Blogging for Wedding Bookings: Turn One Post into $15,000 with Adrienna McDermott

Ever published a blog post that disappeared into the internet void, never to be seen again? You're not alone. In this eye-opening conversation with Adriana Mott, founder of wedding marketing agency Ava and the Bee, we uncover how one strategic blog post helped a client book a $15,000 wedding—and how you can do it too.

Adriana brings a unique perspective as someone who's walked in your shoes. Before founding her agency, she ran a successful wedding planning, floral design, and bridal boutique business. She learned blogging strategy through necessity, not theory, watching her website outrank established competitors who had been in business for decades.

The shocking truth? Most wedding pros completely misunderstand what makes blogs effective. It's not just about beautiful images (though they help). We dive deep into what Google actually wants, why you should limit your photo count, and the strategic keyword research that helps couples find you. Adriana breaks down her step-by-step formula for creating blogs that convert browsers into buyers—including exactly what questions to ask clients to generate compelling content.

But perhaps the most valuable insight is learning how to repurpose one well-crafted blog into weeks of content across multiple platforms. Stop creating content that dies after one post! Adriana shows how to transform a single wedding feature into Instagram captions, sales materials, and nurturing emails that potential clients actually want to receive.

Whether you've tried blogging without success or avoided it entirely, this episode provides the practical framework you need to turn this underutilized marketing channel into a client-booking powerhouse. Ready to make your blog work harder for your wedding business? This is the strategy you've been missing.

Chapters

• 0:51 Welcome to Wedding Empires Podcast
• 1:31 Introducing Adriana Mott of Ava and the Bee
• 4:14 From Wedding Planner to Marketing Strategist
• 6:33 The Power of Strategic Blogging
• 11:27 Common Blogging Mistakes Wedding Pros Make
• 15:22 Understanding Keywords for Wedding Blogs
• 22:03 Step-by-Step Formula for High-Converting Blogs
• 29:54 Smart Ways to Gather Client Content
• 33:17 Getting Started with Blogging Today
• 37:30 Final Advice and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Wedding Empires podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:32

My name is Ben and my name is Jack Bowie. Welcome back to Wedding Empires, where we're always giving you something new to learn and market and grow your wedding business. If you guys have ever thought that blogging sounds nice, but does it really work? Well, not alone. We've all been there, ben included. Yes, very much. But what if I told you, ben, that one post could help you book a fifteen thousand dollar wedding, which, oh my god, I would be so excited. You'd still be listening, all right?

Speaker 2: 1:08

Well, today we're going to be joined by the incredible adriana mott, who is the founder of Ava and the Bee, which is an incredible full-service marketing agency that works exclusive with wedding pros. She's not just a strategist. She's been a wedding planner, a florist and a bridal boutique owner, so she gets the industry the overwhelm and, most importantly, she knows what actually works. So we're going to talk about blog strategy, not stress the key keywords that you need to know to turn up for search, and a step-by-step walkthrough in high converting, real wedding posts and how one blog can fuel your entire content strategy across platforms. So let's get into it. Welcome, brie. Hey Adriana, how are you platforms?

Speaker 3: 1:52

So let's get into it. Welcome Brie. Hey Joanna, how are you Good? I am really excited because I know this is a topic that I feel like every vendor has tried blogging at least once in their tenure, but most of the time they hate it or it's not working. So I'm really excited to kind of open up some of that stuff for you guys today.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Can I just jump in and say it's for me it's definitely not working.

Speaker 3: 2:16

Okay, how often? Okay, we'll dive into that, but I would love to hear what you're doing and we can maybe troubleshoot it.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Nothing.

Speaker 3: 2:23

Great, yeah, that's. That might be it. I think we solved it.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Yep Problem solved.

Speaker 2: 2:28

All right, look, let's take a step back. Let's find out first, how did you kind of make the transition from wedding planner to running your own marketing agency?

Speaker 3: 2:39

Yeah, it's kind of wild. So I've always worked in the wedding industry. I'm one of those weirdos who got started in high school and drank the Kool-Aid and was like, well, this is my job now, and so to pay for college, I worked in retail. I originally was going to be an accessory designer. I was like I went to school for hat making, so I went to school for millinery. So in my wide eyed dreams I was like I'm going to be an accessory designer. And, long story short, instead, what I did was my senior year.

Speaker 3: 3:06

I opened with another person, a wedding planning, floral and bridal boutique company. So we did all three and I did that for many years, obviously, and then I hit burnout. Like most wedding vendors, I worked seven days a week. I just did not care about my personal health because my life was revolved 24-7 around wedding industry and had, honestly, just a breakdown of like. I got to do something else. So I sold my business in 2017. And I got started in the marketing. Just simply I know before this we had talked a bit, you had reached out when I was a virtual assistant and it really just started because all of my friends were vendors. They all needed help. I knew how to do all the stuff they needed because I had done it for my own business and we had grown it so successfully. And so even the B just kind of happened because my friends just kept hiring me and now we've helped over 300 wedding vendors since 2018. So it started with just a handful of vendor friends and now I have a team.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Wow. So, adriana, why did blogging become such a core part of your marketing strategy, for both yourself and your clients?

Speaker 3: 4:12

marketing strategy for both yourself and your clients.

Speaker 3: 4:14

Yeah, so blogging was one of those things that. So I um started blogging in high school. I had, um, like a Tumblr. I had a blog. I thought it was a blogger, right. That was like back in 2009 when you thought that that was like the next big thing, like I was going to be a blogger. So I was always like blogging, but for like myself as personal, and so I was always writing and just didn't think too much of it as a marketing strategy until the company that I opened, and that was because we needed to try to fill people in the door a lot.

Speaker 3: 4:43

So with retail, you need a ton of people to come through the door and we were brand new. None of us me and the other owner we did not go to school for this so we were like, what do we do? And as we're researching what SEO is because we literally didn't know what that even meant we just kept seeing people saying if you blog, they will come. If you blog, they will come, it'll work. And we taught ourselves it and it worked, and it worked kind of scarily fast.

Speaker 3: 5:07

Before we knew it, we were outranking competitors who had been in the market space for 10, 15 years and they were like what are these literally 20-year-olds doing with such online presence already? And the answer was we were blogging twice a week for years and it worked. So I saw the magic of it then and then, when I started doing it for clients, I saw how we could strategize it, because I think the biggest thing with blogging was no one was really doing it right. They were just throwing up pictures and then being like whoa, it's me, it doesn't work, or no one reads my blogs. And for me it was like being able to figure out that puzzle of like well, how can this strategy continue to work like it did for my own business? How can we duplicate it for all these other vendors to work like it did for my own business? How can we duplicate it for all these other vendors? And to this day, there has not been a single vendor type.

Speaker 1: 6:00

I have not gotten it to work for, so it works with all vendor types.

Speaker 2: 6:04

Wow, that's a good track record.

Speaker 3: 6:07

I'd like to hear, though, how the hell does one blog turn into a $15,000 wedding? Yeah, so the first thing we have to remember is that couples use Google to search and the biggest misconception around blogging is simply I'm too luxury for that. Unless you are at the five to 600,000 us mark, then it might be maybe not quite like we can get it to work, but I wouldn't want you to do it as much Like I would be like six blogs a year. Everybody else which is about what 99% of the industry is is doing weddings at the under half a million mark. It works and it's because we know literally.

Speaker 3: 6:40

There's statistics, there's data, there's polls that are run that show that couples find vendors on Google. We know it's consistently happening. Even more, we know Reddit is a big thing, and so how it works is it really comes down to having a good blogging strategy. So not just posting images just posting pictures isn't going to book you a multi hundred thousand dollar wedding. That's not going to work.

Speaker 3: 7:03

It's really about how can we have a well-written blog post, how can we tell a story but explain our services as an expert, how can we highlight other vendors, which is a big part of the strategy, as we have to also talk about playing in the sandbox like friends and how do we optimize it to get in front of the audience that's searching for those things. So for this client in particular, it was based off of a venue. So we were able to target a newer opening venue, get an exclusive access, look behind the scenes of the venue, and then they were able to rank for that venue before anyone else had even touched it. So there's ways we can kind of get in there and get up on searches before everyone else jumps on it.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Right, so that's well okay. So what do most wedding pros get wrong when it comes to blogging A few things Like, apart from like me just posting photos and going well, it's not working.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Yeah, so it's not just about pictures, unfortunately. So a blog has to educate and engage, and it's not just for your audience, it's also for Google, because half the reason we're blogging is for the couple. The other half is for Google and we know that Google is not going to index that. Well, google is not going to give you kudos if you don't have words. So first things first. We have to have words, and we'll be talking a bit later about what to talk about. So don't worry, if you're like, well, you've already lost me there, we'll talk about what to talk about. You want at least 500 words, which sounds like a lot, but I promise you when we go through the prompts later, you're gonna, most people, end up having way more words than they know what to do with.

Speaker 3: 8:42

The second mistake is too many pictures Y'all. We cannot have hundreds of images in a blog. We just we cannot, for a few reasons. One, it slows down your website literally no point. Two, over 60% at this point of your audience is on mobile and they're not scrolling that far. And three is, the goal of a blog is to get them to want to see more. That's my goal. I want them to see the blog and go I have to see more pictures and contact you to see more pictures and get into your sales funnel, because marketing is about getting them into that sales funnel. This is a top of funnel strategy. So if I do my job right, they go into your lovely sales funnel and you book them. When we give them the kitchen sink, they're overwhelmed, they're exhausted and overwhelmed, exhausted. Clients don't buy. So when we have a thousand images with no context, it doesn't work.

Speaker 3: 9:33

And the biggest thing another big misconception is that you do have to blog twice a week. And the answer is no. It's about having really good quality content. I would rather you write six blogs in a whole year that are well-written, well-informed, that Google likes, that your audience likes, than just blogging every week because you think you're supposed to Like. You can get so much more out of it with just a couple of blog posts than doing it constantly.

Speaker 3: 10:00

And then the last thing is you have to actually then share the blog. So nine times out of 10, you write this amazing content or you pay someone to write the content and then you walk away. You're like well, I did it, google universe. It doesn't work like that. Google understands when you post something and you ghost it. It sees it as when we see our clients ghosting, right, it's like, okay, so you wrote this gorgeous piece of content and then nothing with it. You need to share it. So, whether that is a newsletter or Pinterest or Instagram, whatever your other strategy is, we have to actually get that thing living and we need to share it a few times a year. So we'll talk a bit about repurposing, but once you write that blog once, I don't want you to just post it once and act like it never existed, like I want you to shove that blog down people's throats, because that is going to help Google and it's going to help your audience roads because that is going to help Google and it's going to help your audience.

Speaker 1: 10:54

That's a great yes. That is something that I've been not doing at all. So, yes, thank you, jack, over to you. There was a light bulb for me. Then I just went oh my God, I've got all these blogs on the website and I'm not doing anything with them. I'm ghosting them.

Speaker 2: 11:07

So yeah, yeah, I mean I was going to ask sort of you know we all feel so overwhelmed with I haven't been blogging enough and I should be, so it's really music to my ears for you to say you'd rather six good ones than you know you're pushing out just all the time. But I guess, for those of us who are adjusting to, perhaps, that new model, what is a way that I guess we can make it manageable and impactful and repurpose that content so we get the most out of it?

Speaker 3: 11:35

Yeah. So there's a few different ways we can really think about repurposing. So, like I said, once we create this magical, beautiful blog, I'll use like a real wedding, as I think as an example for like breaking it down, because I think it's maybe a bit easier than educational. But so, for example, we write this blog, it's a gorgeous wedding and event. We need to be using it on multiple platforms. So, first of all, instagram. So many people blog and then never share it on Instagram and I'm like why you did all this writing? Imagine 500 words. That's like six captions. Take a few sentences from the blog, copy and paste it to Instagram, fluff it up if you need to and post it. So have one of them. Be the couple like basic one-on-one the couple. Have the second one. Be the wedding party focused on the attire. We know couples want attire pictures. We know they wanna know who the designers are. Why not emphasize that Like? Why not amp that up? Most gown designers, coming from someone who used to own a shop, will share your images. If it's a gown they love resharing more than any other vendor will.

Speaker 3: 12:38

Third, talk about the ceremony. Fourth, talk about the reception and then remember, this is all stuff you already wrote in your blog. You're literally just going to take it, take the little snippets, grab a few images and then post it to social media. And then I want you to talk about the package that you booked. What package did they pick? I feel like so many times we act like we don't have packages and I know you guys do, I know y'all have packages why are we not telling them how many hours they book, like, why are we not fully going into that? So there's a few different ways. I mean that will just give you weeks of content without you having to really do anything.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Right, so you spoke about keywords before, adriana, so can you tell us what exactly keywords are and why they're so important in the blog and for us doing blogs?

Speaker 3: 13:29

Yeah. So SEO can sound really confusing, but honestly, y'all, all it is is just improving your website to make Google happy, and the way it works in the most basic terms is a user types in a question and then the search engine, like Google, spits back an answer, answers that it thinks are relevant. That answer or that question, the thing that you type into Google is your keyword. So it's a keyword, is pretty much a question, and then the answer is your blog post. So I like to think of it as a question and answer format. So think of the keywords as the blog topics. They're asking the question, that's the topic, and then we're regurgitating that answer. So we want our blogs to answer whatever question they're typing into Google. That's literally all a keyword is is it can be really really simple. So, whether it's about a wedding or a venue or an educational topic, that's all we really need to think about when it comes to keyword is what is the question they're asking, and then your blog is the answer.

Speaker 1: 14:29

So when it comes to those keywords, then so can you share a few simple ways to research and choose sort of what keywords to use and how to find them?

Speaker 3: 14:37

Yeah. So one of the easiest ways, honestly, just Google. So Google autocomplete is easy. Just type in what you do. So whenever we're talking about keywords and thinking about like where do I start, start with the bare basics, because that is actually the most important. So, for example, if you're in Austin and you're a wedding photographer, I want you to type into Google Austin wedding photographer and I want you to see what comes up. What does Google tell you that comes up? Does something come up on the footer? Do certain venues pop up? Like what is coming up for that keyword? That is your first initial pieces of content. That is a nice simple keyword because it lets you see oh, are there certain things it's talking about for photographers? Which ones pop up? Are there questions they're asking? So Google autocomplete is just step one. It takes two seconds. Nine times out of time, you'll find at least one topic from just the autocomplete.

Speaker 2: 16:49

The second one. Sorry, can I just jump in. I've got one question about autocomplete when it's giving you those suggested other you? Know, finishes to that sentence. Is that because they're the most popular in that area or is that because of your personal search history?

Speaker 3: 17:06

So it's a little bit of a combo. So part of it is based off of definitely what is trending. So you'll see it with Google Trends. Part of it is based off of your search history. A lot of times it's a little harder for you to search for your own keywords, so I'll give you a tool in a minute because your algorithm is going to be trained to you as a searcher. But most for the most part, with that it'll at least be a good amount of just what's really popular. And then sorry, that's a great question. So another good one is that ties into that really well is Google Trends. So Google Trends is just trendsgooglecom. It's Google's free platform that tells you what's trending. So you literally type it in.

Speaker 3: 17:44

So I did this, like four hours ago I typed in Chicago weddings into Google Trends and here's what's trending and it will show you in the last 12 months, six months, five years, what keywords are trending with that keyword. So for Chicago weddings live wedding painter, lincoln Park, conservatory wedding, chicago Cultural Center and then Lovely Bride, chicago. Okay, so I'm a Chicago wedding vendor. How could I tie that in? Well, we have two venues off the bat. Have you ever done a wedding at Lincoln Park Conservatory or Chicago Cultural Center, or have you wanted to do a wedding there? How can we incorporate that? Lovely Bride is a national chain of bridal boutiques. Could you do a guest post with them? If they're trending, why would we not want to try to amp up on that?

Speaker 3: 18:28

So think of those as, like those are questions that we know couples are asking when they're also searching for Chicago weddings and then another one. That's a bit less like SEO, but in my opinion, just as important is your FAQs. So y'all are getting questions all day long, like bombarded with them. Why not turn those into educational posts? Because if your couples are asking them in a sales call, 99.9% of the time they're also Googling that same question.

Speaker 3: 19:00

So is it a lot of questions about a local venue? Is it about etiquette? So we work with a lot of stationary artists, so those basic questions like when to send invitations or how to make my seating chart. Is it about engagement sessions? Could you do a series, as a photographer, about spring engagement session locations in my city? Fall engagement session locations in my city? Like engagement session locations in my city, like what are things that you're already being asked that you might as well just answer because you can probably talk about it. And then the last one is a free but has a paid version. It's called Uber Suggest. So U-B-E-R Suggest Free keyword tool. Type in your website or a keyword and it will just spit you out a bunch of ideas, unbiased, because it won't be based off of, like your, your Google.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Jack, I'm a bit I'm I'm overwhelmed. I'm sitting here going, my my head's spinning going. Oh my God, I've got so much to do, to look at, to listen my my head.

Speaker 2: 19:57

Lucky that at the end we're going gonna talk to everybody on how they can work with ava and the b, so you can just go help me with my blogging and all the other stuff. So don't worry, ben, it's gonna be okay. Meanwhile, I must point out to everyone I am sitting outside, despite my appearance on video, and there's a guy that's all of a sudden wanting to mow right where I am, so so forgive me. So I guess, how specific should vendors get with keywords? Should they also focus on like style, you know, boho, romantic, et cetera, as well as just location?

Speaker 3: 20:33

So definitely localization is the most important and that's because nine times out of 10, even if you're a destination vendor you're going to want to find people who are getting married local to you. So you're also competing with the big dogs. So if you just do a blog engagement session tips well now you're competing with the not brides wedding wire. Every big website has that same blog. You'll never be able to outrank them. There's just there's nothing I can do about that, but best locations in my city for an engagement session you can target because that's a niche audience way easier for us to target.

Speaker 3: 21:10

And the thing is, most descriptors don't really work with keywords. So I get so many photographers who are like I want to be found for fine art wedding photographer in my city. It's literally not a keyword, it is not being searched. So as much as like I want that for you, it's not really gonna work as a strategy. So try to keep it as localized. Typically, especially when you're just getting started, I want your core pieces to be location. We can have some fun later, but for now keep it local.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Can you walk us through, like your step-by-step formula for for a high converting real wedding blog post? I'm I'm super interested how, how it works from start to finish for you.

Speaker 3: 21:49

Yes, so it's a longer process, but I'm going to give you kind of the like TLDR too long didn't read version Cause obviously there's a lot. There's a few steps, but step one is pick your topic, and I know it sounds so simple, but the amount of times people like want to start blogging, and I'll be like cool, what's your first blog topic? And they're like, oh okay. So step number one is I want you to have a topic in mind and I want you to start with something. My biggest tip when you're starting blogging and because it's just like anything, it's like riding bike the first time you do it it sucks, you fall. Have your first parade out into the blogging sphere. Just be something you could talk about for 20 minutes to your friend. Pick a topic that you could babble and voice memo yourself for 20 minutes to a friend that has something to do with your local wedding industry. So, whatever topic that is, that's where I want you to start. If it's a real wedding, then I want you to start with just a wedding that, again, you can talk about, a wedding that you have enough info that you're like this couple was great, okay, we got the wedding.

Speaker 3: 22:48

First step is an intro Sounds super basic. I feel like sometimes, like an English teacher, I'm like step one is your intro. Start with something catchy that ties it in right, like remember that we're talking to a complete stranger. Start with something catchy that ties it in right, like remember that we're talking to a complete stranger. Just being like X and Y's wedding was stunning. Yes, of course it was stunning. It was a wedding. Obviously it was stunning. If it wasn't stunning, you didn't do your job right. Instead, start with something like who were they? Where are they from? How did they meet? What was the vibe of the wedding? Like paint some kind of fun picture and include what you do, but pick something that's kind of fun and catchy. Like maybe it was a super fun pool wedding. Open up with that, like it was all about the vibes, it was all about fun.

Speaker 3: 23:31

Because, again, we only have a few seconds for the reader to be like is this an interesting? And then I want you to include in that first paragraph what you do, because this is a cold audience and they will not know you're the planner or the photographer or the vendor or a venue Like you will look like every other vendor out there. So let's go ahead and make it clear. So I'm going to pull one that I think I wrote like two days ago. So this one is there's something undeniably special about intimate weddings. When you strip away the grand guest list, towering ballrooms, what remains is the heart of what a wedding is truly about Connection. Right in intro. Right, it's kind of interesting. You're like, I'm kind of into intimate weddings. Mackenzie and Christopher's intimate wedding at the Commodore Perry Estates you can guess what the keyword is was a celebration of family and meeting of English traditions, set against one of Austin's most refined backdrops, and I was truly honored to be their wedding photographer. Simple, to the point, it gave a little bit of info. Next is going to be the next few pieces of the body. So whenever we're thinking about the body because I think this is the most intimidating most people are like I wrote an intro.

Speaker 3: 24:34

Now what? Break it down into three or four questions that you're going to answer about this wedding. Just a couple, because we only need a few paragraphs, right, we're not talking like long poetic sentences. What are the questions you want to answer? So, for example, maybe you want to talk about the location. The biggest question is location. Okay, this is really important. I would suggest talking about the location in the venue. I want to include that. So include things like why the couple chose the venue. Hint, have that be part of your questionnaire before their wedding. Why did you pick this venue? Have someone on the team ask them and write this for you, right? Why did you like this venue? Why do you, as the vendor, like the venue? There's a reason you want to hype it up. So talk about the venue a bit.

Speaker 3: 25:21

Maybe you want to talk about personal details. Maybe you're the type of vendor where personal details are really important to you and your clients. So the question you want to answer is what were their special moments? Did they have handwritten vows? Did they do a first look? Typically for these type of clients, where we're writing more sentimental, what I tell them is what I used to do as a vendor is, during the wedding, I would text myself three things to remember about that wedding. Whenever I'd run off to the bathroom and have 30 seconds of privacy, I would literally text myself something I remembered, because we all know what it feels like the next day to completely forget what just happened the night before. Right, you're like I don't remember anything. I could not tell you what the grandma's name was, but in the moment you remembered that. Text it to yourself and send it later. Another one is maybe your client is more fashion focused. We have a lot of clients who are editorial. So fashion, all right. Talk about fashion for a whole paragraph. What did they wear? What was the designer? Google the gown that they wore and you will literally have descriptions out there. Talk about the description, like it can be that you can have other people do it for you and then talk about what you did for them.

Speaker 3: 26:31

The biggest thing is that vendors never talk about themselves and it's like well, you're writing the blog from your point of view. What did you do If you were a planner? Did they have a certain package? Were there roadblocks, like, were there ways that you saved the day? You should talk about that.

Speaker 3: 26:44

If you're a photographer, did you help with the timeline? Were there certain portrait spots that you were like, oh my gosh, at sunset, this venue looks like you know, I don't know. Brag it up. Whatever you think about that venue, that's super cool. Talk about it. And then reception, of course. What was happening at the reception? If you're the type of client where bands are all of your clients have do a whole paragraph talking about how cool the band is, like how grandma was doing splits on the dance floor, and then include a picture. So just think of it as like what are the couple of questions I'm going to answer and then just write a handful of sentences about each one and it'll start to flow more naturally once you think of it usually as just a question and an answer.

Speaker 2: 27:23

I was going to ask do you encourage that they do it themselves or get help? And you've answered that a little bit. But listening to you speak about sort of how you're getting the information out of the client, it got me thinking. You can get a lot of that in the beginning, can't you? With a client questionnaire, you can ask those juicy questions that well before the wedding how did they meet, why did they pick that venue, that sort of thing. So I guess have you got any ideas around smart ways that people can get some of that meat before the wedding?

Speaker 3: 27:55

100%. So questionnaires are usually really great or if you record any of your conversations with them or you have meetings with them. So I know it can be hard because, especially if you're working higher caliber weddings, they're not going to do questionnaires their planners are right Like they're not. But if you're able to get them to fill out a few things, a few questions, we like is definitely other than like how they met, ask them why they chose you, that can be a really great, easy question you ask in A, it's kind of a testimonial, and B you can weave it in. I always ask either why they picked their venue or what their vision was for the day, Because again you can get it directly from their mouth and then ask them what is the most important part of your wedding day? To me that's the most important market research. You should be asking your clients anyway. You should be asking that for your own understanding of them. But what is the most important part of their day? And that can be again a question you ask early on in a conversation and just have it recorded and then share it later.

Speaker 3: 28:54

But I would say for your questionnaires, send at least one or two of those questions in there that are woven in. And then, honestly, for a lot of our clients, when we tell them that blogging is part of the strategy, they will fill out questionnaires and give you more content than you know what to do with. We have clients who send us novels. It is amazing. So if you tell your client, hey, I blog every wedding, 90% of them are going to say, heck, yes, send me the form. So just know that you can also tell them it's part of your strategy. You ask them four or five questions. You also get a testimonial out of it. So it's kind of like a win-win if that's part of your strategy.

Speaker 1: 29:30

Just on that, the content side of the blog. How do you feel about AI in terms of punching in that information and getting AI to spit something out to save us time?

Speaker 3: 29:43

So I think the biggest thing with AI is A. We have to know that unless you have trained your robot really well, it sounds like a robot and, as you guys have probably known, you've read an article and you've instantly said and that is AI. Couples are kind of one of those things where, like, they're definitely going to notice. I would say the people that will notice it and be hurt the most will be the couple reading it about themselves and being like really, you couldn't have spent 20 minutes talking about me. That's where we've seen it on Reddit is where people have been like, literally, they didn't even try to write about me. It's more of that bitterness, but I'm not against it.

Speaker 3: 30:17

I say use AI to your advantage. So what I recommend is definitely use it to outline it. Make sure you're going in and making sure it sounds like you. Make sure it's not saying the tapestry of the day of the starlight, Like. There are certain phrases you'll start to see. Chatgpt says with weddings, like the minute you see tapestry or weaving, I know it's ChatGPT because for some reason it is convinced that's what all weddings are. So once you start to like, know that. So I would say use it, make sure you're telling it ChatG, gpt, explaining it what your brand voice is like. Make sure you're training that robot real well. Make sure you're telling the robot what the right keywords are and then making sure you're going through and actually making sure it sounds like you, cause sometimes the robot will be like 50% there. But if it's going to get you to do it, then I'm not opposed to it.

Speaker 2: 31:05

Right, okay, I think also just getting the if you, you know, a consultation to just get some of that transcribed as well. Obviously, that's going to give you some word perfect quotes and things like that. Yeah, if I think there's a lovely bus behind me, if a wedding pro is listening and thinking I haven haven't blogged in months, ben, I'm not talking to you. What are the first three steps that they should take today?

Speaker 3: 31:34

Yes, I'm not talking to you directly, so I would say the first thing is go through your past year or two of weddings and pick out the top couple that you are for sure want to get out there, because there are going to be a few that you've thought about time and time again that you need to just go ahead and do so.

Speaker 3: 31:53

Go ahead and start with those because, like I said, some people will find writing an educational blog easier. Other people will find a real wedding. So start with whichever one feels the least hardest to you right now. Is it going through 2024 and picking one wedding, or is it going through your FAQ and just picking a single question that you can talk about for 20 minutes? And again, I love the idea of talking it about, like talking it out, like get a voice recording, talk it out and transcribe that question and then go ahead and write it. I would say that's the first thing is just pick one that feels the least like heavy for you and that will be the easiest way for you to get your first one started.

Speaker 1: 32:34

So, adriana, can you give us one specific blog topic that you think every single wedding vendor should write about yesterday?

Speaker 3: 32:45

Yeah. So this is an interesting one. Only because that answer depends on 700 factors. The first one, I would write for you, but what I would say is the number one thing is what is the biggest question you get asked? And the reason I keep going back to that FAQ is you can then use that blog in your sales funnel. So one of the biggest strategies we use with blogging is it's not just for SEO, it's part of their sales funnel. So one of the biggest strategies we use with blogging is it's not just for SEO, it's part of their sales funnel. So we will write blogs that specifically go out in like an inquiry sequence that talks about the FAQ. So that way, when they get to that stage, instead of us because I think one of the hardest things for vendors is we're always like well, how do I follow up with them? Do I just go like, hey, what's up? You book anyone? No, that's never going to work. You know what you do. Instead, you say, hey, listen, it's been a few weeks. I know, at this stage of your wedding, you're asking this question because you know what question they're asking. I wrote a blog on it and I just want to send it over. Let me know what questions you have. Or let me know this answers your biggest question. We have found clients book.

Speaker 3: 33:44

After that email, because you didn't go in doing the whole. Oh, pick me, you did the. Hey, I have a piece of content. It's really good. You should read it. Send it to your mom. Your mom was asking this question. Here's an answer. Or after a sales consultation call, you're like hey, you know how your mom was really talking about, how she's worried about this timeline. I have a blog or a wedding that's going to show you exactly how it works. Let's go ahead, I'll send it to you. Like, imagine how much easier it is to just send them content.

Speaker 1: 34:09

Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 3: 34:11

Have I convinced you? Are you still on the fence, cause you seem like you might be like 50% there.

Speaker 1: 34:16

I am, I am well on the horse with this. It's. It's just, I'm like so much other stuff going on. I'm like where am I going to find the time to actually do this?

Speaker 1: 34:24

And if I that if I'm probably like most wedding professionals out there that um, or some wedding professionals where I have somebody else that looks after the website. So if, if you're in that boat as a wedding pro, then this is all something you've got to prep for the people who manage your website for you and a lot of, in a lot of cases. I'm not picking the keywords. They are because they know what keywords they've previously used and and we don't want to double things up because then that's useless as well. There's, there's a whole. My eyes are kind of doing the vegas slot machine going oh my god, and I'm sure that, like with everyone watching, I'm sure I'm probably not the only one that is going oh my god. Now I've learned quite a bit and now I'm oh my God. I now know what I'm not doing and I need to do this.

Speaker 3: 35:12

So, yeah, I get that.

Speaker 2: 35:16

Now I want to know Ben.

Speaker 1: 35:17

Oh God, here we go.

Speaker 2: 35:19

No, I'd like to hear your special question, because I would like to know what Adriana has learnt throughout this career, where she's obviously worked as a professional, been a VA and then gone into this whole, you know, marketing strategy. What's your famous question, ben?

Speaker 1: 35:34

I don't know about famous. You keep saying it's famous.

Speaker 2: 35:37

It is Famous around these parts.

Speaker 1: 35:40

God, adriana, I have a question that I ask all of our guests and anyone influential that I meet. So if you walked outside your house and run into an 18 year old version of yourself, what advice would you give yourself around business, success, life, knowing what you know now?

Speaker 3: 35:57

Trust your instinct, because your instinct is a hundred percent right and it's screaming at you, girl, it's screaming you. You just gotta trust it. It is. I'm telling you that the 18 year old I had instincts that I did not listen to, I didn't, I was so not confident. Yeah, I listened to that instinct that's good, I love it.

Speaker 2: 36:18

Yep, thank you calling you girl from now on, ben, I know I'm wearing.

Speaker 1: 36:23

I'm wearing pink and I might, I might come with a wig next time. I'll see how we go.

Speaker 2: 36:29

Look. Thanks so much, adriana. It's been a pleasure finally connecting with you. I know we've spoken years ago on email, so it's always so lovely to put a face to the name. If you've been listening to all of this and thought this is too hard, I need help. I need to work with this amazing lady and to sort out my business and my marketing for my wedding business. All you need to do is head to the website, ava and the B, so A-V-A and the. You can also find her on LinkedIn, instagram and Facebook. So thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3: 37:01

Thank you so much for having me and for having a conversation about my favorite topic. I could talk about it for days.

Speaker 2: 37:07

Anytime. Look, I'm sure you've got plenty more that we can invite you back and talk. You know, really drill into some specific platforms and marketing skills.

Speaker 3: 37:15

I love going nitty gritty. The deeper and the harder the questions, the more I love them. Famous last words Dumb, no. Whenever I do speaking engagements I say ask me the hardest marketing question you've ever had, because I want to figure it out for you, even if I don't know it right away.

Speaker 1: 37:29

yeah, great sounds like there's a part two here at least.

Speaker 2: 37:34

All right, thanks, guys. See you next week. Thank you, thanks, adrienne. There we go. Oh my god that.