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. 
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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! ​

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. 
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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! 

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. 

 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! 

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. ​

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. 

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,

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. 

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

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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.

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?

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• 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,

'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.
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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? ​

​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.