We are a few weeks away from “engagement season” (in the US, Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day) and if you’re a new wedding planner, you might be tempted to offer all of those newly engaged brides a discount on your services to get them to hire you.
Stop! Before you offer a discount realize what discounting makes a bride think about you:
- Your skills are not very good, so you have to practically give your services away
- Other brides aren’t hiring you, so you had to lower your rates just to get customers
- The prices you quote are never the real ones, so they can always negotiate you down
Instead of possibly devaluing your skills and services in a bride’s eyes with a discount, do a promotion. Offer a bonus with purchase, something that a bride would find valuable. This can be an ebook or physical booklet with wedding planning tips relevant to the brides in your target market, helpful worksheets or checklists that you have created, or you may even want to offer one of your consultations free when a bride purchases a consultation or another service.
Next determine a deadline, an exact date by which brides need to purchase services to take advantage of your promotion. This motivates them to take action right away.
Now advertise your promotion on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, your blog, website, and any wedding websites you use to reach brides. If you have exhibited in a recent bridal show and have email and address lists of potential clients, send out an email and postcard and let them know about your limited time offer. Also let your vendor network know about your promotion, they may want to join with you and offer something of value to your brides in order to increase their business.
It takes a few “touches” before a bride will pay attention to your offer so don’t just post information once or do one mailing. Remind brides as the deadline gets near that they need to take immediate action if they want to take advantage of your fabulous promotion.
What promotion could launch to attract brides to your business?
