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

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.
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​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