A Customer Persona Crash Course for Wedding Planners
There is this unique thing about wedding planners. Because even though the professionals in the industry understand all you bring to the table, the general public doesn’t have a clue. What does a wedding planner do? Should I hire a wedding planner? What’s the difference between a wedding planner and a venue coordinator? We’ve all seen these questions before, and they are an example of exactly my point—no one is asking What does a wedding photographer do?
Your average newly engaged couples don’t understand what you do as a professional wedding planner. And, while that’s a hard pill to swallow, it’s the truth. So, when it comes to how you are going to market your business (and fill your calendar with people who truly see the value of your expertise), you can’t just go out there and try to connect with anyone and everyone—you need to do out there and connect with your ideal couples.
That’s because your ideal couples get it. They get you. They get your value. They. Just. Get. It. And because they do, they are the easiest and most fun to work with. But how are you supposed to find and attract these best-fit customers to your wedding planning business? Well, it starts by deeply understanding who they are as people—it starts by creating a detailed customer persona. And how to do just that is exactly what we’re going to focus on from here on out.
What is a customer or buyer persona?
There can be a long definition for just about anything, but we’re going to keep it simple. A customer persona (or buyer persona) is a detailed description of your best-fit couple for a particular service you provide—more on that later. And, as basic or duh as this might sound, a customer persona isn’t really a customer persona unless it is documented (read: doesn’t just live as some ideas in your head).
What an ideal customer profile should include
Like most things in life, there is more than one way to go about creating an ideal customer profile (or an ideal client avatar if you know it as that), but there are key elements that a good one includes—regardless of how you’re going about documenting it. Here is the quick list:
A photo and a name
Basic demographics
A problem statement
A solution statement
But let’s dive into the problem and solution statements because this is the part most wedding planners skip. Maybe they skip it because they didn’t know it’s something to include. Maybe they skip it because they don’t know how to answer the questions that are being asked here. But you? You’re going to nail this part and be able to differentiate yourself because of it!
When you’re thinking about the problem your couples are having, you should think about it in terms of what’s motivating them to look for a wedding planner. And, no, they need to plan a wedding, don’t have time to do it themselves, or don’t know where to start are not actually their problems. There is something deeper that is really motivating them to look for a wedding planner—and finding this answer and building your marketing around it can be transformative for your business.
Pro-tip: A lot of marketing is a practical application of psychology, and this is the perfect example. Take some time to really think deeply about this, and if you don’t know where to start…psst…your inquiry emails are a great place to look.
Which brings us to the solution statement. And just like you need to think far beyond the easy answer for your problem statement, you need to do the same here. What is the real solution you are providing to your couples that is directly related to the reasons they are reaching out? Because it’s not providing expert and professional planning services.
How many customer personas should you have as a wedding planner?
This is a question I get asked a lot because most wedding planners make an assumption about this. And that assumption is they only need to build out 1 customer persona. But the truth is, you need to build out a customer persona for each of your services because each of your services is solving a different problem. (Light bulb moment, yeah?) So, if we are talking about common wedding planning services, each of these would need to have its own persona:
Wedding coordination or management
Partial planning
Full-service planning (single day vs. multi-day events)
Destination wedding planning
Pro-tip: You can build out your customer persona in something like a Google Doc but you can also do it in Enji—which is great because it ties them to your marketing strategy and our AI copywriter! Here’s what it would look like in Enji.
How to market to your ideal customer persona
Once you’ve gone through the exercise of building your ideal customer personas, it’s time to put them to work! (Like, don’t let them die on your computer because you buried them somewhere, never to be seen again.) And when it comes to how you can level up your marketing to really attract these best-fit couples, there are a few things you can do.
Make notes to your brand voice to ensure you’re “reading the room” and speaking to each person in the appropriate tone and style
Update your website copy to address the problems you know potential clients are having and position yourself as the person with the solution
Plan and create social media content around what each persona needs to see, hear, and feel before reaching the point where they are ready to inquire
There you have it—your customer persona crash course for wedding planners! Your next step is to complete this exercise and organize your thoughts and notes somewhere they won’t get lost. And if you’re looking to make this just one step you take in really leveling up your marketing, you can create your customer personas in Enji—along with all the other things you need to plan, organize, and do your own marketing as a wedding planner!
