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Coach on the Couch with Anna Hare

Business4-Oct-2021

In the latest session of ‘Coach on the Couch’ Abi Neill interviewed Anna Hare of Your Retail Coach and Pure Brides to discuss the importance of your online presence. Here Anna provides a round-up of the advice and top tips given in the session.

So, what do we mean by your ‘online presence’? We are all pretty addicted to our smart phones, spending more time on devices now than ever before, and of course so do our brides. This means we must ensure that anywhere we appear online is optimised to give us the best possible chance to appeal to our customers.

In my opinion, it’s the most important marketing pillar (a way in which you market your business to your customers) but there must be a connection between your online presence and your in-store look, feel and experience. There must be a continuity across all platforms that allows your brides to recognise and relate to you.

Google My Business

It’s probably the single most important free marketing opportunity we have available to us today, and so it is vital we embrace it to drive brides to both our website and our stores.

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to set it up, it really is very easy. To get started you’ll need to search for ‘Google My Business’ and click the link to sign in or set up an account. If you don’t already have a Google account associated with your business, then you should create one - don’t use your personal account.

Add a business location by following the simple step-by-step process. Google will also ask you to verify your location and by doing so Google will boost your ranking in return, so it’s well worth doing.

Add as much information about your business as you can in the ‘Info’ section. Include a short bio, which should consist of the key words that brides will use when they are searching, such as ‘wedding dress shop Norwich’, or ‘bridal shop Colchester’. Remember to make sure you write your bio to your bride, remembering it’s not all about you, it’s about her and why she should choose you over your competitor. You could always use content from your website to keep this simple.

You need to keep the content as up to date as possible and ideally add a new post each week, but realistically monthly is probably more achievable! Don’t forget to add photos and video if you can. Another great tip is to rename images to those key words. For example, change the name of your picture to ‘wedding dress shop Norwich’.

Anna’s Top Tip - Don’t forget the power of reviews and don’t be afraid to ask for them. 5* Google reviews will always help keep you high in the rankings.

Abi’s Top Tip – Reuse content across all your platforms and create a team WhatsApp group to ‘dump’ lots of social media ideas and content. That way you have a consistent stack of content to dip into.

Website

We get seven seconds to hook our bride! In that time they will decide whether you are worth a scroll. Therefore your first page must make it easy for them to identify who you are, what you do, why they should choose you and what they should do next. It could include ‘award winning bridal store’ for example, and of course the call to action would then be, ‘Book An Appointment’.

Use language that is relatable on your website, that your brides will connect with. Be authentic, approachable and friendly and don’t forget that it’s all about them!

Feature as many of the dresses you have on your rails as you can on your site, as this is what brides want to see.

Don’t add external links to your website. i.e. don’t allow a bride to click to see your designers and then send them off to the designer’s page. Also, don’t feature dresses on your site that you don’t have in store. This is just a direct route to potential disappointment for your bride.

It’s vital to find the right web designer. My advice would be to go by recommendation. You need a designer that will make your site look beautiful and engaging for your brides, whilst making it a site that will work hard for you from an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) perspective. SEO is basically how the world’s search engines, like Google, will find you and how they will know who to show your website to. The use of keywords is vital and the importance of having a basic understanding in order to ensure that you find the right web designer will serve you well.

Make sure that all your social platforms link to your website along with your Google My Business listing as this will also help to give your organic listings a boost. Make sure you have your clickable social icons on your homepage too.

Online booking is really important. Find a platform that works for you and get it up and running - you can even do it using Facebook. Online booking allows your brides to book when it suits them and will make your life easier. You don’t have to lose that ‘personal touch’ either, because there is no reason why you can’t follow up their booking with a phone call. In fact that is exactly what you should be doing.

Anna’s Top Tip – Use video where you can. Video is now taking over imagery, and when I say video, I mean real footage of you in your store, with your team and your brides. Stock videos supplied by your designers are great, but nothing will reach and connect with your audience better than a video of the actual store and the people who work there, so grab that bull by the horns and go for it!

Abi’s Top Tip – Build your website from a ‘mobile first’ perspective. Almost all your website traffic will be via a mobile phone or tablet. So, it is a no brainer that your website must be fully mobile optimised, and by that we mean that all the pages and images sit correctly on the screen when viewed on a handheld device.

Social Media

Focus on you, and don’t worry too much about what everyone else is doing (or their number of followers). Keep it real and focused on your own story and why brides should choose you.

Let your personality shine through, allowing brides to connect with you and your store on a personal level. Try and think about posts that will entertain and inspire your brides.

Don’t worry about it being perfect, keep it authentic. Real posts and stories will always get better engagement and interaction.

Anna’s Top Tip – When you’re live or on stories speak to the camera just as though you were speaking to your best friend. You’ll feel more relaxed, will use more connective language and your audience will engage with you much more. Enjoy it and relax - it will get easier I promise.

Abi’s Top Tip – It doesn’t have to all be about work. Your personality behind the business is so engaging to your brides. They will build a virtual relationship with you through the person they get to know on your social media, so be true to yourself.

I hope this given you some useful pointers on where to start with your online presence. As a coach I often find that clients know they need to get to grips with this, but often just don’t know where to start, and so I offer bespoke strategy sessions to help them get everything off the ground.

I would usually charge £349 for a 90 minute one-to-one session, but as a special offer for Bridal Buyer subscribers you can book your own session with me for just £199. You can choose the topic you’d like to cover, whether it be online presence, numbers, or marketing. Get in touch at anna@yourretailcoach.co.uk or call 01603 334335.

To see the full ‘Couch on the Coach’ interview with Abi and Anna, click here.