Social Media Marketing for Wedding Venues: 5 Keys to Success

An Authentic Brand Story

A good brand story is like a good book or movie. It offers an engaging narrative that helps your audience process information, remember facts and form an emotional bond. Your brand story consists of:

• Positioning: Why do people choose your venue? Why should they choose your venue? Is it electrifying rooftop views of the city skyline? Or breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean coastline? Maybe it’s the classic grandeur of a nineteenth century ballroom. Whatever distinguishes your venue—whatever makes it different or special—that’s your positioning.
• Voice: Look around your venue and find the words and phrases you’d use to describe it. A mountaintop wedding setting, for instance, might be pastoral and unspoiled. It might feature stone walls, tree-lined paths, and panoramic views. Remember, be honest and authentic. You want to sound like you’re describing, not selling.
• Visual Cues: What kind of photos and videos tell your story? Is it the scenery? The historic architecture? The chandeliers in the elegant ballroom? Again, focus on what’s unique about your venue. And use those cues in the visual telling of your brand story.
• Overall Business Goals: What are the demographics of the couple you hope to reach? Are there any extras you’d like to promote? Dates you need to fill? Seasons you need to push? Social media marketing isn’t just about showcasing your venue. It’s about making sure the showcase drives the business you want.

You’ll notice as you go through this list, you won’t see any hype. No language like “heights of elegance.” No airbrushed hearts over couples’ heads. For social media marketing to work, it has to be authentic. Your brand story has to be in the voice of a person, not an ad.

Content Buckets to Tell Your Brand Story 

Now that you know the brand story you want to tell, think about what kind of content will best tell that story. This is where content buckets (or content types) come in. Content buckets define the various aspects of the venue that will best tell your brand story. Content buckets we’ve seen at Carats & Cake include:

• Real Weddings
• Behind the Scenes
• Location and Scenery
• Unique Wedding Design and Decor
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Before and After Transformations of a Space
• Highlighting Vendor Teams
• Pro Tips from Industry Experts
• Surprise and Delight Moments
• Holidays and Cultural Events

We recommend working with three content buckets. Fewer than three and all your content may start to look similar and grow stale. More than three buckets and your marketing runs the risk of becoming unwieldy and unfocused.

A Steady Flow of Fresh, Relevant Content

Social media marketing thrives on fresh content. You’ll want to post 5-7 times per week on each channel. That will help trigger the platform algorithms to keep your venue relevant and in front of actively-searching couples.

So, how do you come up with so much content? It’s all around you.

Start with your brand story. Every wedding at your venue can inspire fresh new ways to tell that story, and provide new material for your content buckets. Any attraction, specialty, or feature that makes weddings at your property special can also stimulate content ideas.

Keep an eye on the calendar, too. June, for instance, is Pride Month. Perfect time to show LBGTQ+ events you’ve hosted at your venue. 

You can also tie your social media posts to whatever is trending on the platform. Are certain Instagram Reel editing styles getting a lot of likes? Is there a trending song on TikTok? Use it in a post.

There’s no limit to the ways you can tell your brand story with social media.

Content Amplification

Of course, your posts will reach your core group of followers. Expanding your visibility beyond that group—getting more people to look at your post—is amplification. Here are three proven ways to reach and tell more people about your venue.

• Hashtags: Hashtags (i.e., #nywedding) are to social media what tables of contents are to textbooks. People search and click hashtags that interest them. Choose hashtags that reflect your content and business objectives:  #weddingvenuemontana, for instance, will attract a more targeted audience than a simple #weddingvenues. 
• Tag Couples and Vendors: Give shoutouts to the people featured in each wedding who helped bring it to life, such as the couple, wedding planners, bands, florists, photographers, etc. It’s a straightforward way to increase engagement with people you already have a relationship with—and it’s an added bonus if those you tagged have a good sized following, and go on to share your post with their followers. This can increase the views, likes, and ultimately, business.

Work with Influencers: In the 20th century, we had celebrity testimonials. Today, we have influencer marketing. They’re not celebrities, except to the insanely loyal people who consider them experts in one area or another. A shout out from the right influencer, and you’ll have party planners, couples and other influencers checking out what you have. Find an influencer in your area whose following includes your demographic. See if you can get them to give you a shoutout.

Choose Someone to Manage Your Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is like any business process: someone has to own it or it doesn’t get done. You’re going to want to be active on at least three platforms (Carats & Cake recommends prioritizing Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest—you can read about that here {link to Top 3 Social Media Platforms article}). That means posting at least 15-20 times each week.

Your social media manager needs to know how to write, create content, take and crop pictures, have an eye for what kind of imagery works on social, shoot and edit videos, engage with communities, analyze what’s working, identify new trends, and adapt to new trends and changing tastes.

If that sounds like a full-time job, that’s because it is. Managing social media requires dedicated attention to see results. Whether you hire someone to do it or work with an outsider, make sure they have the time and resources they need. A good social media manager working with a good strategy can help you fill your calendar with bigger, better and more profitable events.

And speaking of filling your calendar, make sure your venue is visible on the fastest growing digital community in the wedding industry: Create or claim your free Carats & Cake profile.