Marketing for wedding planners is similar to marketing for other companies. A lot of the same basic fundamentals of online marketing apply. You still have to:
- Identify your target customer
- Figure out what you’re doing that is working well, and what isn’t
- Know your financial numbers such as revenue and profit margin
- Make SMART goals about what results you want to get and when
What makes marketing for a wedding planning business different than other businesses is where the target market congregates online. Most of the wedding planners I talk to who haven’t done a whole lot of marketing think Instagram is the best place to start, and they aren’t wrong. Building an Instagram following is one of the easiest first steps you can take, but there are other things to consider as well.
One of those things is competition, or rather what the competition is doing to market their own business. It takes some time and effort but once there’s a clear picture of what he competition is doing it’s easier to see where there are opportunities to slip into the market. I mean, why compete with other planners head-on when you can place yourself next to someone and share their flow of traffic. After all, there is no shortage of people getting married, right?
(traffic is what we call users visiting your social media, website, etc.)
So, we have a good idea of what the competition is doing and what type of results they’re getting. But, do we know how well you’re doing? Do you have a website or a social media account? Are you using these mediums to get customers already? Perhaps you’re just starting out and haven’t built a foundation yet. That’s okay! Sometimes that can be an advantage. After all, you haven’t invested a ton of $ into making mistakes and learning from them yet, so let’s learn from others, eh?
If you do have a website already, is it getting any action? If it is, do you know why? What if it isn’t? What can you do? First things first, we need to know how it’s performing. For that we use this technical platform called Google Analytics along with a few other tools. With them, we can see the minute details of who is using your website, when, and possibly why. Hopefully based on the laser-like focus of your website and branding, we know exactly why someone is there, right?
Okay okay, we’ve talked about a lot of technical things, let’s get back to what’s interesting. SMART goals. I know what you’re thinking. Wtf is a SMART goal? Don’t worry, I won’t make you Google search it though I ought to. (Google search is an amazing skill!)
SMART stands for Specific – Measurable – Achievable – Relevant – Timely
Ahh… Starting to make sense now? The two most important parts of marketing are Knowing where you are and knowing where you want to go, specifically!
An example of a SMART goal for marketing your wedding planning business is this:
My revenue is 1million by March 30th, 2019.
Another one could be:
My prices have risen by 10% within 6 months.
With specific and timely goals like these, it’s possible to create marketing plans that can achieve them.
Go ahead and write some goals down and make them SMART, not dumb. Once you’ve done this you’re ready to begin creating a plan to get to where you want to go. Exciting isn’t it? I’m getting excited for you. Now go! Write your goals! Make a plan! Achieve your dreams!
