5 Ways for Bridal Shops to Prep their Brides for better Sales
Sales is not a one-answer, one-line, change-their-mind kind of deal. It's a long strategy, it's a long game, and they're a lot of different ways that you can even prep your bride before she even walks through your doors.
Keep reading to learn our 5 tips to prepare your bride for the sale.
Stemming from the know, like, & trust funnel, let's dive into the benefits of prepping your bride before her appointment.
Know, Like, & Trust Funnel
This funnel is a super easy concept that marketers all over use and is going to help you increase your sales and closing rates.
The first one is to know, for your bride to have a clear answer to the question, who are you? People need to see & understand your brand. They need to have a first interaction with your brand.
The second is, why do I care? Starting to get to know your store, starting to like what sets you apart from your competition.
And lastly, trust. Are you an expert and can I trust you? Once you have trust established, and your bride believes you are helping her, that usually leads to a buy.
Imagine if you could have all three already developed before she walks in the door, and at least have the know and like factor done before her appointment.
Branding, Social Media, & Website
Branding is a must-have when it comes to marketing and connecting with your target customer, and we don't mean just social media.
You have to figure out who your target customer is. Demographics like age, occupation, culture, family, etc. are just a starting point. A lot of your competition will stop there.
Once you understand who your customer is, you can do research. There are so many studies on consumer behavior and once you understand the demographics of who you're looking to target, everything can then lead to connecting with your customer.
Social media. We know, you already know social media is key. It's one of your biggest forms of advertising and outreach tools when it comes to your marketing plan. It's a great way for people to discover you, but let's talk about how to use it as a tool to develop that like factor.
It will likely be one of the first digital touchpoints that your customer has with your brand. Don't treat your social media only as outreach, but use it as a tool to get your bride to know & like your brand. Focus on things relative to your target customer profile, and have your social media reflect that back to your customer.
Educate your brides through social media. Education should always be a content category in your social media marketing plan. You should be educating your bride on different niche topics that benefit your sale, like shopping a year out from your wedding date, being careful with who you bring to shop, and that it's normal to buy at your first appointment.
Now let's talk website. Your website has to be on point too, treated by customers as a resource to back up everything they found on social media. Make sure that your website is on-brand, it's got a lot of keywords, and it's SEO rich, so people can also find you through Google.
Another way that you can educate is through a blog post on your website. Treat this similarly to socia media and how you can build that know and like. Post topics like get to know us, have pictures of your stylist, of your store, and things that make your brides feel like they already know the store before they step foot inside. You're educating them, you're starting to build that trust with them and they're starting to see you as a credible source in their eyes.
Pre-Sell, Welcome Call
An under-utilized sales technique is the presale. There are really efficient ways that you can go about it by asking the right questions.
Ask questions to help your stylist best understand the bride before her appointment, like have you been wedding dress shopping before? If yes, why did you not say yes to the dress? What did it look like? What are you most excited about your appointment today? What are you most afraid of in your appointment today?
We all know that bridal is a very emotional sale. So during the pre-sale, really hone in on those questions because it already gets their minds thinking about it. If you have the time and the resources, also pair that with a welcome call.
When they do hit you with any of those objections of what they're most afraid of, you can address those in your welcome call to build trust and get them excited about their appointment.
Adding another voice to the name, to the brand, is adding a human factor to it by giving 'em a call beforehand. Even if you get the answering machine, they still hear your voice when they still listen to it, and are reminded about any important information you may want them to know about their appointment. This really helps jump right to the know, like, and trust because you also addressed some of their objections in there too.
Recap
So recapping our top five,
Branding
Social media
Website
Strong presale
Welcome call
These are all tools used to help get the sale with the know, like, and trust factors behind it all.