Weddings are one of the happiest days of people’s lives, and as a wedding professional, you have a hand in that. Talk about a rewarding career. But with a whopping 413,597 wedding service businesses across the nation as of 2023, you might be finding it a little difficult to market your wedding business.
You specialize in making people’s dreams come true on their wedding day, not marketing. That’s where we come in. So, whether you’re a bridal shop, a venue, a planner, a caterer or some other kind of wedding vendor, we’ve got some ideas you can use for marketing a wedding business.
We’ve put together a list of 13 wedding marketing ideas that will help couples find and say “I do” to your business for their wedding day.
As we mentioned, these wedding marketing strategies can be applied to any sort of business that couples might need for their special day. Check them out to see which ones are right for your wedding business.
Your branding is your business’s identity. It’s what helps you stand out from a sea of other photographers or wedding planners. You need to be intentional when you’re building it. What’s your vision for the business? What services do you want to be known for? What do you want someone’s first thought to be when they see your logo/homepage? Keep all these things in mind while coming up with a name, a tagline and a logo.
Don’t forget to create a brand guide as well. This can be super simple, but make sure you outline your colors, fonts and symbols along with the words you use (and definitely don’t want to use.)
Now that you’ve got your branding nailed down, you can work on bringing those elements into your website design. Studies show that nearly 90% of wedding planning these days is done online, so having a solid, mobile-optimized website for your business is absolutely crucial.
When creating your website be sure that you’re very clearly highlighting your services and options. Be upfront about pricing and outline exactly what the couple can expect to receive from your services. With so much planning to do and so many options for couples to choose from, transparency can help you stand out from the competition.
Take your website and social media channels up a notch with fantastic videos and photographers. If you are a photographer or videographer, great! Make sure you’re putting out work that best represents your style. If you’re not a photographer or videographer, maybe consider hiring one. At least for just a couple of styled shoots.
When selling your products or services, you want your images and videos to be of the best possible quality. You could have created the most exquisite grazing table the world has ever seen, but if it’s captured in a subpar photograph, you can’t sell your skills to prospective clients nearly as well.
You’re an expert in your field and you can share that knowledge while showcasing your expertise with potential clients by starting a blog.
A blog is a great way to draw clients to your site because it offers solutions to their problems. Create posts for common questions couples might ask like ‘When should I start planning my wedding?” Or “What’s a good timeline for a wedding day?” When customers search these questions, they’ll be led to your site and hopefully, opt to use your services. A blog is also great for SEO, which we’ll touch on later.
When it comes to marketing for wedding professionals, your reputation is everything. This is exactly why you should use customer reviews and testimonials to your advantage.
Dedicate a section of your website (the home page is preferred!) to highlight positive reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask customers who were extremely happy with your services for a testimonial either. Then add those to your website as well.
It takes a lot of different vendors to make a wedding run smoothly. Studies show that couples hire an average of 10 wedding pros for their big day. So why not work together?
Seek out other small-business owners within the wedding industry whose work you admire and ask them if they’d like to collab. This can be for curated photo shoots or something like a “preferred vendor’s list.” Let them know you’ll suggest their services to your couples and hopefully, they’ll reciprocate the offer.
Do-it-all sites like The Knot, Zola and WeddingWire are becoming more and more popular for couples to use. The sites offer everything from personalized wedding websites and vendor directories to planning help.
Help couples that are using these sites find your business easier by creating a listing for your services on these websites and more.
Looking for a non-digital way to get your business in front of more couples? Try setting up at wedding expos!
Expos are a great way for couples to meet you in person and get a feel for what you can offer. Make sure to showcase plenty of great photos of your work or samples if you run a catering business.
Your wedding marketing isn’t complete unless your business is on social media. Platforms like TikTok are starting to become just as popular as search engines when it comes to finding things online, so you want to make sure you have a presence there. A study showed that 30% of planning couples used TikTok as a planning resource and that percentage was even higher for Gen Z (48%).
These platforms are perfect for posting short videos of weddings you’ve been a part of or your processes (like creating a bouquet if you’re a florist or arranging a tablescape if you’re a planner.) Video content draws potential customers in.
Now that you have a social media presence, you can draw more attention to your business by running giveaways. It’s no secret that people love free stuff, and they’ll be willing to like, comment and share to get it.
When you ask for follows and shares in exchange for a free consultation or a percentage off, they’re doing some of the work of getting your page in front of more potential customers for you.
To get customers, you must be offering what they’re looking for, which means staying up on anything that’s trending. If textured cakes are all over the web, but your bakery hasn’t caught on yet, your potential customer is going to choose a competitor who can offer this kind of service.
If you have room in your marketing budget, running paid ads is a great way to get your business in front of the right kind of customers.
Ads can work as a digital billboard for your brand and can target couples who are already searching for wedding-related services online. The only downside is that ads can be expensive, so they aren’t always for everyone.
Focusing on your SEO is another great way to get your business in front of the right customers without needing a hefty budget. Use the right keywords throughout your website and in your blog to appeal to potential clients.
When you provide good content that focuses on solutions to wedding planning problems, you’ll rise to the top of search engines faster and your services will be found by couples who are searching your target keywords.
At first glance, this might seem like a lot of time and work, but once you get the ball rolling on marketing a wedding business, you’ll find it really rewarding and maybe even a little bit fun!
And don’t forget that you don’t have to implement all these ideas at once either. Pick a few to focus on at first. Then once you have those nailed down you can begin to work on a few more. Digital marketing takes time.
If you’d like to have a digital marketing expert in your corner to help you figure it all out, you can contact RevLocal at any time for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Mideya Kinney, Junior Content Writer
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