How to make sure your venue diary is full in every season

Now we’re knee-deep in peak wedding season, it may be hard to picture the slower months to come. Traditionally summer has been the most popular season to get married, and that certainly is a trend that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Every venue we speak to tells us how peak summer weekends practically book themselves – however, there will always be couples who are keen to marry at a different time of year. So how do you make sure your venue diary is full every season? Honestly, it’s easier than you might think. With a combination of clever sales and marketing techniques, wedding venues can boost their off-peak bookings and see year-round profits skyrocket. And this is how…

Think about your content

It’s so important to make sure you’re promoting content from every season across your socials and your venue website. Don’t just show summer content– your couples want to see what your venue looks like all year round. After all, if they have no idea how an autumn wedding might look at your venue, they’re not going to be particularly keen or confident to go ahead and book one with you. Hopefully you have plenty of real wedding content to use, but if you don’t have anything that showcases a winter wedding, for example, set up a styled shoot. Not only is this great for forming strong relationships with local suppliers, it also provides you with excellent content (try to get videos as well as photographs) to use across all social media, your website and blog.

Get creative with wedding showcases

Typically in the quieter autumn/winter seasons, venues will host wedding showcases. This is a great way to attract future bookings, so always make sure you show a mix of the seasons at your showcase. Switch up the styling to show how your venue could look in autumn/winter and how it could look in spring/summer. Make the most of the space you have to give couples an idea of what their big day could look like, whatever time of year they plan to get married.?

Sell each season

While an ice cream stand is an absolute winner for summer weddings, it’s not so great for couples who plan to get married in the chillier months. As a venue you need to be creative and work hard to come up with alternative draws for autumn and winter. How about offering s’mores bars and hot chocolate stands in autumn, and hot toddies or mulled wine around the fire pit in winter? Think about what would make each season spectacular at your venue, then promote it as much as possible through your socials, brochures and website.?

Make a deal

A really clever way to fill those low season weddings is by promoting late availability offers. The discount may be small scale to your venue, but it could make all the difference when it comes to whether a couple decide to book with you or go with another venue. Consider pop-ups on your website and emailing your customer database (if you have one) – plus don’t forget to shout about it across your social media feeds.

Work around the seasons

Of course, seasonal venues (perhaps if you’re an outdoor venue or somewhere offering tipi weddings) tend to wrap things up in October. But if you’re looking for ways to gain revenue all year round you do still have options. While full scale weddings may not be possible, think about hosting micro weddings or elopements, to keep small scale, manageable and actionable bookings topping up the diary until spring.

How The Venue Experts can help

The Venue Experts have helped so many venues to fill their diaries, all year round. We know what sells a venue and we know what captures the imagination and heart of a potential customer when it comes to booking a wedding. If you’d like our sales and marketing team to help transform your off-season bookings, we’d love to hear from you. Drop me an email at?[email protected] ?or just?click here ?to get in touch.?