by Bethel Nathan | Advice, Business Management, Business Systems, Customer Journey, Ideal Client, Marketing Tools, Reviews & Reputation, Social Media
WeddingWire’s 2019 Newlywed Report – which is the result of surveying over 18,000 couples who were married in 2018 – showed that couple are continuing to get married later in life, and the average from those couples was 33. Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau’s statistics for 2017 show the average in the US as 27.4 for women and 29.5 for men, also increasing every year.
Whether your couples might be the same or different might depend somewhat on where in the country you are, and whether your couples tend to be more or less traditional (and therefore getting married earlier or later in life). However, it still means that the large majority of our couples are now those who are in the middle to younger side of Millennials, and we are starting to see Gen Z couples too (born in 1997 or later). As a result, there are many things that we need to think about differently in our business.
One core characteristic about these couples that needs focusing on is a shorter attention span. Studies show a 12-second attention span from Millennials, and an even shorter 8-second attention span from Gen Z. What do we do with that in our business? I’ll break it down into suggestions for Marketing and for your Customer Journey, as how you communicate with both your booked couples and potential couples is definitely shifting.
Marketing:
- Messaging delivered in smaller pieces, making each one easier to digest.
- Use different media – think about using a combination of text, images, and video.
- Remember that images can “say it” even better than text – they’re processed 60,000x faster than text!
- Text: Think about using bullets or short paragraphs, and then have more details below or link elsewhere to more.
- Be sure that your most important or attractive messaging is shown first.
- Use a mixture of your words and your couples’ words. Using snippets from your reviews not only illustrates your value in their words, but they also help change up the flow from being all in your words.
- On your website, be mobile-focused: 80% of users leave from a bad mobile experience, which includes the function of your site as well as the content. Your site must load quickly – 40% will leave if not within three seconds.
- Have consistent and repetitive messaging (in addition to colors, logo, and imagery) across all marketing channels, so that no matter where they see you, as they move around from site to site while doing their research, it all feels like you.
- Show them only what makes sense for them. Therefore, if you have different offerings with different ideal couples, having multiple brands/businesses with different websites may make more sense than combining it all into one, as then they are more likely to see the information most relevant to their needs and stick around for more.
- Make it easy for them to contact you and to find your social media and reviews.
Customer Journey:
- Break your longer emails into multiple shorter ones and then space them out. This way they hear from you more frequently, and they can absorb your messages better.
- Put the most important info first, so that they are more likely to see it, especially when opening your emails on their phone. Same goes with the most critical question you need answered.
- Text in bullets or short paragraphs then more details below or link elsewhere to more (maybe even a hidden page on your website with just the information for this frequently asked question/issue).
- Questions: If you need to get multiple questions answered, as most of us do, make an online questionnaire (whether in your business management system or a standalone app like Typeform or Google Forms), and then email them the link and instructions (always explain the WHY of something you’re asking your couples to do for you)l.
- Consider filming short videos in place of some longer emails, especially if there are instructions you have to typically give. Or you can use video as a fun addition to your communication plan, including as an in-between communication.
- Meetings: First of all, re-evaluate if they all need to be done in-person, or if you can offer virtual options to save everyone time and effort, plus to make your customer journey consistent for your out-of-town couples too. Communicate before and after your meetings. Before to set expectations and talk about any prep work needed. After to talk about next steps. Both of these communications often result in shorter meetings and being seen as respectful of their time and attention.
I hope that this gives you lots of actionable ideas of changes or improvements that you can make to your marketing and your customer journey! As always, if I can help, please let me know.
by Bethel Nathan | Advice, Business Management, Business Systems, Customer Journey, Ideal Client, Marketing Tools, Reviews & Reputation, Social Media, Systems & Apps
I talk to my coaching clients and industry colleagues about reviews a great deal. Why? Because the words of those who have used your services or product – talking about the value or the results or what it was like to work with you (or all of the above) – can be so much more powerful than anything you could say about yourself! And, since they are coming from the perspective of someone likely similar to the couples checking you out now, they are usually speaking in a language that fits that potential new couple, too.
So, now what?
First, be sure that you’re getting new reviews from your past clients, and regularly. Recency is just as important as quantity. After all, if you were checking out reviews of a restaurant or hotel, for instance, as you planned a night out or an upcoming trip, and you saw none from the past year, wouldn’t you wonder about that place? Are they still in business? Has their quality fallen dramatically? Plus, if you’ve been in business for a while, you have likely seen your couples change over the years, maybe in what they are looking for, their priorities, or how they express it. So, having recent couples talking about you do matters. And, yes, quantity does sure help too, not only in qualifying you for industry awards like The Knot’s “Best of Weddings” and WeddingWire’s “Couples Choice”, but in building confidence in those reading them that those many reviews they see are real and not just a handful of your friends and family members who did you a favor and wrote some for you.
How do you do this? ASK! I know that that sounds simple, and yet many people I’ve worked with over the years don’t have a process to do just that. I greatly recommend adding an email into your workflow to ask your couples to write you a review, with links directly to the places you want reviews (except for Yelp, who doesn’t like seeing businesses solicit reviews, so include it in your list, but don’t give a direct link). And usually about 2-3 weeks after your work with them is done (I know that some of us deliver our work before the wedding, others of us do so on the wedding day, and others aren’t done until well after the wedding). I used to send it in my “thank you” email the day after the wedding, but I’m finding that I’m getting more now that I wait about 2-3 weeks. Couples for whom you exceeded their expectations, and gave them a great customer experience as well as end-product, likely want to say thanks and help you as well – this gives them the chance to do so! If you haven’t been doing this, you can absolutely do a catch-up now, emailing all of your couples from the past 6-12 months, and I highly recommend it.
Then, what do you do with them? This is where the superpower of reviews comes in. You want to use them everywhere! Wait, what? Especially if coming from a past client that you would consider an ideal couple (as that helps you attract more like them), and if it is expressing something that you want others to hear or know. So, yes, use snippets on every page of your website, in your marketing materials, in your online listings, and in any place that you are communicating with couples, like your email signature and even in your verbal “elevator” pitch at wedding shows. Use full screenshots on your social media (as it gives more legitimacy to see the full and unedited verbiage) – this gives you fresh content for social media, plus allows them to be seen by more people.
Let me add a note on using their words on your website. The days of a single “testimonial” page being of the most value are behind us, and instead you want to weave your couples’ words all throughout your verbiage throughout your website. Use what they say to illustrate or to emphasize things you want to say, as their perspective can often help you to do so.
Also, don’t forget to respond to them! I always email my couples to thank them for writing one, letting them know how much I appreciate that they took the time to do so, and that I absolutely loved hearing what they had to say. And this is important, I think, for continuing the positive feelings in your customer experience with them. But you also need to respond publicly, right on the review website, as those responses are for future couples reading your reviews. Be positive, be thankful, and be you. This is one more place for your personality and your connection with your couples to be seen, so don’t pass up the opportunity to do so. But always remember that the target audience for your response is those reading it as they research you for themselves – whether it was a raving review, good review, or maybe a not-so-great or quite bad review, the response is really meant for future couples (or fellow vendors) who don’t yet know you.
Please be sure to fully read your reviews to be sure that you are making any changes in your business that comes up as an issue. One not-so-great review definitely requires a personal response, but probably doesn’t require a business change. But, multiple of not-so-great (or quite bad) reviews definitely do. So, read them looking for a pattern – whether it was your communication or professionalism or end-product – and improve accordingly.
On the flip side, if there’s something that couples are consistently mentioning as something they loved or particularly appreciate about you or your process or your end-product, can you do even more of that or make it even better, or talk about it more as a selling point? Our businesses should be in a state of constant improvement, as the wedding market and couples are constantly changing. Improving even what you are doing well and what couples love will help keep you ahead of the curve!
Embrace the power of reviews, and the “social proof” that they provide, and see what they bring to your future business!
If I can help you figure out how to best use reviews in your business, or help you narrow down what messaging to use, drop me an email below and let’s chat!
by Bethel Nathan | Advice, Business Systems, Customer Journey, Ideal Client, Reviews & Reputation, Systems & Apps
When it comes to how, and how often, to communicate with your potential and current couples, there are no absolutes when discussing right or wrong ways. The how, and how often, can and will differ based on many things, including: your ideal couple; the customer journey you want to guide a couple through; and even based on the answers to questions asked and feedback received during the initial meeting(s) with the couple. However, there are some pieces of advice that I thought I could provide based on my experiences with the over 800 wedding couples I have worked with, and the many conversations I have had with other wedding professionals as part of the business coaching I do at Elevate by Bethel.
1) I am sure you have read a blog post (or two), or an article, or have even been to a presentation on working with millennials. And I would think that one of the take-aways is that phone calls are rarely the preferred method of communication with millennial couples, or even most couples of other ages, to be honest. My advice around this one is to only call your potential, or even your current, couples when either it is absolutely necessary, when you have scheduled a call with them in advance, or when they have specifically requested that you to call them. Phone calls can be valuable, for sure, but they are usually not the preferred method of people today, and it can often become a back and forth of voicemails, which eats up valuable time.
2) There needs to be a balance within your e-mails of making sure that you communicate what you want to communicate, while not communicating too often and, not making the e-mails that you do send too lengthy (tough for this long email gal!). The attention span of most people, and thus most couples getting married, is not long, let’s be real. This can make writing template e-mails both an art and a science. But, what I find helps is to pay attention to what couples may miss in your current communications, and therefore to think about what questions do they ask later that you knew were covered in earlier emails. You should also have colleagues in the industry help you by reviewing your templated emails and letting you know if they make sense, and if they get the information across that you are trying to communicate, while not being too lengthy. You can then use both your observations and the feedback from others to adjust both how much and how you communicate.
3) When a couple inquires, I recommend that you get as many contact methods for them as possible, as this gives you multiple ways to communicate with them, plus the ability to use those communication options in different ways. For example, if you have a cell phone number and email address for a couple, maybe you mostly email them, you call or Skype with them for very important or in-depth conversations, and you text them with quick reminders or easy check-ins.
I have no doubt that communicating in a way that fits your ideal couples will help the customer journey that your couples take with your business meet or exceed their expectations, thus creating higher levels of customer satisfaction, leading to better reviews and more referrals!
by Bethel Nathan | Advice, Business Management, Business Systems, Customer Journey, Ideal Client, Reviews & Reputation
I am going to say with a 100% certainty that, if you own a wedding business, you have dealt with stupid people. Does that sound harsh? Sorry, but it’s true, right? It can be other vendors, it can be employees, and it definitely can be couples. Now, obviously, this is not some revelation from on high, but what is important is to discuss is how we should deal with stupid people. The reason I decided to write this post right now is that I just read about some business owners who are creating a fake virtual assistant and then using that fake virtual assistant to respond to stupid questions/comments so that it wasn’t “coming from them.” The people doing this were stating that it allowed them to “distance” themselves emotionally from questions/statements and the way they needed to respond. I found this to be funny and not something I would ever think of or recommend, to be honest.
The whole point of great customer service is having the ability to be as honest and genuine as possible without being insulting. And since we are in the very personal and love-filled business of weddings, being able to do this as the owner builds more goodwill than it tears down. I find a few rules help me out when responding to stupid people.
1) If at all possible, don’t just immediately respond. Have you ever been angry about something and just shot back a response and then, within a few minutes, thought… “shoot, why did I respond that way?” By taking some time, it may not change the way you want to respond, but it probably will change the way you do respond.
2) Talk to someone you trust, or have someone that you trust read what you find to be stupid (or insulting or infuriating) in their email or conversation. Maybe they see it a different way and can explain to you why you might be seeing/taking it wrong… maybe it is stupid but understandable… or maybe not stupid at all.
3) Own it. Sometimes there is stupid that is indefensible and needs a response. Put on your customer service hat, state the facts in as detailed of a way as possible, don’t place blame or make accusations, understand the range of consequences of your response, and let it fly. When you do this, note that the more details within the response, the less room for interpretation, because the more interpretation possible, the less you can control where on the range of consequences you will end up.
Oh, and as you probably figured, the above applies to working with angry people as well as stupid. Great customer service means being able to respond to any variety of scenarios in a reasonably genuine way and a way that makes the scenario better, or at the least doesn’t make it any worse.
by Bethel Nathan | Advice, Business Management, Marketing Tools, Reviews & Reputation
Although not a necessity, most wedding industry businesses can benefit hugely from a good relationship building plan. One of the first steps in any relationship building plan is meeting people, and one of the best ways to do that is through networking. Having said that, I, like many of you, don’t always love networking, and often hate the stereotypical networking! Yet, when done right, networking can increase awareness of you and your business, establish and/or improve relationships with other wedding pros, and reaffirm your legitimacy in the industry.
Although I really don’t always love doing it, and sometimes dread it, to be honest, from the very beginning of my officiant business, networking helped, and it still continues to help, my business immensely. And, therefore, I keep doing it and encourage others to do the same. So, here are 6 quick tips that can help.
Yes-Yes’s when it comes to networking –
1) Go to multiple styles of networking events offered by multiple different groups. Over time, you will likely reduce down how many and which ones you go to, but by initially checking out many different events put on by many different groups can not only legitimize you and your business, but also help you to figure out which ones are your best fit.
2) Be prepared. Are there specific people you want to meet? Do you have business cards on you? Do you have an elevator pitch for your business? While you don’t need a specific memorized pitch (and I really recommend that you don’t, as it can feel fake), be sure that you are prepared to answer questions about what you do or what your business is, as that first impression of how you answer that question can be powerful.
3) Sponsor the event, or something at the event. This builds credibility and gets people coming to talk to you vs. you having to go talk to them.
Oh-No’s when it comes to networking –
1) Don’t just hand out business cards. I wouldn’t think I would have to continuously repeat this one, but at every event I go to, there are at least one or two people just walking around handing out their cards to everyone. A few short conversations are going to be much more beneficial than handing out 50 cards to random people with no connection to that card and who you were.
2) Don’t get drunk. Yes, the alcohol might be free and, yes, you might be the life of the party that everyone is talking about. But they are not talking about your business in a positive way if that is what comes up when someone mentions you.
3) Don’t think that once is enough. If you go to an event and it wasn’t great (or even painful), try another one, but maybe bring a “wingman” with you next time, if you really think that that group or event is likely to still be worth your effort. If you go to an event and it is successful and you see possibility there, go to more. Building relationships through networking is a continuous process that usually requires multiple contacts.
I hope that these tips help! If you would like more in-depth assistance in regards to networking and creating a great relationship plan specific to you and your business, I’m happy to help with that! Just drop me an email at bethel@elevatebybethel.com.
by Bethel Nathan | Advice, Business Management, Business Systems, Customer Journey, Reviews & Reputation, Social Media, Systems & Apps
For wedding professionals, the importance of having recent and great reviews cannot be overstated. I know some of you get it – and I know some of you say that you get it – but the real questions are: do you have a plan in place to get reviews from as many couples as possible, and do you have a plan in place to use the reviews you get to increase leads/bookings?
As service focused businesses whose main mission is to rock some part of a couple’s one and only wedding day, what previous couples have to say about us and what we did for them can make a huge difference to potential couples. Doesn’t matter whether you are a planner, officiant, photographer, DJ, florist, baker or candlestick maker – it is highly likely that your reviews, or lack thereof, will factor into a couple’s decision on whether or not to hire you. They may get a referral from a past couple or another vendor, but this generation wants to get validation from multiple sources and ones that they consider unbiased or less biased, including reviews from past couples. It’s called “social proof.”
Here are some quick tips in regards to reviews:
1) Ask in your after-service thank you e-mail (you do send one of those, right?) if they could please write you a review. Explain why you are asking and give them a link to where they can review you… make it easy.
2) If a couple inquiries through your website, make sure in your response to link them to where they can read your reviews… again, make it easy.
3) When you get a great review, share it on social media.
4) Use the good stuff – the words your couples are saying about you in their reviews – in your marketing and messaging.
5) Use the bad stuff your couples are saying about you in their reviews to improve your systems and processes. Yes, actually pay attention to the bad stuff, especially if it comes up more than once.
Think about the cost of reviews (just a bit of time) vs. their value (unbiased praise for your business and unbiased free business evaluation). And if you don’t have a reviews plan in place, create and implement one today!
