Wedding Venue Management Software - Wedding Venue Websites Part 2

EVENT TEMPLE EDUCATION

WEDDING VENUE

WEBSITES! PART 2

A STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON CREATING A BETTERÂ WEBSITE THAT GETS AMAZING RESULTS.

BY BOB GRAHAM, EVENT TEMPLE

contents 6) POPUPS 7) PLATFORM TO USE 8) FINAL NOTES 9) WEBSITE CHEATSHEET 10) RESOURCES

06 C H A P T E R

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Step 6 - Popups Unfortunately, not everyone who visits your website is going to fill out your contact form and become an inquiry. That’s a big problem for you because you still are paying for the traffic. Whether you are doing Adwords, SEO, Facebook Ads, or using platforms like The Knot, WeddingWire, etc, you are paying for every visitor who finds your website, either in money or in time.

So, each visitor who comes to your website and then leaves without either becoming an inquiry or giving you their email is a missed sales opportunity.

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The best thing to do is to encourage visitors who come to your site to become an inquiry and to get them on a phone call, or to a tour, etc. If that isn’t possible though, you still want to capture their email. By having their email you will be able to send them a series of emails every couple of weeks in the months leading up to their wedding.

By gently offering them value over time, you will stay top of mind and will build a relationship with them as an expert. In order to do this though, you need to capture their email.

Every website visitor is likely to stay on your site for only a few seconds, then leave.

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So you’ll want to capture their emails with some kind of compelling offer using a popup email opt in form. We’ve found a great free solution with some reasonably priced addons at Mailmunch.co. Mailmunch is our recommendation because it’s very easy to setup your email form using their visual editor.

You can write your own offers, choose your own design and colors and set it up in seconds. You also only need to paste a single line of code into your website’s header and their popup will be embedded in your site.

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You can also setup Mailmunch to work with Mailchimp. Then, when someone fills out your Mailmunch popup form to enter a contest, etc, they will automatically start getting your pre-written emails scheduled to go out over the following weeks and months.

Mailmunch can also see when a visitor is leaving your website and choose to display the popup to them before the go back to google, which is very powerful. Now, instead of just having the visitor leave, you’ll have one last chance to target them.

As we mentioned, Mailmunch is free and then very reasonably priced if you’d like to use their more advanced features or premium templates and it’s quite easy to learn and setup.

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If you’d like to learn more about email marketing to brides, we recommend www.bookmorebrides.com and their course called the Automatic Expert.

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07 C H A P T E R

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Step 7 - Platform For venue websites we recommend wordpress. Wordpress is great because you can edit the content of the pages on your site yourself. It also comes with built in blogging functionality so that you are able to update your site with case studies, style shoots and other relevant information brides might be interested in, in the form of blogs as time goes on. As well, wordpress comes with the Wordpress Yoast SEO plugin which will enable you to see how each of your pages score for wordpress on page SEO optimization.

If your score isn’t great, you can find a wordpress on-page SEO expert on www.upwork.com for a reasonable rate.

Optimizing your web pages for SEO is a one-time task and once it’s set, you are ready to go.

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Additionally, wordpress makes it very easy to add in the contact form from Event Temple by copy and pasting a single line of code. It also works well with Mailmunch which we recommended so far.

Wordpress is very SEO friendly, is a stable platform and is a global standard for high quality, professional websites. We also recommend an SSL certificate as sites with them have proven to rank higher in google in our research.

An SSL certificate is about $150-$200 and tells Google that your site is secure.

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08 C H A P T E R

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Step 8 - Final Notes The last tip we have for you when getting your venue’s website built and/or redesigned is not to overthink it. Essentially you want 4-5 pages. You want to show and not tell. Use video, photo, art and typography that showcases your brand. Hire a designer who can bridge the gap between art and conversion.

We recommend www.arttribecreative.com.

Utilize a contact form like the one Event Temple provides so that inquires go right into your sales pipeline. Track which leads are from which advertising you are doing using UTM parameters.

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Event Temple’s form also does this automatically. Capture emails using a tool like mailmunch and send them an email marketing sequence. Don’t put your price on your website. Make it easy for them to contact you. Show your personality, history and brand. Show off your gallery and focus on results of what real weddings look like.

Lastly, don’t have an ego with your website.

Great brands (venues included) are simple to understand. Consider Nike’s “Just Do It. You picture someone sweating, running and accomplishing a goal. What mental pictures does your venue invoke? Figure out your differentiator and highlight it in the simplest way possible. Then, hire a trusted expert to make that differentiator come to life. Invest in photography, videography and aerial footage of your venue.

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But most of all keep it simple. A new website can be planned out, designed and launched in under 3-4 weeks if done properly. Keep a few pages and focus on showing off your venue, answering the main questions and maximizing inquiries and capturing emails. Don’t worry too much about SEO. It’s best to set it and forget it. I highly recommend our e-book for other marketing techniques that have been shown to help venues.

Simplicity, beauty and maximizing conversion is the key. Connect with potential customers emotionally, capture their information and move the maximum number of visitors into your sales process.

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Finally, feel free to ask an expert. You are welcome to contact us if you have questions about your venue’s website.

We also recommend chatting with Book More Brides or Art Tribe Creative should you have additional questions or concerns.

Stick to the basics and you are set.

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09 C H A P T E R

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Resources: www.eventtemple.com -Add our form to your site -Automatically track advertising -Get an email when you get an inquiry -Automatically sync leads from your contact form to our pipeline -Reply to leads in a personalized way automatically -Follow up with leads without even logging in via email and text www.mailmunch.co -Add a popup to your site -The popup can trigger when people are leaving your site -Sync with Mailchimp to start your automation sequence 18

www.mailchimp.com -You will need to update to get access to their automation features -Write 5-10 pre-made emails to build a relationship and show you are an expert to potential inquiries -Trigger the mailchimp automation when a potential bride enters her email www.bookmorebrides.com -Learn more about using email marketing to book brides -Learn what specifically goes into your email marketing messaging -Gain assistance in how to position your venue as an expert

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www.arttribecreative.com -Our recommended web designers for venues -Understand the intersection of art, design and conversion optimization -SEO friendly wordpress sites -Understand how to embed Mailmunch and Event Temple into their sites -Heavy focus on simplicity, conversion and beauty -History of delivering for clients we’ve made recommendations to Yoast -Wordpress SEO plugin -Paid and free versions -Gives you an SEO scorecard so you can see if your site is optimized or not

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www.upwork.com -Find on-page SEO experts -Get wordpress technical assistance for SEO -Affordable, rated experts overseas Wordpress -Our recommended platform for your website -Don’t use wordpress.com -Use wordpress.org (your web designer will know this) -Get a custom design that suits your brand (avoid templates) -Keep it simple

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10 C H A P T E R

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Website Cheatsheet 4 Pages -Home Page -Gallery -About -Pricing/Contact Us -Blog (Optional) Platform -Wordpress -Add on the wordpress plugin calles Yoast Contact Form -Put on every page -Use www.eventtemple.com’s form -You’ll need an Event Temple account (you can design the form yourself inside the account and send the line of code to your developer) -Copy and paste it onto every page on the site 23

Popup Email Capture Form -Use Mailmunch -You’ll need a Mailmunch account (you can design the form yourself inside the account and send the line of code to your developer) -Have one call to action (like a contest or something exciting) -Start just by setting it up (you can connect it to Mailchimp yourself later) SEO -Get someone to help you with on-page optimization using www.upwork.com -Pick a keyword to target on your homepage (we recommend “city + wedding venues” so if you are in Seattle it would be “Seattle Wedding Venues”

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Web Designer -Choose one who is artistic and can capture your brand voice and image -Utilize photos and videos wherever you can -Show, don’t tell whenever possible -Put the contact form on every single page -Use less text if possible -Showcase how weddings look using your gallery Email Marketing -Take the course over at Book More Brides called Automatic Expert -They’ll show you how to setup email marketing, the emails and the PDFs that go with them -Use email marketing to turn visitors to your site into bookings

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Event Temple E-Book -Download the e-book "How To Increase Bookings At Your Venue" -Learn how to maximize leads to your website -We cover all of the foundations on how to increase your advertising Final Note: Once your website is setup to maximize traffic into leads, it’s time to work on your lead generation. For that, we recommend our e-book which is based on our work researching and learning from hundreds of venues and vendors in teh wedding and event industry. After you have a steady stream of traffic and high performing website, please get in touch with us at www.eventtemple.com

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We’ll show you how to turn the maximum number of leads you have into bookings and then how to manage your events in the most efficient, automated way possible to maximize your time and revenue.

If you found this guide helpful, please share it on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and with other venues. Our goal is to help as many hotels and venues as possible to increase their wedding business and to win in the market. I hope you enjoyed this ebook. Please feel free to get in touch with us anytime at info@eventtemple.com Sincerely, Bob Graham CEO Event Temple 27

EVENT TEMPLE EDUCATION