Paid Listings – Are They Worth It For Wedding Planners?

WHAT’S INSIDE THIS EPISODE:

• 2:00 – The dangers of investing too early. Are you truly ready for a listing? What I believe you should do first!
• 2:55 – The reasons why you need to research the competition and volume of your city before you invest.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Snag my FREE WEDDING PLANNER LAUNCH GUIDE to find out the exact steps to follow to start your wedding planning business.
• Are you interested in joining the CHANCEY CHARM PLANNER LEAD GENERATION PROGRAM? Learn more + apply here: https://www.chanceycharmweddings.com/wedding-planner-referral-program-application/

TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE:

Hi friend. My name is Sarah. I’m the founder of CHANCEY Charm. I’m so excited you’re here and you don’t know who we are. We’re a national wedding planning and design firm with planners located across the country. I would love to you for you to follow our link below and learn a little bit more about us. 

But today it’s about you because the number one question I get in my wedding planner Facebook group, and honestly, this applies to all wedding pros. I just see it over and over and over again is, are listings worth it? So you’ve got the Knot, and you’ve got listings on local blogs. And are those listings worth it? 

I have two key takeaways that I’m really excited to share with you today.

1. New Planners May Benefit From Waiting on Paid Listings

I have launched over 13 locations. I have paid for ads in 13 locations, listings, whatever. And here’s my best advice. If you’re a new wedding pro, I really wanna caution you on getting a listing, and the reason is you might not be ready yet. 

When you buy this listing, you get on that sales call and they’re like, you need this listing. It’s gonna change your life. You’re gonna get so many inquiries, it just takes this investment to get these leads, and you’re gonna go right off into the sunset. I want you to stop. I want you to think about your business and where you truly are, and if you’re ready for this investment yet. 

I actually have a free guide for new planners, the first five steps to start your wedding planner business. I think it always surprises people what’s in that guide. Because yes, planning and process is an experience, all those things are really great, but what I’m talking about in that guide is my belief that you need to have a brand as you start launching. So you need to kind of know what’s your calling card, what makes you unique.

You need to have a one page web website/page. You need to do some brand images so that you can communicate your vibe to people on Instagram and on your website, and you have a headshot and people can see you and fall in love with you. And all those are the things that I’m recommending people do first, and that’s what I’m gonna recommend you do before you buy a listing and you make that investment.

Because what I’ve seen happen over and over and over again is that wedding planners and providing professionals, they buy that listing, they make that investment, but they weren’t ready. They don’t have the images for their listing. They don’t have clients to ask for reviews for their listing. And so now they bought a listing in Atlanta, Georgia, and they are swimming in a sea of wedding planners who have 30 plus reviews and gorgeous images and all of this stuff. A full description of who they are and what makes them amazing, and so that’s not fair. It’s gonna be really hard for you to get leads in a system that’s rewarding this experience, more experience, more images, more reviews. 

So before you make that investment, are you really truly ready? 

2. Listings Are Most Effective in Small Locations

Now, my other big piece of advice after listing 10 plus locations. I have purchased listings, year long listings in, and what I notice is that in a big city like DC or Atlanta, these listings often fall flat, even for a big brand like Chancey Charm.

But in smaller locations, especially destination locations like Cape Cod, we were able to see a lot of good traction and get a lot of good leads without even having a huge presence of images and reviews and those kind of things, cause it’s a smaller market. So when someone goes to the Knot Cape Cod, they’re gonna see our listing. When someone goes to the Knot Atlanta, they’re not. We all know how that kinda game works.

So I think either find a location where there are not a lot of people listed or finding a listing, there’s a lot of local blogs and stuff where there are not a lot of people listed. Maybe that’s a win for you. 

I actually have my own listing now with Chancey Charm, where I’m promoting a maximum of four planners per location because I was so passionate that if someone’s purchasing a listing with Chancey Charm they can be promoted and be a partner with us. I wanna make sure they’re seen every time someone goes to that location page. I also wanna make sure that they get that lead in their inbox. Every time a lead comes in for a location, I’m actually sending it to all four planners who are in that location. So they all have a chance, they’re all getting leads in their inbox, and it just feels so much better. If you’re interested in that as a planner, would love to have you apply.

There’s an application page on my website under planner partner program. Would love to have you, but I hope and pray really, even if that’s not a fit for you, that today was a win, this video was a win for you, that you feel like you have some clarity on listings and whether or not you are ready for to purchase one on your own.

So I wish you the best blessings. Thanks for joining