Being a successful wedding event planner is all about standing out. Without having a unique selling point (USP), you simply won't be able to bring in the sales and bookings you need in order to survive.
However, herein lies a major problem: how exactly can you identify your USP when you already find yourself in such a competitive industry?
Well, we're here to help. Join us as we run through a few ideas to help identify that little bit of X factor to take you head and shoulders above your competitors.
Analyse Your Strengths
Whether you’re relatively new to planning weddings or have been doing it for years, ask yourself: why would you choose your agency over somebody else’s? What exactly do you do that’s better than the rest?
If, for example, you have great relationships with a huge array of caterers or bakers across the nation, make this clear to your potential clients.
Alternatively, if you can offer significant discounts on flowers or clothing for the big day thanks to your existing arrangements, make sure to shout about this both online and across social media.
One of the easiest ways to discover what it is you do best also comes from simply asking your clients for a testimonial and going off what they say.
Say, for instance, that a previous client provides feedback that they loved how communicative you were throughout the planning process, that you asked a ton of informative questions, took the stress out of the process, and were always available to offer advice.
These are all areas that make you and your skills as a wedding planner unique, so don’t be afraid to use them to your advantage.
Consider Recent Trends
Trends often come and go, so being able to demonstrate that you can move with the times as a wedding planner is often a unique selling point in itself.
In today’s day and age, for instance, there has been growing popularity of weddings that feature sustainability at their heart, incorporating an ethical supply chain that takes the morality and personal values of each individual client into account.
According to Cry for the Moon, “we have seen a huge increase in demand for wedding jewellery made from ethical materials and second-hand rings. More and more people seem keen to do their bit for the planet nowadays by buying second-hand rather than new, which can only be a good thing.”
So, why not use this growing trend in eco-friendly weddings to your advantage?
By taking a sustainable approach to each aspect of the wedding planning process – from the menus your caterer offers to the event’s venue itself – could help attract clients that share the same ethical values as you do as a business.
Monitor Your Competitors
While you may be looking to get a leg up on your competitors, one of the best ways to find your unique selling point is to look at what they do, and then do it better.
As Michael Wight wrote in his article for Business 2 Community, monitoring your competitors allows you to "benefit from assessing their strategies which have already failed".
He states: "By determining where your competitors went wrong, you can [then] ensure to avoid [making] those same mistakes."
Therefore, don’t be afraid to use your competitors to your advantage. They will likely be going through the same motions as you, trying to source more clients by identifying a unique selling point.
So, make life easy for yourself by looking at the markets they operate in, the promotional campaigns they run and the types of clients they themselves are targeting.
Then, by knowing this information, you will be able to better plan your approach, find your target audience and identify your own USP a lot more easily, reaching untapped markets from right under your competitors’ noses.
Think Outside the Box
It may sound fairly obvious but, when trying to find something unique about your wedding planning business, it’s important to think outside of the box.
Weddings can come in a number of shapes and sizes, after all. So, why not try to pin down a niche and focus on that as your USP?
You could, for example, offer your services to couples that plan on marrying abroad in a particular country. Or alternatively, you could specialise in planning weddings that incorporate a particularly unique theme, such as Disney, Christmas or Harry Potter.
Whatever it is you decide to do, there are a whole host of ways to stand out as a wedding planner. The key thing to remember is to put the needs of your client first; the more you can be seen to be well-organised, passionate, and prepared to go the extra mile for couples, the easier it will be to simply turn ‘offering a high-quality service’ into your USP as a wedding planner.
