Last week I shared tips for marketing a wedding planning business during this busy wedding season. But unfortunately, for some wedding planners, this season isn’t as busy as they would like it to be. I heard from a few who are unhappy that during this time they aren’t having success and they wanted to know what they might be doing wrong.
If this is where you find yourself, answering these 5 questions that might help you attract more brides and find the success you want:
1) What does your ideal bride want?
If you didn’t do much research before selecting your niche, the type of brides who would be your ideal clients, do it now. You might learn that you need to offer different services or market your services in a different way in order attract them.
If you didn’t select a niche, and are trying to market to every bride and anyone who wants an event planner for any type of event, I suggest you go through the process of picking a niche. When your marketing tries to speak to everyone, it ends up not appealing to anyone. A bride wants to hire a wedding planner who is aware of her specific wedding planning problems and is an expert at solving them.
If you don’t know how to select a niche, get a copy of my free Special Report, “7 Steps to Becoming a Top Wedding Planner,” in which I explain how to do it.
2) What is your marketing plan?
You should have an action plan stating how you are going to reach your ideal bride and how much time and money you will spend attracting her attention. You want to be advertising, marketing, and spending time where she will see you. That might mean you invest in online advertising on The Knot versus Wedding Wire or becoming more active on Pinterest rather than on Facebook. Offline it might mean going to a specific gym or starting a new hobby and going to classes that your brides may also be attending.
3) How much time are you spending online?
Blogging and social media sites are great marketing tools but offline activities, such attending business and social events to form relationships face-to-face, can often bring faster results in terms of getting good referrals and clients. And don’t just email brides when they want to know more about your business, call and talk to them and arrange to meet them in person.
4) Where are you networking?
If you are going to networking events and not finding that people are interested in what you do or you are not forming any good relationships, it’s time to find new places to network. Look for groups with members who are your ideal brides or who have clients who are your ideal brides.
5) Are you being too hard on yourself?
If you just recently started your wedding planning business, give yourself a break. Bride getting married this summer may have already hired the wedding planners they wanted before you started marketing your services. Continue to market your services well and build a good reputation as an expert who provides excellent service and you will find yourself very busy at this time next year.
