Marketing Strategy for Wedding Professionals & Businesses: The Evolve Your Wedding Business Podcast

Heidi Thompson | Wedding Business Coach, Marketing Strategist, & Consultant
  • 4.8 (55)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Biweekly

As a wedding professional, you're incredible at what you do but when it comes to marketing for wedding pros, you're stuck playing the social media game and hoping the right clients find you. Whether you love or hate the constant hustle, I've got news for you...there's a better, more sustainable way to get more wedding clients and book more weddings without burning out. This show delivers actionable wedding marketing strategies to help you attract dream clients, increase your wedding bookings, & (finally) get your questions about growing a profitable wedding business answered! We'll cover questions like: Getting More Clients: How do I get more wedding inquiries from my ideal clients?How do I book more weddings as a photographer? As a planner? At my venue?How do I turn wedding inquiries into booked clients?Marketing Strategy & Channels: How do I market my wedding planning business to stand out?Should I focus on Instagram, Pinterest, Google, or paid advertising?Is it worth it to advertise on The Knot and WeddingWire?What wedding planner marketing and event planner marketing strategies actually work?Sustainable Growth: How do I market my wedding business on a budget?How do I know if my wedding marketing strategy is working?Can I build a successful business without being on social media 24/7 or working 60+ hour weeks?After helping tens of thousands of wedding professionals around the world build sustainable wedding businesses, wedding business coach Heidi Thompson knows exactly what it takes to attract dream clients without the overwhelm.Through Evolve Your Wedding Business, she's on a mission to help wedding vendors create marketing strategies that work without working 60+ hour weeks. Heidi consistently makes wedding business marketing approachable and exciting! With a mix of solo episodes and guest interviews with successful wedding vendors and wedding marketing experts, you'll hear exactly how to grow your wedding business whether you're a wedding planner, DJ, officiant, florist, venue owner, or any other type of wedding vendor so you can spend less time chasing clients and more time doing the work you love. Ready to take your wedding business to the next level? Press play and visit evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/podcast for show notes, guest info, and even more free resources to grow your wedding business! 🎧

  1. 1d ago

    How to Book More Weddings With Clients You Love

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. Four weeks ago we started talking about the booking problem most wedding pros have but can't quite name. We looked at the data. We dug into why bride isn't an identity and why the ideal client avatar exercise is just a guessing exercise with a fake name on it. Today is the payoff episode. Your best clients already hold everything you need to build marketing that actually works. The words they used when they were searching for someone like you. What made them certain you were the right choice. What they were actually worried about at 2am before they ever reached out. That's the foundation of a marketing strategy that doesn't require you to guess, hope, or post more into the void. This episode is about what happens when wedding pros stop guessing and start asking. And it's the episode I've been building toward for a month. Grab your copy of Clone Your Best Clients at https://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/clone Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/363 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    16 min

  2. May 27

    The Costly Ideal Client Mistake Most Wedding Pros Make

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You've probably done the ideal client avatar exercise. You gave her a name. An age. An income bracket. Maybe you decided she loves brunch and golden hour photos and has a Pinterest board with 400 pins on it. And then nothing really changed in your business. That's not because having an ideal client doesn't work. It's because what most people call ideal client work isn't actually ideal client work. It's a guessing exercise dressed up as strategy. A paper doll with a Starbucks order. Here's the real problem. Bride isn't an identity. It's a role. A temporary role that millions of completely different human beings step into every single year. The couple who wants a black tie ballroom reception for 300 people and the couple who wants barefoot vows on the beach with their 12 closest friends are both brides. They have nothing in common. They want completely different things. And when your marketing is aimed at brides, it speaks to neither of them. This episode is about what to do instead. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/362 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    18 min

  3. May 20

    Why Wedding Pros Are Marketing Harder But Booking Less

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. I surveyed over 640 wedding pros and asked them two questions. 1. What's your biggest obstacle when it comes to booking more weddings? 2. And what do you think you need to do to fix it? The answers to the first question were all over the place. Not enough inquiries. Getting ghosted. Price shoppers. Leads that don't convert. Can't stand out from the competition. Real, specific, painful problems. But he answers to the second question were almost identical across the board. Post more. Run more ads. Be more visible. Show up more. Get on more platforms. More, more, more. Here's what stopped me in my tracks. Most of these wedding pros are already doing these things. They're already posting. They're already paying for advertising. They're already trying to be more visible and it's not working. So their solution to it not working is to do more of the same thing. When something isn't working, doing more of it isn't a strategy. It's a hope. And hope is not a marketing plan. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/361 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    14 min

  4. May 13

    The Booking Problem Every Wedding Pro Has (Whether They Know It Or Not)

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. There are three booking problems that keep wedding pros up at night. The first is ghosting. Someone finds your website, explores your work, fills out your inquiry form, and hits submit. You write back fast. You put real thought into it. And then nothing. Day one, nothing. Day two, nothing. Day three you send a follow-up. Still nothing. They just vanished like the conversation never happened. The second is price shoppers. Your minimum investment is right there on your website, clear as day. Someone inquires anyway, you do the call, you build the connection, and then they tell you they can't go above a number that's a thousand dollars less than what you already told them you start at. You smile, you wish them well, you hang up, and you groan like Tina Belcher staring at the ceiling. The third is the quiet inbox. Not zero for months quiet, just quieter than it should be given how hard you're working. And there's no clear feedback to point to, so you try everything. More posts. Another directory. A new Instagram bio. And the needle barely moves. Three different problems. Three different things to keep you up at night. But here's what most wedding pros don't realize: they're not three different problems. They're three symptoms of the exact same thing. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/360 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    18 min

  5. May 6

    How She 10x'd Her Wedding Planning Business In A Year

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. Katie Sautter was last on this podcast after booking 29 weddings in her first year as a wedding planner. At the time, she was still working her engineering 9-to-5, logging about 100 hours a week between both jobs, and just starting to think about what it might look like to go all in. She went all in. In 2025, Katie quit her job, built a team of five, went from under $10K in revenue to six figures, and did all of it in a single year. She attributes a huge chunk of that growth to a framework called the Lazy Genius Way, and to one particular tool her team built from scratch: a 75-step wedding management system she calls the Due Date Dashboard. In this episode, Katie walks through exactly how she did it, what the Lazy Genius principles actually look like applied to a wedding planning business, how she survived 12 weddings in 8 weeks without anything falling through the cracks, and why she's now selling the Due Date Dashboard so other planners can use it too. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/359 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    58 min

  6. Apr 29

    Is Your Wedding Marketing Giving Pickup Artist Energy?

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. There's an entire subculture of guys who teach other men how to attract women using scripted tactics. Memorized openers. Specific moves. Elaborate routines designed to manufacture a connection that isn't actually there. It almost never works (surprise, surprise) and when it does work short-term, it never leads to what they actually wanted. I look at how most wedding pros approach their wedding marketing and I see the exact same mistake. A series of scripted moves aimed at a crowd of strangers with no real understanding of who those people are, what they care about, or why they should choose you specifically. More posts. More platforms. More tactics. And couples who can feel it's not actually about them. This episode is about what actually works instead. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/358 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    14 min

  7. Apr 22

    How Wedding Vendors Get Found On Pinterest With Dana Bahr

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. Most wedding pros either ignore Pinterest completely or treat it like Instagram and wonder why nothing happens. Pretty pictures. No context. No clicks. No inquiries. Here's the thing nobody tells you: Pinterest isn't social media. It's a search engine. And couples are using it heavily during the research phase, way before they're ready to book anyone. By the time they reach out to you, they've already spent 7 to 12 hours consuming content related to your service. Pinterest is where a huge chunk of that happens. That means if you're not showing up there with content that actually answers what couples are searching for, you're invisible during the most important part of their decision-making process. In this episode, Pinterest strategist Dana Bahr breaks down her VEIL method and exactly how wedding pros can use Pinterest to get found, build trust, and generate leads without creating a mountain of new content from scratch. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/357 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    50 min

  8. Apr 15

    How To Book More Weddings As A Live Wedding Painter

    👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. When live wedding painter Heidi Neilson joined The Wedding Business Collective, she had never received a single inquiry from a stranger despite 2.5 years of trying. Six months later, she's gone from 0 to 12 inquiries a month, turning away work that isn't the right fit, and just booked her most ideal client yet (they bought her highest package on the spot and then asked if Heidi could create something even bigger!) She is the same person, in the same market, getting completely different results. And none of it came from doing more. It came from getting specific, building a real marketing plan, and finally having a system. She breaks down exactly how she did it in this episode. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/356 ——— I’m hosting a free live class: Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors?🤔

    1h 4m
See All (373)

4.8
out of 5
55 Ratings

About

As a wedding professional, you're incredible at what you do but when it comes to marketing for wedding pros, you're stuck playing the social media game and hoping the right clients find you. Whether you love or hate the constant hustle, I've got news for you...there's a better, more sustainable way to get more wedding clients and book more weddings without burning out. This show delivers actionable wedding marketing strategies to help you attract dream clients, increase your wedding bookings, & (finally) get your questions about growing a profitable wedding business answered! We'll cover questions like: Getting More Clients: How do I get more wedding inquiries from my ideal clients?How do I book more weddings as a photographer? As a planner? At my venue?How do I turn wedding inquiries into booked clients?Marketing Strategy & Channels: How do I market my wedding planning business to stand out?Should I focus on Instagram, Pinterest, Google, or paid advertising?Is it worth it to advertise on The Knot and WeddingWire?What wedding planner marketing and event planner marketing strategies actually work?Sustainable Growth: How do I market my wedding business on a budget?How do I know if my wedding marketing strategy is working?Can I build a successful business without being on social media 24/7 or working 60+ hour weeks?After helping tens of thousands of wedding professionals around the world build sustainable wedding businesses, wedding business coach Heidi Thompson knows exactly what it takes to attract dream clients without the overwhelm.Through Evolve Your Wedding Business, she's on a mission to help wedding vendors create marketing strategies that work without working 60+ hour weeks. Heidi consistently makes wedding business marketing approachable and exciting! With a mix of solo episodes and guest interviews with successful wedding vendors and wedding marketing experts, you'll hear exactly how to grow your wedding business whether you're a wedding planner, DJ, officiant, florist, venue owner, or any other type of wedding vendor so you can spend less time chasing clients and more time doing the work you love. Ready to take your wedding business to the next level? Press play and visit evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/podcast for show notes, guest info, and even more free resources to grow your wedding business! 🎧

Information

You Might Also Like