April 22, 2025 • 38 mins
Ever published a blog post that disappeared into the internet void, never to be seen again? You're not alone. In this eye-opening conversation with Adriana Mott, founder of wedding marketing agency Ava and the Bee, we uncover how one strategic blog post helped a client book a $15,000 wedding—and how you can do it too.
Adriana brings a unique perspective as someone who's walked in your shoes. Before founding her agency, she ran a successful wedding planning, floral design, and bridal boutique business. She learned blogging strategy through necessity, not theory, watching her website outrank established competitors who had been in business for decades.
The shocking truth? Most wedding pros completely misunderstand what makes blogs effective. It's not just about beautiful images (though they help). We dive deep into what Google actually wants, why you should limit your photo count, and the strategic keyword research that helps couples find you. Adriana breaks down her step-by-step formula for creating blogs that convert browsers into buyers—including exactly what questions to ask clients to generate compelling content.
But perhaps the most valuable insight is learning how to repurpose one well-crafted blog into weeks of content across multiple platforms. Stop creating content that dies after one post! Adriana shows how to transform a single wedding feature into Instagram captions, sales materials, and nurturing emails that potential clients actually want to receive.
Whether you've tried blogging without success or avoided it entirely, this episode provides the practical framework you need to turn this underutilized marketing channel into a client-booking powerhouse. Ready to make your blog work harder for your wedding business? This is the strategy you've been missing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi everyone and welcome back to the Wedding
Empires podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Ben and my name is Jack Bowie.
Welcome back to Wedding Empires, where we're always giving you
something new to learn andmarket and grow your wedding
business.
If you guys have ever thoughtthat blogging sounds nice, but
does it really work?
Well, not alone.
We've all been there, benincluded.
(00:26):
Yes, very much.
But what if I told you, ben,that one post could help you
book a fifteen thousand dollarwedding, which, oh my god, I
would be so excited.
You'd still be listening, allright?
Well, today we're going to bejoined by the incredible adriana
mott, who is the founder of Avaand the Bee, which is an
(00:47):
incredible full-servicemarketing agency that works
exclusive with wedding pros.
She's not just a strategist.
She's been a wedding planner, aflorist and a bridal boutique
owner, so she gets the industrythe overwhelm and, most
importantly, she knows whatactually works.
So we're going to talk aboutblog strategy, not stress the
(01:07):
key keywords that you need toknow to turn up for search, and
a step-by-step walkthrough inhigh converting, real wedding
posts and how one blog can fuelyour entire content strategy
across platforms.
So let's get into it.
Welcome, brie.
Hey Adriana, how are youplatforms?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So let's get into it.
Welcome Brie.
Hey Joanna, how are you Good?
I am really excited because Iknow this is a topic that I feel
like every vendor has triedblogging at least once in their
tenure, but most of the timethey hate it or it's not working
.
So I'm really excited to kindof open up some of that stuff
for you guys today.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Can I just jump in and say it's for me it's
definitely not working.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Okay, how often?
Okay, we'll dive into that, butI would love to hear what
you're doing and we can maybetroubleshoot it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Nothing.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Great, yeah, that's.
That might be it.
I think we solved it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yep Problem solved.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, look, let's take a step back.
Let's find out first, how didyou kind of make the transition
from wedding planner to runningyour own marketing agency?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, it's kind of wild.
So I've always worked in thewedding industry.
I'm one of those weirdos whogot started in high school and
drank the Kool-Aid and was like,well, this is my job now, and
so to pay for college, I workedin retail.
I originally was going to be anaccessory designer.
I was like I went to school forhat making, so I went to school
for millinery.
So in my wide eyed dreams I waslike I'm going to be an
(02:33):
accessory designer.
And, long story short, instead,what I did was my senior year.
I opened with another person, awedding planning, floral and
bridal boutique company.
So we did all three and I didthat for many years, obviously,
and then I hit burnout.
Like most wedding vendors, Iworked seven days a week.
I just did not care about mypersonal health because my life
(02:55):
was revolved 24-7 around weddingindustry and had, honestly,
just a breakdown of like.
I got to do something else.
So I sold my business in 2017.
And I got started in themarketing.
Just simply I know before thiswe had talked a bit, you had
reached out when I was a virtualassistant and it really just
started because all of myfriends were vendors.
They all needed help.
I knew how to do all the stuffthey needed because I had done
(03:18):
it for my own business and wehad grown it so successfully.
And so even the B just kind ofhappened because my friends just
kept hiring me and now we'vehelped over 300 wedding vendors
since 2018.
So it started with just ahandful of vendor friends and
now I have a team.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Wow.
So, adriana, why did bloggingbecome such a core part of your
marketing strategy, for bothyourself and your clients?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
marketing strategy for both yourself and your
clients.
Yeah, so blogging was one ofthose things that.
So I um started blogging inhigh school.
I had, um, like a Tumblr.
I had a blog.
I thought it was a blogger,right.
That was like back in 2009 whenyou thought that that was like
the next big thing, like I wasgoing to be a blogger.
So I was always like blogging,but for like myself as personal,
and so I was always writing andjust didn't think too much of
(04:07):
it as a marketing strategy untilthe company that I opened, and
that was because we needed totry to fill people in the door a
lot.
So with retail, you need a tonof people to come through the
door and we were brand new.
None of us me and the otherowner we did not go to school
for this so we were like, whatdo we do?
And as we're researching whatSEO is because we literally
(04:28):
didn't know what that even meantwe just kept seeing people
saying if you blog, they willcome.
If you blog, they will come,it'll work.
And we taught ourselves it andit worked, and it worked kind of
scarily fast.
Before we knew it, we wereoutranking competitors who had
been in the market space for 10,15 years and they were like
what are these literally20-year-olds doing with such
(04:51):
online presence already?
And the answer was we wereblogging twice a week for years
and it worked.
So I saw the magic of it thenand then, when I started doing
it for clients, I saw how wecould strategize it, because I
think the biggest thing withblogging was no one was really
doing it right.
They were just throwing uppictures and then being like
whoa, it's me, it doesn't work,or no one reads my blogs.
(05:14):
And for me it was like beingable to figure out that puzzle
of like well, how can thisstrategy continue to work like
it did for my own business?
How can we duplicate it for allthese other vendors to work
like it did for my own business?
How can we duplicate it for allthese other vendors?
And to this day, there has notbeen a single vendor type.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I have not gotten it to work for, so it works with
all vendor types.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow, that's a good track record.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I'd like to hear, though, how the hell does one
blog turn into a $15,000 wedding?
Yeah, so the first thing wehave to remember is that couples
use Google to search and thebiggest misconception around
blogging is simply I'm tooluxury for that.
Unless you are at the five to600,000 us mark, then it might
be maybe not quite like we canget it to work, but I wouldn't
want you to do it as much Like Iwould be like six blogs a year.
(06:02):
Everybody else which is aboutwhat 99% of the industry is is
doing weddings at the under halfa million mark.
It works and it's because weknow literally.
There's statistics, there's data, there's polls that are run
that show that couples findvendors on Google.
We know it's consistentlyhappening.
Even more, we know Reddit is abig thing, and so how it works
(06:24):
is it really comes down tohaving a good blogging strategy.
So not just posting images justposting pictures isn't going to
book you a multi hundredthousand dollar wedding.
That's not going to work.
It's really about how can wehave a well-written blog post,
how can we tell a story butexplain our services as an
expert, how can we highlightother vendors, which is a big
(06:46):
part of the strategy, as we haveto also talk about playing in
the sandbox like friends and howdo we optimize it to get in
front of the audience that'ssearching for those things.
So for this client inparticular, it was based off of
a venue.
So we were able to target anewer opening venue, get an
exclusive access, look behindthe scenes of the venue, and
(07:07):
then they were able to rank forthat venue before anyone else
had even touched it.
So there's ways we can kind ofget in there and get up on
searches before everyone elsejumps on it.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, so that's well okay.
So what do most wedding prosget wrong when it comes to
blogging A few things Like,apart from like me just posting
photos and going well, it's notworking.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, so it's not just about pictures,
unfortunately.
So a blog has to educate andengage, and it's not just for
your audience, it's also forGoogle, because half the reason
we're blogging is for the couple.
The other half is for Googleand we know that Google is not
going to index that.
Well, google is not going togive you kudos if you don't have
words.
So first things first.
(07:54):
We have to have words, andwe'll be talking a bit later
about what to talk about.
So don't worry, if you're like,well, you've already lost me
there, we'll talk about what totalk about.
You want at least 500 words,which sounds like a lot, but I
promise you when we go throughthe prompts later, you're gonna,
most people, end up having waymore words than they know what
to do with.
(08:14):
The second mistake is too manypictures Y'all.
We cannot have hundreds ofimages in a blog.
We just we cannot, for a fewreasons.
One, it slows down your websiteliterally no point.
Two, over 60% at this point ofyour audience is on mobile and
they're not scrolling that far.
And three is, the goal of ablog is to get them to want to
(08:35):
see more.
That's my goal.
I want them to see the blog andgo I have to see more pictures
and contact you to see morepictures and get into your sales
funnel, because marketing isabout getting them into that
sales funnel.
This is a top of funnelstrategy.
So if I do my job right, theygo into your lovely sales funnel
and you book them.
When we give them the kitchensink, they're overwhelmed,
(08:57):
they're exhausted andoverwhelmed, exhausted.
Clients don't buy.
So when we have a thousandimages with no context, it
doesn't work.
And the biggest thing anotherbig misconception is that you do
have to blog twice a week.
And the answer is no.
It's about having really goodquality content.
I would rather you write sixblogs in a whole year that are
well-written, well-informed,that Google likes, that your
(09:21):
audience likes, than justblogging every week because you
think you're supposed to Like.
You can get so much more out ofit with just a couple of blog
posts than doing it constantly.
And then the last thing is youhave to actually then share the
blog.
So nine times out of 10, youwrite this amazing content or
you pay someone to write thecontent and then you walk away.
(09:42):
You're like well, I did it,google universe.
It doesn't work like that.
Google understands when youpost something and you ghost it.
It sees it as when we see ourclients ghosting, right, it's
like, okay, so you wrote thisgorgeous piece of content and
then nothing with it.
You need to share it.
So, whether that is anewsletter or Pinterest or
(10:03):
Instagram, whatever your otherstrategy is, we have to actually
get that thing living and weneed to share it a few times a
year.
So we'll talk a bit aboutrepurposing, but once you write
that blog once, I don't want youto just post it once and act
like it never existed, like Iwant you to shove that blog down
people's throats, because thatis going to help Google and it's
going to help your audienceroads because that is going to
(10:24):
help Google and it's going tohelp your audience.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That's a great yes.
That is something that I'vebeen not doing at all.
So, yes, thank you, jack, overto you.
There was a light bulb for me.
Then I just went oh my God,I've got all these blogs on the
website and I'm not doinganything with them.
I'm ghosting them.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So yeah, yeah, I mean I was going to ask sort of you
know we all feel so overwhelmedwith I haven't been blogging
enough and I should be, so it'sreally music to my ears for you
to say you'd rather six goodones than you know you're
pushing out just all the time.
But I guess, for those of uswho are adjusting to, perhaps,
that new model, what is a waythat I guess we can make it
(11:01):
manageable and impactful andrepurpose that content so we get
the most out of it?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah.
So there's a few different wayswe can really think about
repurposing.
So, like I said, once we createthis magical, beautiful blog,
I'll use like a real wedding, asI think as an example for like
breaking it down, because Ithink it's maybe a bit easier
than educational.
But so, for example, we writethis blog, it's a gorgeous
wedding and event.
We need to be using it onmultiple platforms.
So, first of all, instagram.
(11:28):
So many people blog and thennever share it on Instagram and
I'm like why you did all thiswriting?
Imagine 500 words.
That's like six captions.
Take a few sentences from theblog, copy and paste it to
Instagram, fluff it up if youneed to and post it.
So have one of them.
Be the couple like basicone-on-one the couple.
(11:50):
Have the second one.
Be the wedding party focused onthe attire.
We know couples want attirepictures.
We know they wanna know who thedesigners are.
Why not emphasize that Like?
Why not amp that up?
Most gown designers, comingfrom someone who used to own a
shop, will share your images.
If it's a gown they loveresharing more than any other
vendor will.
(12:10):
Third, talk about the ceremony.
Fourth, talk about thereception and then remember,
this is all stuff you alreadywrote in your blog.
You're literally just going totake it, take the little
snippets, grab a few images andthen post it to social media.
And then I want you to talkabout the package that you
booked.
What package did they pick?
I feel like so many times weact like we don't have packages
(12:33):
and I know you guys do, I knowy'all have packages why are we
not telling them how many hoursthey book, like, why are we not
fully going into that?
So there's a few different ways.
I mean that will just give youweeks of content without you
having to really do anything.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right, so you spoke about keywords before, adriana,
so can you tell us what exactlykeywords are and why they're so
important in the blog and for usdoing blogs?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah.
So SEO can sound reallyconfusing, but honestly, y'all,
all it is is just improving yourwebsite to make Google happy,
and the way it works in the mostbasic terms is a user types in
a question and then the searchengine, like Google, spits back
an answer, answers that itthinks are relevant.
That answer or that question,the thing that you type into
(13:24):
Google is your keyword.
So it's a keyword, is prettymuch a question, and then the
answer is your blog post.
So I like to think of it as aquestion and answer format.
So think of the keywords as theblog topics.
They're asking the question,that's the topic, and then we're
regurgitating that answer.
So we want our blogs to answerwhatever question they're typing
(13:46):
into Google.
That's literally all a keywordis is it can be really really
simple.
So, whether it's about awedding or a venue or an
educational topic, that's all wereally need to think about when
it comes to keyword is what isthe question they're asking, and
then your blog is the answer.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So when it comes to those keywords, then so can you
share a few simple ways toresearch and choose sort of what
keywords to use and how to findthem?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah.
So one of the easiest ways,honestly, just Google.
So Google autocomplete is easy.
Just type in what you do.
So whenever we're talking aboutkeywords and thinking about
like where do I start, startwith the bare basics, because
that is actually the mostimportant.
So, for example, if you're inAustin and you're a wedding
photographer, I want you to typeinto Google Austin wedding
(14:32):
photographer and I want you tosee what comes up.
What does Google tell you thatcomes up?
Does something come up on thefooter?
Do certain venues pop up?
Like what is coming up for thatkeyword?
That is your first initialpieces of content.
That is a nice simple keywordbecause it lets you see oh, are
there certain things it'stalking about for photographers?
Which ones pop up?
(14:52):
Are there questions they'reasking?
So Google autocomplete is juststep one.
It takes two seconds.
Nine times out of time, you'llfind at least one topic from
just the autocomplete.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
The second one.
Sorry, can I just jump in.
I've got one question aboutautocomplete when it's giving
you those suggested other you?
Know, finishes to that sentence.
Is that because they're themost popular in that area or is
that because of your personalsearch history?
Speaker 3 (15:21):
So it's a little bit of a combo.
So part of it is based off ofdefinitely what is trending.
So you'll see it with GoogleTrends.
Part of it is based off of yoursearch history.
A lot of times it's a littleharder for you to search for
your own keywords, so I'll giveyou a tool in a minute because
your algorithm is going to betrained to you as a searcher.
But most for the most part,with that it'll at least be a
(15:41):
good amount of just what'sreally popular.
And then sorry, that's a greatquestion.
So another good one is thatties into that really well is
Google Trends.
So Google Trends is justtrendsgooglecom.
It's Google's free platformthat tells you what's trending.
So you literally type it in.
So I did this, like four hoursago I typed in Chicago weddings
(16:03):
into Google Trends and here'swhat's trending and it will show
you in the last 12 months, sixmonths, five years, what
keywords are trending with thatkeyword.
So for Chicago weddings livewedding painter, lincoln Park,
conservatory wedding, chicagoCultural Center and then Lovely
Bride, chicago.
Okay, so I'm a Chicago weddingvendor.
(16:23):
How could I tie that in?
Well, we have two venues offthe bat.
Have you ever done a wedding atLincoln Park Conservatory or
Chicago Cultural Center, or haveyou wanted to do a wedding
there?
How can we incorporate that?
Lovely Bride is a nationalchain of bridal boutiques.
Could you do a guest post withthem?
If they're trending, why wouldwe not want to try to amp up on
that?
So think of those as, like thoseare questions that we know
(16:45):
couples are asking when they'realso searching for Chicago
weddings and then another one.
That's a bit less like SEO, butin my opinion, just as
important is your FAQs.
So y'all are getting questionsall day long, like bombarded
with them.
Why not turn those intoeducational posts?
Because if your couples areasking them in a sales call,
(17:08):
99.9% of the time they're alsoGoogling that same question.
So is it a lot of questionsabout a local venue?
Is it about etiquette?
So we work with a lot ofstationary artists, so those
basic questions like when tosend invitations or how to make
my seating chart.
Is it about engagement sessions?
Could you do a series, as aphotographer, about spring
(17:30):
engagement session locations inmy city?
Fall engagement sessionlocations in my city?
Like engagement sessionlocations in my city, like what
are things that you're alreadybeing asked that you might as
well just answer because you canprobably talk about it.
And then the last one is a freebut has a paid version.
It's called Uber Suggest.
So U-B-E-R Suggest Free keywordtool.
(17:51):
Type in your website or akeyword and it will just spit
you out a bunch of ideas,unbiased, because it won't be
based off of, like your, yourGoogle.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Jack, I'm a bit I'm I'm overwhelmed.
I'm sitting here going, my myhead's spinning going.
Oh my God, I've got so much todo, to look at, to listen my my
head.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Lucky that at the end we're going gonna talk to
everybody on how they can workwith ava and the b, so you can
just go help me with my bloggingand all the other stuff.
So don't worry, ben, it's gonnabe okay.
Meanwhile, I must point out toeveryone I am sitting outside,
despite my appearance on video,and there's a guy that's all of
(18:32):
a sudden wanting to mow rightwhere I am, so so forgive me.
So I guess, how specific shouldvendors get with keywords?
Should they also focus on likestyle, you know, boho, romantic,
et cetera, as well as justlocation?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
So definitely localization is the most
important and that's becausenine times out of 10, even if
you're a destination vendoryou're going to want to find
people who are getting marriedlocal to you.
So you're also competing withthe big dogs.
So if you just do a blogengagement session tips well now
you're competing with the notbrides wedding wire.
(19:08):
Every big website has that sameblog.
You'll never be able to outrankthem.
There's just there's nothing Ican do about that, but best
locations in my city for anengagement session you can
target because that's a nicheaudience way easier for us to
target.
And the thing is, mostdescriptors don't really work
with keywords.
So I get so many photographerswho are like I want to be found
(19:30):
for fine art weddingphotographer in my city.
It's literally not a keyword,it is not being searched.
So as much as like I want thatfor you, it's not really gonna
work as a strategy.
So try to keep it as localized.
Typically, especially whenyou're just getting started, I
want your core pieces to belocation.
We can have some fun later, butfor now keep it local.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Can you walk us through, like your step-by-step
formula for for a highconverting real wedding blog
post?
I'm I'm super interested how,how it works from start to
finish for you.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yes, so it's a longer process, but I'm going to give
you kind of the like TLDR toolong didn't read version Cause
obviously there's a lot.
There's a few steps, but stepone is pick your topic, and I
know it sounds so simple, butthe amount of times people like
want to start blogging, and I'llbe like cool, what's your first
blog topic?
And they're like, oh okay.
So step number one is I wantyou to have a topic in mind and
(20:25):
I want you to start withsomething.
My biggest tip when you'restarting blogging and because
it's just like anything, it'slike riding bike the first time
you do it it sucks, you fall.
Have your first parade out intothe blogging sphere.
Just be something you couldtalk about for 20 minutes to
your friend.
Pick a topic that you couldbabble and voice memo yourself
for 20 minutes to a friend thathas something to do with your
(20:47):
local wedding industry.
So, whatever topic that is,that's where I want you to start
.
If it's a real wedding, then Iwant you to start with just a
wedding that, again, you cantalk about, a wedding that you
have enough info that you'relike this couple was great, okay
, we got the wedding.
First step is an intro Soundssuper basic.
I feel like sometimes, like anEnglish teacher, I'm like step
(21:08):
one is your intro.
Start with something catchythat ties it in right, like
remember that we're talking to acomplete stranger.
Start with something catchythat ties it in right, like
remember that we're talking to acomplete stranger.
Just being like X and Y'swedding was stunning.
Yes, of course it was stunning.
It was a wedding.
Obviously it was stunning.
If it wasn't stunning, youdidn't do your job right.
Instead, start with somethinglike who were they?
Where are they from?
How did they meet?
What was the vibe of thewedding?
(21:29):
Like paint some kind of funpicture and include what you do,
but pick something that's kindof fun and catchy.
Like maybe it was a super funpool wedding.
Open up with that, like it wasall about the vibes, it was all
about fun.
Because, again, we only have afew seconds for the reader to be
like is this an interesting?
And then I want you to includein that first paragraph what you
(21:52):
do, because this is a coldaudience and they will not know
you're the planner or thephotographer or the vendor or a
venue Like you will look likeevery other vendor out there.
So let's go ahead and make itclear.
So I'm going to pull one that Ithink I wrote like two days ago
.
So this one is there'ssomething undeniably special
(22:13):
about intimate weddings.
When you strip away the grandguest list, towering ballrooms,
what remains is the heart ofwhat a wedding is truly about
Connection.
Right in intro.
Right, it's kind of interesting.
You're like, I'm kind of intointimate weddings.
Mackenzie and Christopher'sintimate wedding at the
Commodore Perry Estates you canguess what the keyword is was a
celebration of family andmeeting of English traditions,
set against one of Austin's mostrefined backdrops, and I was
truly honored to be theirwedding photographer.
(22:34):
Simple, to the point, it gave alittle bit of info.
Next is going to be the nextfew pieces of the body.
So whenever we're thinkingabout the body because I think
this is the most intimidatingmost people are like I wrote an
intro.
Now what?
Break it down into three orfour questions that you're going
to answer about this wedding.
(22:55):
Just a couple, because we onlyneed a few paragraphs, right,
we're not talking like longpoetic sentences.
What are the questions you wantto answer?
So, for example, maybe you wantto talk about the location.
The biggest question islocation.
Okay, this is really important.
I would suggest talking aboutthe location in the venue.
I want to include that.
So include things like why thecouple chose the venue.
(23:16):
Hint, have that be part of yourquestionnaire before their
wedding.
Why did you pick this venue?
Have someone on the team askthem and write this for you,
right?
Why did you like this venue?
Why do you, as the vendor, likethe venue?
There's a reason you want tohype it up.
So talk about the venue a bit.
Maybe you want to talk aboutpersonal details.
(23:37):
Maybe you're the type of vendorwhere personal details are
really important to you and yourclients.
So the question you want toanswer is what were their
special moments?
Did they have handwritten vows?
Did they do a first look?
Typically for these type ofclients, where we're writing
more sentimental, what I tellthem is what I used to do as a
vendor is, during the wedding, Iwould text myself three things
to remember about that wedding.
(23:57):
Whenever I'd run off to thebathroom and have 30 seconds of
privacy, I would literally textmyself something I remembered,
because we all know what itfeels like the next day to
completely forget what justhappened the night before.
Right, you're like I don'tremember anything.
I could not tell you what thegrandma's name was, but in the
moment you remembered that.
Text it to yourself and send itlater.
(24:18):
Another one is maybe yourclient is more fashion focused.
We have a lot of clients whoare editorial.
So fashion, all right.
Talk about fashion for a wholeparagraph.
What did they wear?
What was the designer?
Google the gown that they woreand you will literally have
descriptions out there.
Talk about the description,like it can be that you can have
other people do it for you andthen talk about what you did for
(24:45):
them.
The biggest thing is thatvendors never talk about
themselves and it's like well,you're writing the blog from
your point of view.
What did you do If you were aplanner?
Did they have a certain package?
Were there roadblocks, like,were there ways that you saved
the day?
You should talk about that.
If you're a photographer, didyou help with the timeline?
Were there certain portraitspots that you were like, oh my
gosh, at sunset, this venuelooks like you know, I don't
(25:08):
know.
Brag it up.
Whatever you think about thatvenue, that's super cool.
Talk about it.
And then reception, of course.
What was happening at thereception?
If you're the type of clientwhere bands are all of your
clients have do a wholeparagraph talking about how cool
the band is, like how grandmawas doing splits on the dance
floor, and then include apicture.
So just think of it as likewhat are the couple of questions
(25:29):
I'm going to answer and thenjust write a handful of
sentences about each one andit'll start to flow more
naturally once you think of itusually as just a question and
an answer.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I was going to ask do you encourage that they do it
themselves or get help?
And you've answered that alittle bit.
But listening to you speakabout sort of how you're getting
the information out of theclient, it got me thinking.
You can get a lot of that inthe beginning, can't you?
With a client questionnaire,you can ask those juicy
questions that well before thewedding how did they meet, why
(26:00):
did they pick that venue, thatsort of thing.
So I guess have you got anyideas around smart ways that
people can get some of that meatbefore the wedding?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
100%.
So questionnaires are usuallyreally great or if you record
any of your conversations withthem or you have meetings with
them.
So I know it can be hardbecause, especially if you're
working higher caliber weddings,they're not going to do
questionnaires their plannersare right Like they're not.
But if you're able to get themto fill out a few things, a few
(26:31):
questions, we like is definitelyother than like how they met,
ask them why they chose you,that can be a really great, easy
question you ask in A, it'skind of a testimonial, and B you
can weave it in.
I always ask either why theypicked their venue or what their
vision was for the day, Becauseagain you can get it directly
from their mouth and then askthem what is the most important
part of your wedding day?
To me that's the most importantmarket research.
(26:53):
You should be asking yourclients anyway.
You should be asking that foryour own understanding of them.
But what is the most importantpart of their day?
And that can be again aquestion you ask early on in a
conversation and just have itrecorded and then share it later
.
But I would say for yourquestionnaires, send at least
one or two of those questions inthere that are woven in.
And then, honestly, for a lotof our clients, when we tell
(27:16):
them that blogging is part ofthe strategy, they will fill out
questionnaires and give youmore content than you know what
to do with.
We have clients who send usnovels.
It is amazing.
So if you tell your client, hey, I blog every wedding, 90% of
them are going to say, heck, yes, send me the form.
So just know that you can alsotell them it's part of your
strategy.
(27:36):
You ask them four or fivequestions.
You also get a testimonial outof it.
So it's kind of like a win-winif that's part of your strategy.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Just on that, the content side of the blog.
How do you feel about AI interms of punching in that
information and getting AI tospit something out to save us
time?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So I think the biggest thing with AI is A.
We have to know that unless youhave trained your robot really
well, it sounds like a robot and, as you guys have probably
known, you've read an articleand you've instantly said and
that is AI.
Couples are kind of one ofthose things where, like,
they're definitely going tonotice.
I would say the people thatwill notice it and be hurt the
(28:18):
most will be the couple readingit about themselves and being
like really, you couldn't havespent 20 minutes talking about
me.
That's where we've seen it onReddit is where people have been
like, literally, they didn'teven try to write about me.
It's more of that bitterness,but I'm not against it.
I say use AI to your advantage.
So what I recommend isdefinitely use it to outline it.
Make sure you're going in andmaking sure it sounds like you.
(28:40):
Make sure it's not saying thetapestry of the day of the
starlight, Like.
There are certain phrasesyou'll start to see.
Chatgpt says with weddings,like the minute you see tapestry
or weaving, I know it's ChatGPTbecause for some reason it is
convinced that's what allweddings are.
So once you start to like, knowthat.
So I would say use it, makesure you're telling it ChatG,
gpt, explaining it what yourbrand voice is like.
(29:07):
Make sure you're training thatrobot real well.
Make sure you're telling therobot what the right keywords
are and then making sure you'regoing through and actually
making sure it sounds like you,cause sometimes the robot will
be like 50% there.
But if it's going to get you todo it, then I'm not opposed to
it.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Right, okay, I think also just getting the if you,
you know, a consultation to justget some of that transcribed as
well.
Obviously, that's going to giveyou some word perfect quotes
and things like that.
Yeah, if I think there's alovely bus behind me, if a
wedding pro is listening andthinking I haven haven't blogged
(29:41):
in months, ben, I'm not talkingto you.
What are the first three stepsthat they should take today?
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yes, I'm not talking to you directly, so I would say
the first thing is go throughyour past year or two of
weddings and pick out the topcouple that you are for sure
want to get out there, becausethere are going to be a few that
you've thought about time andtime again that you need to just
go ahead and do so.
Go ahead and start with thosebecause, like I said, some
(30:11):
people will find writing aneducational blog easier.
Other people will find a realwedding.
So start with whichever onefeels the least hardest to you
right now.
Is it going through 2024 andpicking one wedding, or is it
going through your FAQ and justpicking a single question that
you can talk about for 20minutes?
And again, I love the idea oftalking it about, like talking
(30:32):
it out, like get a voicerecording, talk it out and
transcribe that question andthen go ahead and write it.
I would say that's the firstthing is just pick one that
feels the least like heavy foryou and that will be the easiest
way for you to get your firstone started.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
So, adriana, can you give us one specific blog topic
that you think every singlewedding vendor should write
about yesterday?
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah.
So this is an interesting one.
Only because that answerdepends on 700 factors.
The first one, I would writefor you, but what I would say is
the number one thing is what isthe biggest question you get
asked?
And the reason I keep goingback to that FAQ is you can then
use that blog in your salesfunnel.
So one of the biggeststrategies we use with blogging
(31:20):
is it's not just for SEO, it'spart of their sales funnel.
So one of the biggeststrategies we use with blogging
is it's not just for SEO, it'spart of their sales funnel.
So we will write blogs thatspecifically go out in like an
inquiry sequence that talksabout the FAQ.
So that way, when they get tothat stage, instead of us
because I think one of thehardest things for vendors is
we're always like well, how do Ifollow up with them?
Do I just go like, hey, what'sup?
You book anyone?
No, that's never going to work.
(31:42):
You know what you do.
Instead, you say, hey, listen,it's been a few weeks.
I know, at this stage of yourwedding, you're asking this
question because you know whatquestion they're asking.
I wrote a blog on it and I justwant to send it over.
Let me know what questions youhave.
Or let me know this answersyour biggest question.
We have found clients book.
After that email, because youdidn't go in doing the whole.
Oh, pick me, you did the.
(32:03):
Hey, I have a piece of content.
It's really good.
You should read it.
Send it to your mom.
Your mom was asking thisquestion.
Here's an answer.
Or after a sales consultationcall, you're like hey, you know
how your mom was really talkingabout, how she's worried about
this timeline.
I have a blog or a weddingthat's going to show you exactly
how it works.
Let's go ahead, I'll send it toyou.
Like, imagine how much easierit is to just send them content.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Have I convinced you?
Are you still on the fence,cause you seem like you might be
like 50% there.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
I am, I am well on the horse with this.
It's.
It's just, I'm like so muchother stuff going on.
I'm like where am I going tofind the time to actually do
this?
And if I that if I'm probablylike most wedding professionals
out there that um, or somewedding professionals where I
have somebody else that looksafter the website.
So if, if you're in that boatas a wedding pro, then this is
(32:53):
all something you've got to prepfor the people who manage your
website for you and a lot of, ina lot of cases.
I'm not picking the keywords.
They are because they know whatkeywords they've previously
used and and we don't want todouble things up because then
that's useless as well.
There's, there's a whole.
My eyes are kind of doing thevegas slot machine going oh my
(33:13):
god, and I'm sure that, likewith everyone watching, I'm sure
I'm probably not the only onethat is going oh my god.
Now I've learned quite a bitand now I'm oh my God.
I now know what I'm not doingand I need to do this.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
So, yeah, I get that.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Now I want to know Ben.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Oh God, here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
No, I'd like to hear your special question, because I
would like to know what Adrianahas learnt throughout this
career, where she's obviouslyworked as a professional, been a
VA and then gone into thiswhole, you know, marketing
strategy.
What's your famous question,ben?
Speaker 1 (33:49):
I don't know about famous.
You keep saying it's famous.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It is Famous around these parts.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
God, adriana, I have a question that I ask all of our
guests and anyone influentialthat I meet.
So if you walked outside yourhouse and run into an 18 year
old version of yourself, whatadvice would you give yourself
around business, success, life,knowing what you know now?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Trust your instinct, because your instinct is a
hundred percent right and it'sscreaming at you, girl, it's
screaming you.
You just gotta trust it.
It is.
I'm telling you that the 18year old I had instincts that I
did not listen to, I didn't, Iwas so not confident.
Yeah, I listened to thatinstinct that's good, I love it.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yep, thank you calling you girl from now on,
ben, I know I'm wearing.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I'm wearing pink and I might, I might come with a wig
next time.
I'll see how we go.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Look.
Thanks so much, adriana.
It's been a pleasure finallyconnecting with you.
I know we've spoken years agoon email, so it's always so
lovely to put a face to the name.
If you've been listening to allof this and thought this is too
hard, I need help.
I need to work with thisamazing lady and to sort out my
business and my marketing for mywedding business.
All you need to do is head tothe website, ava and the B, so
(35:07):
A-V-A and the.
You can also find her onLinkedIn, instagram and Facebook
.
So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Thank you so much for having me and for having a
conversation about my favoritetopic.
I could talk about it for days.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Anytime.
Look, I'm sure you've gotplenty more that we can invite
you back and talk.
You know, really drill intosome specific platforms and
marketing skills.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I love going nitty gritty.
The deeper and the harder thequestions, the more I love them.
Famous last words Dumb, no.
Whenever I do speakingengagements I say ask me the
hardest marketing questionyou've ever had, because I want
to figure it out for you, evenif I don't know it right away.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
yeah, great sounds like there's a part two here at
least.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
All right, thanks, guys.
See you next week.
Thank you, thanks, adrienne.
There we go.
Oh my god that.
Hi everyone and welcome back to the Wedding
Empires podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Ben and my name is Jack Bowie.
Welcome back to Wedding Empires, where we're always giving you
something new to learn andmarket and grow your wedding
business.
If you guys have ever thoughtthat blogging sounds nice, but
does it really work?
Well, not alone.
We've all been there, benincluded.
(00:26):
Yes, very much.
But what if I told you, ben,that one post could help you
book a fifteen thousand dollarwedding, which, oh my god, I
would be so excited.
You'd still be listening, allright?
Well, today we're going to bejoined by the incredible adriana
mott, who is the founder of Avaand the Bee, which is an
(00:47):
incredible full-servicemarketing agency that works
exclusive with wedding pros.
She's not just a strategist.
She's been a wedding planner, aflorist and a bridal boutique
owner, so she gets the industrythe overwhelm and, most
importantly, she knows whatactually works.
So we're going to talk aboutblog strategy, not stress the
(01:07):
key keywords that you need toknow to turn up for search, and
a step-by-step walkthrough inhigh converting, real wedding
posts and how one blog can fuelyour entire content strategy
across platforms.
So let's get into it.
Welcome, brie.
Hey Adriana, how are youplatforms?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So let's get into it.
Welcome Brie.
Hey Joanna, how are you Good?
I am really excited because Iknow this is a topic that I feel
like every vendor has triedblogging at least once in their
tenure, but most of the timethey hate it or it's not working
.
So I'm really excited to kindof open up some of that stuff
for you guys today.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Can I just jump in and say it's for me it's
definitely not working.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Okay, how often?
Okay, we'll dive into that, butI would love to hear what
you're doing and we can maybetroubleshoot it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Nothing.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Great, yeah, that's.
That might be it.
I think we solved it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yep Problem solved.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, look, let's take a step back.
Let's find out first, how didyou kind of make the transition
from wedding planner to runningyour own marketing agency?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, it's kind of wild.
So I've always worked in thewedding industry.
I'm one of those weirdos whogot started in high school and
drank the Kool-Aid and was like,well, this is my job now, and
so to pay for college, I workedin retail.
I originally was going to be anaccessory designer.
I was like I went to school forhat making, so I went to school
for millinery.
So in my wide eyed dreams I waslike I'm going to be an
(02:33):
accessory designer.
And, long story short, instead,what I did was my senior year.
I opened with another person, awedding planning, floral and
bridal boutique company.
So we did all three and I didthat for many years, obviously,
and then I hit burnout.
Like most wedding vendors, Iworked seven days a week.
I just did not care about mypersonal health because my life
(02:55):
was revolved 24-7 around weddingindustry and had, honestly,
just a breakdown of like.
I got to do something else.
So I sold my business in 2017.
And I got started in themarketing.
Just simply I know before thiswe had talked a bit, you had
reached out when I was a virtualassistant and it really just
started because all of myfriends were vendors.
They all needed help.
I knew how to do all the stuffthey needed because I had done
(03:18):
it for my own business and wehad grown it so successfully.
And so even the B just kind ofhappened because my friends just
kept hiring me and now we'vehelped over 300 wedding vendors
since 2018.
So it started with just ahandful of vendor friends and
now I have a team.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Wow.
So, adriana, why did bloggingbecome such a core part of your
marketing strategy, for bothyourself and your clients?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
marketing strategy for both yourself and your
clients.
Yeah, so blogging was one ofthose things that.
So I um started blogging inhigh school.
I had, um, like a Tumblr.
I had a blog.
I thought it was a blogger,right.
That was like back in 2009 whenyou thought that that was like
the next big thing, like I wasgoing to be a blogger.
So I was always like blogging,but for like myself as personal,
and so I was always writing andjust didn't think too much of
(04:07):
it as a marketing strategy untilthe company that I opened, and
that was because we needed totry to fill people in the door a
lot.
So with retail, you need a tonof people to come through the
door and we were brand new.
None of us me and the otherowner we did not go to school
for this so we were like, whatdo we do?
And as we're researching whatSEO is because we literally
(04:28):
didn't know what that even meantwe just kept seeing people
saying if you blog, they willcome.
If you blog, they will come,it'll work.
And we taught ourselves it andit worked, and it worked kind of
scarily fast.
Before we knew it, we wereoutranking competitors who had
been in the market space for 10,15 years and they were like
what are these literally20-year-olds doing with such
(04:51):
online presence already?
And the answer was we wereblogging twice a week for years
and it worked.
So I saw the magic of it thenand then, when I started doing
it for clients, I saw how wecould strategize it, because I
think the biggest thing withblogging was no one was really
doing it right.
They were just throwing uppictures and then being like
whoa, it's me, it doesn't work,or no one reads my blogs.
(05:14):
And for me it was like beingable to figure out that puzzle
of like well, how can thisstrategy continue to work like
it did for my own business?
How can we duplicate it for allthese other vendors to work
like it did for my own business?
How can we duplicate it for allthese other vendors?
And to this day, there has notbeen a single vendor type.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I have not gotten it to work for, so it works with
all vendor types.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow, that's a good track record.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I'd like to hear, though, how the hell does one
blog turn into a $15,000 wedding?
Yeah, so the first thing wehave to remember is that couples
use Google to search and thebiggest misconception around
blogging is simply I'm tooluxury for that.
Unless you are at the five to600,000 us mark, then it might
be maybe not quite like we canget it to work, but I wouldn't
want you to do it as much Like Iwould be like six blogs a year.
(06:02):
Everybody else which is aboutwhat 99% of the industry is is
doing weddings at the under halfa million mark.
It works and it's because weknow literally.
There's statistics, there's data, there's polls that are run
that show that couples findvendors on Google.
We know it's consistentlyhappening.
Even more, we know Reddit is abig thing, and so how it works
(06:24):
is it really comes down tohaving a good blogging strategy.
So not just posting images justposting pictures isn't going to
book you a multi hundredthousand dollar wedding.
That's not going to work.
It's really about how can wehave a well-written blog post,
how can we tell a story butexplain our services as an
expert, how can we highlightother vendors, which is a big
(06:46):
part of the strategy, as we haveto also talk about playing in
the sandbox like friends and howdo we optimize it to get in
front of the audience that'ssearching for those things.
So for this client inparticular, it was based off of
a venue.
So we were able to target anewer opening venue, get an
exclusive access, look behindthe scenes of the venue, and
(07:07):
then they were able to rank forthat venue before anyone else
had even touched it.
So there's ways we can kind ofget in there and get up on
searches before everyone elsejumps on it.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, so that's well okay.
So what do most wedding prosget wrong when it comes to
blogging A few things Like,apart from like me just posting
photos and going well, it's notworking.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, so it's not just about pictures,
unfortunately.
So a blog has to educate andengage, and it's not just for
your audience, it's also forGoogle, because half the reason
we're blogging is for the couple.
The other half is for Googleand we know that Google is not
going to index that.
Well, google is not going togive you kudos if you don't have
words.
So first things first.
(07:54):
We have to have words, andwe'll be talking a bit later
about what to talk about.
So don't worry, if you're like,well, you've already lost me
there, we'll talk about what totalk about.
You want at least 500 words,which sounds like a lot, but I
promise you when we go throughthe prompts later, you're gonna,
most people, end up having waymore words than they know what
to do with.
(08:14):
The second mistake is too manypictures Y'all.
We cannot have hundreds ofimages in a blog.
We just we cannot, for a fewreasons.
One, it slows down your websiteliterally no point.
Two, over 60% at this point ofyour audience is on mobile and
they're not scrolling that far.
And three is, the goal of ablog is to get them to want to
(08:35):
see more.
That's my goal.
I want them to see the blog andgo I have to see more pictures
and contact you to see morepictures and get into your sales
funnel, because marketing isabout getting them into that
sales funnel.
This is a top of funnelstrategy.
So if I do my job right, theygo into your lovely sales funnel
and you book them.
When we give them the kitchensink, they're overwhelmed,
(08:57):
they're exhausted andoverwhelmed, exhausted.
Clients don't buy.
So when we have a thousandimages with no context, it
doesn't work.
And the biggest thing anotherbig misconception is that you do
have to blog twice a week.
And the answer is no.
It's about having really goodquality content.
I would rather you write sixblogs in a whole year that are
well-written, well-informed,that Google likes, that your
(09:21):
audience likes, than justblogging every week because you
think you're supposed to Like.
You can get so much more out ofit with just a couple of blog
posts than doing it constantly.
And then the last thing is youhave to actually then share the
blog.
So nine times out of 10, youwrite this amazing content or
you pay someone to write thecontent and then you walk away.
(09:42):
You're like well, I did it,google universe.
It doesn't work like that.
Google understands when youpost something and you ghost it.
It sees it as when we see ourclients ghosting, right, it's
like, okay, so you wrote thisgorgeous piece of content and
then nothing with it.
You need to share it.
So, whether that is anewsletter or Pinterest or
(10:03):
Instagram, whatever your otherstrategy is, we have to actually
get that thing living and weneed to share it a few times a
year.
So we'll talk a bit aboutrepurposing, but once you write
that blog once, I don't want youto just post it once and act
like it never existed, like Iwant you to shove that blog down
people's throats, because thatis going to help Google and it's
going to help your audienceroads because that is going to
(10:24):
help Google and it's going tohelp your audience.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That's a great yes.
That is something that I'vebeen not doing at all.
So, yes, thank you, jack, overto you.
There was a light bulb for me.
Then I just went oh my God,I've got all these blogs on the
website and I'm not doinganything with them.
I'm ghosting them.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So yeah, yeah, I mean I was going to ask sort of you
know we all feel so overwhelmedwith I haven't been blogging
enough and I should be, so it'sreally music to my ears for you
to say you'd rather six goodones than you know you're
pushing out just all the time.
But I guess, for those of uswho are adjusting to, perhaps,
that new model, what is a waythat I guess we can make it
(11:01):
manageable and impactful andrepurpose that content so we get
the most out of it?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah.
So there's a few different wayswe can really think about
repurposing.
So, like I said, once we createthis magical, beautiful blog,
I'll use like a real wedding, asI think as an example for like
breaking it down, because Ithink it's maybe a bit easier
than educational.
But so, for example, we writethis blog, it's a gorgeous
wedding and event.
We need to be using it onmultiple platforms.
So, first of all, instagram.
(11:28):
So many people blog and thennever share it on Instagram and
I'm like why you did all thiswriting?
Imagine 500 words.
That's like six captions.
Take a few sentences from theblog, copy and paste it to
Instagram, fluff it up if youneed to and post it.
So have one of them.
Be the couple like basicone-on-one the couple.
(11:50):
Have the second one.
Be the wedding party focused onthe attire.
We know couples want attirepictures.
We know they wanna know who thedesigners are.
Why not emphasize that Like?
Why not amp that up?
Most gown designers, comingfrom someone who used to own a
shop, will share your images.
If it's a gown they loveresharing more than any other
vendor will.
(12:10):
Third, talk about the ceremony.
Fourth, talk about thereception and then remember,
this is all stuff you alreadywrote in your blog.
You're literally just going totake it, take the little
snippets, grab a few images andthen post it to social media.
And then I want you to talkabout the package that you
booked.
What package did they pick?
I feel like so many times weact like we don't have packages
(12:33):
and I know you guys do, I knowy'all have packages why are we
not telling them how many hoursthey book, like, why are we not
fully going into that?
So there's a few different ways.
I mean that will just give youweeks of content without you
having to really do anything.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right, so you spoke about keywords before, adriana,
so can you tell us what exactlykeywords are and why they're so
important in the blog and for usdoing blogs?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah.
So SEO can sound reallyconfusing, but honestly, y'all,
all it is is just improving yourwebsite to make Google happy,
and the way it works in the mostbasic terms is a user types in
a question and then the searchengine, like Google, spits back
an answer, answers that itthinks are relevant.
That answer or that question,the thing that you type into
(13:24):
Google is your keyword.
So it's a keyword, is prettymuch a question, and then the
answer is your blog post.
So I like to think of it as aquestion and answer format.
So think of the keywords as theblog topics.
They're asking the question,that's the topic, and then we're
regurgitating that answer.
So we want our blogs to answerwhatever question they're typing
(13:46):
into Google.
That's literally all a keywordis is it can be really really
simple.
So, whether it's about awedding or a venue or an
educational topic, that's all wereally need to think about when
it comes to keyword is what isthe question they're asking, and
then your blog is the answer.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So when it comes to those keywords, then so can you
share a few simple ways toresearch and choose sort of what
keywords to use and how to findthem?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah.
So one of the easiest ways,honestly, just Google.
So Google autocomplete is easy.
Just type in what you do.
So whenever we're talking aboutkeywords and thinking about
like where do I start, startwith the bare basics, because
that is actually the mostimportant.
So, for example, if you're inAustin and you're a wedding
photographer, I want you to typeinto Google Austin wedding
(14:32):
photographer and I want you tosee what comes up.
What does Google tell you thatcomes up?
Does something come up on thefooter?
Do certain venues pop up?
Like what is coming up for thatkeyword?
That is your first initialpieces of content.
That is a nice simple keywordbecause it lets you see oh, are
there certain things it'stalking about for photographers?
Which ones pop up?
(14:52):
Are there questions they'reasking?
So Google autocomplete is juststep one.
It takes two seconds.
Nine times out of time, you'llfind at least one topic from
just the autocomplete.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
The second one.
Sorry, can I just jump in.
I've got one question aboutautocomplete when it's giving
you those suggested other you?
Know, finishes to that sentence.
Is that because they're themost popular in that area or is
that because of your personalsearch history?
Speaker 3 (15:21):
So it's a little bit of a combo.
So part of it is based off ofdefinitely what is trending.
So you'll see it with GoogleTrends.
Part of it is based off of yoursearch history.
A lot of times it's a littleharder for you to search for
your own keywords, so I'll giveyou a tool in a minute because
your algorithm is going to betrained to you as a searcher.
But most for the most part,with that it'll at least be a
(15:41):
good amount of just what'sreally popular.
And then sorry, that's a greatquestion.
So another good one is thatties into that really well is
Google Trends.
So Google Trends is justtrendsgooglecom.
It's Google's free platformthat tells you what's trending.
So you literally type it in.
So I did this, like four hoursago I typed in Chicago weddings
(16:03):
into Google Trends and here'swhat's trending and it will show
you in the last 12 months, sixmonths, five years, what
keywords are trending with thatkeyword.
So for Chicago weddings livewedding painter, lincoln Park,
conservatory wedding, chicagoCultural Center and then Lovely
Bride, chicago.
Okay, so I'm a Chicago weddingvendor.
(16:23):
How could I tie that in?
Well, we have two venues offthe bat.
Have you ever done a wedding atLincoln Park Conservatory or
Chicago Cultural Center, or haveyou wanted to do a wedding
there?
How can we incorporate that?
Lovely Bride is a nationalchain of bridal boutiques.
Could you do a guest post withthem?
If they're trending, why wouldwe not want to try to amp up on
that?
So think of those as, like thoseare questions that we know
(16:45):
couples are asking when they'realso searching for Chicago
weddings and then another one.
That's a bit less like SEO, butin my opinion, just as
important is your FAQs.
So y'all are getting questionsall day long, like bombarded
with them.
Why not turn those intoeducational posts?
Because if your couples areasking them in a sales call,
(17:08):
99.9% of the time they're alsoGoogling that same question.
So is it a lot of questionsabout a local venue?
Is it about etiquette?
So we work with a lot ofstationary artists, so those
basic questions like when tosend invitations or how to make
my seating chart.
Is it about engagement sessions?
Could you do a series, as aphotographer, about spring
(17:30):
engagement session locations inmy city?
Fall engagement sessionlocations in my city?
Like engagement sessionlocations in my city, like what
are things that you're alreadybeing asked that you might as
well just answer because you canprobably talk about it.
And then the last one is a freebut has a paid version.
It's called Uber Suggest.
So U-B-E-R Suggest Free keywordtool.
(17:51):
Type in your website or akeyword and it will just spit
you out a bunch of ideas,unbiased, because it won't be
based off of, like your, yourGoogle.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Jack, I'm a bit I'm I'm overwhelmed.
I'm sitting here going, my myhead's spinning going.
Oh my God, I've got so much todo, to look at, to listen my my
head.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Lucky that at the end we're going gonna talk to
everybody on how they can workwith ava and the b, so you can
just go help me with my bloggingand all the other stuff.
So don't worry, ben, it's gonnabe okay.
Meanwhile, I must point out toeveryone I am sitting outside,
despite my appearance on video,and there's a guy that's all of
(18:32):
a sudden wanting to mow rightwhere I am, so so forgive me.
So I guess, how specific shouldvendors get with keywords?
Should they also focus on likestyle, you know, boho, romantic,
et cetera, as well as justlocation?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
So definitely localization is the most
important and that's becausenine times out of 10, even if
you're a destination vendoryou're going to want to find
people who are getting marriedlocal to you.
So you're also competing withthe big dogs.
So if you just do a blogengagement session tips well now
you're competing with the notbrides wedding wire.
(19:08):
Every big website has that sameblog.
You'll never be able to outrankthem.
There's just there's nothing Ican do about that, but best
locations in my city for anengagement session you can
target because that's a nicheaudience way easier for us to
target.
And the thing is, mostdescriptors don't really work
with keywords.
So I get so many photographerswho are like I want to be found
(19:30):
for fine art weddingphotographer in my city.
It's literally not a keyword,it is not being searched.
So as much as like I want thatfor you, it's not really gonna
work as a strategy.
So try to keep it as localized.
Typically, especially whenyou're just getting started, I
want your core pieces to belocation.
We can have some fun later, butfor now keep it local.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Can you walk us through, like your step-by-step
formula for for a highconverting real wedding blog
post?
I'm I'm super interested how,how it works from start to
finish for you.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yes, so it's a longer process, but I'm going to give
you kind of the like TLDR toolong didn't read version Cause
obviously there's a lot.
There's a few steps, but stepone is pick your topic, and I
know it sounds so simple, butthe amount of times people like
want to start blogging, and I'llbe like cool, what's your first
blog topic?
And they're like, oh okay.
So step number one is I wantyou to have a topic in mind and
(20:25):
I want you to start withsomething.
My biggest tip when you'restarting blogging and because
it's just like anything, it'slike riding bike the first time
you do it it sucks, you fall.
Have your first parade out intothe blogging sphere.
Just be something you couldtalk about for 20 minutes to
your friend.
Pick a topic that you couldbabble and voice memo yourself
for 20 minutes to a friend thathas something to do with your
(20:47):
local wedding industry.
So, whatever topic that is,that's where I want you to start
.
If it's a real wedding, then Iwant you to start with just a
wedding that, again, you cantalk about, a wedding that you
have enough info that you'relike this couple was great, okay
, we got the wedding.
First step is an intro Soundssuper basic.
I feel like sometimes, like anEnglish teacher, I'm like step
(21:08):
one is your intro.
Start with something catchythat ties it in right, like
remember that we're talking to acomplete stranger.
Start with something catchythat ties it in right, like
remember that we're talking to acomplete stranger.
Just being like X and Y'swedding was stunning.
Yes, of course it was stunning.
It was a wedding.
Obviously it was stunning.
If it wasn't stunning, youdidn't do your job right.
Instead, start with somethinglike who were they?
Where are they from?
How did they meet?
What was the vibe of thewedding?
(21:29):
Like paint some kind of funpicture and include what you do,
but pick something that's kindof fun and catchy.
Like maybe it was a super funpool wedding.
Open up with that, like it wasall about the vibes, it was all
about fun.
Because, again, we only have afew seconds for the reader to be
like is this an interesting?
And then I want you to includein that first paragraph what you
(21:52):
do, because this is a coldaudience and they will not know
you're the planner or thephotographer or the vendor or a
venue Like you will look likeevery other vendor out there.
So let's go ahead and make itclear.
So I'm going to pull one that Ithink I wrote like two days ago
.
So this one is there'ssomething undeniably special
(22:13):
about intimate weddings.
When you strip away the grandguest list, towering ballrooms,
what remains is the heart ofwhat a wedding is truly about
Connection.
Right in intro.
Right, it's kind of interesting.
You're like, I'm kind of intointimate weddings.
Mackenzie and Christopher'sintimate wedding at the
Commodore Perry Estates you canguess what the keyword is was a
celebration of family andmeeting of English traditions,
set against one of Austin's mostrefined backdrops, and I was
truly honored to be theirwedding photographer.
(22:34):
Simple, to the point, it gave alittle bit of info.
Next is going to be the nextfew pieces of the body.
So whenever we're thinkingabout the body because I think
this is the most intimidatingmost people are like I wrote an
intro.
Now what?
Break it down into three orfour questions that you're going
to answer about this wedding.
(22:55):
Just a couple, because we onlyneed a few paragraphs, right,
we're not talking like longpoetic sentences.
What are the questions you wantto answer?
So, for example, maybe you wantto talk about the location.
The biggest question islocation.
Okay, this is really important.
I would suggest talking aboutthe location in the venue.
I want to include that.
So include things like why thecouple chose the venue.
(23:16):
Hint, have that be part of yourquestionnaire before their
wedding.
Why did you pick this venue?
Have someone on the team askthem and write this for you,
right?
Why did you like this venue?
Why do you, as the vendor, likethe venue?
There's a reason you want tohype it up.
So talk about the venue a bit.
Maybe you want to talk aboutpersonal details.
(23:37):
Maybe you're the type of vendorwhere personal details are
really important to you and yourclients.
So the question you want toanswer is what were their
special moments?
Did they have handwritten vows?
Did they do a first look?
Typically for these type ofclients, where we're writing
more sentimental, what I tellthem is what I used to do as a
vendor is, during the wedding, Iwould text myself three things
to remember about that wedding.
(23:57):
Whenever I'd run off to thebathroom and have 30 seconds of
privacy, I would literally textmyself something I remembered,
because we all know what itfeels like the next day to
completely forget what justhappened the night before.
Right, you're like I don'tremember anything.
I could not tell you what thegrandma's name was, but in the
moment you remembered that.
Text it to yourself and send itlater.
(24:18):
Another one is maybe yourclient is more fashion focused.
We have a lot of clients whoare editorial.
So fashion, all right.
Talk about fashion for a wholeparagraph.
What did they wear?
What was the designer?
Google the gown that they woreand you will literally have
descriptions out there.
Talk about the description,like it can be that you can have
other people do it for you andthen talk about what you did for
(24:45):
them.
The biggest thing is thatvendors never talk about
themselves and it's like well,you're writing the blog from
your point of view.
What did you do If you were aplanner?
Did they have a certain package?
Were there roadblocks, like,were there ways that you saved
the day?
You should talk about that.
If you're a photographer, didyou help with the timeline?
Were there certain portraitspots that you were like, oh my
gosh, at sunset, this venuelooks like you know, I don't
(25:08):
know.
Brag it up.
Whatever you think about thatvenue, that's super cool.
Talk about it.
And then reception, of course.
What was happening at thereception?
If you're the type of clientwhere bands are all of your
clients have do a wholeparagraph talking about how cool
the band is, like how grandmawas doing splits on the dance
floor, and then include apicture.
So just think of it as likewhat are the couple of questions
(25:29):
I'm going to answer and thenjust write a handful of
sentences about each one andit'll start to flow more
naturally once you think of itusually as just a question and
an answer.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I was going to ask do you encourage that they do it
themselves or get help?
And you've answered that alittle bit.
But listening to you speakabout sort of how you're getting
the information out of theclient, it got me thinking.
You can get a lot of that inthe beginning, can't you?
With a client questionnaire,you can ask those juicy
questions that well before thewedding how did they meet, why
(26:00):
did they pick that venue, thatsort of thing.
So I guess have you got anyideas around smart ways that
people can get some of that meatbefore the wedding?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
100%.
So questionnaires are usuallyreally great or if you record
any of your conversations withthem or you have meetings with
them.
So I know it can be hardbecause, especially if you're
working higher caliber weddings,they're not going to do
questionnaires their plannersare right Like they're not.
But if you're able to get themto fill out a few things, a few
(26:31):
questions, we like is definitelyother than like how they met,
ask them why they chose you,that can be a really great, easy
question you ask in A, it'skind of a testimonial, and B you
can weave it in.
I always ask either why theypicked their venue or what their
vision was for the day, Becauseagain you can get it directly
from their mouth and then askthem what is the most important
part of your wedding day?
To me that's the most importantmarket research.
(26:53):
You should be asking yourclients anyway.
You should be asking that foryour own understanding of them.
But what is the most importantpart of their day?
And that can be again aquestion you ask early on in a
conversation and just have itrecorded and then share it later
.
But I would say for yourquestionnaires, send at least
one or two of those questions inthere that are woven in.
And then, honestly, for a lotof our clients, when we tell
(27:16):
them that blogging is part ofthe strategy, they will fill out
questionnaires and give youmore content than you know what
to do with.
We have clients who send usnovels.
It is amazing.
So if you tell your client, hey, I blog every wedding, 90% of
them are going to say, heck, yes, send me the form.
So just know that you can alsotell them it's part of your
strategy.
(27:36):
You ask them four or fivequestions.
You also get a testimonial outof it.
So it's kind of like a win-winif that's part of your strategy.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Just on that, the content side of the blog.
How do you feel about AI interms of punching in that
information and getting AI tospit something out to save us
time?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So I think the biggest thing with AI is A.
We have to know that unless youhave trained your robot really
well, it sounds like a robot and, as you guys have probably
known, you've read an articleand you've instantly said and
that is AI.
Couples are kind of one ofthose things where, like,
they're definitely going tonotice.
I would say the people thatwill notice it and be hurt the
(28:18):
most will be the couple readingit about themselves and being
like really, you couldn't havespent 20 minutes talking about
me.
That's where we've seen it onReddit is where people have been
like, literally, they didn'teven try to write about me.
It's more of that bitterness,but I'm not against it.
I say use AI to your advantage.
So what I recommend isdefinitely use it to outline it.
Make sure you're going in andmaking sure it sounds like you.
(28:40):
Make sure it's not saying thetapestry of the day of the
starlight, Like.
There are certain phrasesyou'll start to see.
Chatgpt says with weddings,like the minute you see tapestry
or weaving, I know it's ChatGPTbecause for some reason it is
convinced that's what allweddings are.
So once you start to like, knowthat.
So I would say use it, makesure you're telling it ChatG,
gpt, explaining it what yourbrand voice is like.
(29:07):
Make sure you're training thatrobot real well.
Make sure you're telling therobot what the right keywords
are and then making sure you'regoing through and actually
making sure it sounds like you,cause sometimes the robot will
be like 50% there.
But if it's going to get you todo it, then I'm not opposed to
it.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Right, okay, I think also just getting the if you,
you know, a consultation to justget some of that transcribed as
well.
Obviously, that's going to giveyou some word perfect quotes
and things like that.
Yeah, if I think there's alovely bus behind me, if a
wedding pro is listening andthinking I haven haven't blogged
(29:41):
in months, ben, I'm not talkingto you.
What are the first three stepsthat they should take today?
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yes, I'm not talking to you directly, so I would say
the first thing is go throughyour past year or two of
weddings and pick out the topcouple that you are for sure
want to get out there, becausethere are going to be a few that
you've thought about time andtime again that you need to just
go ahead and do so.
Go ahead and start with thosebecause, like I said, some
(30:11):
people will find writing aneducational blog easier.
Other people will find a realwedding.
So start with whichever onefeels the least hardest to you
right now.
Is it going through 2024 andpicking one wedding, or is it
going through your FAQ and justpicking a single question that
you can talk about for 20minutes?
And again, I love the idea oftalking it about, like talking
(30:32):
it out, like get a voicerecording, talk it out and
transcribe that question andthen go ahead and write it.
I would say that's the firstthing is just pick one that
feels the least like heavy foryou and that will be the easiest
way for you to get your firstone started.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
So, adriana, can you give us one specific blog topic
that you think every singlewedding vendor should write
about yesterday?
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah.
So this is an interesting one.
Only because that answerdepends on 700 factors.
The first one, I would writefor you, but what I would say is
the number one thing is what isthe biggest question you get
asked?
And the reason I keep goingback to that FAQ is you can then
use that blog in your salesfunnel.
So one of the biggeststrategies we use with blogging
(31:20):
is it's not just for SEO, it'spart of their sales funnel.
So one of the biggeststrategies we use with blogging
is it's not just for SEO, it'spart of their sales funnel.
So we will write blogs thatspecifically go out in like an
inquiry sequence that talksabout the FAQ.
So that way, when they get tothat stage, instead of us
because I think one of thehardest things for vendors is
we're always like well, how do Ifollow up with them?
Do I just go like, hey, what'sup?
You book anyone?
No, that's never going to work.
(31:42):
You know what you do.
Instead, you say, hey, listen,it's been a few weeks.
I know, at this stage of yourwedding, you're asking this
question because you know whatquestion they're asking.
I wrote a blog on it and I justwant to send it over.
Let me know what questions youhave.
Or let me know this answersyour biggest question.
We have found clients book.
After that email, because youdidn't go in doing the whole.
Oh, pick me, you did the.
(32:03):
Hey, I have a piece of content.
It's really good.
You should read it.
Send it to your mom.
Your mom was asking thisquestion.
Here's an answer.
Or after a sales consultationcall, you're like hey, you know
how your mom was really talkingabout, how she's worried about
this timeline.
I have a blog or a weddingthat's going to show you exactly
how it works.
Let's go ahead, I'll send it toyou.
Like, imagine how much easierit is to just send them content.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Have I convinced you?
Are you still on the fence,cause you seem like you might be
like 50% there.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
I am, I am well on the horse with this.
It's.
It's just, I'm like so muchother stuff going on.
I'm like where am I going tofind the time to actually do
this?
And if I that if I'm probablylike most wedding professionals
out there that um, or somewedding professionals where I
have somebody else that looksafter the website.
So if, if you're in that boatas a wedding pro, then this is
(32:53):
all something you've got to prepfor the people who manage your
website for you and a lot of, ina lot of cases.
I'm not picking the keywords.
They are because they know whatkeywords they've previously
used and and we don't want todouble things up because then
that's useless as well.
There's, there's a whole.
My eyes are kind of doing thevegas slot machine going oh my
(33:13):
god, and I'm sure that, likewith everyone watching, I'm sure
I'm probably not the only onethat is going oh my god.
Now I've learned quite a bitand now I'm oh my God.
I now know what I'm not doingand I need to do this.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
So, yeah, I get that.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Now I want to know Ben.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Oh God, here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
No, I'd like to hear your special question, because I
would like to know what Adrianahas learnt throughout this
career, where she's obviouslyworked as a professional, been a
VA and then gone into thiswhole, you know, marketing
strategy.
What's your famous question,ben?
Speaker 1 (33:49):
I don't know about famous.
You keep saying it's famous.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It is Famous around these parts.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
God, adriana, I have a question that I ask all of our
guests and anyone influentialthat I meet.
So if you walked outside yourhouse and run into an 18 year
old version of yourself, whatadvice would you give yourself
around business, success, life,knowing what you know now?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Trust your instinct, because your instinct is a
hundred percent right and it'sscreaming at you, girl, it's
screaming you.
You just gotta trust it.
It is.
I'm telling you that the 18year old I had instincts that I
did not listen to, I didn't, Iwas so not confident.
Yeah, I listened to thatinstinct that's good, I love it.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yep, thank you calling you girl from now on,
ben, I know I'm wearing.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I'm wearing pink and I might, I might come with a wig
next time.
I'll see how we go.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Look.
Thanks so much, adriana.
It's been a pleasure finallyconnecting with you.
I know we've spoken years agoon email, so it's always so
lovely to put a face to the name.
If you've been listening to allof this and thought this is too
hard, I need help.
I need to work with thisamazing lady and to sort out my
business and my marketing for mywedding business.
All you need to do is head tothe website, ava and the B, so
(35:07):
A-V-A and the.
You can also find her onLinkedIn, instagram and Facebook
.
So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Thank you so much for having me and for having a
conversation about my favoritetopic.
I could talk about it for days.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Anytime.
Look, I'm sure you've gotplenty more that we can invite
you back and talk.
You know, really drill intosome specific platforms and
marketing skills.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I love going nitty gritty.
The deeper and the harder thequestions, the more I love them.
Famous last words Dumb, no.
Whenever I do speakingengagements I say ask me the
hardest marketing questionyou've ever had, because I want
to figure it out for you, evenif I don't know it right away.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
yeah, great sounds like there's a part two here at
least.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
All right, thanks, guys.
See you next week.
Thank you, thanks, adrienne.
There we go.
Oh my god that.
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