Before I get started, let me introduce myself. My name is Merylin Andino. I am a destination wedding planner in Puerto Rico. I have been in the wonderful and exciting wedding industry for six years. Couples from the USA and Europe reach out to me looking for a professional wedding planner to assist them in planning their destination wedding in Puerto Rico.

I will never forget, while reviewing my emails, the morning of April 17, 2014, there was one email in particular that I had to read twice, thinking it was a prank. It was an email from the prestigious magazine, Harper’s Bazaar Bride.

“Are you kidding me?”, that’s what I thought.

Harper’s Bazaar Bride reached out to me requesting an interview for my work as a destination wedding planner in the Caribbean, to be more specific, in Puerto Rico. Of course, I was up to it! To make a long story short, everything came out great. I had a three-page spread in the magazine that gave me exposure to a huge audience from the print magazine and online.

Here is the thing, I remember asking the editor, “How did you find me?”, she replied that they went on Google searching for ‘Weddings in the Caribbean’, and saw my work. I was very well positioned in search engines, she said.

There’s no doubt that working strategically on your online presence is an art. It takes a lot of work, but most of all, it requires determination and consistency. Constant online presence will greatly increase your business success.

Here are 3 key strategies to market your business for destination weddings:

1) Website

By this point, I’m pretty sure you have a wonderful wedding planning website up and running. GREAT!!! But, that’s not all. Never allow yourself to have a static website. Always give it some TLC by adding professional photos from recent weddings. Photos from your iPhone or from your own camera are not going to give a professional look and feel to your website.

To attract traffic to your website, use high-quality content throughout your pages. The wording has to be well thought out and should clearly describe your business. Keywords that are relevant to your market are an absolute MUST-HAVE. Read more about details your website must have.

2) Blog

Future brides obsess about blogs. They hunt for tips and inspirations. A blog gives you a connection to your visitors. It tells them what they don’t know about your company, gives tips on how to use your services, and is a place to tell them about future sales, products, and new services.

Your blog should have great content. Consistency in posting will drive key traffic to your website. Short on time? Here are 3 quick blog post ideas you can use this week.

3) Social Media

The wonderful world of social media is one that you should always be present in. As a consumer, whenever we are interested in a business, we tend to go to their social media sites to learn more.

If you don’t see any recent posts on a social media account for a business, you feel a bit unsure about that business, right? So, taking that into consideration. Sit down and create a content plan to attract followers and keep them interested in your wedding planning services. Your content should consistently represent your target clients and be highly relevant to them.

Once you have a new wedding inquiry, what’s next? Writing a great services proposal is next. Remember, the majority of these couples are professionals, they are always on the run, and would greatly appreciate a quick and concise reply. Pricing and packaging your services can be challenging. The Pricing With Confidence guidebook is a great resource to help with this.

They want to feel that their wedding planner will answer all of their questions before committing to having a destination wedding and hiring you.  Your proposal needs to thorough and answer many of the questions they may have. This doesn’t mean that it has to have a dozen paragraphs, not at all. Once you send the proposal, invite them to have a phone call to go through the proposal details and pricing. This gives you the opportunity to create a great connection with them. It has always worked effectively for me!

And these, my friends, are just a few things you should always do with consistency to attract wonderful destination wedding clients.

These tips have greatly helped me attract the specific types of clients that I want. I’d love to hear your tips on marketing for destination weddings. Please share them in the comments!

This is a guest post from Merylin Andino. Merylin is an experienced corporate event and wedding planner in Puerto Rico. For years, she was in charge of planning, designing, organizing, and running the corporate events of an American multinational company at their headquarters in Puerto Rico, before deciding to become a full-time wedding planner with her own business.

She believes that weddings are more than a party, they are an event, one that truly tells a complete story. Merylin loves to be part of that story. Is her mission to exceed her client’s expectations and deliver their dream wedding celebration.

Connect with Merylin on Facebook and Instagram.