Whether you have already hosted your own Trunk Shows or have only heard about them within the industry, it is important to take time to create a marketing plan for promoting your trunk show. Trunk shows can be powerful events for bridal shops as they give smaller shops the chance to house the newest styles from designers and drive brides to their shop. This is also a great cross promotion opportunity for the designer as they get publicity and the chance to get feedback from real brides at the event.
Talk to Your Designer
The first step of hosting a trunk show is to discuss the details with your designer. As well as logistics, it is important to discuss promotion options. For example, most designers and bridal shops do not offer sales or discounts. Trunk shows, however, are a great way to offer your brides that additional perk as the industry standard is about a 10% discount. Making sure that your designer agrees to this will be important as this detail is a great way to generate excitement for your show. Some designers may also be open to offering customizations at your show in the case that a bride wants to combine the components of multiple dresses. This is also a great opportunity for your brides to get the exact look they are looking for and a way to promote the event.
Building Excitement
After understanding your agreements with your designer, you will want to start generating excitement around the event before it is even announced. This can be showing real brides wearing the designer or with reels showcasing past collections. After announcing the event, you can continue to showcase their collections on your social media as well as sharing information on the designer themselves in a designer spotlight post. Creating an event on Facebook and sending an Email Newsletter with the news will also help to get bookings.
During the Trunk Show
Your strategy for marketing a trunk show should continue during the actual event. Firstly, be sure to showcase the designer’s collection in your shop in a way that has worked in your space in the past. This could mean showing each dress on a mannequin or organizing the dresses in a specific way. A great practice would also be to assign content creation to one of your team members. Often times we forget to take pictures or videos when focusing on helping brides, so having an extra person there for just that reason will help alleviate any extra stress and ensure that you have content from the event! Throughout the event Instagram stories are an easy way to post pictures and show any brides who have said yes to their dress!
After the Event
After the trunk show, be sure to post a thank you/recap of the event on your social media. Recap reels are also a fun way to reuse this content at a later date! Sending out “thank you for attending” emails to brides is also a sweet way of showing your brides that they are valued. If a bride had purchased her dress that day, be sure to add her to a different mailing list to receive a “thank you and you will look beautiful in the dress” email! You can also then use this mailing list of brides who purchased to send promotions for bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, or accessories since you know they already have their dress!
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