If you are responsible for wedding venue marketing then I hope you will find these 5 top tips valuable, so please read on.
The first step to booking more wedding events is to think like the bride and groom planning their big day. Put yourself in their shoes.
What thought processes will they go through? Where do they go and visit when planning their wedding day? How can you engineer to “meet them” while they go on their wedding planning journey?
During the early stages of planning their happy day, the bride and groom will be actively seeking information and advice on wedding and reception venues. The venue(s) is a key part of the wedding and will be one of the first parts of the wedding to get booked. So it is vital that your marketing activity catches the bride and groom’s attention early on.
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Creative marketing tactics to secure more wedding venue bookings
1. Co-operative marketing with other wedding service suppliers.
There are other wedding services and products the bride and groom will likely explore before looking at wedding venues in detail. For instance, right at the very start is the engagement ring, you cannot get any earlier in the wedding marketing cycle than at this point! Look to join forces with a local jewellery shop and work out a mutually beneficial agreement between the two businesses.
Another key point, shopping for the wedding dress is an exciting time for any bride and often brides will have an eye open for the perfect dress before the question is even “popped”! Again co-operate with a local wedding dress shop so that your wedding venue comes to the bride’s attention early in the process.
If you co-operatively work with wedding suppliers who work with couples in your budget range then you will generate warm leads easily. Why not give your partners a coded gift certificate to present to newly engaged couples that offers them a special discount or maybe a free service at your venue – a meal or drink for instance. Just so that they get to experience your venue and the service you provide.
2. Referrals. Even in this online world, word-of-mouth advertising is still the best. How can you encourage previous brides and grooms to talk about your venue? Can you offer them an incentive if one of their friends books your venue? Can you reach out to all your previous happy couples and remind them about your venue, this is really easy if you have a marketing system in place, see point 5.
3. Be visible online.
When the happy couple first agrees on a wedding date they are the most receptive to wedding venue ideas.
These days the first port of call will be the internet and primarily using Google. It is imperative that your wedding venue is visible on Google.
So do a check – how do you appear on Google right now?
Step 1 – Go to Google, enter the name of your local area followed by the word “weddings”, “wedding locations”, “wedding venue” into the Google search bar.
Example: London weddings, London wedding locations, London wedding venues
Step 2 – Make a note of the websites that come up on Page 1. Study them and get inspiration for your own ideas. Is your wedding venue on the list? If not…
Step 3 – You need to get your website listed.
Google Adwords are the ads down the left-hand side of the search results page. Advertising is a quick win. But can be expensive and you need to know what you are doing. Either hire a Google Adwords Expert or if you want to teach yourself then this is the definitive Google Adwords book on the subject. (An advanced Google Adwords tip – use Google Remarketing, this enables you to display ads to your website visitors AFTER they leave your site – the ads follow them all over the internet. These work great and cost next to nothing).
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is the process to optimise your website so that Google lists in the rankings. You need to be on page 1 of Google. The good news is that this is free, the bad news is that it can take many months of work to achieve a result. But once you do you will reap the rewards for a long time. SEO is a huge subject so you can either hire an expert or if you have the time and inclination you can teach yourself, here is a useful beginners guide to SEO.
4. Facebook.
Get active on Facebook. If you have not done so already, set up a dedicated Facebook page for your wedding venue. Start posting interesting news and information about your venue – photos of recently weddings, videos etc. It is all about creating noise out there and getting noticed.
Facebook Ads – These are simpler to manage than Adwords and are a good place to start with paid advertising. Start by targeting “Relationship Status” (Engaged or In a Relationship).
5. Have a wedding venue marketing follow up system.
This is what the majority of wedding venues do not have or understand. In points 1 to 4 above we are looking at ways to generate interest in our wedding venue, which is essential. But what you have to realise is that of these interested couples who visit your website only one or two in every 100 are ready to buy today. So if they do not buy today then that means 98% leave your website and the chances are they will never come back. That 98% is where the gold is for your business. So you have a system in place that enables you to consistently follow up with EVERYONE who expresses an interest in booking your venue. This can be really simple – paper-based or Excel, it is possible but it is a definite chore that requires dedication and time to manage. And that leads me nicely on to what I do. I specialise in helping clients set up a marketing automation system called Keap / Infusionsoft and this is the leading marketing automation system for small businesses. OF course I think it is brilliant, hence I specialise in helping businesses to implement it. But why take my word for it? Check out the video below where I was able to grow the wedding booking sales for The Wellbeing Farm venue by over 1000% in just a year. And I did this by putting in place systems to consistently and automatically follow up with the 98% of couples that expressed an interest in booking, but did not book immediately.
Wedding venue marketing photo by Fábio Alves on Unsplash
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