Running an event planning firm can be extremely stressful especially if you not quite sure exactly where your next client will be coming from! What if we could help you get consistent clients for your wedding business? Today, we will share with you some strategies that will help you book more brides to keep your wedding business afloat. These are strategies that have helped us book more brides year after year!
Before we get started, we want for you to join our growing Facebook group filled with amazing wedding vendors that will help boost your business!
1. Blogging is my go-to place to attract new brides! Create blog content that is written with your ideal client in mind.
If you don’t have a blog or website, start one now! Here is a FREE 7-Day course to help you out! You need to create content that is extremely well written and with your ideal client in mind. Your content needs to be extremely good in order to get clients to want to go back for more and eventually book your services.
Wedding tips are the most popular types of blogs that brides love to read. ” Top tips on saving for your wedding”, “Top 10 first dance songs”! Share your knowledge and brides will be confident in booking your services. Here is an example of a popular wedding blog. Show off your skills without coming out to be too sells like. Make sure they are landing on attractive looking blogs that draws them in. If you need more help in this area, check out this blog —->>>>How to start a successful blog!
2. Are you active on Social Media?
Social media is great for building trust and it will really help in expanding your reach. Facebook and Instagram are best for attracting brides. My current favorite social media platform is Pinterest! Want to learn more on how to use Pinterest to grow your business? These two links can help you. Link one and link two!
Instagram is definitely my go-to place to increase my business visibility! Brides want to work with vendors that are showing them the behind the scenes of a wedding. They simply just want to know what you are up too! Most people will purchase something from you if they connect with what you are offering. Your clients want to do business with real people and providing your life, coupled with your business, will grow a special kind of trust that will encourage them to work with you.
Social media also builds hype and excitement, especially when you include you- behind-the-scenes as it is happening. For example, if you’re sharing a photo from a recent wedding you shot, then tag the couple and talk about the experience of shooting their wedding. This primes your followers and gets them thinking, “I want her to shoot MY wedding, too!”
Related: 5 Ways to book brides with social media
3. Actively participating in Facebook groups.
A lot of vendors I know have been throwing around the idea that “Facebook for business is useless.” Since Facebook pages now have a very small organic reach (like 3%), it’s easy to assume that the whole platform is useless. Facebook pages may be going through a weird moment right now but it can be a killer way to find brides and build your business.
Here’s how: Join Facebook groups where your ideal client might be hanging out. For example, groups where brides share advice or sell past wedding items. Then, rather than being spammy or self-promoting, be outrageously helpful when people ask questions in the group. That is literally all there is to it! Eventually, brides will take note of your expertise and will check out your profile (which should hopefully be linked to your business’s Facebook page and website). Some brides outright ask for vendor referral and if this relates to you, comment and leave your information.
If you want to grow your Facebook page organically to over 100,000 engaged clients, then this is for you.
4. Get more referrals.
What does your client process look like?
Here’s an example of a client process:
Initial email from bride >> Phone consult (sometimes) >>Set a complimentary consultation to meet and discuss services (Listen to clients needs, sale your services, provide example of work, show past client reviews >>> Create Contract >>Follow up >>> Deposit Invoice >>Workfloww and planning >> Final Invoice >> Wedding >> Thank you email >>>Ask for referral
It may also help to share this process with your clients to keep them in the loop. The less confused and frazzled your clients feel, the more likely they are to recommend you.
5. Answer questions on Social Media.
Many people take to social media looking for advice and recommendations from other brides that are either planning a wedding or have planned weddings. As mentioned earlier, a lot of this happens in Facebook groups .
It’s very simple, but can be an incredibly effective way to find brides who need what you’re selling right now. If they’re asking a question? Answer it! If they’re looking for someone to hire? Be sincere, let them know you can help, and give them a link to your portfolio.
6. Work with vendors who are well known
Introduce yourself to well-known vendors in the industry. Start by following them on social media, comment on any posts, connect with them one on one on Twitter. Connect with them by inviting them to coffee. Discuss the different ways you can collaborate with them in the future such as doing a styled shoot together. This will take you one step closer to working together. Create an extremely well-thought style shoot that you can feature in a magazine, a popular wedding blog and make sure you share the hell out of it on every social media on a weekly basis! Tag all the vendors for an opportunity for them to share it with their clientele.
Related: How to be a successful wedding planner
7. Build an active social media presence.
Social media builds trust and expands your reach. In my experience, I’ve received many clients in the past by sharing my portfolio on my blog which work wonders when shared on Pinterest and Instagram. The key here is to be a normal human being — not a salesperson. Sprinkle your business into your usual posts, sharing behind the scenes shots when you can. Your clients want to do business with real people and providing your life, coupled with your business, will grow a special kind of trust that will encourage them to work with you.
Related: 6 Ways to attract your ideal bride by being a badass online
8. Follow up with potential clients that never booked.
You probably have some emails from clients who initially inquired about your wedding services and then never emailed you back. Follow up with them and shoot them an email. Try something like:
Hey (name)!
I just wanted to check in with you to see if you were able to check out my packages or had any questions related to my wedding services. I’d be happy to help. Would you like to set up a quick phone call sometime this week? Thanks so much (name)! Have a great day.
I like to follow up with clients within 2-3 business days. They may just have been caught up with life.
9. Follow up with past clients to see if they know of anyone getting married
Do you ever follow up with your past clients to see if they know anyone getting married? Do it! Just shoot them an email to see how things are going and ask if they know anyone getting married. Oftentimes, they will, but will need that nudge to move you to the top of their to-do list. A little reminder goes a long way.
10. Try Facebook ads.
Facebook ads can be a very effective way to reach your target audience and clients for a small amount of money compared to other forms of advertising. Facebook also allows you to create sophisticated audiences to show your ad to. This means that you get to pick everything from their location and gender to which pages they “like” on Facebook and what their interests are. You can pick on their “Relationship Status! This is very important! I usually go with the “Recently engaged” – Within 6-1 year! With the right ad, it can be a very effective way to generate new, potential clients.
11. Build your email list and stay in touch with your potential brides
Did you know that you can build your own email list? You do not need to wait for a wedding show to get a list of potential clients. You can start building your own list right NOW! Offer freebies in order to get clients to subscribe to an email list. And before you start selling to them nurture the relationship by offering them daily or weekly tip on planning a wedding. Eventually, invite them to book a consultation.
What sort of free items can you offer? If you are a Cake artist – Free Cake samples! If you are a wedding planner- Free budget builder! If you are a venue- Sign up for the open house and try out free food samples! People love free! You can also think of things that won’t cost you much!
Your email list and newsletter is also a great way to keep your business in the forefront of a bride’s minds. If you pop up in their inbox each week with helpful tips and advice, they’ll remember you the next time they need to hire someone who does what you do.
12. SEO – Web traffic!
Your brides and grooms should be able to Google you, and you should show up on the first page or at least the second! They are plenty of other wedding professionals online. You might think that it would be difficult to get clients from search engines, but if you work hard on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), then it’s definitely possible! Decide on a few keywords that describe your business (get specific), read this article, and pump up that SEO. It has incredible potential to bring you a steady stream of clients who are ready to hire you. Your number one solution to that is frequent blogs with great SEOs. Learn more about that here and get yourself, clients.
13. Focus your Target Audience
It’s hard to grow anything when you’re marketing yourself to the entire world. We are constantly preaching about how important it is to target your target market. You’ll grow your business faster and be able to charge more for your services if you specialize in a certain area or niche. Don’t try to do it all! Your brand and storefront should reflect this.
Focusing on a specific audience builds trust. When people see that you specialize in THEM, then they’re more likely to trust that you know what you’re doing and will understand their needs.
I am so, so confident that if you choose even just three of these strategies, you will get more clients in a matter of days or weeks. Instead of trying to tackle everything on this list at once, try picking 4-5 that especially resonate with you and your business and try them out. You can always come back to the others in the future. I hope this helped!
Happy Planning
Thank you . I have just start my own bridal store and this has been helpfu.