Wedding Venue Leads

[busowner987]

Anybody here have experience with wedding venues?

I'm trying to get an idea about what wedding venues pay for leads. I know what plumbers, double glazing firms will pay for a lead but weddings is a new one on me.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Mr D]

Not sure any price that has been used in the past will be useful as a guide.
Situation currently somewhat different and likely to become even more different before end of the year.

 

[busowner987]

any price used in the past would certainly be good enough as a start..

 

[fisicx]

Not sure it works like that. People look for venues rather than venues looking for people.

 

[busowner987]

People do indeed look for venues, I'm sure those venues would be more than happy to pay a commission to be on a list.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

People do indeed look for venues, I'm sure those venues would be more than happy to pay a commission to be on a list.

A former g/f was a wedding planner/events coordinator for a hotel chain. She did a bit of freelancing finding venues for couples.

It all comes down to good old fashioned negotiation since I'm not aware of any venue that will openly pay for leads but I do know that a lot actually do.

Your best opportunities may come from sudden cancellations where the venue will bend over backwards to do a deal. One instance she got an exclusive venue for something like 20% of the regular fee because it was literally last-minute. Although she had the contacts that took years to acquire.

 

[busowner987]

I'm more thanking along the likes of hotels.com put putting wedding venues on there. Then charging a commission everytime a happy couple request more info.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I'm more thanking along the likes of hotels.com put putting wedding venues on there. Then charging a commission everytime a happy couple request more info.

Hotels generally pay up to about 7% for regular leads but events & weddings tend to be a bespoke affair. I don't think you're going to get many takers for those kinds of leads but, admittedly, I'm basing this on very limited knowledge.

 

[busowner987]

7% - wow thats low! In my opinion.

I can't see the wedding gaffs wants to hand over hundreds and hundreds of pounds though.

 

[Mr D]

7% - wow thats low! In my opinion.

I can't see the wedding gaffs wants to hand over hundreds and hundreds of pounds though.

Will we end up with social distant weddings? Small, immediate family only.

 

[fisicx]

People do indeed look for venues, I'm sure those venues would be more than happy to pay a commission to be on a list.

They are already listed where they want to be listed. Are you suggesting building a new portal?

 

[busowner987]

@fiscx it is a consideration! A few already doing it.

A few doing it that also have their own wedding venues actually. Naughty!

 

[WeddingsInWales]

Most Wedding Venues are likely to do as we do - namely search for the top ten or so Directory Websites on Google and advertise on those, then review every few months. Plus Google Adwords, facebook and the usual social media channels. No point being on a wedding directory website that is not on page one of Google, given that for most searches we will be somewhere in middle of page one anyway, in our own right (or a high page 2), depending on the search words used. Right now of course, weddings are effectively banned. It is not economic for a larger wedding venue to host a socially distanced wedding for max of 30 guests with no evening party or drinking and hence low spendd levels. We can lose less money being completely closed than trading unprofitably at non viable levels of income relative to staffing and running costs. Hence we have shelved some £100k of annual advertising spend, coming off all Adwords, out of all printed media and off all directory sites (though we remain on some for free as the directory sites want our business in the future). There was one website that charged a commission for leads that went to sale (Celtic Castles) but identifying the original source of a lead that can come to your own site via multiple other links and sources and on different dates would make it difficult for a specific site to prove they were the originator of the enquiry. We did not like the high commission charged in the one instance above, but given we probably spend £150k normally on advertising and marketing weddings, and have 150 weddings a year, the acquisition cost per wedding is pretty obvious. Now though, with all of 2020 weddings pushed into 2021, there is little room for new weddings to book until 2022, not least, even some of the 2021 weddings may still need to postpone again due to COVID. So until 'normality' returns and a normal wedding can go ahead, and the wedding industry has cleared the backlog of some two years worth of weddings cramming into summer 2021 onwards, there is not going to be much need for any advertising for a while. We will at some point resume the main directory sites, but with our finances decimated by the complete shut down of our wedding business for probably a whole year, our whole business model will change with every penny being earned being put towards debt repayments and we will be much more selective with our advertising. Facebook is often more effective a source of new sales than Google and Directory sites. We do find Directory sites have a very low conversion to sale rate compared to direct searches from Google and referrals from Facebook. This means we will not return to the high levels of advertising we had pre-COVID for some years.

 

[AllUpHere]

Savvy wedding venues won't be buying leads; it's completely unnecessary and a race to the bottom. By their very nature they have a finite amount of ' functions' they can book-in in any year. Because of this it's much more about maximising profit from every single day than it is just filling the diary. Any idiot can fill the year's diary with bookings from 'leads' or by burning money through advertising. The smart hotelier (one who has their marketing head on) is maximising profit from each and every day and they will know how to easily and cheapy fill the diary when required.

People who buy 'leads' are already losing.

 

[Socio South West]

Any wedding venue worth its salt gets other wedding suppliers to pay for their leads by organising a wedding fayre there - they charge make up artists, dress makers, photographers, car hire and other wedding associated business arms legs and the shirts off their back to exhibit and get all the engaged couples in the area to come along

And at every wedding there will be a percentage of near future customers.....

Not a great business plan here I'm afraid @busowner987