Internationally renowned wedding business consultant and expert Kelly Mortimer is dedicated to helping wedding vendors boost their revenue and conversion rates. As a guest host for the recent Easy Weddings webinar ‘Stop Getting Ghosted and Get More Bookings in Your Diary’, she helped us craft an actionable plan to convert more inquiries to bookings. Here’s what we learned.
Today’s couples are overwhelmed by choices. They often find themselves paralysed by indecision or bury their heads in the sand, avoiding committing to wedding suppliers. As vendors, it’s crucial to understand the dynamics of client engagement and the psychology behind decision-making.
To understand how to stand out in a crowded inbox and avoid being forgotten about, we must first consider the varying levels of interest, from cold to warm to hot leads. The key to success is understanding this spectrum and adjusting our approach accordingly, Kelly says.
Drawing parallels between business listings like Easy Weddings, and the world of online dating – where she first met her now-husband, Simon — Kelly underscores the necessity of warming up leads and nurturing relationships before expecting commitments. Rather than taking ghosting personally, vendors must take proactive steps to engage and romance potential clients.
“The job of a listing site like Easy Weddings is to get as many eyeballs on your business. To bring visibility to the widest possible audience. And then our job is to heat them up. Our job is to take those leads coming through the listing site, the visibility, and turn them into hot leads. To romance them and share with them why we are the one they should choose.”
— Kelly Mortimer, Wedding Business Coach
“We need to stop taking ghosting personally and instead start taking responsibility to change the things we can control,” Kelly adds.
Ultimately, the goal is to empathise with couples, understand their journey, and tailor our marketing and sales efforts to create meaningful connections. In other words: “Date your couples before you marry them.”
Literally!
With this mindset shift and a strategic action plan, wedding supplies should see more conversions and fewer ghosts in their inbox.
Now, let’s dive into Kelly Mortimer’s 9-Step Action Plan to Convert Leads into Bookings.
To improve our results, we must first assess what we are currently doing. We’ll frame this by building a 9-step action plan.
On an A4 sheet of paper, draw out a 3×3 grid with nine squares and number them from 1-9. This will be your action plan to complete as we go through this session together.
1. Identify Blockers
In box one, write down why you think couples aren’t booking us: overwhelm, warming up, visibility, too many choices, taking responsibility, not taking it personally, not fast enough at responding, shopping around.
2. Target
In box two, write down how many weddings you need to book for the year. This might be your total bookings for 2023 or 2024, or even 2025.
Let’s say for this year or next year, I want 100 weddings. You might want 30. Whatever you need, pop it here.
3. Leads
With specific data or a rough estimate, write down how many leads are coming in across the whole business each month. Then multiply that by 12 to get your yearly lead count. This is across your website, social media DMs, Easy Weddings, and any other channels.
For example, if I have 50 leads coming in a month x 12 months = 600 leads a year. This is approximately the amount of leads I’ve got coming in.
“Here’s the interesting thing. Generating leads is a joint responsibility – joint responsibility for Easy Weddings to get extra eyeballs on you, and also what we write in our listing profile and our quality of images. And a higher quality of leads comes through with a quality listing. So that is our responsibility.”
We’ve got a website, we’ve got social media — we’ve got ways to drive leads, Kelly adds.
4. Conversion Rate
Box number four is how well you warm up a couple. Write down what you took from section one (number of weddings you need for the year) and divide it by the annual leads coming in.
Say I want 100 weddings a year and I have 600 leads coming in across the business. I will divide my number of weddings (100) by my lead count (600) and multiply that by 100. That gives me 16.6 — let’s round up to 17 for ease. This is the conversion percentage I need to achieve my goal.
If I want 100 weddings and get 600 leads a year, I must convert 17% to reach my target number of weddings.
5. The Hook (Paragraph 1)
“People buy on emotion and justify with logic,” Kelly says.
In Box 5, write down what it is you do for people. What do they feel when they work with you? What do your couples actually want?
People buy based on feelings, not just facts. So, your initial response should be an emotional hook that resonates with what your couples genuinely care about, Kelly advises.
In a world where every inbox is overflowing, it’s crucial to stand out. Skip the generic congratulations and get to the heart of what differentiates you from other suppliers. Craft a compelling opening that speaks directly to their desires and aspirations.
“The first line of your email is 99% of your sale. Because guess what? If that opening line is bland, it won’t have an impact. So when we look at opening with emotion, this is where we start to see the difference.”
What is it about you that’s different to another supplier in your category? And why do couples book you? This helps you elevate your language away from logic.
“So I’m talking about responding to that initial lead through Easy Weddings, your website, social media. It should open and close with emotion, and the logical piece goes in the middle,” Kelly adds.
Think of the logic as the meat in the sandwich, with the emotional stuff being the bread on either side.
“The opening phrase should be something that they care about, that’s emotional, that describes what they’re going to see or feel or experience from what you do. Create a short paragraph — two to three sentences — talking about what your couples will see, feel, or experience when they work with you,” she adds.
Work out the type of couple you are speaking to and start talking in emotional descriptive language that appeals to what’s important to them — from their imagery or from the way you plan or the way you work with them.
If I were selling a fancy ballroom in a five-star hotel, I’d use language that speaks to that higher-end couple. Someing like: “Hello Lucy, welcome to [venue name], where you will experience grandeur in our oversized chandeliers and huge windows overlooking the golf course, and the beautiful original wooden floor. Your guests will experience going back in time as you enjoy our luxury experience.”
Remember, this is about them, not you. This isn’t about the fact that you are award-winning and have been in the industry for 300 years. The opening line must be about what they want to feel or get on their day. What is the actual result of what you do?
6. The Transaction / Logic (Paragraph 2)
This is the second paragraph of your response.
After capturing their emotions, it’s time to provide the necessary information logically.
This is where you include transactional details like brochures, availability, or answers to specific inquiries. But remember, keep it concise and to the point. Address their questions or concerns directly, ensuring a seamless transition from emotion to practicality.
7. The Next Step (Paragraph 3)
This is the third paragraph of your response.
Make it easy for overwhelmed couples to take the next step. Instead of leaving it open-ended, provide a clear call to action. Whether it’s scheduling a Zoom call, booking a venue tour, or selecting a product, guide them towards the next phase of engagement.
Removing uncertainty makes you more likely to keep them moving forward in the process.
8. Delight/ The Reverse Hook (Paragraph 4)
Our fourth and final paragraph in our response is the delight. Here, we go back to emotion.
End your response with a delightful touch. This “reverse hook” should evoke positive emotions and reinforce the connection.
“I love to start my delight, my final paragraph with phrases such as ‘Count on us too’, and ‘Rest assured when you choose [name of business]… ‘ and then I follow it with something they can expect or feel an emotion, what their guests might feel or experience. So that the final words before they finish my email land with them.
“They touch them emotionally because that is what people buy on, not logic. Do not close on ‘If you have any questions’ or ‘The next step is to book a Zoom call’. That bit goes in the middle,” Kelly reminds us.
This final emotional touch can leave a powerful impact and set you apart from competitors.
9. From ‘Cold’ to ‘Close’
One email is not usually enough, Kelly says. “Think about back to my dating app with my husband Simon. If he’d just sent me one message, that wouldn’t have warmed me up enough.”
Follow-up is critical to warming up potential clients and moving them closer to booking, so construct a follow-up sequence of helpful and valuable emails.
Couples must get to know you and your business further before they can commit. We call this “cold to close”, where we warm people up through a sequence of emails, letting them get to know us and get to know our business.
So, rather than generic check-ins, provide value with each interaction. Share helpful tips, stories, or insights demonstrating your expertise and supporting their journey. We are not selling to them.
The ripple effect is that they buy from you as they warm up to your business.
As you’re developing this new response sequence, consider how you can create four follow-up emails that are sent out every two days. Think about emails that offer tips and support. Share stories, images and inspiration.
By nurturing these leads with personalised and helpful content, you’ll gradually transition them from cold to close.
Remember, it’s not about directly selling but genuinely connecting and serving their needs.
📽️ For a deeper dive into these insights, watch the full webinar below.
Catch up on our business webinars you missed
Whether you’re a newer business, more established in the industry, or a sole trader or a larger business, there’s always something to learn from our wedding industry webinars.
You can watch the replay of this webinar and others in our Professional Development webinar resource centre, here.
Connect with Kelly
Learn more about Kelly’s The Next Level (TNL) here.
Follow her Instagram @wedding_kelly and Linkedin for tips, inspo and insights
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