SMS Marketing for Wedding Service Providers
Spring is a peak time of year for wedding planning as Brides and Grooms to be plan ahead for the warmer spring and summer weather. The UK’s Office of National Statistics reports that April and August (along with December) are the UK’s most popular months for tying the knot, whilst Harpers Bazaar claims that May, August and September are the most matrimonial months. Regardless of the eventual accuracy of either set of statistics, one thing is certain – now is the time of year to be making sure that those planning their big day are able to find your wedding service company. Whether or not you attend any of the many wedding trade fairs typically held throughout the UK during spring, SMS Marketing can be a powerful tool to boost your business and help your customers to minimise the stress on their big day. So how can various wedding service providers take advantage of what SMS Marketing has to offer? Here are some suggestions from our experts.
SMS Marketing for Wedding Venues
One of the biggest and most difficult choices faced by those planning their big day is the reception venue. Typically those planning a wedding will collate a wealth of ideas from personal recommendations, family suggestions, online searches and bridal magazines amongst others. Assuming location and budget are already established and your clients are impressed by the look and feel of the venue, customer service is likely to be one of the factors that contribute significantly to closing the deal. This is one area where SMS Marketing comes into its own. If a customer has the option to register an interest or make an enquiry online, ensure that they are invited to opt-in to SMS Marketing. Once they have agreed to do this, you can send them personalised messages including an invitation to view the venue, information about bookings, and should they proceed, you can manage every stage of the booking with them, from confirming the date and time, numbers of guests, additional services and more. For a personal and professional touch, allocate a named person to manage the relationship and ensure that SMS messages are always signed off personally. Once the big day has been and gone, be sure to also use SMS Marketing to collect feedback to help you ensure that your venue is performing as well as it can.
SMS Marketing for Wedding Caterers
Whilst some venues such as hotels and restaurants will naturally look after the food themselves, many weddings now involve the use of an external caterer. Just as with the venue itself, the future couple will be keen to choose a company that can guarantee a minimum of stress – and SMS Marketing can help to achieve this. With so much to think about before a wedding, the bride and groom to be can easily suffer from information overload – so simple and succinct SMS messages to confirm numbers, menus, date, time, venue, special requirements etc can really help to keep things smooth. Always send out SMS messages well in advance, and be sure to offer SMS replies where practical as this will make it even easier for your clients to respond with a minimum of effort. Why not invite the customer to nominate a point of contact other than the bride and groom themselves to take some of the pressure off. And when nerves are highest on the big day itself, a friendly message to let the couple know that all is in order and the food will be in the right place at the right time can certainly help to take away some of the worry, allowing them to focus on the much more important issue of the ceremony itself.
SMS Marketing for Wedding Hair Stylists, Makeup Artists, etc
If you are one of the many individuals who may be helping Mr and Mrs to look and feel they’re very best on the big day, then SMS Marketing could have been designed for you. Make sure your customers opt in at the earliest opportunity, enabling you to send them an immediate appointment confirmation at the time of booking. As the big day approaches, send a warm and friendly reminder confirming the date, time and location so that they don’t need to panic as to whether you will remember and turn up. Depending on what kind of treatments you are planning to perform, you could also use SMS Marketing for other important steps such as enquiring about allergies in advance. You may also want to gently offer a special discount to other members of the wedding party such as bridesmaids, the mother of the bride, etc. After the big day, use SMS marketing to encourage your customers to rate your service, and consider offering incentives for referrals such as discounts on future treatments.
SMS Marketing for Formal Outfitters
With a growing number of people now opting to hire their formal wear for the big day rather than buy, SMS Marketing is a powerful tool for formal outfitters. Click here to read our article dedicated to such businesses.
Wedding Day SMS Marketing for Florists
Another big area of stress for many brides to be is the flowers. By their very nature, the flower arrangements and bouquets simply can’t be prepared and supplied in advance, so these are almost always a cause for last minute panic. To help reduce this, Florists can use SMS Messaging not just for confirmations during the planning and ordering stages, but also just before and on the big day. A friendly “Don’t worry about the flowers, everything’s under control” the day before could help ensure a good night’s sleep all round and on the day itself a dispatch message stating that a named person is ready to deliver the flowers to the agreed location and a specified time will ensure that nobody needs to panic. For good measure, include a direct contact number just in case.
Here at Fastsms, we offer low-cost bulk business SMS Messaging bundles that are ideal for every kind of company involved in the wedding industry, supported by a friendly and professional team of experts who are always ready to help you get the most out of SMS Marketing. To find out more or get started now, give us a call on 0800 954 5305.
Related Articles
Using SMS Messaging to Help People Quit Smoking
There’s no shortage of organisations trying to help smokers quit. These include groups that use SMS as a means of supporting smokers while they try to quit. There’s quite a lot of evidence that text messaging can help people break bad habits, or make positive improvements in their lives. Here’s one example from George Washington University.
SMS Marketing for Delivery-Centred Businesses
If you run a delivery-based business, you'll know that communication with your customer is key. Whether it's keeping them informed about their delivery's status and expected arrival time, or tempting them with discounts and offers on future orders, there are plenty of reasons to keep in touch. But a key communications challenge in the digital age is choosing the appropriate channel to use to get your message across. Forms of marketing like emails and phone calls are still forces to be reckoned with, but the success of many communications from delivery-based businesses rely on near-instantaneous reading. That's where SMS marketing comes in.
How to use SMS in Recruitment
New Year, New You – SMS Marketing for Life Coaches
Universities and Summer Schools Use SMS to Keep Students Focused
It used to be you could skip a lecture or sleep late at university. But using the excuse you forgot about a session is about to become less believable than it already was. And it's all down to the ways educational institutions are using new technology to engage with students, mainly SMS.
6 SMS Marketing Ideas for Events Planners
Using SMS Messaging For a Cause is Catching On
As old as SMS messaging is (going on 25), is it surprising to know that for non-profits and political campaigns it’s just now catching on? It might be, but if you think about it maybe it isn’t surprising. Until the last few years, people have been very reticent to hand out their personal mobile number. Now though, they’re more willing – if they care about the source of the messages.
Love Him or Hate Him, You Can Learn from Trump’s SMS Fundraising Campaigns (Part 1)
There’s a lot to learn from the contentious US election. Don’t worry, this isn’t about politics. It’s about learning from Trump’s SMS fundraising efforts in the context good SMS marketing. So, whether you hate him, love him, or don’t care it doesn’t matter. Read the blog how successful SMS fundraising campaigns can work.
5 SMS Marketing Tips for Opticians
Why SMS Marketing is Perfect for the Automotive Industry
Most car dealerships and garages already have almost everything in place to start an effective SMS marketing campaign. When customers go into a car garage to have a service or a MOT done, they almost always give the dealership their mobile phone number. The reason for this is simple: if a customer is bringing their car in to get checked and they don't want to wait around for any work to be carried out, they'll simply head into town or run a few errands, until the garage gives them a call on their mobile to let them know the work has been done. That means most garages will have a healthy amount of mobile numbers already in their database, but quite often a garage will overlook the potential that their database of contacts presents.