Warming Up Your Website : The Key to More Online Bookings

Have you heard the saying, "Build it and they will come"  This saying comes from the movie “Field of Dreams”. In the move Kevin Costner purchased a field and dreamt about baseball legends coming to play at his venue. However he soon realised that there was so much more he had to do to bring the players and the crowds he wanted.

He worked on 3 things :

• Creating a baseball pitch
• Announcing to the media that he has a pitch and the legends are going to play
• Creating some smaller events to build confidence in what he is doing

He not only built the field he put the right elements and in the right places for the right people to recognise the field.  Also in the movie one person came then he told others and others came then the field was full of people playing baseball.

So when we are looking at our website we need to add all the element and attract the right people. One of the most important things Kevin Costner had to do is tell people about the field and why they should come!

Yes! I hear you,

You’ve tried ads, social media and search media and yet still your website conversion rates remain low. I am showing brides about my boutique and products and still we don’t have enough appointments. What can you do to change that?

Firstly, the most important thing you need to understand is the concept of warming up your website traffic. This is the way of being successful with your online marketing, and vital if you want to get more bridal appointment bookings.

There are three types of website visitors that will visit your website.

1. Cold Traffic– These are the brides who somehow find your website. They’re not actually planning to buy your wedding dresses or even local to your business.
2. Warm Traffic– These brides are definitely getting married and are looking for a wedding dress. But, they do not know your business and will need more info and a little more convincing before they choose your business over your competition.
3. Hot Traffic– These visitors know everything about your boutique and are ready to hit that book an appointment button.

Don’t assume: that the majority of your website audience is hot traffic. Falling into this trap of thinking that most of your visitors to your website are extremely interested in buying your products (wedding dress etc) would cause confusion when you see your conversion rate is still low. It might even lead you to start making unnecessary changes to your website. We all know that to get more appointment from your website we need more hot traffic, where the customers know what they want and are just looking for your book your appointment button to be able to visit your boutique.

The myths…

You heard from some online marketing specialist that if you change the colour of your booking button you can increase conversion rates by 300%, and you want a piece of that action!

The problem is that you may only have less than 2% hot traffic visitors on your website. By trying to optimise the website just for them, you’re forgetting about the other 98% of visitors.

The booking button colour is not the problem. I promise. What you need to do is to warm up the audience. When hot traffic visitors hit 20%, then we can start thinking about the booking process.

Warming up the traffic

So how can you warm up your traffic and convert cold visitors into something a little… hotter?

Let’s Talk! with a few simple ways:

1. Get Featured.

One way to warm up your website traffic is to be featured in a respectable magazine or news portal. Try to get a free story or if necessary pay them to write about your boutique and include a link to your website. Why not go one step further and ask them to include your Facebook pixel as well.

The important part:

Instead of buying Facebook ads and have the person click that lead to your website, pay to promote the article from this magazine or blogger online space.

“What?!” I hear you. “what you are saying, I have to pay to send the traffic to another website, and not our own? is that illogical?”

Let’s think about this!   

If you are a bride and you see an article from a wedding blogger or a reliable news wedding source pops up on your Facebook feed, how would you perceive this piece of news, you would not view it as an ad but important information or helpful tips.  Leading you to click on it and most of all you would only click on it if it’s important to you. Therefore warming up the traffic before it reaches your website.

Customers will feel more comfortable clicking and also believe this article way more than they would believe you telling them your boutique has the most stunning wedding dress and the customer services is awesome,  “If others are saying it, it must be true.”

Now, people who come to your website will be much more familiar with your services and definitely more willing to book an appointment.

Make sure you publish the article in a few wedding online magazines or bloggers with links to your website and add your Facebook pixel to the article. Then you will have to pay to promote the articles on Facebook.  By changing the route your visitors get to your website, which is known as your ‘funnel’, you’re engaging the customer’s interest on a deeper level.

Whoop, Whoop… I’m done, let the appointments come flooding in… hold on a second, your work is not done yet.

Since we are dealing with brides and wedding dresses and your products do not fall under the customers’ essential needs, they probably won’t book an appointment immediately. So, this is where your re-marketing campaigns comes in.

After a visitor leaves your website, you can use targeted ads to reach them as they browse elsewhere on the internet. Set these up to remind visitors about your awesome boutique and the stunning wedding dresses your boutique have just for them.

Before your funnel looked like this:

Facebook Ad —> Your Website offer

Now your funnel looks like this:

Facebook Ad —> Magazine post —> Website offer —> (re-marketing) —> Website offer

Yep, you’ve extended the funnel a fair bit, and it’s gonna cost money, however the results with be amazing.

Now your website visitors are much more interested in your services. Plus, they have more confidence in your offerings because a respected magazine/blogger wrote about you.

By changing your visitor’s journey, you’re sparking their interest before they’ve even clicked on your website.

2. It’s Movie Time.

Another effective way to get your traffic heating up is videos - Facebook, Instagram Reels and other platform video. Why not create a short inspirational video, in square format with a catchy title? Upload this video to your page or use our previous tactic and pay an online magazine to post it on their page. The video will warm up your audience because it gives them an initial spark, a way to imagine you’re boutique as their shopping destination.

One way you can do this is to create a Facebook campaign that attract brides to your website. Then promote the video to a wider audience who could potentially be interested in your product.

Create a custom audience of people who watched at least 75% of the video and serve them with other campaigns that promote your boutique and your dresses.

This is the old way of your funnel:

Facebook Ad —> Website offer

Now this is the new way of your funnel:

Facebook Ad —> Facebook Video —> Facebook Ad —> Website offer

The results were much better.

The Facebook video method may not be as efficient as a magazine post, but it is simpler to implement because you own all the channels.

And there you have it. Simple and effective ways to get brides booking appointment.

Don’t forget, implementing these steps could require some technical skills such as:

• Setting up the Facebook pixel and understanding how it works
• How to create a custom audience and re-marketing campaigns
• How to set up a funnel
• Proper conversion tracking

But don’t panic! Get Savvy Coaching is a “Done with you Membership and Coaching Academy.” Check it out on our website: www.getsavvycoaching.com where Christine and Maria already assist lots of other bridal shops achieve their dreams

And we also have a marketing bridal boutique agency where we have a “Done for you service.” Check out our website www.lushmarketing.co.uk

Good luck and happy traffic-warming!

Christine Skilton

Co-Founder, Get Savvy Coaching and CEO of Lush Marketing