What is content marketing and how can it change your wedding business (for the better)? Let me just remind you: I actually don’t want you adding another thing to you “to do” list. As a wedding pro, you likely do enough already and there is a good chance you are under-compensated for it. Been there, my friend.
In case you are new around here, I am Kara Duncan and I offer done for you marketing services for fellow wedding professionals. If your marketing is not bringing you the ROI you desire, I would love to chat. In the meantime, I drop a few stats & break down the question “what is content marketing” below! I truly hope that it inspires you.
Table of Contents
Prefer to skim? According to Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.“. Translated: Content marketing does not mean you should create content just for the sake of content.
The goal is to create content that will translate into dollars. Content marketing for wedding pros can mean Instagram posts, Blogging, an Email list/Freebie, and much more!
Content Marketing Statistics
Ohhh yeah, I love a good piece of data to back me up. So I have collected a few to kind of show you that a solid content marketing strategy just might be what you need to get you where you want to go. I create content marketing strategies every quarter for my done for you content marketing services because I truly believe in using data to back up my plan.
Three months gives you enough momentum to see if what you have started is working, but planning for 6-12 months doesn’t allow you to adjust with new trends. And with content marketing, we want to be creating what people are searching for now.
According to Hubspot’s Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2019, content marketing gets 3x the leads of paid search advertising. In the same study, they also claimed the average customer consumed 3-5 pieces of content before reaching out to a sales rep.
I think we can all agree that with millennial brides, they read as much as they can before contacting us. I don’t have an official stat here, but I would say the 3-5 pieces of content would be on the LOW end for our industry! (If at this point you are thinking about outsourcing your blog – do yourself a favor and read this post).
Creating a Content Marketing Strategy
I think we can all agree that the most important part of any marketing technique is the strategy behind it. Remember when you were posting your lunch on Instagram? It’s okay, now you know better. But here is a scary statistic from SEMrush, 77% of survey respondents said that their company had a content marketing strategy BUT only 9% of those professionals evaluated their strategy as excellent & 38% ranked it as only average.
I talk more about this with my clients, but if you are only ranking your strategy as average, it is likely that you are not using data to create your strategy. You need to NERD out on this stuff (or hire someone to nerd out for you – oh hi!).
Next, let’s talk about what you hope to gain from creating content. Creating content for the sake of creating content is a waste of your time. In the same SEMrush study, it reported that 76% of businesses considered an increase in traffic the KPI (key performance indicator) they watch to measure the success of their marketing.
Organic traffic IS important, but getting more leads is what personally gets me out of bed in the morning. If you are going to outsource your marketing, make sure you are clear on what you define as success.
Content Marketing Examples for Wedding Businesses
Below are just a few examples of what content marketing can look like in your business!
- Instagram Posts/Social Media – YUP! I thought I would start with one I think most of you are doing really well already. If you are creating free content to attract qualified leads, this counts. SO many wedding industry professionals I follow on the gram, absolutely POUR into their stories and provide such value to their audience.
- Blogging – Okay, I am going to be honest. Maybe I can get behind saying most of you are doing this already. But, I can’t say most of you are doing it well. I am calling BS to the industry experts who are saying “even once a month is enough”. But more than that, most of you haven’t blogged since 2017. If this is you, you are reallllly doing a disservice as clients who hit your website will wonder if you are even still in business.
- Any website content. Content marketing is not just your blog. If your about page is bringing all the brides to the yard, well done. We can also consider publications that feature and share your work, as well!
- Printed material: If you have brochures or magazines you send out to attract prospective couples (or bring to bridal shows) – this falls under content marketing.
- Email Marketing – freebies, automated welcome sequences, or just regularly scheduled email content. I talk more about this below for wedding pros.
Email Marketing for Wedding Businesses
We don’t talk about this enough in the wedding industry. A lot of us either don’t use email marketing, or we created a freebie and welcome series a few years ago. Yeah…. better go back and make sure the tech is still working. Email marketing is always at the bottom of the list. Because the wedding industry is so cyclical (ie. most ideal clients are not looking for your service for over a few months), it might not be the best investment of your time.
But let’s look at the stats: According to Disruptive Advertising, women pay more attention to email than men do. In the same article, they add that consumers spend 138% more when marketed to through email compared to those who don’t receive marketed emails from the company. If increasing your average spend per customer is a top priority for 2022/2023, a solid opt-in and welcome sequence is worth considering. Even if you aren’t planning on emailing them on the regular.
Done for You Marketing Services
When you hear “done for you” do you breathe a sigh of relief? I hope so, because that’s why I chose to offer these services instead of creating a course. You definitely don’t need to buy another course and get better at this. Chances are, if you are reading this, you do not do this as a hobby.
As a fellow business owner, let me tell you, it is costing you more than you think to put off hiring a professional to do this for you. Contact me here if you are interested in one of my packaged services OR let’s chat about a custom package that would be *just right* for your business.
