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The Weekly Drop In

It's gonna be a hard no on the butt bow 🎀😒

Published 17 days ago • 6 min read

2ND EDITION | ISSUE #150

I wear my heart on my sleeve and my emotions on my face (and so does my little sister, if you zoom in on the picture below).

This was the moment that my first bridal appointment turned to disappointment.

I had been looking forward to this moment since the days of eating cereal at our kitchen countertop and watching Say Yes To The Dress with my mom on our little black box TV.

I wanted happy tears.

I wanted to leave with a contender I could come back for with my moms.

I wanted to try on dresses like what I had been carefully pinning and curating for the last month.

But i was handed anything but.

Sure there were some red flags before...

But the appointment really came to a head the moment I uttered the words “its gonna be a hard no on the butt bow” (you can see me side eyeing it if you look close enough).

DISCLAIMER: If you are a butt bow girl - more power to ya. But nothing about me - my wedding venue, not to mention any of the dresses on my Pinterest board, screamed butt bow.

Yet here this stylist was bringing me another dress - one that was nothing like what I had asked for.

  • After saying no to sequins (just to be handed more sequins)
  • Saying no to tulle ball gowns (saying it was too girly/princessy for me and not what I was looking for)
  • Saying no to poofy sleeves, only to be handed MORE poofy sleeves

This woman had brought me a bow - that was bigger than my butt.

See, that is the problem when a service provider is more married to their own vision than they are to listening to yours (see what I did there 😏).

Needless to say. They didn’t make the sale.

But the thing that really got me - was their website.

A brand NEW website at that.

A website that has some serious navigation, branding, and strategy faux pas.

And after looking at about dozen other websites last night for local bridal shop - is actually still one of the best ones if you can believe it or not.

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I recorded a comprehensive audit of three different bridal shops' websites including the one i visited that you can watch here.

I was surprised to see that many of these bridal shops are spending money on Google and Instagram ads, while their websites are full of keyword-packed, fluff-filled copy and design faux pas.

Here are the main problems & conversion killers I found:

  • Mobile Experience Failures like hidden navigation & cut off words
  • Broken User Expectations like "Shop Now" buttons leading to scheduling pages instead of inventory & non-clickable elements that look like they should be interactive
  • Keyword Stuffing & Fluff Content Repetitive location mentions ("Williamsville, New York, Buffalo, and Western New York"), Meaningless copy like "Every gown tells a story" and "inspiring, inclusive, unforgettable" & generic statements instead of specific differentiators.
  • Missing Critical Information No price ranges listed (major issue for five-figure purchases) & missing "About" information and context
  • Poor Information Hierarchy like burying important differentiators and testimonials hidden on separate pages instead of integrated throughout within the context and content of the page itself.
  • Inconsistent Text Alignment Mixing center-aligned, left-aligned copy that's hard to scan and for the eye to track. P.S. I discuss this and how to fix it in my $20 2D design masterclass.​

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Does it feel like your website is off?

(Not that I'm one to talk since mine is totally under construction right now).

Before you spend ad money to send people to something that isn’t designed to convert, after all...

Or launching your next offer.

Book a Studio Sesh for $60 off.

We can comb through your site, identity, content, or brand as a whole - and identify small fixes that can solve conversion killers on your URL.

Here's what one of my Beta Testers had to say about the studio sesh we had for her DIYed website

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Before you know it, the end of the year will be here (gross, I know). Which means back to school, back to business, and launch season. I know that a lot of you are starting to look for service providers of all kinds to help with your brands. Here are some things to keep in mind as you navigate that process & investment.

What is the onboarding process like? How does it make you feel?

In the case of this bridal shop, I brushed off that their reminder emails were oddly pain pointy Aka. “We know wedding dress shopping can be stressful” (more on that in the website audit above).

How prepared are they for your consult? In this case, they still hadn’t joined the private Pinterest board I had sent them weeks before when I made my appointment, and looked at it for all of 2 minutes before taking me in the back.

Are they being clear and honest about if their offer fits into your budget? How much bang can you get for your buck?I was handed dress after dress that was way over my budget - even though this particular shop boasted a wide range of prices and a huge end-of-summer sale was going on…

Every kind of service provider has their own process and style.

Even me who says that every brand is unique and no brand that goes out the door looks quite like the other. I still have my strengths and quirks. I consider myself a maximalist; I like texture, layers, movement, and collage.

My illustrations are more on the realistic and static side. So if you are looking for minimal design, or a cartoon like mascot - i’m probably not your girl and that is totally fine.

Before you go overwhelming yourself asking for referrals on threads - be a little more specific!

You don’t have to have all the answers - that is the service provider's job, but if you can give some specifications for the platforms &/or specific style you are going for, you are going to get better referrals when you ask for them.

This one is huge. In my opinion, it is unacceptable that the stylist at my bridal shop couldn’t show me where to find the sale dress on their site that I was looking for.

If you and your team can’t work, navigate, and edit your site, and put the deliverables you pay for to use - it is only going to get you so far.

Navigation and user experience is important. You & your team being able to manage your online presence once the site is done is just as important.

When you are looking for and talking with designers and service providers, be sure to ask about what the support and guidelines look like after.

I have talked to one too many people who have shelled out 5 figures for a brand that looks good on paper, but that doesn't actually translate or tell you WTF to do with it all on your own.

P.S.

Watching

The Summer I Turned Pretty.... And honestly, don't even ask me whyyyy. Belly's back and forth, poor my about these boys is more than problematic if you ask me.

Sometimes I just need some good background noise that doesn't stress my nervous system out.

Also, to be transparent, I've been watching a lot of videos on Instagram. The doom scroll is real, and it's been hard to separate my work day from social media.

My heart is breaking for what is happening around the world and in Gaza. But I don't always feel like I have the right words to say about it all.

Listening

I think I'm in a little bit of a music rut? Maybe it's because I haven't road-tripped in a minute now.

Maybe it's because the world is heavy. But when push comes to shove, Catie's Happy Playlist always comes through to put a smile on my face.

If you need one - feel free to listen in on the chaos that is my musical taste and songs that feel like nostalgia.

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Promoting

I am currently booking for September & beyond.

If you are looking to work one-on-one with someone to design your Brand Identity or website, and you think I might be the right fit (Andddd I know my services aren't on my site right now) you can click here to learn more about my Brand Identity offer Brand Brushstrokes, click here to learn more about my Website Design offer, Signature Site, or just book a disco call and we can talk 1:1 about what your brand needs right now.

231 Exchange Street, Attica, NY 14011
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The Weekly Drop In

Where strategy meets storytelling – your Monday morning dose of brand foundations that grow with your vision.

I'm a Brand strategist & designer helping multi-passionate entrepreneurs build brands that look like them while being strategic enough to scale. Fine arts background, eldest daughter energy, and a firm believer that brands take way longer than a week to build.

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