Even in this age of social media, email marketing should still be an important part of your strategy. In this first of a series, we look at the why and what of using email to build your business.

Why should you use email marketing?

Done well, email marketing is very cost-effective and can be used to both convert prospects to customers and increase sales from existing customers.  It reminds your contacts that you are there and what you can do for them.

Used badly and it will annoy your customers - and you risk “featuring” on their blog for hundreds of other potential customers to read.

What are the different ways to use emails in your wedding business?

1. Day to Day Customer Communications

Chances are you will be exchanging emails with your prospects and customers at some time whether you are following up an initial meeting or confirming final details.
It’s easy to think of these as “just emails” but remember that every communication you make is important. Make sure you are polite and professional at all times. You wouldn’t turn up to meet a client in dirty clothes so don’t send emails that are carelessly worded and badly spelled.

2. Follow up emails to prospects and clients

Emails can be a very effective way of following up prospects and also of keeping in touch with clients, particularly if there is some time between initial booking and the wedding day. A planned series of communications will help you maximise your conversion of leads to clients and boost revenue from them.

3. Newsletter

A newsletter  is a regular email which can contain news, articles, updates, promotions etc.  This is particularly suited to businesses who have other products and services they can promote to their wedding clients – for example hotels, photographers who also do family portraits, florists.

But other wedding professionals can use this too – asking website visitors to sign up to a newsletter is one way of building your prospect list.

Don’t Spam!

We all hate spam emails and so do the ISPs who will soon blacklist you if they think you may be sending too many unwanted emails.

We will discuss building and managing your contact list in more detail a future article but here are some key principles:

• Ask permission before you add any email address to your contact list.
• Always tell people how they can opt out of receiving emails from you.
• Let your contacts know how often they can expect to hear from you.

In Part 2 we will look in more detail at follow up emails.