How to Find New Clients for Your Wedding Planning Business for Under $10,000/month

Once your wedding planning business takes off and starts growing, your work is just getting started. You’re going to need to implement strategies and make tactical moves to ensure that your client base keeps growing. Fortunately, people are always getting married, so wedding planners are always going to be in demand to a certain degree. However, now is not the time to rest on your laurels. 

There is a lot of competition out there, and they’re growing just as fast as your business. If you want to outpace them, you have to know how to beat them at the most important part of the game: attracting new clients. We’re talking about more than generic promotions and fluffy PR—it’s time to think about what tactics you can use to strategically improve your client intake without breaking your marketing budget. 

Here are five tactics that should be on every wedding planner’s list. 

Tactic #1: Build your network 

Cost: Free, unless you attend expos, pay for event rentals, etc. 

Networking is critical in an industry like wedding planning. It’s who you know in this industry that gets you the best jobs. Take the time to connect with your local audience on social media, as well as those others in your industry that you can work with in the various weddings that you plan and arrange. Attend bridal shows and wedding expos to get your name out there and find clients who are actively looking for a wedding planner. 

This is not only one of the most effective ways that you can draw in new clients. It’s also one of the most affordable. Unless you buy tickets to expos and shows, book booth rentals, or pay for advertising space, for example, you’re not going to spend anything more than your time building a strong network of professional and potential client contacts. 

Tactic #2: Audit and optimize your website 

Cost: $200-$5,000, or more, depending on what’s done and who does it

Your fledgling wedding planning business is no longer a baby. It’s grown up and it’s time that your business image grows up with it. That includes taking the time to audit your website and optimize all of the content. Improve your site so that it’s mobile-friendly because a lot of searches for wedding planners and related businesses come from mobile devices. You can invest in the assistance of SEO experts to do the audit and optimization, or you can read up on how to do it and handle it yourself. 

If you want the best results, we always recommend paying the professionals. They should even be able to provide you with a detailed analysis of their findings, insight into what they changed and their strategy for optimization, and tools to monitor the results of their efforts in the future (reporting and analytics). 

Tactic #3: Solicit reviews 

Cost: Free, unless you offer incentives, discounts, etc. for reviews

Word-of-mouth marketing is still one of the most effective forms of marketing available today. People trust others and when they need recommendations for various services, their inclination will be to ask around before they start doing their own research. Get reviews anywhere and everywhere that you can. Google reviews are great, but so are those on your website, on social media, and elsewhere. 

If you want to make sure that you get the reviews that you want, feel free to offer a discount or another type of incentive for those who leave you a review. Perhaps you’ll give them a free gift with their review as a way of saying thanks for their business. Maybe you’ll give them a discount on their final bill if they refer someone, and you’ll give the referral a discount, too. You don’t have to incentivize reviews, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. 

Tactic #4: Partner with vendors, etc. 

Cost: Free

Partnerships are always going to benefit you in the wedding planning industry. When you partner with caterers, florists, venue owners, and others, you immediately have all the connections that your clients need in one single place. You’ve saved them a lot of work and more than a dozen decisions, and that’s going to get noticed. Plus, you’ll be more likely to find new clients when they come to your partners first because they’ll refer you in return. 

This kind of relationship can help improve your reputation in addition to bringing in new business. If the best venues in the city work with you exclusively, that’s going to impress a lot of potential clients, for example. This is different than networking because you’re not just building relationships, but actually strategizing ways to work together to help each other succeed. 

Tactic #5: Outsource the busywork and more 

Cost: $250-$1,500, or more, depending on how much you outsource

Outsourcing is a tool that not enough mid-size companies use. When you’ve got a $10k/month budget, you should use it effectively in as many ways as possible. Outsourcing is high on that list because you can get a lot more for your money when you partner with someone else to do the work for you. 

If you don’t want to spend a lot, you can just outsource to a 24/7 answering service to take the incoming calls off your plate. If you have a bigger budget and want to reduce your to-do list, consider a partnership that includes a range of services from fielding calls and live website chat to appointment scheduling, lead intake, and help with your outreach campaigns to attract new clients in the first place. 

At Smith.ai, our virtual receptionists can handle it all, no matter what your needs might be. We can tailor a solution to take care of everything and make sure that we don’t miss a single detail and that you never miss another opportunity. When every call gets answered, that guarantees more leads, which ultimately become more clients. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or drop us a line at hello@smith.ai. 

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