Over the past year, Compulse has worked with a large number of boutiques specializing in wedding, formal and prom. Aside from learning about the hottest styles, we’ve also picked up several techniques that are especially effective in marketing local bridal, formalwear and prom shops online. Here are the best practices we’ve developed:
Mobile-First Website Development
One of Compulse’s specialties is developing mobile-first websites – websites where the priority is for the design to look great on a cell phone. This is of extreme importance when your primary audience is style-conscious young women.
Search Engine Optimization is a Must
Search engine optimization includes the work and techniques undertaken to help a website appear high in the search results for particular keyword phrases. Compulse’s SEO services are key for successful boutique sites because they help smaller shops get their name in front of likely customers.
Prom, bridal and formalwear business owners consider SEO to be very important because of the extreme competition in the segment. Our customers say that an SEO consultation is worth two to five times its cost.
It is hard to stand out in this segment because by and large, the dresses the stores can offer are identical. An SEO consultation helps our customers identify keywords their competitors use to win sales, it helps them identify terms they weren’t even aware of, and shows them whether they are winning or losing compared to their local and regional competitors.
One client said that although at first “I didn’t really even know what to do, the consultation guided me forward.” Want to come out on top? Get help with SEO, or to get started now, phone us at 844.821.2154 or contact us here.
Search Engine Advertising Is Money Well-Spent
Search engine advertising, like Google AdWords, allows a business to practically guarantee that their ad appears in the results of searches within their territory for keyword phrases they select.
While SEO is important, it is a competition and you can’t be sure that your website will appear for a particular search term or phrase. With search advertising, however, you can guarantee your presence in searches conducted by prom and bridal customers.
Everybody carries the same designer lines – if you have purchased the brand names you will stand out in results, and this is super important! Wouldn’t you want to appear in the results for “best bridal shop?”
SEM also gives intel, providing detailed knowledge of just how many searches are done within your territory for the words that mean profit for your business. You know what the potential is, how many searches are conducted, and how much a particular search is worth in the competitive marketplace. Get that data – and those clicks – with our digital advertising services, or to get started now, phone us at 844.821.2154 or contact us here.
Display Advertising with Outreach and Retargeting Capitalizes on Visuals
Display ads are the banner ads that appear on many websites, especially media publications. They are highly relevant to prom, bridal and formalwear businesses.
Prom, bridal and formalwear products are visual. No one buys a dress because they have heard about it – seeing it is how you know if you like it or not. Moreover, seeing it on a local store’s website builds trust in the store, encouraging shoppers to go see the dress in person and try it on.
The industry is such that even something small like dirty windows can make it hard to sell a dress, but the image of an attractive ad can set the tone for a positive customer experience in the store.
Geofencing Allows You to Pinpoint Target Customers
Geofencing is an advertising product that places ads on cellphones in a particular place, with the ads appearing in apps and mobile websites. It makes it possible for a prom shop to advertise within high schools before prom! It is also possible to fence competitors.
One of our clients geofenced a competitor’s store and one girl in a group of 10 shoppers saw our client’s ad on her phone. According to our client, “the whole group left the competitor and came to us and bought dresses!”
The visual nature of wedding, formal and prom products; the habits and preferences of the target demographic; and the extremely competitive atmosphere create challenges for marketers, but they also create opportunity for those who know how to respond.