The Profit Paradox: How to Make More Money by Marketing to Fewer Clients

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Question: Should I change to a broader business name so people don’t think I just do weddings?

I just closed my store front, but will be continuing online.I sell flowers and gifts for all occasion, I’m debating whether to change myname for the business. From Flowers and Gifts by Sarnia Weddings to Pat’sFlowers and Gift Gallery.

I think one of my mistakes is that people thought I was just for weddings.

What do you think?

Pat

Answer:

Pat,

When we’re selling our stuff, we usually think broadening our target market will bring us more business. The more people who can buy our products, the more we can sell, right?

Strangely enough, that isn’t true.

People are bombarded with a million advertising messages on the internet, TV, print, etc. A broad and generic offer doesn’t even get noticed. The more broad your offer, the less attention you get.

On the other hand, the more specific and focused your message is on one particular customer, the more powerful your message will be. When you have a narrow, targeted offer, the right customer will recognize it immediately and be drawn to it.

With all of that said, answer this question:

What is the 20% of your floral business that makes 80% of your profits?

If wedding flowers generate the majority of your revenue, focus on wedding flowers. If holiday flower delivery makes the most money, focus on that. Don’t be like the other generic companies who specialize in “everything;” choose a narrow focus and dominate that market.

Then name your business to represent that specialty.

Another idea: since you’ll be running your business online, you can easily create TWO websites if you’d like to focus on two markets. This way you can still laser target your message just for the ideal clients you want to attract.

We wish you every success in your business!

Stephanie

P.S. Since you’re considering a name change, make sure you buy a website domain name that includes the keywords people would type in to find you, even if your business name is different. Such as ontarioweddingflowers.com or ontarioflowerdelivery.com. This will make it easy for the right people to find you online when they’re searching.

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How to Use StumbleUpon to Get Free Bride Traffic

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Black and white on the beach with heart in the sand - Photo by Lori O'Toole

Everyone’s obsessed with the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Linked In.

But these guys aren’t the only social media kids on the block.  Enter STUMBLEUPON.

In case you haven’t tried it out, StumbleUpon is a highly addictive way to randomly discover articles, websites and videos about topics you’re interested in, and share favorites with your friends.  It’s kind of like spinning the Wheel of Fortune and watching where the needle lands, allowing you to “stumble upon” into some delightful…or disturbing…cyber lands you never would have found otherwise.

This article from Portent Interactive describes how to use Stumble Upon to get loads of free traffic.

Tips For Using Stumble Upon to Attract Brides

1) It’s best use is for attracting a national or international audience.

This is perfect for retailers and wedding websites who can serve brides across the county.  Stumble Upon users are not searching for local topics, so if your business only serves a small local audience, you may get website visitors, but they aren’t going to book you.

2) Be interesting!  

Write articles and make videos that provide high entertainment value because Stumble Upon users are after entertainment, not shopping.  Do this right and they will “thumbs up” your stuff, which makes it visible to more people.

If you want to get them to your website, you’ve got to be interesting.  Let your website do the selling part once they get there.

3) Focus on the most popular topics to maximize your traffic: Humor, Music, the Bizarre, and Photography.

Write humorous articles about weddings.  Share unusual song selections, or create Top 10 lists.  Write about the strangest wedding stories you’ve ever seen or heard of.

If you’re a wedding photographer, think humorous, strange and unusual.  Share those photos and stumblers will keep sharing them, allowing you to attract more website visitors.

4) Use it to inspire topic ideas brides will love.

Even if you don’t serve a national audience, you can still use Stumble Upon to inspire you with topics real brides will read and share.  Just take a stumble through wedding-related topics to find out what’s hot.  Then use what you learn to create some of your own content using those proven topics.

Stumble Upon may not be for every wedding vendor, but it can be a powerful source of traffic if you play your cards right.

What’s your Stumble Upon experience?

Photo by Lori O’Toole Images

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How Do I Get More Leads For My Wedding Business?

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Two women reaching for blue skies with outstretched arms

More Leads = More Weddings

One of the biggest challenges we face as wedding professionals is getting more leads.  When you attract more phone calls and email inquiries from brides, you have the chance to book more weddings.  It’s a pretty simple equation, really.

Let’s say that right now you get 10 leads per week and you meet with 5 of them.  Out of that 5, 2 of them book you.  That means 20% of your leads turn into booked weddings.

If you can increase your number of leads so that you get 20 per week, now you’ll book 4 weddings.  

Double your leads, double your bookings…as long as the quality of lead stays the same.

The Bridal Marketing Boost 

How can you get more leads?  First, think of all the places where your leads come from now.  Your list will be more specific than this one, but here’s a start… 

  • Organic Search Traffic (The fancy name for people who find your website by searching in Google or the like.)
  • Blog Traffic
  • Online Advertising
  • Print Advertising
  • Bridal Shows
  • Vendor Referrals
  • Bride Referrals
  • Social Media
  • Guest Blog Posts
  • Lead Generating Sites (Eventective, Respond.com, etc.)

Which of these sources gives you the most high-quality leads?  The high-quality part is critical; you might get 1,000 leads from Eventective, but only end up booking one of them. (That is not a made up number, by the way.)

Think of how you can do MORE of that type of marketing.  I call this the “Bridal Marketing Boost.”

It’s a lot easier to build on something that’s already working for you than it is to try something totally new.  New marketing is unproven and will nearly always be more expensive or complicated than you anticipate.

How can you do MORE of the activities that are already bringing you leads?

The bride and groom's feet as they walk down the sidewalk side by side

Examples of the Bridal Marketing Boost

When I ask wedding professionals where their best leads come from, they usually answer, “Word of mouth.”

One wedding photographer named Lisa found that over 80% of her booked weddings came from the referrals of former brides.  How can Lisa get more leads from this source?

She might:

  • Start a referral program by offering her current brides a gift or discount for each referral that books her.
  • Encourage her happy brides to share her blog post of their weddings or ask them to retweet and share her posts.
  • Send brides a link to post a review of her services on Wedding Wire after the wedding.

One wedding planner named Nora found that most of her leads came from one particular venue that referred her.  How can Nora get more leads from this source?

She might:

  • Grow this relationship by helping out the venue, which leads to more referrals.  She could plan a special event for free, refer them to her website designer, or connect them with a linen provider who supplies offers rentals at a discount.
  • Identify another venue with similar clientele and start building a relationship with them.
  • Schedule monthly networking “check-ins” with this venue to make she stays on their mind.

If your wedding blog brings you the most leads, you can…

  • Write blog posts more frequently.
  • Add “tweet this” and “like” buttons to your posts so that it’s easy for people to share them.
  • Automatically share your blog posts on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Start doing guest posts for other wedding-related blogs.

If your advertising on a particular wedding website is sending you the best leads, you might…

  • Upgrade your advertising on the site for more visibility.
  • Use that particular ad in other locations.
  • Advertise on other wedding websites that have a similar audience.

Are you starting to get the picture?  The Bridal Marketing Boost works because the easiest way to get more leads is to optimize what’s already working for your wedding business.

Challenge yourself to come up with ways you can work with what’s already working.  How can you use your biggest strengths and the marketing that’s already generating leads to bring in more of them?

How to Get More Bridal Leads Starting Today

  1. Write down all the sources of your leads.
  2. Identify the top 3 sources of the very best leads.
  3. Brainstorm ways you can do BOOST that bridal marketing.  Think about how you can grow that relationship, expand your presence or get more results.  Come up with at least 10 ideas for each of your best lead sources.
  4. Pick just ONE idea and start working on it today.

If you want more leads, go with what’s already working before you start chasing down the Next Big Thing.  You’ll get more results from a lot less effort.

What’s your best source of leads?

Photo Credits Kelvin Luffs and vanz

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3 Simple Ways to Get More Leads From Your Wedding Website

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If you’ve got a website and you want to really use it to get more bridal leads for your business, check out this article from Planner Panda at the link below.  A website should be so much moneymore than a pretty brochure!

Get More Conversions for Your Online Wedding Business

You’ll learn:

  • The “power word” and strategy you can use to use get brides to happily give you permission to email them.
  • The 2 phrases to use that studies show get the best response from website visitors.
  • The feature most wedding vendor websites are missing that transforms your website into a powerful lead generation tool that works for you 24 hours a day.

Don’t just read this article.  Do what it suggests!  These guys are right on the money.

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How to Get More Bridal Leads With Your Website

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When most of us put up our very first website, we treated it a like a fancy brochure.  Instead of printing up tons of print materials and postcards, we could simply tell people, “Go to Piles of Moneywww.AllAboutMe.com to learn more about our business.”

The problem with that is that the only people who visit AllAboutMe.com are the few people who have already heard about us.

What about the thousands of potential brides and grooms who don’t know who we are?  Those are the ones we should be trying to reach.

That’s what your website needs to be doing for you. 

When used properly, your website is a non-stop lead generation tool that attracts your ideal clients, captures their contact information, follows up with them and leads to more booked weddings.

Wondering how to make this happen?  Christine Dyer of BridalTweet.com provides 8 ways you can get more leads with your website here:  Get More Bridal Leads With Your Website

Is your website working for you?  Leave a comment and share your success story!

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