Quit Wasting Time On Your Blog!
So everyone says having a blog is vital for your wedding business. But is really worth all that time and energy?
It’s a good question. Our time is way too precious to waste on activities that don’t directly make us money. (I’m so time starved that I’m writing this in the car on our way to a Saturday wedding…squeezed between our wedding last night and another one tomorrow!)
Is Blogging Worth It?
Blogging gives you the ability to add new content in the form of text, images and video anytime you want.
This gives the search engines the fresh content they crave, which means they reward you with more visibility and more visitors to your website. And each visitor is a potential income for your wedding business.
Without a blog your website is outdated, you’ve got to rely on a webmaster (who is probably dodging your calls) to make any change to your website and you’ll probably never make it to Page 1 on the search engines.
Blogging = Money. But only if you do it right.
A wedding photographer client of ours with a very successful business finally started a blog last year after months of being told by us and everyone else that he NEEDED one. But when I asked him how it was going, he wasn’t convinced.
“It’s a lot of work!” he said. “I’m not sure it’s doing any good.”
When I asked if he was getting more visitors, the answer was yes.
But here is a more important question…Are those visitors converting to leads who put money in your pocket?
Not just any website visitors will do. For a local wedding business you need targeted, local brides who are planning a wedding in your area.
If you want to turn your blog posts into income for your bridal business, try these proven bride magnet blog posts on for size…
4 Bride Booking Blog Posts
1. The Client “Review” Post
This blog post talks about how amazing the bride’s wedding day was. Compliment her taste, describe how much fun it was…and of course, show off your work.
Then email the link to your blog post to that bride.
The average bride has 130 friends she communicates with through Facebook, Twitter and email. She’s going to show off her wedding blog post to everyone. A bunch of them are even going to leave comments on your blog reinforcing your awesomeness.
This equals FREE word of mouth marketing for you.
2. The Thank You Post
(This idea was shared by my friend, Brian McGovern.)
Identify the venues and wedding professionals you work with who attract your ideal brides.
Write a blog post talking about what a wonderful job they do, how great they are to work with and describing the quality and style of their service. Don’t lay it on too thick; you need to be sincere or you’ll set off the BS detectors.
When you’re done, send an email to the vendor; include a link to your blog post and thank them for being so wonderful to work with. Tell them how happy you are to share their services with your blog audience.
Guess what? You just made yourself a fan. A fan who is now going to send powerful referrals your way.
3. The How To…Get More Information Post
The best way to position yourself as a local wedding expert is to BE one. You can do that by sharing your vast knowledge.
Pick a quick, easy tip to share with brides, the questions they should ask when they are hiring a vendor or any other “How To” topic.
Write a blog post about it. At the end, include the sentence, “Want more ideas about how to do this for your wedding? Send me an email.”
Link “send me an email” to your contact form. Make sure your question is compelling and relates directly to your article.
Viola! You just established your expert status and asked the bride to contact you. If you provide good information in your post, she’ll take the bait.
4. The Local Wedding Post
In order to transform your blog visitors into booking clients, you need targeted local traffic. The best way to get that is to write about local wedding venues, locations and topics using those keywords.
Here are some ideas:
- Best outdoor ceremony locations in your area.
- Favorite local spots for photographs.
- Reasons to plan a wedding in your city.
- The pros and cons of planning a wedding in your city.
- Top 5 locations for gorgeous scenery in your area.
Focus in on venues and locations and write about them naturally. Make sure you use those local keywords in your title as well as your content, but not so frequently that it sounds weird.
Hudson Valley wedding locations, parks in Atlanta, GA for a wedding, outdoor wedding ceremony Phoenix, AZ, etc.
When a bride searches for that information on the internet, she’s going to find YOU. Not only is this post extremely valuable to the bride, it also attracts exactly your ideal visitor: targeted, ready to buy traffic.
One Final Tip
No matter what you’re writing, remember to write it for your ideal customer. In the wedding business, that’s usually the bride.
What does she care about? What questions does she have? What would be interesting for her?
Make sure your blog posts always, always keep this in mind. Write to her in the first person, like you would write to a friend.
Action Time
Pick the blog post that is easiest for you to write. Leave me a comment telling me about it (gotta add some public accountability) and then DO IT.
It’s the first step toward making more money with your wedding blog!