Jen Maynard Strategist
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • BIZ. RESOURCES & COURSES
    • Strategy 2023
  • Work with me
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • BIZ. RESOURCES & COURSES
    • Strategy 2023
  • Work with me
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Wedding
​Business
Growth
Blog & Podcast 

7/6/2022 0 Comments

Ep #2: What is a Wedding Business Niche? & How Does it Help with SEO?

Welcome to the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast! Great to have you here! In this podcast episode I will be answering the question, ' What is a wedding business niche?', and by clarifying yours, how this can help you get regularly discovered on Google by your dream wedding clients. As well as sharing the context, I will be taking you through 2x step-by-step activities to get you started, and on the way to clarifying who you serve as a wedding vendor, and building your keyword phrases list that will equip you to getting discovered on those all important search engines!
Welcome to the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast, dedicated to sharing everything you need in bite size episodes to set up your wedding business and for success and get your diary fully booked full of those dream wedding clients. You're here with me, Jen Maynard, Wedding Business Growth Coach and founder of The Boho Bride Guide Wedding Blog and Supply Directory.

Each episode is full of value and structured around my Wedding Business ANCHOR Fundamentals Framework to give you straightforward, step-by-step activities to put in place into your business, and position yourself as the go-to wedding supplier within your specialism. Let's go!

In this episode, we will be answering the question:
- ‘What is a wedding business niche? and by clarifying yours,
- How this can help you get discovered in Google by your ideal wedding client.
I'm going to be sharing a little bit of context, and then we're going to be heading straight into two activities to help you get started in this arena.


I know this subject can turn some people off, sometimes due to not knowing exactly what it means to niche down, or whether they're worried about pigeonholing themselves into a specific wedding niche and potentially missing out on work. But actually if you cater for your wedding business needs successfully, this can really be the fundamental to a successful and profitable wedding business that can enable you to live your best life. And so I'm going to help you today to get started with this.

What is a Wedding Business Niche?

 A specific sub-section of a 'general wedding category' at that attracts a particular type of community of people who aspire for a similar type of wedding day outcome, as well as a similar outlook on life and values and ethos.

So gaining experience from serving your wedding clients, you can clarify who you want to serve, who you enjoy serving, and what niche you want to position yourself as the expert within. This enables you to really hone in and serve your type of community that hold similar attributes, lifestyle choices, passions, values, and wedding day challenges and pain points.

I would very much recommend paying close attention to your chosen community, and what their characteristics are. Then regularly review, and ensure your online content, your social media, your products and services you offer, continually meet and exceed their expectations. 
I'd recommend whether you are just starting out in your wedding business, or whether you have been at it for a while, revisiting this activity on an annual basis. As we develop as wedding business owners, our wedding business niche will also evolve over time, and who we aspire to attract and serve. So next up, I've got two activities that I'd love you to have a go at.

Activity 1: Name Your Wedding Niche  (10mins)

Now this may take a bit of practice and revisiting over time, but this activity will get you started to hone in and specify what community you serve. We are going to look at 3 things:
- What Wedding Category you come under,
- What Wedding Community you serve, and therefore,
-What Niche Identity you want to portray within your Business Tagline.


Wedding Category
So what category, this is again, what has mentioned the overarching wedding category that you come under. So an example, wedding photography, Venue Decor, Gifts etc.

Wedding Community 
What community do you serve/ what target wedding audience do you want to be attracting through your online activity, t
hrough the blog content that you create, through your social media content you put out into the world, who do you want to be attracting? Who do you want to work with? Who lights you up when you get that enquiry through, and you're like, yes! I want to be part of their wedding. So if you're.

A wedding community example, may be a wedding photographer that serves eco-conscious outdoorsy couples that are planning an elopement wedding in Scotland.

A second example may be; your community may be an engaged couple looking to unite, two families together through the completion of a wedding ceremony.

Niche Identity/ Business Tagline
The tagline or niche identity is a summary of the niche you want to position yourself as a specialist within summarised into one sentence. 

Examples: 
'A eco- conscious outdoor elopement photographer in Scotland'.
'A South West based wedding celebrant, specialising in uniting families.'

Within your tagline, ensure you hone in on the community you serve and share what your unique selling point is that sets you apart from other suppliers within your wedding category. Ask yourself '
What differentiates you from other celebrants or other photographers within your space?' And this helps you there. Your are then able to put content out into the world that enables you to attract that type of community that you really aspire to work with.

Activity 2: Start Your Wedding Niche Keyword List (30min to start) 

The next activity will take about 30 minutes to start you off, and this is all around beginning to create your wedding niche keyword list.

This is super helpful when it comes to your SEO, your Search Engine Optimisation in Google, and then you can do the same and replicate the activity for Pinterest. So, once you've clarified your niche identity through your tagline. It will now be easier to hone in on those keyword phrases that you want to be discovered under.

And actually what your target wedding audience are whacking into Google to find your services and products for their wedding day. Grab a spare piece of paper, write your tagline in the middle of the page and I want you to fill that page with every type of phrase that is related to your wedding specialism.

Clarifying your Keyword Phrases, is a big piece of work, but by chunking it up into 20-30min slots, it makes it much more achievable.  Use 20 minutes of your allotted time, and really go into every area of your wedding. specialism.
For an example, if your tagline is 'eco-conscious outdoor elopement wedding photography', you might go down the route of:
  • Examples of outdoor wedding venues: 'Tipi Woodland Wedding', 'a Yurt Field Wedding' etc.
  • General phrases: 'eco-friendly wedding ideas'.
  • Elopement Phrases:'Elopements in Scotland'.

Ask yourself what are your target wedding audience going to be putting in to find your services? Get it down on this piece of paper.

Add to your Keyword Phrases from Google 
When you've exhausted, what's in your mind, I want you to open a Google Search, and write in individually, of all of the ones that you've noted. S
ee what Google comes up with through that  Auto-fill. So you'll notice when you write that into the search bar 'elopement wedding', the auto field then gives you further examples of what people are searching for within your wedding niche.

So what came up when I did 'elopement wedding'; 'elopement wedding packages', 'elopement wedding dress', 'elopement weddings, UK', 'elopement wedding packages near me' (using that geographical tag as well).

Note down all of these additional examples that Google comes up with. Then once you've done that for each of your keyword phrases on your page, d
o it again, and then go into the SERPs, which is the Search Engine Results Gage, Put in 'elopement weddings', and click enter. Then see what web pages are coming up ranking well under that keyword phrase. Have a look at what keywords, and what are they talking about in general within each well ranked webpage. This will give you an idea of what Google likes in terms of highly ranking content.

Also, note down other keyword phrases that they're using within their content. This will really help you get a wider picture of what else you can be talking about within your online content and, to ultimately position yourself as that go-to wedding supplier for what you offer. After completing these few activities, you should end up with two or three pages full of keyword phrases that are related to your wedding niche.

What you will gain...
Now, this not only enables you to be more clear on what you are offering and who you're offering it to who you are serving. It will give you a real head start with the next sort of stage all around search engine optimisation for your website, for your social media and Pinterest. It gives you that first step into that Keyword Phrase world that a lot of my episodes are going to be touching upon it within the Podcast. All with the view to getting you more discoverable in Google and Pinterest as well. So your target wedding audience can discover you, you are attracting those people that you aspire to. I hope that was useful, and I very much hope to see you at the next podcast episode!

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast. I'd love to hear what you took away today and how you get promoted into your business. Over on Instagram as Wedding Business Growth Coach, please do DM me direct and I'll give you a shout-out of my stories. See you next time.

Get your FREE 'Who Do You Serve?' Activity Pack sent straight to your email inbox.

Picture
​Download your FREE Activity Pack today to clarify who you serve, and position yourself as the 'go-to' wedding business for your community. ​
Download your free activity pack

0 Comments

18/5/2022 0 Comments

Ep #1: Set Up for Success! Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast with Jen Maynard

Welcome to the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast, a podcast dedicated to sharing everything you need in bite size episodes to set up your wedding business for success and get your dairy fully booked full of those dream wedding clients. You are here with me. Jen Maynard, Wedding Business Growth Coach and founder of The Boho Bride Guide Wedding Blog and Supplier Directory. 
​

Each episode is full of value and structured around my Wedding Business ANCHOR Fundamentals Framework to give you straightforward, step by step activities to put in place into business that will position yourself as the go-to wedding supplier within your specialism. Let's go! ​
Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast Transcript
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast. It is SUPER exciting to have you here on the first episode of season one. In this episode we are going to be covering what this podcast is all about. 
Who this podcast is created for.
Why I started the podcast in the first place.
What you can expect to gain from subscribing to season one.
A little bit more about me, my background and why I am really well positioned to enable you to set up your wedding business for success.

So let's get started!

Who will benefit from listening to the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast?

The podcast is aimed at wedding suppliers and venues within their first 3 years of business and looking to get their diaries fully booked with their dream wedding clients.
​
So whether you have literally just started out and you're looking for advice, tips and tricks on how to set up your wedding business. Or your wedding business is your side hustle at present, and still working a 9 to 5 job juggling the set up of your wedding business. Or whether you've been working full time on your wedding business for the last few years, and now looking to implement the sort of infrastructure needed to really give you the platform to build a profitable and sustainable wedding business. This podcast will give you the knowledge and step-by-step activities you need to make this happen!

Why did I start the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast? 

Firstly, I very much am an advocate for personal development, and investing in yourself as a business owner, which then ultimately reflects on the success of your wedding business. I feel really passionately that self-development and business development should be accessible to everyone, and so wherever you live in the world, whatever funds you have available to invest in your self-development, I basically want you to be able to grow and flourish whatever your circumstances. So if you're willing to put in the work, the content, knowledge base and skills are available for you to learn and implement into your business. And so that is why I very much decided to set up a podcast, with free weekly episodes that includes step by step, actionable activities that you can put into your business and instantly start getting positive outcomes from your efforts. 

Get your FREE 'Who Do You Serve?' Activity Pack sent straight to your email inbox.

Picture
​Download your FREE Activity Pack today to clarify who you serve, and position yourself as the 'go-to' wedding business for your community. 
Download your free activity pack

What Can You Expect from Subscribing to the Wedding Business Growth Coach Podcast?

Season 1 of the Podcast is made up of FREE weekly episodes covering one specific wedding business builder topic from my Wedding Business ANCHOR Fundamentals Framework. Each episode is also accompanied by an actionable, step-by-step activity you can take away and put in place into your business, and start getting some real results to increase the number of regular enquires you receive from your dream wedding clients.

Why am I best Suited to Enable You to Set Up Your Wedding Business For Success? 

So a little bit more about me and why I am suited to help you set up the success. I am Jen Maynard, a mom of two young boys, and live in Somerset UK with my fabulous hubby Kev. I have a background in the corporate world for over ten years, working in the training, coaching and people development arena, enabling people to be the best version of them within the work setting. That has very much been my path since leaving school, staying within the confines of the corporate ladder, thinking this was the only way I could become 'successful' and get to where I thought I wanted to be. 
​
I did this right up until about five years ago where I got to a point where I actually had to have three months off of work due to anxiety and stress. I'd never experienced a panic attack up until that point, and yet an accumulation of life events and stress levels at work, and how I was actually dealing with working within the corporate world, was not serving me. I realised that by not not listening to my heart, and not working within an environment where I felt I could be authentic to my creative and altruistic self, and working to my strengths of enabling others, I had made myself ill. 

In that time, I booked on to a coaching program for myself and realised very quickly that I'd actually been following a path that I thought I needed to follow, but not allowing any sort of creative fulfillments or sort of joy in my life and I'd been really missing out on that creative part of my being and that side. I'd always wanted to work in the wedding industry. It's always it always really attracted me, but it was never something that I looked at as an option up until then. Fast forward slightly, I then fell pregnant for the first time and on maternity leave when I had my first little boy, I realised that life is so short and what am I doing?! I had a bit of an epiphany and I was like, right, I'm going to start a wedding floral design business that specialises within the boho weddings arena and specialises in venue transformations. And that's where my first wedding business was born. That is basically where I learned all about setting up a wedding business and building an audience and steady stream of prospective wedding clients. I also became obsessed with all sorts of entrepreneurial books, self-development books, anything I could get my hands on really to actually learn the specific infrastructure, and systems needed, the mindset that is essential to setting up a business wedding business and then implemented this learning into my wedding business. 

I then went back part time to my corporate role, as well as building my floral design business at the same time. Again, slightly fast forward, I then had my second little boy and that then was when we ended up in lockdown in 2020. So therefore, my floral design business took a pause at that point. 

At the time the first Lockdown hit, there was masses anxiety and unknown surrounding the immediate future of the wedding industry, and specifically amongst the wedding supplier community that I had established by that time. So decided to set up the Boho Bride Guide Facebook Group and Podcast (the first version of The Boho Bride Guide!), and that was very much a space where I then implemented my training background and coaching specialism to supporting wedding suppliers through lockdown and enabling them to establish the needed infrastructures, systems, and setting themselves up for success, ready for when we opened after lockdown. From this learning and identification of additional support needed, this is where the Wedding Business Growth Coach was born! Bringing together my expertise in the wedding world, as well as my training and development background.

In among that, what also happened was I decided to set up The Boho Bride Guide Blog and Wedding Directory, 'where bohemian souls get inspired and discover their dream wedding team'. 

Since then, I have left the corporate world and I now I'm the founder of the Boho Bride Guide Blog and Wedding Directory and Community, which is the part that I absolutely love bringing together fellow wedding supplies within the same boho inspired niche, who are looking to continually build and improve their business, as well as build a community to champion and cheerlead each other on. And then my wedding business coaching arm of my business, Wedding Business growth Coach: then enables wedding suppliers within their first 3 years of business, to implement what is now my Wedding Business ANCHOR Fundamentals Framework, so they can establish themselves as a sustainable, profitable business that enables them to be creatively fulfilled and live their their best life! 

What is the Wedding Business ANCHOR Fundamentals Framework? 

My new podcast content is shaped around my Wedding Business ANCHOR Fundamentals Framework, and so this podcast is very much for you if you can resonate with any of these areas where you can look to improve your wedding business. Okay. So the ANCHOR acronym stands for Attract, Nurture, Close, Human Connection, Over Deliver, and Referral and Retain. 

This podcast is for you if:
  • ATTRACT: you are looking to attract your dream wedding clients through the online content that you put out into the world, and increase the reach into new audience to create a steady stream of new audience members.
  • NURTURE: you're looking to learn more around how to nurture trusting relationships through your online content and grow that know like and trust element with your prospective wedding clients that may be lurking in the background, watching what you have to say on social media. Through your content, you will bring them on the journey and increase your website traffic and subsequent enquiries from your dream wedding clients. This element is all around qualifying your prospective wedding clients through the content that you put out there, addressing their pain points, and desires through your online content, and positioning yourself as that expert as that go-to wedding supplier within your niche. 
  • ​CLOSE: We will go into lots of detail around how we close a wedding sale/ wedding booking. Elements such as; What does your product ecosystem look like? Are you creating a journey for your prospective wedding clients? Making it super easy to decide what they want to buy from you, at what price point, and making sure that you are pricing yourself for the value that you offer, not so that you get compared on price. So you know, they're looking they're coming to you for what you offer, not what price point you're at. 
  • HUMAN CONNECTION: The client journey you take your wedding couples on, from the point at which they put their deposit down, right the way through to their wedding day. We will cover; how you further build a trusting relationship with them, how you make sure that you're calming their nerves around that for their big day. So when their wedding day comes, you've got a brilliant relationship with them and they feel 100% guaranteed you are going to smash out the park for their wedding day, and they're not going to have to anything to worry about. In this element of work, we also look at how we automate that system to make it as easy and as streamlined for you as possible. 
  • OVER DELIVER: The next level down is all around, how do we overdeliver what we intend to do for that specific wedding day. In today's world, unfortunately, we can no longer rely just completing on what we say in our contract. To get a client shouting from the rooftops about what you have done for them, you need to overdeliver, and surprise and delight them with what what you deliver, and provide a service that exceeds any expectations they will have had about your wedding business. And so we've got a whole section around how we do that and how we plumb that into our product ecosystem.
  •  REFERRAL & RETAIN: The last element, looks at how we gain referrals and retain wedding clients as continued customers? This last section clarifies how we create a system to capture all that amazing testimonial from clients you have gained trust with and demonstrated your amazingness to on their wedding day, so prospective clients can see this social proof of what you can achieve for them on Google and Facebook Reviews. This last stage also take a deep dive into how you are able to extend your product eco system and provide offerings for your now married clients that want to buy from you again and again.

Now surrounding the ANCHOR Framework, I then help you look at things around mindset, around habit forming habit, and habit stacking to make sure that on a daily, weekly, monthly tactical level about what you're doing each day, making sure that you are maximising your efforts, streamlining your activities to basically squeezing as much productivity out of the time you have available. 
So whatever stage you are at within your wedding business growth journey, whatever time capacity you have available, even if it's 20 minutes a day, still juggling a full time job, we can look at how you can be maximising that time to be moving your wedding business plans forward and implementing it to getting you those regular dream wedding clients that you can't wait to work with. So that's the plan. Can't wait for it. If you have any questions, please do DM me on Instagram, that's where I love to hang out. If there are any podcast, content or topics that you would love me to cover, I would love to hear that on DM's on Instagram or on email which is jen@weddingbusinessgrowthcoach.com. Would love to hear from you! Otherwise I can't wait to see you at the next episode.
Take care. 

Jen x

0 Comments

13/12/2021 0 Comments

How to Increase your Wedding Bookings Using your Business Website Blog. Part 1

So, as a wedding supplier, I am sure you didn't put 'blogging' as one of your top role responsibilities when you originally thought of entering the wedding world did you!   But today I am here to share with you how regularly blogging for your wedding business can increase your social media audience, increase traffic to your website, and increase your regular enquires that come direct from your online presence.  

Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don't, following a report from HubSpot, and 
70% of people would rather learn about a company through articles rather than advertisements (DemandMetric). So why are we not harnessing the power of blogging into our online marketing activities as a wedding business owner? 

This blog will explain what my Wedding Business Content Creation System is, and the benefits the result following the implementation of it into your wedding business. 


So if you are ready to up your game, and get your website blog, social media and search engine activities all working harder for your business, and results in more wedding bookings, then read on...

What is the Wedding Business Content Creation System?

Picture
'A repeatable system that enables you to bulk create your social media, search engine & community group posts from one written website blog.’
Personal Benefits of Building a Content Creation System 
  • Publicise yourself for free!
  • Grow your confidence in marketing your wedding business.
  • Enables you to be super efficient with your time, through time blocking & bulk content creation.
  • Gives you structure to add maximum value to your online audience.
  • Prevents social media overwhelm.
  • Builds up a catalogue of valuable blog posts that you can refer back to on your social media and when talking to prospective wedding clients.
Business Benefits of Building a Content Creation System
  • Builds a trusting online relationship with prospective wedding clients.
  • Boosts your visibility across Google, Pinterest, social media platforms and online community groups.
  • Builds your brand awareness and what you stand for.
  • Position yourself as an expert within your wedding category.
​Benefits to your Online Audience by Building a Content Creation System
  • They can articulate the value you bring to them on the run up to, and on their wedding day.
  • They can clearly see what pain-points, challenges and desires you help them address on their wedding planning journey and big day.
  • Your blog content can help your target wedding audience overcome possible objections they may have towards working with you.
  • Your online content can help your audience 'qualify' themselves & ensure they are the right fit for your wedding product/s & clarify whether they aligned with your business ethos.​
Picture
Through providing consistent valuable content throughout the year, that is aimed at qualifying your readers. You will become the ‘go-to’ for couples that are specifically looking to create a wedding that includes your focused products/ services, and consequently see an increase in organise online enquires hitting your inbox. 
​

Another massive benefit of building your own Content Creation System, is that your online blog content does a lot of the ‘selling’ for you. If a prospective wedding couple has followed you for sometime and read your content, you will have brought them on the journey with you. So by the time they are ready to commit, all of your content previously has built the trust you need for them to commit to their purchase much easier, then if someone is contacting you cold.

The Content Creation System Diagram

Picture
Picture
The Wedding Business Content Creation System can be split into 3 main fundamental parts:
  1. Clarify who Your Target Wedding Audience is, and what do they do within your specialism.
  2. Create your own Annual Wedding Business Blog Schedule that addresses pain-points and desires of your Target Wedding Audience.
  3. Get your online presence working together through repurposing blog content to increase your wedding enquires organically online.

No.1 Obsess Over your Target Wedding Audience 

Picture
Throughout your time as a Wedding Business Owner, your number one priority should always be to continually learn more about your Target Wedding Audience, and how their needs develop and change over time. Your product offerings then need to align to these changing needs, wants, pain-points and desires, and specifically tick all of their requirement boxes, as well as going over and above their expectations to surprise and delight.

Your free online content is an intrinsic piece of the puzzle to providing masses of free valuable content for your Target Wedding Audience. If you know who you are writing for, and what they want to read about, it makes it even easier to write more content that attracts more of your prospective wedding clients, which equals more wedding enquires through to your inbox. 

No.2 Create your Annual Wedding Business Blog Schedule 

The next cog in the machine for your Content Creation System is building your Annual Blog Schedule, where you plan your years content that will sit on your website blog pages. 

Blog Frequency
Throughout the ‘quieter’ winter wedding season, we have the opportunity to prioritise creating our Annual Blog Schedule. You need to decide how much capacity you want to dedicate to your Content Creation System. Whether you want to release a monthly blog (12 blogs per year), or a bi-monthly (6 blogs per year). Of course the more regular you blog, the quicker you will see the impact on your wedding enquiries. But this also needs to be balanced with your other life commitments and time capacity, as it needs to be a sustainable activity you are able to maintain through each year. 

Blog Purpose 
Your blog is an essential tool to attract & qualify your online target wedding audience & help them on their journey from ‘blog reader’ towards becoming ‘your wedding client’.

Every topic you choose to blog about should do one or more of the following:
💥Articulate the value of your wedding business offerings.
💥Address pain-points/ desires of your target wedding audience.
💥Overcome objections your target wedding audience may have towards working with you.
💥Qualify your readers through the content you blog about, ie. ensure they are the right fit for your wedding product/s.
💥Position yourself as an expert within your wedding category.

If you have decided to create 1 blog per month, your next step is to create 12 working blog titles that interlink together to form something called a Blog Content Hub. Let me explain...

The Blog Content Hub Diagram

Picture
 What is a Blog Content Hub? 
An Interlinked collection of website blog posts, that all connect to an overarching blog topic. The collection of blog posts are physically then linked together on your webpages using hyperlinks within each of the blogs on-page content. 

What is a Hub Page Blog?
Generally the first blog you write that introduces the wider blog topic you plan to talk about and gives context to the reader. For example, If you are a wedding florist that specialises in using only locally grown florals, your Hub Page Blog could have a working title of, ‘Why Choose Locally Grown Florals to Transform your Wedding Celebration Space?’.

​Within this blog post, you are able to position yourself as an expert within this field, address a query your target wedding audience may have around their floral choices, and create a space to showcase your business ethos and what is important to you as a wedding business. 

What is a Topic Cluster?

Underneath your Hub Page Blog, you then have 3 Topic Clusters (for 12 blogs per year). A Topic Custer is a group of blogs that address a sub-topic, and goes into more detail about a specific area of your expertise. For example, 
  • Topic Cluster 1 (Blog 2) - Wedding Table Scapes ‘The Boho Wedding Guide to Eco-Friendly Table Décor.’
  • Topic Cluster 2 (Blog 3) - Top Table Backdrops '5 Ways to Repurpose your Wedding Day Florals to Maximise their Impact and WOW!'
  • Topic Cluster 3 (Blog 4) - Bridal Party Florals 'The 2022 Ultimate Guide to the Top Trends in Bridal Florals.'

Detailed Blog Post 
Come underneath each Topic Cluster, and offers even more detailed content around your chosen specific subject. 
For example, for Topic Cluster 1 (Blog 2): 
 'The Boho Wedding Guide to Eco-Friendly Table Decor'. Underneath you could have the following 3 Detailed blog Posts: 
  • Detailed Blog Post 5:  ‘How to Create WOW Table Décor from Local Foraged Greenery Whatever the Season’.
  • Detailed Blog Post 6: 5 Biodegradable Wedding Table Ideas you wont have Thought of.’
  • Detailed Blog Post 7: 'Love Florals? 23 British Flower Varieties that will bring beauty & fragrance to the Wedding Table’. 

Why follow this Blog Structure? 
Google is constantly on the search for quality, in-depth blog content to display within the Search Engine Results Page (SERP's) when their users come to search for something. they want to share the most relevant, up to date content possible. THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT YOUR BLOG CONTENT TO BE!

For your blog to qualify as 'quality content', Google has various markers it looks for, such as; topic relevance, in-depth knowledge around a specific topic, external linking to reputable websites, on-page SEO Keywords, as well as your back end Metadata etc. 

So, by structuring your Annual Blog Schedule in this way, it enables you to easily interlink your blogs with hyperlinks, and write more in-depth, detailed content, that gives the most amount of informative content to the reader. Which will equal 'quality content' which will equal to becoming more visible within the Google SERP's, which will equal your Target Wedding Audience coming across your content more often.

Next up... How to Repurpose Like a Wedding BOSS.
I will be sharing how to get your online platforms working together to promote your valuable blog content out to your audience on a monthly basis, to convert your followers into blog readers, and that additional website traffic into wedding enquires straight to your inbox! 

Want to learn more? Join one of my Virtual GROW Workshops in 2022!

Back by popular demand! So many of you have asked for a virtual GROW Workshop option, so in 2022 I am making this happen!

If you are interested to learn more about how to create your own Content Creation System and other business building topics, I will be holding a number of Virtual GROW Workshops across 2022 where I will be taking you through step by step activities to enable you to implement the systems discussed straight into your wedding business! All the details will be shared here.

Much love,
Jen x

Image Credits
Canva
freeformimages.co.uk 
0 Comments

27/8/2021 0 Comments

How to Harness the Benefits of Niching Down within your Wedding Specialism.

Written By Jen Maynard 

​Before understanding the theory, it may well feel counterintuitive to narrow your target wedding audience down to a specific community of wedding couples. 

But believe me when I say it is an essential business ingredient to becoming an authority in your wedding field, and getting consistently fully booked with your dream couples and charging the rate you desire and deserve. 


  • What does niching down' mean?
  • Who is your Target Wedding Audience? Activity 
  • How to Get Super Clear on Who you Serve. Activity
  • The Dangers of Not Niching Down 
  • ​3 Steps to Niching down in the Wedding Industry
Picture
The challenge of making sure that you, your marketing, your products and business ethos, are truly speaking to your target wedding audience is a constant moving beast. So we regularly need to check in, and review how you are addressing your wedding niche's pain points, challenges, passions and wants, and adapt our approach to add most value.
​

​This blog is all about getting super clear on who you serve, how you want to show up as the authority within your field, and selling the attributes of your wedding business that will set you apart from others in your wedding category to make your target wedding audience choose you. ​

What does niching down mean? ​

Niching down means having a clear focus on who your ‘target wedding audience’ (Ideal Client) is, and aligning your whole business approach towards attracting that specific community of people. Clarifying your wedding niche creates the fundamentals of your overall marketing strategy. From how you position your wedding business on your social media, and the content you put out into the world, to the product packages you offer, to the price points you ask for, to the suppliers you collaborate with, and the places you hang out online. ​

Who is Your Target Wedding Audience?

Identifying a clear wedding niche, means that you are super clear on who your target wedding audience is. Your target wedding audience is a group of people on their wedding planning journey with similar attributes, life situations, passions and preferences that you are looking to attract, nurture and sell your services to. You aim to serve this community of people through delivery of your wedding packages, designed specifically with them in mind.

Aside from their preference in wedding styles or aspirations they have for their special day and budget they want to spend. You also need to build a picture of what type of life your target wedding audience has in order to truly serve them in the best way possible.
ACTIVITY 1 
For the wedding community you want to serve, write down the answers the following questions: 
  • What is important to them regarding the environment, social background, particular traditions, the culture they are part of?
  • What type of career do they have?
  • What annual salary range do they sit in?
  • What are their family commitments?
  • How much free time do they have?
  • What are their hobbies and passions? 
  • Who are they influenced by in regards to purchasing decisions?
  • What values do they have around spending money?
  • What existing knowledge will they have about your area of wedding expertise?
  • How do they use social media and what platforms are they most present on?
  • What are their pain points when it comes to planning their wedding?
  • What are non-negotiables for them when planning their wedding?
  • Where will they go to validate you as a wedding supplier? Ie. Facebook/ Google My Business/ Google Search/ Wedding Directories/ Your Website/ Linked in/ Instagram/ Pinterest/ work of mouth/ etc. 

By answering these initial scoping questions, it will help you build a picture as to what service and products to offer, what objections you need to help your target wedding audience overcome, and how to add maximum value through the services that you offer and your presence online. 

How to Get Super Clear on Who You Serve

Next, it is time to knuckle down and focus on your marketing strategy. 

Take an honest deep dive into all of your online and printed marketing material you have out there. Whether it is the branding colours and logo you use, the social media content you share, to your website and your printed collateral. What does it say about your wedding business? 
  • Is it explicitly clear on who you serve and how you address their pain points? 
  • Is it clear how they can work with you, and what products/ packages you offer? 
  • Do you have free products such as blog/ vlog posts, ebooks, and Facebook Group or a podcast where your target wedding audience can gain value from you addressing their queries knowledge gaps and concerns? Do these free products directly link back to what services you offer?


Every single piece of content you put out into the world from your wedding business needs to be specifically designed for your target wedding audience and add value or enable them to learn more about you. 

ACTIVITY 2
  1. On a scale of 1-10, what rating would you currently give yourself for having a clear marketing strategy that speaks directly with your target wedding audience?
  2. Note down 3 improvements you can make within the next month, that will enable you to be clearer in your marketing as to who you serve ie. who your target wedding audience is.  
  3. Ask 3 people to review your wedding business website and answer the above 4 questions honestly. 

The dangers of not niching down

Don’t let your fear of ‘focusing in’ on one specific audience get the better of you! 

  • How can you create valuable content that addresses queries, pain points or knowledge gaps for your audience when you don’t know who you are talking to? 
  • How can you create products/  packages for an audience that you can’t articulate?
  • How can you become an authority in your specific wedding specialism, when you are being everything to everyone? 
  • How can you overcome objections in sales calls with couples when you don’t know how you can help them? 

Get my point??

DIAGNOSIS
If you are struggling with any of the following, it is an indication that you need to do some further work on articulating your wedding specialism and who your target wedding audience is.
  • Your couples are choosing you due to price rather than the value you offer.
  • You don’t know how to distinguish your wedding business apart from other suppliers in your category.
  • You try out lots of different tactics/ styles/ approaches to win couples over, but they aren’t your target wedding audience. 
  • From week to week you don’t know what to write about on your social media and blog posts.
  • You don’t know what packages to offer on your website that will attract your target wedding audience.

BUT HAVE NO FEAR! Your current reality is temporary, by investing some quality time into articulating your wedding niche, or refreshing your approach, you can quickly get back on  track. Stay with me! 

How does niching down in your wedding business increase your profits? 

Clarifying your wedding niche and identifying what community of people you are serving enables you to become the ‘Go-To’ in your specific area of wedding expertise. It sets your wedding business brand apart from other suppliers in your wedding category, and makes it easier for you to communicate the value you offer to prospective wedding couples in your audience. 

When you find your wedding business niche, you are able to create specific products and packages that address the wants, needs and pain points of your prospective couples, which puts them in high demand.  

With a consistent marketing message, including couples testimonials over time,  your products and packages become oversubscribed and your diary becomes fully booked, which then enables you to choose who you work with, how often you work and at what price point. 

Niching down in your wedding business and creating products that resonate with your target wedding audience is a major factor in increasing profit. So what are you waiting for? 

3 Steps to niching down in the wedding industry ...

If you have woken up to the importance of niching down within your wedding business, I now want to take you through the 3 levels of HOW to niche down effectively to enable you to become an authority and the ‘Go-To supplier’ for your area of wedding expertise. 

Level 1 - Wedding Category 
The first stage of niching down is to identify which wedding category you sit within. This is what general supplier group you would be categorised under within a Wedding Directory for example. 
  • ‘I’m a Wedding Planner’, 
  • ‘I’m a Wedding Florist’, 
  • ‘I run a Wedding Hire Company’, 
  • ‘I am a Wedding Celebrant’  or 
  • ‘I run a Wedding Catering Business’ etc.

Level 2 - Wedding Category Specialism 
The second stage is to clarify what you specialise in within that given wedding category. 
  • ‘I’m an Eco-conscious Wedding Planner’, 
  • ‘I’m a Locally Sourced Wedding Florist’, 
  • ‘I run a Boho Luxe Wedding Hire Company’, 
  • ‘I am a Wedding Celebrant that specialises in conducting traditional wedding ceremonies with a personalised twist’, or 
  • ‘I run a Wedding Catering Business that specialises in creating social grazing and sharing food’.

Level 3 - Your Principal Product Promise
The third element of clarifying your wedding niche needs to address what the main pain point of your audience's wedding planning journey you are solving for them. Take a look at your Principle (main) Product/ or package you offer that encompasses your highest profit margin. What is the main pain point or desire your Principle Product addresses? This needs to be articulated within your niche strapline. 

For example:
  • ‘I’m an Eco-conscious Wedding Planner that helps couples plan their zero carbon footprint special day without compromise’.
  • ‘I’m a Locally Sourced Wedding Florist that specialises in foam free statement Insta-worthy floral installations for couples who want the WOW without the waste’.
  • ‘I run a Boho Luxe Hire Company that sources pre-loved vintage furniture, styles and transforms your wedding celebration space into laidback social space that enables funtimes and memory making.’
  • ‘I am a Wedding Celebrant that specialises in conducting traditional wedding ceremonies with a personalised twist, for those couples looking for a classic feel, with a chance to personalise their vows, in a location of their choosing’.
  • ‘I run a Wedding Catering Business that specialises in creating social grazing and sharing food, for couples looking to bring together friends and family who may be meeting for the first time’. 

What is your Level 3 niche statement? Tray this activity out and would LOVE to hear how you got on in the comments section below! 

Much love,

Jen x

0 Comments

19/8/2021 0 Comments

5 Step-by-step Activities to Determine your Complete List of Wedding Business SEO Keywords & Phrases you Want to Rank well for in Google.

In this blog post I will be taking you through the 5 Step-by-step Activities that will enable you to take control and get your wedding business website ranking well in Google for the Keywords & Phrases that will increase the visibility of your offerings in front of your target wedding audience.
  • ACTIVITY 1: Create Quality Content , Full of Value.
  • ACTIVITY 2: Increase Your Content's Quality and Depth
  • ACTIVITY 3; List Your Wedding Business SEO Keywords
  • ACTIVITY 4: Dig Deeper into Researching Your SEO Keywords
  • ACTIVITY 5: Find Out How Difficult Your Chosen SEP Keywords are To Rank for.
Picture
✨FOCUS ON CREATING QUALITY CONTENT, FULL OF VALUE✨
To rank well in Google ( ie. your website to come up in searches completed by your prospective wedding clients looking for your services) the very first and most important Top Tip to remember, is to create quality content that provides ooodles of value for your target wedding audience via your website.
​
​To do this, you first need to clarify who is your 'target wedding audience'/ your 'ideal client' / the 'niche' you are serving. Get specific and learn everything there is to know about who you are looking to serve. Then create content to address their worries, their pain points and their gaps in knowledge and understanding within your area of wedding expertise.
Once you have clarified the problems and pain points you can help your target wedding audience with, it is then important to continue to produce consistent, valuable content and get it onto all of your online platforms, including your website on a regular basis.
ACTIVITY 1 - 1 hour
1) Make a list of the pain points/ problems/ challenges and gaps in knowledge your target wedding audience could have relating to the wedding services and products your offer.

2) From this list, turn each item into a blog/ vlog title that you can create for your website (and other platforms). Bullet Point below all of the detail that could be talked about under each title.
​

​3) Decide how often you want to schedule your content and stick to it. I would recommend a blog/ vlog added to your website on a weekly basis.
Picture
Congratulations, you have a website blog content schedule!!🥳

Picture
✨GOOGLE LOVES DETAIL ✨
In-depth, quality content that really gets underneath a specific problem is essential to improving your Google rankings. Detailed insights backed up by credible research and links have a much bigger impact when trying the influence the 'Google trust signals', that tell the search engine that you are providing high value content that they want more viewers to see.
spyfu.com have a great blog post on this subject that said...
...'longer content tends to get more shares on social media, according to a BuzzSumo analysis of the top 10% most shared articles. Articles between 3,000 and 10,000 words got the most shares, followed by 2,000-3,000-word articles, and so on.'...
Therefore the more social shares of your content, the more traffic that is directed to your website to improve your rankings.
ACTIVITY 2 - 40mins
From the Activity 1 table, select one of your blog titles and PLAN OUT a comprehensive blog post that will have 3000+ words using a blog framework.
If you are struggling to get the writing juices flowing, why not take an old blog post that is comparably shorter, and edit it to create a longer more in-depth article full of value for your target wedding audience.

This will also help you maintain content freshness – another factor that Google considers when ranking your website. So improving your content by increasing its length is a great way to boost your rankings.

To get me started, I like to use the following framework that I can then add detail to:
Blog Title - Your title should clearly explain what your content is all about and should attract your target wedding audience. It should also contribute towards your on-page SEO and what keywords you are working for (read on for help with these elements!)
Benefit/ Outcome Strap line - What benefit or outcome will the reader get from spending time reading this blog? Explanation to be written in a couple of sentences or bullet points.
Sub Topic Title 1/2/3/4 - Before you start writing, break down the structure of your blog into sub topic titles. This will help you plan out your content and the flow of your writing, as well as assist with your on-page SEO and cater for your readers that like to skim written content.
Summary of Blog - In 2 sentences max, explain what main benefits/ outcomes the reader should have got from reading your blog post.
Call to Action - DON'T FORGET THIS ONE! What do you want your reader to do now they have read your blog? Is there further content on another of your blog posts you can recommend? or can they subscribe to your newsletter? or can they follow you on social media? or is there a product you can recommend they view?

You Nailed It! Congrats on planning out your blog framework! Don't forget to double check over your content before you post it to make sure your chosen SEO Keywords and phrases are included! You will learn this in the following activities! 

Picture
✨LIST YOUR WEDDING BUSINESS SEO KEYWORDS✨
Firstly, what are do I mean by 'Your SEO Keywords'?
Put simply, they are words/ phrases that your audiences will tap into Google on the look out for information or products that will solve their pain points or queries, relating to what you offer as a wedding business. Google will then be looking for quality and 'authoritative' content that addresses this specific query.

This is why it is well worth investing time into clarify what keywords/ phrases your target wedding audience will be searching for. Then planning your website SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) content to address these areas in detail to become an 'authority' in that subject area.
ACTIVITY 3 - 30mins
Put your prospective wedding couples shoes on, and ask yourself what would they be typing into Google where you would want your product/ services to be appearing under? write a long list of all the possible words and phrases that your target wedding audience could be entering into Google search.
Eg. If you are a Wedding MUA that covers the Midlands area and you specialise in only using vegan and eco-friendly products some ideas could be.
  • Wedding make up artist in Derbyshire /Warwickshire/ West Midlands etc.
  • Best MUA in the Midlands
  • Cruelty free wedding makeup artist
  • What is vegan make up?
  • Eco friendly wedding suppliers
  • Natural looking wedding makeup
  • Vegan friendly makeup artist....
and go on and on until you cant think of any more.
Picture
Well done! You have made the first step to clarifying what your SEO Keywords/ Phrases are that your wedding business will aim to rank for in Google (ie. appear in a Google Search results).

Picture
✨WHAT OTHER SEO KEYWORDS ARE RELEVANT TO YOUR WEDDING BUSINESS?✨
In the last activity, we made a list of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Keywords that we would like our wedding business to appear under, when prospective wedding couples search on Google looking for products or services we offer. 

Next, we are going to take it a step further, and add to our existing SEO Keyword list with more Keywords/ Phrases we didn't originally think of. 

ACTIVITY 4 - 40mins
1) Take the first SEO Keyword/ Phrase from your list from yesterday and enter it into Google.
2) Click on the top website that comes up on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
3) Focus in on the websites content and review the following:
  • What Keywords/ Phrases are they using 'on-page', that would also work for your wedding business?
  • How have they incorporated the Keywords into their content? Titles/ subheadings/ lists/ blog posts/ video/ podcast links/ internal page links
  • Make a note of your findings, as this will help you later!

Google knows better than anyone what our prospective wedding clients are looking for. So if the website you are reviewing has been ranked no. 1 under the SEO Keyword that you want to rank under, they are obviously doing something right! 

Take notes of all Keywords/ phrases used that relate to your biz. and keep them somewhere safe. As in the next activity, we will be building on your findings, and deciding which SEO Keywords are worth putting in the extra effort for, and ranking well in Google for them. 


Picture
✨FIND OUT HOW DIFFICULT EACH KEYWORD IS TO RANK AGAINST ✨
Once you have created your comprehensive list of SEO Keywords/ phrases, both from a brain dump and SEO Keyword research. Next you need to find out whether it is worth pursuing each of the SEO Keywords you have written down, before you put in energy to getting them onto your webpages.

For this we need to find out the 'Keyword Difficulty' (KD) for each Keyword on your list. This is a predictive score from 0-100 reflecting how difficult it would be to rank for the Keyword, vs your SEO competition (the other website's competing for that same Keyword).
A great place to find out this information for FREE is www.ahrefs.com/keyword-generator to find out how your keywords rank. 

ACTIVITY 5 - 1 hour
1) Visit www.ahrefs.com/keyword-generator and enter in each of your SEO Keywords you have listed from the previous few activities. 
2) Fore each keyword or phrase note down where they are on the following scale: 

Keyword Difficulty Scores
The tool states that a Keyword Difficulty Score of:
  • 1-10 = Easy to rank for (that have less than 10 Referring Domains (RD))
  • 11-30- = Medium difficulty to rank for ( that have 11-38 Referring Domains (RD))
  • 31-70 = Hard to rank for ( that have 37-200 Referring Domains (RD))
  • 71-100 = Super hard to rank for ( that have 200+ Referring Domains (RD))
For your info: Referring Domain (RD) = external websites that direct visitors to your site via backlinks.

So, as an example if you are aiming for a Keyword with a Keyword Difficulty (KD) of 40, you're likely to need approx. 56 RD's to get into the top 10 search results. 

3) From your list, write a new list of SEO Keywords and phrases that fall in the Easy/ Medium Difficulty ranking for KD. 

​Congratulations, you now have a complete list of your chosen SEO Keywords and phrases that you will be able to rank well for and get your website seen by your target wedding audience! ​Your next steps are to now incorporate your keywords into your website on-page content including the H1 and H2 header tags, and metadata. 

Want the next steps on 'How To' Get Your Website Ranking Well in Google Search? Download your own Step-by-Step Guide 

Then Download your complete step-by-step E-Book Today for only £20! and complete the full 23 Activities at your own pace.
Going Live September 21

0 Comments

14/6/2021 0 Comments

3 Steps to Figure out Your Fully Booked Forecast & How to Maximise Profits.

Hello you fabulous wedding business boss! Jen Maynard here from the Boho Bride Guide.

As a Wedding Business Growth Coach, on of the first activities we complete on the Set-up To Success Accelerator, is to clarify your short, medium and long term business goals, and what business model will enable you to achieve a consistent monthly 4-figure income from your wedding business. As after all, if we don't have anything to strive for that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound, we are much less likely to reach our business goals. So let's get specific!


And so I thought it would be of value to you for me to share how we go about this! ​
We are going to look at the 3 Steps you need to take to:
  • Get Clear on Your Profit Per Product
  • Clarify What Your Fully Booked Capacity Looks Like
  • Consider How Your Fully Booked Forecast Can Influence Your Business Activities
​
This will be a great activity for you to complete, as we are now coming out of lockdown, a chance to refocus on what outcomes you want to be seeing from your business, over the coming months and next year. 

By committing them to paper (or Google Doc), massively helps to hold yourself accountable and doing the work to get there.

Step 1: Get clear on your profit per product

This is where you get clear on what profit you want to make from when weddings are back up and running from late June/ July 2021 - Dec 2021 Q3 + Q4 2021, or whatever time period works for you - taking into account all of our costs as a business. 

Activity 1:
List each of the products/ packages you offer. Under each fo those products/ package, make a list of the following:

Product xxx:
- Your labour cost (or a team members labour cost) involved in  creating this product/ package
- Materials/ wholesale products/ ingredients etc. needed to produce this product/ package
- Wider business costs should also be included by totaling up what you will spend in the time period on the following, and then dividing this number between each of the products you plan to sell in the specific time period. Items such as machinery costs and maintenance, business rates and rent, other business bills, subscription costs, etc.

​Here is an example spreadsheet:
Picture

Step 2: Clarify what your fully booked capacity looks like.

Activity 2 :
Create a grid that lists all of your products/ packages across the top, and then each quarter (Q3 2021, Q4 2021, Q1 2022, Q2 2022 etc. 
Decide within each Quarter Period, what is the maximum number of each of the wedding products or packages you want to take on?

Take into consideration here the wedding seasons and typically the quieter times. However that being said, due to Covid, I think the next year or two won't follow the traditional path, so I think you will have more control over how much you want to work into the colder months of Quarter 4 2021 and into next early next year.
Is it also important here that you really consider how much you ideally want to work to achieve your true life-business balance. As working all hours under the sun, is not sustainable and your love for what you do will eventually wain. There are other ways of maximising your profit, without running yourself into the ground! This will be covered in next week's Newsletter!
​
I have included above an example from my wedding floristry business, Parker and Peony Flowers. This is what I project my fully booked would look like, without considering any additional ways to maximise my profit, where I am just trading my time for money as a skilled florist. We will go into more detail about how we then incorporate additional income streams into this projection next week!
Picture

Step 3: Consider how Your 'Fully Booked' Forecast can influence your business activities 

Once you come to the end of this activity, you are now clear on what your current fully booked looks like and now have something to strive for.

The results from this can now help to influence things like:
  • your social media strategy, and campaigns you run throughout Q 3 & Q4 and beyond. What specific product/ package bookings do you need to increase, and how can you do this through a social media campaign? How are you going to get your message out to your ideal wedding customer community? What are their pain points around why they are not currently booking with you? How can you address this through your messaging?
 
  • email list-building activities. Do you have one yet? How could an email list of potential wedding couples on their wedding planning journey, assist you to achieve your goal of so many wedding bookings in Q4 this year? How can you provide additional value to your audience through a weekly newsletter to further build that know, like, and trust element between you, your couples that are booked with you, as well as potential wedding clients. 
 
  • your supplier shoot collaborations. What visual content do you need to be sharing with potential customers to market your specific products/ packages? and therefore how do you start the process to get involved in a supplier shoot?
​
  • your networking conversations with fellow suppliers. What relationships do you need to grow to increase your enquiries around your products? Who knows about your products, and who else is able to share what you do with potential wedding clients? Who are you a recommended supplier for and do they know about your specific products you offer?

So that is it for this week! I hope these activities have been useful and enabled you to refocus your thinking around how to get fully booked for whenever your timescale is!

​Much Love,

Jen x

​Wedding Business Growth Coach

0 Comments

13/6/2021 0 Comments

What is Your Why? Create Your OwnWedding Business Affirmations.

When I work with wedding suppliers as their business coach to launch or grow their business, we always start with WHY. 

Running your own small business is tough... agreed. From wearing all the hats of Marketing Manager, Head of Product Development, Event Coordinator, Finance Clark, Sales Rep, and Customer Services Lead. To managing your small business around your other commitments you have, from looking after family, supporting friends, or maybe other work commitments to juggle. Not to mention having to manage our own feelings of self-doubt, overwhelm, & going it alone. It is a tall order!

So, whether you are just starting out, or have had your biz. for years, it is imperative we are clear as wedding suppliers WHY we have chosen to create & continue to build our own wedding business. So when we struggle, and we will at times, we can quickly remind ourselves WHY we are doing this, to push ourselves forward.
​
I take you through the full 'What is Your Why?' Activity here:
'My Wedding Business WILL' Activity - 20mins
Physically note down in your diary a 20 min slot to complete this task over the next week (then you get the added bonus of ticking it off the list when you have achieved it!), grab a pen & paper or Google Doc and spend some quality time answering the following.
​

1) What 3 life experiences led you to decide you wanted to start a business in the wedding industry?

2) Bullet point below the answer to: When you first started out, what were the main life changes/ improvements you wanted to achieve by starting your own wedding business?


3) Who would these life changes impact for the better once they were achieved? ​
4) When you reach your wedding business aspirations in the next 1/ 3 / 5 years (you decide!), what will your wedding business enable you to do in regards to: 
- your life-business balance & flexibility
- igniting your creativity
- your work environment
- your financial stability 
- working with clients
- your authenticity and self-confidence in my abilities
- your mental health and wellbeing
- being present for others
- any other areas of impact 


For each bullet point, start a sentence
... My wedding business WILL enable me to...
Note your wedding business affirmations down and stick them up somewhere you can see them daily!!
Picture
5) Write a paragraph describing what a week in your life will look like when you reach your wedding business aspirations in the given time you have set yourself.
Include details like:

- What time do you wake?
- What is the first thing you do?
- When do you start work on your business?
- Who will be working with you?
- Where will you be working?
- What do you have to look forward to?
- What will you be doing with your free time?
- How will you be feeling?
- What will you look like?
- How many clients will you be providing a service to?
- How will you be feeling about your achievements?
- What will your bank balance look like?
- What will this enable?


I hope you find this activity helpful to refocus your energy and give you the push you need to rise out of self-doubt and into your inner Empire Builder Brain where you are at your most creative and productive.

Much Love,

Jen x

Wedding Business Growth Coach

0 Comments

6/6/2021 0 Comments

3 Reasons Why You Must Exceed Your Wedding Clients Expectations.

Todays blog is to highlight the importance as to why we need to surprise and delight our wedding clients to build our business reputation and dominate our wedding niche.

I will be talking about:
  • Wedding couples remember how you made them FEEL on their wedding day
  • HOW do you provide an exceptional experience that surprises and delights?
  • ​The Importance of Wedding Couple Reviews
  • ​HOW do you build your Wedding Couple Review Portfolio?
  • The Importance of providing an exceptional service on each and every wedding day
Picture
1) Couples remember how you made them FEEL on their wedding day long after they remember the service or product you provided them with. A couples wedding day is one of the most memorable and important days of someone’s life and so, as wedding suppliers we have a BIG responsibility on our shoulders to get it right!
​Gone are the days where you can provide a value for money service and have wedding clients raving about your business and lining up to share a positive review. It is an expectation in today’s market that all services provided by small businesses, are excellent and you provide what you say you will in your contract.
 
However, if you want to ‘stand out from the crowd’ and begin to dominate your wedding niche, you need to provide a truly exceptional wedding service that goes over and above your clients expectations. This principle remains your first priority, especially in a global pandemic, and your customers need to feel compelled to publicly say thank you to you. 
 
HOW do you Provide an Exceptional Experience that Surprises and Delights?
  • Request honest feedback from previous clients and act. As they say ‘feedback is a gift’ and nothing truer has been said, than when it comes to building a first class, robust wedding business in today’s climate.

Create a short online feedback survey that your customers can complete after their big day. Keep the survey, short (under 10 questions), I would suggest around half the questions to be ‘on a scale of 1-5’ option) and then the other half to be open questions to capture as much information as possible.

Or better still, if you have built up a good relationship with your clients and feel they will be honest with you, ask for 10 mins of their time and ask the questions over the phone and make notes or record. This does come with a caveat though. Be objective when receiving the results, as if you are getting all 5’s and no comments, I would suggest that the respondent isn’t being honest or spending the quality time thinking about their answers.

Then with this feedback, you can make continuous improvements  and changes to your wedding business services and products to ensure you remain top of your game, by providing a delightful service that truly addresses your clients wants for their big day.
Picture
To download a FREE Wedding Business Feedback Template, click here.
get my free feedback template
  • Give a gift or additional service that is over and above what your customer was expecting. Don’t tell your customer everything they will be receiving from you on their wedding day. Hold a part of your service or product back and present it as an additional gift/s for them, something that they will likely be really pleased to receive, something they weren’t expecting, but enhances the existing service you are providing. This taps into your wedding couples emotions, and they will feel indebted to you in some way, which leaves a feeling of loyalty toward you and your small business, something which otherwise may not have arisen.
2) You are What Your Customers Say You Are - The Importance of Wedding Couple Reviews.
Your reputation in the online space is an essential ingredient to achieving your version of success for your business. This is built through what other people are saying about you.
Picture
Fellow Wedding Suppliers, Supplier Directory write ups and shout outs all have a baring, but most important of all is what your previous wedding couples are saying about you via business reviews online. 76% of customers regularly use online reviews to determine which business to use and 52% of customers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations, which it is why your online customer testimonials need to be up to date and relevant to the products and services you are providing today to win new wedding clients for the future
 
Research also suggests that 96% of unhappy customers wont complain to you, but will tell 9-15 friends, which can be disastrous to a small business and could create masses of subsequent work to rectify the issue and save the name of your business.
 
This is why clear communication channels are essential when managing your clients wishes for their big day. Another factor in this to remember is the WAY you communicate. To receive honest and open feedback from our clients, we need to constantly self check ourselves, our non verbal communication, the language we use, the actions we take, to ensure we are creating an environment where our wedding couples feel at ease to say what they are really thinking and feeling. This will then ensure we can provide a first class, delightful service for them that caters to their wedding aspirational needs and wants for their big day.
(Stats from www.reputationrefinery.com).

​
HOW do you Build your Wedding couple Review Portfolio?


  • Request a review from your wedding clients upon completion of works. Research from the latest BrideBook Wedding Survey 2020 suggests on average, couples intend to write 7+ reviews of weddings suppliers they used after their wedding day. However, within 1 month of their wedding date they have only written 2.6 reviews.
Picture

This means that as wedding suppliers, we need to have a system in place to follow up with our previous brides and request a review from them in the places that matter. On your social media handles, on your Google Business account and on any Supplier Directory profiles you have would be some key places to ask for a review. You can then copy these reviews onto your own website too. To make it super easy for your client send them all of the links to the review pages so they can easily and quickly complete the task for you. And don’t forget to say a BIG thank you!

  • Capture Different Types of Reviews. It is also worth considering other types of reviews as well as written online.

You could think about a ‘refer a friend’ through word of mouth, type set up where you offer previous clients some kind of benefit if they pass on your business details and get subsequent a new client from the transaction. Or an effective way of capturing customer testimonials is via video, this would look brilliant on your website as we as humans always love to see, hear and feel how people are talking about another service or product they have used.
Picture
​3) Ultimately, by Providing an Exceptional Services and Products, Enables You to Build a Thriving Business.
​
Amongst all aspects that make up your wedding business, from marketing to sales and admin, to logistics and supply chain, to HR and finance, make your previous wedding couples your key focus to surprising and delighting them. ​
This will have a massive positive impact on your brand influence and dominance within your wedding niche, as well as assist greatly with your online marketing strategy. Make your previous wedding clients your marketing advocates by using their testimonials about how great you are, this will pay dividends!

Love Jen x
​
Wedding Business Growth Coach

0 Comments

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly