Introduction
Come November and the wedding bells would start ringing. Popularly known as the marriage season, it’s the period between November to June when marriages under the Hindu calendar take place.
During this time, you would find a lot of friends and relatives asking for reviews and advice on various services from banquet halls to apparels to even local pandits.
If you are a business selling wedding services like venue, apparels, jewelry, photography, wedding planning, card designing, etc., this is the apt time for you to start promoting.
Google Trends suggests that the demand for wedding services are mostly high through the months of November to May:
Need For Advertising Wedding Services
Wedding services are serious business. Not only people spend a big portion of their savings on weddings, but they also attach the utmost importance to every small detail.
The quality and performance of the services mean a lot to their social image. Hence, building trust and demonstrating authenticity becomes important for wedding businesses.
The two most important factors are references and strong portfolio. Apart from these, being on top of the mind is necessary for businesses to be considered. This is where advertising would come into the picture.
Wedding Services Business: Advertising Challenges
In terms of challenges, there are two major challenges when it comes to advertising for wedding services business :
- Short window of purchase: The entire wedding arrangement typically takes place within a few months’ time period. This gives advertisers a very small window to create awareness, come into the consideration set, wow the customer and close the deal.
- Difficult to filter/target: Though the wedding market in India is huge and booming, targeting the potential customers is difficult based on behavior and demographics. The only way to achieve this is through advertising on Google and Facebook/Instagram which have special filters based on life events/interests.
Combining the two points above, we can gauge the difficulty here.
- Difficulty in targeting means selecting mass media to advertise to a niche
- Short window to advertise means aggressive advertising
What this implies is that any business that wants to advertise their wedding business would need a very high advertising budget and small businesses would find it difficult.
However, that’s not true. By understanding your target audience and catchment area better, you would be able to formulate an effective media plan. We would help you with the same with this article.
Our outdoor advertising campaign for Weddingz.in
Advertising Approach
Since the purchase window for wedding services is small, to make the best use of the available time, the following approach is advisable:
- Multiple Touchpoints: A combination of online and offline
- High Frequency: Repeated exposure to the audience
The advertising approach would also vary based on the advertising budget and areas of operation
- For small budgets: Highly targeted digital advertisements on popular platforms like Google and Facebook at high frequency.
- For regional/local brands: Hyperlocal targeting through frequency mediums like outdoor and transit advertising along with highly targeted digital ads on Google and Facebook.
- For national brands: A combination of digital advertising, hyperlocal advertising, and national level high reach media.
5 Best advertising ideas for wedding services business
1. Digital Advertising: Leverage the targeting prowess of Facebook and Google
You might not believe the advanced level of targeting Google and Facebook offer for advertising. Here are some screenshots to give you an idea of how Facebook and Google can help you reach out to your target customers.
Through Facebook Advertising, advertisers can target audiences based on their interests, relationship status and also the stage of their relationship. Not only this, Facebook would even let you target the near ones of people who got engaged. Following is a screenshot:
Google advertising too offers advanced targeting options based on the browsing behavior of people. It offers various options like
Custom intent: What type of products audience is actively looking for.
Keywords: People who are searching using keywords similar to the advertisers would see the ads.
Topic: Advertisers can target people reading about wedding-related topics.
Placement: Advertisers can place their ads on wedding-related blogs/websites/YouTube channels.
The above targeting options can be used standalone or in combination along with generic targeting options like geography and demographics. To know which type of targeting would suit your brand, write to us at Help@TheMediaAnt.com.
Bonus: Another less popular option can be playlist targeting in popular audio OTT apps like Jio Saavn, Wynk, Gaana.
2. Hyperlocal Targeting: Identify the markets in the cities frequented by wedding shoppers
It is difficult to spot wedding shoppers based on demographics and geography but most of them would be found wandering in the popular wedding shopping markets like Chandni Chowk in Delhi, Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai or Commercial Street in Bangalore and malls housing big wedding designers.
This would help advertisers to decide which areas to carpet bomb with the ads. Running hyperlocal advertising campaigns in these areas would be helpful.
Following advertising media can be used to reach out to the wedding shoppers in these areas
- Outdoor Advertising: Popular options include hoardings, bus shelters, and skywalks.
- Transit Advertising
- Metro Branding: Advertisers can opt for train branding (with route targeting) or/and can also opt for metro station advertising.
- Bus Branding: Buses can be targeted based on the routes.
- Auto Branding: Auto usually travel shorter distances and can be targeted based on the depot/stand location.
- Promotion through Kiosk/Pamphlet Distribution: Promotion kiosk or promoters distributing pamphlets at high-footfall areas can be hired.
- Mall Branding: Malls that have bridal wear brands, jewelry shops, designer boutiques can be a good option to promote wedding services.
Our mall branding campaign for Weddingz.in
3. Mass Reach: Use popular media
In case you have a city-wide or pan-India presence, have a comfortable advertising budget, want to build brand awareness and reach out to wider audience, you can opt for the following:
- Radio Advertising: Radio is a very effective frequency medium for brand awareness. One can book a single city/multiple city campaign.
- Lifestyle/Wedding special Magazines and Websites: Websites/Magazines like Cosmopolitan, Vogue etc, are mostly visited by people looking for the latest styles/trends.
- Lifestyle section in Newspapers: Sections like TOI Life, HT City have lifestyle articles, latest styles, etc.
Important: For all the platforms discussed here, building high frequency is a must to create an impact.
4. Building Trust: Use Influencer Marketing
When it comes to the wedding business, trust is a major factor that influences the customer’s decision as it is once in a lifetime activity and quality of service is one of the major concerns. People mostly prefer to follow a recommendation from family and friends. Here’s where influencer marketing can make a difference.
5. Exhibitions and Expo: Build connection, form partnerships and generate leads
There are several exhibitions that take place across Indian cities- both general and specific to services and products. Not only is it a wonderful way to build a partnership with other non-competitive services but also to generate leads for the business.
Summarizing the approach discussed above in a simple flowchart:
Would you like to know which ad platforms and advertising options would be the best for your wedding services? Write to us at Help@TheMediaAnt.com.
