by Danielle Andrews, President of WPIC Inc.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the happiest season of all.”
As a Wedding Professional you probably know that 70% of all proposals happen between the months of December-February. What this means for Wedding Professionals is that we book the bulk of our clients in the months January-March. If you didn’t use November to reboot and refresh, now is the time to make sure you are ready for “Engagement Season” and the wedding planning rush that immediately follows.
Here are some things you can do to make sure this years’ Engagement Season is a good one for you and your business:
1. Get Your Business Systems in check
Do you have a standard operating procedure? Are you working most efficiently? It’s time to assess what you have done in the past, what worked and what didn’t. Is there an easier way to do things? Many wedding professionals use online programs to keep them organized and help them to stay in touch with their couples. Some of the most popular online systems for wedding professionals include: 17hats, AislePlanner, and HoneyBook.
2. Brush up on your Education
A Wedding Professional’s education is never finished. Weddings are a trend-based business which means they are constantly changing and updating. To think that you are above improving or adding to your education, is the beginning of your downfall. Luckily, staying educated is easy to do. There are tons of articles available to Wedding Professionals through different industry publications, Blogs, Association boards (like WPICAlumni), Facebook groups, and most importantly, industry conferences. Not only do conferences provide important education, tips of the trade, best practices, and a look at new trends, conferences provide a chance for much-needed networking among wedding pros from all areas. Check out our list of Wedding and Event Industry Conferences here.
3. Network with Past Clients
Too often we get focused on future and potential clients and forget about keeping up with our past clients. Word-of-mouth referrals are still the number one way the Wedding Professionals get new business. In order to get that word of mouth advertising, you need to keep up great customer service, even when your clients are no longer your customers! The holidays are the perfect time to reach out to your past clients. You can do something as small as sending a personalized Holiday card, or a little bigger like sending a gift to them. When one of their friends gets engaged over the holidays (which you know they will!), you are more likely to come up in conversation.
4. Network with Vendors, Friendors, and Venues
There are a bunch of holiday events and association parties at this time of the year. WPIC has been on fire with events lately. Get out and mingle with other wedding peeps, so you are current and top of mind for them.
5. Perfect your Online Presence
You’ve heard it a million times before, but I am going to say it again. Your website is your most important marketing tool! Everything you do to market your business has one goal: to point potential clients to your website. When potential clients are investigating you, they will go to your website. Your website is never finished, so make sure you are constantly improving and updating it.
Think about your own practices, what do you do when you are traveling to a new area? Research it online, looking for a new restaurant, check it out online. Hear about some new tool? You check it out online.
The minute the question is popped and the couple decides to get married, one or both of them will head online. Make sure your website is up to date and reflects the style of couple and wedding you excel at working with. Make it easy to contact you and give them lots of information to check you out online.
Want to know what other people think about your website? Get a 100% free evaluation from an anonymous volunteer at Peek User Testing.
6. Social Media
Get in your potential couples’ faces through Social Media. Where are your potential clients? They are on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook. Where should you have great business pages?Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook. Enough said.
7. Branding
Now is the time to update your branding. The wedding industry renews itself every year at this time, it is the perfect time for you to refresh your branding too. Get a new logo, update your website, up your prices, have a copywriter rework the wording on your website. Just make sure that your logo is the same on every single piece of advertising, on every Social Media outlet, on any print, and that your Facebook page matches, your Twitter page, which matches the style of your Instagram, that matches your Snapchat style, which matches your business and most importantly, matches you. Think about who your ideal client is, and design everything for them.
8. Get in their Faces
There is no better way to literally get in your potential couples’ faces than at a Wedding Show. Yes, Wedding Shows can be pricey, but there is no better way to get directly in front of your potential client. They get to meet you, see your style, chat with you and learn a little more about your company directly from the source.
If you are going to invest in a Wedding Show, do it right. Choose a show that will be visited by your kind of couple, decorate your booth in the style your perfect client would like, and make sure every thing you do to market yourself is geared toward your perfect client. You don’t just want anybody, you want your ideal type of couple.
9. Get Your Books in Order
The end of the year is typically the Business Year-end for Sole Proprietors. Luckily for Wedding Pros, it is also a slow time until the January planning season starts. This is the perfect time to get your books in order, and organize all of your receipts for tax time. Get everything organized now so you can avoid tax time stress while you are in the middle of planning your dream clients’ weddings!
What are some of the things that you are doing to get ready for this Engagement Season? Let us know in the comments.
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