2020 Booking Season: What will it Look Like and How to Prepare
Booking season is always an important time of year for wedding business owners (since a significant amount of the next year’s business is booked in a few short months). But, with this year’s wedding season being damn near a total bust, the stakes are high for this fall. And, whether the pressure you feel is to make up for lost income or to ensure your business actually survives, one thing is for sure in this time of total uncertainty—you cannot start this booking season without a plan. So today, I wanted to do what I do best and light a little fire underneath you. Read on for some honest talk about what booking season might look like and advice about what you should think about doing to prepare for it.
Why this booking season will be different
There are a lot of things that feel familiar right now and a lot of things that don’t. And, even if you feel like your interactions with potential clients are the “same” this fall, I am going to go out on a limb and say they, in fact, will not be. Because, in a year where hundreds of thousands of people have died from COVID and unemployment spiked to nearly 15% in the blink of an eye, your potential clients (just like you) and tired, stressed, overwhelmed, and just trying to figure things out. And, the reality is that the way people are looking at weddings and celebrating getting married has changed this year.
From the number of potential vendors couples will research and vet to how long they will wait to reach out, I am placing my bet on both of those numbers going up—and you needing to shift how you look at marketing your business during booking season to this new customer journey. So, if this is the last line you read (and the only thing you walk away with):
You cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing your business this booking season!
How to change your approach
The good thing is, you have time to think things through. And, whether you are building off of an existing strategy or starting one from scratch, the first thing you need to define is what exactly you are marketing this booking season. Maybe couples are looking for the same types of services and packages you have been offering for years, but maybe they are in the market for something completely different. So, before you do anything else, ask yourself:
What dates on your calendar are already booked and which ones are in typical busy months and on sought-after dates?
If many of your popular wedding dates are already booked, do you want and/or need to focus on attracting clients who are looking to get married on non-peak days of the week or during the slow season?
Are the current regulations in your area restricting guest counts (or is there a possibility of that happening), and do you need to market your services for intimate weddings and elopements?
There are lots of other questions you should be asking yourself before developing a marketing plan for this booking season, but these are some of what should be top of mind for you. Because, each one of these requires you telling a different story and, remember, you won’t be able to sell with the same one.
The next thing you should do in order to make the most informed changes you can is to write new customer maps for your business. Focus them on ways your potential clients’ lives may have been affected this year and how that impacts their resources and frame of mind; things like:
Are they and/or their future spouse still employed?
Are they essential workers? If so, how does this impact their daily life?
If they work in an industry that is more stable and/or growing (like technology), might they be saving money right now and want to still spend the same amount on their wedding?
Do they have important family members that might not be able to attend a wedding? If so, how important is incorporating technology into their wedding day?
Lastly, spend time analyzing and evaluating the marketing channels you’ve used in the past. Which ones were more successful? Which ones should you look at trying based on your new customer maps and journey? The goal is to anticipate where your time, money, and effort is best spent, so don’t rush this piece before diving into documenting your strategy.
Mapping out your plan
Now that I have you fired up to create a new marketing strategy for this booking season, I wanted to leave you with the questions I would be asking you if we were working together:
Have you started asking for reviews from current clients? Specifically, ones that talk about how you have helped them reschedule their weddings?
How will you use your client reviews on your website and social media? (They are perhaps more important than ever in regards to establishing trust.)
Are there any new keywords you should be incorporating into your SEO strategy?
Do you need to update anything on your website?
If referrals have always been your best lead source, will that still be true this year?
Is setting up a series of sales emails something to consider this season?
When will you start ramping up your marketing efforts and what will you focus on each month during booking season?
You can (and will) have a successful booking season if you don’t leave things to chance. And, if you need resources to help get you started on something more than a blank page, check out our marketing strategy blueprint in the shop!
