Gatekeeping Your Content Is Only Hurting You
If you’re in the wedding and event business, and you want to take your business from chasing trends to setting trends, and having all the leads you could ever want, the best thing you can do is take control of your marketing and share it on your website, the only platform that you own. Whether you’re a photographer, planner, designer, florist, stationer, caterer, DJ’s and more, if you truly want to be iconic in this industry, respected for your craft, and have clients filling out your contact form on repeat, the best thing you can do is set an intentional wedding business marketing system that maximizes your single greatest asset: your creative work on past events.
The trouble in the wedding and event industry, especially with seasoned professionals who have been in the industry for more than a minute, is that they are too busy with running everything in their business that they don’t update their website, and share their past work, ever. When you gate keep your content, and don’t post it on your website, you’re hiding your creativity from the world and hurting your chances for future business.
Gates Closed
The trouble with most seasoned wedding pros who have been in the industry for a long time is that most suffer from the same marketing problem. They all gatekeep their content, whether it’s images or video, and leave it wasting away in unopened galleries, or in folders on their computers to never see the light of day. They might share some of the images from an event or their custom work on social media, but it is rare, and I mean really rare, that wedding pros, especially the fully booked ones, take advantage of their past work and share it on their website.
This gatekeeping, or not sharing or posting of past work on your website, happens with just about every wedding pro that I interact with. Sometimes it comes because they don’t know how to share the content. Sometimes it comes because they are just too busy. But mostly it comes because they feel that they don’t need to share their content.
This feeling like they don’t need to share it is probably the most frustrating type of wedding pro, because this business owner is most likely booked out at the current moment. They feel that they have all the leads they need…for now. However, there’s no telling what will happen in the future, as the pandemic taught us all a huge lesson in this area. Additionally, relying on social media and networking alone as marketing tools is a huge risk as both are extremely volatile, and unpredictable.
In addition to feeling like they don’t need it, even worse, they feel that they’re too good for it, or they’re somehow above it. They feel that blogging is dead. They feel that social media, and networking is all that they need to be successful in this industry. Again, this wedding pro who believes this is a shortsighted and can’t see the forest through the trees.
Busy Doesn’t Mean Booked
Many seasoned wedding and event pros are so busy with doing all the things in their business that they rarely have time to stop and be intentional with their marketing efforts. Most times, they toss whatever they can up on social media, and are off to put out the next fire with a client, or in their life. We are constantly pulled in a thousand different ways as the business owner, and this rarely leaves time for purposeful marketing, and sharing content with a plan.
I hear from a lot of wedding and event professionals who are experts in their field, yet they are still searching for new and different businesses. Why? Because we’re all in the wedding and event industry where there are very few repeat clients, which means that we’re all always on the hunt for new clients. Even if you’re fully booked now, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be booked this time next year. If you don’t stay on top your lead generation efforts, you’ll be looking around in a few months, after the dust settles from your current fires, wondering where all the clients are. And those clients went to your competitors who were ready and available when the client was ready and available.
Unfortunately, we must be on the search for the new client or the new event to plan and produce, while we are working on our current events. The problem in the wedding and event space is that when we get so busy in the moment, we sometimes forget that we always must be bringing in new leads and inquiries into our business.
If we take a break from marketing, or neglect certain avenues to bring in new business, it can leave us with gaps and holes in our workload that are unsustainable for the long term.
What is a solution to this constant need to be generating new leads? You guessed it, sharing your past work on your website consistently. When you post your past work on your website in a gallery, or a blog post, it is ready and available for whenever the clients are ready. Most clients today “pre-interview” wedding and event pros before they contact them, or request pricing. A website that is full of your best, most recent work makes is highly efficient for the business owner, as it makes it easy for future clients to do their research without you having to do anything extra.
Tell Me You’re The Expert
No matter your niche or your area of expertise, the wedding and event space is a highly visual industry. Our clients want to see it all, from all angles so they can fully experience our services before they book, or sign on the dotted line. By sharing content from our past events or our past work, we are able to give future and potential clients visually stunning examples of what it is like to work with us.
One look at a website that is full of gorgeous recent events, and is bustling with helpful information or advice, signifies to potential clients that you’re an expert without you having to come out and say it. By the time the client fills out your contact form, they are so far down the inquiry pipeline, and that much more invested with you, because they were able to fully experience what it’s like to work with you. It creates know, like and trust with potential clients, and you didn’t have to do anything more than simply share your past work on your website.
A website that is empty, unhelpful, or vague, is a huge turn off. It doesn’t say, “professional,” and it is turning away clients that you don’t even know about. One look at a website that hasn’t been updated in years, or only has a few images, and potential clients are immediately running away. It looks fake, and like you’re not the expert that you claim to be. There’s no proof, because you’ve curated your image down to the barebones. Why? It is because maybe you don’t have the work to share? Stop making it so hard for them to fall in love with you by being elusive and gatekeeping all of your amazing work.
Have you ever looked at the follower number on a competitor or peer’s social media account, and made a judgment about their business? Maybe you thought more highly of them, or you assumed they must get so many leads? We don’t like to admit it sometimes, but the higher the follower number, the higher the respect.
The same is true with your website. When potential customers come to your website and it is active and full, and it shows off your incredible and creative work, it shows off your expertise and justifies your worth without you having to come out and say, “I’m the expert. Trust me, I’m worth it.” They can see it and feel it for themselves. It isn’t bragging, it’s smart and efficient marketing.
Your Best Assets
When we keep our content and don’t share it on our website, we are not taking advantage of our single greatest assets to book new clients: our content from past events. In the wedding and event space we’re so lucky with lots of imagery. Every weekend, we have tons and tons of amazing imagery and video to share. This is content that will help us book future clients, if only we’d share it in a thoughtful and consistent way.
Let’s be clear about one thing. When I’m encouraging you to post your content on your website, I’m not asking you to create anything new or do any extra work. I’m talking about maximizing and making the best use of content and work that’s already been done. After the event is over, the best thing it can do for you is get your more business.
We have the work, we have the creativity, yet it sits unopened in a gallery, or wasting away in your Inbox never to be seen again. We were paid for this work already. We put our blood, sweat and tears into it, and when it’s over we should take full advantage and use it to get more business.
I always hear from fellow wedding pros that they are pressed for time, and their to-do list is so full. Using your past events as marketing collateral, is hyper efficient, because the work is already done. There is no better way to show off your expertise than with a past real event. Don’t waste it by gatekeeping it and not sharing it on your website.
Be In Control
The only way to be in control of your own content is by posting it on the only platform that you own: your website. You own your website and your piece of real estate on the Internet.
You’re the editor of your website, and no one can tell you “No.” No algorithm decides who sees what. No editor says whether your work is good enough. You decide on your website. You’re in charge of your single greatest marketing tool in the digital age.
When you don’t share your content and your advice on your website, and instead share bits and pieces of it on social media, you don’t get to tell the whole story on your terms. You are subjected to the rules of that platform. For example, you might only be allowed to post 10 photos, or a few seconds of video. Also, you’re subjected to algorithms that decide who sees your content. Not to mention the shelf life of content on social media pales in comparison to your website where it lasts forever.
I’m not saying don’t use social media as a marketing tool. On the contrary, I think it is a great option, and one that businesses in today’s age should use. But it isn’t the only option, and it should not be a replacement for your website.
Even the most active of social media accounts, with its algorithms and fickle audiences, can’t fix an empty website as a marketing plan in today’s digital world.
Website First
I like to refer to my marketing philosophy as “Website First Marketing.” Your website is the home base for everything you do to grow your business. Whether using social media, or any other tool to generate leads, including networking, your website is your North star.
The only thing you own in our digital world is your website. No one can take it away. If you want to future proof your business, invest in what you own. Your website is an insurance policy against algorithm changes, trends, and popularity shifts.
My focus has always been investing in what you own first. Your online marketing is much more effective with a solid place to call home, especially for those of us in the wedding and event industry that rely on visual and creative content to tell our story.
So much of our industry is visual and with our website, we’re able to truly tell our story on our own terms and set our businesses up for long term success.
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With that, my advice and encouragement to you, as a seasoned wedding and event professional, is to get your content out of your galleries, and folders on your desktop, and get it onto your website. You will set your business up for long term success by not gatekeeping your past events, and instead using them to get more future clients.
If you’re a creative small business serving the wedding and event industry - such as a wedding planner, photographer, entertainer, DJ, rental company, florist, invitation designer and more - and you need help with your online marketing, content creation, or your Pinterest account, please send me an email at info@juliannesmith.com or check out my done-for-you and training services for wedding pros as well as my newest course, The Pin Pipeline designed just for wedding and event businesses. I’d love to work with you to maximize your creativity and the overwhelm and work with the clients that you want to work with!
For more tips and advice on the wedding industry, be sure to check out past blog posts and sign up for my weekly emails where I’ll send you all kinds of wedding business education nuggets in 100 words or less!