It’s Engagement Season and you’re busy marketing your services to newly engaged couples – but so are many other wedding planners. Brides will be interviewing planners to see which one works best for them and may ask you one of those dreaded questions, “Why should I hire you and not someone else?” or “How are you different than other wedding planners?”
Please don’t answer that it’s because you “pay attention to detail,” are “very organized,” or “love weddings” – brides read and hear those statements everywhere. And, please don’t say it’s because of your low rates – you should never try to be the lowest-priced planner, it will look like your services don’t have value and you won’t be able to make a profit when your rates are low. Instead, you need to help brides understand how you’re different than other planners.
Here are 5 ways you can set yourself apart from other others and be the one brides want to hire:
1) Specialize in a niche
Get to know the problems and concerns of specific type of brides and become the expert at solving their wedding planning problems.
2) Communicate what you do
Too often wedding planners offer unique services but only market the ones that they believe every bride wants. When you offer specialized services that only brides in your niche need, promote them. If you’ve picked the right niche, there will be plenty of brides who will want those services.
3) Feature plenty of testimonials
Fill your website and social media sites with glowing comments from your past clients, take videos right after the wedding, if possible, of couples telling all about how you have helped them. Brides will be impressed by messages from other brides.
4) Offer something your competition doesn’t
Look at what other wedding planners in your area offer, see what wedding planning problems they aren’t solving and offer solutions. For example, maybe you offer busy working brides a personal shopping service to help them find the right gifts for their bridesmaids. You can even sell gifts yourself and become a one-stop shop.
5) Create proof that you’re the expert brides need
Showcase your knowledge in writing by authoring ebooks and Kindle books. Or, if you aren’t a writer, offer wedding planning tips on YouTube or in podcasts. Most wedding planners don’t take the time to do either of these things so they will make you stand out as an expert who runs a successful wedding planning business and knows how to help brides have the weddings they want.
And if you want help to become a top wedding planner, sign in to get my ezine “Wedding Planner Tips.”
