How wedding suppliers can educate others and begin to carve a reputation as a thought leader in the wedding industry.
If you’ve had an epic year working on some of the best weddings yet, you want the world to know about it, right?
Getting your brand out there and letting newly engaged couples know what you do and where you do it will help you secure bookings now and into 2018, and it will also help you build your reputation amongst other suppliers AND build your profile generally in the wedding industry.
But to shout about your successes and unique selling points takes skill, tact and, well, a strategic and well-implemented public relations (PR) campaign.
The first step in organising any kind of campaign is to know and understand your audience and to have something really great to talk to them about.
Success in PR is fundamentally down to whether you have an attention grabbing, newsworthy story because there’s a lot of noise out there and to have your story published by an editor, it needs to stand out.
So what makes a story newsworthy?
Empowerment, progression and inspiration
Wedding planner, Sharn Khaira, had her story published in the Swindon Advertiser and earned a link to her website after sharing her entrepreneurial journey in a bid to empower Asian women and encourage them to take the plunge and get into business.
Her website Desi Bride Dreams ranks number one in Google for Asian wedding blog and she has since gone on to host workshops aimed specifically at Asian women in business and founded a group called AFEC where she can now interact with like-minded women. The group now boasts over 300 members.
If you’re sitting on a success story that challenges cultural expectations, demonstrates progression and empowers others to succeed, it’s time to share.
Win an award
If you really are the best of the best, you should most definitely be entering local and national awards. And if you go on to win, it’s likely you’ll feature in published press releases without even having to prepare anything yourself.
That’s what happened to Gemma from Castledawson when she was recently named as Cake Designer of the Year in Ireland’s prestigious Wedding Journal Reader Awards. Her story features in the Mid Ulster Mail and is likely to drum up some attention amongst locals.
Contribute unique insights
You’re working at the front line of the wedding industry which means that nobody on the outside possesses the unique insight you do when it comes to knowing what’s happening with weddings right now.
Gather stats or highlight trends in your wedding sector that you think couples and other wedding suppliers would find interesting and informative.
Data and insights gathered by Bridebook enabled the team to commission an article titled: Pippa Middleton’s Wedding Is Expected To Cost £246,949, and this piece earned over 100 engagements in more than 30 countries.
Or perhaps you’re a wedding caterer and you’ve had a myriad of odd food requests this year that you think would entertain and delight an editor and your target audience.
The content queens at Huffington Post recently featured an article on Food Trends For Weddings 2017. Could you have contributed or produced something similar?
Data is the hardest thing to come by when editors are looking to place content into the media, so make a note of the changes you notice and the numbers you gather and provide unique and insightful content to the media that’s got a great chance of getting published.
Are you ready to get started?
Start gathering ideas today for topics you could educate others in and begin to carve a reputation for yourself as a thought leader in the wedding industry.
For more PR tips check out our How to Get Published in PR article.