The Bridal Industry Today

Here’s a useful snapshot of the bridal world in the U.S.

With the popularity of wedding reality shows on networks like TLC and Style, weddings are in the spotlight more than ever. Here’s a brief overview of bridal stats gathered from theknot.com, Brides Magazine 2012 American Wedding Study, and weddingstats.com:

• September is the most popular month for weddings; June is second. 20% of couples get engaged in December.
• The average age of a bride is 27 and the groom is 29.
• An average guest count is 140 and the length of engagement is fourteen months.
• Blue, purple, and green are the biggest wedding colors.
• 69% of couples had there own personal wedding website. 59% of brides used Pinterest to generate and organize wedding ideas.
• The average cost of an American wedding is $27,000. New York City boasted the largest average cost of more than $65k, and Chicago was second at $53k per wedding.
• Venue accounts for approximately 50% of a wedding’s budget.
• The average cost of a bridal gown is $1355, and bridesmaids’ dresses average $145.
• In this economy–exporting may be the way to expand your products.

To sum it all up, get yourself into Pinterest, focus on September and June themes, look into exporting into China and move to New York! Okay, maybe you should stay put –where you are–and use these stats to make the most of your business. For more great resources on the wedding biz, check out my site: EvansSalesSolutions.com or BridalMarketingConcierge.com

Have a great week, and do a little of your own research on wedding trends. It can only help propel you forward. As I always say, “Knowledge plus implementation equals power.”

Sincerely,

Chris Evans

P.S. Join us at the BRIDAL BUSINESS ACADEMY in Santa Monica on December 4 or get more information on the EASTERN SEABOARD Academy next May! 

Bridal Business Academy Comes To Southern California

The Bridal Business Academy is an intensive course in bridal business management, where wedding industry entrepreneurs gain hands-on familiarity with the fundamental skills needed in a successful business from the novice to the experienced.

The Bridal Business Academy features an intensive education program designed to strengthen the business acumen of wedding industry leaders. The workshop is designed for owners, managers, staff leaders and those looking to advance their wedding business.  Attendees range from the novice to the experienced as the Academy provides a strong foundation for wedding professionals who enjoy perfecting their trade.

Featured Trainer & Business Motivator, Chris Evans -Top Wedding Industry Specialist will be on hand to help you learn how to improve your business and grow your sales.

Additional top bridal business trainers will  teach information which focuses on practical concepts and tools to strengthen leadership capabilities in your wedding business.
Trainers include: Wedding Planner Alice Goetschel of Memorable Occasions, Susan Tellem, Owner of Tellem Worldwide Communications, Nick DiLello, Owner & Operator of the Phoenix Bridal Show and Daryl Bryant, Business Motivator & Owner of Total Entertainment.

As a bonus,  Wedding Coordinators/Planners can get a complimentary registration courtesy of the Sheraton Delfina Hotel.  Discount registrations are available for those in the Wedding Industry wanting to attend!

• DATE:  December 4, 2012
• TIME: 11:00-5:00 (Academy) 5:30-7:30 (Soiree’)
• LOCATION:  Sheraton Delfina, Santa Monica

Call 805-322-4446 to reserve your seat (limited) or email to: Academy@EvansSalesSolutions.com   Go to: www.EvansSalesSolutions.com or www.BridalMarketingConcierge.com

Announcing New Service for the Wedding Professionals

http://www.prlog.org/11914348-announcing-new-service-of-evans-sales-solutions-bridal-marketing-concierge.html

Gain an edge by developing one new habit—watching your competition in the wedding industry

You want to be better than your competition. You want to be viewed as the best in town. But how can you accomplish this if you don’t know what the competition is doing? The following activities will help you gather a well-rounded report on your competitors:

• Visit their website to learn about marketing strategies, personnel, and future plans.
• Visit their store to see their products, sales, and deals and get ideas for your own store.
• Order their brochure or newsletter to understand how they are marketing themselves.
• Sign up for their loyalty program to see what their customers receive from them.
• Do an online search to find articles, blogs, and reviews.
• Read their ads to understand their promotional patterns.
• Like their Facebook page to get updates and see how they engage people in social media.
• Ask around to find out what people think of your competitors.

The more you learn about your competitors, the better decisions you’ll be able to make. You can price your product more intelligently, learn what prospects like and dislike, and negotiate with an edge.

When you’re meeting with a prospect, you can tell them how your competitors are priced, what kind of customer service they offer, and what kind of reviews they are getting. With this information you can make them a better deal than anyone else and close the sale.

Knowledge of your competitors can help in numerous ways, but only if you keep up on it. You can’t base your competitive edge on information you gained last year, so be sure to stay on top of it weekly.

To get even more of an edge on the competition, order 12 Secrets Every Wedding Professional Should Know, and gain valuable tips from 30 years of wedding business experience.

The Bridal Marketing Concierge of Evans Sales Solutions, LLC is an outsourced marketing management company to support you in the wedding industry.  We operate to best suit our client’s needs by providing a complete range of full service marketing techniques.

As a Solutions-based and Results-Driven Bridal Marketing Concierge we aim to support your company by leveraging our business relationships and access to unparalleled networks. We create strategic, specialized and customized plans to bring your business to the next level.

We offer an encompassing assortment of marketing services, such as:  lead generation and tracking; campaign planning; market planning for the wedding industry; development and implementation; web design & development; search engine optimization and hosting packages; promotion & support on event planning (as designed); and,  support for advertising, graphic and printing options.

Evans Sales Solutions  (805) 428-3851   www.EvansSalesSolutions.com

Resources To Grow Your Wedding Business

At the ‘Bridal Business Boot Camp,’ which takes place all over the country, or as the speaker at a wedding business conference, Chris Evans, wedding business guru, shares top secret techniques to support the growth of your company. 

The resource page on the website:  www.EvansSalesSolutions.com is set up to give you ideas (mostly free) to be the best in the wedding industry that your company can be.

The first selection by Chris to support your company is:

Aweber Autoresponder:  This autoresponder puts an online OR offline business on Auto-Pilot, by sending emails to your mailing lists.  It is used to automate my response to my mailing list, saving your company valuable time.

An auto responder is a very cool software program that allows you to enter a series of newsletters, e-mails or informational snippets, and then it delivers that information in whatever order and schedule you choose.  Autoresponders have helped many businesses is that it simplifies the follow-up of its mailing list members, even just to remind its members of their products or services. 

Evans Sales Solutions uses the Aweber Autoresponder, to send out messages every few days.  When someone subscribes to our website, they will get an immediate response, after they have subscribed. Then it is set up to reach out to those interested at an interval of 2 to 7 days.

Within months of having our Facebook up, we have over 1000+ members.  Our blog is starting to ‘multiple’ by reaching out with the autoresponder to help branch out with our services.

It is used to remind our clients of our latest posts as well as to remind them of my offers of products and services, such as the new ‘BizEBride Mobile app, or the Wedding Watch Newsletter.’  Our team at Evans Sales Solutions, uses it to guide my 1000+ clients to the right resources that they want.

Aweber Autoresponder has been advertising for me, tirelessly, 24 hours a day / 7 days a week/ 365 days a year. It is always on Auto-Pilot.

The first step is to contract with an auto-responder service and set up an account. You can do that by clicking the link below.

Example: Once your account is set up (a five-minute process), you can begin creating a series of e-mails to send to the bride after the show. It’s best to keep each e-mail short and to provide some information about your company. Always close the e-mail by providing a way for the bride to link to you, call you, or register on your page. You will want to create 10 separate e-mails that will be sent to the bride after the show.

My experience shows it’s best to schedule your e-mails as follows:

• One      each day for five days
• One      every other day for the next six days
• One      e-mail 15 days after the show
• One      final e-mail 20 days after the show

When you meet a bride at the show, part of the registration process will be to record her e-mail address. On your registration form you should have an opt-in box where the bride can give you permission to send her e-mails. Be sure to keep these registration forms on file in the event that there is a question later. There are specific laws that govern sending e-mails to lists. The auto-responder service you choose will provide all the information you need, and by following its guidelines you will be in compliance with the laws.

After the show, simply enter the brides’ e-mail addresses into the system and they will receive the e-mails you set on the schedule you created. The final e-mail in the schedule should tell the bride-to-be that it is the final message she will receive. It’s amazing, but many times that’s enough to stimulate the bride-to-be to respond.

There are many different Autoresponder companies, however, we like Aweber best.  Aweber’s user-friendly user interface works well for newbies and even the experienced marketer. It is easy to maneuver between the options.

If you get your Aweber now, you will be able to:

set up unlimited campaigns
unlimited messages
spam checker
text or html-based messages
manage your subscribers

As an added bonus, Aweber has a referral compensation program as well, so you can benefit by promoting your Aweber, so when you sign up use Evans Sales Solutions, or CLICK LINK BELOW: 
1. Identify a target group you want to market to

2. Come up with at least 10 follow-ups emails

3. The first email is always to welcome your subscriber and with the download of freebies e.g. free report or e-Book

4. Write down the time intervals you want to send these emails

5. Once you got your Aweber account, copy and paste the emails into the message boxes

6. Remember to on the “click-tracking” so that you can know how many of your members have clicked on the links

7. Let it run and you go to sleep

Be sure to use the Chris Evans Link below and check it out for yourself or go to http://www.evanssalessolutions.com/Resources.html 

https://www.aweber.com/login.htm

Wedding Business Expert given mission ‘Bridal Business IMPOSSIBLE’ in Chicago on June 18

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Wedding Business Expert-Author, Speaker, Trainer–Chris Evans in Chicago-O’Hare!  Chris will teach you how to ‘Double Your Wedding Business in 12 Months’ at the Bridal Business Boot Camp!  Join us on Monday, June 18 @ the Hampton Inn Airport Hotel.

www.EvansSalesSolutions.com

May 30, 2012-Chicago:  Chris Evans, America’s foremost Wedding Business Expert, is given the “mission” of making the impossible-possible by teaching, training and motivating local wedding industry businesses to take their businesses to the next level on June 18, 2012 at the Hampton Inn-Chicago, O’Hare International.

Chris Evans, speaker, author, business coach and master presenter uses the 30 years in the bridal industry to help thousands of wedding businesses, grow their companies—even in these uncertain times. On June 18-Chicago will hear speaker, author, business coach and master presenter, Chris Evans, who uses the 30 years in the bridal industry to help thousands of wedding businesses, grow their companies—even in these uncertain times.

The full day Bridal Business Boot Camp was created to help those in the bridal industry to learn skills to increase their bottom line.  Wedding Professionals will learn:

• How to stop chasing the bride and have them chase you with Attraction Marketing!

• Why Social Networking doesn’t work-and what to do about it!

• ‘There’s an App for that!’ Websites and techniques that save you time and money!

• Mission Impossible?  How to remake your bridal business for the new economy!

Chris Evans is a fearless entrepreneur and top sales trainer. He’s never met a challenge he wouldn’t take. Chris’ new mission: fix America’s most desperate bridal businesses…. ready to change & grow…..Is it a Bridal Business: Impossible?  Never!

His background in the wedding industry includes top wedding entrepreneur, author, sales trainer and key note speaker and Chris entertains and trains companies with a hint of comedy from writing for the ‘Jay Leno’ show.

Chris created the wildly successful Bridal Business Boot Camp in 2008, training thousands of wedding professionals to exceed their expectations in sales, grow their companies and learn valuable business techniques.’ This intense business workout, will take them to the next level in sales and more!  Chris is also the Author of, ‘How to Double Your Wedding Business in 12 Months!’ and, ‘The Secret of Sales Success.’

The Bridal Business Boot Camp is a full day event at:

Hampton Inn Hotel, Chicago-O’Hare International

3939 N. Mannheim Road

Schiller Park, IL 60176

June 18, 2012, Monday

9:00 am -3:45 pm

Registration is available by going to: http://www.EvansSalesSolutions.com  or call 805-428-3851. Tickets increase in price after: June 15, 2012, Seating is limited!

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