The Event Planner’s Guide to Modern Business Marketing
If your event planning business seems like it needs a boost, you may just need to revamp your marketing strategy! Most businesses are falling behind on modern marketing – and the old ways just won’t cut it anymore. In order to attract clients, you first need to make your business attractive and make sure they know you’re there!
Read on to find out how to bring your business marketing strategy to the 21st century!
Be Accessible – Everywhere
If customers aren’t able to contact you, how can you expect to gain new business? And yes – the key to moving up in the industry is continuously finding new event planning clients.
Across social media and on your website, you should have a very obvious “Contact” page. This is what people will look for the second they start considering your services. People can only get so much information from reading your website, and quite frankly, many people don’t even want to read it! This is why bullet points exist…
List a few contact addresses for potential customers to reach you at, including a business phone number, an email, and even your mailing address (some people are old school). It’s important to separate your business contact addresses from your personal ones – and since it’s so easy to create a new email account, you have no excuse to be using your personal one!
Moreover, you need to actually respond to everyone who reaches out to you. Even if you can’t offer them the service they want, or you’re booked on the day of their wedding. Always, always, always respond to inquiries. Professionalism and good conversation can help get you hired in the future.
Streamline Your Process
As the owner of a successful event planning business, we already know how busy you must be. So why make your life any more difficult? Actually, what we meant to say was: why not make your life easier?
The sheer amount of apps available can save you precious minutes each day. From organizing your files to keeping contacts at your fingertips, to automating your emails – you need to experiment with a few popular event planning apps!
A great tip from event planner Heather Vickery is to set your business hours and use an automated email service when you’re not available. Let your email send a message to inquirers that you’re out for the day and will respond to them within 24 hours. Not only does this save you stress from rushing through emails, it also gives your client piece of mind. And they’ll be waiting for your call!
Encourage Reviews
The be-all and end-all of modern marketing! Think about when you look for a new restaurant to try out, or when you need to get your car fixed – we always start by looking at online reviews. And with good reason: you can tell a lot about a company by the presence of reviews.
Be sure to encourage your clients to review you on Google or Facebook, since this is where most people go to do some digging. If you have an extremely happy client, there’s no harm in asking them straight out to review you. They’ll know how valuable it will be for your business!
It’s important to remember how to handle the negative reviews, too. If you receive bad feedback from an unhappy client, be sure to reach out to them personally and try to make it right. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT get into an argument with customers (online or in private!). This will destroy your credibility and professionalism as a business.
Follow these tips on how to handle a negative review!
Follow Up Immediately
One thing that works against modern businesses is how easy it is to fall out of touch with people. It’s easy to forget an email or a phone call, so always have a second point of contact prepared!
Following other industry professionals on social media when you meet them will help you build serious relationships with them. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck playing the game of “Will they remember me?” which means you lose out on serious networking potential.
A simple retweet or share to boost their reach will establish a positive relationship with your businesses. They’ll return the favor, and you can even develop a partnership for future event planning jobs! So don’t wait – build your social media feeds up with new potential.
Create Seamless Images
If your website images are out of date or your color scheme has more than 3 colors, then it’s time to revamp your brand standards. Photos on your website should be of professional quality with great lighting. You can showcase your own event designs and styles, or find a gorgeous background template to use. Either way, make sure your website looks elegant!
Having high-quality images online shows that you are truly a professional. Imagine heading to a florist’s website and seeing dark, off-centered photographs. Doesn’t make you want to use their business, does it?
Phone cameras are generally good enough to take well-lit photos, but the best case scenario is having professional photos taken of your work. As well, if you’re able to use Photoshop or find a graphic designer to help you out, this will put your branding over the edge.
Stick to Simplicity
When you’re creating an event business name or logo, remember to stick to simplicity. Your name should roll off the tongue and sound elegant, and your logo should be basic and well-suited for your color scheme.
The best tip we can give is to stick to a neutral black-and-white logo – if you change your color scheme in the future, you won’t have to redo your logo! The same goes for your website. You shouldn’t go overboard on color since it can be difficult to read on a background that’s too bright or too dark. Keep your website user-friendly, and build a simple logo that is easily recognized.
