Today’s wedding marketing suggestion is decidedly low-tech. It is meant to work, head-on, against the overwhelming torrent of information and interruptions in your world and mine.

The concept is a simple one. Use your office environment to underscore, visually, the important messages that should surround you… on a continual basis.

Here’s what I’m doing. Then, we’ll talk about you 2009 has been a turning-point-year for my public speaking engagements, across the United States and beyond. I have big ambitions for 2010 and beyond, so I decided to document past, present, and future, visually.

I spent about $20 at Office Depot on a framed cork board, a map of North America, and pushpins in assorted colors. I mounted the cork board on the right hand wall (where my printer, scanner, and other small peripherals sit on a side table) above my gadgetry. Four screws… done.

Then, I tacked up the map, using clear pushpins along the top and bottom edges. Next, I used red pushpins to identify all the cities where I spoke during 2009. That was exciting all by itself. That whole process took a whopping 25 minutes.

I’m have proposals-in-process and confirmed bookings for a number of dates/cities for 2010. Proposals-in-process are marked with yellow pins. Confirmed bookings are green.

Next, I plan to identify and mark cities/organizations that are logical possibilities for future speaking engagements. Local chapters of NACE, ISES, and various wedding associations and networking groups. Major national conferences.

Every day, the goals and possibilities will be staring me in the face; a colorful reminder of working toward larger accomplishments, not just busy work.

Now let’s talk about you.

Instead of a North American map, buy a map of your metro-area. Make sure you get a sufficient supply of different color pushpins.

Using information from your contracts, start peppering your map with pushpins to indicate the locations of your 2009 bookings. There are couple of different ways to use the colored pushpins.

I suggest using one color for hotels and another color for non-hotel venues. Then, assign weighted value to the different locations, you might use a third and fourth color indicating venues where you booked more than a given number of events during the year. If you have a small company, that threshold number might be more than six, for example. If you are selling wedding cakes, and deliver 4-10 cakes in day, you might set the threshold higher.

Set whatever formula seems logical for you. The dividing line for higher volume destinations will set its own logical demarkation for you, without any heavy math.

Now, you need one more color pushpin. Use those for locations where you want to provide product or service, but are currently doing no business (or virtually no business, maybe one or two random dates, not referred by the venue).

You should see a couple of patterns develop. A key pattern is geographical. In a previous post, “Rethink Your Market Area, Now!”, I stressed the benefits of being deliberate about working close to home, as frequently as possible.

Your newly pushpin-dotted map will demonstrate where you are currently working. It will also show where you can/should be working more frequently. Those locations will be from the last group: Places you work only occasionally or not at all.

This visual representation of your business activity is a goal-setting activity that should prompt you to ask some questions, such as these:

• “We used to work there a lot. Not at all since they changed catering directors. What I can do to change/fix that?”
• “That’s a relatively new venue, but we haven’t really established a relationship with them. I think they have a member in NACE (local wedding association, ISES, or fill-in-the-blank). Guess I should seek them out, and connect.”
• “Hmm, our company serviced that property for years, then we had one poor evaluation, and no business since then. Maybe I wasn’t proactive enough on following up?”
• “I thought we were on their referral list. Maybe I should check?”

If your marketing is well-targeted geographically, in a reasonable radius, you should see 80-90% of your activity in a tight circle (For rural areas, your market area will almost always be more spread out, and random).

Now is the time to laser focus your marketing efforts for 2010 to increase activity in your primary market area, and jump-start relationships that have flagged or don’t exist at all.

Turn your marketing effort into a visual game. Pick a new color for meeting with the Catering Director or Private Event Manager. Celebrate with a color change when you book the first piece of business, there. When you eclipse the number of bookings to a high-producing relationship, change-up the color, again.

This can be a highly-stimulating technique for just you, or an entire office. People who see the map will be curious and ask questions. Your own excitement about recent accomplishments, and knowledge of the market area will be obvious.

This is the framework. Give it your own twist. Send me a photo of your map, and let all the blog readers know what’s shaking in your neighborhood.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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