The beginning of a new year is always a great time for goal setting, making resolutions, and developing a ‘new you,’ both personally and professionally. Consider these tips to find new funnels for your business and get tips on how to tweak your online listing. A look at your business and where your referrals come from is a great way to start your professional year.
Start With Low Hanging Fruit
The most comfortable place to start a review of your business funnel is with paid online listings. You can typically log into your online portals and see the number of click-throughs on your website. If you find very few people are clicking on your listing, take a minute and search your business name and "wedding planner" (or whatever your wedding-related profession) and your city in Safari or Google. Hopefully, the site(s) you are listed on show up near the top of your search.
If your listing is not appearing in your search, you may need to reconsider the value of the company you are listed with. If the investment in your listings is substantial, it might be time to review and find a company that will provide a higher ROI (return on investment). However, suppose the investment is minimal, and you are getting a good amount of traffic. In that case, you might write it off as another good ‘touch,’ where engaged couples see your business name.
Maybe It’s Your SEO, Photos, or Branding
We know this is something that none of us want to hear- but it may be true. If your online listings are coming up in your search, and you see no clicks through to your site, it might be you. To put you more at ease, people not clicking through could mean that they’ve seen you in a bunch of places. If they’ve seen you on other sites, been to your Instagram page, and already visited your website, they won’t click through your listing again. Now here’s some of the bad news, no clicks through could mean that they saw nothing in your online listing to draw them in. Here is a 10 minute, daily SEO routine by Bride Appeal to help you ensure your listing and site are up to date and searchable.
Tweaking Your Online Listings
Whether you’ve invested the time in reviewing your online listing’s visibility and traffic – it is important to tweak all of your online listings. It’s always the perfect time to look at your images and text and make changes wherever you see fit. When was the last time you changed the photos on your online listing? Do your images look dated, are they reflective of the demographics you work with, and do they show your best work? The same goes for your text. Does your listing use inclusive language, and do you list all of the latest packages and services you offer? When you read the text, is it personable? Would you want to know more or connect with me to do business?
Finding Other Funnels
Online listings and social media are not and should not be your only business funnels. Other potential business funnels may be local wedding trade shows, as well as conferences and events by local wedding and professional organizations. Get creative, reach out to people you have previously done business with, and put yourself out there. Network as best as you can!
Venues and Vendors
Who are the wedding professionals you already work with, and how much visibility are you getting? What do your reviews say? Take a good look at all of your weddings over the past few years. Create a spreadsheet of each venue and each pro – separating them by profession. Tackle one category at a time, looking at which ones you have referred couples to. If you are referring business to other pros and not seeing it come back your way, it might be because they don’t know enough about what you do.
You can correct this problem by checking in, inviting them to a virtual coffee to see how they are doing, and talking more about what each of you does. It might take a small gift or sending them some collateral material to put yourself at the top of their mind. Additionally, reconnecting is the perfect way to learn about businesses that may have closed due to COVID-19. You can also discuss their policies, contract wording, and safety protocols for current weddings.
Shout Outs, Tags, and Take Overs
Social media is one of the easiest ways to connect with that wedding venue, bakery, or other event professionals you want a stronger relationship with. Take some time and create a blog post about their work, repost them in your Instagram stories to how much you enjoy working with them, tag them, and share images from previous collaborations. You could even reach out by email to see if they would like to collaborate/chat with your audience on Instagram Live. More than likely they will appreciate the shout-out and potentially keep you in mind the next time a couple asks for a recommendation.
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