How many potential clients do you let slip through the net?

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a celebrant; you cannot deny the excitement you get in seeing a juicy enquiry land in your inbox or DMs. An enquiry that ticks all or most of your boxes and looks like it has the potential to become a definitive booking. You reply with equal excitement, you wait, and then nothing. No reply, no confirmation of receipt, no thanks for the info. Just nothing.

So, what do you do next?

A. Cry into your pillow?
B. Complain to anyone who will listen?
C. Do nothing?
D. Follow up your original email?

We’re hoping that 'D' is of course your answer!

Following up is KEY! It can be the difference between not getting a booking and getting a booking. It’s as simple as that!

So let’s cut straight to it and quash any silly thoughts about following up enquiries. Done in the right way chasing up enquiries doesn’t mean: 

• you appear desperate.
• you're harassing anyone.
• you have to feel icky.
• you're doing the hard sell.

Here are some tips for following-up in a nice non salesy way.

First of all, earmark for yourself what you consider to be an adequate response period. I.e., how long are you prepared to wait before reaching out again? A few days? A week?

When that time has passed, send a follow up email. In my follow up email I let them know that I’m just checking in to make sure that they got my email and to let them know that I’m available if they’ve got any more questions. I genuinely want to make sure that they got my email first and foremost, because sometimes this is not the case. I have lots of bookings where first emails were lost in cyberspace and the couple had no idea I’d replied until they received my second email. It can happen more often than you think! This is where following up really helps!

Another tip, if you use a contact form on your website, ask for a secondary contact, like a phone number, as sometimes following up by text or whatsapp can be better, especially if there’s a problem with email or the email address. I’ve also had couples write their email address incorrectly, which meant I could follow up with a text to let them know.

If you’re communicating via DMs, you can simply reach out to ask if they’ve had a chance to read your message and if they have any questions.

Following up is just a great way of giving a couple or family a little nudge and reminder that you’re still there and available to help. And more than often there is a good reason why a person hasn’t been in touch ranging from not getting your first email to simply forgetting or being really busy! There really is no harm in a gentle nudge.

What about the follow-up after the follow-up?

My personal rule of thumb is that if I don’t hear back from the person I’ve emailed/messaged after my follow-up then that’s it for me! I’ve followed up and they didn’t come back, so I don’t want to push it. For me, a third attempt starts to merge into desperation/harassment, however you might have your own limits that you’re comfortable with. I had a booking the other day where the couple contacted me four months after my follow-up email. It turns out they had a few problems with the venue that needed ironing out before they could do anything else. But I’m glad I followed up to keep myself in mind!

Whatever your plan and however you do it, don’t forget to follow up because you’ll be surprised how that one little nudge can actually be a good thing and help to bring the couple or family back on track and back to booking you!

And if you don’t hear back, don’t worry, perhaps they weren’t for you after all!