If you work at a venue, listen up, because global industry expert Kelly Mortimer is here to discuss what’s happening in the modern wedding market, and critically, how your space can generate more sales in challenging times.
Kelly has worked in the industry for over 20 years, planning weddings and events for celebrities and royalty at world-class venues such as Claridge’s, Rosewood and Mandarin Oriental. Before starting her company, she was Group Wedding Sales Director for a portfolio of 45 hotels and increased revenue across the chain by over seven figures. Here, she offers some brilliant quick wins for venues to implement today and start seeing an increase in their revenue!
How are couples finding their perfect wedding venue?
Picture your potential couple, sitting on their sofa after work in the evening. They are multi-screening. Netflix is on and their laptop is open, and they are googling venues and suppliers. They might see you on a listing site or maybe your own site comes up. But here’s the mistake most venues make: they expect couples to make an enquiry.
Today’s couples do not want to make an enquiry – they want all the information right there to select their top three venues of choice. Did you know that 66% of couples will see three venues or less in person? And that’s a pre-COVID stat. So we know they are researching online and making decisions before even speaking to your team. So, if your website and social media aren’t right, you’ll lose the sale before you even knew they were watching you.
How important is the marketing imagery?
The right image of the venue is a critical factor to drive enquiries and attract higher spend couples. Most venue teams tell me, if they can get a couple on-site, they can convert them – which means, we need to work on attracting them in.
With almost all the clients I work with, changing their imagery is the first big step in the solution. It’s shocking that venues rely on real wedding photos to market their business. Imagine a world where you built a hotel and then asked guests for their holiday snaps for the hotel brochure?
There is a time and place for real-life wedding photos, but to sell your venue you need to host a marketing shoot. Set the spaces in an aspirational way, using modern chairs and flowers. This type of shoot is even more critical when a venue is corporate or lacks character. You don’t need to bring in models (which can look cheesy), you just need to show the space – what you’re actually selling. Check out the accompanying images on this feature for a flavour of what you should be aiming for.
What can venues do better to connect and convert?
today and it’s incredibly frustrating for our venue teams. Firstly, put as much information on the website to stop random enquiries. That includes pricing. I teach my clients a very specific pricing structure which captures all of their market. This way they have no fear to show pricing publicly. We stop wasting time with tyre-kickers and start attracting couples who can actually afford them!
Next look at the enquiry response coming from the venue team. If it starts with: ‘congratulations on your engagement and thank you for your enquiry’, I can already tell you that venue will have a high level of ghosting. It’s bland, boring and everyone is saying it.
Instead create a response email that grabs their attention, makes them feel emotional fast and tells them clearly what they do next. And if the response email ends with ‘I look forward to hearing from you’ or ‘let me know if you’d like to book a tour’ then I guarantee that venue has a low conversion from enquiry to booking, which means they’re missing revenue. They don’t need more leads, they need better conversion.
To find out more about Kelly and how she helps venues drive more sales, follow her Instagram, Wedding Kelly or visit her website, Kellymortimer.com, where you can join her exclusive members club, The Next Level
