In my last blog, I spoke about the importance of Video, how to effectively use Facebook and how Live Broadcasts are now a key part of any marketing campaign. Here are my next 3 tips for effectively marketing your venue this year!
Spend on Ads – you gotta spend a little to make a little!
The days of posts generating high organic reach (unpaid) are few and far between and so budget does need to be allocated to advertising. I am not talking about simply boosting a post here but creating an ad that you target specific audience with. It can give you an entirely new audience and the rules around video being the most engaging still apply. Top tips
- Include captions and calls-to-action to help get your message across quickly – targeted ads allow more granular targeting driving more desirable results
- Make custom audiences by Uploading your entire email database or all wedding enquiries.
Then use this to target them on Facebook to attend your wedding fair Facebook Lookalike audiences allows you to take your custom audience and then serve ads to people who are similar to them.
- You can create a Lookalike audience based on people who like your current Facebook Page
- Or you can create a Facebook Lookalike audience based on your custom audience.
Facebook Remarketing allows you to follow people who are on your website but don’t make an enquiry. It is easy to do for weddings (or spa, or bedrooms). You will need some help from IT with the Facebook Pixel. Your specific ad will follow that user to FB to encourage them to come back to your site and make that all-important enquiry. If you don’t have the in-house skills to do this, it is worth getting training or hiring someone to do it properly for you!
Instagram – Stories, Live and IGTV
If you are not on Instagram then you should be! With 400 million people on Instagram each month, it’s a channel not to be ignored. Instagram is the perfect platform to show:
- Advertising open days
- Setting up / Sneak peeks
- Tagging brides and suppliers
- Wedding days
- Show your Food offering
- Thank you cards
- Great to use feed on showrounds – showcases real weddings
Instagram is all about showing your personality! Remember, Millennials want to see that you are a real person with real likes and interests. They crave authenticity and want to feel that they have discovered something new!
Insta stories are separate from your Instagram Feed. They “die” after 24 hours allowing you to be a lot more casual about the videos you share. Top tips:
- Use #hashtags & location tagging to help your stories get out to a wider audience.
- Suggestions for Stories content:
- SHOWCASE YOUR PERSONALITY
- SHOW BEHIND THE SCENES
- SHARE YOUR DAILY ROUTINE
IGTV – Instagram Television is a brand new app for watching long-form, vertical video. Unlike Instagram, videos aren’t limited to one minute. Instead, each video can be up to an hour long
“Just like turning on the TV” IGTV has channels. The creators (as in us!) are the channels.
You can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start your own channel!
Pinterest – all about the bride!
80% of Pinterest users are women and they are almost 2x as likely to be affluent and college educated. They are also within the typical age range of someone getting married and use it to create their own vision for their big day. Here are my 3 top tips for Pinterest success!
- A Visual Aid For Meetings: “real life” mood boards used during show rounds on iPad.
- Convert the sale: Listening to couples at the first meeting will enable you to personalize a Pinterest board for them for their big day – impress for success in securing the booking!
- A Source of Website Traffic: shoppers referred to a website via Pinterest are 10% more likely to purchase a product or service.
There is a lot to take in when it comes to social media and it’s hard to do it all well. I would recommend that if you are still relatively new to it that you focus on doing one or two platforms really well. And above all, get comfortable in front of that camera, show your personality and go for It!
Happy filming!
Yours,
Ciara
Ciara Crossan is Founder and CEO of WeddingDates, celebrating 10 Years in Business in 2018.
