Can Instagram really help wedding venue owners book more weddings? ABSOLUTELY! According to venue owner feedback in the Wedding Venue Owners & Managers Community on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook are still the top two social media platforms producing qualified leads. So, how do wedding venue owners use Instagram to reach their target audience (engaged couples) and get that audience to engage with the venue in hopes of booking a tour and booking the venue? Here is a short, simple guide to help you get started, improve your social media methods and improve engagement. I am focusing mostly on Instagram here but you can certainly use this tips for your other social media platforms. This is a short guide, I did not go into great detail in order to keep the information simple and easy. For a more detailed discussion on strategies your Facebook or Instagram, message me at didi@weddingvenueowners.com. I have provided 16 Wedding Venue Instagram Tips plus several Instagram posts to get you started (scroll down), that should be at least 20 valuable IG .
- Post consistently: post everyday and make sure the content is appealing to your audience. I recommend 2 posts a day during peak times.
- Pay attention to the days of the week and time of the day you get a great response, poor response, use this to set your content posting schedule. Then on a slow day (what’s that…LOL) schedule 2 to 4 weeks of posts accordingly.
- Switch up your post types: single image, video, carousel, reels, live. Again, this is why a 30 day social media schedule is important.
- Write down your wedding venues top ten features that couples love (the view, the swing, the pond, the staircase…..) and then rotate images that showcase those top ten (or more) venue features.
- Write down your top 10 venue policies/value added items that help you book couples (only $500 deposit, flexible payment plan, all inclusive, Friday night included, bride/groom suites included, 300 chairs/10 tables included, etc…) and post about those policies/services in a rotation. Keeping content fresh, relative, informative and of direct interest to your target audience. This is the type of information that leads prospective clients through your conversion process.
- Post about your town or city! Destination weddings will never increase in your market unless wedding industry pros are active in showing how beautiful and fun their city is to get married in. A great example of this is Luray VA. This charming little town’s wedding community is very active on social media increasing the demand for weddings in that town. High demand, short supply = wedding COMMUITY success!
- WEDDING HASHTAGS: Use city/location hashtags, use hashtags that name something in the image your audience is looking for. Sometimes and obscure hashtag can bring you the most direct connection where as a hashtag with millions of followers might not be as impactful as you thing. Most experts now recommend about 13 hashtags per post. I have no data on whether adding hashtags in the original post or in the comments works best. So, I recommend a variety of both to get your own data.
- If you need content ideas, look at what the wedding photographers & wedding planners with a large following in your area are posting and when. If they have over 1000 followers & their posts are getting likes and comments, then use that page as inspiration for your posts.
- Share your recommend vendors content on your social pages (make sure you credit/tag). This helps you increase your relative content, develop vendor partner relationships, maintain brand and keep content fresh & engaging. This helps develop & strengthen vendor relationships as well. Some venues have a “vendor spotlight” day of the week.
- DO NOT GO MIA!! You must be consistent. If you don’t have the time to maintain your social media, outsource it. I help wedding venue owners with their social media accounts but there are also lot of resources for social media support (intern, college students, stay at home moms who love social media work). On average you will pay $20 to $25 per hour for quality social media support. My social media marketing fees start at $500 a month.
- When I pull up an IG or FB business page & see that the last post was months ago, I get the impression that the venue is overwhelmed with workload, short staffed OR they are out of business. Having an abandoned social media page is a red flag for prospective clients.
- Make sure your social media links work on your website on every page! I visit hundreds of websites every week and very often find that the links don’t work or they don’t open in a new browser. Make sure your links open in a new browser so that couples don’t lose your website, you want them in your site for as long as possible.
- Don’t cover your gorgeous images in text. I love using Canva but LESS is more when it comes to text in your images. Sometimes its necessary but try to keep texty images few and far between.
- Use your website as a social media content guide. Pull your site up at the same time you are scheduling posts. Look through your site to see the content your couples will see when they visit your site. Use that content on your social posts. For example, go to your FAQ’s, choose one a week and use that week to elaborate on that FAQ. EXAMPLE: Are dogs allowed at the venue? If yes, posts lots of cute wedding dog pics.
- Live streaming, Reels, IG Live, IGTV, FB Live – all of these are a must. I will go into more detail in upcoming blogs but you just can’t ignore the power and impact of live stream, video for social media impact. This will absolutely make your venue stand out & social platforms will reward you for using these options, they will give you more visibility.
- FINALLY – and this is a big one…Create posts that increase engagement. If you just post lovely images, that is ok but posts that get your couples and prospective couples to engage with you is the key to social media success and conversion! How do you create posts that increase engagement? ASK YOUR AUDIENCE ABOUT THEIR WEDDING PLANNING EXPERIENCE! They want to share everything about their experience from the proposal to the cake tasting to what they are dreaming about for their honeymoon. Make your social media more about your customers experience and you will improve your engagement significantly. I have some fun ideas for you below on increasing engagement.
One of the best things you can do to grow your business successfully is to connect with other successful wedding venue owners! Join us on an upcoming WEDDING VENUE OWNERS WORKING VACATION! The best wedding venue education you can get is directly from other successful wedding venue owners.
I created some quick Instagram posts from Canva (super easy app you can use to create & edit). These are very simple and designed to get your couples engaging with you on Instagram. I used a basic background and text but you can create short videos, animate text to grab attention. You could create a 10 second video in front of your venue asking the questions below, that would be fun and video often does better than a still image. I just kept it simple in hopes that these will inspire you to create posts that increase engagement and lead to booked weddings. **If you use one of the images below, just make sure your next posts are pretty images with no text in the image. The Canva posts I created would be great for a once a week advertising post designed to increase engagement. So, you can certainly use one of the images below but make sure you either carousel it with pretty images or post pretty images before and after. There are few things uglier than in IG page overloaded with texty images.
People love to share their experiences and talk about themselves. So ask your Instagram audience fun, light hearted questions they can’t resist answering. When you ask the right questions, some will stop just to read the comments. I would recommend posting your engagement content with an add.
A BIG Texas shout out to Humble Hall, a new wedding venue in Rhome Texas making a big impact on their social media pages! Their content is a mix of fun, beautiful, unique, engaging and consistent. I predict that this Texas wedding venue Instagram page will be growing quickly and increasing wedding bookings for Humble Hall! PLEASE Head over to their Instagram page to comment, like and follow!
