Whether you’ve been in the wedding venue business for decades or consider yourself a newbie to the industry, one of the fundamental questions to get right from the outset is “How do I sell my Wedding Venue?”.
To effectively sell your wedding venue, you need to combine a range of aspects, to maximise your success. So, we’ve broken these down, allowing you to focus and fine-tune every element of your sales process going forward…
Marketing
As a wedding venue business in the 21st century, perfecting your marketing to appeal to the masses is no easy feat. However, the vast majority of your clientele will be generated by your marketing strategy and your success as a venue will depend on how effective and cohesive this strategy is. As a result, this is where the majority of your effort (and budget) needs to go, if you really want to boost those sales.
To achieve this, the imagery and branding that you put out into the wedding world is vital to ensure that you are conveying a clear and cohesive brand message.
If you’re the best Welsh wedding venue for intimate ceremonies, or sustainable weddings, or even the venue with the best food, tell us why! What is your Welsh wedding venue business brand? Why should specific couples choose you and why do you want them to?
Think of these things as you lace together a strategy that places you in a position to appeal to the couples you want at your venue across all wedding seasons.
Promotion
Having developed a well thought through and intelligent marketing strategy, your next step as a business is to spread the word. You need a functional, clear plan to spreads your message on a regular and timely basis. If your prospective clients fail to discover your incredible Welsh wedding venue, you are ultimately missing out on countless potential bookings.
With our years of Welsh wedding expertise, our strategies can demonstrate the importance of promoting yourself to the right people, in the right places. Circulating news of your unique wedding venue in this way has the potential to draw new clientele, new followers to your social media and new businesses looking to collaborate.
Photography
It comes as no surprise that the wedding industry – an industry that is dominated by aesthetics, beauty and fabulous decor – sets photography at the very core of a successful wedding business, regardless of whether you are in middle England or the West coast of Wales.
Without point-perfect visualisations of all that your wedding venue business has to offer, it becomes virtually impossible to impress or excite couples.
Styled shoots are a perfect example of the ways you can demonstrate the beauty of your venue, emphasising everything you have to offer. In doing so, you can allow yourself creative control over the imagery you put forward as a business, enabling you to focus upon your venue’s aesthetic and individuality.
Social Media
As we are all very much aware, we are living in a technology-driven society. Although it sounds a little overwhelming, the opportunities that technology can provide your business are truly rewarding. If it hasn’t been thus far, social media should be a driving force in your promotional plan.
Whether your aim is to attract young couples via Instagram or source a business through Linkedin, you need to establish a cohesive strategy to target your market audience and gain proven results.
Check out some of our Social Media Hacks to gain valuable insight into ways to refine your social media presence, helping to both grow your platform online and increase your wedding clientele.
Wedding Directories, Brochures & Printed Material
Traditionally, brochures and marketing collateral have played a crucial role in connecting Welsh wedding venue businesses with their clients throughout the wedding seasons. This has typically been done through relying on printed material – think brochures, leaflets, company magazines and whatever else you could physically get your hands on.
These days wedding venue businesses’ first port of call is the online wedding directory. Identifying the key sites to advertise with is your first task as different sites have different target markets, different levels of reach and their own pricing structures. A targetted aprroach and an element of trial and ewrror in the initial stages will identfy which are the best directories to focus upon for your venue.
Rather than the printed brochure of old, digital collateral is more accessible, cheaper to produce and easier to update or amend. In addition, utilising online spaces such as blog posts, digital newsletters and relevant social media platforms can also help build a balanced relationship between your wedding venue business and prospective clients, especially as clients are able to view your content easily and remotely from their phones or tablets.
Establishing this level of engagement with your clientele is vital in positioning your venue as an accessible and desirable option for your couples’ big day. Be sure to include a call to action throughout your marketing, whether that’s an invitation to check out your website, read your new blogpost or contact for enquiries, your clients need to know you’re available no matter what.
Dealing with Enquiries
Having perfected the behind the scenes actions, your venue business should now begin reaping the rewards. This will initially present itself in the form of enquiries.
With our years of experience in the Welsh wedding venue industry, we firmly believe that the way you handle your enquiries has the potential to make or break your wedding venue business – so, no pressure here! As daunting as this may sound, there are simple but highly effective measures you, as a business, can implement to ensure all enquiries are dealt with in the most inviting and efficient manner.
Transparency between yourself and your clients is key here. Creating a mutual level of trust and open communication is vital to establish from your very first encounter. Don’t be afraid of scaring potential clients away by being transparent in terms of prices, availability or capacity.
Remember, if your venue just doesn’t tick the right boxes for your prospect’s wedding day requirements it’s far better to acknowledge this from the outset, saving you both time and resources.
Want to better understand what couples genuinely want to know before they even visit your venue and pre-empt those initial questions and sort the wheat from the chaff at the outset? Find out What Couples Ask Before They Even Visit a Venue here.
Undertaking Showrounds & Viewings
Perfecting your showround is a crucial element to driving the success and profitability of your wedding venue forward, so it’s vital you get this right.
Whether you’re struggling to engage meaningfully with your couples or you’ve lost confidence in your process, we can help you strengthen your showrounds from the inside-out. From ensuring that your couples are interested and well informed about your venue beforehand to delivering an impeccable showround with confidence and enthusiasm to ensure that your showrounds are amongst the best in Wales, we can help guarantee an exceptional standard of service for your Welsh wedding venue.
Improving Your Conversion Rates
Going hand-in-hand with the quality of your showrounds, your conversion rate will rely on the standard with which you conduct your business. As it is a clear step in selling your venue, improving your conversion rate is a crucial aspect of your business that requires consistent evaluation.
To achieve a high success rate we encourage every Welsh wedding venue business to embrace their individuality and communicate this with confidence and flair. With our well above average conversion rate of 79% we continuously seek to improve conversion rates across Wales, encouraging all venues to convert at least 50% of showrounds to bookings. Such development comes in many forms, from cementing your own confidence in your knowledge of your venue, communicating your clear understanding of how a wedding runs and establishing a professional and reassuring bond with your couple, we believe there is always room for growth.
Setting expectations for your couple and ensuring transparency throughout the process will enable you to be the supportive and accommodating presence your couples seek and trust in the lead up to their wedding day.
Reacting to Trends
Working through both positive and negative trends is a skill many Welsh wedding venues have had to exercise in recent times, establishing the ability to react proactively is vital. Ensure you are acknowledging current and upcoming trends throughout your marketing and promotion to maintain your level of appeal. You can demonstrate this awareness by updating your imagery and venue styling.
Keeping your venue’s imagery current and constantly changing with the seasons and developing trends can also increase interest in your brand and its current appeal.
As much as we’d love the wedding venues we have here in Wales to only have to react to positive trends in the world, that just doesn’t work, as we’ve all discovered this past year.
As it happens, reacting well to negative circumstances and situations is equally important to the success of your business and will demonstrate your ability to adapt and prioritise your couples and will also speak volumes about your ethos, your values and your customer service. So whether you’re discussing upcoming venue trends or handling business during unprecedented circumstances, reacting to trends effectively is essential for your Welsh wedding venue.
Appealing to LGBTQ+ Couples
We pride ourselves on being fully inclusive as a company; in our attitude, our approach and our language and we actively advocate that all Welsh wedding venue businesses adopt this same mentality. We have seen – on one too many occasion that Welsh wedding venue businesses simply aren’t doing enough to provide LGBTQ+ couples the space they deserve in the wedding industry, so we’re striving to change this and pushing our colleagues in the industry to do likewise! Doing so will not only create a more inclusive space for your clients, their guests and your employees, but can help substantially in the growth of your business. The Pink Pound has long been neglected in the wedding community and we wholeheartedly encourage Welsh wedding venues to embrace LGBTQ+ couples and their community, to create a better Welsh wedding environment for generations to come.
Appealing to Older Couples
In the same way that isolating your market to heterosexual couples can impact your revenue, the same applies to the older generations and those embarking on their second or third marriages. Many wedding venue businesses fail to acknowledge the presence of older couples in their client base and in doing so; damage their reputation, the opportunities available to them and ultimately their revenue. Although these couples might not be searching for the larger scale weddings many millennials are after, older couples often look to invest more into the calibre of their wedding, with higher quality entertainment, décor, food and drink being the main focus. Many wedding venue businesses make the mistake of disregarding the mature market based on outdated notions, but we cannot emphasise enough, how lucrative appealing to older couples has the potential to be.
By combining and fine-tuning each of these crucial sales techniques and elements, your Welsh wedding venue business has the opportunity and the skillset at your disposal to flourish, no matter the circumstances.
Zoë Binning Ltd is Wales’ most recognised wedding venue business management company, offering a package of white label services that help Welsh wedding venues increase conversions, drive profits and secure positive feedback. Discover more about our wedding venue management services or find out about our expert wedding consultancy services here.
To speak to Zoë directly, contact her on zoe@zoebinning.co.uk
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