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How Peachtree Catering & Events Expanded Into the Venue Business

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“Advertising on The Knot and WeddingWire is our primary form of marketing.”

 

Background and Challenges

Lori and her husband founded Peachtree Catering & Events in 1985. The couple trained as chefs in France and worked in restaurants in Philadelphia before diving into the wedding industry. When the 2008 recession hit, Lori and her husband knew they had to grow their catering business to stay afloat. They decided to venture into venue ownership with on-site catering services, which allowed them to continue spreading their love of food—but, they faced a major roadblock: creating a new brand from scratch and building exposure to book clients from a different customer base.

That’s where advertising on The Knot and WeddingWire came in. “That changed our company completely,” Lori recalls. “Once you get into the venue market, you need to advertise on The Knot and WeddingWire. It’s our primary form of marketing.” Lori tried advertising on several other channels as well, but nothing compared to the strong performance that The Knot and WeddingWire delivered. Over the past year, the three venues have received a combined total of over 7,000 leads.

 

“Our personal website can’t compete with The Knot and WeddingWire’s search engine results.”

 

Solutions

After understanding her goals, WeddingPro helped Lori grow her wedding business through Spotlight memberships on The Knot and WeddingWire. With our easy-to-use tools, she was able to connect with and book hundreds of couples in her local market. Here’s how Lori used each tactic to drive success.

1 | Spotlight Memberships

Lori created unique Storefronts on The Knot and WeddingWire to showcase her work through photos, client reviews, videos and FAQs—making her food and venues come alive for couples. After her Storefronts were set up, she began receiving leads directly from visitors through the easy-to-use contact form.

With the help of the WeddingPro Support team, Lori customized available features and benefits based on her unique business needs, including crafting her business description and curating the photos on her Storefronts. She also uses the analytics provided by The Knot and WeddingWire within her dashboards to track key metrics and results, including the total number of leads her businesses receive and conversion from Storefront visitor to lead.

“We call [the support team] because we’re partners and we’re trying to grow,” says Lori.

 

2 | SEO Power
Lori has leveraged The Knot and WeddingWire’s combined years of SEO power ever since she launched and began growing her numerous venue businesses. When couples start their wedding planning search on Google, The Knot and WeddingWire will come up in higher top-page results as planning tools for them, while pros’ individual business websites may not be as easily visible. Couples will then be led to the virtual marketplaces, where they’ll discover local pros, making the Storefronts of advertisers like Lori hard to miss for any of today’s planning couples.

“The Knot and WeddingWire are going to show up more readily than we are. Our personal website can’t compete with
your search engine results,” says Lori.

 

3 | Reviews on The Knot and WeddingWire

Lori began using The Knot and WeddingWire’s review collector tools to easily request reviews from couples and display them on her Storefronts. 78% of couples find it important to read reviews before deciding which pros to contact, including the couples that work with Lori. Each of Lori’s businesses have won at least one award, including Best of Weddings awards on The Knot and Couples’ Choice Awards® on WeddingWire, helping build trust and credibility among future clients.

 

Results

“We were not going to ditch the marketing dollars during COVID,” says Lori Weinrott, co-owner of Peachtree Catering & Events, a boutique catering firm, and PARQUE, POMME and PORTICO, three venues in the Philadelphia area. Lori saw leads coming in as soon as she began advertising her venues on The Knot and WeddingWire over a decade ago, when she pivoted her business’ focus from catering to venues. Since then, she’s seen major success with all four businesses.

During the pandemic, she trusted The Knot and WeddingWire to support her and her businesses with bookings and timely education and support. All three venues have seen more than a 20% increase in leads in the last year.

“We knew we had to keep advertising [during COVID-19],” she says.

 

About the Pro

Lori Weinrott is the co-owner of Peachtree Catering & Events, a boutique catering firm, and PARQUE, POMME and PORTICO, three venues in the Philadelphia area. Lori has over three decades of experience in the food industry and a passion for providing couples with a once-in-a-lifetime experience. To see Lori’s work, check out her Storefronts on The Knot and WeddingWire and follow her on Instagram @peachtreecatering!

 

Learn More and Grow Your Business
Ready to take your business to the next level? Head to our website to see how WeddingPro can help.

 

Photo Credit: ColorJoy Stock

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