I attended my first bridal expo as a vendor this past weekend. I am glad I did but now I need to wait and see if it was worth it. I have mixed feels from the show. I thought the attendance was a little low for the size of the event. It's turns around I was right, the expo vendor said. You don't sell anything at these events it's all for the referral. I thought it would be good to do a expo in the beginning of the year since most brides start their planning around now. My mom came with me to help out. It was nice to have her there to talk to when it was slow.
I handed out a good number of cards and coupons but didn't get the response from brides I was looking for. I did hear "cute" a lot just like when I attended the craft fairs. I really think it's the area I live in. My online sales will tell you that as well, I sell much more to the east coast then I do the west. I knew that going in but I had to try. I spend money, time and energy getting everything ready but as a small business you have to try things at least once.
Now for the rest of the leg work. I handed out cards and coupons but the nice thing about this show was the email list you get after the show is over. For being a vendor at the expo I received a email list of every bride that signed up - even if they didn't attend. So now I am entering the world of email marketing. This is something new to me, I signed up with
Mail Chimp to send my emails out. I am going to try and get my first emails out by next week.
