4 Ways to Attract and Book High Paying Weddings

Question: How do I attract more high-end couples?

“We are a wedding venue and thanks to the Wedding Blueprint and the techniques in the program we have increased our wedding bookings.  Our goal is to book higher end brides who want all-inclusive packages. Most of our brides to date have been budget brides in the $5-10K range.

The majority of our leads come from our website.  We don’t use lead lists or go to bridal shows.

Our sales funnel is website hit, call or email contact, schedule tour, prepare proposal, book.

As we start to book more, how do we transition from budget brides to the higher end brides?

Thank you in advance.”

Jim
www.natchezhills.com

Answer: Learn what these couples want and communicate it powerfully in your marketing and service experience.

First of all, it’s so powerful that you’re asking this question instead of assuming that “all couples care about is price” or blaming the market.

Of course, it’s true that the price tag attached to a “high-end” wedding is going to be different, depending on your local market.  But…

There are high-end weddings in EVERY market, even yours.  If you’re not attracting them, it’s because you’re not communicating your value.

There are some specific steps you need to take in order to move from attracting and working with more budget-oriented couples to attracting the higher ticket weddings you’re after.

4 Steps to Transition from Budget Brides to High End Weddings

1. Survey these couples and create your “high-end” bride/groom profile with a service like Survey Monkey.  

You need to know their demographics (age, education level, career, lifestyle) and psychographics (interests, hobbies, wants, needs, fears.) What budget do they have for their wedding?  What wedding style and theme are they drawn to?

Be sure to ask specific questions about what these couples want and expect in their venue so that you can deliver on those needs.

Since you’re not working with these couples yet, you need to get creative to find them:

•    Create a survey and ask other wedding pros who are already working with these couples to send it to their clients.

•    Spend some time reading (aka “lurking”) in the local wedding chat rooms of sites like The Knot, Wedding Bee and local wedding groups on Facebook.  Find out the questions these couples are asking, what they want and what turns them off.

•    Use your imagination.

•    Talk to friends and acquaintances that belong to this target market if you can.

2. Examine every part of your business to make sure you deliver the high-end experience these couples expect.

You’re not going to book high-end weddings with a homemade website.  You won’t wow these couples with a mediocre customer experience.

You don’t have to spend a ton on creating the image and experience to attract these couples, but you do need to invest some time and money in attending to the details.

A few ideas to stand out as a “high-end” venue:

•    Personalize your response to those website leads by sending them a video greeting or directing them to a landing page made just for them.

•    Present a gift to each couple who takes a tour with you.

•    Craft a luxury experience for the couple when they visit your venue by partnering with other high end wedding pros to produce an invitation only fashion show or tasting event.

•    Get featured in the press and show off your expertise by writing articles or getting interviewed on the news.

3. Discover where these ideal couples can be found, online and offline.

What websites are they visiting, both the wedding and non-wedding ones?  What organizations do they belong to?  What colleges did they graduate from?

What other wedding businesses do they hire?

4. Once you know where your ideal couples are hanging out online and offline, meet them there.

The websites and blogs they frequent are perfect for submitting your guest blog posts or purchasing advertising.  The other wedding businesses they hire are ideal networking partners.

The most important part of all of this is to understand what these couples want and the words they use to express it so that you can use those exact words to communicate your value.

Once you have that “Irresistible Offer” nailed, these couples will be presold and all you have to do is follow through with your awesomeness.

– Stephanie

What do you think about attracting high end couples?

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