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There are so many wedding vendors out there. How do you set yourself apart from the rest? How do you keep your clients happy for the duration of your time together (which, for some wedding pros, could be over a year)? Social media has made it incredibly simple to stay in touch with people, but the downside is that it starts to seem impersonal. The goal here is to surprise and delight your wedding clients when they least expect it. (This article is geared towards the wedding industry but if you work in a different field, the same principles apply!) Think about how you feel if someone does something nice for you out of the blue …. maybe someone you admire comments on your Instagram photo, or you get a “just because” greeting card in the mail. So what can you do to make an impression on your clients? A mix of using social media in a smart way, and also using “old fashioned” methods of communication. It’s really quite simple and easy on your budget, too.
5 Ways to Surprise and Delight Your Wedding Clients
1. Mail out a “Welcome” card after your clients hire you. I know a lot of wedding professionals will send an email to their clients after booking, but think about how many emails you receive. How closely do you pay attention to all of them, and how quickly to you delete the non-essential emails? Now think about the last time you got a card or gift in the mail … how did it make you feel? You can easily make a big impression by sending your new clients a Welcome postcard for very little money.
I remember back when I hired a photographer team (Root Photography) for our wedding. About a week after I signed the contract and paid the deposit, I received a postcard from them in the mail, welcoming me to their “family.” I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much I loved getting that postcard. It made me feel so special! Like I was now part of an exclusive club. We had already talked on the phone and sent email back and forth after our decision to hire them, but the postcard was unexpected. The postcard itself was not overly fancy. It featured the photographers’ logo on the front, and a short message on the back. It wasn’t even personalized aside from our names on the address label. But I loved how getting that postcard made me feel, and because of that I kept it in our wedding scrapbook.
2. Befriend your clients on Facebook. This is a controversial one because a lot of people don’t want to get overly personal with their clients, especially if you’re in a business that has a lot of clients (like stationery or beauty services). And I know sometimes clients could get mad if they see you “goofing off” on Facebook instead of working – a lot of my photographer friends have run into this problem. So my suggestion is to set up filtered lists. You can easily set up a filtered list (or a few lists) that includes different subsections of Facebook friends, such as close friends and family only, certain groups of friends who have similar likes and interests as you (this is GREAT for election seasons), and everyone. This makes it easy to get your posts seen to only the appropriate groups of people. You can also turn on a setting that allows you to manually approve anytime someone tags you, so you can decide if you want that to show up in your timeline or not. Your clients will feel extra special if they receive a friend request from you, so I highly recommend considering this. But the bottom line here is: your personal Facebook page is your personal space on the web, so it’s up to you how you want to use it.
3. Follow your clients on Instagram and interact with their photos. This one is SO easy! Lots of brides love to share details about their wedding planning on Instagram – and who can blame them? It’s such an exciting time. Share their excitement by liking and commenting on their photos, even if it doesn’t relate to your particular product or service. Make sure you follow them on Pinterest, too. Seeing what images they are pinning will give you a sense of their style and personality.
4. Give your clients a wedding gift. If you’re actually present at your client’s wedding, bring a little something to put on the gift table. They probably won’t see it until they get home and won’t be expecting it – which will make it extra sweet and thoughtful! If you’re not actually there on the big day, send a gift or a card in the mail about a month before the wedding day. Rather than putting effort into picking something from everyone’s registry, buy a certain item in bulk and have them ready to send out (a wedding themed photo frame is a nice option, so are champagne flutes or mugs, or a thoughtful book or journal about marriage.) My friend Renee, an event planner with Moxie Bright Events, actually sends out three gifts – one after booking, one a couple months before the wedding (a Netflix gift card & an encouragement to take a night off from wedding planning, an idea that I love), and a gift on the wedding day.
5. Send your clients a “thank you” card after their event, and add them to your holiday cards list. Usually brides and grooms send out Thank You cards to their vendors, so getting a Thank You card from YOU will be a nice surprise! And remember our own wedding photographers I mention above? We still get cards from them every Christmas, usually featuring their adorable dog. And keep interacting with your former clients on social media after the wedding day is over … there are so many important milestones after marriage, such as buying a house, starting a family, or celebrating anniversaries. Keep interacting – this will keep you top-of-mind when your client has an opportunity to recommend you to their friends and family.
In what ways do you surprise and delight your wedding clients? Add your ideas to the comments!
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