In an exclusive interview, Bridal Times caught up with digital marketing expert Mike Ebrahimi, founder and CEO of the U.S. based company, SYVO. Mikes helps bridal retailers around the world with digital marketing solutions and provides them with the right tools to connect with the “Generation Z” brides of today.
Mike Ebrahimi, Founder and CEO of SYVO
As a rather new company, what inspired you to launch SYVO for bridal retailers back in 2016?
Prior to the launch of SYVO, I worked for a Prom designer in the United States known as Sherri Hill. As a designer, a core aspect of the Sherri Hill website is to drive traffic to authorized retailers, so this was a core focus of my position. I quickly realized that many stores were not taking advantage of modern tools to engage their customers and drive store traffic. There was a disconnect between the store owners and the younger generation that showed itself in the form of out-of-date websites, poor social media presence, and negative reviews. I quickly realized the potential of helping these stores grow their businesses and thrive in the technology-driven world we live in.
Fast forward to today, where we currently work with 300+ bridal shops globally, and make it our goal to drive appointments for bridal shops in the modern era.
What should bridal retailers understand about the brides of today?
The new generation of brides, Generation Z, refers to anyone born after 1995. This demographic grew up with smartphones and the Internet, and the way they find businesses is vastly different than previous generations. Instead of relying on traditional media, like radio advertising and billboards, you have to build up your social media, your website, and your presence on Google. The world is too competitive today to just sit back and rely on word of mouth referrals. Times aren’t changing.. They’ve already changed, so it’s important to pivot to a modern approach of customer acquisition to keep your business healthy.
What is a basic element that all bridal shops should have to effectively market their business?
In today’s world, your website is your new front window to your store, and brides judge your business based on the quality of your website.
-Website not mobile friendly? Brides perceive your store as out of date and out of touch
-Website not secure? Brides perceive you to not care about their personal information
-Website slow? Brides perceive you as careless and incompetent
-No engaging content? Brides perceive you as boring and stale.
Remember, brides have many options at their fingertips today. They will take the time to find a store that matches their values, and if your online presence does not invite brides in then your appointment rate will suffer because of it.
What are the top social media marketing tools a bridal shop should be using right now?
Pinterest: Pinterest is one of the first sites that a newly engaged bride goes to to curate inspiration. Pinterest allows people to browse and save imagery based on different search criteria.
Takeaway: Make sure your dresses are pinned on Pinterest, so that brides can discover your store as part of their initial ‘dream’ phase.
Instagram: Instagram is the most popular social media network of Generation Z and it is where they spend most of their time. This makes it a very valuable platform to place targeted ads with the intention of directing brides to your website. The ‘stories’ section is the first area that brides review when visiting your store’s profile. Stories are temporary posts that brides quickly cycle through, so you should make sure they always have a variety of different posts to scan through. You can be very casual with your stories and use them as an opportunity to showcase your store’s branding and personality. Introduce your stylists, show some behind-the-scenes content, share some real bride imagery, host contests and giveaways, and stay consistent.
The way you treat your stories is much different than the way you treat your timeline. The timeline is the grid of imagery that is shown directly on your profile. You should make sure that you keep a consistent look on your Grid, and avoid posting pictures that have text on them. You should post real-bride imagery, styled-shoot imagery, and designer imagery on your grid.
As far as tools that can help you stay active on these platforms, there are several out there that can help you schedule posts, control your grid, schedule stories, and more. One that we commonly see stores using is called ‘Later’ (later.com)
What are some other top bridal marketing strategies which help to generate appointments?
One successful method we have found to work for bridal shops all around the world is Google ads. After analyzing data from over 300 bridal shops worldwide, we found that a large majority of appointments are from brides who found shops on Google. Google ads allows your store to show up at the top of a Google search result in a specific area.
The challenge with Google ads is that you have to be specific with both the locations that you want to target, and the ‘keywords’ that you want to target. If you are not specific, then google will sometimes show your ads for searches that are not relevant to you.
An example we see often is stores targeting the keyword ‘wedding dresses’ and then having Google show ads for searches like ‘rental wedding dresses.’
Takeaway: Start with a small campaign on Google, and pay close attention to the ‘Search Terms.’ This will tell you exactly what someone searched to trigger your ad to be shown. You can add specific ‘Search Terms’ as ‘Negative Keywords’ and Google will not show your ad for those searches again. Overtime, you will have a majority of the ‘Search Terms’ that are not relevant to your store added as negative keywords.
What are your thoughts on the introduction of Instagram Reels vs. Tiktok? Would you recommend either one?
Instagram Reels is a way for people to create similar content as they would on TikTok.TikTok is a platform that initially had users in younger age demographics. Since the platform has launched, we are seeing an increased amount of engagement across different age groups. We have seen certain statistics claiming that 40% of the user base of TikTok is within the age range of 16-24. The type of content is similar to ‘Vine’ (a company that was purchased by Twitter). ‘Fun’ videos, shorter in length.
I think it’s important to stay up to date on these platforms as early success can pay dividends, but it’s certainly not for everyone.
What is your advice for retailers who are overwhelmed with digital marketing overall? What is a good starting point to focus on?
There are several reasons why your website is the first place you should start when trying to modernize your marketing strategy. You might have the best advertising campaign in the world, but a poor website will affect all of your other efforts. It is also important to consider ‘SEO’ as part of your new marketing strategy, and the earlier you can start on this the better. SEO (search engine optimization) refers to the measures you are taking to show up on Google organically (without paying for ads). SEO is a process, not a project, so you should consistently focus on pushing out new content on your website that is targeted at specific keywords. We have found blogging, and the creation of categories on the website (like plus size wedding dresses) are effective means of doing this.
Start simple. Ask yourself, is my website mobile-friendly? You can test this for yourself. Simply go to your own website on a smartphone and see for yourself. Is it easy to click on the different areas? Are the pictures sized in a way that you can easily view them on your phone? Are there ‘CTA’s’ (calls to action) at the top of every page? If not then you need to evaluate your options for taking care of this today.
Since 2016, what is has been the response to SYVO, especially now during the corona crises?
We have really taken pride in the fact that our services are all results-driven, and this has led to a large growth of SYVO primarily through word of mouth. All of our services are centered around driving appointments for our bridal shops, and every service we offer is on a month-to-month basis. Since we only work with bridal shops, we have the privilege of attaining a significant amount of information on what works, and what doesn’t, so we can use that information to help our shops grow. A majority of our stores are actually up this year in revenue despite the fact they were shut down for over a month, so I hope this speaks towards the effectiveness of what we’re doing here.
Looking into the future, what are your hopes and goals for SYVO in a now digital marketing world?
As a company, SYVO will continue to focus on appointment-driven value and expand our offerings to help stores modernize their efforts globally. Our goal is to help make enterprise-grade tools widely available for bridal shops of all sizes across the world. We believe that empowering the shops with the tools they need will enable stores to successfully market to their brides and grow their businesses.
We would like to thank Mike Ebrahimi for this interview.
For further information, visit SYVO