Wedding Marketing Trends 2013
In her blog post, Marketing Weddings to Millennials, Lien discusses how today's audience expects to hear back from companies within 24 hours. Before calling customer service to resolve issues, people now prefer to troubleshoot online first. Therefore, having an online presence is a must for wedding service providers to provide instant replies to inquiries coming through the web. How are marketers attracting these couples and combining the traditional and modern marketing tactics to reach out and sell to this audience?
Be present on the web:
Having a website does not guarantee business. You need to build a website that is an all-in-one online wedding platform. Go for a CMS system that allows you to manage your website, blog and capture leads from one central place. Showing your social presence by sharing the latest Facebook contests, pictures re-pinned on your Pinterest account and updates circulated by your followers will build enthusiasm and generate more inquiries on your site. Having analytics installed on the website will help understand your visitors' level of interest, where you lose them and how can you fill the holes in your website sales funnel.
Create an active Google Plus profile:
As I discussed in one of my previous posts, Google+ offers businesses a way to show up in the search results of potential customers by using the power of their networks. The logic is that the larger and more targeted your Google networks are, the more search results will feature your business.
On its Google Plus profile, The Knot stays true to its tagline and eats, sleeps and breathes weddings. They post videos with wedding makeup tips, have voting contests for the best bridesmaid dresses and provide regular updates on their online wedding contest "The Knot Dream Wedding".
Build platforms to share:
Weddings are occasions that brings families and friends together. Couples like to detail their experiences, plans and wish lists and get ideas how to do things better. Facebook is the social media platform of choice for wedding marketers in 2013, followed by Pinterest and then Twitter. Find out the site relevant to your target audience and create content that entertains them as well as provides useful tips. Tiffany Jones Designs devote special attention to wedding customers on their Facebook page and has sections like Wedding Countdown, where viewers can upload their wedding dates, fiancés' names, venues and more.
Another online store for wedding dresses, LightInTheBox Wedding displays interesting pictures, recipes and ideas for wedding parties and encourages its audience to share their thoughts, pictures and experiences. This is an amazing way to connect with people who are looking for help while planning weddings and also works as an online public relations tool.
Tell stories with photographs:
"Weddings will always be stories of poignant moments, with a record that needs to be timeless," says New York-based wedding photographer Brian Dorsey. Ensure your marketing has images that evoke emotions. Pinterest has become popular over the last year with brides because it makes sharing images easy.
Design wedding apps for easy reach:
A cool step taken by wedding planning company in the Bahamas was the launch of a mobile web app to let on-the-go brides plan the wedding of their dreams.
The Bahamas Destination Wedding app offers a convenient framework that gives its users a mobile-friendly experience for viewing information on weddings in the Bahamas with enhanced social media integration to its Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Youtube channels.
Send emails frequently:
Email marketing is another tool that gets amazing results if you plan content with the latest trends and interest areas of your young audience in mind. Since many decisions are made or influenced to a great extent by the couples themselves, it's better to keep the email content directed to them with interesting trivia, new wedding ideas, tips for great menus, etc.
Being everything to everyone means you risk being nothing to no one. Go niche instead and create a list of highly engaged prospects. Make everything relate directly to your website visitors' interests at the time they sign up. It is not enough to know about demographics alone. You can also look at segmenting prospects on the basis of household incomes, belonging to a specific community (to be able to know and understand their wedding customs) or preference for wedding locations like beaches or resorts. Checking such details will give you better insight about your potential customers and enable you to create personalized content that talks to their needs and desires.
Increase reach with print ads:
Traditionally, print advertising has been the most widely used and perhaps the most trusted media in this industry.Your ads need to focus your message with design elements suited to your potential customers. Whether you are trying to sell modern, unconventional weddings or rustic beach side settings, it should come across clearly.
This ad by Northridge Inn sells the idea of having an outdoor wedding with an island backdrop that makes an intimate destination.
The quaint backdrop of this ad by Blaire Nadeau perfectly highlights the unique handcrafted hair pieces. The ad also has contact details and web and social media addresses where prospects can go and check out the collection.
Here is another ad with a very specific product for a niche market. The crisp message, the modern visual and the spotless white background sends a direct no-nonsense message to their target audience.
How do you plan to market wedding products and services this season? Which media are you using to reach your target audience and what approaches have worked well for your company?
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