The Biggest Celebrant Marketing Mistakes

As I had a background in sales & marketing before I went into teaching and before I became a Celebrant, I know I am lucky that marketing is second nature to me. 

What frustrates me greatly is that many celebrant training organisations are not effective in teaching this adequately in their courses. NOCN qualifications go nowhere near the topic. Some courses appear to think a few hours on Canva will sort you out. 

I couldn't work out whether this was because either the trainers are so busy training new celebrants that they are out-of-date with modern marketing tools or whether they don't want to share this knowledge with their students for fear of giving away their trade secrets and creating competition for themselves. 

Either way, it is unacceptable. I tried to speak to the owner of one large training organisation about these weaknesses in their training and he did not want to know. 

So here are my top 5 biggest mistakes I see Celebrants making with their marketing:

1) Celebrants forget they have distinct target markets that they should be communicating to separately.

The problem with this is that Funeral Directors often prefer to work with Celebrants who do funerals only. Engaged couples who are planning the happiest day of their lives, do not want to work with someone dealing daily in death.

The solution is Celebrants need distinct and different channels of communication with their wedding & funeral work and they should only cross in very rare circumstances.  

2) Celebrants often use their business social media platform like they do their personal social media platform.

The problem with this is they get more interaction from other celebrants on their social media than they do potential clients or complementary suppliers in the industry who might refer work to them. This creates an echo chamber which wont draw in new users and will not help you establish your own position in the market. 

The solution is don't follow lots of other celebrants, have just a small close circle, and be social on your personal platforms. Focus instead on creating a community of complementary suppliers, past clients & potential new ones. 

3) Wedding Celebrant websites often give nothing useful to prospective clients.

The problem with this is if couples learn nothing new from your website they wont stay. A high bounce rate (click on and click off immediately) will damage your Google search ranking.

The solution is to be original both with style and content (difficult when celebrants get the same celebrant organisation to create their website & you only look at other celebrant websites rather than speaking to potential clients). Give couples information they actually want: price, how does using a celebrant work, what to expect, what will it look like and testimonials. Couples see through "style and no substance" very easily. If you are a new wedding celebrant, don't worry having stock pictures of couples, but choose a deliberately diverse range of people. Focus on selling yourself as a person & the feelings and experience you can provide your couples. Make price your hook. Your website will and should look different every 6 months. 

4) Not using a range of social media platforms enough or in the right way.

The problem with this is that different social media platforms have distinct demographics. In summary, use Facebook for the over 40s, Instagram for the over 30s & TikTok for the over 20s. Instagram is the most important social media platform for Wedding Celebrants but only if they understand how to use posts, stories and reels properly. Many Celebrants don't & it looks awkward. As for hashtags....don't get me started. That's another blog post entirely!

The solution is to get a teenager to teach you how to use Instagram and TikTok properly.

5) Lastly, Celebrants often price themselves out of the market before they even get started.

The problem with this is that many celebrants get trained by people who live in a different part of the UK as they do & don't understand your area. If they do, then they probably don't want you to undercut them.  As a result, many newly trained celebrants try to charge premium prices (for funerals and weddings) when they can't offer any experience, any testimonials, or any proof of competency. Funeral celebrants need to ask local Funeral Directors what the local "going rate" is, and stick to this at first. Pricing does not have to be fixed and can be increased as you gain experience. You should also be transparent with your funeral & wedding pricing. Funeral Directors need to know your fee when they provide a quote to families.  For weddings, until you are a "luxury provider" remember that many couples will be planning their wedding on a tight budget.  Couples will take a chance on a cheaper & newly trained wedding celebrant, but will not even consider contacting you if they have no idea what you are going to charge them. So tell them on your website, even if it is with a "Ceremonies from £...." statement. 

The most newly trained celebrants, the solution is to start with prices low and make it a hook and raise your prices over time. It is simple demand and supply: if you are getting good bookings, raise your prices. If you are not getting bookings - consider your price as the reason why.

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