Make a Plan

Planning is extremely important for any business success. It provides clarity and helps with motivation, but most importantly, it outlines exactly what you need to do to achieve your goals. When planning an event for your bridal boutique there are a few things you should organise before anything else.

The most important thing to outline first is your budget as this will determine your entire event. While it’s important to throw an event that will impress and stand out, you need to make sure it is realistic and affordable for your business. Once you have your budget set its time to start thinking about your theme. Your chosen theme will set the tone of your whole event so it’s important to think carefully about this. Make sure your theme complements your bridal boutique and is something that your customers will enjoy.

Finally, set a date! It’s extremely important to give yourself plenty of time to promote your event, so make sure you plan at least a few weeks ahead. The most successful events are such a hit because of the buzz and anticipation they have created in the buildup.

Read More: Seven Ways to Drive More Footfall to Your Bridal Boutique

Understand Your Goals

When planning your event, it’s also important to set out your goals. What is the purpose of your event? What are you looking to get out of this? Whether it’s to build brand awareness, boost sales or gain publicity, having a clear understanding of your goals is a great way to stay focused on the bigger picture every step of the way.

However, how you quantify your goal is just as important. Set your event some key performance goals and try to achieve these. For example, you could agree that to determine your event a success you must have X number of customers in attendance and X percentage of these customers purchasing something from you.

Highlight What You Are Offering

When announcing news of your event make sure you also reveal any special offers that will be available, as this is a great way to attract more interest. However, it is not always feasible to offer any special discounts, and if this is the case, just highlight everything else your event will be offering. This could be things like a live band, DJ, free food and drink or even a guest appearance from an industry professional.

Read More: Five Seasonal Promotion Ideas to Draw in New Business

Make a Guest List

Who you invite to your event is essential for its success, therefore you need to think long and hard about who you want in attendance. It’s a good idea to have a mixture of potential customers, local bloggers and influencers, press, industry professionals and similar small business owners. It is also important to think about how many guests your boutique can realistically hold.

Collaborate With Other Small Businesses

Collaborating with other small local businesses can have a significant positive impact on your event and could mean new opportunities for your business. You could do this by asking a local photographer that needs to build their portfolio if they would like to come along and take some photos. You could ask a local florist to donate some flowers in exchange for some free publicity or you could even ask a local DJ looking to gain experience if they would like to perform.

Not only will this boost your relationships within your local community, but it will also give you access to their social media platforms and vice versa.

Read More: Propose PR on the Benefits of Collaborating With Other Businesses

Promote Your Event

The turnout of your event will depend on how well you promote it, so it’s essential to spend some time doing this. Promoting your event could consist of anything from sending invitations (both physical invites and E-invites), to creating a Facebook event or even a countdown calendar. Other ways to market your event could include putting banners outside your boutique or sending flyers around local businesses and houses.

Make Sure You Follow Up

Just because the event is over doesn’t mean you have to stop there. Following up is just as important as the event itself, so make sure you keep this in mind. Reach out to all of your clients and thank them for attending your event. This is also a great opportunity to get some real, constructive feedback – ask them what they enjoyed and what could be done better next time.

Read More: How to Keep Customers Interested in Shopping Locally

Top Tips for the Day

• Don’t hard sell – It’s not the time or place! You have more chance of conversion if people are sold into the experience, customer service and ethos of the brand. Furthermore many people do not like to buy in front of others as they can feel ostracized by what they can afford.
• Set the mood – Music is a great way to communicate to your guests how they should feel at your event. If the vibe is a relaxing one you could play some acoustic songs, and if it is an upbeat event, play some cheery pop music.
• Use social media – Make sure you capture parts of your event on social media and encourage your guest to do the same. By doing so you are once again creating a buzz around the event and showing it off for the world to see. You could even create your own hashtag or geo-filter!
• Collect customer information – Throw a competition or ask if your guests would like to sign-up to your newsletters. This is a great way to capture some data which you later can use for your marketing material.

For more advice like this, take a look at our guide to reading your customer’s body language.