Friday, August 17, 2012

SMART Rules In Marketing Your Wedding Business


Do you know the steps to marketing your wedding business?  What do you need to put in the box? It's actually simple:  S.M.A.R.T.

What's in your Marketing Box?
S:  Be Specific. Don't be vague in what you are trying to get across to the brides.
M:  Create something that is Measurable.  Determine what the success factor is for that goal.
A:  Are you able to Attain the goal you set up.  Is it something you can accomplish?
R:  When setting up your bridal marketing goals, are they Realistic?
T:  Do you have a Time Frame in which to create and make this goal work?

To guide your wedding business marketing efforts, you need to understand how to take 'your passion' in this industry and make it a business that plays to the needs of a bride.   There are several ways to build your company through an 'Internet Marketing Strategy' such as:
  • Your website.  Is your website creating desire?
  • SEO:  Search Engine Optimization.  Is your company always striving to be at the top of the search engine?
  • E-newsletters, Blogs:  Does your company create items that make you a star in this industry?
  • Social media: Do you stay on top of your social media, putting your company as the connection providing help to the brides creating a dream wedding?
  • Your Database.  Are you able to collect and add to your database of couples looking to use your company?  Increase your brand circle, by reaching out to those reached out for you!
Tips to help you: 
1) In the book 'How to Double Your Wedding Business in 12 Months,' Author Chris Evans, shows you how to break down your goals and set up realistic steps using sales techniques that will support you as you go forward.   
2) ESSText is a marketing technique used to capture your next client by using a 'text program,'  through your SMART phone.
3) WedVu.com is a site that creates marketing videos to help take your marketing up a notch!  Each customized video can be placed on your website or used in your social marketing.

Marketing support with these items you can purchase through Amazon or at: http://www.EvansSalesSolutions.com 

OK, overwhelmed and need someone to do this for you?   Evans Sales Solutions can help you!  The Bridal Marketing Concierge team works to best suit our wedding business clients by providing them a range of full service marketing techniques and the 'training' needed to put your staff at the top for sales and service.  As a solutions-based and results-driven bridal marketing concierge in this fast paced environment, we help to grow your sales and increase your profitability.  Call 805-322-4446 or email: info@EvansSalesSolutions.com

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Wedding Social Marketing Blue Print Surprisingly Simple?


Creating a social marketing blue print for your company can be incredibly hard for the #wedding business owner who is working constantly 'keeping the doors open,' and doesn't have the time to be on the computer and grow their business.  It's important to stay on top of the daily changes and updates in social marketing, so that your company is found easier.   Here are a few quick things to note when you are working on your blue print: 

1) Write click-worthy titles and descriptions for the bride to be
When it comes to writing titles for search engines, the first thing you have to know is this…you only have 65 characters to write your headline.  You could write the greatest headline, but if it’s over 65 characters, it will get cut off.   Try to create something that you know will interest the clients you want to come knocking at your door.
  • Front-load your titles with keywords – Since most people only scan the first 2 words in a title, try to a keyword in the front as much as possible.
  • Meet the expectations of the reader – Your title should click to a page that meets the expectations of the user.
  • Emotionally writing – Try to make your title an emotional call to the brides.   Use adverbs that will pull them in: Emotional words are; killer, FREE, amazingly, surprising, uncommonly, tempting, astoundingly  (make up your own?)
2) Keywords 
When you want to attract attention when it comes to ranking above the fold is with Google+
  • Google looks for the word you typed in, but sometimes also looks for synonyms or related terms. Any words appearing in boldface type in your search results are terms Google associates with your search terms. For example, if you search for [kittens] you might see the word cats in boldface in your results.
  • Adding pictures, creating a blog with keywords, add friends-- all support your going higher on the search engine.
3) Meta Tags 
These ideas are from Google.  The quality of your snippet (a small piece of brief extract: 'snippets of information') is important.  Using identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site isn't very helpful when individual pages appear in the web results— the short text preview Google displays for each web result — can have a direct impact on the chances of your site being clicked (i.e. the amount of traffic Google sends your way).  Google wants snippets to accurately represent the web result. They (Google) will frequently prefer to display meta descriptions of pages (when available) because it gives users a clear idea of the URL's content.
  • The meta description doesn't just have to be in sentence format; it's also a great place to include structured data about the page. Google limits meta descriptions to 160 characters or less.
  • For some sites, like news media sources, generating an accurate and unique description for each page is easy: since each article is hand-written, it takes minimal effort to also add a one-sentence description.
  • Finally, make sure your descriptions are... descriptive.  Front load keywords that are relevant to the article. If you like formulas, ask “Who? What? Why? When? Where? How?” That’s a formula journalists use to report. It works equally well writing descriptions.
Remember, that you are in business!  While it may have started from your 'passion' and that should still be part of the business, you must continually take the steps to bring your company up to speed on social marketing.   Bridal Business Marketing Concierge is one who can help with that day-to-day social marketing.  Learn more about our internet marketing solutions 
Contact us: 
805-322-4446
Evans Sales Solutions, LLC
www.EvansSalesSolutions.com

Monday, August 6, 2012

Where Do Your Leads Come From?

Leads.  Definition: 'A lead, in a marketing context, is a potential sales contact: an individual or organization that expresses an interest in your goods or services. Leads (those getting married) are typically obtained through the referral of an existing customer, or through a direct response to advertising/publicity.'

Although this is not specifically a function of a website, is very important to have a way to collect leads on your website, so that, you can ask people how they found you and turn them into a sale!   Did they find you through  your twitter account?  How about Facebook?  Do you have your company listed on the 'hundreds' of social media links that can bring in those leads through your website?
You need the ability to effectively track the source of your leads regardless of whether they came. It's even better when you have your 'leads' automatically upload into a database, so that you can follow up on this!
Without having this type of information that you can review on a regular basis, it will be very difficult to track the effectiveness of any of your Internet marketing techniques or strategies. Being aware of exactly what is working and what is not will give you the information you need to make the kinds of decisions that will increase your marketing ROI and online profits.
Need help to do this? Many wedding industry businesses we work with were once frustrated with the quantity and quality of leads coming from their online marketing efforts.  Through our 'Bridal Business Marketing Concierge,' we help you with the following:
  1. Revamp your website design, content, and structure to convert visitors to leads
  2. Develop a social media marketing strategy designed to attract your target customers
  3. Develop a targeted video strategy to drive qualified visitors to your business
  4. Develop metrics and goals to measure & improve the effectiveness of your marketing tactics
and more......
Learn more about our internet marketing solutions (click here)
Evans Sales Solutions, LLC is an outsourced marketing concierge company for the wedding industry.  We operate to best suit our clients needs by providing a complete range of full service marketing techniques and business training.  As a solutions-based and results-driven concierge in today's fast-paced marketing environment, we help to simplify the process while growing their sales and increasing profitability.   www.EvansSalesSolutions.com  805-322-4446

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Five Ways to Grow Your Business

Are you feeling stalled out in your business? Get to work this week, formulating your plan for growth. Take a look at these five suggestions to get started.

Customer Service Get a leg up on the competition by making excellent customer service your number one priority. If your client feels like you are doing everything you can and more to take care of them, they will want to tell everyone how great you are!

Expand Take inventory of your most popular services and add on accessories that make them even more attractive. Then add more services that are becoming popular in the marketplace. If you are not constantly growing and improving your product, you will eventually go backward as your competitors move ahead.

Quality Every product or service you put out there reflects on you, so make sure it is your best work every time. Attention to detail can seem like a dying art. Perfecting the little things goes a long way with clients, and word of mouth will spread quickly.
Team Put your goals in writing, then communicate them with your team, updating everyone weekly on the progress. You won’t believe how motivating this will be. Also, ask your team for ideas on ways to grow. Often, the best ideas come from those who are in the trenches.

Referrals Always ask your client if they know of anyone who needs your services, and ask them to contact them for you. This can be the quickest way to get new business. A warm contact is always more open than a cold one.

Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Business growth is possible; sometimes it just takes some rethinking, imagination, and hard work.
To learn more about growing your business, check out my book How to Double Your Wedding Business in 12 Months.  Find me on the web at EvansSalesSolutions.com for more tools to improve your business. While you’re there, sign up for a Bridal Business Boot Camp in your area!

This week, put on your thinking cap and strive for more!
Sincerely,
Chris Evans

Evans Sales Solutions provides support for those in the wedding industry with training, seminars, products and wedding marketing concierge team.  For more information call: 805-322-4446 or go to EvansSalesSolutions.com

The ESS Team
  • Chris Evans - CEO, Motivation, Sales & Techniques Training
  • Rebekah Evans - Marketing & Sales, PR & Social Media Manager
  • James Mitchell - Internet Expert, Web & Design; Database Design
  • Vanessa Carroll - Copywriter & Marketing Content Manager






Monday, July 2, 2012

Gain an edge by developing one new habit—watching your wedding business competition.

You want to be better than your competition. You want to be viewed as the best in town. But how can you accomplish this if you don’t know what the competition is doing? The following activities will help you gather a well-rounded report on your competitors.
  • Visit their website to learn about marketing strategies, personnel, and future plans.
  • Visit their store to see their products, sales, and deals and get ideas for your own store.
  • Order their brochure or newsletter to understand how they are marketing themselves.
  • Sign up for their loyalty program to see what their customers receive from them.
  • Do an online search to find articles, blogs, and reviews.
  • Read their ads to understand their promotional patterns.
  • Like their Facebook page to get updates and see how they engage people in social media.
  • Ask around to find out what people think of your competitors.
The more you learn about your competitors, the better decisions you’ll be able to make. You can price your product more intelligently, learn what prospects like and dislike, and negotiate with an edge.

When you’re meeting with a prospect, you can tell them how your competitors are priced, what kind of customer service they offer, and what kind of reviews they are getting. With this information you can make them a better deal than anyone else and close the sale.

Knowledge of your competitors can help in numerous ways, but only if you keep up on it. You can’t base your competitive edge on information you gained last year, so be sure to stay on top of it weekly.

To get even more of an edge on the competition, order 12 Secrets Every Wedding Professional Should Know, and gain valuable tips from 30 years of wedding business experience.

Have a great week, and keep your eye trained on the competition!

Sincerely,
Chris Evans

competition [ˌkɒmpɪˈtɪʃən]
1. the act of competing; rivalry
2. a contest in which a winner is selected from among two or more entrants
3. a series of games, sports events, etc.
4. the opposition offered by a competitor or competitors
5. a competitor or competitors offering opposition
6. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Environmental Science) Ecology the struggle between individuals of the same or different species for food, space, light, etc., when these are inadequate to supply the needs of all

 
The Bridal Marketing Concierge of Evans Sales Solutions, LLC is an outsourced marketing management company to support you in the wedding industry.  We operate to best suit our client’s needs by providing a complete range of full service marketing techniques. 
As a Solutions-based and Results-Driven Bridal Marketing Concierge we aim to support your company by leveraging our business relationships and access to unparalleled networks. We create strategic, specialized and customized plans to bring your business to the next level. 
We offer an encompassing assortment of marketing services, such as:  lead generation and tracking; campaign planning; market planning for the wedding industry; development and implementation; web design & development; search engine optimization and hosting packages; promotion & support on event planning (as designed); and,  support for advertising, graphic and printing options.
Office Phone:  310-400-6694
Cell /Chris: 805-428-3851
Cell/ Rebekah: 805-428-7693
Cell /James: 805-368-6292
 Emails:

The ESS Team

Chris Evans - CEO, Motivation, Sales & Techniques Training
Rebekah Evans - Marketing & Sales, PR & Social Media Manager
James Mitchell - Internet Expert, Web & Database Design
Vanessa Carroll - Copywriter & Marketing Content Manager