Over the last decade, the events planning sector has grown tremendously. Despite more people venturing into the industry, the sector is vast enough to accommodate everyone. Just like Joe Goldblatt, a Certified Special Events Professional said; “Suffice it to say, the marketplace is large enough to support and sustain your endeavor”. In this article, we are going to look at how to make money as an event planner.
Event planning is a fascinating career choice that may pay off handsomely for many people. It takes determination, a keen eye for design, a kind demeanor, and the ability to keep organized. You may make a good income as an event planner if you are organized and detail-oriented.
Working as an event planner can be a fun and exciting career that allows you to meet new people. It’s also possible to work long hours without getting much sleep. As such, you deserve to be compensated fairly for the amount of work you put in. Read on to learn the nitty-gritty of how grow your business and make more money as an event planner.
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How to Make Money as an Event Planner
The world is forever in need of event planners to plan people’s varying events. From birthday parties to wedding ceremonies, family events, dinners, and a plethora of other activities. While there seems to be quite a competition judging from a large number of people starting an event planning business, the following tips will make you outstanding and help you make money as an event planner.
1 – Choose an area of interest (Niche)
The first key to a successful event planning business is finding a niche you are much interested in. It’s time to narrow your focus if you’re trying to be a generalist in event planning. Even specializing in a single event type, such as weddings, isn’t always sufficient. You need to pick a specialty that is even more precise and become an expert in it.
How do you go about conducting research and selecting a niche? There are several options: think about what you love doing or someone you’d like to work with, undertake market and industry analysis, and look at your competitors to see if there are any gaps in your local event planning sector.
2 – Create Social Presence
When it concerns planning certain events, such as weddings, visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram dominate. According to BPlans, 46% of brides were inspired by a vendor’s social media platform, and 34% had approached a vendor via social media.
This implies that having a good presence on Pinterest and Instagram is critical for attracting new clients and increasing income. Depending on your own bandwidth for managing social media profiles, you might also want to utilize Facebook and Twitter.
However, it’s vital to remember that selling should never be your primary goal on social media. Christie Osborne of Mountainside Media, an event planner, suggests using Pinterest and Instagram as marketing tools rather than as a way to book clients. This allows you to incorporate your personality into your pages while also expanding your reach.
How do you build your Instagram and Pinterest to increase your reach? For a start, focus on developing and distributing unique visual content, whether it’s photos from a recent event or a useful infographic you made. Make use of relevant hashtags and ensure that your website’s images, if you have one, are “pinnable,” with Pinterest buttons placed in each image.
3 – Build a Strong Reputation Through Excellent Customer Service
The event planning business relies largely on word of mouth to attract new clients. According to experts, 52 percent of brides seek referrals from family and friends first. Furthermore, 74% of customers claim word of mouth impacts their purchasing choice.
What does this mean for your business as an event planner? It implies that you’ll have to do a delicate balancing act. While you continue to build a strong online presence, your past clients should be able to recommend you. Combine your online marketing strategies with excellent customer service to ensure that you cover all of your bases.
4 – Never Subscribe to the Idea of “Average” Customer
There’s a lot of talk about the “average” customer in the event planning industry, especially when it comes to wedding planning. For example, according to The Knot, a US-based wedding website, an average wedding in the United States costs $29,858, with $1,874 spent on wedding preparation.
What is the problem? Your target client, as defined by your specialty, is one-of-a-kind. They are not the national average, but rather a segment of the market with its own budget, habits, and requirements.
What is the importance of this? When you forget that the “ordinary client” doesn’t exist, it’s difficult to think about them. The typical customer is a composite of buying and spending patterns across industries, and it may or may not closely reflect your real consumers or specialty.
Focus on establishing a user persona based on your main market research of your actual consumers to counteract the myth of the “typical bride” and bring in more money for your event planning firm. This can help you develop a clear picture of the “perfect bride” (or consumer in general) you’re after, making your marketing efforts less generic and more personalised.
5 – Outsource if You Have to
Jennifer Gilbert, the founder of Save the Date, an event planning firm, once joked that event planners “outsource everything but (their) soul.” This humorous remark emphasizes an important part of beginning a business. Delegating activities that may be done by others to others is crucial to give oneself as much time and energy as possible.
Delegating activities in the event planning industry is quite necessary. It helps you bring in more clients and make more money while still giving the finest service possible by freeing up your time to do what you do best.
What tasks can you delegate? Well, this largely depends on your skills. For instance, you can delegate branding and managing your online presence, among other tasks that are not directly linked to your role as an event planner.
6. Leverage on Your Creativity
It’s important to think of ideas that can make you money without even planning an event. Some of the ways you can make money as an event planner include:
- Start a blog: You can create a blog and share your ideas and expertise on event planning. Creating a blog is very easy. Click here to learn how.
- Create a Course: You can create a course and teach people about your skills. For a start you can use your social media pages or use a platform like Udemy.
- Be a Mentor: Speaking at event to motivate upcoming event planners is a good way to promote your brand and also earn some good money.
Final Thoughts
It’s clear that specialization and a tight, strategic focus are the way to go when it comes to bringing in more money for your event planning firm.
You may give services that will make your consumers happy and inspire them to promote you to friends and family by concentrating on and truly getting to know your ideal target market. When you combine this niche strategy with a strong social media and online presence, you’ve got a solid plan that will help your company develop and make more money.