Pinterest has become the go-to source for wedding inspiration, and it’s both for brides and grooms to be, as well as for all the professionals in the industry. In fact, if you’re a bridal designer, you are surely already using Pinterest to research inspiration for the next season’s collection. And Pinterest is here to help.

Here’s a snapshot of Pinterest’s 2018 Wedding Report, which is chock-full of powerful insights that highlight the new trends for brides and grooms. And we all love trends in the fashion industry!

For 2018 brides, “this year, comfort is key. For a little extra coverage, women are turning to high necklines  (+351%) and toppers like boleros (+163%). Meanwhile, jumpsuits (+178%), sleeves (+75%) and flats (+119%) are making it easy to dance like all of your friends and family are watching.” For 2018 grooms, “Don’t worry, we didn’t forget about the guys. With dapper tweed suits (+165%) and laid-back tie-free ensembles (+459%), grooms are getting the chance to show off a bit more personality.”

Besides providing you with useful insight and inspiration, Pinterest can help grow your brand. This is where your brides (potential customers) are hanging out, looking for inspiration during their wedding planning. A survey by The Knot on social media, back from 2016,  indicated that Pinterest is the go-to social site for wedding planning, with a whopping 89 percent of respondents marking it as a favorite. Instagram and Facebook came second and third with less than 40 percent favoring for wedding planning. 

Not only that, but Pinterest is a great source of traffic! Remember it’s a search engine. If used properly, it can become an active and powerful source of traffic. And it’s a traffic source that keeps giving, in some cases for months and years long after the initial pin was published. 

If you’re a bridal designer, can you afford not making Pinterest a priority in your marketing strategy?
 

Having worked as a Marketing Manager in bridal wear, I know how challenging it is to make time to learn and strategize for new channels

A couple of years ago I had one of the most intense and life-changing work experiences in my career. Four years I handled marketing and PR at a luxury bridal designer based in Romania. They were interested in expanding their business to international markets while continuing to grow in the local market. It was a small business that in 4 years achieved a whopping network of over 20 bridal retailers actively selling their wedding dresses to brides in 7 countries. 

However, being the bridal industry, the competition was high, and the brand decided to take a more traditional B2B approach and invested in participating to trade shows rather than social advertising and expanding their marketing team. And while it was a business strategy that provided results, it made my work as a Marketing and PR manager a lot harder. 

I was juggling a hundred tasks each day: switching from Instagram to Facebook, and Pinterest, overseeing two websites, one blog, writing and designing newsletters, promoting in-store events, designing all kinds of print materials, making and answering sales calls and a lot more. I was basically dipping my toe into everything there was to do. It was an all-in kind of job. 

Long story short, as a PR and Marketing manager with no team to delegate tasks to, I never had enough time to focus on one marketing channel and take it to a new level. While I was rocking Facebook and getting familiar with Instagram (about 5-6 years ago), Pinterest was fun, was generating traffic, but I just couldn’t find the time to develop an actual pinning strategy.

Had I knew back then, what I know today about Pinterest’s potential for bridal brands, I would have dropped Facebook to second place (this is big in Romania still), Instagram to third, and move Pinterest at the top.
 

If your story is anything like mine, enlist the help of a Pinterest manager

Now that I’m doing Pinterest all day long, looking back, I totally get the hurdle that many bridal brands and designers face when it comes to Pinterest. 

Human resources are limited, so communicating effectively across several different marketing channels is almost impossible for a one-person marketing department.

And let’s be honest. Most bridal brands in don’t invest in expanding their in-house marketing team which leaves the existing employee(s) trying to take on what they can in the little time they have. So learning how to navigate a new search engine (yes, that’s Pinterest) is usually left out of the picture.

There are bridal brands who set-up their account, pin for a couple of straight days, and then they forget about it. Then there are brands who try their best to stay on top of everything and make time to pin a couple of pins every week. But there are also brands that give up on their Pinterest account entirely – they stop pinning, they stop tinkering their account, and eventually end up with lower traffic, lower impressions and lower engagement. 

If any of the above is your case, you should enlist a Pinterest consultant or outsource your account to a Pinterest manager, because when it comes to marketing, consistency is key.
 

Here’s how your bridal brand could benefit from working with a Pinterest manager:

• You will save precious time and invest it in other aspects of your business.

• You won’t have to worry about strategy implementation.

• Your brand will grow through pin impressions, profile followers, repins and possibly even press features. Viral content always gets picked for magazines nowadays. Here’s an example

• Your pins will get stellar SEO descriptions to increase results in organic traffic (both on Pinterest and Google).

• During the time the Pinterest manager takes care of your account, you will not have to create any pins. The Manager will create, schedule, publish and maintain your profile for you.

• Which leads me to: increased website traffic which translates into more showroom appointments, sales, and even PR opportunities

• You will be presented with monthly reports that will show you everything you need to know about your content on Pinterest.

• You will get powerful insights about your content and products. That way you know what picture, what style, what type of blog article has the potential of getting viral.

With all its benefits, is Pinterest a marketing channel your bridal brand can afford to neglect?

If you’re thinking of adding Pinterest to your marketing mix, but you either don’t have the time to manage the account, optimize it or simply build a strong strategy, a Pinterest manager would be a great solution.

You will save precious time to invest in developing other sides of your business while having your own Pinterest expert harnessing this platform’s potential to increase website traffic, build brand awareness, book showroom appointments and even sales in your online shop. 

Want to know more about how your brand could gain exposure and website traffic from using Pinterest? Contact me here and book an appointment.
 

Hi there! My name is Monica and I am a content marketing specialist who creates blog & Pinterest strategies to generate website traffic and leads.