Making blogging approachable: Simple tips for success in the wedding industry
The #1 marketing channel I recommend for service providers in the wedding industry is blogging.
Not convinced? I lay out alllllll my reasonings in this blog post.
But even if you know you should be blogging, it can sometimes still seem too daunting. I totally get that.
You may think you have nothing of value to say, you can’t make the time, or you’re not techy enough to do it “right”.
Well I’m here to dispel these myths and make this easier for you! And this is the first piece of encouragement I wanna give you:
You don’t have to become an SEO expert in order to get results from blogging.
Okay?! <3 I find this is the main false belief that wedding pros get hung up on. The truth is as long as you are creating content that your ideal couples would find valuable, then your blogging efforts will be worthwhile.
So how can we make blogging more effective and more approachable? Let’s answer some of the most common questions I receive about wedding-industry blogging.
Start Small, Grow Steadily
How do I get started with blogging?
The key to making blogging sustainable is to keep it simple for yourself. Start where you feel comfortable.
If you’ve never written a blog post before, first try publishing one of your events as a blog post. Describe the day, incorporate the feedback from your couple, detail the solution you provided, and link to all the other vendors you worked with. Showcase your favorite images from the day.
Look at that! You just created your first blog post. :)
From there, you can start to think about how you might turn your next event into an educational post. (I’ll give you more topic ideas in the next section.)
How often should I post on the blog?
The more often you post, the more likely your content will show up on Google. That’s just a given.
But you know what matters most? Consistency. Google rewards it!
So pick a posting frequency that’s actually realistic for your schedule.
If you’re super-duper-busy, maybe that’s just writing a blog once a quarter. If you’re just starting out in business and don’t have your hands full with clients yet, pump out two blog posts a week!
I find a healthy frequency for most is once or twice a month.
Content Planning for Audience Needs
What should I write about?
To make your content engaging to your target audience, you’ll want to think about their needs throughout their wedding planning journey. What would they find helpful and interesting? Let’s look at some ideas to get your wheels turning!
QUESTIONS COUPLES MIGHT HAVE ABOUT THE WORK YOU DO:
Frequently asked questions your couples tend to have before & while working with you
Things you always find yourself educating your clients about
Things you wish people knew or asked about before working with you
HELPFUL TIPS & EDUCATIONAL CONTENT:
Demonstrate your professional expertise in your niche
Turn your past weddings into teachable moments
Other knowledge you can offer outside of your direct role
RECOMMEND OTHER VENDORS IN YOUR AREA:
Adjacent vendor picks that perfectly complement your own style of work
Businesses you’ve worked with in the past and have good connections with
Create a recommend list of local venues (ones you dream of working with)
WEDDING INSPO:
Offer new ideas that you would love to implement at a wedding or that you know your dream clients would be excited by
Trends have you seen lately
Hot topics for this time of year
BEHIND THE SCENES:
Strengthen your relationship with your audience by getting a little vulnerable
Show your audience the amount of care & attention you give to each of your clients
Share about yourself as a person & not just a faceless entity
For over 100 specific blog post topics you can write about, snag my free checklist! There are enough content prompts in here for over 2 years of blogging ;)
Finding the Right Balance of Images and Text
Is there a word count I need to hit?
I’d aim for 1000 words. 2000 is even better! But again, don’t let a daunting word count hold you back.
Just ask yourself: Is this content helpful, interesting, or inspiring for my dream clients or my existing audience? If it’s worth reading, it’s worth posting!
How many images should I include in a blog post?
Images are really helpful to illustrate your point or provide examples, but avoid overwhelming your audience with too many photos.
If you’re posting a wedding gallery, try your best to keep it under 30 images. Remember that the average viewer just wants to see the best-of-the-best highlights from the day.
Otherwise, the number of images isn’t really important! As long as they are appropriately supporting the written content.
How do I optimize my images for a blog post?
Don’t use super large image files on your blog, since that will slow down the page and prevent Google from recommending it to people.
You want each file size to be around 500 kb and the image size to be around 1500 pixels on the long edge. If you don’t have Lightroom or Photoshop, my favorite tools to resize your images in bulk are RedKetchup (free) and Storytailor (free trial).
Crafting Compelling Titles
What should I title my blog posts?
The main thing to keep in mind when coming up with a blog post title is it needs to be something searchable by your target audience. This means you want to use keywords that they might be typing into Google.
So if you’re sharing a recent wedding, instead of titling it “Randy and Daniel: September 2023”, you might call it “Snowy Wedding in Rocky Mountains”. In general, just keep your titles straight to the point.
Another idea is to take a firm stance on a juicy topic, since people will be more likely to click and read! Here are some examples:
“No, You Don’t Need a Bridesmaids at Your Wedding”
“THIS is the wedding vendor to hire first”
“Why I Stopped Doing First Looks at Weddings”
Do I need to do keyword research?
Unpopular opinion, but no. You can create lots of successful blog posts without ever having done keyword research.
Using research tools to find out the exact words and phrases your audience is searching for is absolutely a way to optimize your blog posts further, but I’m personally a fan of making things as easy as possible.
However, if you are wanting to explore some free SEO tools, have a play around with Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Ubersuggest, Answer The Public, or Keyword Surfer.
Leverage AI Tools
Can I use AI to write my blog posts for me?
Obviously AI copywriting machines have become prominent recently, and I actually do think you should use them to reduce friction in your blogging workflow.
But let’s get one thing straight first: Your final, published content needs to be in your own words.
AI tools are essentially just rapidly searching through millions of other published articles online in order to write something for you. Hence: there are some plagiarism problems.
Also, if your content is written by AI, it’s not protected by copyright law. Thus the plagiarism cycle can continue.
That being understood, let me give you some ideas to utilize AI while still creating original content.
How can I ethically use AI to make blogging easier?
I’ve starting leveraging ChatGPT to cut my blogging time down by 25-50% for each post! Here are some ways you can totally take advantage and make your life easier:
AI is AMAZING for brainstorming. Like trending topics, keywords, titles, and headings.
Once you know what you want to write about, I recommend creating a bullet list of everything you have to say on that topic. Then paste the talking points into your AI tool of choice and ask it to reorganize it into a coherent article.
Now rewrite each section in your own voice. Remember that Google is now paying attention to the personalization of articles, so make it something only you could write.
Then if you aren’t confident with your grammar or spelling, you can run your blog post through AI again to check for errors!
So if you’re someone who often gets stuck staring at a blank document (uh, who doesn’t?), try hacking AI to keep the momentum going :)
Retaining Traffic with Irresistible Resources
How can I use blogging to get clients?
Like I said in part 1 of this series, IMO, SEO is the best online marketing channel for wedding pros - because the traffic to your content grows with time.
But if you’re really going to maximize the power of blogging, you need to not just use it to get more people to your website; but you need to actually keep those people in your circle.
What good are website visitors if all they do is click on your page once and then leave, never to return? After all, what we’re ultimately trying to do is make more money, which means selling to someone, which means having an engaged audience to sell to.
To build that engaged audience, you need to integrate the “next step” into each blog post. (And the “next step” is usually not jumping to hiring you.)
It’s highly unlikely that someone will immediately inquire about your services after reading one blog post, so it’s much easier to ask them to take a small action of engagement that will keep them coming back for more.
The idea is that, over time, that same person will have seen enough of your content to fully trust you - enough to even work with you.
How do I get return visitors to my website?
There are lots of ways to encourage a random blog visitor to continue interacting with your business.
First, make sure you are introducing yourself and what you do. You can use a sidebar if your website platform supports it. If you’re on Squarespace 7.1, you can use an author bio instead. Here’s my tutorial on how to set that up :)
Definitely also link to other relevant blog posts you’ve written, so the viewer immediately has more content to read on your site.
But once they exit the site, it can be difficult for the viewer to ever find you again. So how else can you stay connected?
Asking them to follow you on social media is better than nothing, but the reality is that even if they follow you, they may never see what you post.
You can also prompt the reader to pin your post on Pinterest in the hopes that they can reference it again later.
The best option? → Have them sign up for your email list, so that you can reach them directly in their inbox, whenever you want.
I’m not going to dive deep into email marketing here (cuz I already have), but just know that this is also something you can make super simple for yourself.
How do I get people from the blog to my email list?
The problem is, we’re all getting too many daily emails as it is, so you really have to make signing up worth their while.
You will likely entice a lot more people to join your newsletter if, in exchange for access to their coveted inbox, you give away something they’d normally be willing to pay around $20 bucks for.
See this blog post for more ideas about free email opt-ins.
Once you have an email audience, you can grow a relationship with them and keep them coming back to your website!
I truly believe blogging is a valuable and sustainable marketing method for wedding service providers, and I hope this helped make it feel less nebulous and more like something you can realistically tackle.
Don’t forget to grab your free list of 100+ Wedding Blog Post Prompts to help couples discover you and build a deeper connection with your biz. (That’s over 2 years worth of content!) You can use these content prompts for email marketing, social media, anything honestly :)
HEY WEDDING PRO! DON’T LEAVE WITHOUT CHECKING OUT THESE:
How to move your website up in Google - An ultimate guide to SEO for wedding pros
How to book more clients with easy email marketing for wedding businesses
Portfolio: Modern iridescent custom Squarespace website for an event photography company
100 Wedding Blog Post Prompts to help couples discover you & build a deeper connection with your biz
Designing a wedding business website that converts: The importance of a website strategy
