We hear all the time as wedding industry entrepreneurs that we need to use social media to our advantage to grow our businesses. But what does this mean, and how exactly does social media help us? After all, likes and comments are nice but they don’t guarantee clients.

However, what most business owners don’t realize is that there’s more to social media than sponsorships, followers, likes, and comments. There are more subtle ways you can use social media to secure your ideal clients and grow your business. 

Today, I’m walking you through these benefits so you can optimize your time online and get a return on your time investment.

Couples use social media as research now more than ever

Around 75% of couples use social media to research their vendors (and the same percentage follow wedding vendors!), and almost 90% of couples plan their wedding online, according to a Wedding Wire report. We all know social media isn’t going away anytime soon, and we can only expect these stats to rise in our rapidly advancing, technologically driven world. So this is all the more reason to show up on social media sooner rather than later!

Now, I want you to pay attention closely to these statistics, though — they have one common denominator, and that’s education. Couples are looking for a professional who can guide them through the wedding planning process, who can solve their problems, and who can help them create their dream wedding.

This is where social media becomes incredibly useful because you can educate engaged couples who are doing online research in real-time (more about this in the second point) about the industry and explain how you can be their guide and problem solver. Another bonus is that you have the chance to show your face and personality, which further creates rapport with your ideal clients so they feel they can trust your expertise.

Instagram is real time

When I mention Instagram to a creative or wedding entrepreneur that Instagram is a useful platform to use for their marketing strategy I’m usually met with a bit of resistance. And I can see why! Having to stay consistent on Instagram can be tricky when you have so many other tasks on your to-do list. But friends, I think it’s time we flip the switch on our mentality about Instagram.

Instead of thinking of Instagram as a thing you have to keep up to stay relevant in the industry, I challenge you to look at it more as an opportunity. Instagram gives you the opportunity to update your audience about all the exciting changes in your business, get them involved with decisions (and perhaps even gain some insight about your market as a result), and engage with interested couples directly on the platform.

Think about the days where we only had magazines and newspapers to advertise our businesses — we had to write the copy and choose the photos that could be in circulation for 6 months with no way of updating them, wait around and hope that couples were seeing our ads, and there was no way to make these ads interactive. But the reality is, businesses are dynamic and engaging. So that’s why Instagram is great for growing your wedding planning business because your audience will always interact with the most accurate version of your brand.

Doesn’t that sound much more stimulating? If you’re now thinking about how to come up with content ideas in the first place, check out this podcast episode where I talk about how to simplify your strategy and content creation process.

Social media narrows your sales funnel

Before we dive into this aspect of why social media is crucial for growing your wedding planning business, listen to my conversation with marketing guru, Alex Devine, by clicking here. Alex has been working in marketing and data analysis for over a decade now, and she’s learned how to transform what we see as overwhelming numbers and analytics into a beautiful customer story that can help you unlock your business’s true potential. This includes how to narrow your sales funnel on social media.

Done listening? Great! Now you should have a deeper understanding about how to create a customer journey, which can help you decide how you want to narrow your sales funnel. While this process will look different for every business, there’s one clear benefit for focusing on this aspect of your social media: you’ll be able to draw new followers in, lead them to your website (or have them refer your page to others), and transform these leads into real clients.

Hopefully you feel motivated to grow your wedding planning business on social media now!

I hope these reasons give you some encouragement and motivation to keep up your social media game or give you the confidence to create social media profiles for your wedding planning business!

If you’re ready for the next step and learn how to use social media to book your ideal clients and sell your services, then you’ll want to tune in for my webinar, Selling Through Social, for the Wedding Summit Series Design Edition that’s launching in just a few days (August 2 – August 6). Grab your FREE ticket by clicking here. Hope to see you there!