Wedding fairs 2013 - help needed

theshamu

Hi,

I set up an online wedding stationery business in march this year and has done ok so far, reasonably happy with how it's going. Putting a lot into website design and promotion, getting more hits as the months go on and am advertising now with two of the big wedding forums and getting some great feedback and comments form customers.

Not taking a wage yet as I'm investing the money back into the business and really going to push it for 2013. Some good strategies in mind for offline sales too.

People keep saying to me that I should be hitting the wedding fairs next year. I haven't looked into this yet as I thought I'd see if anyone on here has any experience in this with costings etc.. I'm a one man band working from home in Dublin so I don't think I'd need a big stand. What would I need to bring to the fairs?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

blindside88

I don't have any experience in this business but I am planning a wedding for next year and have been to a large number of these fairs. My advice would be to bring as many samples as possible, have them laid out with pricing on each range, also do some some sample package prices to catch the eye eg 70 invites with envelopes and 70 evening
Invites for €x. Hope that helps.

Blindside

00benski

Hi theshamu

Some of the main ones are very expensive and it would prob take a lot more sales to recoup any monies spent at them. Your 2000 euro for a stand will prob better off spent on other things, good marketing ect.

A good idea would be to ring around all local hotels and see if you can get in the door at there wedding showes that dont cost anything

theshamu

blindside88 wrote: »

I don't have any experience in this business but I am planning a wedding for next year and have been to a large number of these fairs. My advice would be to bring as many samples as possible, have them laid out with pricing on each range, also do some some sample package prices to catch the eye eg 70 invites with envelopes and 70 evening
Invites for €x. Hope that helps.

Blindside

Cheers, thanks for the input. Can I ask you what would make you go to a specific stand if you were looking for wedding stationery?

theshamu

00benski wrote: »

Hi theshamu

Some of the main ones are very expensive and it would prob take a lot more sales to recoup any monies spent at them. Your 2000 euro for a stand will prob better off spent on other things, good marketing ect.

A good idea would be to ring around all local hotels and see if you can get in the door at there wedding showes that dont cost anything

Yeah I was thinking that myself, cash flow is king and spending 2k per fair could cause some problems.

Good idea trying hotels, I'll look into that!

Thanks..

TrixIrl

Ive organised some wedding fairs (back in the day) and Id really recommend sorting yourself out with a pop up stand - they're light and easy to transport and really eye-catching - make the stand look so much more professional -you'll get them for around the 100e mark.

Hotel wedding fairs are a great start - if they let you in for no fee great. but if you are paying even a nominal fee make sure they agree to you being the only stationery stand there or at least have very little competition. Also ask them if they are running a raffle and donate a voucher - this will guarantee you lots of namechecks during the day and obviously the voucher will only be used if the couple goes with you for invites - thus guaranteeing a sale or at least no loss.

If the hotel does charge a fee, offer benefit in kind as an option i.e. free flyer printing etc in exchange. This will both get you a free stand and build up relations with the poor overworked wedding coordinator who will then get you a nice shiny spot with lots of footfall.

On the day - bring lots of samples and make sure you're there early - nothing looks less professional than setting up during a fair. A bowl of sweets will bring footfall and I would always recommend sorting out some type of email capture e.g. sign up here for a 20% reduction. Once you have this precious emails you can stalk them till they give in and book with you.

The massive shows in the RDS etc are probably left to the others - huge costs and huge competition - just my two cents!

theshamu

@TrixIrl

Appreciate all your excellent advice, that's why I posted here first!

I'll start making lists and phone calls next week and try get in early for next years fairs. Some really great tips there, especially bribing them with some printing to get in!

Thanks...

TonyStark

theshamu wrote: »

Hi,

I set up an online wedding stationery business in march this year and has done ok so far, reasonably happy with how it's going. Putting a lot into website design and promotion, getting more hits as the months go on and am advertising now with two of the big wedding forums and getting some great feedback and comments form customers.

Not taking a wage yet as I'm investing the money back into the business and really going to push it for 2013. Some good strategies in mind for offline sales too.

People keep saying to me that I should be hitting the wedding fairs next year. I haven't looked into this yet as I thought I'd see if anyone on here has any experience in this with costings etc.. I'm a one man band working from home in Dublin so I don't think I'd need a big stand. What would I need to bring to the fairs?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

From attending wedding fairs, don't focus too much on one customer. If you are with someone give them a brochure or something to look at. The best suppliers always seemed to have at least 2 people there.

People like looking at samples.. even if its something like a slideshow on a tv/monitor of your work it will spark interest. Make sure your contact details are really easily accessible.

theshamu

TonyStark wrote: »

From attending wedding fairs, don't focus too much on one customer. If you are with someone give them a brochure or something to look at. The best suppliers always seemed to have at least 2 people there.

People like looking at samples.. even if its something like a slideshow on a tv/monitor of your work it will spark interest. Make sure your contact details are really easily accessible.

I was going to do a specific promotional flyer for the fair I would be attending like 15/20% off with promo code RDS2013 etc.

TrixIrl

TonyStark wrote: »

From attending wedding fairs, don't focus too much on one customer. If you are with someone give them a brochure or something to look at. The best suppliers always seemed to have at least 2 people there. .

This. Nothing worse than getting stuck with timewasters when a genuine couple might be floating around...rope in at least one person to help you

And yup, hotels are the tightest people ever - they are all about the free stuff! Best of luck!!

highlandseoghan

If your just starting out forget about the big wedding fairs. They will set you back 2K and you will be surrounded by competitors.

A lot of hotels are now starting to charge even for small wedding fairs and prices range from €50 to €250. To give yourself a chance I would start by contacting the hotels in your immediate area and asking to speak to the wedding coordinators they normally give you all the info on what goes on and who is in, they have all the inside info and should give you a lot of advise. It might be a good idea to do up a sample package personalised for each hotel and see if you can leave it or a flyer with a discount and leave it at the reception desk all year around.

If you get a stand in a hotel, look professional, have someone with you who is fully up to date on everything you do and knows your prices, have as many samples as possible and flyers with your details. It might be worth your while to run a competition to win your wedding invites for free. Everyone that comes to your stand leaves there name and email address and one person will be selected to win. This will give you there email address and after the fair you can send them out your details and an email thanking them for visiting your stand. Just let them know by entering the competition you will send them a follow up email.

Before you do a wedding fair I would suggest you go to a few to see your competitors and what there stalls are like.

Best of luck. Pm sent