The wedding industry is one of the most popular fields to enter. After all, with the chance to work with awesome vendors and newlyweds, who doesn’t want to be a part of making someone’s special day become a dream come true? However, breaking into the wedding business can be tough, especially as a blogger.
While it’s going to take quite a bit of hard work, becoming a wedding blogger can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Not only do you get to partner with some amazing people and companies, but you also get the chance to genuinely contribute to one of the most memorable days of someone’s life. If this is a path you’re interested in pursuing, here are a few helpful tips to get you started.
Keep Your Content Consistent
This is something that rings true for nearly any blogger; keeping content consistent is going to be crucial if you want to be successful. While that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to produce long-form interviews or even vendor profiles every day just because you did a couple of features, you do need to update regularly and try to stick to the program as much as possible to stay relevant with your audience and boost your SEO rankings. Fortunately, this doesn’t need to be as strenuous as you might imagine.
According to Impact Bound, approximately 43 percent of people admit to skimming blog posts. What we can infer from this is that for your blog, the first step should be getting those people to stay on your page. If you know people are most likely going to be skimming your materials, you can also provide more visually-heavy content and employ other tricks to help retain their attention. In order to accomplish this goal, you’ll need an extensive amount of planning.
Create a calendar of what you’re going to post and when, with the goal of at least a couple of posts per week. Try to vary this up between different components of your wedding blog, including partners you might be working with, tips on wedding preparation, or even just some venue locations you like. While this process might seem a little overwhelming at first, with enough practice, you’ll be blogging away and creating plenty of content in no time.
Become A Master of Social
Perhaps the most common place for new couples and the wedding industry to meet, social media is one of the best tools you have at your disposal as a blogger. According to Social Media Today, approximately 40 million people use Pinterest to plan their wedding, which proves that social media is the primary place for newly engaged couples to do market research. If your blog is trying to grow its audience, attacking these platforms head-on is key.
If you haven’t already, set up accounts for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. While your audience will vary for each, I’d recommend going after Instagram and Pinterest first, since the visual aspect of wedding planning is a huge selling point and these platforms prioritize visual content the most. Try to make your blog content and social posts run concurrently, with your social promoting whatever blog topic you have. Finally, don’t be afraid to post more than you would on your personal account, as getting the word out more often is vital.
Find Quality Partners
The wedding industry is all about relationships (no pun intended), so the potential partnerships you form as a blogger will be imperative to building trust with your audience. Whether it be someone who can make a custom bridal gown direct-to-consumer or a fantastic vegan caterer, establishing these relationships will showcase your brand as a blogger and showcase new and exciting changes to the industry. Plus, the more clout you build as an influencer, the more you can start charging affiliates who want to work with you.
According to a survey by Tomoson, for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, a company sees $6.50 in return. While you might not be able to produce numbers like that right off the bat, try to find a quantifiable ROI for your partners. The overarching goal is to provide mutual value between you and your partners, which could eventually be the main source of revenue for your blog.
Don’t Forget About Mobile
Finally, although it sounds simple, don’t forget to make sure your blog is optimized for mobile. According to TechCrunch, people spend approximately 5 hours per day on their phones, which is a vast audience to capture. With many of your followers coming from social media, your site needs to not just fit on mobile, but be an experience people will enjoy from their smartphone. Take a look at the feel of your mobile site, as well as how the flow of information goes. Does it encourage interaction and engagement? Test different models and ask for feedback; whether you blog about how to juggle marriage debt with other responsibilities or have the latest intel on wedding trends, you want to make your blog an experience people will want to come back to.
What are some strategies you’ve implemented to start a successful wedding blog?
