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Bride Lead Lists & What To Do With Them

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Wedding Professionals:

You have a bride lead list. Now what? Many of you partner with wedding websites or bridal shows in order to collect bridal lead lists. Are you effectively using those lists of email addresses? According to Helen Jane Hearn, there are 6 P’s Of E-mail Newsletters. Below, I’ve taken Hearn’s six email newsletter tips and put a wedding industry lens on them. Enjoy!

Permission. Always make sure your list of brides have opted in to receive emails from you. And while it’s tempting to hide that unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email - don’t. Making it hard for brides to unsubscribe just makes them leave with a less positive view.
Point. Before you send an email, decide what your point will be. What’s your message? Is the email promotional? Instructional? Does it need to generate sales or Facebook fans? Pick one and act on it. Additionally, newsletters often have supporting content like real wedding photos, questions and answer segments, and customer testimonials. Make sure your supporting content helps support your main point.
Prioritize. An email inbox is a busy place and it’s likely that brides won’t be eagerly awaiting your newsletter. So, determine why someone would want your email, and then tell them what that is immediately. Then, tell them what action you want them to take. Next, prioritize the other information. And remember that most brides are only willing to read a newsletter that requires no more than 1 scroll. So, keep your email short and concise.
Professional. Constant Contact offers email templates that are not only easy-to-use and trackable but they are also very professional-looking. If you are interested in giving Constant Contact a try, BridalTweet readers can now get a Free 60-Day Trial. I personally use their email service for my wedding business and couldn’t live without it. Oh!... and it's cheap - starting at only $15/month.
Plan. Email marketing will require resources and a commitment on your part. Plan time for the editorial process, for pulling together multiple content sources and design time.
Practice (or Test). Before sending your email, make sure that every link is working. Send test emails to people who can give you honest feedback.

What tips can you share with our wedding community about email newsletters?

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Enjoy!

About This Blog: Christine Dyer is the Creator and Founder of BridalTweet. Christine has an MBA in marketing and shares over ten years of marketing expertise with the wedding community. In this weekly blog, you'll find advice on an array of wedding business topics such as how to market to brides, social networking, wedding PR, wedding sales, vendor networking, branding, pricing and much more. Please pass this news along to your own professional wedding network. To receive this advice in your email inbox each week, Sign Up for a Free BridalTweet Membership.

Comment by Greg Gordon on August 9, 2011 at 5:48am: Confirm all dates and times is also very important unless you enjoy getting "stood up." This will sound amazing but I just had a bride and groom stand-me-up last Sunday because they FORGOT about their wedding time and day. Obviously, these type of couples are in the minority but, I had not confirmed, with them earlier in the week. I have now learned to confirm meetings AND wedding days.

Comment by Lillian Lyon on August 18, 2011 at 7:11pm: Great advice Greg. I once went to a couple's home for our final meeting, two days before the wedding. I usually hold meetings at my place, but the bride had little children so I wanted to make it easier for her. At the end of our meeting, as I was leaving I saw one of her wedding invitations sitting on her hall table and I commented on how lovely it was. As she showed me the invitation, I noticed she had changed the ceremony time to 3 hours later than we originally agreed. The groom was furious with her for not letting me know of the time change. Consequently I had another wedding to do so I told her that I was unable do hers. She was in tears, devastated. I had to make a number of calls to find a stand in celebrant to do her wedding.