By Eric Herod
What is one trend in business that has drastically changed how efficiently businesses operate?
Easy. Email automation.
The setting, testing, and delivering of various mass emails to the audience of choice within seconds has drastically changed how businesses operate around the world. It allows companies to think on a more global scale and allows the “little guy” to create opportunities that would have been much more difficult to achieve.
The service industry and especially the wedding industry is no different. In just a matter of minutes, you can create an email campaign that reaches your entire audience list or a segmented portion of it and within minutes, people could be knocking on your proverbial door begging to give you money while giving yourself the next weekend off from answering emails.
So how do you start accelerating your business while giving yourself time off? Start by developing a campaign for all those leads.
Create a Campaign for Potential Clients
- Start with an introduction opt-in. Thank the potential client for signing up and tell them what to expect. Try not to be too lengthy with this one. Give a sampling of headlines, but the goal here is not to overwhelm, but confirm their subscription.
- Make sure you have engaging content ready to go. In your campaign, you are educating the subscriber about how your business can solve their problems. Understand their fears of putting on a wedding, give them solutions, and you’ll get that meeting.
- Always ask for the meeting at the end of every email. Make it simple for them to schedule. com is a great free scheduling option that connects right to your Google Calendar. You do have one of those, correct?
- Back to that content. Focus your emails on unique ideas that will resolve their concerns. If you’re a caterer, what are some different ways to feed 150+ guests without them having to wait in long buffet lines? If you’re a DJ, what are some alternatives to the standard bouquet and garter toss routines? Be specific and creative.
- Schedule the campaign so that it is a disruptor, not an aggravator. Besides making sure that there is an unsubscribe option for the subscriber, test the length of time between emails. Stephanie Padovani of com suggests that “generally, 1-3 emails per week is a good place to start for staying top of mind with potential clients.”
Create a Campaign for Paying Clients
If you really want to be an email superstar by building relationships with your clients while giving yourself a break, create an email campaign for your clients too.
Help guide them through the planning process with timely emails that educate, inform, and support them in their efforts to create the best wedding possible. As a DJ, I send out emails to set up planning meetings, an email providing vendor suggestions, and even an email with an inappropriate toast along with tips on how to prevent it at their wedding.
What can you provide your clients during the months from booking to performing?
Create meaningful messages. Develop campaigns. Deliver exceptional service.
Some resources to get you started:
Aweber – a paid service starting at $19/month with dedicated help and personalized template creation
MailChimp – the free email automation service where you customize everything
Drip – a service created by the folks at Leadpages and can connect directly to your Leadpages account
Outstand – an email marketing service that helps you create branding emails, postcards, giftcards, etc.
Eric Herod is a certified Wedding Entertainment Director® and owner of Eric Herod Entertainment, a full-time mobile DJ business dedicated to helping couples in Virginia and across the country create legendary weddings that make guests laugh, cry, and dance their tails off.
