Unsurprisingly, there’s a massive amount of planning that goes into a wedding, reception and honeymoon. If your business has a part in the planning process, you have an opportunity to earn revenue through strategic marketing.
And, while the number of weddings has declined each year – down to 2.4 million – the amount spent on weddings has gone up. The average total expenditure on a wedding and reception is now over $44,000, for such items as:
- Engagement Rings
- Reception-related Expenses
- Florist/Event Decor
- Photographer/Videographer
- Ceremony-related Expenses
- Rehearsal Dinner
- Invitations
- Gown and Tuxedo
To make sure your business can benefit from the wedding spending increases that will likely continue to go up, be sure to keep these 8 tips in mind.
1. Bachelor & Bachelorette Parties
Destination bachelor and bachelorette parties continue to be the trend for couples. No longer are these parties simply get-togethers at popular restaurants or nightclubs, but instead are full-on getaway celebrations in other cities — even countries. According to The Knot, depending on the bride and groom’s budget and the ability of their wedding party to get out of town, many pre-wedding parties are held over multiple days at popular destinations such as Savannah, Georgia; Cape May, New Jersey; Napa Valley, California; and even Iceland. If you happen to be a travel agent, event planner, pet boarder or popular venue, these events are for you.
2. Pay Up, Happy Couple
Who’s footing the wedding bill? It’s not always the happy couple. According to Brides American Wedding Study 2018, 42% of newlyweds-to-be passed the responsibility to their parents, 58% contributed something toward their special day and only 27% of couples paid for their entire wedding.
Marketing during the couple’s engagement period, which usually lasts about 15 months, is a smart move. According to TripSavvy, engaged couples begin making major purchases once the ring is on the finger, including spending billions on furniture, housewares and tableware. Listen up, furniture and home decor retailers!
3. Wedding Planning
Generally speaking, it’s the bride who plans the majority of the wedding and surrounding events, and she needs all the help she can get. From the moment the ring slips onto her finger, she’s already planning the when, where, what and how. That’s where you come in.
Back in the day, there were engagement announcements in the newspaper and businesses would proactively offer their services. Today, the engaged couple searches for the business, relying heavily on word-of-mouth and online reputation reviews before making a final decision. Wedding marketing is unique in that, you’ll only get one opportunity to promote your services and products for wedding-related reasons. So, your marketing will need to be quick to grab the attention of the seeking bride.
Below are a few marketing steps to take if you want to be invited to the festivities, which by the way, happen most often in the fall, not the summer.
4. Get Listed
Your first steps toward winning more wedding business should include making your business website easier to find through business directory listings, online search and on social media platforms. You can do this by setting up your business listing on Google, Yelp, Yahoo and other online business directories.
5. Wedding Season Optimization
Incorporate strong search engine optimization (SEO) on your website and social media profiles — words associated with weddings, brides, honeymoon — throughout your content to help you rise to the top. Additionally, use your city or township name in your content to increase the likelihood of appearing in local search results to reach your target audience.
6. Online Reviews for Wedding Vendors
If you’re confident that your business provides quality service and products, be sure to make your online reviews public. Set up your account on Yelp and strongly encourage your social media followers to provide honest reviews there, as well as on your Facebook business page. Why? Because 84 percent of consumers rely on online reviews when making a purchase decision. It’s a vital step in your marketing strategy and it has become somewhat of a gatekeeper. Wedding vendors should pay close attention to their reviews on websites like The Knot, WeddingWire and Here Comes The Guide because this is where a lot of brides will find and research your business.
7. Make the Dream Real
Don’t ask a stressed-out bride to fly blind. Display images and videos of your wedding-related work to give her context and show the wide range of options available to her. For instance, if you’re a photographer, share shoots of past weddings and receptions on Pinterest and Instagram. Use photos of traditional and non-traditional weddings so she can imagine you photographing her wedding too.
Sell wedding dresses? Are you a florist? Same thing applies. If you’re a band and you do weddings, share videos of successful wedding receptions and provide a song list with demos to hear on your website, Facebook and YouTube business channel. The key is to make it easy for the bride and groom to imagine you putting their celebration to music.
8. Be a Helpful Resource
People aren’t born with an innate knowledge of how to plan a wedding and wedding etiquette. Be helpful by offering to help educate them about the “proper” way to handle aspects of the ceremony, reception and everything in between. Offer ideas about invitations, gift-giving, travel, catering, entertainment and more through downloadable wedding articles and checklists, blogging and video sharing. They’ll appreciate — and hopefully reward — your generosity and willingness to help. You can even advertise your helpful tools using search engine marketing (SEM) and collect information on new leads for future email marketing.
If you need help getting your business better engagement through digital and direct mail marketing strategies, Valpak has been a marketing leader for more than 50 years. Reach out to your local Valpak franchise to get started.
