10 Free Ways to Market Yourself and Your Wedding Business

Here at WeddingIQ we've talked at length about determining which wedding shows to attend, weighing the options when it comes to advertising, and building your brand. We’ve also stressed the importance of high quality collaterals and hiring creatives and coaches for support, as well as joining professional groups within your industry. All these suggestions require an investment of not only your time but also a decent percentage of your business income. Purchasing expensive letterpress business cards or joining exclusive (and pricey) networking groups may help establish your brand, but don’t ignore all the free ways you can market yourself and your business. You can implement the items on this list today with nothing more than a little time and effort.  

Hacks to Make Your Marketing Easier

As wedding business owners, most of us don't (yet) have the luxury of outsourcing all our marketing to a pro, or retaining a marketing person on our team. We have to keep up with the seemingly endless task of marketing our services ourselves, and it can quickly become overwhelming. (Funny how good marketing can bring in more clients, and then serving those clients leaves you so little time for more good marketing!)

Fortunately, there are some tips and hacks you can use to make the job of marketing your wedding business easier. Most of them involve keeping yourself organized (in terms of time and materials) and ensuring your marketing efforts are tailored toward your specific clientele and your business goals.

Choosing the Right Images for Your Marketing

We’ve written before about the importance of having a great headshot in our post "Five Tips for Capturing the Perfect Headshot for Your Business and Your Brand." We’ve also discussed the right way to go about acquiring images from photographers in "Just Gimme the Photos." Imagery is everywhere and consumers expect to see it when shopping for your services and products. However, not all images are created equal, and some businesses miss the mark when choosing imagery to represent their brand.  So what kinds of images should you be using? What are clients looking for? Here is some instruction on what’s useful and what’s not when it comes to photography for marketing your business.

Are Your Branding & Marketing Authentic to You?

Anyone who knows me well knows that authenticity is one of my core values - so much so, in fact, that I developed an entire business venture to support entrepreneurs in integrating their authentic selves into their work. It drives me crazy to see good people struggling to succeed in businesses that don't feel right to them, and experiencing the burnout that comes from working harder and harder for clients with whom they just don't connect.

I've said it before: there is room in the wedding industry for every type of person to operate a business, because every type of person is out there, getting married and looking for vendors. There are a sea of clients out there who perfectly complement your personality, who like what you like, and who are dying to do business with someone exactly like you. Those competitors of yours who drive you crazy, who strike you as fake or annoying or whose pricing seems not to align with their talent? There are people out there who are really hoping those aren't their only options for your service category.

Letting Go...of Your Old Marketing Materials

I  have stacks of CD cases, bags of pens, boxes of business cards, and give aways with expired specials. When you’ve been in business for ten years or more its inevitable that you will begin to collect old marketing materials. Phone numbers change, images need to be updated and perhaps you’ve gone through a re-brand or two. Keeping your collateral current is a never ending task so you have to be smart when deciding where to spend your money. I’m going to share with you some tips on how to get the most bang for your buck as well as the importance of letting go of those old pieces that no longer serve your business.