We’re thrilled to introduce the lovely Tayler Cusick-Hollman of TAYLRD Media and Designs – THE wedding industry marketing consultant, branding expert, and PR guru. Social media expertise, copywriting, and brand strategy are all crucial activities for any small business owners to educate themselves on, but with a wedding specific spin? Invaluable. That is why we’ve loved chatting with and learning from Tayler and couldn’t wait to work with her for this informative series for our LBB vendors. As you’re taking it all in, realizing you’re ready for a whole brand overhaul, we highly recommend getting in touch with Tayler and her partner Gillian, a pro copywriter. Without further ado… we’ll let Tayler take it away!
HOW TO MARKET YOUR WEDDING BUSINESS DURING COVID-19
Running a business in the wedding industry has always been something that takes passion and persistence, and now (more than ever) they are keys to success. Because, in a time where things seemingly change minute by minute, your passion will keep your heart in the game and your persistence will keep your head in. But, even the most driven and inspired business owners can find themselves running low on fuel and confused about which step is the “right one” to take. And that is normal—there is no guidebook for a situation like this. However, this is the time to formulate a plan and find a roadmap to guide you. From making changes to your service offerings and reevaluating your projections to managing a calendar that is in a constant state of flux (and everything in between), there are a lot of ways you can be putting time into your business. Today, though, we are going to focus on a foundational piece that people seem to be questioning at the moment—marketing your business and how to go about it. If you are passionate and persistent as ever about your business but overwhelmed about which steps to take, read on for guidance on how you can market your wedding business in a productive and tasteful way.
Should You Be Marketing Your Business Right Now?
To answer the question that has been swirling around in your head for the past 8 weeks—yes. And, not because it is simply something to do, rather, because it is something vitally important to the overall health of your business. Inquires came to a screeching halt not that long ago and those weeks of being on the receiving end of a single message—STOP—were rough (to say the least). So, I completely understand the sense of overwhelm and why urge to just hit the pause button was strong. But, when it comes to marketing your business, it is always best to take a proactive approach as opposed to a reactive one.
We are starting to get out of the days where every couple who popped into your inbox was asking to reschedule their wedding and, now that some of the dust has settled (and people are becoming comfortable in their new routines), couples are going to start proactively looking at their own future and inquire about services again. Side (but important) note to help you feel confident about marketing your business right now: How much time are you spending on the internet these days? My guess is a lot more than usual because you have a lot more time on your hands. Couples and potential clients are doing the same and viewership on popular sites like Style Me Pretty are up an average of +37% across their top 7 vendor categories!
What To Do Before Diving Back Into Your Marketing Efforts
I’m glad that you’re on board and feeling excited about picking things back up, but before you dive head first into the deep end, there are a few things you should do:
– Set course with a strategy – Weddings in the way we are familiar with are on hold at the moment, so how exactly can you be of service to engaged couples? Be sure to clearly define the services that will be most helpful to people in the near future and build your strategy around communicating that.
– Have goals to reach – The numbers behind your business likely got turned on their head, so it is important to know exactly the value in services you need to book in the coming months. Set milestones for yourself but do give yourself some grace and flexibility since we are all still on a crazy train.
– Hone in on your narrative – A lot of people are in a completely different emotional state at the moment, so you cannot speak to them like you are used to. Consider softening your tone so that you and your business are seen as calm and confident; acting as if “everything is normal” can come off as insensitive
Tips To Help You Market Your Business During COVID 19
There is no right or wrong way to market your business (ever, really) but there are marketing tactics that you and your potential couples might feel more or less comfortable with. So, as you work to build momentum around your business and services, focus your time and energy on the things that move the needle and that you can stand behind. If you want to take a more active approach to marketing your business:
– Start explicitly talking about how you can help and the services you provide. Now is not the time to dance around how you can help
Reach out to previous clients to get reviews and regularly share them on social media (you can even ask them to record a short video of themselves actually talking about what it was like working with you)
– Publish a free resource that demonstrates your expertise. You can do this live on social media, record an IGTV episode, or a more passive way would be to write a blog post
– Create a lead magnet and email list. You don’t have to continually market to the list you build but you can at least take them through a 3-5 email sequence. This historically hasn’t been something I recommend for wedding pros, but your sales cycles might be longer at the moment and, if you have more time with people, this is a great way of building trust
– Start using calls to action (CTAs) at the end of some of your social media posts. Encourage people to reach out and schedule that consultation
– Talk about your calendar to communicate your availability. Scarcity of product is one of the foundational marketing levers you have to pull on and if your calendar is filling up, people should now
If you want to take a more passive approach to marketing your business:
– Work on your SEO! In a time where you might not have a lot of control over things, you have complete control over how optimized your digital brand assets are. So, the first thing you should do is finally figure out what keywords are best to target for your business
Then, do an audit of your website. Can you work your keywords into your copy? Can you update any of the headlines on your website with them? Can you optimize any URLs? (Be mindful about doing the last one since updating URLs would mean breaking any established backlinks. You can set up redirects to mitigate that.)
– Use this time to build a backlog that you can drip out on your website over the coming months. If you can publish something new 1-2 times a month, you will be sitting pretty
– You can also use this time to start leveraging Pinterest as a marketing channel. Start by going through your portfolio and downloading the best detail shots from your best weddings and then get them uploaded onto your boards (optimizing everything, of course!)
Update your listing on Style Me Pretty with all of your best work from the past year! This might be where potential clients are formulating their impression of you, so make it a strong one
You’ve worked so hard at building your brand and business—don’t lose the momentum you’ve gained! Even though things might not be going as you planned (and you might feel defeated), you have a lot of influence over how well your business weathers this storm. Channel that passion and be persistent! And, 2020 can be as good at it can be.