How to Make Your Featured Wedding Blog Successful
We’ve all seen them. They’re the fast-moving blogs that are dominating digital wedding industry platforms and inspiration boards: featured weddings.
Some prefer to call them featured weddings.Whatever name suits you, there’s no denying that these blogs are becoming more popular by the day. Couples from all walks of life (and budgets) are looking to featured wedding blogs for inspiration.
But what does that mean for you as a professional in the wedding industry?
Big things, my friend. Big. Things.
Why are Featured Wedding Posts Great for Marketing Your Business?
Marketing in an industry that ebbs and flows as trends change means you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Couples are constantly showing you what they like and what they don’t like. Those trends make it super easy to create content for your website, blog, or social media platforms. Showcasing real weddings on your blog are super beneficial in two ways.
Blogging Featured Weddings is Great for Traffic
It isn’t difficult to understand why this type of content is being eaten up by brides and grooms all over the world. When I was younger, I had fun playing around with dream boards for my future wedding. I’d spend hours looking at dresses, flower arrangements, and color schemes.
Then I got engaged.
I hit this wall of panic when I realized that planning a wedding may not be as glamorous as I’d always imagined it would be. First there was the complete lack of control I was feeling as everyone I knew began giving their opinions about what I should do for my big day. Then came the big dollar signs on every brochure and website I looked at. My dream wedding bubble had completely popped.
So what did I do? What so many other couples turn to daily while in the midst of planning their own weddings.
Looking at other couples’ plans for inspiration, reassurance, and a little relief.
Couples aren’t looking at featured wedding blogs for unrealistic expectations or to copy each detail down to the last thread in the napkins. They want reassurance that what they’re doing is right and worth it. They’re looking at this content because it’s real (duh).
Because if someone else can plan the most beautiful wedding I’ve ever seen, why can’t I? Right?
And it’s at this point where you can make a great impression (and a lot of money). Because it’s at this point when many couples realize they can’t execute an epic celebration alone.
They need your help. And look at that! You’re suited up and ready to go get ‘em.
How about you have them come right to you instead? Sounds pretty sweet right?
You’re capable of bringing in new clients and making more money without doing any extra client work. How?
You have a kick-ass blog that inspires couples to not only go for their dream wedding, but to hire you to help them.
Here’s how it works. Along with a little search engine optimization (SEO) and strategic wording, your blog can bring clients right to your virtual front door.
The more content and SEO you have on your website, the more likely clients are to find you. So when they’re looking for inspiration from local weddings, you can be right at the top of their results page.
Couples are looking for real, honest inspiration. Give them the emotional boost they need while also boosting your business. Which brings us to the next big advantage of having a featured wedding blog.
2. Marketing Real Weddings Creates an Emotional Response
Human beings are emotional (occasionally irrational) creatures. As Forbes so aptly puts it, we feel first and think second [1].
Getting married is definitely one of those life moments that gives us all the feels. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding that I didn’t both laugh and cry at.
Love is messy, but the feeling you get when you can celebrate it is oh, so worth it. That’s one of the main reasons you’re in this business anyway, right? To give couples the best environment to celebrate the crazy ups and downs of love. To create those mushy moments when you have to try (and ultimately fail, if you’re a baller like me) to hold back tears.
You can give couples those feelings before they even plan their big day.
Featured Wedding blogs are the perfect place to make couples experience all the emotions of their wedding day. You have the chance to get them excited, to make them giddy and nervous and hold back their happy tears.
Plus, you’re not just helping them see the possibilities, you’re showing them that you can make those possibilities a reality. If you can create an emotional response from your audience, they are more likely to hire you.
Because they want to feel like the people in the pictures. And you’re going to show them how they can get there with your help.
Okay, I’m convinced this is a good idea for my business. Now how do I do it?
Featured wedding posts are just one of the many trends that you can jump on and take advantage of to boost your business. But there are a few things to consider before you’re tempted to browse a few featured wedding posts and jump in head first.
A big downside to following trends is a lack of originality. You need to find a balance between following the crowd and standing out if you want your content to deliver results.
Here’s the bottom line. When couples are looking for inspiration for a wedding, they’re either going to turn to you or someone else. Which means either you’re getting the traffic then your competitors are.
Here’s what you need to know to stand out.
Your Featured Weddings Blog Should Couples Say ‘I Do!’
Let’s start with the things you need to do to bring your blog up to its potential. You’ll wow your audience so quickly they’ll be knocking down your door to hire you.
Vary your content
Let’s be real with each other here for a second: you’re not Vogue. And that’s okay, because the work you do is for the everyday person. The person who doesn’t have all the money in the world to spend or 500 people to invite to their big day. You curate your services to fit your couples’ needs.
When posting about Featured Weddings, you want to make sure your content is dreamy but obtainable. One client might want a six-figure celebration with live animals and a live orchestra. Another might want an intimate vow renewal ceremony with 50 of their closest friends and family. Have your ideal client in mind and make sure you feature a range of weddings that are both inspirational and realistic for that client.
Budget is not the only thing to make sure you’re varying with your Featured Wedding blogs. It’s important to showcase diverse couples of all backgrounds. This shows potential clients you’re capable of creating a unique experience that is exactly what they’re looking for. It also lets them know you’re an inclusive business that celebrates love in all of its beautiful and diverse forms.
Here are a few other factors to consider when diversifying your content:
Race
Religion
Gender
Location
Season
Theme
2. Give credit to ALL professionals involved in the wedding
As a professional in the wedding industry, you know how important professional relationships are.
They give you connections to potential clients and advice. They understand what you do better than anyone who is not in the industry. You want to make sure your relationships with other professionals are positive and beneficial.
That’s why it’s so important to make sure you give credit where credit is due. Create links to each vendor’s website and make sure you name them when discussing the aspects of the wedding where they helped contribute.
Through these posts, you can invite other professionals to get involved in your marketing strategy. You can ask them to link to or feature your blog post on their website and social media platforms. Reciprocity goes a long way when you're looking to strengthen your professional relationships. The more connections you can make between your website and other websites, the more likely you are to find new clients. Each business you work with creates new opportunities. It might also inspire those wedding pros to follow suit and link to your website in their own content.
3. Use posts as a (tasteful) portfolio opportunity
The wedding industry doesn’t work like the art industry. You don’t show up to an interview with a potential client and just hand over a physical portfolio full of examples of the weddings you’ve done. This can make it difficult to gain the trust of potential clients.
Well boy do I have news for you, my friend. You can build a solid portfolio right into your website through a Featured Wedding blog.
You have the opportunity to create a unique experience that highlights your services with each blog . On websites like The Knot and WeddingWire, couples can submit their weddings. This might be beneficial if more people look at a wedding you worked on, but it isn’t going to help you find paying clients.
Those websites are so oversaturated with weddings. It gets overwhelming for couples to sort through them all and find what they’re actually looking for. Plus, looking at weddings on those sites makes them seem less obtainable than a local business’ website. You can create a much closer connection with your client with content housed on your own website.
A Featured Wedding blog gives you the opportunity to showcase your unique talents and services, which is much more valuable to a potential client [3]. Cut out the middleman and give potential clients a direct connection to your business.
4. Remember your audience
A lot of professionals find that the longer you’ve been in the biz, the harder it gets to simplify things for your clients.
It’s important to make sure your blogs are tailored to your audience. Couples looking for initial inspiration likely don't know wedding industry trends and jargon. Simplify your language so you don’t completely lose or overwhelm potential clients.
For example, use “table linens” as a general term instead of “table cloth”, “overlay”, and “napkin”. Are the differences between these three things important when planning a wedding? Absolutely. But your goal is to entice your audience into looking further into your services, not overwhelm them with the small details.
Where you’re tempted to get technical, try describing the wedding as if you were talking to someone who knows nothing about weddings. This kind of description is more digestible for new couples. Save your industry jargon for conversations with other wedding professionals. They’ll be way more impressed than your clients anyway.
5. Make your content shareable
One of the best benefits of having a Featured Weddings blog is the power of photos. They’re super helpful when you’re looking to get more exposure online because each picture is shareable.
Enter Pinterest: the go-to social media platform for wedding inspiration. Pinterest has over 322 million active users each month [4]. Pinterest is unique because it is the only major social media platform that has a visual search. This makes it the perfect platform for the wedding industry.
The easiest way to get extra attention brought to your blog post is to link each picture to Pinterest. This way, your post’s visibility works in both directions. People who come across your blog post can add your images to their Pinterest board. Or couples perusing Pinterest for inspiration can find your images, click the link, and find your blog post. This two-way visibility is a great way to get your content to potential clients.
Things to Avoid When Writing a Featured Wedding Blog
Now that you know what you need to dazzle your audience, let’s talk about what you shouldn’t do. Avoid these common mistakes to you’ll impress your clients and inspire your competitors to follow your lead.
Don’t turn your post into a virtual photo album
As we’ve already discovered, photos can be a priceless addition to your Featured Wedding content. But you don’t want your post to consist of only pictures. We’ve all seen these types of posts before. They’re long, difficult to navigate, not formatted in an appealing way, and take forever to load.
It’s important to have lots of visuals. You want to appeal to the reader who’s in this for the long haul and the reader who’s just skimming for the most important bits of information. But if you don’t have any text, you’re selling yourself short.
Text explaining the quirks of the wedding is what potential clients are looking for. A picture of a beautiful tablescape might be inspiring, but what happens when the couple wants to know who designed it? Or where the chargers came from?
Pictures can't explain how your services benefit your clients, save them time and money, or reduce their stress.
Unless you’re a wedding photographer, having 75 pictures in one blog post is not helpful. (Even if you are a photographer, save the large photo dump for your website gallery. You should still have plenty of text in your blog posts too!).
Not only is it difficult to get through as a client, but it’s also impossible to rank on Google. Google doesn’t process images the same way it processes text, so a blog with little to no text is not going to seem as important or relevant.
CoSchedule recently found that all of the top results on Google’s search engine were over 2,000 words [5]. This means your blog post needs to be as close to hitting that number as possible. A healthy mix of images and text is always the best way to go. No one wants to look at someone else’s photo album without explanation anyway.
2. Don’t rely on the couple for commentary
This is common on sites like The Knot and WeddingWire. However, it is not beneficial for someone looking to promote their services.
If they’re willing, a few quotes from the couple can be great. It would be even better to get something like a testimonial to include in your post. That way, your potential clients can hear from an existing client about exactly how you were able to help them.
But at the end of the day, this blog post is not for the couple. They’ve already paid for their services and keepsakes. This is an opportunity for you to strut your stuff with a real-life example to help convince potential clients that you are the right professional for them.
Many couples are looking for insider tips and professional advice. This is your chance to show potential clients how knowledgeable you are. Testimonials belong elsewhere.
3. Don’t make the entire post about how great you are at your job
Trust me, your confidence is appropriate in other places, but not here. First of all, you want to make sure your content is a positive reflection of your couple. Most couples would probably not be keen on you creating a post about their important day that was all about you. Plus, it doesn’t look good to potential clients either.
As a wedding professional, it is your job to go out of your way to make your couples happy, not the other way around. Make sure your commentary reflects how you can help your potential clients. This post should be a reflection of your services.
Think of it as an interview, where your potential clients are the ones asking the questions. Here are just a few questions you might find beneficial to answer in each Featured Wedding post:
How did your services help create a positive experience for your clients?
What personal touches really added to the event?
How were you able to work with your clients to give them exactly what they were looking for?
You want to make sure you’re answering and quelling any concerns or fears your potential clients may have. They always come first!
5. Don’t stress about making it perfect
I know, I sound like a complete hypocrite.
But as long as you keep your goals in mind and you respect your clients, you’ll do great things. A featured wedding blog is a wonderful way to both showcase your work and celebrate your couples. It’s only going to help you in the end. Don’t think too hard about it!
If you’re still concerned about how to get this done in a way that is both respectful and profitable, head over to my homepage for more information. Remember you can always outsource your content creation! I know a fantastic copywriter who would be more than willing to help (wink wink).
You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Now go get ‘em!
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