We all know a great website is crucial to booking more couples. But if you think it’s mostly about how it looks think again. In fact, it’s probably the reason you’re not seeing the results you want.
Yes, your visual brand needs to be on point. Site visitors will know in microseconds if the brand feels right for them. So dial in those fonts, colors and logo. And your hero image should be a show-stopper, something that grabs the visitor’s attention and makes them want to see more. Choose wisely.
But your website isn’t another version of Pinterest or IG or TikTok. The best sites are so much more, because it’s your online storefront. People are there to browse and buy – but they need more information than just pretty pictures and a contact form.
Website visitors want content. At least, those who are serious about buying what you’re selling.
Unfortunately, most wedding pros’ websites don’t use enough words to share the information couples need to make a decision on your services.
Maybe you’re one of those who believes “people don’t ready anymore.” You’re partially correct. People don’t read bad writing.
Here’s a secret: People do read…good writing about things they care about
If you’re like many wedding pros, you DIYed your copy. We see that all the time. But as a professional at what you do, you know how unlikely you are to get great results from amateurs, especially those with little or no training.
Writing your own copy is like letting the couple’s best friend plan the wedding.
Or the groom’s sister use her “nice” SLR to take wedding photos.
Or Aunt Betty (who really loves gardening) do the floral arrangements.
Or the father-of-the-groom grill for 100 people at the welcome BBQ.
We all know these approaches usually deliver less-than-hoped-for results.
If you DIYed your copy (or even paid a professional to do it for you), pay close attention to these
10 mistakes that cost most wedding pros thousands in lost bookings every year:
- Little or no copy on your homepage
- Pricing page linked in your main navigation
- CTAs you can’t easily see
- Hard-to-read headlines
- No page dedicated to your services
- Too few and/or generic testimonials
- Long and difficult inquiry form
- Blog featuring only real weddings
- Detailed FAQ
- Copy too small and giant blocks of text
Little or no copy on your homepage
Your homepage is your hello to visitors dropping into your store. Don’t stay silent if you want them to feel welcome. A big reason your bounce rate is so high might be because you’re not providing any content to draw them in.
People come in from IG and Pinterest because they want more than pictures to look at. If you don’t give them new information why should they stay?
We recommend between 300-700 words on your home page, depending on your ideal buyer and their communication preferences. Effective use of headlines, cross heads, captions, testimonials, blocking and other “wire-framing” practices will make it easy – even desirable – to keep visitors reading.
Show your reader you care about their experience, otherwise they won’t want to move deeper into the storefront.
Pricing page linked in your main navigation
The main navigation is one of the first things people look at when they get to the site. But detailed pricing for your services is one of the last things you want to share with them. Unless your number one competitive advantage is a super-duper low price, why would you want to call attention to how much your services cost?
Instead of dedicating an entire page to it, simply add “starting at $X” at the bottom of your services page.
Calls-to-action (CTA)s you can’t easily see
Stop making it hard to find out how to take the next step. Teeny, tiny arrows with thin line weight. Hard-to-see links buried in body copy. Font colors that blend into background images. Graphics and photos without text.
And, yes, we’ve already said it, but we’ll say it again, because it’s that detrimental: Teeny, tiny arrows with thin line weight, especially at the edges of an image or next to a number that’s supposed to indicate there’s more to click through.
Instead, make it so easy to see CTAs it’s hard not to click on them. Use buttons. Make the button color contrast with the background. Make the font on the button contrast with the button color – and big enough to read! Don’t get tricky when it’s better to keep it simple.
Hard-to-read headlines
Speaking of making it hard for your visitors to read…stop using stylized fonts for headlines. Calligraphed or cursive fonts look pretty, but you can’t read them very easily. Maybe the reason “no one reads anymore” is because they can’t read the handwriting?
Use big, bold headlines with keywords you know your reader wants to learn more about.
No page dedicated to your services
The number one reason a bride- or groom-to-be goes to your website is to learn more about how you give them what they want. But too many wedding pros forget to share what they do!
Create a Services page to describe what you do and how it helps your couples. If you have a pricing guide or sales script for c
onsultations, chances are you should take pretty much all that information and put it on a services page linked on the website’s main navigation.
One thing not to put on the Services page? Specific information about pricing or packages. Save those for inquiries you know are qualified. Instead, simply list your “starting at” price on the bottom of the page with a CTA and testimonial underneath it.
Too few and/or generic testimonials
“McKenzie was incredible. She really cared about our wedding and made everything stress-free and amazing. We can’t thank her enough for everything she did to make our wedding a dream come true.”
Boooooooorrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggg.
Testimonials are crucial. They create social proof and provide reassurance during the buyer’s journey. But basic ones miss the mark.
We recommend two to four 10-30-word snippets from your best clients offering insights into how you met their most important concerns and desires. Use them around CTAs, especially the biggest one on your site: the inquiry form.
Long and difficult inquiry form
The primary goal for your website is to generate new inquiries to your inbox. If you want more clients, stop making it so hard to get through the contact form.
What obstacles are in the way? Here are just a sampling we see everyday:
- Lots of *required forms
- Questions they don’t know the answers to
- Information they don’t feel comfortable sharing
- Phone numbers they don’t want sales people to call
- Budgets they feel are too small or haven’t yet set
Longer contact forms can be helpful to prequalify couples before they inquire. But be careful of filtering out early-stage buyers before they know what they want or are willing to spend with you. You might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Blog featuring only real weddings
Real weddings are incredibly attractive to potential clients. Surveys show it’s one of the most popular pieces of content you can share on your site. So do it. Just not to the exclusion of other important content.
Again, people on your site want information from you. But more than that, they want to trust you’re the person who can deliver on what you say you’ll do. Use a blog to showcase how and why you’re the one for them.
A solid content blog recognizes the biggest concerns and desires facing your couples. Pick topics they care about and then show how you help meet their needs. Empathy and authority. This is the key to building trust with couples.
Detailed FAQ
Success comes when you provide the right information at the right time in the right way. Not all the information at once. And not too early in the process.
Besides, every time you answer a question for a couple on your site it takes away a reason for them to inquire and start the direct buying experience.
If you’re going to use an FAQ, be sure to focus on early-stage questions only. Focus on the inquiry process, or client journey, or style, or competitive advantage, or any topic that helps them learn more about the general information they need to feel comfortable enough to inquire.
Spark curiosity with an FAQ instead of killing it.
Whatever you do, do not include information about the insurance you carry or the gear you use or your cost of doing business. Please. This isn’t shark tank and couples aren’t interested in your business. They want to know how you help them have a beautiful/fun/memorable wedding.
Copy too small and giant blocks of text
It’s not just what you say, but how you present it that helps couples read your copy.
On the one hand, make the words easy to see. Pick a bigger font size and heavier line weight bigger than you first think.
On the other, reduce the size of paragraphs in body copy to be no more than 4-5 column lines. Anything more creates an insurmountable wall of text.
Look back on this blog post. See how we don’t have a paragraph more than a few sentences long? Yep. That’s part of the reason you made it this far.
The list of common mistakes wedding pros make with copywriting is much longer than we have room for in this one post. Please reach out if you want to learn more about how professionals (like us) create persuasive website copy for wedding pros.
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