If you’ve never been through tough economic times in the wedding industry, it’s natural to get frightened and even shell shocked. Fortunately the wedding industry is more resilient than most. I like to say that it’s recession-resistant, as opposed to recession-proof. The wedding market changes during a recession, but then again, it’s really changing all the time. The brides of today are not the same as the brides of 5 or 10 years ago. The brides coming in the next 5 to 10 years will be different than those of today.
I believe that change is good as it keeps us sharp, forcing us to remain relevant. The Knot has been keeping up with the changes and we hope that you have as well. I realize that it’s easier said than done when all you keep hearing is doom and gloom in the media, so I wanted to give you some guidance as to what you can and should be doing to ensure the long term success of your business. I will warn you that some of these may sting a little, so if you don’t really want to hear it, stop reading now.
OK, for those of you who are still reading, I applaud your courage and curiosity and I hope that these 11 Hard Truths and Straight Talk will help nudge, or shove, you forward towards greater prosperity now and in the future.
1: Stop whining! That’s right, I said stop whining. You can’t change what’s going on around you, so stop feeding the negativity. Your friends don’t want to hear it, your spouse doesn’t want hear it, and no one wants to be around someone who’s a downer, especially your brides. People pick up on your energy, positive and negative. Surround yourself with positive people who believe that they will not only weather the storm, they’ll prosper in it.
If you need an attitude adjustment pick up a copy of Who Moved My Cheese, The Secret, Fish or any of the hundreds of other books on this subject. The message is the same, you get what you give. If you hold negative thoughts you will get negative results. If you hold positive thoughts you get positive results.
2: When did common sense go out of style? A lot of the issues in this economy were caused by individuals and businesses throwing out some basic rules. We all grew up hearing that we should “live below our means,” yet we use credit cards to finance our lifestyle. We were told to “save for a rainy day,” yet so many live paycheck to paycheck. This downturn has reminded us that wealth is just a number on a piece of paper. You thought your house was worth a lot more than it is now, but since you didn’t sell, you never really saw that increased value. It was a fantasy, a number on a piece of paper.
The wedding industry has survived wars, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. It survives, but it changes, too. Trends change. Styles change. Fads come and go. Need I remind you all of powder blue tuxedos?
3: The definition of futility is doing the same thing, the same way, and expecting a different result. Some say it’s the definition of insanity. If you’re lamenting that the business isn’t the same as it was a couple of years ago then you’re getting in the way of your own success. Don’t get left behind. What changes are you making to adapt to the current and future bridal market?
4: There are new competitors for you in every economy. If you’re a photographer or videographer who thinks the price of digital equipment is creating a crop of new competitors, think again. If you’ve been in the wedding business for a number of years, you’ve always had new competitors. You just didn’t notice them as much when business was flocking your way. Technology doesn’t change the one thing that makes you a professional in your field -- and that’s your talent and experience.
The Knot has new competitors cropping up all the time. Sure, they can create a cool looking site, but if they don’t get any brides to come to it, what good does it for you? When you buy advertising you’re not paying for the number of pixels or the square inches on a page. You’re paying for access to that audience. The coolest website with no brides is a waste of your hard earned money.
5: When a bride decides not to book you, it’s easy for her to say that it was price, but there’s usually more to it. If the bride really wanted you to do her wedding, she’d be trying to find a way to make it happen. If she wasn’t trying to work with you to find a price point that she can afford, it’s because she just wasn’t sold on you. She cares about whether she trusts you to do the job and deliver the end result she wants. She assumes that if you’re a professional caterer you know how to cook. But if she doesn’t like your personality, or if your office is messy, or if she has any doubts about your ability to do the job, she’ll go somewhere else. A bride will even pay more money for someone else, just for the peace of mind. You’ve all experienced it: you don’t get the job and then you find out that she’s booked someone more expensive. There are many reasons why, but most likely it was that you didn’t click with her. She formed a better bond with another vendor.
6: Being an expert at your craft doesn’t qualify you as being an expert salesperson. Having 15 years experience in floral decorating in no way prepares you for closing deals. Just because you’ve been DJing weddings since the days of vinyl records doesn’t mean you know how to sell. Worse yet many of you hate to sell. It’s one of those necessary evils. No sales, no food to cook, no pictures to take, no music to make, no invitations to create. This leaves you two choices. Learn how to sell or hire someone else to do it. One benefit to a down economy is that there are a lot of very talented salespeople that are looking for work.
7: Learn the difference between an investment and an expense. Expenses are things like utilities, car payments, insurance and the like. Investments are things that bring you business. If you already have a good quality digital camera that delivers quality images, then that new camera, no matter how sexy, is probably an unnecessary expense. If your camera breaks and you buy a new one, that’s a necessary expense since you can’t do weddings without one.
A professional salesperson is an investment in your business. Advertising is an investment in your business. Your website is an investment in your business, although most of the ones I see are lousy investments. I’ve lost count of how many times someone has thought that their ad wasn’t working only to find out that hundreds of brides have been going to their website, but they’re not calling. Your goal is not to get a bride to your website, it’s to get her through it to contact you. Too many websites are either a black hole, where you can’t find your way out, or a revolving door where you leave soon after you arrive. Your website is one of the first things your brides will see. Unfortunately many of your websites were designed by you -- for you -- not for your brides.
8: If you don’t like something you see on someone else’s website, don’t do it on yours. Keep a pad and pen by your computer and every time you get frustrated by something on another website, write it down. Then check your own site and see if you have the same thing. Ever get frustrated because you can’t find the phone number? Make sure yours is at the top of every page, with a call to action. Have you ever printed a page off a website and it cuts off the right edge of each sentence? Make sure your pages print out neatly on letter-size paper. Have you ever visited a website a second time and had to sit through the same Flash video intro? It’s frustrating, yet many of your sites do that.
What about when music comes on and you can’t find the mute button? The busiest times of the day and week for TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com is Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Standard time. Most brides are at work and if music automatically plays on your site, you’ve just busted her. Let her ask to hear music or see video.
If you’re trying to optimize your website for the search engines then lose the Flash graphics or hire someone that understands how to optimize a Flash website. Most Flash websites can’t be read by the search engines and on many portable devices. You also can have too little text. I once came across a photographer’s website that didn’t really have any information about weddings other than photos. Search engines can’t “see” what’s in the photos, so not having enough text can hurt your optimization efforts.
9: Unless you’re doing e-commerce, your website can’t make the sale. While your goal is to ultimately make the sale, the most your website can do is get someone to contact you by phone or email. You still have to make the sale. Getting more brides to look at your website is not the prize if they don’t end up booking you. Have a clear call to action by every photo gallery, video, and menu. Never ask a potential customer to call without putting your phone number in the sentence, no matter how many times it’s already on the page.
10: Your search engine placement may have little to do with the business you book. I often hear people bragging about how they come up on the first page of results for a certain phrase, but they can never tell me how much business that brings them. In other words, if you’re the only one who uses that phrase then what good does it do you? Or if people click through to your site using that phrase but they don’t end up booking you, what good did it do you? Sure, it looks good on your analytics reports, but not your balance sheet.
Hitwise reported that the average number of words per query is on the rise, with “queries of eight or more words growing a whopping 22% since December 2008”. So the one and two word searches you’re doing may not be representing what real brides are asking for in their searches.
11: You’re not going to save your way out of hard times. Yes, you should take a hard look at your expenses and cut where you can, however your focus should be on getting more dollars, not saving pennies. You’ll make more money by booking more weddings than you could ever save by excessive cost cutting. Show your customers that you’re the best value for them. Not the cheapest price, the best value. You can be the answer to these economic times by creating a “recession-buster package”. It’s not your cheapest package rather it offers the best value combination of services. So come up with ways to keep a reasonable profit while showing that you’re the best value for that bride.
Another way to be the best value is to make sure that you’re level of service is at the top of your competitors at every touch point. When a bride calls, be the best on the phone. When she emails, be the one that can have a real conversation and show her that you understand what she needs. When she visits your website, make sure that it’s consistent with your business. When she comes in she should feel that it’s an extension of what she’s already seen and heard from you. Your offices should be designed to make your customers comfortable. It should reflect their style, not just yours.
Final Thoughts
People don’t notice when you meet their expectations. They always notice when you fall short and they always notice when you exceed them. If you’re going to be noticed, isn’t it better to be noticed for exceeding their expectations? Make it so that you become the standard by which they judge every other wedding vendor. Brides are going to shop around. Make it so that when she speaks to other vendors she’ll come back to you, not just because of the quality of your work, but also the quality of the experience of doing business with you. Make it hard not to do business with you.
Put your focus where it counts and that’s in getting more business. If you’re already advertising with us, you’re already in front of the largest wedding audience with The Knot Wedding Network so you just need to capitalize on the attention you’re getting and start converting more of them to sales.