How To Book Your First Wedding Planning Client
Booking your first wedding planning client is both exciting and challenging. It requires strategic planning, networking, and showcasing your expertise in the industry.
As a wedding planner turned business coach, I understand all the pitfalls and trials of trying to book that first client—I’ve been there!
Thankfully I made it out of the rut, and I know you can too. In this blog post, we’ll explore three essential steps that will help you secure your first clients. From there, you’ll lay a solid foundation for the future of your wedding planning career!
3 Tips for Booking Your First Wedding Planning Client:
Know Your Ideal Client
The first step is knowing your ideal client and speaking solely to them. Don’t waste time trying to be everything to everyone! When I first started in the industry, my ideal client was anyone in my area code willing to pay me to plan their wedding. (Sounds familiar, right?!)
I was fortunate to connect with clients whose style aligned with mine because I was very design-oriented—and I’m guessing you are too if you’ve decided to get into this business! The truth is that being everything to everyone is exhausting and frustrating, especially for a creative. You won’t be excited about the work you’re putting out, and it will show.
Once I focused on niching down to attract my ideal clients and repel others, I saw my bookings improve tenfold. I knew who I wanted to connect with and focus my energy on, so I started creating content with them in mind. It was a game-changer for my marketing efforts! I finally knew who I was marketing to and could create content to attract their attention and cater to their needs.
Network, Network, Network
Once you have a handle on your ideal client community, you’ll better understand which venues and other wedding vendors will also be on their radar. Start networking with them online! Follow them on social media, engage with their content, and respond to their stories with positive feedback. Then, reach out via email to introduce yourself and receive more information about the vendor or book a site visit. The magic phrase I always use when requesting their up-to-date packages and pricing is, “so I can make the most suitable referrals in the future.”
Remember: what’s top of mind is on the tip of the lips. By getting to know these other businesses and their offerings AHEAD of referring a client to them, you’re more likely to receive referrals back. It’s a win-win for everyone! If your network has already started to grow, use my free rolodex template tool to list vendor info each time you introduce yourself to someone new or circle back for up-to-date pricing. That way, you can make faster client referrals without doing last-minute research every time!
FREE TEMPLATES
KJ’s Venue and Vendor Rolodex Spreadsheets
Get the exact spreadsheets I've used for years to save all my venue and vendor details, and make quick and accurate referrals for my wedding planning clients. If you’re a wedding vendor or photographer, use them simply to save your preferred vendor list.
Showcase Your Expertise
When you don’t have many (or any) photos or reviews to show a potential client, how will you demonstrate that you know what you’re doing? The answer is through your marketing content—specifically, educational and inspirational content on Instagram and blog posts. I used mood boards and style roundups to show my style and design chops to potential clients when I didn’t have anything else in my portfolio. In also showed them informative posts I’d made about different facets of wedding planning. Doing this showed them I hadn’t just started a business from scratch. I knew the questions my clients were asking and the problems they were dealing with regularly, and I had solutions.
While we often think of Instagram as just being images, you can easily make graphic posts that are on brand in Canva! Carousels are one of the best ways to create engaging posts that educate and serve your audience. It gives you a pretty cover image, but detailed and informative information on the slides.
Reach Your Ideal Wedding Planning Client:
Are you still trying to define your ideal wedding planning client so you can niche down your marketing efforts and grow your business? I created my Ideal Client Course just for you!
In this course, you’ll learn how to define your ideal client and reach them effectively so you can change the trajectory of your business for good. Register today!
KJ STUDY HALL
My course, “Book Your Best” teaches you exactly how to define and reach your ideal wedding clients, with all the strategy I’ve been teaching since 2014.
Define them, their wedding, and then revamp your business with this new clearer target in mind. This is the exact method that has worked for wedding planners, photographers, bakers, makeup artists, wedding designers and more!
