I cannot stress the importance of staying adaptable and adjusting your marketing strategies to cater to evolving audiences. In the creative space, what worked yesterday, won’t work tomorrow. In this post, I will give you tangible shifts to start making in your marketing today to know how to close a sale. In a market where bookings are getting harder to come by, these small shifts could make a big impact on your business.

Subtle Marketing Shifts to Book More Couples

In this episode, we talk about new strategies wedding professionals can implement to attract and book Gen Z couples. These are easy, actionable strategies you can try using today. As the market undergoes a significant shift from millennial to Gen Z clientele, it’s crucial to adapt your marketing approach to cater to their unique preferences and expectations.

Subtle Marketing Shifts to Book More Clients in the Wedding Industry

We went in-depth about Gen Z in the last couple of posts, so I’m not going to go into great detail here, but here are some bullet points to get you up-to-speed:

• Gen Zers have grown up with technology as an integral part of their lives, so they are highly connected and active on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
• They prioritize experiences over material possessions, valuing personalized and meaningful interactions.
• They strongly desire authenticity and seek out genuine, relatable brands and experiences.
• Gen Z is known for their diversity and inclusivity, embracing individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and identities.
• They are eco-conscious and have a deep desire for sustainable and eco-friendly options.
• Gen Z is highly visually-oriented and appreciates creative and visually appealing content.
• They have a shorter attention span and prefer bite-sized, easily consumable content like short videos and visually appealing graphics.
• Gen Z couples are more likely to rely on user-generated content and peer recommendations when making purchasing decisions.
• They appreciate personalized and interactive experiences that allow them to participate and engage with brands.

Knowing all this, let’s chat about some tangible things you can do today to understand how to close a sale.

How to Close a Sale

Incorporating Video in the Booking Process

I get it–video content is hard. It’s time-consuming & sometimes you just rather not. But there is a growing significance for video content in marketing. But this time, I am not talking about posting more videos to social media.

The first way to incorporate video is by using it in your DMs. We have potential clients reach out to us in our DMs & the first thing I like to type back is, “do you mind if I send you a video message?” I’ve only received yeses from people. Then I get to record a personal video answering their question and giving them more info.

This helps them to build that know, like, trust factor with you while standing out & leaving a lasting impression.

You can make a quick shift in your marketing and sales conversation.

Secondly, I want to highlight the idea of incorporating video into the booking process. Gen Z has a need for authenticity and personalization. What’s more personalized than a short Loom video walking them through their custom proposal?

When sending a proposal to a client, you should have your mad libs version of the email you send to all couples. When you can add in special notes & comments about the couple. Along with that, I challenge you to add a video. It doesn’t have to be lengthy; I would keep it less than 2 minutes.

The idea is for them to see the personalization, hear their names, and incorporate details you know based on the consult call. This will help you stand out when they get proposals from 5 other vendors.

I want to add a disclaimer to not only put all the important information in the video. Not everyone will watch it or wants to consume information that way. It’s just a nice cherry-on-top to your proposal.

Personalize the Experience

The next thing we need to focus on is personalizing the experience. Now, hear me out–when I say “personalization,” don’t think you must reinvent the wheel with everything you do.

In fact, a lot of personalization can be automated. Which I know sounds like an oxymoron. But when you have systems in place, you can give your client a good experience without any extra work.

For example, we have reminders automatically built into their project, so I can pop into their inbox and say “Hey, I am so excited your launch is getting closer! Fill out this questionnaire so we can stay on track.” They’re getting reminders, building excitement for the big day while feeling cared for. I did nothing. I had my systems person set it up once, and now it lives.

These are all the forms templates we have loaded into Dubsado that ease the strain on our team while providing our clients a great, steamlined experience.

Another thing you can do to incorporate video while making some extra cash is to offer personalized add-ons or upsells. Maybe you’re a florist, and on the consult, the client mentioned wanting disco balls, so in your proposal, you added an optional add-on for disco ball rentals. In the video, you talk about the add-on & showcase a few examples from past clients.

Optimize the Booking Process for Speed and Convenience

The last subtle marketing change I want to touch on is optimizing the booking process for speed and convenience.

A study by Salesforce found that 64% of Gen Z customers expect companies to respond to their inquiries within 10 minutes. I giggled a little when I heard this because we’re not mega-corporations with an entire sales team.

But I have had conversations with many fellow educators and been in groups where I’ve heard the lack of inquiry follow-up is atrocious.

If you take no other action from this post, then hear this: Streamline your inquiry and response process. This is easy to set up in CRM systems, like Dubsado.

I have an automatic response that goes out to all leads once they fill out our application. It lets them know we received their inquiry and will get back to them soon. Then guess what–we do!

I received two applications today and responded to them within an hour to book a consultation call. I don’t understand why I hear creatives cry about not getting a lot of leads and then can’t properly follow up when leads come through the door.

Our job is to remove as much friction as possible to get clients to book with us. The more time between inquiry and follow-up, the more friction. You want to hit them while they’re on that high.

This also goes for the proposal. I always work on proposals and send them over to the client within an hour of the consultation call because if I did my job correctly, then they’re ready to sign, and I want to give it to them while they’re burning hot.

If you’re a venue that offers on-site tours, then have a calendar that automatically goes out to them after they fill their inquiry form. The reason I say after they fill out the inquiry form is so that you have their information in your CRM, like Dubsado. Or if you use Zapier, you can connect it to Calendly or Acuity, so if they book a tour, it’ll zap the information over to your CRM.

Anyways, the case is that there are no excuses for not following up with inquiries.

How to Close a Sale

My goal was to make this post as tangible and applicable as possible. So here’s a list of the things you can do right now to close a sale:

• Incorporating video in your sales and booking process
• Personalize the Experience
• Optimize the Booking Process for Speed and Convenience

Now that you know how to close a sale, but what about understanding how and why the wedding industry is changing? I’ve got a post for you to read next to help you with that.