Marketing Strategy

Why The Knot and WeddingWire are the Best Advertising Platforms for Wedding Venues

By Tayler Cusick Hollman

Building a successful wedding venue doesn’t happen by chance. It takes strategic growth, thoughtful management, high-touch customer service and a team that is constantly working towards the same goals. And while there are a lot of moving parts involved to stay in perfect alignment, perhaps the one that keeps wedding venue owners, operators and sales teams up at night is the volume of weddings you need to keep on the books. Because running a venue is often a different beast with many layers, like operational costs, staff, sales teams, coordinators and so much more. 

So how do you work to ensure your numbers are always where they need to be? You advertise with The Knot and WeddingWire. Today, we are going to walk you through all the reasons why advertising on both will help you consistently meet your booking goals.

 

Why wedding venues should advertise on The Knot and WeddingWire

It’s incredibly difficult to stand out when your advertisement is mixed in with other types of content or relies on a single line of ad copy to hook potential clients. That’s why advertising with The Knot and WeddingWire is different—with us, you’ll be putting your venue in front of the warmest and highest quality leads in a way that makes it easy to stand out and sell.

 

Did you know?

• In 2021, 89% of planning was done online, with 75% of couples turning to wedding planning sites like The Knot and WeddingWire to research and book pros 
• As couples view Storefronts, they rely on overall review rating (96%), photos (93%) and the total number of reviews (92%) to make their booking decisions

Where else can you advertise your wedding venue and be right in front of couples actively searching for one? Not very many places come to mind, and that’s what makes advertising with The Knot and WeddingWire so incredibly powerful and effective. 

 

With The Knot and WeddingWire, you can also:

• Put your wedding venue in front of couples who are ready to book. The Knot and WeddingWire: 
  • Have 20 million unique monthly visitors
  • Host 9 million reviews
  • Make over 1 million daily pro recommendations to couples
  • Get you consistent wedding leads
• Empower your sales team and save them time
  • Our advertising platform makes it easy to message couples and manage wedding leads directly
  • Have important metrics and ROI (return on investment) data right in front of you, any time you need to reference them
• Collect, manage and showcase your reviews so potential leads can read about past client experiences in the same place they can contact you
• Build brand recognition and credibility because you’re advertising on the most trusted wedding websites in the industry
• Build your SEO and discoverability on the internet with a Storefront on The Knot and WeddingWire
• Get on-demand customer support, education, webinars, events, and more from a company with 40+ years of expertise in the wedding industry

 

Challenges wedding venues face

You have a unique set of challenges as a wedding venue. Below are some examples of common challenges venues face and how advertising can help you move through them and towards your business goals year over year.

 

Challenge #1: Getting in front of couples at the right time

Advertising is most successful when it puts your offering in front of potential buyers at the right time. And what better timing than when an engaged couple is actively searching for wedding venues? 

“I get probably about 75% of my leads from The Knot and WeddingWire, and I think people know to trust [The Knot and WeddingWire] and can find the right venues and vendors that fit their size, budget, what their vision is, and everything in between.” – Ellie Tumlinson, Alida Hotel

 

Challenge #2: ROI

It’s important to report back that your advertising efforts have shown a great return on investment—especially when you’re not just experimenting with a social campaign and a $5 a day budget. The good news is that advertising on The Knot and WeddingWire continues to be more than worth it. 

 

Challenge #3: Converting the number of leads you need to

One of the key factors in how likely a wedding lead is to book is whether or not they were qualified in the first place. But, in addition to simply being an engaged couple looking for a wedding venue, you want your advertisement to attract more ideal couples (read: the couples most likely to book you). Setting up your Storefronts with the images and marketing messages you know they need to see and read can help you catch and convert them.

Pro-tip: Learn more about qualified sales leads for wedding venues. 

 

Challenge #4: WOM referrals

Since many couples book their venues first, you don’t have the same word-of-mouth referrals other vendors do. Sure, you have past couples who can tell their family and friends about you, but it isn’t the same as someone selling on your behalf. That’s why getting your venue in front of couples at the right time is imperative—and is what we’re focused on.

 

Features wedding venues will love

When you start advertising with WeddingWire and The Knot, you get access to tools you and your sales team will come to love and rely on. Wedding venues who already advertise with us cite giving their business exposure to engaged couples, getting inquiries/leads from couples, building credibility and collecting reviews as the top benefits they experience with the platform. Here are some other benefits you can take advantage of on The Knot and WeddingWire:

• 360’ tours to showcase your venue space in a compelling way
• Templated replies to save you time 
• A way to drive quality traffic to your website
• SEO (search engine optimization) that helps you build your brand’s discoverability

“We book over 300 weddings a year and The Knot and WeddingWire are responsible for 37% of those bookings.” Tom Chelednik, Treasury Venue Collection 

 

Ready to consistently have the number of wedding leads you to want without needing to spend tons of time and effort marketing your venue to couples? Simply fill out this form and someone from our team will be in touch to help get your Storefront set up and inquiries coming in!

 

Photo Credit: Anastasiia Chepinska / Shutterstock.com