Open Air Business April 2017

FUNCTION VENUES
Start-Up Venue
Marketing
Realistic marketing costs for start–up wedding venues with Isabel Smith
When consulting with start-ups, I often get
asked about marketing costs and how much
should be invested in the various marketing
activities. The truth is, it entirely depends on
the kind of business you are, but before you
even begin to think about marketing costs,
there are some essential steps you need
to take. This process is always the same
regardless of business, industry or sector:
› Create your offering – decide what it is
you’re selling
› Profile your target market – think in
detail about exactly who you are selling to
› Develop your brand – how do you
want your target market to perceive your
company?
› Write the marketing strategy – what will
you do to reach your target market?
Too often a lot of time is spent developing
the product and writing the marketing
strategy with the middle steps being
overlooked, which is a huge mistake. How on
earth can you expect to market effectively if
you haven’t given detailed thought to who
you are selling to?
Profile them down to the finest details;
age and geographical location simply isn’t
enough. Think about what they do for a
living and how they spend their free time.
Find out about their lifestyles, interests
and spending habits. Having a clear
understanding of them will ensure that
you are marketing in the right way and in
the right places, and not wasting precious
marketing resources. After all, a flawless PR
campaign in a national luxury bridal title is
a bit of a waste if your target market is local,
lower spend couples.
The other step which companies skip the
most is creating the brand. You must give
careful thought to your brand identity before
you start marketing. After all, your brand is
the soul and personality of your business.
It is the way people feel about it and, as
such, you want to make sure that everyone
who interacts with the company feels the
way you want them to. Most importantly,
Millennials actually care about brand. The
2016 report on the UK wedding industry
from Splendid Insights (the only wedding
specific marketing research company out
there), shows that a whopping 89 per cent
of couples believe that your portfolio is
important or very important when it comes
to their decision making. The figure jumps to
95 per cent in reference to your personality.
These being key parts of your brand, it just
shows how important it all is.
Getting it right, however, is a big job, so
to reflect that desired feeling in potential
clients you’ll want to hire a professional
branding agency to build a branding
package. The agency will work alongside
you to get an understanding of your
business and present you with mood boards
displaying a range of logo ideas, typography
styles, imagery and colour palettes from
which to base all your marketing. The costs
for branding agencies obviously vary – the
best in the business can charge upwards
of £10,000 for their services – but there are
many start-ups and mid-range agencies
(often set up by experts from those larger
agencies) offering more affordable services.
So, do take your time to shop around for the
best one for you. I recommend spending
between £1,000-£3,000 on this (more if you
are aiming for the luxury market).
OK, so now you’ve got your brand
package together, it’s all about your website.
The purpose of almost all marketing is
essentially to drive more traffic to your
website. You can be the world’s greatest
marketer, attending lots of networking
events and whipping out great PR left, right
and centre, but if your website is pants
(outdated, off brand, difficult to navigate or
missing key information), you’re going to
lose out on business.
To get those bookings flowing, your
website will need the following elements:
› A consistent brand (obviously) – You will
have already bought this from your branding
agency – images, typography and logo
should be all in line with your agreed brand
and ready to go.
› Flawless copy – Content should be well
drafted with no spelling or grammatical
errors as well as informative to the client.
Include relevant information such as
location, facilities, approximate pricing
and the flow of space. If you are dry hire,
include which suppliers you work with.
This can be a DIY project and even if you’re
not the greatest writer. Look at websites of
similar venues and what type of content
they include. Don’t plagiarise, just take
inspiration.
› Great build with intuitive navigation
– This is where you spend. Costs vary
depending on the functionality of your
website – e-commerce or live availability
calendars will be more complex to build and
the costs will reflect that. But the chances
are that a static website – one which can
exhibit your photos and display all your
well-written copy – will suffice. You may also
consider installing a blog function (blogging
is great for SEO!).
› SEO forethought – I highly recommend
reading SEO 2017 & Beyond, by Dr Andy
Williams. This book will give you enough
insight into the subject of SEO that you can
discuss your needs with your web developer
and make sure you are covering the basics.
From there, for a while at least, you can
manage all your SEO yourself, maybe
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