The Shortcut to the Long Game
What if I told you that five minutes a day, five days a week for the next six months could fill your calendar with brides for the next five years?
Let me tell you a story.
In 2011, two seemingly unrelated yet significant things happened. First, I bought a business that primarily served the wedding industry. Second, Pinterest launched and the wedding business changed forever.
I. Hated. Pinterest.
The economic downturn of 2008 caused tighter budgets, which forced many brides to consider DIYing their own weddings. Pinterest taught them how.
I know I lost a bunch of weddings in the early 2010’s thanks to Pinterest. I bet y’all did too. When I saw an empty bank account, I looked for someone to blame. I found Pinterest.
It took me a long time before I could forgive Pinterest. Eventually, I started using it to craft proposals and create mood boards. It helped me find inspiration for designs and gave me a common language to speak with brides who were coming into my studio for design consultations.
A few years ago, I realized that I needed to change how I reached my clients. I had been retroactively relying on referrals from other wedding professionals. Once I started offering wedding planning services, I couldn’t wait on referrals. Now I was the one making the referrals! Brides were finding me first and relying on me to connect them to other vendors.
I knew that now more than ever that my website needed to do some serious legwork.
I knew that when brides googled “wedding planner Arkansas,” my name needed to be at the top of that list.
But how did I get my name at the top of that list?
Pinterest. Back to Pinterest.
I realized that if I wasn’t using Pinterest to connect brides to my brand, then I was going to get left in the dust.
What is it we all want? A full calendar of ideal brides. That’s the long game. And the shortcut to the long game?