229. 15 Best Marketing Ideas [that will actually make you money!]

And it's hard to know sometimes which ones are actually gonna move the needle, which ones are actually helping you to create sales for your business. CEOs in this episode, I am sharing with you my top 15 marketing tips that are actually going to help you make money in 2024, and I cannot wait to dig into these with you. Hey there, CEOs. Thanks so much for joining me for the Wedding Pro CEO podcast. I am so glad to have you back or here for the very first time.

I'm your host, Brandee Gaar and I'm a wedding pro just like you. I've built 1 of the largest planning firms in Orlando, Florida, it wasn't that long ago when that success came with long days, sleepless nights, and little to no pay. Fast forward to today, and I have the business that I've always dreamed of, a killer team, steady profit, and weekends with my family. Over the past 3 years, I've taught more than a thousand wedding pros how to build this dream business for themselves as well.

My mission is to create a movement of wedding pros who are ready to build a profitable wedding business that they've always dreamed of. Okay. I know you're listening and you may be thinking, okay, Brandee, 15 different marketing ideas still seems like a lot of marketing ideas. But when we get into them, I think you're gonna realize that it's actually really, really simple to implement every single 1 of these ideas into your routine weekly or monthly within your business. And here's the thing.

These 15 ideas aren't fluff. They're not just the things you could do to maybe get, like, 1 new sale per quarter. Not at all. These are the things that actually move the needle in my wedding planning business. They're also the things that I teach to all of my students that are making them double and triple their income every single year. And you guys, these are not to be messed with. These are the brass tacks. I took my very best marketing tips, and I put them all into this 1 episode.

So if you're listening and you're like, oh my gosh, Brandee. I'm on a walk or I'm driving. I'm doing laundry, making dinner. Whatever it is that you're doing, that's okay because you can listen to this episode, and then you can head over to the website. Just drop down to the show notes below, we've got all of the tips listed out there for you as well. So you don't necessarily need to take notes.

You can just head right over there and get all of these marketing ideas so that you can start implementing them into your business today. Okay. Are you guys ready to get into it? Let's go. So number 1 may come as a little bit of a surprise to you, but this is networking. So not all of these marketing ideas are gonna have to do with social media. Surprise, surprise. This is the 1 that we forget about so often because of social media.

We think that we don't need to go to the local networking events, that we don't necessarily need to foster the relationships within our local network, but you could not be more wrong about that. CEO, if you are listening and you have not been to a networking event in the last 30 days, this is your sign right now that I want you to go online, and I want you to find some of the best local networking events in your area, and I want you to register.

This is so important to me that I require each of my team members to attend at least 2 networking events within our local community every single month. Your local network are gonna be the people that you're closest to, that are gonna be the ones that are referring you business and that you can refer back to. Your local network are gonna be the people who say things about you in a great light when you're not in the room.

They're gonna have opportunities that they can share with you because of the opportunities that they've been given. Having a great strategic network is a massive piece of why Blush, my planning company in Orlando, Florida, has been so wildly successful. I'm loyal to the people who are loyal to us. I love working with new vendors and really understanding what makes them tick and how we can work together.

I want to work together with the other vendors in our network to bring flawless events to Orlando. And so I get really, really excited about your network, and I talked to so many wedding pros who were like, I hate to network. I'm an introvert. I don't wanna leave my house. I don't like leaving my kids at night, and I hear all of those things. I hear all of those things. I can vividly remember times when my girls were little where I had to leave for networking events, and was exhausted.

I hadn't seen them all weekend. Here I am leaving for a networking event, and I don't know that there's too many people who would rather be at a networking event. Okay? So when you hear people say, I love to network, Mmmm, maybe. Usually, networking events are either free if you're doing open houses or you're going and just networking, grabbing coffee with somebody. It's a Manymal cost. You may have to pay an entry fee for bigger events like NACE or MPI but I'm telling you, it's worth it.

It's still the least expensive type of marketing that you're gonna do in your business, So this is important. I think I beat that drum enough. Right? You guys know if you haven't been to a networking event in the last 30 days, take this as your sign, go absolutely register for a local event in your market. Okay. Number 2 is to use automation. And with this 1, I'm gonna take you right back to ManyChat.

And I know that you guys are probably like, this girl has literally talked about ManyChat, like, 90 times on her podcast over the last 3 months, and you'd be right. I am obsessed with this automation.

And the reason that I'm so obsessed with it is because when I'm teaching you to drive traffic, to drive inquiries, and to drive DMs through your social media, that becomes really, really difficult to manage when you're at a wedding or you're sleeping or you're trying to put together a timeline or you're meeting with clients or you're meeting with your team. Right? As a business owner, there's so many things that you're doing besides sitting on Instagram hoping a DM comes in. Right?

But when that DM does come in, the person that's inquiring right then is hot, and they're looking for information right now. And by using this automation called ManyChat, you can quickly deliver the information that they're looking for right into their DMs. And then when you have time later in the day, a 30 minute section of your day that you dedicate to going into your DMs and starting conversations or answering questions, then you can add the personal touch.

It's really, really similar to how you would do, um, an inquiry coming in through your contact us form. Right? You have an automated email that goes to them that says, thanks so much for inquiring. Here's some basic information before we reach out. Right? It says more than that, obviously. But it's basically getting them the information that they need right away, things like pricing, FAQs, a link to schedule consult.

Your Many chat automation is gonna do the exact same thing, but it's gonna do it in your DMs. And again, the reason that I keep beating this drum, the reason I keep talking about Many chat is because this automation works for you to deliver the information that your followers or your engaged lead is looking for with you being able to not have to do it right then when they're inquiring. Right? Like, this automation is gonna do it for you. So it's really helping you to make that sale.

I have an entire episode dedicated to ManyChat as well as an online tutorial on our YouTube channel, so we'll link those in the show notes. Just make sure you head over to the website to get the full show notes, and we'll link those so that you can go check them out. And you can set ManyChat up for yourself. And FYI, ManyChat is actually free for the basic automation, which I find most wedding pros are fine with the basic automation.

So sign me up all day long for free software that makes my life easier. numbers 3, 4, and 5 are all going to have to do with platforms on social media. you knew that I wasn't gonna have 15 best marketing tips without some of them having to do with organic social media. Right? Number 3 is Pinterest, number 4 is TikTok, and number 5 is Instagram. And I wanna break these down a little bit for you because I know that you're listening to this.

Like, Brandee, you told me at the beginning of the episode you weren't gonna tell me a million things to do. But here's why these 3 platforms are the 3 platforms that you are gonna use in your business to create a strategic organic marketing system. Okay?

Because what we want to do is we want to get out of the feast and famine of having a bunch of leads now, and then you get busy, and so you don't post it all, and then you go back to posting, and it's just a constant feast or famine in your funnel. What we wanna create is a really strategic organic marketing funnel so that there's constantly leads coming into your business. Right? So what I want you to think about is how each of these platforms is used. So Pinterest is a search engine.

And so when you think about these 3 platforms, what I want you to think about is that Pinterest and TikTok. Okay? So we're gonna keep those on the outside. If you're watching me on YouTube, you can kinda see what my hands are doing. But Pinterest and TikTok are gonna be your outreach platforms. These are gonna be the platforms where new people are finding you, but they're used differently. And then Instagram is gonna be your nurturing platform.

So you're driving traffic from TikTok and Pinterest to Instagram, and Instagram's where we want them to DM you. That's why ManyChat is important. That's where they're having a conversation with you. That's where they're learning more about you. They're getting to watch your stories and behind the scenes and getting to know you as a company, a team, a person. Right? So Pinterest is a search engine. That means that people go into Pinterest and they're looking for a specific thing.

So they're either looking for let's just say they're looking for Bella Colina wedding. Right? So that's a venue here in Orlando, and so they might be searching Bella Colina wedding. Or they're looking for Orlando wedding planner, or they're looking for Detroit wedding photographer, or they're looking for, you know, Colorado winter wedding.

And so when you're thinking about how you're posting on Pinterest, you wanna really be thinking about the keywords and the search terms that people are searching for because that's how your pins are gonna get found is by the search. So someone has to go into Pinterest, search something, and then Pinterest is gonna feed them the best content for that search. Okay? TikTok on the other hand, so remember, these are both outreach platforms. These are both platforms where you're getting found. Okay?

New people are finding you. So Pinterest, they're searching a very specific thing, and Pinterest is feeding it to them. On TikTok, it's kind of the opposite. TikTok is deciding what your viewers want to see, and they're feeding them things that they interact with. So there, what you wanna do is you wanna create content that's drawing people in, that's making them watch for longer, that's helping them to know that you are an expert in your field.

Because the longer they watch, the more TikTok is gonna know that that type of follower wants to know more about what you do. So it's gonna feed your content out. So you don't have to do a ton of search, SEO, and TikTok, though SEO definitely helps on TikTok. But what you're trying to do is make really great content that poses you as an expert in your field and helps engaged couples know that you have a solution to their problem.

So these are the 2 platforms you're using for outreach to find new people. As you draw them into your Instagram, what you're doing on Instagram is you're nurturing them. You're helping them to know, like, and trust you. You're helping them to enter into a conversation with you. This is your most intimate type of content. So when you're thinking about what kind of content you post on each of these 3 platforms, I really want you to think about the end user who's this content from you, right?

So think about it almost just like the clients that you have. If somebody sits down in front of you for a consult and they've never seen your pricing, they've may maybe peeked at your website, but that's about it. They don't know much about you. That's a super cold lead. Right? Like, you're sitting down to a consult with them, and you're kinda like, I don't even know how you got here because you're a super cold lead. Right?

But that is what you're looking at when you're thinking about what would you say to that client? What would you say to them? You have to start with, like, who you are, why you do what you do, why your experience is unique, the way that you work. Um, you have to really sell them. Right? So that's the kind of content that you're making for Pinterest and TikTok is that really cold, they don't know you yet type of content.

You're reaching out to new people, and you're sharing more about what the experience is to work with you and why you're the best at what you do. On Instagram, by the point they get to your Instagram, 9 times out of 10, they've already binged some of your content. They've gotten to know, like, and trust you through your story content. This is where you're talking more to, like, your warm leads. They already know a little bit about you. They might even know your pricing already.

So what you're trying to do here is you're trying to help just lead them to that next step in the buying journey. Right? This is again why ManyChat is so important because when they're ready to start a conversation with you on Instagram, you want to be able to feed them the information they're looking for right away. So that's how you're really thinking about these 3 platforms.

I'm creating outreach content for Pinterest and TikTok, and then I'm creating nurturing content leading to a sale decision for Instagram. Right? don't want you to overthink it. if somebody was just sitting right in front of you, right in front of you at a consult, what would you say to them depending on which type of a lead that they are? it makes it really, really so much easier to create the content when you think of it through those lenses.

The next thing that's gonna be helpful for you in creating all of this content is to have a marketing strategy and this is number 6. So number 6 is to have an overall marketing strategy. I don't know about you guys, but there is nothing more painful in my entrepreneurial life than sitting down to my computer and knowing I have to create content that day and having absolutely no idea what I'm gonna create. Like, it feels so debilitating. Right?

You're just staring at a screen and you're like, I know I have to create something today and I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to say. Right? And so then you end up just throwing up kind of a piece of junk because you're like, Brandee told me I have to post 3 times a week, so I'm just gonna post it, and then I don't wanna think about it again. The problem with that is that that's honestly just a waste of time. It's a waste of space and energy.

And I'd rather you just go do something else in your business that's gonna move the needle if that's how you're gonna do it. Instead, what I want you to do is I want you to have a really clear marketing strategy of what you're posting every single week that's actually going to drive a buying decision for your followers, for that engaged lead who's reaching out to you, or for that engaged follower who's kind of like looking at your content, still deciding if they're gonna reach out.

This marketing strategy is gonna make it so that you're not constantly wondering what should I be posting, what should I be posting. I talk a lot about having anchor content. And for a wedding pro, your anchor content is typically gonna be your blog because that's how we're driving traffic back to your website. Right?

So when you create a blog, a really great juicy blog That's actually gonna help somebody in planning their wedding, then what I want you to do is I want you to share it everywhere and I want you to just keep saying it over and over and over again in all the different ways. So what I mean by that is I want you to create 1 anchor piece of content, which is gonna be your blog, and you're gonna create, let's just say, 5 must have photos with your bridesmaids for wedding day. Right?

And then from there, now you've created this great blog. You've talked all about the different poses, how you wanna get them, maybe even given them a free resource in the blog to a timeline that they can download to help make sure they have time to get all of these photos. And then I want you to create reels about it. I want you to create carousel post about it. I want you to create TikToks, Pinterest pins. All of these things can be repurposed on all of the different platforms.

But without a strategy to begin with, you don't even know what to say every single day. Having that anchor content is gonna give you so much to work with because you can say, here's 1 pose, right, that I want you to get. You can talk about how to create a timeline to make sure that you can get those photos. You can talk about, um, different robes or different settings that you might wanna be in to make sure that you get those great photos.

These are all different things that you can talk about in different posts to drive them back to this 1 blog. So this 1 blog is actually creating so much content for you. And if you wanna understand a little bit more about how we use anchor content and what kind of post you should be making to drive these buying decisions and drive traffic back to your website, that's exactly what Social 3 6 5 is.

So Social 3 6 5 is my tool for wedding pros specifically that is not only a whole year of social media content. So it gives you prompts for reels, carousel posts, story posts, and blogs every single week, so I give you all of that within it. It's also a video training. I have a Many chat tutorial in there step by step. I have a how to use chat GPT tutorial on exactly how to show you how to create content specifically for you every single week.

I have a tutorial on how to use anchor content, and how to think of anchor content, and how to then get it out on all of your platforms. So it's really so much more than just a year full of social media content, though that alone is worth the price. also a social media strategy course that's gonna teach you how to use social media strategically, and gives you all of those prompts so that you never have to stare at a blank screen again.

So if you're interested in grabbing Social 3 65, y'all listen, we have had, I think, 600 students that have bought Social 3 6 5. It is such a game changer in the wedding industry. you're interested in grabbing it, just head over to the website. You can click down in the show notes below. Again, on the website, we've got all of these tips for you and links to the different things that I'm telling you about.

So you can go grab Social 3 6 5 and make your posting journey this year driving traffic from Pinterest, from TikTok, from Instagram all into new sales for you. Number 7 is a strong profile. A strong profile is absolutely the cornerstone of your organic social media. Now I'm gonna use Instagram as the example that I'm talking about here, but this is gonna go for TikTok and Pinterest as well.

Because on all of those platforms, when someone lands on your profile you have less than 3 seconds to grab their attention and help them to know that you are the wedding pro for them, that you are the person that serves their need and they need to dig more. They need to click your link in bio. They need to DM you. Whatever it is that they're gonna do, we want them to know that within the first 3 seconds that they land on your profile.

And having an optimized profile is massively, massively important for driving buying decisions from your social media. So what does an optimized profile actually look like? An optimized profile is gonna have keywords in it. So your name should actually be keywords that people are searching for. So you wanna think about Orlando wedding planner, Saint Augustine wedding photographer, Detroit wedding florist. Right?

You also wanna be really, really careful that you're using words that they're actually searching for. Great. That's wonderful. However, most people are not searching for wedding designer. They're searching for wedding planner or wedding coordinator. Right? You also wanna think about this with entertainers. So most people are searching wedding DJ or wedding band. They're not searching wedding entertainer. And so you wanna be really, really careful with the words that you're using there. Okay?

So you wanna use keywords. You wanna tell people where you do what you do. So where are you based out of? Even if you're a fully destination wedding pro, where are you based out of? Where do you travel the most? Where do you like to go the most? Where do you service most often? Right? So you wanna have where you do what you do, and you wanna say who you do it for. Who is your client? Who do you serve? What makes you unique?

When you say things like now booking 20 24 and 20 25, or we create memories that last a lifetime. No kidding. Right? Like, no kidding. So does every other wedding pro. You want to be unique. Who do you serve? Who is your ideal client? What at the crux of who they are is what makes them who they are. Right? I really, really want you to think about your most ideal client. And I don't want you to think about it in terms of, like, Susie's 34 and she drinks a caramel latte.

No. We're not thinking about that. Right? We're thinking about what do they do for their career? What are their biggest pain points? If they have busy careers, time would be a major pain point. If they are more of a DIY couple, budget might be more of their pain point. Right? Not having enough time would be a major pain point for people. not living in state.

So if you are a destination wedding planner, destination photographer, proving your expertise and helping them know that you're gonna guide them along the way because they don't live there. So they're gonna be a little bit overwhelmed by those decisions. Right? These are all things that are so important for an optimized profile. And if you need help, I have a step by step guide. You can grab it completely for free.

It's called makeover my Instagram profile, and then you can also use that same technique for TikTok and for Pinterest. But what I want you to do is I want you to grab that free guide. It's a whole workbook on exactly how to make over your profile so that you're driving sales from your profile. You're capturing those eyes in that first 3 seconds that they land there. Drop down in the show notes. Go over to the website. Totally free.

Click the link and grab the make over my Instagram profile freebie, and then use that same tactic for TikTok and for Pinterest. Okay. Number 8 kind of goes along with that 1, that's about having a fully optimized link in bio. I'm not gonna spend an incredible amount of time here because, again, I go into how to optimize your link in bio in that free guide that I just told you about in number 7. But what I do want you to know about this 1, this is the number 1 thing.

Y'all, if you ever DM me on Instagram, the first thing I do is I go to your profile usually, I'm trying to figure out what your name is because your Instagram is your business name. So I go to your profile to see what your name is so that I can address you correctly. But I'm also just kind of looking at your profile, and then I click your link in bio every single time. I always click the link in bio because I wanna know how serious are you about driving sales into your business.

If you have a link in bio that has 13 different links and they link out to The Knot, Wedding Wire, Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, different publications that you were in. And the very last 1 or I have to search for the 1 that says, contact us to book a consultation or contact us, I'm out. Right? Like, I it's the number 1 thing. I've said this probably 200 times on this podcast since we've had this podcast is the very first link in your link in bio should be how to work with us.

Book a consult, contact us, discover more, whatever you wanna call it, but it needs to lead to a way to book a consultation with you, period. Hard stop. That is the number 1 thing I want you to know about having an optimized link in bio. All of the rest of the things I'm gonna tell you about having an optimized link in bio, you can head over and grab that freebie because there's so much more to it.

But I want you to go right now before before you do anything else, I want you to pause this episode, and I want you to go to your link in bio, and I want you to see if the number 1 link is how to work with you. If it's not, fix it now before you start this episode again. I'll wait. Okay. Okay. Okay. Alright. We're back. You guys got your link in bio optimized at least that first link because that's such a simple fix. Right? Hopefully, you're listening to this podcast, and you're like, wow.

I already have a win from today's podcast. Right? Thanks, Brandee. Yay. Let's go. Number 9 is SEO, and I feel like this may be a little bit of a sleeper in the marketing methodology because it's a long game. So my good friend, Sara Dunn, is, like, the queen of SEO for wedding pros. Her company name is actually called Sara Does SEO, and she's been on the podcast several times.

I would love for you to go back and listen to episode 1 17 called the SEO strategies that you cannot live without because Sara gives some really simple, tangible tips on how you can make quick fixes to your website to increase your searchability in Google. Sara is amazing at giving you these really bite sized tips. 1 of my students actually was listening to her.

I had Sara come into my accelerator community as an expert call, and 1 of my students had just redone her website, and she fell in her searchability big time. And Sara gave her 1 tip. Y'all, I'm telling you 1 tip that she was able to go make that change herself really quickly while we were on the call. And within a couple of weeks, she was already back to ranking on page 1. And she was like, I mean, that was 1 tip. Like, I'm all in with SEO. And here's the thing. With SEO, it is a longer game.

Like, Sara will tell you that. There's absolutely no chance that you're gonna, you know, change your SEO and tomorrow start seeing more and more leads from Google. It is a longer game.

But understanding SEO not only helps you to optimize the pages on your website, but when you're creating these blogs that I tell you to create as anchor content, not only you're gonna share them out organically through social media, but if you use SEO wisely, if you use it in a way that's gonna help you to make that blog more searchable, it's gonna become a long player for you. Right?

So when you share it on Pinterest, when you share it on TikTok, even through Google, if it's a high SEO blog, if it's really well done keyword focused, then you're gonna get long term searchability out of that blog and constantly be getting traffic back to your website. the idea with this episode is to help you understand that these marketing strategies work together to constantly, consistently have your funnel full of warm leads.

So some of it is gonna be active participation from you, which is like posting on the organic social media platforms, and some of it is gonna be a little bit more passive, like SEO, where you can really do a great job when you create that piece of content, and then it's gonna work for you for years and years to come. So what I want you to do is I want you to head over to episode 1 17.

When you're done listening to this episode, I want you to learn a little bit more about the SEO strategies that you can't live without from my friend, Sara Dunn. And we're gonna make sure that we link that episode as well in the show notes. So make sure that you're getting all this fun stuff from the show notes that we've created for you. Okay. So number 10 is to guest on a podcast, and I think this 1 is 1 that's super underrated. Like, I don't think enough wedding pros think about doing this.

But what's interesting to me is as a wedding pro, right, so as a coach, I'm on a lot of podcasts. I have my own podcast. I'm on a lot of podcast as guests. But as a wedding pro, I actually really hadn't used this methodology. I had a wedding podcast reach out to me and ask me to be a guest from a planner's perspective. Right? So like I said, I'm used to being a guest as a coach and sharing, like, sales and profit techniques. Right?

this particular podcast had reached out to me and said, we really speak directly to the end user. Like, our podcast is for engaged couples, and we'd love for you to share from a planner's perspective. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I haven't done that before. And you guys, I'm not even kidding you.

I promise you with all of my heart, I'm not even joking, I had a bride reach out to me less than 3 months after that podcast aired, and she said, I heard you on Kelly McWilliams podcast, This or That. And I loved what you had to say, and it made me reach out. And I was like, what? And it it honestly, I did the podcast because I love Kelly, and I love talking about planning tips. Right? I love it. I never even thought about it honestly for driving traffic to my planning business. I really didn't.

But what was so interesting to me is this bride was already a warm lead. She'd heard me for a full 45 minutes on Kelly's podcast. She loved what I had to say, went to my Instagram, started binging our blush content over on Instagram, and then reached out. We didn't even have to sell her. She was already like, yeah, take my money. Like, I heard you, I love you, take my money. And so this is a really underutilized marketing strategy.

So if you're somebody who really enjoys talking, just having a conversation with someone, I would highly suggest pitching yourself. Make sure you have a really strong pitch on exactly what you would want to share with their audience, and then share some useful tips about what it is that you do and how engaged couples can use your tips to plan their wedding. And then make sure that you're always driving back to your Instagram. Like this is again the place that you're gonna nurture people.

So send them back to your Instagram. Tell them to DM you and to start a conversation. Tell them I always love love to end a guest podcast episode by saying, hey, if you heard me on this podcast, I would love it if you would DM me and tell me that you heard me on the podcast. I love getting DMs. Right? And so I encourage people to do that. And every time I guest on a podcast, I get at least a handful of DMs saying, like, hey, I heard you on the podcast.

You told me to DM you, so I thought I'd drop in. And I always think it's super fun because it opens up a conversation. So I would encourage them to DM you just even to say hi, but then you can start a conversation with that couple as well. Okay. Number 11 is a really, really simple 1, and this is just to get more Google reviews.

And this is something that actually my new CEO of my business, you guys know if you've listened to me for a little bit, I had an episode a couple months ago back in January that I shared that we recently just hired a CEO for Blush, and I'm so excited about that. And so 1 of the things that she has really been pushing me on and our team on is to have more Google reviews. We've typically, in the past, focused more on Knot and WeddingWire reviews.

We have hundreds on those 2 platforms, but Google is really a massive resource. And if the knot and WeddingWire were to ever go away, Google is really gonna be that main resource. So she has really pushed us to collect more Google reviews. And I think that this is so important you can setup an automation within your if you use HoneyBook or Dubsado, Planning Pod, any of the platforms that are going to give you workflow automation with your emails.

You can set up an automated email that goes out to your clients. Ours goes out 9 days after their wedding. You can set up this quick automation to just send an email to say, we love being part of your wedding. We would love to collect a review from you. Now is it more personal for you to reach out to each of those clients and say, hey, Cindy and Tony. Oh my gosh. We absolutely love being part of your wedding.

We loved seeing DoManyc walk down the aisle and watching you guys dance tonight away with the glow sticks blah blah blah. Right? We'd love for you to give us a review. Of course, it is. Do I think that you should use that tactic? If you can, a hundred percent. 1 of the things that we've implemented is that our marketing manager is actually going to start making those emails.

She's gonna be sending those emails and copying the planner so that we can really add that personal touch into it instead of the automation. However, I am also a big fan of automation. And I think if you're if you just simply are a 1 man show or you don't have the capacity to personally reach out to every single client to ask them for a review, I think setting up this automation is absolutely 100 percent totally fine. I don't think anybody cares.

I think they expect automation at some point in their process. 1 thing I would give you as a tip is to let them know during the planning, either during your final details meeting or, you know, maybe a week before their wedding. Hey, I just wanna remind you that you're gonna get an automated email from us maybe a week, a week and a half after your wedding to ask for a review, and you guys know how important it was for you to see reviews about us when you were buying.

I would love so much when you get that email if you could leave us a 5 star review and tell people a little bit about your experience with us. Right? And so you're still adding that personal touch, but you're letting them know it's gonna be an automated email that comes and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I want you to make sure that as you're listening to these 15 strategies, the most important thing is that you are able to implement them in a way that's efficient for you and allowing you time to move the needle in your business. So while I think Google reviews are massively important in driving sales to your business, if automating that email is the best way for you to do that right now, please do not feel shame in that.

Just make sure that you are adding that personal touch in advance so they know that automated email is coming, And do not sleep on this, you guys. This is an easy 1 for you to set up. And again, it's passive. You set it up once and then let it run for you. Every after every single wedding, 9 days after the wedding, you're gonna send this email and you're gonna start to see those reviews pour in and it's gonna help you so much as you're selling new clients.

Number 12 is going back to our blogging strategy and I talk all about this in Social 3 6 this is how to get guest to actually write blogs for you and vice versa for you to guest blog for them. So what I mean by that is we love to tap into our partners, and we love to have them write a blog for us. So I'm a planner.

So for instance, we might reach out to 1 of our favorite bridal boutiques, and we want to ask them if they would be interested in writing a guest blog for us about the best tips that they could share on having a great buying experience for your wedding gown. Right? Or maybe about the alterations, the process of the alterations.

We might reach out to 1 of our photographers and say, could you write a blog for us on the 5 tips that you would share with engaged couples on things they should be looking for in a wedding photographer? Right? So these are the things that we're asking them to write for us. There's a couple of reasons this is helpful in your marketing. 1, it's less blogs for you to write. Like, that's, like, the number 1 reason because it's less blogs for you to write. Right? That's huge.

So you're still putting really great content on your page, and you're helping engaged couples, but you don't necessarily have to write the content, which is like a maze. Number 2 is that it's actually gonna help you to build your audience because if you publish them and then you share back to them and say, hey, your blog is live.

We absolutely love sharing about you and now you're gonna share it on all of your organic social media because we know we use our anchor content to then share out with our organic social media. We're gonna share that, and we're gonna ask them to share on their platform. So now we are gaining their audience, and we're getting their audience to come back to our website. Right?

So this is all the things I want you to be thinking about with asking other pros that you love working with to write guest blogs for your website. And then vice versa, I would think about what are 3 to 5 really great blogs that you can write about what you do in the industry and offer those to some of your partners to say, hey, I would love to write a guest blog for you, for your blog. Here's what I'm thinking. Here's what the topic would be, and then you write it for them.

Again, you're getting their audience juice. So now their audience is gonna see that blog on their website, and then you're sharing it out. So it it really has so many uses. sharing audiences. It's also a great way to network and strategically partner with people. It just feels good and it helps to give that kind of feel good. I wanna help you, you help me type of content within your local network. So I'm a huge fan of this guest blog opportunity.

I think it's way underutilized, and I think it's a really easy thing that you can do and get into your strategy at least once a quarter. That's what I'd be suggesting is to have a guest blog on your blog at least once a quarter, and then for you to guest blog on someone else's blog at least once a quarter. Number 13 may sound a little bit odd because we're talking all about marketing and I'm gonna talk about knowing your numbers. And you're like, Brandee, you just couldn't resist. Right?

Like, you had to get that in. You had to get in, "know your numbers". But let me tell you why this is important. I want you to understand, fully understand how leads are coming into your funnel and where they are falling off before they become a paying client. Right? So if you have 10 leads come into your funnel every single month and only 2 of them become paying clients, it's so massively important that you understand where that breakdown is occurring.

And the reason that I'm tying this back to a marketing episode is because once you can optimize your sales funnel and you know where your leads are coming from, you're gonna wanna just pour gasoline. Like pour it on to wherever those best leads are coming from. Right? And so understanding where your leads are coming from and how they're making their way through your sales funnel.

The really cool thing about this too is that once you've optimized your sales funnel, you are gonna understand to be able to double and triple your revenue, all you have to do do is get more leads. So we'd figure out where those leads are coming from, pour that gas on, and then all of a sudden, now you're like, Brandee, I thought this was gonna be an impossible task, but I just literally tripled my revenue within a year. And I'm like, I know. I literally help wedding pros do this all the time.

This is what I do. I love helping you to understand the data so that you can know what marketing is working for you, how to pour those ideal leads into your sales funnel, and then have a fully optimized sales funnel so that your revenue triples, doubles, triples within a year, and now we're starting to see that profit come in. You're paying yourself a salary, you're building your team, all of the things. Right? So it really always, always goes back to numbers.

You didn't think I would get through an entire episode and not tell you to know your numbers. Right? But I know that this can can be tricky, and you're probably like, okay, Brandee. I understand what you're saying, but, like, how do I track this? So I have a really easy free guide. I love giving you guys freebies. Right? Like, I create these things all the time, and I'm like, everybody should have this. It's such an important piece of the puzzle. So head over to the website.

You've heard me say that 9 times during this episode already. Head over to the website. Grab that free inquiry tracker. We're gonna link it there for you so that you've got it. And I want you to just really, really simple, make sure that you're keeping track of that for at least 90 days.

I'd like for you to do it all the time, but at least 90 days because that's really gonna tell you where your marketing is working and where your sales are falling off so that we can fix that so that we can double and triple your revenue. Number 14, we're taking back to blogs again. So if you guys haven't noticed by now, I'm a big fan of blogging.

I have told you guys before, and I'm somewhat ashamed of this, but I want you to hear it from me because I want you to know it's okay to have fallen off the wagon. But there was a time in Blush's history where I got so frustrated with our blog that I just deleted the whole thing. I still can't believe to this day that I did that. And, like, it makes Sara, Sara Dunn, like, literally wanna throw up when I tell her this. She hates it. She's like, what are you doing?

I deleted our entire blog because it I didn't understand how to use it. And so we would spend all this time writing blogs, but no 1 would ever see them. That's because I didn't understand the SEO strategy. I didn't understand guest blogging. I didn't understand how to use organic social media to get more eyes on that blog and how it could really be that anchor for getting people to my website.

Now that I understand that, I feel like I I talk about blogging so much because it really is a passive way to keep consistent leads coming into your business. What we're talking about in number 14 is having 3 killer, and I mean killer, like SEO optimized, super expert, link backs to different things on your website, a way to contact you, like killer 3 killer evergreen blogs. What evergreen means is that they would be useful today, tomorrow, and 5 years from now.

So that might be things like how to create your wedding budget, how to create a wedding timeline. Right? Like, these are really easy. It could be, um, the best tips for creating a killer party, right, from a DJ perspective. You they're your best tips for creating that killer party at the end of the night or creating a crazy hour. Right? Like, whatever it is that you do. And what I want you to think about is what are the questions we get most often when clients sit down with us?

What are the questions we get most often? A lot of times it could be like, what are the 5 questions you need to ask your wedding DJ? What are the 5 questions you need to ask your wedding photographer? What are the 5 questions you need to ask your wedding venue? mean, the 5 top questions to ask, insert what you do is like a number 1 evergreen blog. Right? Why do I want you to write these evergreen blogs?

The reason is because, 1, if they're really optimized and they're really, really optimized and then shared out on Pinterest, shared out on TikTok, shared through Google and things like that, they're gonna be passive. They're gonna work for you consistently. But, also, what I want you to do is in your link in bio, instead of having a link that just says, read our blog, like, literally no 1 wants to read your blog. Right? Like, no one's going to your link in bio and being like, yes.

It says read the blog. I wanna go read the blog. No. No one's doing that. But if you had these 3 evergreen blogs there that hit a pain point for the people who are coming to your link in bio, and it says, how to create your wedding budget stress free. Right? Or how the 5 must have photos to get with your bridesmaids on wedding day, or the 5 questions you should ask your venue before signing on the dotted line. Right? Like, what are the things that people are having a pain point about?

Like, what's making them anxious? How to create your wedding day timeline? Right? Like, what is it that's always gonna be needed? It's always gonna be needed. That's what makes it evergreen. So you don't have to keep going back and changing it. You don't wanna say, like, uh, the top first dance songs of 20 24. That's not evergreen. Right? You're gonna have to change that year after year. And that's okay. You can certainly do that.

You can have blogs like that, but these aren't the 3 evergreen blogs that I want you to live that I want to live in your link in bio. So this is gonna really help you to drive that organic traffic again, also because our engagement and our followers are cyclical as wedding pros. So that means that followers come in when they're almost engaged or they're engaged. They follow you as long as they're client. They might follow you for a little bit after.

But after a while, they've moved on to a new stage of life and they typically unfollow. You can typically post the same content every 12 months. Honestly, as a wedding pro, like, you don't even have to recreate these blogs all the time. If you've got 3 killer evergreen blogs, you can post about it, I would honestly say, every 6 months. Like, you could go in and you could say the same thing every 6 months, repost it, and send it back to that same blog that was written 3 years ago.

If the content is still good, if the content is still legitimate and still solving the problem, you don't have to keep recreating these blogs. You can always be sending traffic back to these evergreen blogs. And so that's what I want you to think about is you're gonna write these 3 killer evergreen blogs. You're going to put them in your link in bio. You're gonna share them on Pinterest.

You're gonna share them on TikTok, and you're gonna consistently keep sharing them on Instagram, right, every 6 months or so. And that's gonna help that to be super passive. Again, we're wanting things that we can create once and not have to really think about again that's gonna keep driving traffic into our sales funnel. That's ideally what we're trying to get at here. Okay? We wanna drive traffic without you having to hustle for it all the time.

The very last 1 is to create an email automation, an email sales funnel. And the reason I made this the last 1 is because I would say to you, CEO, listen to me. Okay? I am a massive, massive fan of email automation. I think email marketing is underutilized in the wedding industry, and I think it's something that you can totally use to double your revenue. I think it's a a massive piece of the puzzle.

However, what I want you to hear from me is the reason this was the last 1 is because I think that all 14 of these marketing tactics should be done and in place before you start number 15. Number 15 is definitely a game changer. However, if you're not doing the rest of these, your email funnel won't matter because you're not driving traffic into it. So what I want you to hear from me is if you have not done all 14 of the rest of these, this is where you can stop this episode. Okay?

Go over to the website, start downloading some of the freebies, maybe grab social 3 6 5, check out some of the past episodes that I've mentioned, but stop this episode. If you've already done 1 through 14 and you're like, yeah, Brandee, I love listening to this episode because you're basically just reaffirming what I'm already doing and I know I'm slaying it in my business, awesome. Listen to number 15. Okay? So number 15 is to create an email automation funnel.

And so what that means is that you are gonna create a funnel so that when someone inquires with you, either through your contact form or through a DM, whatever it is, they're going to get put into a funnel. And that funnel is going to help you with follow-up because it's gonna keep emailing them every 3 to 5 days. And it's gonna have tips in it. It's gonna have things they might need to know. It might have a free resource. It's It's gonna have a way to schedule with you.

It's gonna have testimonials about you. There's all different kinds of things that you can put in this email funnel. The reason that the email marketing funnel is helpful is because you can make it as long as you want. Right? So you could make 1 that's 6 to 9 months for a lead. Think about how many times, it doesn't happen often, but think about how many times a lead has reached out to you, you've chatted back and forth with them. Right?

You maybe even did a consult with them, and then all of a sudden they went ghost. Right, they went ghost. And you're like, wow, that stinks. I really thought I meshed with that person. Then all of a sudden, like 6 months later, they sent you an email and they're like, we're ready to book. And you're like, what on earth? Like, where did you go? Right? They've been following you on Instagram, they've been keeping up with your content.

But if you had an email funnel to stay at the top of the list, you would actually see so many more long term conversions like that. And the reason is because people inquire, they're so excited about starting to plan their wedding and then they get busy. Life happens, right? Something happens and it keeps them from actually moving forward with a contract. And then when they are ready to start planning again, they reach out to the first pro they can remember talking to.

If you have stayed at the top of their inbox for the last 3 months, 4 months, 5 months because you've been sending them tips or songs, playlists, um, different photographs, different photo spots that they might wanna look at in your market. Like, all of these different things that you can send to them through an email marketing campaign, you've stayed top of list. You've stayed top of mind, and they're going to reach back out to you. Email marketing is the number 1 way to convert buyers.

And I know that sounds crazy. It's such an underutilized tool in the wedding industry. It does take a decent amount of setup time on the front end. What I love about an email marketing campaign is that once it's set up, it literally runs for you forever. So for instance, 1 of the email marketing campaigns we have set up in my business for Blush is when we get an inquiry from The Knot. Right?

Sometimes it's like, wow, you just get so many inquiries from the Knot that it's hard to keep up with them. It's hard to keep following up. So we have a whole funnel set up dedicated to our knot leads where it sends them an automatic email as soon as they reach out. It gives them information about us and then it keeps emailing them for 30 days. And it's not just like, hey, just wanted to see if you wanted a book. Hey, just wanted to see if you wanted a book.

No. That's, blah, we don't wanna that. But what it does do is it gives them tips. It helps them to, um, get some different freebies that we've created for them. A budget checklist, a timeline checklist. It also shares testimonials from past clients and things like that with them. And so it's just keeping us top of mind. And it helps so much with that conversion because we're not necessarily having to take up our time to reach out.

We definitely send some personal communication within that funnel on the side, but that funnel is really keeping them engaged and keeping us top of their inbox without us having to do anything. So again, when I talk about these 15 tips that are actually gonna help you make money, I fully understand what it's like to run a wedding business. I still very much run my wedding business, Blush is 1 of the biggest planning firms in Orlando, Florida, and I do my coaching business. Right?

I've I've coached over a thousand wedding pros at this point. So without some of these passive strategies to keep leads constantly coming into blush, I would be psychotic, honestly. If we didn't have all of these different marketing elements set up so that there's leads just consistently coming in that we can work and have automations that help us work those and turn those into paying clients. Honestly, I would have given up a long time ago on Blush because it would be so difficult to do both.

Right? So what I want you to know is that as you're scaling and you wanna add different revenue streams to your business, you're gonna open a new market, you're gonna become a speaker, you're gonna start going into education, you're gonna add a different revenue stream such as like a photo booth, or rentals, or lighting. You can't really do any of that until your main business is streamlined and really kind of collecting leads for you and doing it all as just like this well oiled machine.

So if number 15, is part of something that you're excited about doing this quarter, I'm gonna link Flodesk for you in the website show notes because Flodesk is the tool that I recommend for all wedding pros to use. It's user friendly. It's inexpensive. And actually, if you click the link that's in the show notes that I'm gonna give to you, you get 50 percent off of your first year with Flodesk. It's so simple to use and the templates are gorgeous.

This is why I love it the most for wedding pros is because the templates are absolutely gorgeous and we work in a very visually stimulated industry. So I always want pretty emails to go out. Right? And so this is something that I think would be really, really helpful to you is to get Flodesk and start creating this email series for your leads, and you can also create an email series for your clients.

So having a client email series where you create an automation that goes out to them throughout their planning period, so that you don't constantly have to do those follow ups, but you can reach out to them and let them know you're thinking about them and all that exciting stuff. Okay. You guys, this was a long episode.

I did not expect this episode to go this long, but I really felt like it was time to dig into the marketing strategies that are actually going to work in your business and actually going to make you money. There are hundreds, hundreds of different marketing tips that you could hear out there, and you can throw spaghetti at a wall. You can do all these different things.

But what I want you to know is that I carefully curated these 15 tips only so that they would be the tips that make you money, but I want them to be done in a way that creates a cohesive marketing strategy for you to really create passive and active ways to constantly be putting leads into your funnel.

That is so important to me, CEO, that you understand that the better you have leads coming into your funnel consistently without you having to do so much work, the more money you are gonna make in your business and the easier it's gonna be for you. , I'm so excited that you came for this episode today. And, hey, if you heard even 1 thing on this podcast today that you're gonna implement into your business, would you do me a favor? And would you share that on your story and tag me?

Because I'd love to see what you're gonna implement into your business because it makes me so excited. I don't know if you guys know this, but when I record these podcasts, I'm literally just talking to a wall. That's it. I'm talking to a wall. So when you guys share with me the podcast and you share, you say, like, this was a great podcast or I learned this, that helps me know so much what's resonating with you, and it helps me to create even better content.

So if you heard something that you're gonna implement into your business this year, please share it on your story and tag me so that I can say thank you and reshare it. You guys, thank you so much for being here, and I will see you next time.