Grasp more wedding business by marketing digitally to brides

It’s no longer a given that soon-to-be brides will walk into your shop or any florist for that matter to design their wedding flowers. The most likely place they’ll start a search is using their smartphone or tablet to conduct a massive electronic canvass for options and ideas. The question is, will your business be found? Below are several strategies on how to get your shop in front of brides in the digital space. OPTIMIZE YOUR SHOP’S WEBSITE FOR SEARCHES A Google search for “wedding flowers city state venue” is usually brides’ first stab. We recommend getting together with your web developer to ensure you have or can create a subpage on your website which will be found using a descriptive (vanity) URL such as www.flowershop.com/wedding-flowers. Ask your web developer to place in the Title tag of the subpage “Beautiful Wedding Flowers | Your City State | Expert (or Free) Consultation.” The title will be what appears in search as the first line of results which links to the subpage. Also draft a tag which reads something like this: “We at Renato’s Flowers are experts in wedding floral design. Let us help you make your special day perfect.” This line will also appear in search results below the Title tag.

On the page itself, request your web developer to place an H1 tag to say: “Full Service Wedding Flowers in City State.” And write a paragraph to appear underneath this headline using the following keywords: “wedding flowers,” “bridal party,” “table centerpieces,” “bouquet,” “corsage,” and “groomsmen boutonniere.” If you work regularly with area venues, list them on this page as well as including phone and address. The reason is, brides also tend to include the venues of the ceremony and the reception in searches. Complement this strategy by tagging all photos on this page using the “ALT=” tag. Include keywords such as “variety,” “color,” and “trends” in addition to “venue” and “wedding flowers.”

USE FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM AND PINTEREST

As you can imagine, brides are actively searching for ideas on social media as well. It’s not enough to craft social posts of your photos with descriptive text on Facebook and Instagram. The secret is to create #hashtags of the same keywords we’ve shared.

Examples include #weddingflowers, #handtiedbouquet, #centerpiece, #bridalbouquet, #bridesmaidflowers, #weddingcorsage, #bridalparty, #fall, #spring, #diyweddingflowers, #affordableweddingflowers and #nontraditional. Brides will search Facebook and Instagram for these hashtags to find relevant posts. Don’t forget to hashtag varieties, colors and trends.

On Pinterest, the strategy is a bit different. As you create wedding-themed Pins, start grouping them in boards by color or wedding trends. As brides find these Pins, this strategy will lead them back to your website. Also, learn how to embed a Pinterest Save button on your website – check this link: https://business.pinterest.com/en/save-button-for-websites. This will allow you – and brides – to easily create Pins straight from your website to post on their Boards to help you spread the word.

Finally, be sure to claim and confirm your business is accurately listed on the two most prominent websites for wedding business:
http://www.theknot.com/and/or http://www.weddingwire.com/. And then, start asking your happy clients to post reviews. You may want to consider advertising but understand prices will vary based on your market and the number of competitors.