Last month I held a wedding planner intensive for the admins of my Becoming a Wedding Planner Facebook Group (be sure to join this free group!). This mastermind will be a recurring monthly event for my hardworking admins who are spread across the globe.
Wedding Planner Intensive
Going into our first Facebook Video Chat, I had no idea what to really expect. I had come up with some talking points and discussion topics, but the real goal of the meeting was to get to know each other better. Once the video call was over, though, I was so surprised by the conversation that I felt like I had to share some key business ideas with you all.
Dealing with Covid
Everyone has Covid on their mind, including those in this wedding planner intensive group. It was interesting to hear how different areas were handling it and handling weddings in general. We were dealing with brides wanting to push through warnings and policies. We were also dealing with brides who decided to postpone and vendors who canceled. The number one takeaway from this conversation, though, was how some of them were changing their services to accommodate smaller weddings. Mia has decided to create small packages based on hours instead of services. She provides some basic services like confirming vendors and creating a timeline but doesn’t include setup or breakdown. Since weddings are typically on a smaller scale now, full wedding management may not be needed for the time being. For now, I recommend thinking outside the box and asking inquiring brides what they really want for their money. Then I would try to create smaller packages to accommodate them.
Things I Learned
When you get together with a bunch of wedding planners, eventually we always come back to talking about leads. Finding them, getting them, securing them. We were discussing different ways to find them, and I suggested filling out a free WeddingWire listing. I was quickly informed that since WeddingWire and the Knot merged, they are no longer doing free listings. This was crazy to hear! But it tells me that they are getting too saturated with free listings and want to keep a certain caliber for their paid wedding pros. I expect the fees to increase within the year.
New Marketing Ideas
With Covid making it hard to network the ole’ fashion way and Instagram engagement at an all-time low, marketing in the current climate can be a real challenge. There were lots of new marketing ideas that came out of this wedding planner mastermind, but there is one particular idea I thought was genius! Here it is: seek out a newer wedding venue and a newer videographer. Ask them to partner with you in creating a venue video that will be displayed on the websites of all involved. As the planner, make sure you make an appearance. You could either do an interview style or share what you can do with the space. Get creative and have fun!
Another marketing idea was to have a virtual bridal show. This idea would involve a lot of work, but if done right could be super rewarding. Once again, you’ll need to enlist a videographer. Instead of having all the vendors at the venue at one time (eek, Covid) you could pre-record them at their shop, interview style. Let them show all their offerings. Remember, when it comes to a bridal show, it’s all about the email list. You will figure out a way to register attendees.
Wedding Planner Intensive Last Words
A lot of our conversation was focused on lead production. This gave me some great ideas on how to proceed with our next meeting. I’m going to be putting together a presentation on “evergreen marketing.” This will include topics like Pinterest, Email Marketing, and Blogging. So, until the next wedding planner intensive!
