Using Seasonality to Market Your Wedding Business
Whether you recognize them or not, we experience some pretty distinct business cycles in the wedding industry. Think about it—where you focus attention changes throughout the year, right? Sometimes you have plenty of time to work on your business. Other times you are stuck working in it. Sometimes you are focused on booking out your calendar. Other times you’re just trying to survive it. The ebbs and flows you experience are the cycles, and today, I wanted to talk about why they matter for your marketing—because they do. A lot. And here is what you need to know about using that seasonality to market your wedding business more intentionally than ever.
What are the seasons (business cycles) in the wedding industry?
Before we dive into talking about the unique seasons in the wedding industry, it’s important for me to note that they are not hard and fast dates. The seasons are common for all wedding pros but when you experience them is definitely influenced by where in the country you live. For example, while wedding pros in the North East typically have their slow season in the cold winter months, pros in parts of the South West may be slow in the peak summer months (when it's far too hot outside).
Okay, so what are the seasons in the wedding industry and when are they?
Slow season: One of the seasons that is dependent on where you live, slow season is simply the time of year when you have time to work on your business as opposed to being stuck working in it. For a lot of pros, this falls between November and January, but it can also be between June and August.
Engagement season: This is the time of the year when a lot of couples get engaged (hello, holiday engagements!). It starts in November and ends around Valentine’s Day.
Booking season: After all those couples get engaged, there is a rush to start planning their weddings and book their team of vendors. Some pros start to see a bump in inquiries as early as December, but the bulk of this sales season falls between January and May.
Wedding/busy season: Which brings us to wedding season! The time of the year you are working in your business and fully committed to your clients. Typically, this season falls between May and October, but it can be different if you live in a hot climate.
Step 1: Set different goals and expectations for each season
When it comes to using a seasonal approach to marketing your wedding business, the first thing you need to do is set different goals and expectations for each. This is because the amount of time you have and your ability to focus your energy on certain things changes throughout the year—and expecting to be able to do all the marketing things all year is a surefire way to feel like you’re failing or burnout trying. So the first thing I want you to do as you start to adjust your marketing plan is adjust your goals. And here are thoughts on what you should be focused on for each.
Slow season: This is a great time of the year to focus on building your brand (think: recognition) and reputation (think: expertise). The reason being it takes more thought, time, and longer form content to do this—which is a perfect fit for the slower months.
Wedding season: It might feel funny to have similar goals in seasons that are polar opposite in terms of pace, but wedding season is a great time to build your brand and reputation as well. They key here is to approach it differently, but more on that in a moment.
Engagement and booking season: When you think of these seasons, I want you to fully think of them as sales cycles in your business—for obvious reasons. But, despite the fact that you might recognize these seasons as the ones you are making money in, it’s likely you’ve never thought about what your actual marketing goal is here. That goal is to get people to fill out your inquiry form, so all signs need to point to your website.
Step 2: Adjust your marketing plan
Now that I’ve got the wheels spinning, let’s dig into the reason you’re here—how to market your business based on the business cycles and seasons we have in the wedding industry. But, if you don’t mind one more aside, it’s important to talk about why it’s a good idea for you to shift your thinking on all this. And the answer is pretty simple: This is how you get really intentional with your marketing. Taking a seasonal approach to your marketing almost ensures you are meeting your potential clients where they are—and with the right messaging for that moment. It's about making sure you’re being as smart as possible with how you spend your time marketing your services to them—educating them when they need to be educated, inspiring them when they need to be inspired, communicating your expertise and value as they start to think about “buying,” and selling them when the time is right.
So, now that the wheels are really spinning, let’s talk about the marketing tools you should be pulling out of your toolbox during each season.
Slow season
Reviews – Work on getting reviews from your past couples on your listings and Google My Business page
Blogging – Do your future self a favor and write enough blog posts to get you through the year. But don’t publish them all at once! Bank them and drip them out. My recommendation is to have 12-24 blog posts for the year
SEO – Do a website audit, make sure you have your SEO settings complete, do some keyword research, and anything else that has been on your website to-do list
Pinterest – If Pinterest is a part of your marketing plan, batch create pins you can schedule out during busy season to relieve some pressure
Submissions – Wedding blogs and publications plan everything really far in advance, so your slow season is the perfect time to submit your work for the summer, fall, and winter content
Gifting – If you’re not in the habit of reaching out to past clients with holiday cards, asking vendors to coffee or sending gifts to people who referred you business, add it to your list
Social media – It’s a staple year ‘round. Just make sure your content is in line with your goals
Engagement season
Blogging – Publish 1 or 2 new blogs a month. Extra credit if you’re publishing content that addresses the questions engaged couples are having
SEO – Make sure your blog posts are optimized and share links to them on Pinterest, your Google My Business page, and Facebook page
Pinterest – Keep consistent with your pinning, making sure to have a good mix of inspiration and educational content that links back to your website
Advertising – Advertising isn’t necessarily worth is year ‘round (minus listing in marketplaces), but social media or Google advertising worth considering when you know couples are actively searching for vendors
Social media – Don’t be afraid to pick up the pace a bit during engagement season. This can be a really effective top of funnel tactic, so think about hitting the gas pedal for a while
Booking season
Blogging – Keep up with publishing blog posts!
SEO – Keep up with sharing optimized blog posts and linking them where you can!
Pinterest – Keep up with pinning!
Advertising – Keep up with advertising!
Social media – Keep pushing on social!
Wedding season
And this is where you can take your foot off the marketing gas pedal and lean on the things you did earlier in the year. Seriously, it’s okay to slow down a bit (I didn’t say stop, I said slow down) so you can focus on executing your weddings.
Social media – Slow down your pace and focus your content on inspiration and behind the scenes
Phew—that ended up being a lot longer than I expected! But I hope your wheels are really spinning and you’re excited to take a seasonal approach to marketing your wedding business. And, if you need a little help planning things out, my marketing strategy deck can help you out! Check it out in my shop and then pair it with the marketing desk pad to keep yourself on track.
