7 Must-Have Tools for Wedding Professionals to Increase Productivity

Written by Chelsey Morin on January 23rd, 2020

Working in the wedding industry is a very busy job. There are always clients to reach out to, emails to send, social media posts to create…which is why we’re sharing with you 7 must-have tools for wedding professionals that will drastically increase your productivity and give you more time for things you love!

1. Book More Brides CRM- Made for Wedding Venues and Wedding Pros

Book More Brides CRM is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool that keeps track of all your projects for you. It contains an automated email system, texting, FB messaging, surveys, invoices, and a payment portal.

In addition, there is a contact form you can embed directly into your website, so that when a new lead comes in, Book More Brides CRM immediately notifies you and puts their information into a new project. It also has nifty tools like a task list, Facebook Lead ad integration, marketing funnel, and a calendar, as well.

We built our wedding business CRM for people who wanted help setting up and using a CRM without doing it buy your self as the other CRM’s do. If you’d like to start using Book More Brides CRM for your wedding business, make sure to use Book More Brides CRM to take a look or set up a demo appointment!

2. Toggl

Toggl is one of the most helpful tools for wedding professionals. It is a timer that tracks your time for you by specific categories and projects so you know exactly where your time is going.

There’s a browser extension for easy access, and it’s completely free to use. To unlock more features, there’s a paid version available, as well.

3. Email Service Providers

There’s no getting around it; you need an Email Service Provider (ESP) to keep up with your clients. It is one of the most essential, efficient tools for wedding professionals like you.

An ESP is like an address book of all your brides and grooms. It allows you to communicate with through email and send certain campaigns or email sequences. The really cool part is that you can automate everything, too! What a time-saver!

Some of the most popular ESPs include Book More Brides CRM, ActiveCampaign, Drip, Mail Chimp, and ConvertKit. The prices vary with each type, and the cost is determined by how many subscribers you have. 

Drip has a free version for up to 100 subscribers (if you reach 100, then it becomes $49 a month), and Mail Chimp has a free version for up to 2,000 subscribers. Neither Book More Brides CRM nor ActiveCampaign includes a free version, but they do offer a free trial.

4. ManyChat

Can you relate to working long and hard crafting that perfect follow-up email, clicking send, and then…..nothing? The bride or groom doesn’t even open it? It’s pretty impossible to reach potential clients when they don’t read what you have to say, isn’t it?

Since that seems to happen more often than not, ManyChat is one of the perfect tools for wedding professionals. Compared to email open rates at 20% or 30%, the average open rates for ManyChat are reported to be 60-90%. That’s a huge difference!

ManyChat simply connects to your business page’s Facebook Messenger, and you can create automated messages and flows to have conversations with your clients, without needing to be there for the conversation. It’s a wonderful way to stay top-of-mind and save massive amounts of time than if you were to communicate manually!

To learn more, expert ManyChat marketer Henry Chen did a workshop here in Book More Brides on this specific tool and how it helps wedding professionals. You can access it in the Book More Brides Membership. (Not a member yet? This link will take you there for your free one-month trial.)

5. Zapier

Zapier is a tool that connects apps with each other, just like roads connect cities. It is very useful for integrating apps that don’t normally connect.

For example, Zapier can connect your contact form with your email so that you’re notified whenever a potential client comes your way. In addition, you can connect your contact form with Google Contacts, and Zapier will automatically create the bride’s/groom’s contact on your phone.

The best part is that there’s a free version with up to 5 connections, or “Zaps.” For more flexibility and Zaps, you can upgrade to the paid version.

There are hundreds of apps that you can connect through Zapier. A few of them include: Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Forms, Drip, Mail Chimp, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Facebook Ads, Calendly, WordPress, Dropbox, Stripe, Eventbrite, Evernote, and Zoom.

6. Bonjoro

Bonjoro allows you to send personalized videos straight to someone’s email. This feature is wonderful to use in your follow-up system whenever you have a bride or groom who is interested in your services.

The process is simple: you type in their email, write out your subject line and email content, insert a call to action, and record your video all in the app. Once the recording is complete, everything goes directly to the recipient.

What makes Bonjoro so effective is that many wedding professionals do not send videos to their brides and grooms, especially personalized videos. You immediately stick out from the crowd, and brides and grooms respond very well to them. When they have yet to respond to phone calls, texts, or emails, a personalized Bonjoro video often does the trick.

7. Calendly

Calendly is one of the most useful tools for wedding professionals when it comes to booking a call with a bride or groom. It’s simply a calendar scheduling system that others can access when they’re given the link. You input the specific event and the times you have available, and the bride and groom can go in and choose a day and time that works best. No more messaging back and forth trying to nail down details!

So there you have it! 7 tools for wedding professionals that will save you time and allow you to be more productive and efficient in your business.