Marketing That Fits Your Niche

When I began to write this post on marketing your business, I kept getting stuck on where to take you next. As I started writing I kept thinking about my experience with print advertising and decided instead to share with you some things I learned about it. Advertising is only one type of marketing activity.

Here's a resource link that defines the terms marketing, advertising, promotions, etc. in a simple way. While they are similar activities, they are distinctly different.

In our two part article on finding your niche, we challenged you with finding the type of client that you want to work with. This exercise should have identified a unique client demographic specific to your passion and talent for wedding planning.

For instance, I LOVE and am passionate about food, family, music and even though I'm a planner...LOVE impromptu gatherings. My ideal couple? They want to spend most of their budget on food and beverage, they care deeply about their family and friends and they want a wedding celebration that makes them feel super comfortable.

They want the music to be fantastic and they aren't so concerned about pomp and circumstance...they just want to have a fun reception. One of my clients hired a couple of streakers (well, not really...they had on bathing suits. The "bride" streaker wore a white bikini and the "groom" streaker wore a black speedo), run through the reception to get the after party started with a bang. Hey...don't believe me? I've got pictures!

Where I target most if not all of my marketing dollars is clearly defined by my ideal couple. I booked some clients from magazine and other print ads but not enough to justify the expense. Now that my business has evolved and my clientele has changed, I don't spend much on print advertising. My ideal client won't necessarily look for a planner by looking through bridal magazines.

Instead I concentrate on marketing my business in other ways...like through my website and blog, networking, social media, etc.

Which of these marketing tools do you struggle with in your business?

Until next time...

Aspire to Plan!