TRUNK SHOW SERIES: Marketing to Your Bridal Audience

What comes to mind when you hear the word marketing?

If you’re like me, you probably imagine scrolling through your favorite social media platform and getting blasted with ‘sponsored ads’ or GRWM videos from influencers trying to sell you on a product from their affiliated brands. 

Fun Fact: Did you know the concept of marketing began with bartering and clay tablets? Yes, you read that correctly. Ancient civilizations relied on merchants to promote and record business negotiations.

It’s no secret technological advances of the 21st century provide marketing opportunities at your fingertips. Whether you’re all about it or have your hesitations, your audience reach is now greater than it has ever been. So now, you’re having a trunk show, and you need a great turn out. Let’s start promoting your event, carpe diem style!

Get your bridal audience excited!

You know when, where, and with whom your trunk show will take place, that is EXCITING! Excitement is contagious, so maintaining your energy with your audience throughout promoting your trunk show is important. Keeping your energy up is strategic in building interest as well. 

Pro tip: Try to generate curiosity in your audience. Anticipation marketing can be a powerful strategy focusing on creating suspense within a targeted audience. Try teasing which designer you are hosting, using specific music or sounds to generate hype. 

Don’t forget, your bridal store has several target audiences: new brides, previous brides that didn’t purchase, past brides with newly engaged friends, and followers who will share your event with others. You can create interest around your trunk show by leveraging what you reveal to each audience and when. For example, you can reach out to clients you have existing ties with first. This will encourage them to come back to your boutique and give them the opportunity to RSVP (book an appointment) before the public, making them feel like a VIP. 

To make a win-back bride feel special, include the benefits of early access in your marketing material to them. This is a great way to make them feel appreciated and more special– this will entice them to, at the very least, give your store another look. 

Whether you choose to have one consistent messaging throughout your trunk show marketing campaign or choose to mix it up.  Be sure to think about your audience and understand there is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy. In today’s world the most effective marketing takes place at an individualized and a target specific level. 

What that means is what works for your referral audience (those who are not purchasing themselves but sharing with others), may not work for new brides or win-back brides. You should look at the messaging you are using and or content you are sharing to each group to see if it is relevant to that specific target audience.

Ways to Connect with Your Bridal Audience:

Create Event Pages

• Add an events page to your website and  be sure to add your trunk show(s). 
• Promote your event on your homepage or with a website banner. 
• Create an event on Facebook! You can gain traction through followers marking interested or going which can lead to more exposure.

Social Media

• It’s a group effort! Get your managers, stylists, and other staff members involved!
• Post regularly about your trunk show events.
• Go live on social media to talk about the event, model dresses, or do a walk through of your space! 

Creative Blog Posts

• Blog posts are another means of expanding your audience reach. Whether you hire someone or create within, cover all of the trunk show details in the blog.
  • Unlike a traditional social media post, you have the space to dig deep. You can then share the blog links on your social platforms in a ‘read more here’ format! 
  • Blog content helps with your bridal store’s SEO. The more content you publish online with keywords connected to your website, such as a designer’s name or dress types, the more searches your website will appear in. 
    • Don’t forget to add meta-tag descriptions and excerpts!

Paid Ads

• If you track how your brides hear about your store, you can target your ads in a more thoughtful way. Whether Google Ads, Meta Ads or TikTok based, remember to track and save your data so you can use it to better choose your advertising platform in the future.

Mass Email List

• Build upon connections with your past and existing clientele by setting up an email campaign.
  • Brides may come back if they’re still looking for a dress, or share the information with someone they know is looking. If they haven’t unsubscribed from your emails already, they still want to hear from you!
• Fun fact: Word of month is the highest converting method of marketing.

Go Local

• Do some local outreach by posting flyers around town or in the areas your brides travel from. Ask other businesses if you can showcase your event on their bulletin or near the checkout. 
  • Not super creative? You can use tools like Canva to utilize templates and/or get the creative juices flowing.
• Buy an ad in a local newspaper (a bride may not see this ad, but her mother or grandmother might!)
• Mail out postcards to brides that didn’t buy. A good way to make sure you aren’t sending to brides that have already wed, sort by event date!
  • Poppy Tip: If you are using Poppy at your bridal store, utilize the ‘Customers without Purchases’ report to see all customers who have not purchased. Here you’ll be able to filter by event date and department.

Coordinate with the Designer

• Ask the designers if they are willing to create personalized videos for your store to share on social media. They want exposure and sales just as much as you do, work together!

Setting Goals and Staying Flexible

Throughout this series, we’ve highlighted goal setting as your foundation. If you haven’t already, have a chat with the person in charge of your marketing to set expectations around interaction, engagement, and appointment booking. Making your marketing interactive (polls, Q&A, opinion commenting, etc.) can help boost engagement and let you know what your followers gravitate to. 

Set goals!  Whether you want to look at results daily or weekly, set goals with your team to help motivate, but also to keep yourselves accountable. It is too easy to stop halfway or ‘just let it run’. Looking at your progress towards your goal on a regular basis will help you make the best decisions on if you continue to invest in one marketing method or need to pivot to a better performing one. 

Encourage your team to suggest changes to keep the energy and momentum up with your trunk show marketing campaign. Sometimes what has worked in the past won’t work now, even if the past is as recent as yesterday. Think about how often TikTok trends change. You have to be adaptive and reactive to your audience!

Now that you’re equipped with all of the tools, let’s tap into that energized attitude and start marketing to your bridal audience. 

Don’t burn all your energy just yet! Next up in our Trunk Show Series: Is your Bridal Shop Trunk Show Ready?