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Wedding Vendors have a ton of ways to market their services nowadays. With technology, social media and text messag-ing at its peak, our world is moving faster than ever before. So my question to you is: As a Wedding Vendor, how do you keep up with it?

It doesn’t matter if you’re a photographer, event planner or a limo driver. We are all in the same boat when it comes to marketing. The same myriad of tools are available to us all. Which tools do you keep and which do you toss back? Is there a surefire method that will work without fail? I will let you be the judge of that.

Here are my Top 5

Give Away Gifts Or Services

5. Give Away Gifts or Services. Most wedding vendors have the ability to give something away for free. Be it via contest or as an ad on to one of your packages. Dig deep, but do not undervalue your product or service. Undervaluing your product or service can cheapen your brand and you can end up with a bunch of unhappy complainers.

My suggestion is to research what your competitors are giving away, put your thinking cap on and decide on what you can offer that will be of value to your customer. It has to be something that they find value in.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Offer a gift with your free consultation. This could be in the form of a $10 Starbucks... or treat them to coffee and a cupcake. yummers!Visa Giftcards are always a winner or even team up with a photographer and send brides to be over for a free engagement session. Win Win.

4. Start Blogging. If you’re not doing it already… Blogging can be an essential form of advertising for your business. Be informative. Be personal. Be creative. Offer something for free. Hahaha Your blog can have the potential of turning into a cornucopia of brides to be getting their wedding day fix. You’re a wedding vendor, for crying out loud. You have funny stories and tips to share. Details please. Your blog has the potential of boosting your name into lights as an authority in your field. Remember, everyone had to start somewhere. My sugges-tion is to blog at least twice weekly.

Syndicate your blog with a sites like Alltop and Outbrain. Sites like these can help your posts get some major traffic.

This photo is awesome... This would look great on any website or business card.

3. Plan A Photo Shoot. This is major in sooooo many ways! First of all it’s an excellent way to network with noncompeting wedding vendors. Secondly, you need professional photos to market your business. Period. It is such a major letdown to make a connection with a fellow wedding vendor and visit there website and find a decent website with cell phone images. Or even worse… photos that were taken by an amateur photographer using bad lighting… uuugh.

If this happens to be you, listen up. There are a couple of ways to remedy this situation.A. Plan a staged shoot with a photographer, models, makeup artists… the whole nine. The beauty of this type of shoot is that everyone is there for the same reason. Free images. Hire models for FREE off of craigslist or reach out to some good looking people on facebook.Many makeup artists are willing to trade their services for FREE professional images as well. As far as the photographer is concerned… Be sure to work with a professional who is looking to expand their portfolio.

This one... not so awesome. The lighting and white balance are off. And there’s a random hand on the right side of the frame... hmmm

Plan A Photo Shoot

and if you’re an Event Planner, you will want images staged around a beautiful head table or canopy that you created. You get the gist of this. Be creative. Just like the old saying goes, “If you build it they will come.” Know that if you put your positive energy into this, other vendors and models will be just as excited as you are about this awesome opportunity.

Just a quick side note: Be sure that the photographer offers releases to all involved in the shoot as well as full resolution, edited jpeg images. All models will need to sign models releases. Be sure that the verbiage included in the releases ensures that everyone involved will be able to utilize the images online and for advertising purposes.

B. The second remedy I suggest is utilizing online stock photos. This does not have to cost an arm and a leg, and can even be free. A couple of sites worth looking into are http://www.dollarphotoclub.com and http://photodune.net.

You willneed to find a great venue to stage the shoot. This depends on what type of vendor you are. If you’re a Limo Compa-ny, you will want all of the images staged around a limo. If you’re a caterer you will want them staged around your food

The Mighty Postcard Method2. The Mighty Postcard Method. This is by far one of the most awesomeness ideas I’ve ever come across and goes hand in hand with partnering with other wedding vendors. Basically what you’re going to do is find 5 noncompeting wedding vendors that you would like to partner with. Let’s say that you’re an Event Planner... You might choose a Limo Company, a DJ, a Photographer, a Florist and a Caterer. What you are going to do is print up a postcard for them… as a gift. The postcard will have their information on the front and your information on the back. How clever is that?!

If you are skilled at photoshop, then feel free to design it yourself. If not, however, let the professionals handle it. Either mail the postcards with an attached note or deliver them in person. Who does this? You do, that’s who! You are so awesome for designing this nifty little postcard for them! Here are a couple of links to get you started. For printing you can use http://gotprint.net/g/postcard.do or http://www.overnightprints.com

For design work, I like http://graphicriver.net At Graphic River, you will find just about any different type of template imaginable. It’s cost effective and the design work is stunning.

Follow Up

Follow UpFollow Up

Everything thus far has lead up to the number one strategy to book more brides in 2015. And my number one suggestion is pretty much common sense.

1. Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Whether it be a fellow wedding vendor or bride to be. When you make create con-tact with someone…. stay in contact. Plan a follow up strate-gy and stick to it. You would be amazed at how many peo-ple do not follow this golden rule and miss out on potential business.

Go into 2015 knowing that you will have an awesome year… and you will! Be confident in your business goals and allow the success to roll in, because you deserve it!

Cheers,Claudia Grace

Wishing us all success in 2015!!Claudia Grace

www.claudiagracephotography.com www.cgbridalmag.com

about me:

Hello, I hope you enjoyed my free eBook “5 Awesome Strategies To Book More Brides In 2015”. My name is Claudia Grace, and I have been photographing weddings for over 17 years. Being a wedding photographer for so many years, I’ve invested thousands of dollars in advertising. From sending out mailers to placing ads in wedding magazines and I even paired up with David’s Bridal for a few seasons. The bottom line is that advertising can cost a lot of money, and we don’t always get a good return on our investment. Some of us have learned that very expensive lesson the hard way.

So I decided to do something about it. I created a gorgeous bridal magazine to give wedding vendors like ourselves an elegant yet affordable way to market our business. For a free media kit get in touch with me at info@cgbridalmag.com or 888-520-0920. I would love to hear from you!