3 Reasons Why Your Follow Up Sucks and How to Fix It

Question: I have all these leads coming in and I can’t seem to book any. What am I doing wrong?

I currently have about 15 leads, some good some cold. All of these leads have been offered our January Promo which ends January 15. Also, they have all been offered our Juicy Offer within this same promo. Some I have spoken with over the phone, some have just been emailed. Most have been sent a short questionnaire on the initial reply by me, most have not answered the initial questionnaire.

So they all know my prices, they all are aware of my January Promo (which unfortunately the promo price is about what the competition is at regular price so my prices may be too high to begin with) The last correspondence from me was on the 11th when I sent out a 4 days left on the Promo letter. No response from anyone.

So now I am not sure what to do next. I don’t want to appear like I am begging, I don’t want to appear like a furniture salesman.. my thoughts are to just leave it alone and move forward. Something is wrong, however, if I am talking to 15 leads and can’t get one to book, something is wrong.

– Shane

Answer:

“Something is wrong, however, if I am talking to 15 leads and can’t get one to book, something is wrong.”

Yep. Something is definitely not working for you.

As painful as that realization is (and I know from experience, having had a recent effort just FLOP colossally) you are 100% better off than you were before, because now you know there is a problem.

The next thing to do: make some changes until you identify what it is. Consider these three common places where wedding pros make follow up mistakes.

Where Your Follow Up Fails

1. Your lead source sucks.

You mention that some of these leads are warm and some are cold. Online lead lists tend to be the very coldest, and most difficult to convert to bookings. Bridal show leads aren’t much better.

Even leads who reach out to you might not be truly “warm” if they aren’t a match for what you offer.

Where do your best leads come from? How can you get more of those types of leads?

Work on targeting your leads and attracting more from warm sources.

2. The contents of your follow up emails suck.

You sent them a promo offer, which can be good for budget-minded clients, but also comes off a little salesy.

Having a “juicy offer” is good, but only if it’s truly compelling. Has this offer worked before? If not, it may not be valuable enough to a bride to get her to take action. A sexy title is even more important than the contents of your offer.

Including TWO calls to action in a single email (the promo and the juicy offer) makes each of them less effective. Choose one action you want them to take to get better results.

3. Your follow up frequency sucks.

It may not be too late to salvage some of these leads. It really depends on where they came from.

If it’s someone who contacted you first, or who responded to your inquiry, I’d feel comfortable sending them at least one more follow up. Something like, “Hi! We’d emailed a while back about your wedding on [INSERT DATE]. Are you still looking for a videographer?” In many cases, they’ll answer the question one way or the other and you can scratch them off your list, especially if you’ve had friendly communication before.

If they’ve signed up for your email list and you have a blog, you can do a “Blog Broadcast” using an email service like Aweber to send them regular updates on your latest blog posts automatically. This is a gentle way to keep in touch with them until they’re ready to book that doesn’t require additional work on your part.

You could also do a direct mail piece. Only 11% of email actually gets opened. It’s much easier to reach the bride by mail if you have her contact information.

Think about these variables and what you can do to improve your follow up. Then change ONE thing at a time, test it out for awhile (at least 10 leads or one month) and meticulously track your results. Evaluate and change again until you get the results you want.

One thing you already know: what you’re doing now is NOT working. Anything you do differently is more likely to work than continuing with the same thing that isn’t giving you the results you want. That’s like banging your head into a wall and expecting it to move. 🙂

What’s your biggest follow up frustration?

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