Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A Wedding Business Podcast - Tips and tricks to, grow and sustain a amazingly successful wedding business in a way that's is fun and gives you tons of freedom.
Welcome everyone to the wedding pro academy podcast. I'm Nicole, your host. I'm an expert in the wedding industry and I've personally built two 6 figure businesses from the ground up. I am obsessed with building businesses that make lots of money but do so in a way that also create luxurious amounts of freedom. So if you're looking to build, grow, or scale a wedding business in a way that doesn't burn you out and you'd love some guidance from someone who has done just that, this podcast is for you.
Nicole S.:Each week, I'll cover strategies, ideas, tips, and tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive in. Hi everyone, welcome to episode 13. Today, I am going to share 10 ways to market your wedding business for free.
Nicole S.:I thought you guys might find this super helpful and so I put together some of the ways that I have marketed my business for free. I haven't done a lot of paid advertising really at all until recently and I have been able to get a pretty steady flow of business without having to pay for any marketing, which is awesome. So, I wanna share some of those strategies with you guys. But, before I go into that, just kinda wanted to give you a little life update and share something about myself personally because I don't know. I think it's important for you to understand that you are not in it alone.
Nicole S.:Like, even though I have ten years of experience with building, growing, you know, being an entrepreneur, things still feel hard for me too. And I have been going through a particularly difficult time this past, I don't know, two weeks and I just want to tell you guys a little bit about it so you don't feel so alone. What I've been doing personally is my husband and I are little family. We have three boys. They are young still in elementary school.
Nicole S.:We have been trying to build sort of our dream house now for, gosh, like four years. We bought a piece of land and we our plan was to basically knock that house down and build a house from scratch. We hired an architect, designed this beautiful house and that whole process took, I don't know, two years even though it was supposed to only take six months and then we had to go through permitting. I live in Hawaii so permitting here is majorly messed up. It takes a really long time.
Nicole S.:We paid extra for a company to sort of speed us through this process and now we're at the place where we have the permits, we have found a builder, we have kicked out our tenants, and we are ready to go. We also got approved for a loan but then interest rates went up and our the cost of our actual house is more than we can afford because now the loan amount that we qualify is less than we were expecting that we would get. And so we're short $250,000, which I mean, it's something that has been really, really bothering me. And I'm like, how can I make more money now? And I know this is like a first world problem, but it's it's really put a damper on my business and put so much pressure on me to like figure out how to make more money fast.
Nicole S.:And I've realized as I've been going through this process, like, how hard I've been on myself, how much pressure I've put on myself to to make money fast, to make this work, to get things going, and how that has not helped me to book more weddings. It has not helped my business to grow. It's made things way harder, and it's made things so stressful. And I've sort of had to step back and be like, you know what? Like, we're gonna figure this out whether or not I make a whole bunch of more money real fast right now or not.
Nicole S.:I'm gonna figure it out because I always figure it out. I'm gonna make this work because I'm the kind of person that always makes makes things work. I always figure things out. My brides will find me, my couples will find me, that will come. I'm just gonna keep trudging along and putting in the effort and my people will find me.
Nicole S.:But I had to make a conscious decision to go there because everything in my brain was like, what are you doing? This is hard. You need to make more money fast. Like it was in this desperation mode of pressure pressure pressure and that you know is not a place that attracts more couples to me. It's in a place that repels people because then I come off as desperate like must book more now you know Like trying to sell sell sell from that desperate place which does not attract people to me.
Nicole S.:So, I had to make a conscious decision that it didn't matter if I booked more weddings or not. I have other sources of revenue. Somehow, someway I was going to figure this out and separate from that, my business is always also working out. My people are always finding their way to me and that's kind of the struggle that I've been in lately and the mindset I've had to adapt and still trying to praise myself when weddings aren't rolling in, when business is hard, when now I am having to put out Google Ads whereas before I didn't have to do that. You know, it happens to all of us.
Nicole S.:So, even if you're in the beginning stages of starting a business and you don't quite know where the people are coming from and it feels hard and it feels like uncertain and scary and stressful. You gotta keep this faith, this unwavering faith that it's gonna work out. I know because shit always works out for me. I make sure that no matter what, I'm gonna keep going. So, it's gotta work out at some point.
Nicole S.:Right? Like, things have to change. And the my people are coming. They are gonna find me. So, you gotta hold that faith.
Nicole S.:And, yeah, I just wanna share that because I know some of you might be feeling that kind of pressure and stress too. Like, you can't quit your other job until you make this much money. Like, that pressure does not help us to be better. It does not help the universe to bring us more business. It repels it.
Nicole S.:So we want to try to lay off of that pressure and just trust that, you know, I am the type of person that makes shit happen. I am the type of person that is able to make this big dream a reality. I know because I've done it before. I've done it before in this way, in that way, in that way, in that way. And, like, list out all the ways that you are that kind of person.
Nicole S.:Remind yourself. I've been having to do that a lot lately and the more I do it, the more I remember like, oh yeah. I'm that kind of person. This kind of shit works out for me. I like to go for really big, big, big goals.
Nicole S.:Like, right now, we're building a freaking $3,000,000 house or more and that's fucking scary, but we are gonna figure this out. I'm gonna figure this out. I know because I'm the kind of person that figures this out. I've figured out hard things before. I know I can figure this out.
Nicole S.:Remember to stay in that place and when you find yourself in the worried stressed out uncertain place, get yourself back. Make a conscious effort to pull yourself back in and be like no no no that's not me. I'm not that person that can't figure it out. I'm not the person that gives up. So, this has got to work.
Nicole S.:Okay, rant over. Let me get back to the point of this episode, which is 10 ways to market your wedding business for free. Number one, social media. Instagram, TikTok, that one's obvious. And you wanna use Instagram in a way to really connect with other vendors, make them aware of you.
Nicole S.:It's really it's like a really easy way to make, especially if you're newer, to to allow other photographers, other cake people, other officiants know who you are. So you can like their posts, you can send them a message and say hi and introduce yourself. This works really well if you're new. Share their stories. Share their stuff because that makes them really, really take notice of you.
Nicole S.:You better believe they're going to remember who you are if you're sharing their shit. That is something that maybe might seem weird to do, but if you like it, why not share it? Give them a shout out. That feels so good when people do that to me. And it really makes me remember, oh, that person, I know her.
Nicole S.:Like, now I might reach out to her if I need a photographer. And then, of course, the normal post reels stories. You want to do that consistently. That's a great way to market your business for free. The second one is, if you haven't done this yet, you need to do this, like, this week.
Nicole S.:Set your business up on Google. You wanna set up Google My Business and create a Google business listing that is there to collect testimonials. It's a great way for people to be able to find you. It's also super helpful with your SEO, search engine optimization. The other thing you want to do is set up Google Maps.
Nicole S.:So, create a business listing on Google Maps, specifically for SEO, but that will help people to find you online. Number three, you want to get on as many free wedding directories as possible. There are tons of them and I have a whole module on this in my my business course, my wedding business course, but the more free listings you can get on, the more that is going to help boost your SEO, search engine optimization, which is going to help you rank higher on Google. The higher you're ranked on Google, the more people will be able to find you. The more business you get, the more people will reach out, the more weddings you'll book, the more money you'll make.
Nicole S.:So, get on as many free wedding directories as you can to help with your SEO and to attract new clients. People might just be searching through them and they might see your listing and then randomly check out your website and then fall in love with you, you know. So, that's how you can attract new clients for free. Some of the free listings, let me just give you three off the top of my head, are wedding bee, one wed, and forever bride. Number four, this is a big one that I think would be super helpful to you if you're having trouble getting new businesses booked and it might be like a longer lead item, but you should do this ASAP.
Nicole S.:Join your local wedding association. I think almost every state has one especially if you do a lot of weddings in your state. I know we have one in Hawaii. It's something where it's like a group, a community of wedding vendors who get together to do stuff together, to hang out, to meet each other, to do community efforts. And, what you want to do, the reason why you want to join the local wedding association is to build connections with other vendors.
Nicole S.:And not just fake connections, but like genuine friends. You want to make more and more friends in the wedding industry where you live. You want to I know we do this here in Hawaii and I think they do this in other places too, but we also are able to join community efforts so we can give back to the local community and we do things like pick up trash off the beach or, you know, create safe places for birds that are nesting near the beach. We're in Hawaii, so we do beachy stuff, but there are lots of other community efforts that our wedding association does. What's really cool about doing stuff like this and showing up for these kind of events is that you can document them and then you can post them on social and then you can tag everyone and then they repost it.
Nicole S.:And then, you know, this is how you build this kind of connection. And you also make friends this way and and you build relationships. And then the next time, that videographer that I met on this outreach, you know, expedition, He's gonna refer me because he knows me personally. I tagged him in a bunch of stuff. He trusts me.
Nicole S.:He kind of likes me. You know, he doesn't know any other wedding planners because he's new. Maybe I'm new and we refer each other. So that's how you how you build connections through your local wedding association. Number five, and you probably won't expect this, but Facebook.
Nicole S.:I know it's kind of dated like a lot of people think you don't really need to go on Facebook anymore. But, Facebook is a really really awesome place to market your services to a different demographic. Especially with weddings, you are marketing to all ages, not just 20 year olds. I book a lot of weddings for 50 year olds, 60 year olds, 70 year olds and those people are on Facebook. So, what happens is when you put posts on Facebook, people share them.
Nicole S.:Like, my mom shares my posts, my mother-in-law shares my posts and then more people see them. This is how you get referrals. I also have my Instagram post automatically repost to Facebook directly, which makes things super easy. But, Facebook is a great place to to be a part of a community of a different age group. You know, there's still young people on Facebook too.
Nicole S.:I'm still on Facebook. Number six. This is a really cool one that takes a little bit of effort but I think could be highly highly helpful to bringing in new business. It's styled shoots. This isn't just good for photographers.
Nicole S.:Here's what I would do. You would gather a group of vendors who are at basically the same level as you. Everyone who needs some kind of marketing help and who, you know, maybe isn't so established that they're getting tons of business without, you know, advertising. People that are like in the same level as you started around the same time as you. Then you will join together to put together a styled shoot.
Nicole S.:You would probably want to go to a new venue. You could go to a beach, a park, whatever. You want to have a new photographer, hair and makeup artist, cake videographer, drone, a florist, and then you could just have friends be models. Everybody has a pretty friend. You know you can get someone to be a model, get all prettied up for the day, get a free hair and makeup, you know, then you can go out to dinner afterwards.
Nicole S.:Then if you're the planner you can organize all of this, scout everything, create a timeline for the day and execute it. This way you have a group of people who are putting together a beautiful styled shoot. You have video of it. You have photos of it. You have photos of the cake.
Nicole S.:You have photos of the, you know, the cards, escort cards and invitations. And and then each of you shares this stuff on Instagram and you tag each other and you share it in stories and you tag each other. Everybody wins. Everybody gets business. And on top of that, you are also making real, genuine, long lasting relationships and building connections with other people who need business too.
Nicole S.:So, you guys will start referring each other business. You will start trusting each other. Like, I did one of these recently, even though I've been in business for a long time. It was for a new venue that I wanted to start using. And some of the vendors I met there, they were new, like brand new.
Nicole S.:And now I use them all the time. Like the cake people, the video people, the invitation designer, calligrapher. I use them all the time. I've been in business for a long time. I have other reputable, you know, vendors that I was using but I like these guys so much and they were cheaper and they were quick and they were reliable and I was like this is awesome.
Nicole S.:Now I have new people to use too. Styled shoots are a great way to market your business for free. Number seven. This is an old school one but it works. Blog on your website.
Nicole S.:You want a blog that is incorporated into your website for one major specific reason which is SEO. I keep going back to SEO but that's it's just so important to start working on a little bit at a time especially if you want your Google ranking to improve. What you want to do is write blog posts on common wedding questions. You want to try to figure out what are brides and grooms searching for on Google. What questions do they have?
Nicole S.:What is a very common question that everybody's asking and maybe there's not a lot of information on? Easy way to kind of do a little research here is you can use answerthepublic.com. I don't know if you've seen that website before, but it's really cool. You can type in a little bit of information and it gives you back like the most common questions on that topic. So, the most common questions that get asked on Google that are searched for on that specific topic.
Nicole S.:You could type in Hawaii wedding, since I'm in Hawaii. What came up was like how much does a small wedding in Hawaii cost? I could write a blog post on that. I know what a small wedding in Hawaii cost. And it also says what to wear in Hawaii, and then there's a bunch of other stuff that came up.
Nicole S.:So right there, that gives me great blog topics. With that site specifically, you get three free searches a day. So you could just do this every day, come up with more and more stuff, more and more ideas on blog posts that will keep your ideal client interested, stuff they actually want to know. And the more that you have your website show up on Google with these different blog posts, the more people are gonna find you. So that's like a really great free marketing effort right there.
Nicole S.:Number eight, this one is obvious but it's a little harder to do. It's preferred vendor list. If you can build relationships with venues, with hotels, with other vendors and get them to like you, trust you, know you, and get on their preferred vendor list that is going to be a great free, you know, connection and will bring business to you. And a lot of times I have people I have brides and grooms reach out to me. I don't know where they came from then I asked them and they're like, oh, so and so referred you.
Nicole S.:And that will happen more and more as you become more established, but it's good to to start building these relationships now. And I I used to think when I was first getting started that the most important thing was to get on the hotel and venue's preferred vendor list and it is freaking hard to do that if you're new. I would go there and meet with them, bring them cookies, you know, do all those things. But unless they've had experience working with you a whole bunch, they're not really going to trust you. So, what I ended up doing is getting on other vendor's preferred vendors list.
Nicole S.:So, like photographers and officiants and hair and makeup people and they put a preferred vendors list on their website and linked to me and that's been really, really, really awesome. Eventually, I did get onto the venues, you know, preferred vendors list, but that took time. So, if you're not getting on them right away, don't feel bad. That's something that will come with time, but it's something that you should pay attention to and which is a great way to market your business. Number nine, you want to get free listings on the testimonial sites, the big ones.
Nicole S.:Google, we went over that a little bit. Yelp, WeddingWire, the not, I mean you get on Yelp and just create a listing and then start slowly funneling your clients to leave testimonials for you. Same with Google and all that. Those are free. Those are also going to help with your SEO and they will bring people who are searching for wedding planner in Hawaii or whatever it is that you do to your website.
Nicole S.:Number 10, this is an old one, but I think it's still such a goodie. Pinterest. Brides still use Pinterest a lot, especially to source ideas for decor and to get a good feel for the look of their wedding, for flowers, for hair and makeup, for dresses, for everything. Having a quality Pinterest account where you can give ideas, where you can share inspiration, where you can maybe link it to your blog post or whatever is going to bring, you know, brides and grooms that maybe otherwise wouldn't have found you to your website and make them aware of you. So like as a whole, the more places you are, the more places that brides and grooms can find you, the more times they hear about you from other vendors or see your name pop up, the more they're gonna trust you.
Nicole S.:The more that they trust you, the more they're aware of you, the more you show up, the the more likely it's going to be for them to contact you and to want to work with you. They want to work with somebody who has they know is established, that they know has reviews, that they know has, you know, been around. And also, you have to become point like, you have to be top of mind. They might do research one day and see your name pop up and then another day they might see your name pop up somewhere else like on Pinterest. And then they're gonna start to take notice and be like, hey, I wonder like who is this person?
Nicole S.:I better check them out. And that is what you want to that is what's gonna get sort of the wheels turning to make the momentum for them to want to reach out to you and for you to have a much easier time booking them because now they trust you. Now they know you. Now you're not just some random person that they saw once that they have no proof that you're actually a legit vendor that has experience that is good at what they do. They need to see you over and over and over again.
Nicole S.:So that's kind of the point of all of this. And these are 10 great ways to market when things are slow, when you're not having people roll in. I mean, I have seasons where I get super busy and couples are just contacting me, you know, daily and all I have time to do is to respond to all these new inquiries And then I have seasons like I'm having right now, like some weird week or two where things are just slow. And those slow seasons, they are just so normal. You have very busy seasons.
Nicole S.:You have slow seasons. You have times when even as an established wedding vendor where people aren't reaching out. And you just gotta trust that everything that you're doing, all of the efforts, all of the marketing efforts, all of the things that you're doing behind the scenes is gonna have a snowball effect. And, eventually, people are gonna come in and you're gonna be ready for it. So just keep working on these different free Of course, like, stick with the free ones first if you can.
Nicole S.:Unless you have a huge budget, do all the free things you could do. Do all these free marketing strategies while you're waiting for the business to come in. And in the meantime, also work on your mindset. Remember who you are. Remember you're the person that is good at this.
Nicole S.:Remember you're a person that figures this out. Remember you're the kind of person that makes it work. You're the kind of person that doesn't give up. You're the kind of person that is down for the grind, that is going to make it through. You're the kind of person that is going to stick it out until it happens and you're going to figure it out because that is just who you are.
Nicole S.:Things work out for you because you're that kind of person and eventually things will work out for you. I can guarantee you that. So keep keep at it. You guys got it and I cannot wait to talk to you guys next week. And just so you know, this weekend's my birthday.
Nicole S.:Woo hoo. I'm so excited. We're gonna go get a hotel and have a little party and yeah oceanfront view. It should be really fun. I'm gonna celebrate myself for my birthday and you should be celebrating yourself too just for all the hard work that you've been putting in which I know you guys have.
Nicole S.:So I will see you guys next week. Have a wonderful weekend. Bye for now.