This article is about how to get more wedding venue bookings
If you haven’t already read part one of my wedding venue marketing article, I suggest you do so first before reading this one.
Wedding venue marketing is similar to every other marketing strategy for business owners, it needs to be consistent and aggressive.
Aggressive marketing isn’t rude or pushy, it’s just highly consistent and a bridal couple will be very aware that your wedding venue exists if you do it right.
In this second stage of the wedding business marketing plan that we started talking about in the first wedding business tips wedding venue marketing article, we will be turning our attention to the Credibility and Authority stage.
3 Parts of the Wedding Venue Business Marketing Plan
- Open for Business: Do bridal couples know that your wedding venue exists?
- Credibility and Authority: Can bridal couples trust your wedding company?
- The Extra Mile: Will bridal couples find see you in other places and get to know the faces behind the phone calls and emails?
Is Your Wedding Venue Trusted and Recommended?
If you own a wedding venue, you will understand how important this step in the process is. Your credibility and authority will set you apart from your competition so you really need to get this right from day one.
There are 4 steps in the credibility and authority stage of the wedding venue marketing plan.
- Your Google Ranking
- Your Wedding Venue Business Blogs/Articles
- Your Email Marketing
- Your Online Presence
#1 Your Google Ranking
Does your wedding venue rank highly on Google for searches such as top wedding venues in your area? For instance, if your venue is in Brooklyn, New York, does your wedding venue feature if a bride searches for wedding venues in Brooklyn, NY?
If your wedding venue doesn’t have a good ranking on Google, you will miss out on several key criteria in the eyes of a bridal couple leaving them worried about whether they can rely on you and trust your venue for their big day.
Remember the psychology of a bridal couple. When they start planning their wedding, especially the bride-to-be, they usually go into extreme researcher mode and will gather all the information they can get their hands on.
So if they do a search and your venue isn’t on Google, this could give them a huge red flag that is definitely not good for the future of your wedding venue.
My advice is to spend as much time as you can on your website, ensuring that it is fully optimized for SEO and google ranking for the major searches in your area.
The best way to do this is with blogging which we discuss in the next step.
#2 Your Blogging Strategy
Every wedding business needs a blogging strategy, especially for wedding venues. Blog articles are worth so much more than just content on your website.
If you understand how to write google friendly blog posts – your wedding venue will soar above the rest for every google search the bride does in your area.
Your wedding venue blog needs to include at least 30 articles about your wedding venue to really stand a good chance of beating your competition, but you will need to be very strategic in your blogging content output.
For instance, you will want to use 5 pillars combined with content clusters. You will also want to collaborate with other wedding suppliers in your area and use the best images that you can find to support your brand.
#3 Your Email Marketing
If there’s one step that really helps you stand out above the rest, it’s your email marketing strategy. If you can find a way to keep interested bridal couples interested in your wedding venue with nurturing emails – you will definitely come out on top.
Brides and bridal couples are just like you and me. They have busy lives, they’re juggling all kinds of things, and they probably also have the same cash flow issues that we all face from time to time.
This means that they are not always ready to book their wedding venue as soon as they start their wedding planning journey.
So, if you can strategize and work an email campaign around this understanding, you could slowly nurture them into finding out more, booking a venue tour, and hopefully signing on the dotted line.
Email marketing is a huge topic. I have an article that touches on it that you might want to read. It’s called Email Marketing for Wedding Pros.
#4 Your Online Presence
Getting your wedding venue to feature wherever a bride-to-be or bridal couple is searching is essential if you want a successful wedding venue.
There are several online platforms to align your wedding venue with for the best results, these include online wedding directory platforms in your country or area.
For instance, some of the big directories for wedding planning include The Knot, WeddingWire, and Here Comes the Guide for the US. UK Bride, Rock n’ Roll Bride, Hitched for the UK, Pink Book for South Africa, and Easy Weddings for Australia.
Do a local search for wedding venues in your area and whatever wedding directories feature on page one – you should sign up with them. I go into more detail in my 12-Step Wedding Business Marketing Plan Course, but to give a brief insight into the reason is this:
Your wedding venue needs to be recognized everywhere a bridal couple is searching, but you also need to align your brand with the best in the business.
Not only because of the credibility factor but also of the credible backlinks you will get to your website for google ranking.
Google My Business for Wedding Pros
Another big topic that falls under the online presence step is your Google My Business listing / Google Maps feature.
When a bride searches for a wedding venue in a particular area, a list of wedding venues will show up above all the usual text posts on Google.
If you can get your wedding venue featured in the top 3 spots for that area, you will see a massive surge in traffic to your website and more inquiries.
I’ll do a full article on Google My Business for the wedding industry in a future blog post, so be sure to check out my blog archive for that one, or add your details in the form in the sidebar to be notified when the article is published.
Wedding Venue Reviews
I can’t talk about your online presence without touching on wedding reviews and wedding testimonials. The reviews you get for your wedding venue are extremely important. However, in my opinion – automatic reviews should be turned off.
For instance, turn off Facebook Reviews and turn off Google Reviews. My reason for this is simple. There are some crazy brides out there. If you haven’t come across them yet, you will!
It only takes one negative review which is completely out of context to put a spanner in the works when it comes to wedding venue bookings.
Instead, ask bridal couples to fill out a form on your website that you can read first and then decide if you want to add it to your social media posts and website.
I recommend adding a full page to your website titled reviews or testimonials and then using that space to copy and paste your client’s reviews.
This way, you can stay in full control and have direct conversations with any unhappy clients before any negative comments and reviews go live.
Some people act in the heat of the moment and will just give a negative review on Google or Facebook for the pettiest of things.
Get More Wedding Venue Bookings – Conclusion
By now you should have a clear understanding of what you need to do to get your wedding business in front of your target audience and how to build up your credibility and authority with your online presence, email marketing, google ranking, and blogs.
In the final part of the wedding venue marketing plan, we will be looking at going the extra mile with your advertising and marketing efforts.
Until the next time,
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