Entrepreneurship Motivation

3 Simple Tricks To Boosting Your Productivity This Engagement Season

By Sarah Hooper

We all know that wedding business owner who seems to have it all together — great clients, solid social strategy, a seemingly exciting social schedule and tons of great connections in the industry. The key to her superhuman skills? Professional productivity. Even during busy times (aka engagement season – the time between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day when the majority of couples put a ring on it). Here, three no-brainer tricks to boosting your productivity this engagement season. 

1. Edit your boiler plate email responses to inquiries.

How is editing one of your auto-responses helpful to saving you time? Well if you aren’t connecting with potential clients and speaking their language immediately, you’re going to spend a lot of time trying to follow up with them. Your time can be cut in half just by improving your ability to communicate with millennials online.

What To Do: Follow these rules when you’re crafting your auto-responses and replying to all inquiries:

• Be short and to the point (like a tweet or text message)
• Always answer their questions (or at least address them)
• Be personal and congratulatory (so that they feel special and unique)
• Respond quickly (try for 24 hours max)
• End your note with a question that gives them a reason to respond (aka, a call to action)

Tip for the Taking: Before you settle on a response, check your message on a phone. If you have to, send it to yourself first to see what it looks like. Then ask yourself: Can this be shortened and kept more brief? If the answer is yes, cut it down. You’ll be saving yourself time (and more likely to keep the conversation going!).

2. Use your analytics (and think simple yet significant).

The worst thing you could do is to spend time posting to social media, marketing your business, blogging and updating your websites but not tracking your performance. If you’re not taking advantage of your analytics and understanding exactly what’s working and what’s not, you’re probably also spending time on the wrong efforts.

What To Do: Start with these simple steps…

1. On WeddingPro: Log into your account(s) on The Knot Pro and WeddingWire Edu and check your performance metrics on your dashboards. Your storefronts are designed to attract the right couples (as in clients that match your price point and style) through your work (with that big photo carousel!), search engines, an easy-to-navigate design that lets couples discover and reach out to you when they’re on the go (it’s super mobile-friendly) and more. But all that said, if you don’t keep track of what’s working, you won’t see the full potential of your spend. 
2. On your website: Make sure you have access to analytics to your website. (Google Analytics is the most popular.) Monthly or even weekly, take the time to look at your visitors, most popular landing pages, click-throughs and clicks to action (like emailing you or filling out a form on your site). Take note of where you’re not potential drop-offs between those actions and then figure out ways to improve those gaps. For example, maybe you’re getting a lot of clients to view your website but then they’re not taking action. That should signal that you should spend time tweaking your landing page to help couples better understand who you are and what to do next (contact you).
3. On social media: Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest business accounts all provide you with basic analytics. Take note of the most popular pins, most engaged with posts and come up with a strategy that will allow you to do fewer but better posts on social.

Tip for the taking: Every advertiser on WeddingPro has access to their very own strategy specialist. Make an appointment with them to walk through your storefront and analytics. They can vastly help you improve your performance and bring in more quality leads!

3. Block out time for planning and analytics meetings.

Sounds counterintuitive to schedule more meetings but if you are ultra-aware of what’s working for you and what’s not, you’ll find yourself working on the right tasks and none of the wrong ones. In other words, it’s not enough to set it and forget it. You actually have to stay on top of what’s working for you and constant monitor your efforts. 

What To Do: Schedule time for yourself once a week or every other week to actually run through what you did and what happened (the results). Then look for areas to improve and put a plan of attack in place. And if you don’t do it now, also put time on your calendar to schedule out your social media for the following week or several weeks.

Tip for the taking: Spending time networking is one of the secrets to saving you time down the line. Think about it: When you’re in a pinch, if you have a real friend you can call, you’ll save hours. So put yourself out there and work on creating authentic connections with the pros in your area and beyond. You can do this on social media (Instagram and Facebook messenger are great ways to connect). You can also do so in person the old-fashioned way by schedule time for coffee or cocktails to really get to know the industry. 

 

Photo by Sophie Epton Photography