In order to WOW today’s couples, your communication needs to be more than a generic follow up email.
Couples for the most part have never organised a wedding before, and they can be feeling overwhelmed and will often rely heavily on your expertise. Finding ways to share your knowledge in your follow ups and communication will be what helps you stand out from the crowd.
Here are some ideas on how to do just that.
Email Correspondence
Templates do not have to be generic. Aim to make your messages about the couple and not all about your venue and its features. This information should be available on your website, brochure and listings, and therefore it’s likely they have already seen it. Use the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and to give advice and make suggestions.
Often standard follow ups with couples are questions along the lines of:
- “have you had a chance to look at the info yet?”
- “have you got any questions?”
- “let me know if you want to come in for a showround”
These are all helpful. However, try using these touch points as a way to impart your knowledge. You want to demonstrate that you understand their needs and concerns, all of which go towards building trust. You could direct them to your Pinterest page to find inspiration from past weddings, send some useful planning tools or share some FAQs.
The power of video
Every Wedding Venue Coordinator gets asked the same questions over and over by different couples. Your follow up communication is a perfect opportunity to share some FAQs. Written FAQs are great but have you considered the benefits of a FAQ video:
- Offer couples knowledge and advice before they even realise they need it.
- Position yourself as the expert and build in a sense of trust.
- Build rapport by letting couples see your face and hear you speaking.
- Cut down your admin time as you won’t spend time responding to the same questions from different people. It could be as simple as just sending them a link to:
- a dedicated FAQ page on your website with professionally filmed videos, or
- a saved highlight reel that you filmed yourself on your Instagram page.
You can also link to these FAQ videos from other places:
- In your initial response email for the WeddingDates Enquiry plugin and WeddingDates Showround plugin.
- As part of your WedMail email signature.
- On your Instagram message auto reply.
If you are a little camera shy, you could just use your voice over some still images/video footage of the venue. Whatever your approach to video is, remember, having something is better than nothing!
Positive emotions created by watching a video can actually impact your viewers’ buying decisions (Scheibehenne)
Go deeper with Articles & Blog Posts
Written articles or blogs are another fantastic way to demonstrate your wealth of knowledge on weddings or a very specific topic. Think about what would be useful to couples.
Finding time to consistently write articles for a blog is not always practical for every coordinator in every venue. And it may be that your website does not have an appropriate area to place an occasional article. However, many listing sites, like WeddingDates, do accommodate GUEST BLOG posts. This means you can write a single article sharing your expertise on a topic and get featured on their site. You could link to this blog post from your website, promote it on social media, add a link to your email signatures and place a link in your WedMail Templates. The exposure you get will place you positively with the audience of wherever your article is published. These links can be part of your communication to your enquiring couples.
Top Tip!
Articles with Top Tips are always a winner – they are relatively quick and easy to put together and while this type of advice might seem obvious to you, remember that couples planning their wedding may be feeling overwhelmed and will appreciate guidance.
What are the things that you know that if you wrote them down could add value for your couples? What are the things you already have that you could easily share with them.
Use your WedMail follow ups to give your couple more value rather than just asking if they have questions/made a decision. Helpful things such as:
- FAQ videos on your website
- A blog article featuring you or your venue
- A link to Instagram highlights (FAQs / Real Weddings)
- A video of recent Real Wedding
How can we take this even further?
We know from our 2023 wedding industry survey 71% of survey respondents said they would be blown away by the personal touch of a handwritten note received from any venue they had enquired with. Creating that feeling for them is Gold
This is a massive opportunity for venues to rise to the top and above the competition.
The Wedding Method is a premium service that sends physical brochures with a handwritten note to couples inviting them for a showround and helps provide those WOW moments for couples. This is an exclusive service, meaning you can stand head and shoulders above your competitors.
If you would like to know more, watch this 2 min video, “Hear from the Hotelier”, in which 3 clients talk about how The Wedding Method works for them.
What are you doing to WOW couples and stand out from the crowd?
Are you sharing your knowledge/expertise with couples?
I would love to hear your thoughts and experience in the comments, or you can >>Book A Call<< with me.
I would love to hear your suggestions/ideas for topics you would like to see in future webinars or articles. 🙂
Useful links
This article was inspired by our Lunch & Learn webinar series from March this year, you can watch them back via the links below.
Download the 2023 Wedding Industry Report
