The Secret to Getting Real Bride Leads with Pinterest

Pinterest

We know that brides are on Pinterest.  Statistics tell us that approximately 80% of Pinterest users are women.  Here is how Pinterest defines its primary uses: “People use boards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.”

There’s no doubt that many of the brides you want to reach are on Pinterest, and as a wedding professional you likely have plenty of images, videos and tips to entice them to repin, comment and share your stuff.

But the real question is…

Can you get real bride leads from Pinterest? 

As with Facebook and Twitter, 90% of what most wedding vendors do on Pinterest does NOT result in leads and booked weddings.

If you want to use Pinterest to get real leads, you simply must have a strategy.

First, determine the action you want brides to take when they find your Pinterest account that gets them one step closer to booking you.  In other words, you need to get them to click through to your website.

Having people follow you, comment and repin your images on Pinterest is an ego boost, but it doesn’t result in real leads.  Pinterest is a place for recreation and social behavior; you’re not going to make the sales transaction on a social media site.

On the other hand, your website is (hopefully!) designed to capture leads so you can book them.

The secret to getting real leads with Pinterest is to get brides to click through to your website where you can capture the lead and follow up with them.

Once you understand that the goal of your Pinterest activities is get website traffic, it changes everything you do.  If it doesn’t work towards that goal, it’s a waste of time when it comes to your marketing efforts.

Tips for turning Pinterest visitors into real leads:

  •  Add new pins to Pinterest right from your own website or blog.  This assures that your  link is embedded in the pin, so that when people repin they can click through to your website.
  •  Watermark your pins with the name of your business or website so that shared images can always be traced back to you.
  •  Remember to use local phrases and wedding-related keywords in the names of your boards and pin descriptions.  This will help your images to come up in search results when brides or grooms are looking for this information.
  •  Add a clickable link and call to action in your description of each pin.  For example, “Click here to find the perfect wedding dress for your body” or “Read this article to learn the 5 Secrets of Gorgeous Wedding Photos.”

The more compelling your action is, the more likely they are to click, so make it a good offer!

  •  Add the “pin it” button to your website and blog to make it easy for people to pin your images.
  •  Verify your website in your Pinterest Account Settings so that people can click right through to your website from your account description.
  •  Search Pinterest for the term “wedding” followed by the name of your local area.  Follow the active pinners who come up.  Comment and repin their images to build relationships and get them to do the same for you.
  •  Create pins that share tips for brides and grooms that include text on the image.  When combined with a call to action, this can really drive website visitors to your site.
  •  Notice which of your images get repinned.  Learn from your most popular pins so that you can make more like them to increase your reach.
  •  Create the most popular type of pins: infographics, how to advice and tips, tutorials and videos.

I don’t recommend jumping on the band wagon of every new social media site that comes along.  But if you’re a wedding pro who already thrives in social media, and you have plenty of images, videos or tips to share, Pinterest is definitely worth exploring as a marketing tool.

CLICK HERE to learn more about how to use Pinterest for your wedding business.

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The Importance Of Research Before Marketing

I’ve come to realize that there are two types of marketers. Those who come up with an idea and throw money at it hoping it will work, and those who do their research before starting a marketing campaign and see good results. If you are having trouble seeing any results from your efforts in bridal marketing it is probably because you didn’t do enough research on the exact method and whether it would work for your market.

The reality is that different types of marketing work for different types of people and they work differently in different areas of the country. Of course there are general ways to market that typically work, but you still have to tweak it to your audience. For instance, bridal shows might work great in New York, but they are a complete waste of time and money in my area of Colorado.

When you come up with a new way to try and attract more bridal leads take the time to find out what people in your area are saying about that method. If it’s a new method of marketing that works great in other areas of the country and hasn’t been tried in your area then you should probably give it a go. On the other hand if you notice that there aren’t a lot of vendors at your local bridal show, take time to find out the typical attendance before jumping on the band wagon. Brian McGovern posts a great video by David Ogilvy on his website that was ahead of its time in pointing out the differences in marketing and the importance of research. What do you think? 

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Wedding Industry Trends: On the Rise or Going Down the Drain?

What do YOU think about the state of the wedding industry today?

We recently asked this question in an email and were amazed at the differences of opinion and perspective.

(A special shout out to Penny, Heather, Lou, Marie, Richard, Gary, Shirley, Dana and Diana for your thoughtful replies.  Thanks!)

WATCH THIS VIDEO to learn what they had to say about wedding industry trends…and what Jeff and I are fighting about.  :)

There’s one thing Jeff and I do agree on; you can blame the lousy economy for what’s going on in your wedding business, or you can take charge of your own personal wedding economy and take some action to improve it.

Regardless of how bad wedding industry trends may be in your local market, you do have control over the meaning you give those trends and whether it drags you down or builds you up.  Like I’m always saying, “If what you’re doing isn’t working, anything else has a greater chance of working than what ISN’T working right now.”

For more strategies you can use to make sure your business has what it takes to weather ANY economy, enter your name and email to watch our FREE video series here.

What do you think about the wedding economy?  Do you agree with the opinions in this video?  Leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

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The 8 Secrets of Wedding Businesses Who Thrive in Any Economy

 


Do you stay up at night wondering how your competition does it? Are you spending all of your time trying to figure out exactly where you can get better, high-end bride leads? Or any leads at all?

When you start a business, you do your research, you talk to those you hope to emulate, and then you walk into the deep end (so to speak). Hopefully, you have a sound business model to follow, but even if you do, there are bound to be hiccups along the way.

The one thing that you cannot control is the competition. What are the secrets of the “Big Guys” that make getting leads and booking weddings look so easy?

So you need to think like them. Use their tricks, their experience, and make it yours.

Want to know more?

Learn the 8 Secrets of Wedding Business Thrivers and find out how you measure up. Click this link.


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What Happened to the Wedding Economy and When Will It End?

 

BBQ_Wedding

When you started your wedding business, you probably had dreams of an inbox crammed with emails from brides desperate to book you, a telephone ringing off the hook, and a mailbox so full of CHECKS that the postal delivery person had to personally hand you all of your mail…but somewhere between dreams and reality, something went wrong.

The phone isn’t ringing nearly as often as you had imagined, the mailbox has more spiders than mail (EW!), and your inbox is full of emails from, well, no one. You get a few leads from your wedding vendor friends, and you’ve poured all of your time and effort into finding new lead sources, but none of them seem to be panning out.

You’re definitely not alone. The recession IS effecting the wedding industry.

Between 2009 and 2010, a whopping $2.6 BILLION dollars drained out of the wedding industry. BILLION!! That’s a lot of money that’s now going elsewhere.

Brides are more frugal, and there seems to be an influx of weekend warriors drastically undercutting prices.

In order to gain an advantage, you must be able to learn and grow with each new experience. You also have to be somewhat adventurous. I don’t mean that you should channel Indiana Jones, but you need to continue to look for new avenues, new lead sources, and new ways to promote your business.

Want to learn even more about how to be wildly successful in ANY economy?

Enter your name and email below to take the Wedding Business Thriver Test and see how you stack up.

 

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Brides Uncensored: What They REALLY Think About You

 

Jeff’s Side of the Story…

frosty

Being in the wedding business,  we tend to be absent from quite a bit of the weekend social life our friends and family tend to enjoy.  You can imagine how excited we were to be invited to an adult Saturday night party that we could actually say yes to!

I couldn’t wait to hang with some cool peeps and enjoy an adult beverage.  Here’s the some what ironic part… 

All the guests were recent brides and grooms.  

The party was being thrown by a photographer couple we are friends with.  They invited their past couples to a holiday party at their home.  

What a awesome idea! I was amazed at how many showed up, some traveling hours and actually getting a hotel room overnight to make this party.  Can you say “customer satisfaction?”

Steal This Idea! 

It was a stroke of brilliance for this photographer couple to invite their past and present clients to a holiday party.  Not only did every guest have something huge in common, it is a great way to build trust, rapport and referrals.

Anyway, back to the party…

At first I felt a bit  weird being the only non-newlywed (what if I was missing the tell tale glow?)  Not a problem.  I really like Steph..A LOT so that wasn’t an issue.  

Right off the bat we were being asked “so what was your date, have you gotten your pictures yet?”

We decided to seize the moment and go undercover, become the fly on the wall, and get the unvarnished, ugly truth.

What are they really saying about us?

Steph’s Side of the Story…

So there we were surrounded by about a dozen recently married couples.  While Jeff tipped back some rather delicious cranberry pomegranate cocktails, I thought…market research time!

It didn’t take much prodding to loosen up those tongues.

Here are some of the big beefs brides have with wedding vendors…

What Brides Think About Bridal Shows

  • Wedding vendors are too aggressive.

The bride says: 

“It was just awful!  All these people coming at me and bombarding me with information.  It was just overwhelming.”

Vendor Takeaway: 

Brides desperately need to be helped, not sold.  Ask her questions that help her uncover what she wants, because she probably doesn’t know yet, instead of telling her about you and your services.  Otherwise, you’ll drive her away.

Be the oasis in the center of crazy at a bridal show by NOT rushing her and NOT forcing your materials on her.

If you want to REALLY win her over, give her advice and help that has nothing to do with your services.  It will earn her trust and bring her back, even if she isn’t ready to book right now.

  • Wedding vendors drive brides away by pressuring them to set a date.

The bride says: 

“Everyone kept asking me when my date was, and when I said I didn’t have one they’d tell me, ‘You better book it fast!’  It made me feel pressured, like I was behind.”

Vendor Takeaway: 

It’s an important qualifier to ask the bride if she has her date so that you can confirm you availability and avoid wasting time with someone who you can’t book.

However, remember that she’s already really overwhelmed with planning her wedding, whether she tells you this or not.  

If she doesn’t have a date, don’t warn her about the dangers of waiting to book…even though you’re right…because you don’t have a trusted relationship with her yet and it will only freak her out.  And if she associates that “freak out” feeling with you, she’s NOT going to book you.

  • Be a real person and not a company to attract more brides.

The bride says: 

“It seemed like everyone at the bridal show was a big company.  I just wanted to work with real people, not a big corporation.”

Vendor Takeaway:

Be real, personal and genuine at a bridal show.  There is a temptation to portray yourself like a big company because it makes you seem more important or credible.

If you’re a one or two person operation, don’t hide it!  This is actually a strength.And if you ARE a bigger company, train your sales reps to deliver a personalized experience.

What Brides Remember About Their Vendors…

  • Brides remember the things that went wrong…even when they don’t complain about it to you.

The bride says:

“Our DJ wasn’t very good.  He played okay music and everything, but he gave a bad impression, and our guests noticed.  Some of my friends came up and said, ‘Is your DJ hitting on the bartender?  He came up to us at the end of the night with dip tucked into his cheek.  Disgusting!”

Vendor Takeaway:

Stay professional on the wedding day.  Don’t drink, try to pick up the staff or get caught chomping on a pastrami sandwich.  She might not say anything about it that night because she’s too busy being a bride, but she IS paying attention.

  • Couples don’t always tell you what they REALLY think.  

The bride says:

“At the end of the night, the DJ came up and asked if he could use us as a reference.  Of course, I said, yes.  What was I going to do, tell him NO to his face?  If someone did call me for a reference, though, I’d recommend that they NOT hire him.”

Vendor Takeaway:

When you ask a bride or groom for their opinion of your work, your website or your services, 95% of people are going to say something nice.  They don’t want conflict and they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

If you want to know the truth, you have to look at your results.  Are you booking the weddings you want?  Are you getting the price you want?

If you aren’t getting the results you want, you need to change, no matter what your clients tell you, because the evidence doesn’t lie.

Have you ever been the fly on the wall listening in to the conversations of brides and grooms?  What did you learn?

Photo by Steph

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5 Steps That Prove to the Bride You’re Worth It

 

Happy_Couple_2

This week Jeff and I went shopping for a mattress.

It’s not the sexiest purchase in the world, but we’re both tired of sleeping on what we fondly call, “the potato chip” and waking up with stiff necks, so we can put if off no longer.

There we are in this boutique mattress store where the very cheapest mattress has a price tag of $2,000, and the retail price on the ones Jeff likes (he never fails that he makes a bee line straight for Top Shelf) are all over $4,000.

I’m speechless. Who knew mattresses cost THAT MUCH?

And then I glance up at the poster on the wall behind the salesman’s desk.

The Value of a Good Night’s Sleep for 10 Years

$4,000 = $1.10 per night
$3,000 = 82 cents per night
$2,500 = 69 cents per night

        How Much Is a Good Night’s Sleep Worth to You?

All of the sudden those prices don’t seem so expensive anymore. Less than $1 a night…I’m weighing that against the cost of stiff necks, back pain, waking up from Jeff kicking me in the leg…

$2,500 for a mattress seems like a bargain. When you look at it like that.

Translating the Value

So what the heck happened there? Was I brainwashed by sales trickery?

It’s something my internet marketing hero Eben Pagan calls, “translating the value.”

That simple poster took the cost of the mattress and “translated” it from dollars and cents into a currency that has real value to me.

I don’t know how much a mattress should cost. But I certainly value sleeping the whole right through and waking up full of energy. And I am intimately acquainted with the value of NOT having aches and pains, or having to hear Jeff grumble about his.

I don’t even want to buy a mattress, which is essentially a giant pillow case filled with stuffing. The mattress itself has no value to me.

What I’m after is a good night sleep and freedom from pain. Now that I would happily pay for. Probably a lot more than $1 per day.

Emotional Currency for the Bride and Groom

What does this have to do with your wedding business?

Well, the bride and groom planning their wedding are in the same position I was when hunting for a mattress. They have no idea how much it’s supposed to cost to hire a photographer, wedding planner, DJ, florist, etc. They don’t know what these things are worth based on a dollar amount.

It’s your job to translate the cost of your services into a currency the bride and groom understand as valuable.

The couple isn’t really buying your products or services. They’re buying an experience, a solution to their problem, or an answer that provides something they want.

What do your brides and grooms want that they would pay good money for? What is the emotional “currency” that will get them to happily pay you for?

That currency might be:

  • Guests dancing their hearts out all night long at the wedding.
  • Showing their grandchildren a wedding photo that proves they were young and beautiful once.
  • Compliments from the guests that theirs was, “The best wedding ever!”
  • A seamless wedding day completely free of worry and filled with love and fun.
  • NOT going on their honeymoon with credit card debt from cost of the wedding.

Your job is to convert the cost of your product or service into what the couple REALLY wants to buy.

How do you do it? It starts with figuring out what the couple wants, specifically.

  1. Imagine yourself as your ideal client. Really pretend you ARE her/him and write down what you want and what you want to avoid on your wedding day.
  2. Make a list of at least 20 specific things you want, everything from “to get my mother-in-law off my back” to “fit into a size 4 dress on my wedding day.”
  3. Look at what you’ve written down and circle all the really emotional items on that list. This is the emotional currency your prospective clients understand as valuable.
  4. Break down the cost of your service into the emotional currency your couples will understand. Follow the mattress example and get really specific.

For example:

  • $5,000 to hire a wedding planner = $13.70 per day to guarantee a happy glowing, happy bride for an entire year
  • $5,000 to hire a wedding videographer = $100 to relive the happiest day of your life in vivid detail on your Anniversary for the next 50 years, sharing with your kids and grandkids
  • $2,000 to  hire a DJ = 55 cents per day for memories of the best party of your life for the next 10 years
  • Use the insights you get to learn what REALLY motivates your couples to buy and work that into your marketing.

It doesn’t always make sense to use this value translation literally in your marketing.  Some “translations” work better than others.  When you get the right one, you’ll know because it will give your potential customers a perspective shift into, “It’s a bargain! when you look at it that way!” 

Take the time to do this exercise. When you do, it allows you to communicate your value in a profound way that shifts away from price and focuses on the value of what your clients REALLY getting.

What are brides and grooms REALLY buying when they hire you? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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Why Being the Best Isn’t Enough

 

Wedding_AdvertisementI just finished reading The Education of Millionaires: It’s Not What You Think and It’s Not Too Late by Michael Ellsberg. It shook up my thinking about what it takes to succeed, and there is one point that’s particularly relevant for wedding vendors.

The Lie We Buy

We believe that if we study really hard at what we do, get really good at it, and then start a business, brides and grooms will come flocking to our door. That simply isn’t true.

The #1 mistake wedding vendors make in their businesses is believing that simply being excellent at what they do is enough to succeed.

It’s not enough to be the best at what you do. It’s not enough that you have your certification and can deliver cutting edge, top notch service.Being the best doesn’t book weddings.

Let me give you an example…

Let’s say you have the recipe for the world’s most delicious hot dog. It’s 100% organic, contains no chemicals or preservatives, and tastes like an edible orgasm. Everyone who tries one eats at least two, and they never look at hot dogs the same way again.

The response is so good that you decide to sell these hot dogs out of your house. You hang a sign, “World’s Best Hot Dogs” over your door and wait for the crowd to show up.

And wait. And wait. And wait.

But you have the best hot dogs in the world! Why aren’t people buying them? Whine.

You may indeed have the most delectable hot dogs in the world, but if no one knows about them, you won’t sell a single one.

Tale of the DJ Who Wasn’t

I’m going to tell you the story about a successful DJ team who managed to do it without being DJs at all: Stephanie & Jeff Padovani.

It’s true. When we started our DJ business, we had ZERO actual DJ skills. We couldn’t beat mix or scratch. We didn’t even have a huge music collection.

It was all slam mixing and talkovers. We didn’t even know which buttons to push on our CD player!

Despite our DJ deficiency, we quickly became highly requested and highly paid entertainers. Wanna know how we pulled it off?

We’re really, really good marketers.

Of course, we had to improve our actual DJ skills in order to secure our reputation and get continued referrals. Delivering sub-par products and services is a fast way to destroy any business.

You can’t rely on your skill as a wedding professional to book the weddings for you. You need to be equally skilled at marketing and sales if you want to succeed.

How Wedding Vendors are Like Hot Dog Salesmen

Most wedding vendors study their craft: planning, photography, video, floristry, entertainment, invitations, etc. Then they hang a sign over their door step and wait for the business to arrive.

When it doesn’t come, they complain about the economy, the media and uneducated brides who just don’t know a good thing when they see it.

Nothing happens in business until someone buys.

If you don’t know how to communicate a clear, compelling message in your marketing and compel those leads to buy, you won’t be in business for long.

To quote Michael Ellsberg in The Education of Millionaires:

“…success has it’s own skill. There’s the skill of the craft. Then there’s the skill of success…it takes about the same amount of effort to learn the skill of success as it does to learn the skill of the craft itself.”

You NEED to learn how to market and sell your services. Period. Otherwise, you will never reach the level of success you want in business.

You must become a student of marketing and sales if you want to have a successful business, and place just as much emphasis on learning those skills as you do in perfecting what you do.

The only way around it is to pay someone else to market and sell your business for you. Yeah, it’s expensive. Sales is the highest paid profession in the world.

The good news is that your competitors are horrible at marketing and sales, too. Even learning A LITTLE will put you light years ahead of them.

What have you done to build your marketing and sales skills lately?

If you’re not learning, you’re losing. Are you going to complain about the fact that you don’t have any leads, or are you going to do something about it?

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5 Rules in 5 Minutes for Bride Attracting Content

 

Bride_and_Groom_Reading

I recently read an article on Search Engine People called, “5 Rules in 5 Minutes to Get Permanently Better Performing Content” that inspired me to come up with some “rules” just for wedding professionals. Here goes…

1) Write for your ideal client.

If your market is weddings, you need to write blog posts and social media content for the people planning those weddings…brides.

(Yes, I know that grooms are involved in the planning, too, so don’t give me a hard time for being sexist. About 80% of the time, brides are the ones surfing, scanning and planning.)

Write ONLY topics of interest to him or her. Don’t wax philosophical about the glorious liver and onion sandwich you ate or the present little Johnny left in his diaper for you. Unless the brides you’re working with are into that.

If we’re talking about brides, topics of greatest interest are:

  • Wedding planning tips.
  • How to advice.
  • Reviews.
  • Wedding ideas and inspiration
  • .Lots of pretty wedding photos.

If you don’t know what your ideal clients like to read, ask them! Or search the most popular wedding blogs to find out what brides are into these days.

Don’t repeat “London videographer” a million times in each blog post just to get ranked. This looks like SPAM to a bride.

Write for your ideal clients first; then consider the search engines.

If you want to attract wedding clients with your content, make sure you’re writing just for them.

2) Write articles that are easy and attractive to read.

I’ve seen some amazing blog posts out there that no one will ever read. Why? Because it’s a bunch of text lumped together. Reading it looks like hard work.

If you want want brides to actually read the stuff you write, follow these tips for writing (many of which violate the rules you were taught in school):

  • Write short paragraphs containing no more than three sentences.
  • Write the way you speak, including sentence fragments, contractions and informal language.
  • Use headers, numbered and bulleted lists so it’s easy to scan your article.
  • Add photos (brides LOVE them!) and video.

It’s not enough just to write interesting content; it has to LOOK interesting, too, if you want anyone to read it.

3) Ask for comments and feedback.

People love to follow the herd. Brides and grooms are no different.

If an article or Facebook post has a bunch of comments, we’re much more likely to read it and leave our own comment. The most popular posts get the most views.

Write about something interesting, helpful or provocative, then ask, “What do YOU think?”

Get a conversation going. You’ll get more interaction, which means more readers, more traffic and more business for you.

4) Add social media share buttons to your website and blog.

Make it easy for people who visit your website to share what they like on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. Studies show that this can increase your website traffic by 3x! Providing your content is good, that is.

The search engines are increasingly using social media sharing to measure the popularity of a website. What does this mean for you?

The more your content gets shared on social media, the more ranking and visibility your website will have.

5) Include a Call to Action.

It’s wonderful to have a popular blog or Facebook page with lots of people commenting and visiting. But the whole point is to get leads and book weddings, right?

To do that, you need a big, fat CALL TO ACTION on every page. A “call to action” is simply a tempting invitation for the visitor to take the action you desire.

Types of calls to action include:

  • An invitation to email or call you.
  • An email opt-in form to get a free report or gift.
  • A button to click to visit a page or download a coupon.

You’ve done all the hard work of creating the content and getting the bride on the page; include a call to action that gets them one step closer to booking you.

Now I’m going to take my own advice. What do YOU think about these rules? Did I miss one?

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Why Your Business Marketing Isn’t Enough

 

Celebrity_Wedding

You know your wedding business is good so you use that confidence to tell everyone about yourself. Unfortunately that doesn’t always bring in the results you want to see. Why, if you are marketing like crazy aren’t the brides flocking to your doors? It’s a little thing called influence. Just because you know your business is great doesn’t mean that anyone else will trust that. That is, they might question your credibility until they hear from major influencers about your business according to Christine Dyer.

Now days whether we like it or not our word is never enough. You’ve heard about the importance of reviews and testimonials. Well when it comes to marketing there is nothing so powerful as a celebrity or market influencer mentioning your business. It could just be a Tweet, or a side note in an interview, but once they have mentioned your business your credibility goes through the roof and you might find your business swamped. Make sure the read the article by Christine Dyer for tips on how to get your business mentioned by celebrities and market influencers! Is this something that you have tried yet and if so what were the results?

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