5 Ways to Get More Referrals from Wedding Pros

Mar 13

Referrals from fellow industry professionals are a huge asset to your business! Many times clients will ask vendors that they’ve already booked to make recommendations for other vendor categories. Having a great relationship with other wedding vendors is key to securing those referrals! In Weddings For Real episode 167, I shared my top five tips for more referrals from fellow wedding professionals.

Develop connections with other wedding pros.

It’s no secret that in 2022, the world is very noisy. People are living in a state of overwhelm and exhaustion, and planning a wedding is frequently a driver of overwhelm and exhaustion. If you want to make true connections to open doors with other wedding pros, you have to stand out from the other introduction emails and DMs. Here’s my tried and true connection strategy:

Make a list of 20 wedding pros you want to build a connection with and get to know.
Begin commenting and engaging on their posts and stories on Instagram. To engage, you can share their stories and reels. You can send them DMs when they share something that resonates with you. Make them pause and wonder who you are and why you are interacting with them.
After several days of engaging, send them a DM to compliment their work. At this time, don’t ask for anything else or expect anything from them. Just be genuinely encouraging of their work!
After a back and forth conversation that stems from your compliment, decide if it feels right to schedule a virtual coffee chat. Have a listen to Weddings For Real episode 165 to hear my recommendations for how to streamline this process of scheduling a chat. When you chat, remember that the ultimate goal is to be interested, not interesting.
After you’ve scheduled a chat with them, I encourage you to find one more way to stand out. Consider sending a small thank you gift before or after the call. If you sell a physical product, send them a sample. Can you partner and offer something to them or their clients for free? Going the extra mile will help you be memorable!

After you’ve used the method above to connect with a fellow wedding pro, I encourage you to write a Google review and a blog post about meeting them. Additionally, if they are a photographer, consider booking a branding photo session. If they own a venue with lodging, consider booking a staycation there. Go above and beyond to cheer for them and stay top-of-mind.

Make communication easy.

When you’re building relationships, it’s important that other people can easily find your name, email, and phone number. When someone visits your website, they should easily be able to find your email address, not just a contact form. If you have a Google business listing, ensure your contact information and current business hours are up-to-date. Additionally, always respond to anyone that has reached out! I recommend returning any correspondence in the way you were contacted. For example, if someone emailed you, email a response. If they called you, call them back. If someone sends you a DM on social media but you prefer to communicate via email, simply respond to the DM and ask them to send an email instead.

It’s important to remove as many hurdles as possible for other vendors to contact you!

Ask the right questions.

Wherever you show up to interact with other wedding industry professionals, whether it be networking events, site tours, or coffee chats, I encourage you to be genuinely interested. Being curious and learning from other vendors will help you make connections.

Here are some of my top questions to ask when connecting with someone new:

How did you get to where you are now in the industry?
What is the most interesting job you’ve had so far?
What is a misconception you hear other professionals have about [insert your vendor type]?

If you are on a site tour, here are a few of my favorite questions to ask:

What would make your life easier when working with [insert vendor type]?
What is a pet peeve of working with [insert vendor type]?
What do you need more of as a venue owner (styled shoots, leads, community events, etc.)?

I recommend that you use these questions to stand out from other pros instead of simply asking, “How can we work together?”

Start your own niche group if you can’t find one that speaks to you.

Hopefully where you’re located there are networking groups you can be a part of to meet like-minded wedding vendors in your area. If there’s not, I encourage you to create your own lane. Surprisingly enough, you don’t need tons of experience to do so. Creating a niche group allows you to take on a leadership role and creates a strong bond with other like-minded wedding pros near you.

Invest in relationship marketing before other forms of marketing.

Every person you meet wants to feel important. I firmly believe that you will succeed in business - and life - if you learn to take that quote to heart. The relationships you make are crucial to your business success. I urge you to find ways to shine the light on other vendors. It will always bring them back to you.

If you’re craving more info on how to get more referrals from wedding professionals, listen to episode 167 of Weddings For Real. Or, if you’re hoping to get on a venue’s preferred list, have a listen to episode 168. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!