The best strategy for booking weddings from the show is to set as many appointments as possible.

Meetings equal booked weddings; the more meetings you schedule, the more weddings you book. If you know that you book half the couples you meet with, you can double your bookings simply by doubling the number of appointments you set.

 

Tip#3:  The challenge is getting those couples to show up for their appointments.

Here is an example of one  Wedding Planner- Jane. Her goal for the wedding expo was to get as many appointments as possible- in the two weeks following the expo.  She collected the leads names during the expo for appointments, and within 48 hours after the expo she confirmed the appointment by email and text. If she didn’t get a response, she would call them.

 

Here are the results:

• 25% of couples don’t respond and blow off the appointment.
• 25% respond that the time isn’t good and never reschedule.
• 50% of meetings show.

 

Only 50% of couples show up to your meeting!!

Why does this happen you ask?

First of all, don’t take it personally. Most people prefer to avoid conflict and rejection. It seems easier for them to allow you to schedule an appointment, even when they aren’t interested, because it’s less painful than saying no. It sucks, but thats business. And some of these couples really do forget! Especially if you don’t do a good job following up with them.  As much as we appreciate an honest response of, “I’m not interested,” unfortunately, we can’t force couples to stop wasting our time. But there IS something we can do…  read below for the top tips in how to get more meetings/ appointments!

 

 

The Top 3 Tips to Increase Your Appointments/ Consultations

1) Offer an incentive to meet with you.

Make it worth the couple’s while to actually show up for the meeting. Give them a small gift, such as a $20 gift certificate.

At the show, you can say something like this: “To thank you for taking the time to meet with me, I’m happy to give you $20 gift certificate.”

They show up to the appointment and they get the $20 gift card, whether they book you or not. Remind them of the gift when you call to confirm the appointment. Simply offering a small incentive increases the likelihood that the couple will show for their scheduled meeting. It could be a gift-card to an un-related service- such  as a coffee card, or a coles-myer card.  Something of value that the client wants! Dont skimp!

2) Fill out an appointment card with the date and time right at the show.

Print business cards with a space to write down the date and time of your appointment on the back. Fill it outand give it to couples at the show. This makes your meeting “official” and reminds them to call and cancel or reschedule if they can’t make it.

3) Text to confirm appointments 24 hours in advance.

Get permission to text them a meeting confirmation when you meet at the show. It’s a convenient way for you to remind them.

When you text to confirm your appointment time, let them know that they can cancel by text. It’s a pressure-free way for them to cancel, which means less time wasted for you.

Jane is seeing great results from switching to this approach:

“At the show I give them a reminder card with the date and time of the meeting.  After the wedding show I email them almost immediately to remind them of the date and time.  I also remind them that I’m on Instagram and Facebook if they want to see some photos of my latest work.  Here they can check me out further to see my quality of work, and testimonials.

“Then one day before I email them to remind them again.  If I do not hear back, I text them another reminder.  In the text I added that if they wish to change or cancel the meeting simply to let me know.

“Simply putting out there without hesitation they can cancel with a text seems to have helped them respond and not cancel.  Kind of disarms them I think.  My response seems to have improved significantly.”

 

Go into a bridal show with a strategy designed to give you the results you want: meetings that turn into booked weddings. Use these strategies to reduce your no show appointments and boost your wedding bookings.

 

 

The Best Way to Follow Up After a Bridal Show

If there is one Golden Rule of wedding follow up, it’s this…

Follow up fast and use multiple mediums with a BOLD and compelling message.

Most wedding professionals have horrendous follow up practices.  In half of them, the fear of rejection is so great that they just “forget” to follow up.  The other half is so disorganized that they really DO forget.

Great follow up is:

• Every minute that passes means it’s less likely that you’ll book the wedding.
• While only 11-26% of email even gets opened, 98% of text messages are read and direct mail can be extremely effective.
• If your follow up looks just like the competition, so do you.
• Follow up with those leads who have demonstrated an interest in your services at increasing intervals (one week, two weeks, one month, etc.) or until tell you to stop.

When your time and energy resources are limited (and whose aren’t!) you need to focus your efforts on the leads that will give you the best return on that investment.

Followup Tips:

• Follow up with all the warm leads by email and phone asap. These are the people who visited your booth. They’ve indicated an interest in your service and you already have a relationship to build upon.

 

• Prioritize the leads on the bridal show lead list based on wedding location, date or affluent zip codes. You’re looking for the venues and details that are the likely best matches for your ideal clients.

 

• Call and email the best candidates on the list. These are also good candidates for a “lumpy mailer” direct mail campaign.  It’s worth spending some time and money on these hot leads.

 

• Email or post a postcard with a limited time offer to the rest of the list.

 

• Make sure that each follow up contains an offer with a strong call to action and a deadline.  You can even “bribe” couples to a meeting with a small, no strings attached gift like a $20 gift card.  This will increase the action you get immensely.

 

 

What Should I Do With That Bridal Show Lead List?

You’ve got that bridal show lead list in your hot little hands, but before you start blasting out emails, take a gander at the CAN-SPAM Act. These guidelines dictate what you can and cannot do with email addresses if you are using them for commercial purposes….which you are.  My answer is- throw it in the bin!  Most brides do tend to give a fake email address on registration anyway- because they don’t want to be spammed!

 

Wedding Expo Stand Design Ideas

Homework

1. Research the Top wedding Fairs and Expos in your region

2. Find out the dates that they show and the costs involved.

3. Gather inspiration for an expo stand, and complete costings for your design.

4. Work out the total cost to exhibit at the wedding expo.

5. Design a promotion or contest that you can run at the expo to get as many leads as possible

6. Work out a target amount of leads you want from the expo, and the total amount of appointments you wish to get.

7. Develop a booking goal from this appointments- based on your conversion rate of booking a bride from a consult. ( usually this is 25-50% conversion.)