EP|3 How To Create More Revenue With Your Existing Couples
Let’s talk about something that very rarely gets addressed in the business world - what to do when you can’t have “repeat” customers? If you listen to a lot of business advice, like I do, you hear over and over that it is more expensive to get a new client than it is to retain existing clients. Well, that doesn’t translate well in the wedding world. We are in the business of one time only customers!
So as business owners it is imperative that we are paying attention to the customers we already have. Is it actually possible to create more revenue with your existing couples? The answer is Yes, and I am going to share with you 3 strategies that you can increase your revenue – without having to book more weddings.
A wedding is a one-moment-in-time celebration and there is not much to be done about that.
So it is important to make the most out of those hard won clients – it is true that getting new clients costs more money, so wedding pros need to be smart about the clients they have and the opportunities that they can create around them – because chances are; after the big day is over they are not going to asking for your wedding services again any time soon. But, just because they may not be approaching you for another wedding day, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be serving these couples in another capacity.
The first strategy I am going to share with you today is all about creating relationships with your existing couples that extend past the wedding day.
Weddings are events and most couples have many events in their lifetime, so if they already know they can trust you as a vendor for one type of event - chances are that you would be an easy hire for another event. Just because you love to do weddings and that is your main focus, doesn’t mean that you can’t do other types of events and, in fact, it is a really smart long-term business move - especially if you live somewhere that has a clear wedding season and you don’t have weddings year round.
Most types of businesses in the wedding industry can interest their couples in additional services; photographers can do family, maternity and newborn shoots, makeup artists can get you ready for any special occasion, caterers can service other parties, DJ’s & Bands can play at any type of event, planners can plan other types of celebrations, calligraphers can design pieces for your home, and rental companies can provide rentals for other celebrations or even things like home staging.
If you have a market with local couples, then it is worth investigating how you could serve your couples again and how to build that into your business model. Get creative and think about what services you can provide for your existing couples after they get married. Make sure this is not an after-thought, you are going to want to have these services outlined and showcased on your website or maybe you even create a new website for alternate events. But, don’t be afraid to let your couples know after their wedding day that you would love to continue your relationship with them and make sure they are taken care of for their other life events as well.
If you don’t have a market that is local; where you primarily serve destination weddings or if you are an officiant - most likely that strategy is not the best fit for you, so what do you do?
The second strategy to creating more revenue from existing clients is to - Bundle your services together.
If you do something complimentary like photography and videography; rental equipment and lighting; planning and floral; catering and planning or even stationery and calligraphy – bundle your services together in a way that is enticing to your couples and illustrates to them how much easier it would be to do everything with your company. If you don’t already do this - you might want to think about this as a way to expand into your existing market by offering a service you know your couple needs.
I find that while a lot of vendors offer multiple services, they aren’t actually focusing on getting the majority of their couples to book all of their services. Many vendors simply list the things that they offer on their websites, but they aren’t spelling out what the BENEFITS are to booking them for more than one service. You really need to make an effort to educate and sell your couples on why there is a benefit to using you for multiple services and of course - have a clear value proposition for that.
Do they get a discount on your services if they book you for both? This is certainly the most straightforward and easy way to get a couple to book you for more than one service. Bundle what you do together and make sure you are making this value very clear not only on your website, but in all your sales materials as well. Spell out what they get, why it is a great deal why they need it - and make it irresistible. Finding new couples to book is harder than getting couples who are already booking your services to add on another service as well. This is worth your time and over time is going to increase your revenue without you having to get any new clients.
The third strategy is one that can apply to any type of wedding vendor no matter what market they are serving - and that is to have upgrade options;
Upgrade options work by getting your couples to book your core service and then providing them with the option to add on things they may want as well, is a great way to get additional revenue from your existing clients - and the easiest. Now, I am not a fan of having a core service offering that wouldn’t work on it’s own because i believe that is misleading. I think the most successful way to use the upgrade strategy, is to find the balance between not including absolutely everything in your core offering, but also not having such a huge list of add on’s that couples feeling like you are nickel and dime-ing them for what they actually need.
The most successful balance I have found is providing a service that can stand alone, but choosing key add-on’s as upgrades You want upgrade items that are desirable, but not necessary.
Whatever market you serve; whether that is the budget, mid-market or high-end weddings there are ways that you can provide upgrade options whether your couples are looking for the ultimate luxury or true simplicity.
Some examples for this would be; makeup artist adding lash services or tanning as upgrade options or a planner adding RSVP services or a rental company having a lounge set upgrade option to a rental order or a photographer offering an engagement session or additional hours - there are so many services that you can strategically choose to have as upgrade options. And better yet, there are so many ways that you can get really creative with your upgrades as well and think outside the more traditional options.
You may already have a few upgrade options that you provide, but this is a great time to really understand if these are bringing in the additional revenue that you want from your couples. If not, you may want to re-think some of what you are offering and how it relates to your main service - or you may be ready to create some upgrade options that are a bit more robust or even out of the box.
Think about what extras you always get asked about that your couples want and that you can add as an upgrade or that you can strategically pull out of an existing package or service. But always keep in mind that you still want your stand alone offering to include enough to be exciting and competitive to sell on its own. You don’t want to end up sacrificing any potential bookings because
And finally, you want to make sure that your pricing is not going to be so high for your upgrades that it makes them undesirable, the point is to make something that is so easy and enticing for your couples to add on that they choose to add on something with you that they weren’t originally planning to do.
Now you have three strategies you can use to create more revenue with existing couples; expanding outside of weddings, bundling your services and upgrade options. Which of these are you going to implement in your business? Or which are you already having success with? I would love to know!
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