Did you know that you could be losing business to other wedding vendors for no other reason than people couldn’t find you? It’s true. And that’s not all. There are five common reasons you may be losing business to other vendors. The good news is that when you know what those reasons are, you can get back on track quickly.
We’ve got you covered with tips on how to stop losing business — and start getting clients to find you!
FIVE COMMON REASONS WEDDING VENDORS LOSE BUSINESS
Before you start thinking it’s bad to find out that you may be losing business, think about this. You’re doing good work that your ideal clients will love. All this means is that there may be a few tweaks to help you find those ideal clients even better.
Keep that perspective as we jump into these five common reasons and see what might be stopping you from even more growth in your wedding business.
1. You’re Difficult to Find
It may seem obvious, but if you’re not in front of your ideal audience, it may be hard for them to find you. Not every couple is searching for your business name specifically, and if they are searching for local wedding pros you may not be coming up easily.
Here are a few tips for being more findable —
- Make sure Google can crawl your website. This may sound basic to some and highly technical to others, but if Google can’t “crawl” your website, it can’t recommend your content to searchers. (Here is a resource if you need more information or feel free to reach out to our sister company, Brandlink Media for a free consultation to determine if your pages are crawlable.)
- Make sure your website has good SEO content. This means that you use good keywords that are being searched by couples looking for people who do what you do.
- Make sure you have your Google My Business set up. (This is an absolute MUST.) Here is a helpful guide to optimizing your FREE Google My Business listing.
- Make sure your social media profiles are set up correctly and include what you do as well as where you’re located. Couples often search social by location, so you want to include your location when you post or in any hashtags you use as well.
- Make sure your website and your social accounts have good content that engaged couples would be looking for. If you’re a florist, a blog post on 10 Trending Altar Designs or Floral Ideas for Fall Weddings is going to be more valuable than talking about yourself only. For any wedding vendor, think of answering common FAQs in your blogs. Even if you don’t want to write a lot, just do a handful of evergreen blogs and you’ll still be attracting readers off that content years from now.
2. Your website or process is confusing or slow.
Have you recently accessed your website as a potential customer? As business owners, sometimes it’s easy to set and forget the technical process that doesn’t relate to your “work” — but it’s important to make sure you regularly test your website.
Why? Did you know that nearly 50% of web visitors expect a website or its pages to load within 2 seconds? And if it doesn’t an even higher percentage of people abandon it. That means you could be losing business even though you have a beautiful website with amazing content that Google loves sharing with people and no one is seeing it.
Another reason it’s important to improve page loading time is that if Google notices that people aren’t sticking around, eventually Google won’t pull your website up as often.
Here are few things you need to test regularly —
- Visit your website regularly. See how long it takes to load as well as what it looks like. Sometimes things load weirdly and you need to know if that’s causing part of the problem because it looks unprofessional.
- Check the individual pages or use Google Analytics to see what your page load time is.
- Test all your submission forms and email sign-ups. Follow it all the way to completion. See what the process looks like and see what the confirmation emails look like.
Do all this on the desktop and mobile view. It’s also helpful to Google yourself (using an Incognito window so the results aren’t skewed) to make sure your meta description and other items show up correctly.
3. You’re unclear about what you do — and what makes you unique.
There is a chance you’ve fallen pretty to what’s known as the curse of knowledge.
Go back over your website with this guide in mind —
- Do you clearly explain what you do and what services you provide and what packages you offer? It may sound odd, but we’ve seen wedding pros who missed putting their address or where to contact them on their website.
- Do you get right to the point on your website homepage? Many businesses try to follow a script they think people want, but ultimately, people coming to your website want to know what you can do for them, a little bit about you who are, and how they get can answers to their questions. Does your homepage reflect that priority?
- Do you explain why people should choose you? Before you get that confused with telling them to choose you, let us explain. Do you paint a picture of what you will do for them and how they will feel or what that will look like? Does your website copy help visitors determine if they would be a good fit with you? That’s what explaining why they should choose you means. Now, not everyone should choose you because there are different personalities and budgets that mesh better. The goal here is to make sure you’re clear and use real words — not sure a script that sounds good such as promising a dream wedding and no problems. The truth is, you can’t promise their won’t be bad days or bumps in the road, but you can promise to deliver the type of work ethic and style that is uniquely you. Find out what that is and tell them about it on your website.
Vendors that can be clear in their communication avoid losing business.
4. Your response is too slow.
Did you know that 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase due to poor customer service according to Glance.
People expect a response to inquiries nearly immediately and that can feel daunting for a small business owner who is already stretched for time. But there are ways to help increase your response time without working non-stop.
Ways to avoid losing business from slow responses —
- Be clear about when they can expect to hear from you. (And offer as much immediate help as possible via information on your website and submission forms.)
- Automate responses as much as possible. What does this look like? Let’s say someone submits a question via a form on your website. Have the confirmation message give them helpful links or some beneficial action to take in the meantime. This can come through an automated email response as well. This provides immediate help and gives them a sense of connection.
- Create FAQs and automated messaging on social media.
- Be consistent in your responses. Ultimately, there is no replacement for clear communication and expectation. If you say you are going to get back with them, do your best to do that.
5. You don’t have any/enough reviews.
You’ve heard that word-of-mouth advertising is worth its weight in gold. Well, online reviews are 21st-century word-of-mouth advertising.
According to a study by Qualtrics, 97% of people read reviews of local businesses before making a purchasing decision, and 90% of those people said positive reviews directly influenced their purchase or hiring decisions.
Steps to take to get more reviews —
- Be more direct about asking delighted customers for a review.
- Create email automations that promopt current or past customers to give you a review — complete with your Google listing where they can leave their review.
- When you get a glowing email or comment on social, reach out and ask them to leave their feedback on your Google review section.
- If you don’t have a lot of former clients, ask co-workers, fellow vendors who have worked with you, etc. to leave a review of their experience working with you.
That’s a great place to start. Here are more ideas to get you more glowing reviews.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
Now that you know the most common reasons you may be losing business to other wedding vendors, we’ve got some helpful resources to help you take the next step.
- Want to learn more about Google My Business or SEO? We have an easy-to-understand guide that will help you!
- Want to talk to a professional who can help answer your questions about SEO, website speed, and writing copy or blogs — or anything related to helping you get in front of your ideal audience? Contact Brandlink Media for a free consultation and get answers. They are team of marketing, design, and website geniuses that specialize in helping wedding pros. (Check out how they’ve helped these wedding pros grow their business.)
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Written by Corrie McGee
