Marketing Tips For Venue Owners To Increase Bookings and Stand Out

 

marketing-tips-venue-owners-increase-bookings-stand-out

10 Marketing Tips For Wedding Venues To Increase Bookings and Stand Apart from The Competition 

For many couples, their wedding day is the most important day of their lives. In fact, The Knot found that on average couples are spending around 30% of their entire budget for their big day, just on the venue! 

The Knot also uncovered that around 47% of 2020 couples postponed their big day to a later date. 

In order to grab a share of the increased wedding market nationwide, digital marketing has proven to become a necessity for venues trying to increase bookings. 

In order to set themselves up for the max amount of bookings they can handle to recover from the losses of 2020, digital tools are invaluable for the success of any wedding venue. 

With so many couples currently looking for the perfect venue for their big day, we thought it was important to provide some digital tips to help every venue owner or manager increase bookings.

Increase Bookings and Stand Out With These 10 Tips

1. Motivate Couples To Leave Honest Reviews 

One really simple way for a wedding venue to set itself apart from the rest is to make sure they are asking for and actually receiving reviews from past clients. Not only is it helpful for potential couples to hear about other clients' experiences at a venue, but organically it will also boost the venue's overall search engine optimization. 

A very easy way to ensure a venue's reviews are being posted to correct platforms, are honest, are within guidelines, and are even being completed is by using a review system

2. Target The Perfect Couple 

Everybody is different in how they envision their wedding day. Wedding venues need to target the right type of couple for the aesthetic and overall feel of their particular venue.  

If a barn house venue spends all of their time and effort unknowingly targeting brides who want to get married by the ocean, they're obviously not going to increase bookings. 

3. Utilize a Website 

Wedding venues have a lot to unpack when it comes to giving information to couples about their venue. A great way to guarantee potential and booked couples can stay updated and get all the valuable information they need is through a website.

 4. Prioritize SEO 

We mentioned search engine optimization earlier when talking about the benefits of a reviews system, but didn't get to go in-depth. Search engine optimization (or SEO) is the process of optimizing all aspects of a venue's online presence. 

This means doing research and finding keywords, optimizing URLs, page titles, updating online venue directories, focusing on local SEO, checking user experience, optimizing images, using Google My Business and so much more. 

Mastering SEO isn't going to happen overnight even with all the articles, overall SEO suggestions, and guides one might find online with a simple Google search. 

Unless someone has been working in the digital marketing industry for some time, no one will be able to learn all the tips and tricks. 

This is why we suggest wedding venue owners look into paying monthly for an SEO service. 

5. Pay Attention to Social Media But It's NOT The Entire Game 

We have always said it is not enough to just have a pretty website if you're not attracting people to it. Well, the time has come where we can say that about social media as well. Social media has grown into such a valuable tool for not only venues but also the majority of businesses. 

Social media can be used as excellent customer service and Q&A platforms as well as helping to educate your audience of prospective couples. 

It's important to post content that is not only helpful and looks aesthetically pleasing but also keeps potential couples engaged enough to dream of your venue and want to book. 

A great way to generate content for social posts is to host styled bridal photoshoots. By allowing so many photographers to photograph a model couple it turns into useable, beautiful content galore.

6. Take Advantage of Video Marketing

Video has proven time and time again to be incredibly valuable to many businesses. 

When it comes to wedding venues, video not only helps to catch target couples' eyes through a short clip but also gives them a little insight into how it feels to celebrate at that venue. 

7. Set Up a Blog and Use it

Blogging is sometimes thought of as a digital marketing tactic of the past but it's definitely not. 

Taking the time to set up a blog, post helpful content, and share it via social media platforms with appropriate hashtags can be extremely beneficial for every venue that hosts weddings. 

The issue with blogging and the reason I've seen many venues think they're better off without it is because of the amount of time and energy it takes to run a blog your benefit can benefit from. Similar to a website or social media account, if you aren't using it, it is not going to work. 

Our suggestion to feel the benefit and not waste precious time and energy is to use a blogging and social posting tool. A tool where a venue owner or manager wouldn't even have to lift a finger and instantly see 5 articles a day post to the blog and socials and just sit back and enjoy the benefits. 

8. Build Relationships 

One thing we like to say at Shane Shirley Media is that we are in the business of building businesses. When it comes to throwing a wedding, there are almost too many components to count. As a venue, it is appealing and helpful to clients if you have relationships with food vendors, bartenders, planners, bakeries, DJs, photographers, and more! 

A great place to display these relationships is on a venue's website or social media accounts, essentially making the website or social account a one-stop shop for target couples. By knowing a venue's target couple, and building relationships with vendors that share the same ideal client, every party involved benefits. 

9. Be Everywhere at Once 

With ongoing restrictions across the country causing brides and grooms to postpone their weddings once again, it might be a good idea to be able to give them a second option. 

For venues located in states that allow celebrations, utilize geo-targeting is a HUGE advantage. 

By utilizing a tool that allows a wedding venue to be "everywhere at once", they can reach couples who search for their services farther from home and also get the attention of couples who feel like they have no other option but to cancel. 

10. Invest in Promotional Products 

Promotional products offer wedding venues the opportunity to create walking billboards out of customers and prospects. 

According to Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), promotional products are the most well received form of advertising. Promotional items offer the best ROI in the ad industry with some of the highest numbers of ad impressions garnered from each promotional item given away. 

Whether a venue is giving promotional gifts to couples who have booked and signed a contract with them or gift the members of the wedding a party with koozie's with the venue logo on one side and the initials of the couple on the other, promotional products will pay off.

Own a Wedding Venue and Want More Tips?

Sometimes businesses need a little more help than a few tips because it is easier said than done. But that is why we are here to help. 

Currently, we are offering a FREE digital marketing audit to the first 10 venues that fill out this form.

We've seen venues and businesses time and time again try to do all the digital marketing themselves and see no benefit and waste precious time and money. It's okay, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither should any digital marketing strategy! 

But with our FREE digital marketing audit, venues have the opportunity to see where different tactics might be falling short, where they're wasting money, and what to do to increase bookings and ultimately sales. 

Click the image below for the form for a complete overhaul of your venue and don't forget to share this post with your favorite venue! 

Guest Post by Reece Smith 


No comments:

Post a Comment

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead