My competitors are booked solid with weddings, why aren’t I?

This article might be the straight talk that some of you need right now.

by Danielle Andrews, President & Co-Founder, of The Wedding Planners Institute of Canada Inc.

The Wedding Industry is booming. It is projected that there will be 2.5 million weddings in North America this year, the most since 1984! (Source: The Wedding Report) Many wedding professionals are not accepting any more clients for 2022. If you are saying to yourself, “My competitors are booked solid with weddings, why aren’t I?”, let’s take a candid look at what you are and are not doing.

A common complaint we hear is that “the wedding market is oversaturated”, and that is simply not true. The Wedding Industry is not any more saturated than any other industry. If the wedding industry is so over-saturated, how are certain wedding professionals able to book themselves solid? Now more than ever, there is room and weddings for everyone, you just need to figure out how to get your piece of the pie. There is no luck in success, and anyone who is successful in the wedding industry has worked very, very hard to get there.

Wedding professionals gain clients by:

• posting pretty photos of THEIR work on social media
• advertising where their ideal clients are
• getting published in wedding blogs and magazines
• having a strong brand identity, including a strong website
• showing their fabulous selves
• getting referred through word of mouth
• establishing expertise and credibility by sharing tips

Can you honestly say that you are doing all those things? And doing them properly? Absolutely no one is going to invest a lot of money and risk the “Most Important Day of Their Lives” on someone who does not invest in themselves and their business. It’s great to fantasize about a successful wedding business, but are you really putting in the work it requires to turn that dream into a reality? Let’s discuss.

Post Photos of Your Work

Your potential clients need to see real photos of weddings and events that you have worked on. Inspiration photos are nice, but they do not belong on your Instagram Feed, they are someone else’s work. You need to be showing your style, your vision, your work. If you do not have new content to show, CREATE it!

Advertise Where Your Ideal Clients are

No one is going to bang down your door simply because you have a nice website. It is not a matter of “build it and they will come”. Couples are not going to search you out simply because you are there. If you want to attract your ideal clients, you have to advertise to them where they are. Not only do you need to advertise to them, you have to match them and their style, which means everything from your personal look, your website, your social media, EVERYTHING, needs to match the level of the couples you want to work with. Read more about how to create an “Ideal Client Persona” to really fine-tune and understand who your client is and how to market to them and them alone.

Showing Expertise by Being Published

Did you know that only 40% of wedding professionals get published in wedding magazines and blogs? Getting featured, published or interviewed not only gets you attention, it builds your expertise and clout! Just as with everything about your business, you need to be strategic about getting published, interviewed or featured. Come up with an interesting angle, make a great pitch, and most important, be ready to deliver!

Have a Strong Brand Identity and a Great Website

One thing you need to realize very early on, is that all social media and advertising that you do leads to one destination, your website. You need to develop a strong brand identity that matches across all of your sharing platforms and then lands at your wonderful, branded, website. How do you develop a strong brand you ask? You make sure that you develop your Ideal Client Persona, then you make absolutely everything about your business appeal to that Ideal Client. From your person, to your car, to your social media, to your website, to your marketing. Everything!

Come out of Hiding

Did you know that you should be showcasing new headshots and working photos every 3 months on Social Media? When was the last time you went for a professional branding photoshoot? When was the last time you posted a beautiful photo of yourself on your social media and showed your followers (and potential clients) who you are? Now look at successful wedding professionals that you want to emulate, when was the last time they showed themselves? Clients want to get an idea of who you are before they reach out to make an appointment. So be sure to post branded photos of yourself, working shots and videos so your potential client can get a sense of who you are and whether you would be a fit for them. Here are some tips to “Plan a Branded Photo Shoot” and more “Reasons why Wedding Pros Need Branded Photos”.

Build Your Referral Base and Word of Mouth Advertising

Again, unless you let people know you are out there, they will have no idea. Make sure all of your friends and family know what your business is and what kind of weddings you work with. Ask past clients for referrals, here are some tips how. At the same time, build great relationships with other wedding professionals and vendors, so that you come top of mind when they are referring clients. You should be referring other wedding professionals to foster that relationship.

NETWORK in the wedding industry! The wedding world is a very small, tight-nit community, you need to get to the networking events and conferences, and participate in the on-line forums with other wedding professionals. Share tips and best practices, ask for help when you need it and give help when others ask. Be an authentic part of the community and watch your client base grow! Here are some more tips to create and foster great wedding pro relationships.

Share Your Tips and Expertise

A great way to establish expertise and gain credibility is to share and demonstrate your knowledge. Tik Tok, Pinterest, and Instagram are platforms based on just that premise. Create short, interesting tutorials and post them on Tik Tok and/or Instagram Reels. Post a blog on your website then share it on Pinterest and your Instagram feed. Of course you don’t want to give away so much information that they can plan their wedding on their own, but you do want to demonstrate just why they need to hire you, and come top of mind when their friends suggest someone.

Take a Good Look at Yourself

If you are reading this article and saying, “Danielle I’ve done all of these things and I’m still struggling,” one, I don’t think you have, two, you may need to call in professionals, they might see something you don’t. Perhaps you need a Social Media Manager to help you use social media correctly. Maybe you need a Business Coach to assess your strengths and weaknesses, and help build a business model and plan. Maybe you need a Branding Expert to help you clearly define your business persona and give you a brand makeover. Or, maybe you need to hire a publicist. Never, ever stop learning, there are many classes and webinars available to help you in whatever area you need to improve, you just need to invest the time and perhaps money, in yourself and your business. The help is out there, you just have to get it.