I have found that when it comes to certain calendar events and celebrations, especially those which have become highly commercialised and steeped in consumerism, there is one of three things that you can choose to do about it, from a business point of view.
1.You can choose to ignore it.
2.You can mark the occasion.
3.You can capitalise on the occasion.
As you will forever hear me say because I say it a lot, for the most part, there is no right or wrong when it comes to how you run your wedding business. It’s about what’s right for you.
So with Valentine’s Day fast approaching, it’s down to you to decide, if you haven’t already, how you will be marking this occasion through your wedding business.
For me personally, I fall somewhere between the ‘ignoring it’ and the simple ‘marking of the occasion’ approach.
This means I may do a Valentine’s Day shout out on social media, but usually because of how I feel about Valentine’s Day (it’s way too commercialised and love doesn’t need to be celebrated on just one day!) I tend to post content that reflects this. This blog I wrote about it on Engaged and Ready gets shared a lot around this time of year!
Marking the occasion
But don’t follow me of course. I am the self-confessed Valentine’s Day equivalent to Eboneezer Scrooge and I like to revel in my Valentine’s bah humbugs! Which is why I personally don’t make a big deal out if it.
But if you don’t want to ignore the day completely, then of course there are lots of ways that you can mark the occasion on social media.
You can:
Share your favourite love poems or quotes.
Share Valentine’s Day trivia.
Share your favourite wedding vows.
Share you own Valentine’s Day story.
Share a video of your Valentine’s Day thoughts or wishes.
There are so many creative ways that you can mark the occasion via your social media output. So get those thinking caps on and show potential couples what type of celebrant you are and how you choose to mark these occasions. It all goes towards highlighting your personality and showing off your individual style.
Get promoting
Lastly, you may find yourself in the group who want to capitalise on Valentine’s Day, and use it to promote your services in a certain way, and of course there is nothing wrong with this either.
You may want to do one of the following:
Launch a special offer
For Valentine’s Day week you might want to entice potential clients with an offer. Maybe a free vow workbook or cheat sheet when they book, or a goodie bag of your personalised merchandise, or 1:1 vow guidance.
Notice how none of my examples encourage ‘money-off,’ offers, because I honestly don’t think you need to give money-off to make a sale. I’m an advocate for offering extra value that doesn’t cut into your price, because after all, reducing your fee doesn’t mean you reduce your services in any way – you’ll still be giving your clients your absolute best but at a reduced rate. So why put yourself in that position?
However, price cuts, discounts and money-off offers are a personal thing and if it sits well with you to offer a money-off promotion to mark a special occasion, then go for it.
Hold a competition
You may want to have some kind of Valentine’s Day competition which promotes what you do and has your name traveling around social media. Competitions are not necessarily about securing bookings but they can go a long way in getting your name out there and putting your services under the noses of new people and new audiences. So if you do run a competition make sure to share it wherever you can and get seen by as many people as possible.
And because the aim is to try and promote what you do, try to make people do a bit of work and get them engaged with your website or Facebook page. If you have a mailing list, make it so that they have to join your list to enter the competition (following all GDPR and other privacy rules of course!).
Or make them answer a question which will require them to visit your website or social media accounts. Ask them what outfit of yours they like. Or get them to tell you what their favourite photo is on your Insta page. Anything that prompts them to engage with you.
Do a giveaway
Similarly with a competition, a giveaway isn’t typically about scoring bookings, but it can be a great way to spread your posts around the internet, especially via Facebook and to get people seeing and learning more about what you do and offer.
The giveaway prize doesn’t have to be a physical product either, it could be a virtual addition to your services, or a downloadable product or resource. Nor does it have to be something which costs a lot or requires you to spend money at all.
Okey, dokey! There’s some ideas for you, however you decide to ‘do’ Valentine’s Day or not!