I have the opportunity of a stand at a wedding fair, but the stand will cost £230. It is being organised by the local papers so includes some advertising as well. I would be promoting the spray tan side of my business. Has anyone done wedding fairs recently, and are they worth it?
Wedding fair
- Thread starter Blissful
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Ruth Mills
Well-Known Member
Probably best to calculate how many spray tans you would need to do in order to recoup the cost of exhibiting at the wedding fair - then you will be able to make a more informed decision to if it is worth it or not, based on how much extra business you would expect it to bring in...
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Princess*laura
Well-Known Member
Also remember when working out how many tans you would need to do to make it worth while, that even though you may only expect to get x amount of new clients out of the exhibition. These x amount of clients may use you regulary and introduce you to many other potential new clients. Friends Family Etc
Ruth Mills
Well-Known Member
Good call! Repeat business could easily make it worth it in the long term, as could the additional client recommendations.
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smartbookings
Well-Known Member
Be sure to find out how many expected people will be passing through their doors from past events etc as £230 seems alot to me. A friend of mine is a Wedding photographer and he pays £40 to be able to drop his brochure's in the wedding fairs goodie bag that they give out to all customers so this might be worth considering...
dawney
Active Member
This seems quite abit. I'm doing a Wedding Fayre in November and is costing me £100 for a stand. I would shop around and check what you get for the price.
Hope this helps.
Dawney xx
Hope this helps.
Dawney xx
tigi
Well-Known Member
I do approx three wedding fairs for both my businesses a year and pay between 100-150 per stand.
also to consider, check if there are any other wedding fairs on that day. It really impacts on the visitor count if there is.
Also, I find making up FAQ list really helpful. think of the typical questions you may be asked and make up a leaflet to hand out.
Also consider having some friends with you who have had a spray tan (try using two different skin / hair types) to demonstrate the typical look they can expect!
And be ready for the most frquently asked questions
1. will i be orange
2. will it rub off on my dress.
if only i had a pound for every time i was asked those!
tigi
also to consider, check if there are any other wedding fairs on that day. It really impacts on the visitor count if there is.
Also, I find making up FAQ list really helpful. think of the typical questions you may be asked and make up a leaflet to hand out.
Also consider having some friends with you who have had a spray tan (try using two different skin / hair types) to demonstrate the typical look they can expect!
And be ready for the most frquently asked questions
1. will i be orange
2. will it rub off on my dress.
if only i had a pound for every time i was asked those!
tigi
Princess*laura
Well-Known Member
Haha, will it come of on their dress though? Ive allways wondered that x
julesgems
Well-Known Member
Hi
I did a wedding fair recently and negotiated with the hotel. Instead of paying for the table I did a demo of eyelash extensions on the hotel manager's daughter!
Got loads of interest - plus 2 firm bookings!
It is very boring to sit at these fairs if you just have leaflets etc on a table. I did her eyelashes in 2 stages - half before lunch and half after lunch to enable as many people as possible to see the process for themselves.
Whatever you do - good luck - hope it goes well and brings you business!:hug:
I did a wedding fair recently and negotiated with the hotel. Instead of paying for the table I did a demo of eyelash extensions on the hotel manager's daughter!
Got loads of interest - plus 2 firm bookings!
It is very boring to sit at these fairs if you just have leaflets etc on a table. I did her eyelashes in 2 stages - half before lunch and half after lunch to enable as many people as possible to see the process for themselves.
Whatever you do - good luck - hope it goes well and brings you business!:hug:
We have done many wedding fairs, roughly 4 to 6 of them per year. In my experience, the smaller fairs are often more worthwhile. As a matter of fact, we have dropped a major wedding fair this year because the return wasn't anywhere near as big as the smaller fairs. I suspect this is because with the larger fairs there may be many exhibitors who provide the same service and brides are just running around collecting as much info as they can. At the smaller venues, you often have a chance to actually speak with brides, which makes it far more likely that they will book with you.
Our success rate also depends greatly on how well our booth looks and how well we are prepared. We have pop up roller sign and dress our table very attractively. We also make sure we have plenty of literature which lists our services and prices. We have put together a special bridal package leaflet as well, so our marketing is more direct. You will also find you are far more successful if you stay standing, preferably in front of or to the side of your table versus behind it. The idea is to make it easy for them to interact with you.
At each bridal fair we always do a free prize draw. One bride who attends the event wins a bridal package. It's a great way of building your mailing list. We draw the name at the end of the event and phone the winner. We mail everyone else (by post or email) to let them know they didn't win, but include a special offer instead. We get lots of new salon clients, not just for bridal treatments, but for long-term treatments. The free prize draw has increased our return hugely, so I firmly recommend it. Have plenty of forms and pens handy, as brides will crowd around your table to get their chance to win. We ask for name, telephone numbers, post and email address, wedding date and permission to mail to them.
We also often get our table free by offering free services for the event's models. This also always gets our name mentioned, so everyone hears about us. Most events will even direct brides to our table to let them know they should sign up for our prize draw.
By the way, when determining your cost of the event, don't forget to determine if you are losing any client time. If you could have booked £200 worth of services that day, your real cost will be £430, not £230. There might also be other incidentals, like travel time and petrol, food, etc that you wouldn't normally have on a regular business day.
Hope that helps!
Our success rate also depends greatly on how well our booth looks and how well we are prepared. We have pop up roller sign and dress our table very attractively. We also make sure we have plenty of literature which lists our services and prices. We have put together a special bridal package leaflet as well, so our marketing is more direct. You will also find you are far more successful if you stay standing, preferably in front of or to the side of your table versus behind it. The idea is to make it easy for them to interact with you.
At each bridal fair we always do a free prize draw. One bride who attends the event wins a bridal package. It's a great way of building your mailing list. We draw the name at the end of the event and phone the winner. We mail everyone else (by post or email) to let them know they didn't win, but include a special offer instead. We get lots of new salon clients, not just for bridal treatments, but for long-term treatments. The free prize draw has increased our return hugely, so I firmly recommend it. Have plenty of forms and pens handy, as brides will crowd around your table to get their chance to win. We ask for name, telephone numbers, post and email address, wedding date and permission to mail to them.
We also often get our table free by offering free services for the event's models. This also always gets our name mentioned, so everyone hears about us. Most events will even direct brides to our table to let them know they should sign up for our prize draw.
By the way, when determining your cost of the event, don't forget to determine if you are losing any client time. If you could have booked £200 worth of services that day, your real cost will be £430, not £230. There might also be other incidentals, like travel time and petrol, food, etc that you wouldn't normally have on a regular business day.
Hope that helps!
Zingara
Well-Known Member
It really depends on which solution you use. the ones that are heavier on guide colour are more prone to rub off on clothes. Yes if you shower off properly and really cleanse the skin after there is less chance, but most clietns tend to be a littel afraid of a good scrub after the solution has been applied and you can't exactly bung a wedding dress in the wash at 30 degrees now can you?
I personally stock a separate tan solution that is very low on guide colour and use that for brides. I market it specifically as a bridal tan (although i use it for other clients too) and I now get most brides in the area coming to me, as word of mouth has worked wonders for me on this! I also find that brides tend to prefer a lighter colour on their big day as opposed to the darker shades, so a relatively low DHA % is also a bonus.
As for the effectiveness of wedding fairs, I personally am not overly sold on them. The last one I did cost me £75 for the day, which I got back in clients, but I would have taken in a day on the salon, and more, anyway...without the extra outlay! But it does depend on the area and advertising.
