by Alan Dodson
Wedding DJs, just like other mobiles, must constantly attract new clients to keep working. Selling to past clients is the easiest and least expensive way to increase your business; however, with wedding clients, they will likely only hire you once - for their reception.
So, the reality of marketing to brides and grooms is that you must constantly create a new flow of prospects to keep your sales pipeline full.
The great thing for us about weddings, is that people will still have them and need entertainment for their receptions regardless of the economy. Although spending may be slightly reduced during economic downturns, an event that a young girl has dreamed about all of her life is so important to her, that she is generally more concerned with fulfilling her dreams than the cost of the event.
I’ve noticed a current trend where couples are waiting until much closer to their wedding date to book the necessary services. They are shortening the buying cycle and waiting until the last moment to make a decision.
What this means to you as a wedding professional, is that you must sharpen your marketing, advertising and sales skills to create opportunities to gain more prospects. Instead of singing the “DJ Blues” about how bad things are in your area, a more positive frame-of-mind would be to recognize that there are mobile entertainment companies that are thriving in the current marketplace and many of them are charging two to three (or more) times the average fee in their region.
The “magic” formula is a combination of superb talent, excellent customer service, a highly-targeted and well-executed marketing and advertising plan, and stellar sales closing abilities. Your goal should be to create a quality brand (XYZ Entertainment), and to get that brand name into your prospects’ “top of mind awareness.” Backing-off on your advertising and marketing efforts in a sluggish economy is NOT the way to increase profits!
How can anyone buy from you if they don’t know who you are or what you have to offer? If you are truly a “wedding specialist,” then you are not a commodity and all of your marketing efforts should reflect this fact and deflect the “how much do you charge” mentality. This includes your company’s website, business cards, postcards, brochure, and online and print advertising.
Over 80% of today’s couples start their wedding planning with a Google or Yahoo web search, most have a Facebook profile. They are tech savvy, use Twitter and text messages to communicate, and many are smart phone users. Bearing this in mind, your ongoing marketing efforts and business communication tools need to address the prospects and clients of 2010.
Google your name and your DJ service’s name. Also do a search for Atlanta Wedding DJ or whatever area you are from. Take a close look at what is revealed in your searches because only then will you know what they prospective customer is seeing when they perform the same search.
What does the internet say about you and your business?
