Tag: bridebook business

REVEALED: how millennial couples planned their weddings in 2017

Take note of how millennial couples planned their weddings in 2017 and let these insights influence where you focus your marketing efforts next year.

 

 

Wedding suppliers; arm yourselves with these behavioural insights on wedding planning couples in 2017 and use them to inform your marketing decisions in 2018.

Take a breath. This isn’t another ‘younger generations love the internet’ post. Well, they do, of course…but you don’t need us to tell you that.

This article is our way of helping you predict the trends of tomorrow so that you can ensure your wedding business is poised and prepared to be exactly what millennial couples want you to be.

Because after all, that is what it’s all about isn’t it? Capturing the hearts and minds of newly engaged couples; to have them say “we want you to help us plan the most special day of our lives”.

But to attract the attention of couples you need to be following their every move to decipher where you need to be and how you should be presenting your business online.

Or you could let us do the hard work for you…

 

What wedding planning couples looked for in 2017

Bridebook surveyed 4,000 recently married couples in a bid to understand more about their ‘wedding planning’ mindsets, including how they found their suppliers, what they spent on their wedding and what they found most important throughout the planning process.

Here are the top three things you need to know about as you begin preparing your wedding venue or business for 2018 bookings…

1. Money talks

Did you know that one of the most searched for wedding queries on Google in 2017 was “how much does a wedding cost”?

Now, this may not come as a big surprise however there’s a very real discrepancy between what millennial couples want and what UK wedding suppliers are actually providing.

Many UK wedding suppliers still shy away from including pricing details on their website or Bridebook profile despite the fact that Millennial couples are more price savvy and ‘keen to know your cost’ than ever before.

 

With an average increase of £487 in UK supplier cost year on year, it’s more important than ever for wedding suppliers like you to highlight your ‘value for money’ and show off the range of price points you offer; remembering to mention what you often include for free, e.g. the bridal suite for one night or a free engagement shoot.

We’re not recommending that you list out every service you provide and attribute a cost to each; we’re suggesting that you include pricing parameters so that couples can see that you cater to weddings between X and Y price. They’ll then know whether you’re at the top end of their budget or bang on the money when it comes to ticking the wedding cost box.

If you’re still not sure about putting everything out there for people to see, here are a few reasons why being transparent with your pricing as a wedding supplier is more important now than ever before.

2. How other couples rate you really matters

After price, the most important thing that couples look for when planning a wedding in 2017 is feedback, with couples ranking recommendations from friends and family (72%) followed by reviews (58%) as the most important resources when finding wedding suppliers.

We can’t say it enough…reviews, reviews, reviews! It’s what wedding bookings in 2017 and beyond are so heavily dependent on.

They’re calendar-filling gold dust for wedding suppliers so please make sure you dedicate time to asking for them after every wedding you work on.

3. Finding local vendors is a challenge

Another of the most ‘Googled’ wedding queries in 2017 was “how do I find vendors near me” and it was also mentioned as one of the top challenges for Millennial couples planning a wedding this year (after budget).

The fact is, a nice website isn’t enough any more. To win bookings, wedding venues and suppliers need to be omnipresent.

 

Here are 3 ideas to help you secure a presence online and increase the likelihood of being discovered by wedding planning couples:

  • Feature on wedding planning platforms like Bridebook and gain exposure to around 40,000 wedding planning couples. Not only are you tapping into a new audience but you’re also benefiting from free marketing and brand presence at the top of google results.
  • Place SEO and Content at the forefront of all your online marketing efforts – paying particular attention to local SEO.
  • Up your social media activity – post regularly and share details of everything you believe would matter to newly engaged couples

Wedding booking success depends on how willing you are to adapt

Not keen on the idea of putting your prices online? You may find that if you choose not to be transparent with your pricing online in 2018 it could affect how many bookings you secure.

Think reviews and recommendations don’t really work for you? Think again, because trends over time across all industries suggest that endorsements from others will only become increasingly important when it comes to influencing purchasing decisions – particularly within the wedding industry where decisions are personal and have a huge impact on a very important day.

Believe your website is all you need in terms of an online presence? This is a dangerous mindset to have in an increasingly competitive online world. Be careful not to put all your eggs in one basket as you could find your wedding business trailing behind the competition.

Login to your Bridebook Account now and update your pricing information to take note of how millennial couples have planned their weddings in 2017

 

The importance of ‘email’ in the UK wedding industry today

 

How we communicate with couples as wedding suppliers is probably the most important part of our job.

There is no ‘wedding planning’ without communication and in order to give yourself the best chance of securing that booking, impressing that client and winning rave reviews, you need to be communicating in a way that couples appreciate and understand.

In Bridebook’s 2017 Wedding Report, 84% of couples said that email was their preferred method of liaising with wedding suppliers.

No matter how much you advocate phone calls or how frustrated you get at couples for avoiding actual voice on voice contact, you can’t change a Millennial.

Why Millennial brides and grooms aren’t big on phone calls

The reason behind this generation’s preference for online communication is fairly simple. The Millennial generation grew up with the internet, social media and smartphone technology, and they’ve fully experienced the evolution of information consumption.

 

Millennials are used to consuming information fast; absorbing one thing and then quickly moving on to something else. And they’re spending more time online.

This renders them big on multitasking and put simply, whizzing an email across to you listing out succinct details of what they’re after is preferable over a phone call involving pleasantries and a degree of chit chat.

Seeing as most calls need to be followed up with an email of action points anyway, we can kind of see where they’re coming from.

Think about it; in a world where “Likes” are a way of showing you appreciate content without having to spend time on writing actual words, you too need to adapt.

So you’ve come around to the idea of email over phone call. How do you now ensure your email etiquette is on point?

4 easy ways to make email work for your wedding business

Here are four things you need to be doing to ensure you’re nailing the communication game in 2018…

1. Be responsive

51% of couples said that responsiveness was a factor they looked for when planning their wedding in 2017 so you need to make sure you reply as promptly as possible.

Leaving couples ‘hanging’ for more than 48 hours will not only lose you a booking it will also damage your reputation as a wedding business. Take time to reply to all enquiries.

2. Tone and consistency is important

As this is probably the first impression you’ll be making on the couple, think carefully about your email ‘tone of voice’.

Don’t spend ages editing your emails but do think about the words you’re using and be sure to inject some of your personality into your response. You should try to convey your excitement to the couple as best you can so that they in turn, feel excited reading your email.

 

And although nowadays, emails are often used informally in communication make sure that you always check your punctuation, spelling and grammar so that you come across as intelligent and professional.

Consistency in the way you communicate with couples is an essential component in building a strong brand for your wedding business.

3. Get personal

Generic emails that could apply to anyone aren’t going to win over newly engaged couples – or anyone for that matter.

Personalise your emails by addressing the person you are emailing by name and include the name of their partner (if you know it at this stage). Refer to the details they’ve included in their enquiry to show you’ve taken the time to read their message and consider their request.

4. Use emails efficiently

As mentioned earlier, phone calls with couples are usually followed up with emails and action points anyway, so use emails to your advantage and include as much detail as you can in each to ensure communication is efficient AND to give yourself more time to focus on other things.

Really think about what you want to say and you’re more likely to receive positive responses from your recipients.

Email is a wedding suppliers best friend

Millennials like to take charge of their own organisation and work at their own pace. Email allows for this and further still, the team at Bridebook supports this by enabling couples to contact venues and wedding suppliers directly (via an email direct to your inbox).

Win new clients and win positive feedback from existing ones when you choose to liaise with couples over email.

Be responsive, be polite and embrace email! Of course there’s a place for phone calls, texts and website contact forms but lead with email and you shouldn’t go far wrong.

Should we – as Wedding Suppliers – embrace social media at weddings or discourage it?

How do you feel about social media at weddings? Wedding suppliers…it’s time to join the debate!

 

Social media at weddings – it’s like marmite.

No matter how long you’ve been working in the wedding industry for, we can all appreciate that there’s something about the simplicity of watching a wedding with your eyes rather than through the screen of a smartphone that makes the old fashioned way seem more meaningful and appealing.

Couples have probably spent a fair amount of time and money on making their big day one to remember and being present to fully experience the wedding is something guests didn’t have to be asked to do just a few years ago. They’d just do it.

But many millennial couples are embracing social media as an official part of their ‘wedding package’ and are encouraging guests to snap away and document their day. To be fair to them, the next generation of brides and grooms grew up on the internet and for many of them, their wedding simply wouldn’t seem official or complete unless it’s posted on a few social newsfeeds. It’s unnatural for them not to post.

 

Newlywed millennials change their status to “married” on Facebook or Instagram before they’ve even gone down to breakfast the morning after their nuptials.

There’s no denying that wedding professionals who incorporate wedding hashtags and make it easy for couples to share, tag and find wedding photos and videos on Facebook, Snapchat  and Instagram have an advantage with younger couples compared to wedding suppliers who won’t entertain the idea at all.

The question is, which side are you on? 

Are you willing to facilitate the move to real-time online weddings by making it easy for couples and their guests to upload and share photos and videos with just one click?

Or are you on team “unplug” – determined to preserve the sanctity of weddings by refusing to encourage all guests to become photographers?

Embracing the plugged in wedding

The main focus of every wedding day is on making sure that the newlyweds are happy. Does everyone being glued to their phones add to their big day or detract from it? The decision to plug or unplug should ultimately be the couples.

If you choose to be open about plugged in weddings and offer to support digi-savvy couples, you’ll need to work closely with each of them to come up with ways to share content in real time.

 

Use wedding hashtags, ask if couples use Periscope and impress them by asking if they’d like to stream live, behind the scenes footage of them each getting ready for their wedding day! And of course, ensure that your couples can easily upload and download any pictures and videos you take after the wedding.

Tip: ask plugged in couples to follow your wedding business on any social channels you’re present on and ask them to tag you in any posts they share. This way you’ll benefit from some free social advertising.

Standing strong as an unplugged wedding ambassador

You’re completely against it. The unappointed guest paparazzi don’t just ruin the wedding for themselves AND for the couple getting wed, it also affects your ability as a wedding professional to do the best job possible.

You refuse to be a part of something where guests are removed from the experience and more interested in editing pics of themselves than toasting the happy couple.

Own your opinion and lead the charge! Become an advocate for couples who want to experience every moment and encourage their guests to be present in the moment.

How do you feel about social media at weddings? 

When it comes to the marmite of millennial weddings, do you love it or hate it?

Supplier Stories: Heaton House and the Importance of Reviews in the Wedding Industry

Welcome to this week’s Supplier Story! ‘Supplier Stories’ is an original Bridebook Business article series, where we go behind-the-scenes and into the wedding world through those that know it best – the experienced and talented venues and suppliers across the UK.

So whether this is your first story or 10th, enjoy as we look into the industry as a whole, and celebrate a true story in itself! Who says couples have all the fun?

Heaton House Farm’s Supplier Story: 

 

Today, we welcome Sarah – Marketing & Business Development Coordinator and daughter of the Heath Family. Heaton House is located on the borders of Cheshire and Staffordshire and surrounded by jaw-dropping and breathtaking scenery. From hosting annual concerts for well-known charities to becoming one of the most sought-after North West Wedding Venues – find out how this wonderful farm transformed after just one event.   

So without further ado, Sarah over to you! 

 

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your team?

Hello! I’m Sarah Heath, the daughter of Mick and Margaret who run and own Heaton House Farm Wedding Venue, located in beautiful Cheshire, UK.

The three of us, and our pet Jack Russell, Jack, live here at the wedding venue where we literally eat, live and breathe weddings! We have a few cows and also my pet twin texel sheep, Gin and Tonic who now have their own little lambs, Lemon, Lime and Juniper. We also have our rare breed Swiss Black Nose sheep, Whitney and Tina.

We are joined by 50 members of staff from around the local area who do an amazing job in the office, events, housekeeping, breakfast team and laundry and we couldn’t do it without them!

 

2. Share the story of Heaton House Farm so far?

My parents have been involved with charity events for as long as I can remember and we used to host annual concerts in our cowshed for charities such as Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation, and Alzheimer’s Research, all of which are extremely close to our heart.

One year, my dad was very eager to create the best possible acoustics as he used to be a mobile DJ, so he decided to hire a marquee lining to ‘soften’ the sound. A couple in the audience happened to be looking for a marquee styled wedding for their daughter who was living in London, but they didn’t have any land to host the event. They called us the very next day to enquire. We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for, but we agreed! So, in June 1999, we welcomed guests to our first wedding reception.

The venue grew and grew from recommendations alone and in 2003 we came to the decision to diversify from being a dairy farm to hosting weddings in our barns full-time!

 

3. What do you see as the biggest challenge in the wedding industry currently?

Suppliers are such an important part of your wedding day and a lot of couples choose the cheapest or the first supplier they find at a wedding fayre but is important that couples do their research and find the good quality suppliers for their special day, that they gel with – gut instinct is key! I am devastated when I hear couples regretting choosing suppliers after the day as they’ve not provided a good service – please do listen to recommendations from other suppliers, we work with them day in, day out, and know what people are like from start to finish.

 

4. What wedding venue trends are you seeing in the industry?

A very popular trend this year is bringing the outdoors inside with lots of wild flowers and foliage beautifully decorated around our oak beams which looks stunning for when guests arrive.

It is also now very important to make a feature of the wedding cake, whether you have a 4-tier cake, a naked cake, a hanging cake or even a cake with a secret Marvel section. We love to help create the ‘wow’ factor for when our guests walk into the wedding breakfast as we ensure there’s a spotlight shining on it!

 

5. What is the biggest challenge you face on the wedding day itself?

We try extremely hard to make sure your day runs smoothly and to time. Once our couples have been in for a final meeting with their coordinator we construct a timeline and send this through to their suppliers and talk through timings with them. However, on the day this can sometimes not go to plan, for example when photographers sneak off with the couple to capture that perfect shot just as we are about to seat them for the meal! Haha!

 

6. How do you feel technology is changing the industry?

You would be surprised just how much technology has changed the industry, from the way in which couples enquire to the day itself – we find that over 50% of our enquiries are made from mobiles, so we are working on making our website more user-friendly. Social media has also had a massive impact on the wedding industry with speeches and first dances going viral!

Also, the suppliers have become a lot more tech savvy which helps both the couples and the venues that are hosting the day, if a couple decides they want a different first dance song it’s no problem as the DJ can download it within seconds!

 

7. What has been your biggest time saver this year?

A few years ago we began hosting experience events; these are exclusive to our booked clients. We invite hand-picked suppliers to showcase themselves, whether it is decorating the venue, or performing music, it also gives our couples chance to meet the person and chat face to face in a non-pushy environment. It has saved us many hours as a lot of couples used to come to the venue with their friends and family numerous times before their special day. More importantly, these evenings are a much more enjoyable experience with lots to do and see and more of an evening to remember as they enjoy a drink at the bar, listening to a variety of music, or being inspired by beautiful venue décor.

 

8. How do reviews affect the industry?

Over the last few years, when you would like to book a room at a hotel or visit an attraction the first thing people do is check site such as ‘TripAdvisor’ but lots of reviews to help make your decision as to where you go. It is exactly the same with weddings, it only takes a number of bad trip advisor reviews to put a couple off from booking that particular place so it is very important you gather lots of positive feedback. We’ve found that our couples are really happy to share feedback with us and even have #FeedbackFriday on our social media where we share a piece of feedback from that week.

 

9. How do you get to know your couples before the big day?

We like to keep in touch with our couples throughout their journey as it is important to be a helping hand whenever they have any questions whilst creating their perfect day. We meet with our couples on numerous occasions during planning meetings, experience events, final meetings and we are always available in the office as we are open 7 days a week.

 

10. What do you think makes Heaton House Farm unique?

There’s obviously lots of amazing little features we have, but the 2 standout features have to be the most amazing views, and the flow from one area to the next.

When you open the doors and lead out on to the patio, the land drops away from you and reveals the most stunning 3 county views with undulating and rolling hills, it actually takes your breath away. When we show couples around for the first time, we get quite a few happy tears at this point!

The other unique feature we have is that we don’t just have 1 room where the ceremony, meal and evening all takes place, and you have a couple of hours wait in-between whilst the room is being set up or refreshed by staff, we have a separate area for each, all interlinked, so your guests move seamlessly from one area to the next, so no waiting outside in the rain!

 

11. What do you think makes for the perfect wedding?

The perfect wedding is the wedding that the couple wants, doing exactly what they want, decorations that they want and not allowing friends and family to sway them to other things, it has to be your vision bought to life as it is your special day that only happens once so you need to enjoy every second of it!

 

12. What’s your favourite wedding memory?

Gosh! 18 years and thousands to choose from! I think nearly all of my favourite memories involve the moment just before the bride walks down the aisle and the ceremony. The excitement, the nerves, it all bubbles up at this point, and the second the music comes on gives me shivers, every single time!

 

13. What do you love about Bridebook?

Bridebook is such a pretty and easy guide to help plan the day of your dreams with a wonderful expert advice blog to answer all of the questions couples ask when planning their day.

 

A huge thank you to Sarah for sharing her Supplier Story. 

 

Want to feature in your own Supplier Story? Get in touch with Beth at [email protected].

 

UK wedding venues have discovered the secret to free marketing and more bookings

Isn’t it about time your wedding venue gained a free Bridebook Business profile?!

 

UK wedding venues have discovered the secret to free marketing and more bookings.

Don’t you love it when leads come flooding in without you having to do very much at all?

What’s that now? You’re still working hard to book weddings at your venue?

Well we may have just the answer…

Introducing Bridebook Business

Something pretty exciting is happening at Bridebook HQ and we want to shout it from the rooftop (of your wedding venue, preferably)…

UK wedding venues are now choosing to ‘couple up’ with Bridebook Business and feature for free on our wedding planning platform as part of their lead generation strategy, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

We’re huge advocates of wedding supplier networking and in wedding venues and businesses working together to support each other.

That’s why we’re so keen to encourage more wedding venues to register with Bridebook for free and take advantage of these kinds of blissful benefits:

  • Access to more than 40,000 couples who are registered on Bridebook right now

  • Exposure to our 250,000 social media followers

  • Connections to over 14,000 wedding businesses keen to share knowledge and support each other with local referrals

  • Opportunities to chat with couples via direct email enquiries

  • The chance to show off your portfolio, awards and client reviews and testimonials

  • Enhance your SEO with a featured listing on our high ranking wedding planning platform

How does it work?

Your job is to set up and manage your venues’ personal business account which is quick and easy to do. It only takes 10 minutes to set up your account and then you can spend as much time as you like adding to it.

Of course the more information you provide the better, as couples on Bridebook can filter supplier searches by capacity, style and location, meaning that the more information you include on your profile the better matched you’ll be to newly engaged couples and the higher you’ll rank in searches.

 

Plus you’ll be more likely to impress the couples that land on your wedding venue profile page and subsequently, they’ll be more likely to get in touch with you and enquire about a visit.

Management-wise, it’s just a case of making sure that all of your wedding venues’ details are kept up to date and relevant – particularly with regards to contact details, pricing and images.

Once your account is set up you’re ready to start attracting the thousands of couples who are searching for wedding venues just like you.

What can wedding venues include on their Bridebook profile?

You really can add as much information as you’d like to your Bridebook profile and if you’ve any recommendations for us in terms of developing our platform to allow for more information to be featured, please feel free to get in touch.

Here’s what you can include…

  • Unlimited photos

  • Direct Contact Details

  • Description of services

  • Links to Social Media

  • Pricing Information

  • Client reviews & testimonials

  • Supplier recommendations

  • Unlimited videos

  • Selection of products

  • Industry awards and features

  • FAQs

  • A personal message from the Manager of your venue

How couples get in touch with your wedding venue

Couples can contact you directly through our direct messaging system (which goes straight to your email inbox) so it’s really important that you keep your contact details up to date to avoid missing out on enquiries.

It’s about time your wedding venue gained a Bridebook Business profile

Wedding venues in particular benefit from a presence on the Bridebook platform simply because choosing a venue is one of the greatest decisions a couple will make when planning their wedding, and using an online directory to shortlist all of the venues in their chosen location is the method of choice for most brides and grooms.

If you’re not visible alongside other wedding venues in your area, you could miss out on those all important bookings.

Effortlessly pack your calendar with weddings in your area whilst also filling your mid-week, off season and late availability dates without stress when you get in touch today or get started on your free Bridebook Business profile.

3 Ways to Stay Motivated as a Wedding Professional

3 things wedding suppliers can do to stay motivated as we near the end of peak wedding season 2017.

 

Wedding suppliers are often believed to have one of the best jobs in the world. Working with giddy couples to build their dream wedding sounds just wonderful doesn’t it.

 

And although we know you really do love what you do it’s OK to admit that sometimes the behind-the-scenes client meetings, venue walkthroughs, contract negotiations and paperwork can leave you feeling a little fed up.

 

But being demotivated is a luxury that wedding suppliers can’t afford to indulge in for too long.

 

Being on top of your game for each and every wedding you work on for each and every couple you work with is essential. It’s unfair to the couples you work with to be anything other than 100% dedicated to making their wedding day everything they dream it will be.

 

3 ways to stay motivated for the weddings you’re working on now

Here are 3 things you can do to help you stay motivated and push through any weariness as we approach the end of peak wedding season 2017.

 

1. Stop procrastinating

Research into motivational factors discussed in Psychology Today suggests that people who just get the job done procrastinate less and are more motivated to move on to the next task than those who spend too long thinking about and assessing one individual task.

We all know how great it feels to check something off of our to-do list. It’s great for motivation and self esteem. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and demotivated, begin by completing the smaller tasks and this feeling of accomplishment will spur you on to tackle the bigger ones.

 

2. When it gets too much, step away

Some days, no matter what you do you just can’t bring yourself to tackle that mountain of ‘urgent tasks’ and sitting at a desk staring at your screen is only going to make you feel worse.

When you’re feeling utterly uninspired, the best thing to do is unplug, step away from the workplace and take a break. Go for a walk, go grab a coffee, do some reading or hit the gym. Do whatever it takes to help you switch off and unwind so that you can return to your to-do-list with a clear head and a revitalised outlook on the task at hand.

 

3. Think about the bigger picture

When helping plan a wedding, it’s easy to get lost in the detail of all the subtasks that need addressing and lose sight of what it is you’re really doing and why.

Think about why you chose to run a wedding business or work in the wedding industry in the first place.** **

Weddings are your passion! Remind yourself of all the things you love about being a wedding venue or wedding supplier and write down all the fantastic things you’ve accomplished. Read good feedback from newlywed couples whose dream wedding day was achieved because of things that YOU did.

Feeling uninspired is a horrible feeling but step back and look at the bigger picture. This fed up feeling will soon pass and you’ll be back to your best. Sometimes, a little mental refocusing is all we need to pull us through the tough times.

Stay motivated by addressing ‘autonomy, mastery and purpose’

If you’re particularly interested in finding out more about what motivates people in business, we’d recommend you read Dan Pink’s Drive: the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

 

He focuses on three intrinsic elements to motivation at work: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

 

Having the power to direct your own life and control the activities you manage is essential. Having the desire to continually improve at something you love to do really matters. And knowing that what you do makes a difference to someone, somewhere is what drives us.

 

Do you have autonomy, mastery and purpose when it comes to managing your wedding business?

How UK Wedding Suppliers can get the most out of Engagement Season

By preparing just a few small things now in time for November your wedding business will guarantee more bookings for 2018.

 

It barely feels as though we’ve gotten going with peak, summer wedding season but lo and behold, engagement season is just around the corner.

Statistics show that around 40% of couples who will be engaged in the next 12 months will do so between November and February, which means wedding suppliers only have a couple of months to get their house in order in time for the prime wedding business bookings period.

Here are 4 things wedding suppliers like you need to be doing NOW to ensure you’ve the best chance of winning bookings throughout engagement season…

1. Review your online presence

Just as we advised you to prepare your online business for the 2017 peak wedding season, it’s now time to readdress and revisit your website and all online profiles to check that all of your business information is correct and that your wedding portfolio is up to date.

 

Your brand image and contact information must be consistent across all online platforms and you must make it as easy as possible for engaged couples to find you and get in touch. If your information isn’t instantly accessible and readily available, newly engaged millennial couples won’t waste much time searching for it before moving on to your competitors.

Is your Bridebook Business profile complete, relevant and up to date? Share your best photos, include up to date pricing information and post good feedback from the couples you’ve worked with throughout wedding season 2017 on your profile to really maximise your chances of being spotted and shortlisted on this platform.

Remember, your professional image could suffer if you’re presenting your wedding services in a different way in different places online. Pricing information, images and contact information must be consistently included and updated wherever your business features on the web.

And finally, don’t neglect your social media accounts.

 

Remember to update them with fresh content regularly and tag couples in your posts to encourage engagement and show you’ve forged good relationships with the couples you’ve worked with this year.

Potential new clients will often check out the social media profiles of wedding businesses they’ve shortlisted before they get in touch to get a feel for the service you offer, to see pictures of weddings you’ve catered for this year and to find out what other happy couples have to say about you.

2. Publish and promote the reviews and recommendations you’ve collected this wedding season

We’ve already highlighted the importance of reviews when it comes to helping wedding suppliers secure new bookings so we just want to take this opportunity to reiterate that recommendations from couples you’ve worked with this wedding season are your best asset when it comes to attracting newly engaged couples and securing bookings for 2018.

 

Did you know that the average couple reads 7.6 reviews before contacting wedding professionals? Make it your goal to publish any reviews you’ve gathered on your website, social media accounts and on your Bridebook profile. If you’re still waiting for feedback from some of the couples you’ve worked with, chase them up now.

Newlyweds love to talk about their wedding and the majority will be more than happy to write a few words on how you contributed to making their day so special. In fact, 70% of customers will leave a review for a business if you ask them for it.

What are you waiting for?!

3. Check that your calendar is up-to-date

Your availability is going to be a hot topic during engagement season. Couples will need to know exactly when you’re available and when you’re not, and being able to access this information and reply to their queries quickly will give you the best chance of securing their booking.

Try to fill in your calendar with as many details as you can about your bookings for wedding season 2018, not forgetting to factor in time for site visits, travel and administrative tasks too. Don’t be overly optimistic with your time – be realistic. You don’t want to let couples down because you’ve incorrectly estimated time commitments and you don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on yourself to fulfil everyone’s needs either.

4. Do your research and make a good first impression

Once you’ve clarified your availability and agreed a time to meet with a newly engaged couple, the real work begins.

Making a good first impression depends largely on whether you’ve done your research. Take the time to learn a little about the couple you’re meeting and you’ll make a great first impression.

 

Check back over your email conversations to get an idea of the style of wedding the couple you’re meeting are looking for. Open your meeting by asking the couple questions about themselves and how they met, and ask them to tell you their engagement story. Facilitating this kind of personal connection will help you secure bookings and work together with the couple more harmoniously during the wedding planning process.

And finally, be prepared to discuss the latest wedding trends and arrive at the meeting armed with a portfolio of your weddings from 2017 to demonstrate the kinds of things other couples are choosing to include on their wedding day.

Make engagement season work for you

Engagement season shouldn’t be made to feel like a relentless continuation of peak wedding season that demands late nights, early mornings and difficult requests.

By preparing just a few small things now in time for November your wedding business will be best placed to attract couples looking to wed next year with little time investment required from yourself.

How wedding suppliers get published in PR

 

A wedding supplier’s guide to gaining exposure through great content

We’ve highlighted some of the ways in which wedding professionals can approach the creation of newsworthy PR stories guaranteed to boost bookings but how do you then deliver that story into the right hands and in the right way?

It’s all well and good having a fantastic story to share about your company, your successes or your sector but how do you get the attention of the right people in the media?

Think about how many other wedding industry professionals like you are currently researching or writing an engaging piece of content. Now imagine being an editor and having one space to fill in your next supplement but 50-100 content submissions to sift through?

Standing out in the crowd is the difference between PR success and failure.

How wedding suppliers should approach content submissions

Here are 5 steps you should take to ensure you’re giving your wedding business the best chance of exposure through publication of your content…

1. Check that your wedding website is up to scratch

The first thing to do before you kick start any PR campaign is to review your company website. Make sure that all of your information is up to date and that your content is conveying the right message for you and your brand.

Believe it or not, the success of story submissions can often be down to how professional you seem as a wedding supplier. Editors aren’t going to want to associate their media publications with businesses that appear out of date or unprofessional.

Plus, you’re unlikely to convert business from press stories if your website falls short!

2. Produce a shortlist of relevant media contacts

Do your research and create a wishlist of websites, blogs and publications you’d like to feature in; making sure that the media you pursue are relevant to your target audience and if possible, local to your business.

Take a look at the kinds of content each media outlet is showcasing to decide whether your work and your writing suitably matches their tone, style and subject.

Tip: getting your work published takes time and whilst it may be tempting to email every media outlet you know of, the best approach is to properly research the publications that best suit your brand and location.

3. Review submission guidelines

It is so important for you to spend time reading submission guidelines on the websites of media outlets you’re hoping to contact.

So many businesses don’t do this and fall short as a result. Follow submission rules and you’re already ahead of much of the competition.

4. Include a detailed summary with your submission

When submitting your story to the press, it’s important that you provide a detailed excerpt that succinctly describes exactly what your story is about.

Take time preparing your pitch and highlight the key details of your content AND your business, e.g. state that you specialise in unique wedding cakes, modern floral design or bespoke wedding dresses, and include details of where you’re based. Many local media outlets will be more inclined to publish stories from local businesses.

Tip: remember to tailor your pitch to each media outlet. A few sentences aimed specifically at the publication you’re contacting could be the ones that catch the eye of an editor looking for a wedding supplier who’s done their research.

5. Attach images

If you take the task of having to source imagery away from editors, they’ll love you for it. Plus, when you accompany text with images it instantly makes a story stand out. Photos are excellent at instantly conveying emotion and telling their own story; even without the support of written words.

PR success is just a carefully crafted submission away

Getting content published is tough but when you start to enjoy the fruits of your labour you may find that the exposure is exactly what you need to take your wedding business to the next level.

Approach PR in a strategic and controlled way; knowing who you want to reach, the message you want to convey and where best your content will succeed.

Ensure that your efforts are measurable through google analytics and contact forms and remember that there are multiple benefits to PR aside from direct business, such as brand awareness, third party credibility and links to your website (for SEO points).

So in the words of Benjamin Franklin, all that’s left to do now is “write something worth reading or do something worth writing about”.

Get out there and leave your mark on the wedding industry because in PR, we create our own luck.

Is your wedding website deemed ‘relatable’ by couples of today?

Nowadays, wedding suppliers can expect to work on weddings of couples differing in body shape, age, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

 

The importance of building an inclusive wedding business online 

Spend a few moments thinking about the couples you’ve worked with in the past year or two.

Think about what they looked like, how their personal styles differed and whether they surprised you by being that little bit different to others you worked with years ago.

These days, wedding suppliers can expect to work on weddings of couples differing in body shape, age, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. Society is becoming increasingly diverse and thankfully, increasingly accepting of diversity too.

But the media and the online wedding world is still playing catch up and we’re not seeing widespread diversity when it comes to advertisements, magazines and websites. Here are the top Google image results for the phrase ‘UK wedding magazine’:

 

Not astoundingly diverse results, are they.

We can see that no men feature on the front of any of these magazines, nor do any older people. And the only addition of any ethnic variation comes from a magazine specific to ‘Black Brides’.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of wedding websites, social networks and advertisements still only cater to one type of client.

And yet according to a recent Wedding Industry Insights fact sheet, 40% of straight grooms and 50% of brides and grooms of color admit that it’s difficult for them to relate to, or see themselves reflected in the content and imagery of magazines and online media. Same-sex couples agree that this is a challenge for them when wedding planning.

So how can we, as wedding industry professionals, ensure that we’re being inclusive and welcoming all clients with open arms on our business website, social networks and in our marketing materials?

How wedding professionals can portray an inclusive online presence

Ask yourself; are all of your recent clients (from the past year) reflected, represented and considered in your marketing content?

If your answer is no, here are five simple ways in which you can incorporate diversity and ensure your content is applicable to all modern day couples on your website:

1. The simplest way to ensure your website is relatable to millennial couples is to showcase a diverse assortment of visual content. Include same sex couples and couples of varying ethnicity in your main website image and ensure that your photo albums and video content also includes men and women of all ages and body types.

 

2. Ensure that your diverse portfolio of images is mirrored on all social media profiles you own. Consistency in image content and tone across all online platforms (blogs, social media and website) is the most effective way of building a brand with couples of today.

 

3. List out all of the types of weddings you service on your website to make it clear that you’re open to working with same-sex couples. You could detail the types of weddings you cater to on your services page or even on the FAQ section of your website.

 

4. If you’re struggling to gather original imagery that represents all the types of weddings you have – or would – cater to, purchase stock imagery that doesn’t necessarily focus on people. Use high quality images of wedding decorations, wedding cakes or wedding flowers instead to avoid alienating potential clients.

 

5. Ensure you’re using inclusive language on your wedding website and in all marketing materials. Ditch the term ‘bride’ in favour of the word ‘couples’ whenever you can so that same sex couples can relate to the words on your pages.

 

As we near 2018, we should expect to see more wedding businesses portraying a more diverse and inclusive brand image to potential couples – both online and offline.

Avoid being left behind and ensure your wedding business isn’t deemed ‘out of touch’ with couples of today by addressing your image now and ensuring you’re speaking to real couples in the right way.

How wedding businesses like yours are using PR to bag bookings

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.

Supplier Stories: Woodhall Spa Manor On Helping Couples Keep Wedding Costs Low

Welcome to this week’s Supplier Story! ‘Supplier Stories’ is an original Bridebook Business article series, where we go behind-the-scenes and into the wedding world through those that know it best – the experienced and talented venues and suppliers across the UK.

So whether this is your first story or 10th, enjoy as we look into the industry as a whole, and celebrate a true story in itself! Who says couples have all the fun?

Woodhall Spa Manor’s Supplier Story:

 

This week we’re shining the spotlight on Richard Platt, Managing Director at Woodhall Spa Manor. Leaving behind a life of comfort, Richard and his family set about turning a mundane set of offices into a beautiful wedding venue by restoring its Edwardian splendour. Woodhall Spa Manor is now an internationally recognised venue that helps to create an amazing wedding day for all their couples.

So without further ado, Richard over to you!

 

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family

We’re a close-knit family of three and all very driven in our own way. Jasmine, from Shanghai, has a degree in hotel management and an MBA from Leeds. When we met, she was about to embark on a career in banking in Manchester. I have a degree in German from Bristol and a background in cruise line and hotel sales and marketing. My second career was the ownership of an antiquarian bookshop in Blackheath, South London which Jasmine and I ran successfully together for eleven years with lots of help from our young daughter.

 

2. Share the story of Woodhall Spa Manor

Around 2010 we were beginning to tire of our urban retail lifestyle and were avidly watching “Country House Rescue” on TV. This gave us the idea to find a grand old building somewhere in the country and to turn it into a venue for luxury self-catering weddings. We spotted a near-derelict manor house in a charming village called Woodhall Spa, where a recent attempt at refurbishment had been abandoned. It had real potential and we were hooked! We gave up our day jobs and stepped into the unknown – it was a massive life-changing decision!

The red brick manor, with its huge sweeping staircase, high ceilings and spacious corridors, had been turned into offices in 1965. Our task was to return the office space to its original Edwardian splendour, whilst updating the business infrastructure. In July 2013, we got started and 13 months of blood, toil, tears and sweat were to follow. Jasmine was brilliant at interior design, planning and costings, whilst I quickly learnt the practicalities of DIY tasks and delegation.

 

Regular visits to the village shops meant word spread locally, which led to our first wedding booking. We secured a licence from the council and opened for weddings on 8th August 2014, and the local postmistress’s daughter married here the very next day. Since then, business has beaten a path to our door. Last year we hosted over 30 weddings and are on track for the same this year. We’ve welcomed guests from all over the world and have recently been awarded a top honour from the Luxury Travel Guide, who voted us as European Wedding Venue of the Year 2017.

 

3. What’s your favourite room in the Manor?

Every room here is different but my personal favourite is Room 1, a really big Georgian-style junior suite with lovely views over the east lawn towards the Italian sunken garden. It features a king size mahogany sleigh bed with memory foam mattress and a really comfortable sofa. Whenever I go there, I recall the time I spent levelling the floor prior to carpeting it with large sheets of plywood and 1200 screws!

 

4. What drew you to the wedding world?

Jasmine and I were trained in the hospitality business and we both have an ingrained service ethic. We are good with people and so we knew that we would probably be suited to this business. Weddings are obviously happy occasions and so the idea of filling the large manor with music, fun and laughter was very appealing.

 

5. What do you see as the biggest challenge in the wedding industry currently?

There is a perception that amazing weddings probably cost the earth, so we work hard to help our couples keep costs down wherever possible. Our model as a self-catering venue allows couples to bolt on other elements themselves – lots of couples very much enjoy holding a DIY wedding. We’ve found that self-catering is definitely the way forward for us.

 

6. What wedding venue trends are you seeing in the industry?

There’s a marked increase in the number of couples looking to marry outside in lovely, natural surroundings. With this in mind, we’ve just finished restoring the old Italian sunken garden in the grounds, together with its formal pond surrounded by tall trees. We’ve added a beautiful, white heptagonal gazebo, making the whole area perfect for outdoor ceremonies.

 

7. What is the biggest challenge you face on the wedding day itself?

Not getting in the way of the party! Sometimes we do have to make an appearance to assist with moving furniture, opening sash windows or changing a light bulb. But because we’ve rented the manor to the bride and groom for their exclusive party, we really do like to be as inconspicuous as possible unless we’re needed.

 

8. Do you feel technology is changing the industry?

Massively so! Gone is the need to advertise in glossy magazines, as the internet and social media does it all for you. It is far cheaper, much more targeted and vastly more effective in achieving measurable results.

 

9. What has been your biggest time saver this year?

I’ve found an ingenious way to varnish the function room floors. I used to use a large brush but now I use a long telescopic pole designed for window cleaners – with a sheepskin T-piece on the end. Sweeping this over hundreds of large old parquet blocks means I can do three huge floors in an hour!

 

10. How do reviews affect the industry?

For the most part, the public’s perception of the wedding industry is now, more than ever, influenced by online reviews and I believe them to be a generally very positive thing.

 

11. How do you get to know your couples before the big day?

Appointments are usually requested and confirmed by email. I always do the first show around. I was a tour guide as a student and went on to show many clients around cruise ships in my 20s, and after 3 years at Woodhall Spa, I still really do enjoy interacting with new guests. When showing them the manor and grounds, I love the challenge of listening to what people want and how to adapt what we offer in order to best suit their requirements.

If we’re shortlisted for a second meeting Jasmine goes into the real detail of timings, seating plans and so on. It’s not unusual for couples to visit half a dozen times before their big day, to go over the details with us or to meet their other suppliers here. Through this, we build a good rapport with our couples up until the big day.

 

12. What do you think makes Woodhall Spa Manor unique?

We take a totally DIY approach. We’ll ask: “What sort of a wedding do you have in mind?” and go from there. We always talk about what they want to do and achieve, and are open to working with any suppliers they suggest.

A lot of the basics are included in our standard price, but we’ll always be willing to help in any other way we can. For instance, we offer free access to the manor a day or so before the rental period to set tables, arrange decorations and to store wines. We always give a bottle of chilled champagne to the bride and groom and, in the summer, there’s often fresh borage and mint freely available from our private herb garden for clients’ Pimms.

 

13. What do you think makes for the perfect wedding?

Extensive venue and supplier research to find the right team at the right price; meticulous planning; teamwork; delegation; and luck with the weather. Get these right and you’re well on the way to achieving the perfect wedding!

 

14. What’s your favourite wedding memory?

An RAF officer from nearby Coningsby arranged for a special “bachelor flypast” just before he went inside to get married. A World War 2 Spitfire suddenly swooped low over the manor, “buzzing” the assembled guests standing around the fountain in the glorious June sunshine. It was a wow moment to remember!

 

15. What do you love about Bridebook?

It’s young, refreshing, very well-informed and very passionate about the weddings industry. A brilliant, go-ahead online platform.

 

16. Any other comments?

Just a big thank you to Bridebook for the kind invitation to share the story of Woodhall Spa Manor with your readers.

 

A huge thank you to Richard for sharing his Supplier Story. See the charming  Woodhall Spa Manor in their Bridebook profile.

 

Want to feature in your own Supplier Story? Get in touch with Beth at [email protected].

Supplier Stories: The Award-Winning East Quay Venue Share their Insights into the Modernisation of Weddings

Welcome to this week’s Supplier Story! ‘Supplier Stories’ is an original Bridebook Business article series, where we go behind-the-scenes and into the wedding world through those that know it best – the experienced and talented venues and suppliers across the UK.

So whether this is your first story or 10th, enjoy as we look into the industry as a whole, and celebrate a true story in itself! Who says couples have all the fun?

 

East Quay Venue’s Supplier Story:

 

This week we’re talking to the wonderful Clare Potten from East Quay Venue. After transforming the original home of the Oyster Fishery into a unique venue, East Quay maintains its coastal heritage by providing scenic beachside weddings backed by a stunning sunset. The staff at East Quay go above and beyond to help couples create a history of their own on their special day.

So without further ado, Clare it’s over to you!

 

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your team?

Our team consists of three Event Managers, Clare, Kirsty and Shelly, all who have worked for the company for a minimum of 8 years. All of us have worked in different aspects of the company, including the Hotel Continental, Lobster Shack Restaurant and our very own Oyster Production. We have a strong team of dedicated event-only staff, including bar, waiting and chefs.  All who know the history of the building, our lovely surrounding areas and backstory of our Oyster Production, offering guests an insight into our culture-rich venue.

 

2. Share the story of East Quay Venue so far?

The East Quay Venue was originally the grading warehouse for the Seasalter and Ham Oyster Fishery Company. The building was designed to face the shingle shoreline so the fisherman could keep a watchful eye over their precious oyster beds.

Fast forwarding some 200 years, the venue retains the majority of its structural features and boasts its cultural heritage on walls and ceilings.

 

3. What drew you to the wedding world?

I was drawn to the venue itself for its relaxed feel and atmosphere. The general wedding community are warm, friendly and supportive. It is very satisfying seeing couples so happy on the big day after all of the planning.

 

4. What’s your favourite aspect/room/part of East Quay Venue?

The view! Whitstable sunsets are rich in colour and make a perfect photo opportunity for couples sat in one of our colourful deckchairs.

 

5. What do you see as the biggest challenge in the wedding industry currently?

Traditions – the wedding industry has modernised over the years, with more couples wanting a relaxed feel to the day. A wedding reflects you as a couple and the love you share together and sometimes input from those around you enforcing traditions can make the planning process challenging.

 

6. What wedding venue trends are you seeing in the industry?

Wedding trends change so often, and the venue sets the scene for the rest of the planning and décor. Most couples are looking for venue’s with quirks, charm and atmosphere, meaning the rest of the décor planning flows easily and efficiently.

 

7. What is the biggest challenge you face on the wedding day itself?

Guests being late – attempting to organise a bride or groom and their main wedding party, whilst keeping them hidden from the late arrivals can be challenging.

 

8. How do you feel technology is changing the industry?

Technology is changing the way couples plan their wedding. The positive side of technology during the planning process include: apps, quick email, shared documents for on the go joint decision making, reviews and easy access information.

On the day technology has both positive and negative role in the wedding. Whilst having a wedding ‘hashtag’ is a great way to see all your wedding photos in one place, it also may be encouragement for an over-excited guest sharing photos before the ceremony is over.

 

9. What has been your biggest time saver this year?

The ability to schedule posts to social media platforms in advance. 

 

10. How do reviews affect the industry?

Reviews play an important role to both couples planning their big day and suppliers growing their business. Positive reviews help the couple to relax knowing they have put their faith in the right supplier.  For suppliers, a review with constructive criticism can help them to develop their business and build their portfolio.

 

11. How do you get to know your couples before the big day?

Couples are assigned a designated Event Manager as soon as they book, meaning they have one person to liaise with throughout the whole process. The Event Manager is on hand to assist with anything the couple may need, and is available for one-to-one meetings as often as needed.

 

12. What do you think makes Easy Quay Venue unique?

Not only is our building one of a kind, our staff are too. Our Event Managers are friendly, relatable and easy to get on with. Building a personal relationship with couples makes the planning process more efficient and helps everyone feel at ease on the day itself.

 

13. What do you think makes for the perfect wedding?

When each partner has an equal say in making the wedding personal to them. Little touches which reflect the couple’s personality always help the guests enjoy the day, making them smile and reminding them that they are at a loved one’s wedding.

 

14. What’s your favourite wedding memory?.

One of my first couples had a Bavarian themed wedding, with an Oompah Band and each guest had a personalised stein glass as their wedding favour. The couple were so sweet and gave me a personalised glass too.

 

15. What do you love about Bridebook?

It’s easy to access and to use. The website is self-explanatory, with loads of helpful hints and tips. The on-hand team are friendly, professional and approachable.

 

A huge thank you to Clare for sharing her Supplier Story. See the beautiful East Quay Venue in their Bridebook profile.

 

Want to feature in your own Supplier Story? Get in touch with Beth at [email protected].

Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tips for Wedding Venue Professionals

Feeling overwhelmed by marketing your venue to new potential couples on social media? Christina Barker, Wedding Planner for Chantilly Rose and wedding marketing professional has honed her skills and educational talent within the industry through years of experience and research. Now she shares her top tips for #winning in social media marketing and boosting the awareness of your wedding venue below.

 

Whether you like it or not, your potential clients are all on social media. 2 billion of those are on Facebook alone.

You want to attract couples to your wedding venue so why not utilise those popular social media channels.

Facebook is still by far the biggest social networking channel in the world and will probably continue to be so for a long time.  

With YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter also on the rise you need to ensure your wedding venue is being visible and standing out from the crowd. We’ve put together 10 top social media tips for your wedding venue to increase bookings.  

 

1. Post consistently. 

Post engaging content and videos which will entice your audience to interact with your accounts. When they do this it also increases the chance of being shown in their news feeds. When we say post consistently, this doesn’t mean that you suddenly remember you’ve not posted in a while and so instead post 5 things on Facebook in one go. Spread your posts out. For example, we recommend you post on Facebook 1-2 times a day. Even if you are only posting something twice a week. Keep it consistent. Your followers will be expecting to see new content at the same time each week from you. Use a scheduling tool to help you so you can plan all your posts in advance. This saves heaps of time and frees you up to do other tasks.

 

 2. Share content from other businesses.  

Popular wedding magazines and blogs are full of wedding inspiration for couples to peruse. You might have some recommended suppliers on your list, so keep an eye on what they are posting on their pages and help them out by sharing what they do. They will be thankful for it and doing this will help you form relationships with suppliers and other people in the industry. If you are sharing good content, couples will be coming to your account to look for more. 

 

3. Host regular competitions. 

Think about what you want to promote and have fun with this. It could be a simple like and share. It doesn’t have to be anything massive, just something that will help your page get the engagement it needs. There’s no point having a page with lots of likes but no one is interacting with it. This will also give you a chance to reach new people. 

Do be sure to keep an eye on Facebook’s ever changing guidelines and rules when it comes to what you can and can’t do. 

 

4. Advertise on Facebook. 

This is a HUGE one. If you aren’t using Facebook ads you are definitely missing out on a massive market. Using Facebook ads you can target specific people. For example, newly engaged couples within a certain radius of your venue. You can spend as little as £1 a day on these ads. Obviously the more money you budget though, the more people you will be able to reach so I would always invest in these ads. Using Facebook ads you can also link it with Instagram so your ad will show on Instagram at the same time!

Unlike something like a magazine advert which you can’t track, with Facebook ads you are able to see exactly how many people have seen it and how many people clicked on it. They can take a while to get your head around but this is something you can definitely outsource to a digital marketing company like us. 

 

5. Utilise your cover photo. 

This is one people always seem not to bother with or not know about. If your wedding venue has simply uploaded a photo, thought that will do and left it, you are missing a trick! This is one of the first things a person sees when visiting your page. You could advertise your wedding packages here or maybe your next wedding fayre. Don’t forget to add in the details in the description along with any links for them to find out more information. Always be thinking about your sales funnel! 

 

6. Check your page insights. 

Look at what is working and what isn’t. What posts are getting the most likes and comments? Continue similar posts and stop posting the things that aren’t getting any engagement. Insights are there for you to check how your page is doing, so be sure to check back regularly. Have your social media manager produce a monthly report for you.

At White Heart Marketing, our team is able to manage your page and do this all for you. 

 

7. Use LOTS of visuals. 

Couples love to see lots of photos. Be it on Instagram, Pinterest or another image based platform, they like to imagine themselves getting married at that place. They imagine all of their ideas coming together. If you are seen to be posting different styles, there’s a strong chance that one of those styles is perfect for them. If they can see that your venue is able to cater for this then they’ve pretty much already decided they want to book your venue before they’ve even contacted you! 

 

8. Hashtag, hashtag, hashtag. 

Hashtags are widely used on both Instagram and Twitter. A hashtag can be used to find other people talking about the same subject. If you search for #yourweddingvenue (insert name), you can then engage with everyone that has used it. For example, a couple may have taken a romantic photo in the grounds of your venue after visiting for a show round. You could comment, ‘congratulations on your engagement, thank you for visiting us at your show round earlier, we hope your visit was everything you wished for.’ 

When posting your own photo to showcase your venue, make sure you are including all the relevant hashtags so people can search for you. Hashtags like #WeddingWednesday are great ones to include! On Instagram add your hashtags in the first comment after posting your photo and description. This keeps your feed tidy and hides your hashtags once you get a good amount of comments. You can use up to 30 hashtags on your Instagram posts so make sure you are taking advantage of that so even more people can find you!

 

9. Keep your information up to date. 

When was the last time you checked your ‘about’ section on all of your accounts? Have you made sure everything is completed? Do you have any additional services you can add on? Are your wedding brochures current with all the correct pricing? Your potential clients want to be able to see the information they need without having to go off to another site or clicking on too many other links. If you have everything where it should be then they are more likely to spend time on your account as oppose to someone else’s. 

 

10. Don’t be a slave to social media. 

Just because your clients are on social media, doesn’t mean to say you should be on every single platform. Although it’s great for SEO, if they click on a social media channel and see its not been active for months it doesn’t give your company a great first impression. Try and stick to two that work really well for your ideal client. Usually for wedding venues these platforms are Facebook and Instagram. Do those two platforms really well and you could be booking out couples for years to come!

 

Happy couple hunting! If you feel this is all totally overwhelming, just know that you are not alone. I hope these tips have given you a little insight into what type of social media you should be doing for your wedding venue. 

If you have any questions you would like to ask or you are interested in us managing any aspect of your social media, please contact us. We would love to hear from you! 

 

5 easy ways to prepare your wedding business for the slow season during peak season

5 quick and simple things to bear in mind today that will help you attract newly engaged couples and secure more wedding bookings around autumn / winter time.

 

Chances are you’re so busy preparing for the weddings you’ve booked for right now that the last thing you’ve got time to think about is keeping your wedding business ticking over in the slower, winter months.

But with winter weddings becoming more popular thanks to better value for money, more availability and the romance of winter settings gaining greater appeal, you could find yourself with a few fantastic slow-season booking opportunities if you put in a tiny bit of prep work now.

 

Fortunately, we’ve prepared a checklist of 5 quick and simple things to bear in mind today that will help you attract newlywed couples around autumn / winter time and beat the competition to the punch!

1. Ask for testimonials and reviews as you finalise each wedding

As you come to the end of each wedding you cater for, be sure to ask for and chase up reviews, recommendations and testimonials as the chances are, if you sit back and wait for them to trickle in, newlyweds will forget to send them at all.

According to a recent survey, 70% of customers will leave a review for a business if you ask them for it.

Recommendations play a significant role in winning new business and securing more bookings as a wedding supplier, and it is a pretty quick and straightforward way to ensure you’re ahead of the competition as we approach off-peak wedding season.

To read more on the impact reviews have on wedding bookings and how best to approach gathering recommendations, view this article.

Upload all good feedback to your Bridebook Profile as you collect it, as it’s better for SEO and for generating new business steadily if you can publish new content regularly rather than bulk upload it.

2. Make sure your Bridebook profile is up-to-date and complete

With more and more newly engaged couples opting to use wedding directories to search for wedding suppliers, it is essential that you ensure all profiles you own are complete and up to date – particularly with regards to contact details, pricing, reviews and photographs.

It should take no more than 30 minutes to fully complete your profile on Bridebook and with exposure to around 40,000 wedding-planning couples, it’s a marketing channel that pretty much takes care of itself whilst you’re busy managing your bookings during peak wedding season.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice to benefit from SEO, exposure and a valuable database of leads and contacts to follow up as we approach off-peak wedding season without having to do very much at all?

3. Share photographs of your weddings as you go

Get into the habit of taking photographs and uploading them to Facebook and Instagram as you prepare for and complete each of your summer weddings.

By creating a presence for yourself online now during peak wedding season, you’re much more likely to have your content discovered online during off-peak wedding season.

Wedding suppliers who attempt to upload photos all at once will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage to competitors who have been present online and keeping their content relevant throughout the spring and summer months.

4. Keep an eye out for local wedding fairs you’d like to attend 

Most wedding fairs take place during off-peak season and these events often provide a golden opportunity for you to show off your summer portfolio and book new clients.

 

National wedding fairs are good for inspiration and large scale networking but can often carry a high cost. Keep an eye out for local wedding fairs (or host your own) and put your name down as an attendee early on to ensure you guarantee your place for a great price.

The clear benefit of attending local wedding fairs is that you’re likely to meet local engaged couples – your core target audience – as well as local suppliers who you can network with for the sake of recommendations and repeat business.

5. Offer deals and special packages

Towards the end of peak season you could start promoting special offers and deals to attract off-peak brides and grooms.

If you choose to adopt this strategy, make sure that you prepare marketing material a few months beforehand and that you start promoting your special deals on social media towards the end of the summer and at any wedding fairs you attend.

This requires a little more time than the other tactics we’ve listed above but can be a very effective way to secure last minute bookings.

Are you prepared to peak during the slow season?

If you’re planning to stay busy as the wedding season draws to a close why not try out a few of the above techniques to keep your wedding business brand front of mind for engaged couples preparing for a winter wedding.

Most of these tips are considered best practice anyway so get into good habits now and you’ll benefit from bookings and exposure in the long term.

Using local SEO to attract local brides and grooms

Location plays a huge role in the search terms and phrases couples use when planning their wedding. Here are 5 simple ways to dominate local SEO in the wedding industry.

 

5 simple ways to dominate local SEO in the wedding industry

We’ve already discussed why content is key to SEO success and how to make it work for your wedding business so now we want to hone in on the importance of location-based SEO and targeting.

Location plays a huge role in the search terms and phrases couples use when planning their wedding and to be frank, they’re unlikely to search without it.

Think about it; which millennial couple would search for the term ‘wedding venues’ which returns almost 22 million results (most of which will be irrelevant) when they could search for ‘wedding venues in London’ and be presented with just over 2 million relevant results?

It’s a no brainer.

Here are 5 simple ways to ensure your website is optimised for local search.

 

1. Ensure you’re including specific local areas in all of your content

Rather than describe your business as a ‘beautiful wedding venue in London’ be as specific about your wedding business in your content as possible.

Narrow the search field and conduct research into keyword volume and competition for terms like ‘wedding venues in East London’ or ‘wedding venues in Hackney, London’.

The more specific you can be the better, as although you’ll be optimising for a smaller search volume there will be less competition for these super long tail keyword phrases and the improved intent of those searchers will mean that they’re more likely to convert to actual bookings.

Remember that Meta Descriptions and Title Tags matter too, and you should customise these so that they reflect the content on your page and the location or area you’re looking to target.

The more relevant your content is to those looking for a wedding supplier like you, the more likely you will be to boost traffic to your website, increase your website rankings and boost wedding bookings.

 

2. Include related local businesses and local events in your content

What’s happening in your local area this month? By incorporating details of what’s happening in your town and how you and your business are getting involved in your content, you’ll earn ‘Google points’ for relevancy that will help you gain authority for local wedding searches.

When you write about local wedding-related events remember to include the names of wedding venues, cities, towns and regions.

Top Tip: why not offer to link to other wedding suppliers in the local area in return for them sharing your content with their contacts and social media followers?

 

3. Ensure you’ve claimed your Google My Business page

You know those bulleted businesses that show up underneath a map at the top of most Google results when you include location in your search?

Those businesses are featured there because they’ve set up a Google My Business page.

Here’s an example of the wedding venues that feature when we search for ‘wedding venues in London:

 

It’s totally free to set up a business page and the amount of local interest and ‘click throughs’ you’re likely to earn for featuring here is well worth the small amount of time needed to set everything up.

As far as local targeting goes, this one is the biggie. Set up your free Google My Business listing today.

 

4. Reviews matter

In the wedding industry, reviews and recommendations play a huge role in winning new business. According to a recent survey, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, and seven out of 10 customers will leave a review for a business if asked.

Focus on publishing reviews on your website but also on your wedding business’s Facebook page and Google My Business page. Having good reviews on these sites will attract local prospective clients and support your business in local results, as reviews and star ratings will appear alongside your contact details once you’re set up on Google My Business (as demonstrated in the example above).

 

5. Feature in online directories

One of the easiest ways to shortcut your way to more wedding bookings when it comes to local search is to feature on free online wedding directories.

The majority of these wedding directories have a lot more resource to throw at optimising their site for SEO, so rather than compete with them for space in the top 3 results, get listed on their site and you’ll be top of the search results anyway.

Some wedding directories even feature above local listings in the search engine results page which means it really is very important that you include complete and up to date information in your wedding business profile.

Is your Bridebook profile complete and up to date with your address, contact details, pricing and pictures?

 

Wedding location makes a world of difference

Let newly engaged couples know *where you are *to really drive online bookings for your wedding business.

Competition for local space is hotting up this summer and you can bet if you’re not on top of your rankings, your competitors will be.

Follow our 5 simple tips to get a head start and claim your space as the number one local wedding supplier in your area.

4 Killer SEO Content Tips for Wedding Professionals

How to write killer SEO content for your wedding business

Is your wedding business ranking #1 in google? No? Then it’s probably time to change a few things…

 

Why content is key to SEO success

The entire business world has a finger (or in most instances, an entire hand) on the pulse of SEO because it’s now recognised and accepted as a primary vehicle for customer attraction and sales.

And if this isn’t the case for your wedding business yet it soon will be; that is, if you get it right.

It’s easy to get bogged down with popular terms like ‘keywords’, ‘links’ and ‘tags’ but ultimately the difference between success and failure in SEO lies with quality content.

Pssst! If you’re new to SEO and don’t have a clue what those popular terms actually mean, don’t fret. Check out this Complete Glossary of Essential SEO Jargon!

 

Are you making sure that all of your content is as relevant, interesting and engaging for newly engaged couples as you can?

Succeeding as a wedding business online is down to producing the right content, and choosing the right content to produce is reliant on you understanding what your potential clients / couples are searching for online, and then providing them with the best answers to their questions.

 

Here are four SEO content tips that will guarantee you soar to position one in the search results…

Tip 1: Act natural – optimise content but relax when it comes to keyword density

It’s important to know which keyword terms you’re optimising for but don’t let keywords rule your writing.

Even some SEO pro’s are guilty of meticulously measuring keyword density using tools like SEO Quake; counting the number of times a keyword is used on a particular page in body content, meta data and alt tags.

And whilst it can be good to check your content with these kinds of tools and ensure your keyword density is meeting minimum requirements it’s essential that you always write for engaged couples first before you consider how Google feels about things.

According to SEO guru Rand Fishkin, this is the general rule of thumb for keyword repetition:

 

Google understands how words and phrases relate which is exactly why you haven’t got to worry too much about keyword repetition rules. Avoid over-optimizing your website and make sure you don’t cram in keyword phrases for the sake of it.

Include the keywords that brides and grooms in your local market are searching for to find your type of wedding service in your page titles, blog posts and website copy but always use natural language that is relevant, credible and accurate.

Google rates high quality content that meets the user’s needs so deliver the content and experience engaged couples want and answer the questions they’re asking. This is a far more effective way to boost rankings and improve usability than getting keyword stuffy.

 

Tip 2: How to choose content topics that will help your wedding business rank well 

The best way to approach choosing a content topic is to combine insight into long tail keyword phrases with any content gaps in your wedding specialism, and to think of the questions engaged couples will want answers to.

Firstly, you’ll need to select your core subject or specialism, for example: “wedding venues in London”. You want to rank well for this keyword phrase and be considered an expert when it comes to delivering relevant content and results to searchers as it’s something that’s closely related to what your business does.

Next, you’ll want to Google the phrase yourself and check out which articles or sites are already ranking well for the term “wedding venues in London”.

How’s the competition looking?

If nobody else seems to have answered this question well and you’re sure you could do better, go ahead and focus on writing content for this relatively broad phrase. But if there are loads of relevant results already (which is likely when looking at broad search terms) it’s best you try to think of* different *words or phrases that are still relevant to this core keyword term. This will allow you to create truly unique content and have a better chance at ranking well for more specific search queries.

If we take the example “wedding venues in London”, related phrases could include “affordable wedding venues London”, “wedding venues London art gallery”, “wedding venues London and Essex” etc. Ideally, you want to carve out a relevant but differentiated niche for your topic, for example: “How to hold an affordable wedding at a London venue”, as these kinds of long-tail phrases are likely to be* less* competitive and will help you build authority around your core topic without going head to head with an established website already ranking well for this topic.

Take a look at some of the other words or phrases existing articles include frequently and use tools like Ubersuggest and KeywordTool.io to help you expand your related keywords lists.

 

Tip 3: Optimise your images for SEO

Choosing the right images to accompany your written content is really important as Alt Tags contribute as a ranking factor for Google when deciding if your content is high value.

Here are the key things you should consider when choosing images to help support your content and improve your SEO value:

  • Images must be engaging, high quality and attention grabbing.

  • Images must relate to your topic, add value to the piece and /or illustrate a point that is difficult to explain to enhance the overall reading experience.

  • Think about the size of the images you’re using as loading speed is a core SEO indicator and slow websites will lose readers and potential new business.

  • Remember to optimise your images with Alt tags and relevant descriptions that relate to the keyword phrase you’re optimising for.

  • Separate words with a hyphen when labelling images, not with a space or underscore. Search engines only recognize hyphens as word separators and this can affect how your images rank during a search.

Bridebook Business Tip: if you struggle to gather high quality, original images to support your content, why not try to connect with wedding photographers working at the same weddings as you, and offer to link them if they let you use a few of their photos? Links are absolutely vital for SEO so it’s a great currency to bid in when pairing up with other wedding suppliers to exchange favours.

 

Tip 4: Post fresh, new content regularly

As a rule of thumb, you should be looking to share a blog post or content of some description on topics of interest to your target audience around 2 or 3 times a week.

This could include one post on your own wedding website and a guest post for another related wedding website. Try submitting features to popular wedding blogs to help boost your website traffic and visibility. Publishing articles on third party platforms or partner websites can really help boost your rankings as it means you’re accessing a new audience and earning a relevant backlink to your own site.

Top Tip: ask any websites you publish content on if they can give you a followed link back to your wedding website in return for the content you’re contributing. Followed links act as signals telling Google that another related wedding website endorses yours. Also, try to use your core keyword term as anchor text in your backlink to earn extra SEO points!

Remember to share all of the content you produce on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and on any social channels you’re active on. There’s no point producing all that great content if nobody knows about it!

 

Are you content with your content?

Conduct a quick audit of your wedding website today and decide which content will stay, which will go and which can be re-purposed or edited to be improved.

The best way to fall short of SEO expectations is to leave stale, uninteresting content on your site.

Use our SEO content tips to start improving your chances of a position 1 ranking and we promise, the wedding bookings won’t be far behind.

5 Reasons Why Smart Venues are Hosting Wedding Fairs, Open Days and Events in 2017/18

The buzz around wedding fairs and open days is back, and it’s a couple-attraction technique that all wedding venues and suppliers should look to incorporate into their 2018 marketing plan.

Increase your wedding bookings with this experiential marketing technique.

 

When it comes to showcasing wedding venues, nothing beats an online or offline advertising campaign like a real life tour of the venue itself.

Wedding fairs and open days have the unique, face-to-face ability to make newly engaged couples visualise their wedding day more vividly than any online experience could.

This kind of experience based couple attraction technique is called experiential marketing – or event and engagement marketing – and it’s a technique that’s usually very expensive. That is, unless you ARE the wedding venue in question; in which case it’s a low cost, high impact way to increase wedding bookings in 2018 and beyond.

 

Creating a real wedding experience for loved-up couples

Experiential marketing – that is, immersing a potential client in a fun and memorable experience that reflects the product of service you’re offering – is an excellent way for wedding industry professionals to create a closer bond between engaged couples and your wedding venue or business.

Wedding fairs and open days are here to stay

 

Think about it…if a wedding venue or exhibiting wedding supplier stirs positive emotions in a bride or groom then they’re far more likely to remember and associate those great feelings with you and your wedding business; which in turn, is likely to lead to more bookings.

Simple.

And it’s a client attraction tactic that wedding venues and suppliers are starting to adopt more often as the true effects of this marketing approach on bookings are realised.

A recent Bridebook Business survey found that of 2,200 newly engaged UK couples surveyed, 63% had attended wedding shows near where they lived and 40% of those couples had attended a wedding fair at the wedding venue they later went on to book.

 

In terms of return on investment, wedding venues do remarkably well out of open days and fairs, as the latest Bridebook survey proves.

But if you still need convincing, here are 5 additional benefits to choosing open days as a sustainable and impactful form of new client attraction in the wedding industry…

1.Group viewings for couples 

Wedding venue staff save bundles of time by inviting groups of couples to view their venue and grounds all at once rather than having to dedicate their time to individual meetings.


Why group bookings can benefit your wedding business

 

Your time is valuable but if you want to increase bookings you must make couples feel special when visiting your wedding venue.

When you host a wedding fayre or open day, you can spend time decorating your venue and making it perfect for maximum impact, rather than having to work around existing events and guests – as is often the case when hosting individual meetings with couples.

 

2. Connecting with fellow suppliers and networking

Wedding fairs provide an opportunity for venues to promote existing, preferred wedding suppliers and meet new local suppliers.

Invite local wedding suppliers along to your open day and invite existing partner suppliers to set up a small stand offering information about their product or service.

Why connecting and networking with fellow wedding suppliers at wedding fairs can benefit your wedding business

 

When venues can offer couples approved supplier contacts they’re helping to take the stress of organising a wedding and all the little bits that need addressing away from the happy couple.

It’s essential that local wedding suppliers forge strong relationships with each other to help all non-conflicting parties build a presence online and secure more bookings. The alternative to this is to do nothing and let non-local wedding suppliers with bigger budgets dominate your online space and take local business away.

 

3. The scarcity complex

One key factor in the decision making process for soon-to-be brides and grooms is how desirable a particular venue or wedding supplier seems to be.

Subconsciously as human beings, we want what is perceived to be in demand.

By opening your doors to groups of couples rather than individuals, wedding venues and suppliers can often generate a kind of ‘battle for bookings’ as soon to be newlyweds compete to secure the best day for their big day.

4. Showing off your venue in a number of different themes/seasons

How great is it to be able to show newly engaged couples first hand how your wedding venue looks in spring, summer, autumn and winter? Now that’s a USP!

Nothing is more likely to evoke emotions in visiting couples than being able to serve mulled wine by an open fire at a wedding show in winter, or host games on the lawn during a summer wedding fayre.

Hedsor House & Park host an Indian Summer Inspired Wedding Showcase on 27th September where guests can enjoy a glass of fizz and wander around the grounds at their leisure; taking in the Indian inspired ceremonial seating in the domed hall and viewing first hand how their wedding breakfast could look in the recently refurbished ballroom.

Show off your wedding venue with different themes ar

5. Invite existing bookings along too

Couples love to revisit their venue whilst planning their big day and they love to show it off to family and close friends too. Why not invite them all along to your next open day for the sake of ‘decorative inspiration’ and at the same time, boost attendee numbers and show couples potentially looking to book your venue how many other couples are already committed to planning their wedding with you.

This tactic leads us back to the scarcity complex as you’ll be showing newly engaged couples how many others have already chosen to book your venue for their big day.

 

Wedding fairs and open days are here to stay

Despite experiencing a bit of a dip in popularity a few years ago, the buzz around wedding fairs and open days is back, and it’s a couple-attraction technique that all wedding suppliers should look to incorporate in their 2018 marketing plan.

If saving time and increasing wedding bookings is on your agenda for 2017 / 2018, you’ll want to get in front of the people who matter today.

Do you have a wedding fair or open day that you’re looking to advertise? Share the details with [email protected] and we will share it with our social community of 250K for FREE!

4 wedding traditions that are getting ditched when couples get hitched

Here are 4 outdated wedding traditions that wedding suppliers should scratch off the list when working with 2017 / 2018 couples.

The wedding suppliers tick list is changing as we near 2018…

As wedding suppliers, we all have very different stories to tell when it comes to catering to the unique tastes and preferences of the soon-to-be-wedded couples we work with.

But we’ve noted a few old school traditions that seem to have reached the ‘death do us part’ portion of the wedding planning process.

As with most traditions, over time, their true meaning and significance is lost because they simply aren’t relevant any more.

Here are 4 outdated wedding traditions that wedding suppliers should scratch off the list when working with 2017 / 2018 couples.

1. The bouquet toss

Wedding florists…when was the last time a bride ordered an extra bouquet to toss to her single ladies?

It was probably a while ago.

We’ve all experienced that cringe-worthy moment when the dance floor is cleared and the singles are asked to line up and prepare to fight for the good-luck petals. Fortunately for all wedding guests of 2017 and beyond this strange custom has almost completely disappeared.

Wedding florists and wedding planners – don’t bring up the bouquet toss unless the couple bring it up themselves. It may make you look a little ‘last year darling’.

In fact, instead of throwing the bouquet to singletons, wedding flowers are now being given to wedding party guests as gifts to take home. Waste is a thing of the past.

Fun fact! Do you know where the bouquet toss originated from? In medieval Europe it was good luck to touch the bride so rather than have her dress grabbed at, she’d throw her bouquet at the crowd to distract them and then she’d make a run for it. I think a hug is the done thing these days…

2. Smashing cake in the bride’s face

Smashing the cake into the bride’s face is a tradition that stems (albeit tenuously) from the breaking of bread over the bride’s head for the sake of fertility and as a demonstration of male dominance.

We’re pretty sure nowadays it’s just an act that makes for silly photos and memorable moments but most brides are understandably not over the moon when it comes to being coated in cake for the remainder of their wedding day.

Wedding cake suppliers – breathe a sigh of relief because your iced masterpiece will actually be enjoyed and appreciated by guests as intended.

Modern day brides and grooms are choosing to skip this ritual altogether and instead, are investing more time and money in making their wedding cake an elaborate affair and a significant feature of their day.

In fact, Bridebook estimates that couples will budget £292 for their wedding cake. Even more reason not to waste any!

3. Wedding jewellery should be understated

Once upon a wedding, accessories were supposed to take a back seat and let the dress do the the talking.

But brides today are opting for big, bold accessories to bring their look up to date. Cue brightly coloured shoes, show-stopping hair pieces and statement necklaces.

Wedding dress and accessories suppliers – note that many brides today are choosing to invest their money in one big focal piece rather than lots of little accessories. Make sure your collection reflects this shift so that brides can visualise the complete end result in your boutique without having to shop elsewhere for more contemporary pieces.

4. Bridesmaids should carry matching bouquets

Couples are now choosing to mismatch floral arrangements including asking bridesmaids to carry different flowers in a similar hue or similar flowers in different but complementary shades.

Or dare to be different and offer paper bouquets to brides! Cheaper than real flowers and way cooler – your brides can make their new-age bouquets as wacky as they like!

Stand out as a wedding florist of tomorrow by offering this idea to couples to show you keep abreast of the latest trends and can cater to them accordingly.

Don’t go changing…

…unless you’d like to win more bookings and develop your wedding business!

It’s really important for wedding suppliers to adapt with the latest wedding trends – whether ditching old or adopting new because you want to be taken seriously as a contender in the wedding industry of tomorrow.

7 things Wedding Venues can clarify upfront to help secure bookings

By offering information on things newly engaged couples may not have even thought about, you’ll earn their trust and most likely, a booking too.

 
 
Newly engaged couples usually begin their wedding planning journey by choosing a venue.

This means that you’re faced with dreamy couples making big decisions that they may not be completely qualified to make this early in their wedding planning journey!

Evidently, the look of a venue is the key driver in a couple deciding which to choose, followed by price and capacity.

But there are a few other crucial questions couples often forget to ask whilst caught up in the moment.

Give your wedding venue the edge over competing venues by offering this information upfront and forcing them to ask the same questions of competing venues.

 

7 things wedding venues should clarify to help win hearts and bookings

1. Mention the wedding coordinator

If you’re going to be on hand throughout the wedding planning process but you’ll be handing over to an on-the-day wedding coordinator or qualified team member on your potential clients actual wedding day, mention this.

Be upfront and say that you’ve got an excellent wedding day coordinator who you’ll all work closely with throughout the planning process, and that this person will make sure everything runs smoothly on the day.

Reassure the couple that they’ll get a chance to meet this person before their big day once all of the important details have been captured accurately to make sure that they are comfortable that everything is in hand.

2. Let the couple know when they’ll have access to your wedding venue

If you’ve got another wedding planned at your venue around the same time, let the couple know this and if possible give an approximate time that they’ll be granted access to rooms in order to set up and decorate.

This conversation may seem a little premature but it’s something the couple will need to consider, and your forethought at this stage will be gratefully received and prove that you have thought of everything for them / not missed a trick.

3. How does everything fit in the space they’re looking to hire?

Create a vision for couples when you’re showing them around your wedding venue. It can be difficult to visualise a wedding if the room the couple is looking to hire isn’t set up for one at the time of their visit, so walk them around and mention where they could have the top table, the buffet and the dance floor.

By helping build a vision for the couple they’re more likely to imagine their wedding there and book.

4. Mention the entertainment equipment you have to offer

Lots of couples fail to ask about the logistics of evening entertainment and then fall short when they realise they need to provide their own equipment.

Let the couple know that they’ll be saving money on evening entertainment at your wedding venue because you already have a state of the art sound system with speakers and handheld microphones in place, which could be used for speeches and music.

If you’ve got cool lighting options for the evening, add this into the conversation too.

5. Give the option for a dinner the night before or brunch the day after

Help the couple to really make the most of their wedding experience by offering to host an arrival dinner for close guests the night before the wedding, or a brunch the day after.

Tagging on an additional meal will again help build a vision for the couple and show that you’re aware they’ll want to make the most of the time they have with their nearest and dearest.

6. Be bold and mention the weather

Although this applies particularly to weddings hosted outdoors (where discussing a plan B option in case of rain is vital) it also applies to indoor weddings, as it will affect photographs and will mean the possibility of soggy guests.

Mention the dreaded ‘R’ word and reassure the couple that if it happens, it won’t affect the smooth running of their day.

It’s also worth mentioning that if guests have brought coats, bags and umbrellas, your venue will operate a simple cloakroom or provide a rail or storage that is tucked out of the way.

7. Be open about any restrictions your venue carries

Whether your venue has noise restrictions after midnight or doesn’t allow flash photography in some areas, you’ll need to be open with the couple upfront to avoid problems later down the line.

In this scenario, it’s better to lose a booking by being honest than to disappoint a couple so much that you’re left with negative reviews and very unhappy clients.

Open the door to more information about your wedding venue and couples will love you for it

As a wedding professional, it’s important that you lead your clients to make the right decision for them and their wedding day.

Most information regarding space, equipment and service inclusions at wedding venues is limited – particularly at the early stages of planning when venues are being shortlisted – and details of what brides and grooms can expect to get for their money is unclear.

By offering an abundance of information on things the newly engaged couple may not have even thought about, you’ll earn their trust and most likely, a booking too.

How wedding suppliers can generate interest from Pinterest in 2017

Did you know that Millennials now use Pinterest as much as Instagram?

 

There’s something strange happening in the wedding industry where Pinterest and wedding suppliers are concerned…

Predominantly viewed purely as an online scrapbook designed to help wistful couples build a vision for their big day, the word ‘Pinterest’ seems to incite an involuntary groan from many wedding venues and suppliers who are unsure of how to make this ‘platform of unattainable dreams’ work in the real wedding world.

Despite being one of the newer social media platforms, Pinterest was the fastest independently launched site to reach 10 million unique monthly visitors according to the latest study by market research leaders, Statista. In fact, as of April 2017 Pinterest reported a whopping 150 million active users on its site.

That’s a pretty sizeable audience.

 

But who’s pinning what?

Did you know that Millennials now use Pinterest as much as Instagram? If we dive deeper into user demographics for the board we can see that 81% of Pinterest users are women and almost 50% of these women are aged between 18-34.

You don’t need us to tell you that this is ‘prime bride’ age.  

 

The masterminds at Pinterest saw weddings as one of their core markets a long time ago, and they recently commissioned a study to examine all wedding-related Pins and activity to get an idea of just how significantly weddings feature as a topic on the platform.

Here’s a summary of the key results:

1.Over 40 million people “turn to Pinterest for guidance across the wedding planner journey” every year

2. Pinners save almost 900 million Pins about weddings every year

3. Pinners conduct 378 million wedding-related searches every single year

4. 27% of Pinners plan for their wedding several times a day, compared to 18% of non-Pinners

This latest research proves that weddings constitute a huge market on Pinterest and that couples pinning on the platform are more engaged and involved in the wedding planning process than those that aren’t.

Sounds to us like they’re the kind of people we want to be in front of.

 

And if that’s not proof enough that weddings are and always have been one of the most pinned-about topics, a survey published by the Daily Mail back in 2012 revealed that 70% of Pinterest users had wedding-themed boards before they were even engaged. Awkward, you may think. Opportunity, you must think.

This statistic indicates a level of intent by soon-to-be newly engaged couples (or at least, they hope so) whose behaviour suggests that they will use the platform as their primary planning and idea building tool.

 

So why do wedding suppliers feel anti-social about this platform, rather than Pinterested?

 We’ve asked several partnering wedding venues and suppliers for their thoughts on Pinterest and why it doesn’t seem to take priority over other social platforms for wedding industry professionals.

We found that the three main drawbacks of the platform are as follows:

  1. Pinterest only enhances unrealistic expectations for brides and grooms, making wedding planning more difficult for wedding suppliers

  2. It’s a ‘dreamers’ platform rather than a conversion based revenue stream

  3. It requires you to post high quality images to get noticed – the expense of which (financial and time) isn’t justified by the return

It appears that many wedding venues and suppliers aren’t taking Pinterest seriously because it’s not a channel designed for direct customer engagement and bottom of the funnel conversions. But the value to be had in being present in an environment where your target demographic is sharing attractive and desirable images and essentially building the vision for their big day must be realised.

Image sharing is just a hop, click and a follow away from a website lead, and we’re going to take a look at how you can get started and improve your chances of winning bookings using this pinning platform.

 

How wedding suppliers can generate interest from Pinterest

 

1.Set up a quality profile for your wedding business

Setting up a Pinterest account is simple. Make sure that you use a striking, high quality profile picture and include a concise profile description of your wedding business, using relevant keywords and including that all-important link to your website.

Once you’re set up and before you start building an image portfolio it’s important that you remember Pinterest isn’t about promoting your wedding venue or business – it’s about gathering and showcasing high quality images that relate to your specialism and inspire couples so that they want to share and pin them.

 

2. Create specialist Pinterest boards

Create categories of boards for couples to follow – such as ‘winter weddings’, ‘UK wedding venues’ or ‘wedding flowers’ and then begin to fill your Pinterest boards with original photographs and pinned pictures.

 

You don’t have to go over-board (pin pun intended) – usually between 5 and 10 boards is fine but if you really think you need more, just try not to go over 20 as it will become difficult to fill and manage them all.

Success on Pinterest is pretty much entirely dependent on the use of high quality imagery and fortunately, the wedding industry is one of the most photograph-centric of them all. You could ask couples (or go direct to the photographers) if they’d mind you using a few of their professional photographs to eliminate the expense of you having to regularly arrange for original photographs to be taken yourself.

For more information on collaborative photo sharing ideas check out this article: Wedding venues and photographers – a match made in marketing heaven.

 

3. Pin from your own website to generate leads

Pinterest makes it easy for you to pin images directly from your website and blog. When you pin an image, the source of that image is saved which means that when your saved images are repined by other users, your website will stay listed as the original source of that image.

Put simply, it’s likely that attractive imagery will result in visits to your website as long as you use great imagery on your website – which you should be doing anyway.

 

4. Optimise your images

The majority of pictures you’ll pin and share on the site will either be uploaded directly by yourself, your couples or pinned from other places.

Whilst you can’t change the documented source of photos already on Pinterest, you can ensure you optimise any new images you’re uploading.

 

Once you have uploaded your new images click on “edit” and you’ll be able to include a description of your new picture and a link back to your website. However where possible, you should try and Pin directly from your website as it is a more web friendly and customer ‘share friendly’ approach.

Regardless of which pinning method you prefer, you should always include a short description of the image when you pin it.

 

5. Try out promoted pins

Because the vast Pinterest audience constitutes your main target demographic, wedding suppliers should consider using promoted pins to ensure that your best Pins appear in the most relevant places.

Why not test three of your best performing pins on various target audiences. Use time of day, location, age and perhaps ‘stage of wedding planning process’ as unique identifiers when testing your pins on different audiences to see which types of content work best for which audience.

 

6. Pair up and pin with other wedding suppliers

As we always say to wedding suppliers, why wouldn’t you help yourself by offering to help others?

Offer to promote other wedding suppliers and businesses you’ve worked with.

Wedding venues could create a “beautiful wedding flowers” board or a “gorgeous wedding cakes” category and ask the relevant suppliers to provide professional pictures. Wedding planners could use Pinterest as part of their social promotional package for advertising clients and have a “beautiful wedding venues” board which could feature venues they’ve worked with or products used.

This is an easy way to keep your Pinterest board populated with high quality images and it’s a great way to help cement partnerships within the industry.

Smaller businesses will love this technique as they’re most in need of increased online visibility and discoverability by potential clients. You can offer them exposure on your Pinterest account and guarantee fresh content for yourself with little effort.

Complementary images like these can also be found through re-pinning, which will help interaction with other pinners – including brides, grooms and other wedding suppliers.

 

Get Pinterested in this platform today

We’re not expecting this blog post to change the minds of every wedding supplier overnight. What we do hope is that we’ve given you a few good reasons to consider including this channel in your marketing plan in 2017 and beyond.

Getting started is a piece of cake, and as long as you know what to expect from the platform – that is, exposure with the hope of website visits – then you should see great value in investing a little time in it now and again.

Join your future clients today and show a little Pinterest in image sharing, optimising and showcasing the pics that make you tick.

 

Check out Bridebook’s Pinterest to see the idea boards and inspiring images we’re providing for couples.