A great way for you, as a wedding planner, to meet brides and give them an opportunity to learn about you and your expertise is to teach seminars or workshops on wedding planning. You can give a short, free presentation at a bridal show, sign up to teach a class at a community center, or host your own half or full day workshop in which you charge a fee.
Here are 8 tips for successful seminars:
1. Define your target audience
Before you can create your presentation, you need to think about the brides who will be attending. These are most likely the brides in your niche. Since you have already done research and know something about them, you should easily be able to identify their problems and select a topic for your presentation.
2. Start your presentation by establishing your credibility
Create an introduction that describes your business and establishes you as an expert. Ideally, someone else will give the introduction. However, if you are speaking to a small group, you might do it yourself. In this case, welcome everyone and tell them about your training, experience and qualifications as a wedding planner.
3. Structure your presentation to make a sale but don't give a sales pitch
Brides are not interested in attending a sales presentation, they want information. Select a problem to address or, if you are doing a half or full day workshop, you might want to address several problems. Some titles might be, "What Brides Need to Know About Finding the Perfect Wedding Venue and Vendors," "How to Choose Your Wedding Theme," "How to Create a Wedding Budget," or "How to Create a Wedding Timeline," each addresses a problem. As you address the problems in your presentations, share examples and successful solutions that you used with your brides. This way, brides will see how well your ideas work.
4. Present yourself in a professional manner
Make sure your presentation is well-organized and you know your material well, so you don't have to read it. If you have access to audio/visual equipment and know how to use it, you can have a presentation with photos from your events on your laptop and show them on a screen. If A/V is not available, you can print handouts of your presentation so the audience can follow along. Make sure your visuals and handouts are of professional quality and contain your contact information.
5. End by accepting questions
Ask your audience to hold questions until the end of your presentation or you might get bogged down and not get all of your information across. Don't spend too much time on any one question. Have the bride make an appointment with you for a consultation.
6. Plan to follow-up
Make sure you get the name and contact information of everyone who attends your event so you can thank them for attending and continue to market to them. You can do this by having an assistant help you register brides as they enter or you can have brides fill out forms and drop them in a box for a raffle at the end of your presentation. The raffle prize can be one of your consultation services.
7. Consider inviting other wedding professionals to join you
If you are willing to share your podium to get a larger audience with more potential clients, ask other wedding vendors to give presentations in their areas of expertise and invite the brides on their contact lists.
8. Spend time marketing
Even if your presentation is part of a larger event, such as a bridal show, you'll want to get the word out that you will be speaking. If you have collected address information from brides at other events, send out email and postcard invitations. And, of course, you'll want to announce it on your blog, website and ezine.
If you are hosting the event, check to see if you can get it listed in the events section of your local newspaper or the bulletin of your place of worship. Ask brides to call or email you to sign up or have a registration form on your website or blog and connect it to a shopping cart that can take payment information, if you are charging a fee.
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