Why You Need To Find Your Voice Now To Boost Interest and Sales!

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A mistake that a lot of businesses make is that their content sounds the same as everyone else’s content. Now I don’t mean they are all writing the same thing. Instead they are all writing in the same professional voice. While being professional is important, so is making sure that your content has its own sound.

Think about when you meet someone for the first time. While there are a lot of factors that go into your analysis of who they are, their voice is what will stand out the most. No one sounds the same, or talks the same way and your unique voice is what should help you stand out online. Try to find a way to get your writing to mimic how you talk, even if it’s just a small change in the pattern of writing, or including more exclamation points.

As a wedding business you are automatically a part of a very intense competition for getting a brides business. If you sound like everyone else not only will she have trouble figuring out whom to go with, she will also keep searching for a wedding vendor that stands out. Do what it takes to make your business the one that stands out and boost your wedding business sales. Find your voice and use it!

For more tips on writing in a way that makes you stand out make sure to check out this awesome article on ProBlogger.

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Filed Under: Attracting Ideal Clients, Bridal Marketing, Other Businesses, Personal Development, Website, Wedding Business, Wedding Business Income, Wedding Websites Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How To Make More Wedding Sales

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Making sales is the bottom line to any business. After all, if you don’t make sales, you are running an expensive hobby, not a business. So how to do get more brides to buy your stuff? According to Pawel Grabowski it isn’t a matter of luck whether you make a sale, it’s a matter of your attitude. Make sure to read his article for information on how to change your mindset to change your selling attitude.

The reality is that if you meet with a bride and view her as a possible sale she is going to feel like the fatted calf headed to the slaughter. Not a good feeling for anyone, especially a bride. Your job isn’t just to sell her on the product or service you offer, in fact that is secondary. Your real job is to help her solve a problem. Her problem might be the fact that she needs a wedding dress, or having music at her reception. Remember, while your business is just a business to you, it is a tool to solve a problem for her. If you can’t solve her problem and communicate that to her, she’s going to book a different business. What do you think?

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing, Personal Development, Wedding Business, Wedding Business Income Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Importance Of Both Marketing And Sales

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Cutting_Cake

If you are here you are probably looking for ways to boost sales in your wedding business. But as Jamillah Warner points out in her article, sales and marketing are not the same thing, not by a long shot. Marketing is what you use to get the attention of brides, sales is how you convert those brides into paying customers.

So why does that need to be clarified? Because a lot of businesses focus on one or the other and as a result they lose a ton of sales. You can’t have a successful business without working out the process to meld your marketing efforts with your sales process. The two work together like flour and sugar when you are baking a cake. Without one or the other you don’t have a cake, and if you don’t have both marketing and sales you don’t have a business. What do you think?

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How Can I Convince Brides of My Value Immediately?

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Are you sick of getting emails from brides who only seem to want to know about price? 

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Not if you’re available, not the quality of your service, but HOW MUCH?

You know you do excellent work.  That’s not the problem.  How do you convince her that you’re worth the price?

There are some very specific actions you can take that demonstrate your value immediately.  This is vitally important.  Otherwise, you end up in the price question trap.

5 Ways to Prove Your Value

1. Make an Outstanding First Impression

Studies show that we made an impression about a person we meet or a business we’re exposed to in about 30 seconds…then we spend the rest of our interaction with them coming up with evidence to support that first impression.

You’ve got 30 seconds to present yourself as a valuable service or you risk blowing it forever.

You can do this with:

  • A professionally designed website that’s easy to use and pleasant to look at.  Yep, looks count.
  • A clear, friendly tone when you answer the phone.  Are you smiling when you pick up?
  • A clear, friendly professional voice mail message.
  • Beautiful professionally designed marketing, from your business cards to your brochures, advertisements and beyond.
  • Powerful, professional copy on your website.

We always tell brides it’s worth hiring a professional if you want quality service.  Well, if we want to convince brides of our value right away, hire a pro to create that value-filled first impression.

2.  Give Them FREE Valuable Information

The best way to prove your value to brides right away is to give them free, valuable information immediately…before they book.

Do you wait for them to plunk down the deposit before you share your “secret” tips and information?

If you do, you’re missing a powerful opportunity to show her just why you’re worth your price.

Instead, give her the goods up front.  This can be a free report you share on your website, referrals and ideas you give her during an in person meeting, or advice you give in an email.

I’ve exchanged dozens of emails with brides who hadn’t even chosen a location yet.  I’ve helped them with everything from budgeting (dangerous turf!) to finding the perfect wedding location.

When she’s ready to book her entertainment, I don’t have to say a word about my value.  She’s convinced herself.

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3.  Bride Reviews and Testimonials

95% of people make decisions based on what everyone else is doing.  

Brides listen to other brides more than anyone else when planning their weddings.  She’s not going to listen to your arguments about your value…but she WILL listen to Suzie, Betty and Zoe who are talking about you on the Knot.

Invite your happy clients to post a review of your services on Wedding Wire, Wedding Mapper, in the Knot chat rooms or anywhere else you can find.

Use those reviews and testimonials on your website, in your marketing and even in your emails.  Share them with brides before you meet with them.

She’ll be convinced of your value because everyone else says so.

4.  Give Them a First Hand Experience

A bride will have an immediate understanding of your value if you give her a first hand experience of it.  Let her see, feel and hear what it will be like having you on her wedding day, or as close as you can come to it.

There’s nothing like a first hand experience to convince you of the value of something.  That’s why brides don’t even CARE about the price if they saw you at a friend’s wedding; they already know you’re worth it.

Get as close to that first hand experience as possible.  Immerse them in the experience so that they imagine themselves in that moment on their own wedding day.

You can do this by:

  • Placing an amazing wedding album into the bride’s hands.  Let her page through and see the emotional story on those pages.
  • Playing a wedding video that shows the beauty and uniqueness of a couple’s wedding.
  • Telling an emotional story about one of your previous couples.

Use the power of story through images, video and words to get her imagining exactly what it’s like to work with you.  Your value will be understood very quickly once she sees herself in that picture.

5.  Be Her Friend

We want to do business with people who we like, people we trust, people who we consider FRIENDS.

If you were getting married, you’d turn to your wedding vendor friends for their services and advice.  Why?

Because you already trust them.  You’d be eliminating the worry and stress of hiring a stranger.  That trust is worth a lot.

If a bride sees you as a friend, she won’t just want to work with you; she won’t be able to imagine working with anyone but you.

Don’t treat her like a friend; BE her friend.  This isn’t something you can fake.  But when really become a friend for her, that’s true value.

What works best for you to convey your value to brides?

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing, Home Page Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Find the Formula For a 6 Figure Wedding Business

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Confused kid trying to figure out the formula

Most of the wedding professionals I talk to have NO IDEA where their leads come from, which bridal advertising actually sends them leads and whether or not those leads become booked weddings.

You’ve got to know your numbers!

Numbers such as:

  • How much money do you want to make each year?
  • How many weddings do you need to book at your current pricing to make that much?
  • How many meetings do you need to book a wedding?
  • How many leads do you need to book a meeting?
  • How many website visits do you need to get those leads?

One you know your numbers, you can measure which parts of your business are effective, which aren’t working well, and determine what you need to fix in order hit your goals. 

Knowing these numbers lets you figure out exactly what you need to do to make your financial goals.

A quick example.  Let’s say you want make 6 Figures, and to do that you would need to book 50 weddings each year.  You ask yourself the questions above and get these answers:

  • You need to have 2 meetings to book 1 wedding.
  • You need get 10 leads to book 1 meeting.
  • You need get 50 website visits to get 1 lead.

Crunching the numbers, in this scenario you need 50,000 website visitors every year (that’s 4,167 each month) in order to book 50 weddings if your leads ONLY come from the internet.

That’s a lot of visitors!  But what if you could get more of the people who visit your website to contact you?  Then you wouldn’t have to do as spend as much time and money trying to get them to your site in the first place.

You need to find out how many of those website visits turn into actual leads.  Because let’s face it…we can have 5,000 people visit our site every day, but if they never contact us it doesn’t make us any money.

Chris Jaeger over at Marketing To Brides Online gives a great formula for calculating how many of your website visitors turn into actual leads, also known as your “conversion rate.”  

Check it out here: http://www.marketingtobridesonline.com/calculating-conversion/

Knowing your numbers probably isn’t the sexiest part of marketing your wedding business, but it’s absolutely critical.  It reveals your weaknesses so that you can focus on the solution, instead of blindly buying new bridal advertising and just hoping that it works.

Got questions about your numbers and how to use them?  Leave me a comment and I’ll help out.

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The Wedding Business Sales Chain: Are You the Weakest Link?

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Links in your wedding business sales chain connecting you to the bride

Last week Jeff did a really cool little video explaining a concept that is absolutely vital to making sure you never waste a penny on expensive bridal advertising that doesn’t work.

This much is easy: if your advertising isn’t working for you, DITCH IT.

The hard part is…how do you know if it’s not working for you?

Many times I hear wedding professionals complain about this or that advertising that, “doesn’t work.”  It might be Facebook ads, the Knot or a print magazine.

But chances are good that it DOES work.  The problem is that a link in your “Sales Chain” is broken.

The Bridal Sales Chain

Think of it like this: your marketing is like a chain that connects your potential customer (the Bride) to you.  There are several links in this chain and if any one of them is broken…NO SALE.

Watch Jeff’s nifty video below explaining this concept with a spiffy diagram for a great visual of this Wedding Business Sales Chain, narrated in his impressive bass.  Wink

The Weakest Link

Here are the 3 links connecting you to the Bride and how you know if it’s broken so that you can fix it.

CAUTION:  In many cases, it’s not the advertising medium that’s broken; it’s your ad or worse yet…it’s YOU. 

1) The Advertising Medium

This can be a website, magazine, radio station or social networking platform, wherever your ad lives.

It’s broken if:

  • There are no people there at all.  No traffic, no visitors, no listeners. 
  • There are people, but those people aren’t your ideal client.
  • Your ideal client is there, but she isn’t looking for your service.

Your Ad

It’s broken if:

  • Your ad doesn’t attract attention.  It’s invisible.
  • Your ad message doesn’t speak to exactly what your ideal bride is looking for.
  • The services you’re advertising are NOT what your ideal bride is interested in.

First Point of Contact

This is where the bride ends up when she clicks on the ad or makes a phone call to learn more about you.  Usually it’s your website or your phone.

It’s broken if:

  • It’s unattractive, confusing or makes a bad first impression.  
  • Your ideal bride doesn’t find exactly what she was looking for.
  • She can’t find an easy way to contact you.

The Verdict

So if your advertising isn’t working, is it your advertising medium, your ad, or you?

You’ve got to be able to trace each link in the chain with tracking such as Google Analytics on your website, click through rates, or a spreadsheet of your lead sources.

It’s easy to blame the Big Guys who are taking our hard earned money.  But only when you know where your sales chain is broken can you say for sure that it is NOT working for you.

Have an experience with a great bridal ad…or a really bad one?  Leave a comment and share it.

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