3 Reasons You're Not Booking Wedding Clients And How To Fix Them
Okay wedding pros, be honest with me…
Are you feeling like your inbox is auditioning for “A Quiet Place Part III” even though you’ve been doing all the things to grow and market your business?
Are new inquiries ghosting you on the regular?
Then buckle up, wedding boss. Because there’s some loving real talk ahead...
Here are 3 common reasons I’ve seen this happen:
#1 — YOU’RE TRYING TO ATTRACT EVERYONE
If I had a Pepsi for every time I heard a fellow wedding pro describe their Ideal Client as “couples who can afford my rates,” I’d be one very highly caffeinated girl. When you go that broad, you get marketing scatterbrain and waste your precious time and energy on unqualified leads. I don’t have the time for that, let alone, the emotional stamina for all the disappointment, do you?
From pricing yourself confidently to defining your brand aesthetic and voice, every business decision you make becomes easier when you know your Ideal Client inside-out.
Once I narrowed down my Ideal Client and created my offers, social media content, and website copy, specifically with them in mind, I started booking out my seasons with weddings I couldn’t wait to add to my portfolio.
The struggle is so real when it comes to identifying and reaching your Ideal Client.
That’s why I teach my exact method for Booking Your Best in this on demand mini-course.
#2 — YOU HAVEN’T GONE PRO YET
Even if you’re just starting out, there are a few simple ways to ensure potential clients take you seriously and don’t write you off as unprofessional or some fly-by-night wedding business.
First, ditch the unbranded @gmail.com, Hotmail, or Outlook email addresses. Likewise, the website addresses that include the domain host in it. (I’m looking at you Wix-ers.) These scream amateur hour to potential clients. These are right up top on my list of pet peeves. You can get a branded email for as little as $8 a month, through Google Workspace. It’s time to start investing in your business.
Your brand needs to look polished and cohesive to establish trust. This means having professional headshots, not a cropped selfie from your last family vacay or a picture from your wedding day. And don’t forget to use consistent brand fonts and colours in everything from your social media images to your pricing guides.
The good news is: You don’t have to hire a pricy graphic designer to look pulled together right away. When your branding and marketing budget is low, I highly recommend finding a premade branding suite on Etsy. You can invest more in another year or two. Nowadays, it’s easier and more affordable than ever to build a simple website on platforms like Squarespace or ShowIt and make pretty social media graphics with free template tools like Canva.
Use Canva to drag-and-drop your way to a great first impression
with my Quick & Easy Graphic Design for Wedding Pros tutorial.
#3 — YOU’RE SELLING SERVICES INSTEAD OF OUTCOMES
One of the biggest mistakes I see wedding professionals make is selling what they do instead of the value they provide. (Hint: Your pricing guide isn’t meant to be your closer.)
Most of us don’t have marketing diplomas.
Your ideal couples need to feel confident you understand their needs and can deliver the result they’re looking for. They expect you to have a clear process, experience they can trust, and a compelling answer to the question: Why you?
Maybe your fun photography style is perfect for bold couples who want to stand out from the blush pink crowd, and you’re a preferred vendor at their venue...
Maybe you specialize in multicultural wedding stationery, giving respected traditions a modern twist...
Or maybe you’ve got the experience and 5-person team to produce large-scale weddings that involve complicated stage setups, audiovisual components, and fireworks.
Regardless, it’s important to learn how to communicate your value clearly and identify what sets you apart in this massive —and massively competitive— wedding industry through your website copy, marketing, branding, and sales process.
Because no matter how awesome you are at what you do, if you don’t know how to market yourself? You’re not going to get booked out by clients who truly respect and value your skills. And, by the way, that respect and value leads to a whole lot less negotiation.
Now that you know these common mistakes to avoid, it’s time to get out there and woo those ideal clients.