Well it’s Wednesday again and the weeks seem to be absolutely flying by at the moment, Sarah is now due in just 21 days!!! It feels like only yesterday that I found out I was going to be a daddy.

I’ve had a most enjoyable week as I’ve been contracted by the British Institute of Wedding Planning Professionals to write marketing articles for their members. They are a great bunch to work with, I met some of their members in person and they are EXTREMELY passionate about weddings but have a pretty basic knowledge of business and attracting customers so they should get some real benefit from my stuff. If you’re a wedding planner I’d definitely recommend that you take a look at their membership, it starts at just £27 per month and you get some great stuff included in that.

The reason for this weeks title is that I’m getting asked more and more about low cost and free ways to get wedding sales (apparently there is some sort of financial problem happening at the moment, but there is no sign of it here ;)) and there are some really great ones that many people don’t think of or just don’t know.

1 Ask for referrals
If you can get referrals you are on to a winner, it’s 100% fact that you will sell more to referrals than you will to someone who has never heard of you, makes sense right? Where are the best place to get referrals? From your existing customers. Ask your brides if they know anyone else who is getting married and whether they would mind putting you in touch. Asking the question can literally open a landslide as brides love telling people how great their suppliers are - just make sure you are great (see point 5)

2 Follow up with prospects
Just about every wedding business I speak to is desperate to get as many new leads as possible. This is great, but what they don’t realise is that they are sitting on a pot of warms leads already in most cases! Go back through your old enquiries and follow up with anyone who you don’t have a definite yes or no from, you’d be amazed at how many sales you will generate just from this exercise alone, one wedding photographer I work with generated 5 new sales in a single day after carrying out this action, 3 more than his previous best ever day!!!

3 Send out emails
This technically could fall under the above category as well, but I wanted to give it its own category as it is such an under used marketing medium in the wedding industry. I work with lots of companies and this is one thing which is never used to the maximum and I just can’t understand why - after all it’s free and it works!!! You should have a series of email templates that you can send out to brides so it doesn’t take you any time at all and keeps you at the forefront of their mind. Principals are the same as before, people don’t buy when you want them to, they buy when they are ready.

4 Social Networking
Facebook ring any bells? How about Linkedin, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter…. the list goes on. These tools are all classed as social media networking, are all free and all have a huge membership of young woman and current and future brides. On some of them it is just a matter of creating an account and getting going, other are a bit more involved, but I would recommend definitely having a look at them all and seeing which one(s) is right for you. You could well hit the jackpot if you do it right!!!

5 Be the best
The final way I’m going to talk about today is my favourite - being the best. In my opinion it is what everyone should be working towards as, no matter what the financial climate is, people are always willing to pay whatever it takes to have the best. Think about your product, your presentation, your marketing, what can you do to make yourself the best? Once you feel you are close, start telling people you’re the best, you’ll be amazed at how quickly word will spread!!!

If you want any help with any of the above, then take a look at the Evolution Programme, it’s really cost effective and contains articles on all the above points.

Until next week, happy marketing.

Edward

Free Stuff, General Marketing

The start of January will prompt Wedding planning season and all seasoned wedding professionals will know that the months between January and April will make or break their year. With the current financial turbulence, this year is going to be even more important than previously as Brides are going to be fewer and competition more ferocious! With this in mind it is very easy to get sucked into the trap of spending extra money on advertising, but you should hold on to your money - certainly don’t spend it on advertising anyway!

Here is a list of 7 FREE methods you can use to make a difference this year:

1. Joint Ventures - this is the biggest untapped market for wedding suppliers and is really easy to implement provided you are willing to give something back. If you want more information on creating Joint Ventures in the wedding industry then visit the main Evolution website. 
2. Blog - You’d be amazed at how effective a blog is as a means of communication and marketing method. They are seriously easy to set up and don’t have to cost you a penny. For more information on creating a wedding blog & blogging for wedding businesses visit the main Evolution site. 
3. Email Follow Ups - Many people do all the hard work by attracting potential customers, but then let all their hard work go to waste by neglecting to follow the enquiry up. This method can increase your profits by as much as 100% depending on how bad you really are.
4. Business Networking - Ok so this one isn’t entirely free but for the cost of a breakfast its pretty close! Business networking can open doors in various different ways, but you need to understand how to get the best out of it as it can be worthless if you don’t!
5. Advertising - You probably know that I am NOT a fan of advertising! 99% of the time it is overpriced, mis sold and as good as worthless. HOWEVER, there are numerous places where you can advertise free on the internet and this has got to make sense right? It certainly can’t do any harm thats for sure. There is a guide to free wedding advertising on the Evolution site which will give you some of the sites which offer free wedding adverts. Please let me know if you know of any that aren’t on there.
6. Publicity - Getting yourself publicised can really give your business a massive boost! There are a variety of different places you can get publicity, by far the easist is online PR. To get more details on publicising a wedding business visit the main Evolution site.
7. Your Website - If you have a website already, then unless you are in the 0.1% of people who have analysed their conversion analytics and made the necessary changes, it is probable that just by thinking in a different way you can get more enquiries from the visitors you are already getting.

If these points are of interest to you then I would highly recommend that you check out the Evolution Programme which is a step by step guide to creating a marketing plan for a wedding business. The programme will take you through each one of these points in detail and tell you how to implement them in your business. There will be a January Bonus on the Programme which you can keep up to date with by filling in your details below.

Advertising, Blogging, Free Stuff

I know from my experience in the wedding industry that very few businesses have either a business plan or a wedding specific marketing plan, even fewer have one that they adhere to and is actually useful to their business!

If either of those scenarios sound familiar then you are seriously missing a trick! While a business plan is important, a marketing plan is essential and will seriously take your business forward year after year.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

A Wedding Business Marketing Plan shouldn’t just be a few ideas and a summary written down, referred to once and then forgotten forever, it should be a working document that you know like the back of your hand and that is constantly updated. You should look at it at least once a week to see what your actions are and update your results.

Your marketing plan should include the following:

1. A list of marketing activities that you have used previoudly in your business.
2. A description on how each activity is carried out.
3. The previous return from each activity.
4. A calendar listing when each activity will be carried out.
5. An up to date report on how the marketing plan is working this year versus last year.

If you keep track of this information then I guarantee your business will move forward in leaps and bounds.

If you need some help writing your own wedding business marketing plan then I recommend that you look at the Evolution Programme which will not only guide you through the process step by step, but will also identify and outline the best marketing activities for wedding businesses to achieve results. To learn more about the Evolution Programme click here.

Free Stuff, General Marketing

We’re using the christmas slump to really crack on and make progress on developing our new product, due to be launched next year and need help from you guys to make sure the product meets your needs.

As a thank you for helping us out I’ll give you a couple of featured listings on one of our bridal focussed sites worth nearly £200 just to make it worth your while. The conversation will last no longer than 20 minutes and you’lll get £200 worth of advertising in return for you time - surely that’s got to be a good deal?!?!?!

If you’re interested in helping us out, please call me in the office on 0870 300 4971 or email me advising of a suitable time for us to call you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Edward

Evolution Products, Free Stuff

Free Wedding Advertising

Okay so I may have already spoken to most of you and offered you your free advert on our new site which is going live very soon. If for any reason I’ve missed you though you can visit the free wedding advertising page on the main Evolution site and register you details. If you can’t find the page on the site for any reason then you can follow the link on the right of this page in the blogroll section.

If you want more than just a standard ad, then all my loyal blog readers are entitled to upgrade to a featured listing for just £10 for the entire year - this normally costs £99 so you’ll be saving nearly 90%! To get your featured wedding listing contact the office and one of the team will walk you through the process.

If you have any suggestions for the new site then please leave them in a comment below, I’m going to be selecting the best one and giving away a prize to whoever suggested it!

If you want to see our guide to websites which offer free wedding advertising then visit the page on the main Evolution site. 

I’ll be posting another marketing article in the next couple of days.

Until then.

Edward

Advertising, Free Stuff