What’s the Best Way to Follow Up After a Bridal Show?

“After watching your videos and doing my first email blast to my bride list from a recent bridal show I was at,  What is generally the next step, Phone call?  Another Email?

“I don’t have an issue following up with a call but how long does one generally wait before a second touch attempt?”

Answer: Follow up fast with multiple mediums and don’t stop!

I wish I could tell you there is one “rule” for how often to follow up and how to do it, but really depends on your wedding business and your market.

If you’re just starting out, follow up with everyone and don’t stop until they tell you to stop, or until the wedding date passes.  Seriously.  With few leads, you have nothing to lose.

After we’d built up our wedding business, we didn’t follow up quite so hard.  I’d automated much of the follow up so that I could focus on the truly hot leads, and we had more than enough to book up our calendar.

If there is one Golden Rule of wedding follow up, it’s this…

Follow up fast and use multiple mediums with a BOLD and compelling message.

Most wedding professionals have horrendous follow up practices.  In half of them, the fear of rejection is so great that they just “forget” to follow up.  The other half is so disorganized that they really DO forget.

Great follow up is:

• FAST.  Every minute that passes means it’s less likely that you’ll book the wedding.
• VARIED.  While only 11-26% of email even gets opened, 98% of text messages are read and direct mail can be extremely effective.
• DIFFERENT.  If your follow up looks just like the competition, so do you.
• PERSISTENT.  Follow up with those leads who have demonstrated an interest in your services at increasing intervals (one week, two weeks, one month, etc.) or until tell you to stop.

When your time and energy resources are limited (and whose aren’t!) you need to focus your efforts on the leads that will give you the best return on that investment.

Here’s a run down of what I would do after a bridal show:

• Follow up with all the warm leads by email and phone asap.  These are the people who visited your booth. They’ve indicated an interest in your service and you already have a relationship to build upon.
• Prioritize the leads on the bridal show lead list based on wedding location, date or affluent zip codes.  You’re looking for the venues and details that are the likely best matches for your ideal clients.
• Call and email the best candidates on the list.  These are also good candidates for a “lumpy mailer” direct mail campaign.  It’s worth spending some time and money on these hot leads.
• Email and send a postcard with a limited time offer to the rest of the list.

Make sure that each follow up contains an offer with a strong call to action and a deadline.  You can even “bribe” couples to a meeting with a small, no strings attached gift like a $20 gas gift card.  This will increase the action you get immensely.

Learn more about from 10 Bridal Show Tips From Pros Who Know.

How do you follow up with bridal show leads?

Photo Credit