Out with the old and in with the new! More and more wedding businesses are migrating their way over from booking on Facebook to booking weddings with Instagram. With so much competition, how can you make sure your business stands out?

From hashtags & captions to tips & tricks, we’re going to tell you the 20 secrets getting more leads with your wedding business Instagram account.

The Art of the Post

When wedding pros begin looking for online websites to advertise their business, they frequently ask themselves which site is better: WeddingWire or The Knot?.

While those are two of the top 74 free sites to advertise a wedding business, one that is often overlooked is booking weddings with Instagram.

One of the most critical factors in getting leads from Instagram is follower engagement, and posting remains the number one engagement factor on Instagram.

I know, that may seem pretty obvious, but what isn’t so clear is how and what to post to convert likes into leads.

The Ringer quotes Karen Lee from LuxuryProposals, “If she’s getting engaged, that means her friends are probably going to get engaged, too… so it’s kind of a trickle-down effect.” Capitalize not just on one bride, but a full social circle of brides!

So let’s go over what to post:

Show Off Some Lifestyle Photos

This is the bread and butter of any wedding business booking with Instagram. By capturing snapshots of your day-to-day business life, you’ll show brides what separates you from everyone else.

Essence.com highlights wedding planner Eliana Baucicault from EllyB Events – showing her magnificent lifestyle insta-posts:

Lay It All Out – Art of the Flat Lay

Having photos taken straight above the object is quite a popular trend on Instagram, and it’s a great way to showcase your work.

Capitalizing on trending aesthetics is one of the quickest ways to boost your followers.

Whether it’s weddings, travel, or lifestyle, you’ll see flat lays like these from NoblePresets and StarboardPress:

Quotation Station

Inspirational quotes and phrases always help keep your posts dynamic and engaging. Keeping your aesthetic consistent, but switching up the content from time to time, helps keep followers interested.

A quote relating to your service helps tie in what you do with what the follower is reading.

Shout Outs!

Featuring clients on your account is a great way to attract new clients. Often, your post will be sent around several times to the client’s circle of friends and family.

It’s a guaranteed way to get word-of-mouth recommendations – not only do they have a reference, but evidence of the results too!

Styled Posts Make a Styled Account

Keeping your posts consistent in color, tone, and quality helps your followers know what to expect and serves to cultivate your specific brand imaging. More often than not, you’ll see similar looking posts on popular Instagram accounts of all kinds.

Crack Some Jokes!

Try not to take everything so seriously. Making a few jokes every so often helps remind your followers there is a person behind the post.

Engagement Boosters

Encouraging followers to comment, tag, and interact with your account can help expand your brand to a new base of followers.

Creating posts with captions like “What’s your dream wedding destination?” Or “Tag the biggest bridezilla you know” boosts the amount of interaction the post gets, which helps grow your account following.

When followers link their posts to your wedding business account, and when followers tag their friends on your posts, you can spread your posts to brides who would have never discovered your page otherwise!

Stats & Facts

Similar to adding inspirational quotes, adding statistical information relevant to your industry helps add variety to your account.

Including a few wedding stats here and there lets your followers know that you’re a professional and they can trust your expertise!

Quick Tips & Quick Tricks

Helping your followers with quick tips and tricks for planning their wedding is a similar advertising strategy to posting stats & facts.

Utilize your professional experience to help potential clients, and keep them coming back for more!

Hashtag #Hashtag

Research and use wedding and bridal hashtags your brides are already searching for. You can get a good start following these 16 Instagram Accounts to Follow as Soon as You Get Engaged

Be relevant to your ideal audience

Finding the right hashtag is harder than you’d think. One of the most important rules is keeping to keep them focused and pertinent to your industry.

Build a base of hashtags that creates a consistent and desirable audience for your service.

A great way to start is by checking out wedding blogs such as The Knot, and the hashtags they recommend starting with.

Avoid Overly-Popular & Over Saturated Hashtags

It’s incredibly important to choose high-quality hashtags that help engage brides. Avoid using hashtags like #wedding or #weddings – #wedding alone has over 139 MILLION posts already.

It’s pretty easy to get swept up into a low-quality and low-engagement hashtag base. Remember, you only get 30 tags per post!

While they may have a ton of worldwide popularity, the conversion of relevant and quality leads from these hashtags with over 100k posts is much lower than local tags with less than 100k posts.

Search For Frequently Used Local Hashtags

If you’re a wedding venue in Brooklyn, it makes much more sense to use the hashtag #BrooklynWedding (69k) over #NewYorkWedding (179K).

Brides searching for relevant venues will discover your page when searching for locations in Brooklyn.

Focus on discovering highly engaging tags, within your area of operation.

Tips on Profile Design

Choose a Keyword Rich Instagram Name

When you create your wedding business Instagram account, ensure your username is something recognizable to potential brides! Depending on your location, service, and ideal audience, make sure pick a name that brides are searching for. This is probably the easiest way to ensure you increase your wedding bookings with Instagram.

Google AdWord and keyword expertise can sometimes be confusing, so for extra help check out The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO.

Customize Your Bio

There’s only one spot to customize the text on your account: your bio. Here you can put a personalized message that resonates with brides and potential leads.

Make sure it’s short, sweet, and to the point.

Link & Feature Other Wedding Professionals, Local Businesses, and Related Accounts to Get More Followers

Shouting out to associated vendors, venues, and local partners to your business often result in being promoted and featured on those accounts as well.

It’s an excellent way to get your profile linked and increase your follower base organically, as well as maintain quality relationships with business partners!

Comment and Ye Shall Be Commented

Comment, comment, comment! Commenting on similar posts to what brides are commenting on, gets your account exposure.

More eyes on your Instagram username increases the chances of a profile visit or booking a wedding.

Build Relationships

When you receive comments on your photos, ensure you take the time to reply. Building relationships with your followers can be a stepping stone for developing leads for your business on Instagram.

Another way to build up your account base is to follow back your followers, particularly when the account is another wedding business or newly engaged couple.

Understand Your Target Demographics

One of the first considerations when building your profile should be who you want to sell to. According to Business Insider, out of Instagram’s 150 million users, over 90% are under age 35.

Because of this, you should be reaching out in a style that best fits millennials and young adults.

Wrapping Up

So those are the top 20 secrets to increasing your wedding bookings with Instagram. If you loved this post you might also like our article: Wedding Venue Marketing Plan: 7 Fool-Proof Wedding Venue Marketing Strategies [2021]