As a young girl, she’d dress up in veils and pretend to be a bride. Today, Monica Walker of M Flair Hair Artistry is a successful Hunter Valley wedding hairstylist who books out months in advance. Before she even had a website, Easy Weddings was helping her grow into the business owner she is today.
Learning a New Craft
Monica first came to Easy Weddings back in August 2018 armed with a Facebook page, bubbly personality, and an obsession for her craft. How best to market herself, though, she knew she needed help with.
She started out with a “Standard” directory listing in the Central Coast region of New South Wales. As she commenced the steep learning curve to being a business owner, Monica’s Easy Weddings storefront was the closest thing she had to a website.
“I didn’t have a website when I first started,” says Monica, “so I treated my storefront as my little website.”
Within that “little website”, Monica was discovering the high-converting elements she’d most need for her profile (and subsequent website) to be successful: high-quality images, engaging copy, and lots of social proof in the form of reviews.
The tried and tested, winning storefront formula quickly resulted in enquiries from brides, and soon enough she was working with Easy Weddings’ account manager, Belinda, on upgrading her campaign.
“I started out in 2018 with just a standard membership and I have only increased it from there,” she tells. “Even though I now have a website, I still treat my storefront like I used to. My business has grown and my storefront has evolved with me.”
“Easy Weddings is now my main form of marketing, along with my website, word of mouth, and social media.
“Most of my wedding enquiries come through Easy Weddings.”
Working with Her Easy Weddings Account Manager
Of course, it wasn’t a set-and-forget storefront that helped build Monica’s award-winning bridal hair business to where it is today. Monica is as proactive about her marketing as she is about staying on top of her (exquisite) hair game.
Working with account manager, Belinda, she schedules regular catch-ups to assess her campaign and see where it can perform better. This has earned Monica a 92% profile strength.
“I can have a chat with my account manager if I’m unsure or would like some advice about my membership,” says Monica, “and she offers great solutions or little tips and tricks to better improve my storefront.”
Small optimisations that go a long way include:
- Replacing gallery photos that are more than three years old
- Adjusting the photo gallery order to show the most on-trend weddings and styles
- Following the copywriting format as recommended by our in-house content team
- Testing different listing images as per current trends
More Than Just a Storefront
It’s not just a storefront and support of an account manager that wedding business owners receive with their Easy Weddings subscription. There is a myriad of other tools and services to take advantage of.
In that regard, Monica also actively uses Easy Weddings’ customer relationship management tool, WedCRM, where she tracks all her enquiries and has email templates set up so she can respond to brides fast.
She also makes time to watch our regular educational webinars including a recent one on contracts and agreements by Kathryn Adams of Event Law. She’s since engaged Kathryn privately to firm up her couple contracts and protect herself as a business owner.
“It is a great advertising platform for anyone in the wedding industry and future brides looking for suppliers,” says Monica. “You don’t really get repeat business in the wedding industry, so you definitely need to invest in advertising if you want to increase the number of enquiries that you get each month.”
Investing in Quality Leads
Monica’s also experienced first-hand the difference in leads coming from social media and ones coming through her Easy Weddings storefront.
“In my experience, most brides that come through social media, either really love my work and want to book no matter what, or are just shopping prices,” she explains. “With a Facebook enquiry from a DIY group, couples tend to have a smaller budget and are more interested in price rather than the actual product itself.
“I like to be open and transparent with all my brides and always direct them to my website to make sure that they’ve seen my price list.
“I get a lot more traction with an enquiry through Easy Weddings and my website compared to other avenues.”
Defying Logic in a Pandemic
Taking risks is part and parcel of being a business owner and one illogical risk that paid off for Monica was increasing her advertising during COVID — at a time when postponements were rife.
“I was thinking of decreasing my campaign as I didn’t know what was happening with COVID and the wedding industry,” tells Monica. “After a long chat with Belinda, we both decided to try an INCREASE in my advertising — I know, the exact opposite of my plan!
“She suggested that with more people being home, there was more time for people to plan and organise their weddings, and she was right! I’m glad I listened to her moving forward.
“2022 is going to be my biggest year to date and I’m very excited, a little bit nervous, but very excited to meet my future brides.”
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