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Are you making these Instagram mistakes? · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

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Recently, I've been doing some research.
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I've been taking a look at all sorts of your social media accounts.
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I've been taking a look at what people in the industry are doing to see
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where they're going, right, and where maybe they're making some mistakes.
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What I found was really interesting, So today I'm gonna share with you
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seven mistakes you might be making on Instagram and how to fix them.
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I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
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and you are listening to The Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow Podcast.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
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examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
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Most of us now have our wedding business on Instagram.
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We know that brides and grooms hang out there, and we know that we wanna
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showcase our work on the platform.
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However, many of you are still making some really basic mistakes when it
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comes to your Instagram profiles.
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And I know this because, as I said, I've been doing some research.
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You will not believe some of the things I saw when I was
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researching wedding businesses.
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Just like.
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On Instagram just last week.
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So I'm gonna share some of those examples today to help you make sure
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you are not making the same mistakes.
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When we are in our businesses, we can't see the wood from the trees.
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We're on our accounts all of the time, and sometimes the most basic mistakes are
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holding us back and stopping customers getting in touch and booking us.
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We don't want anything to get in their way on that customer journey.
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We wanna make it plain sailing for all our potential couples.
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So today I want you to hear these seven mistakes so you can make sure you are not.
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Any of them.
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Okay.
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My first mistake, and as I said, these are all genuine examples, was I sent
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a message to someone on Instagram.
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I dropped them a dm, I found their account, I dropped them a
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DM, and I got an auto response.
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Now, I don't love auto responses, but I also understand that if you
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are really busy, sometimes an auto response is better than no response.
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However, this auto response.
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Bearing in mind, I sent them a message on Instagram, said the following.
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Hi, thanks for sending us a message on Facebook.
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We'll be in touch soon.
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Now I know it's just a simple mistake they probably don't
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even realize they've made it.
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So if that's you, go in and check your auto response, check what it's
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saying because for me, I instantly lose the credibility of that
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business, the trust in that business.
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because I think, I'm not even messaging you on Facebook.
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I'm messaging you on Instagram.
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You don't really know what you're doing now.
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Like I.
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All make these basic mistakes, but it's a reminder to us if we have got these
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kind of things automated and set up, we need to go back in and check them.
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Now, if you do come across something like that with a colleague, make
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sure you tell them about it because obviously they might not know that
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that's what their auto response says, and we can hopefully point it out to
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them if we've got a good relationship.
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With them.
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So if you do have an auto response, do go and check what it says because
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people might not be so forgiving when it says the wrong thing and if that's you,
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or go and check it now and change it.
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So it doesn't say, Thanks for contacting me on Facebook.
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I know it's a simple thing, but I just don't want customers to lose
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that trust in you before you've even sent them a single message.
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The second mistake that I've seen people making on Instagram is not
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including their location in their bio.
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Now, I think this is incredibly important because I want to
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understand where you are based.
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Now, I also understand many of you are willing to travel to different parts of
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the country in order to deliver a wedding.
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However, lots of people also wanna shop local and use people in their.
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Area.
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So it's really important you tell people where you are based, even if
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it's just the county or the area based in London, covering the UK based in
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Bedford, covering the whole of the UK and open to destination weddings.
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You can still expand that area, but if you don't tell people where you are based in
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the first place, it's putting them off.
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Because if I go to your account, and I'm not even sure whether you
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are in the UK or the us, Well, that might be a problem for me.
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I don't wanna waste my time and embarrass myself by emailing the wrong person.
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Now, this came up for me recently because I was contacting wedding
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professionals in the Birmingham area.
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Now, if you don't know, there's a Birmingham here in the uk,
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but there's also a Birmingham.
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In the us Birmingham in Alabama.
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And so when I was searching for supplies in Birmingham,
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a real mixture was coming up.
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And so those that had some kind of display of the Union Jack or said
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Birmingham UK, I was reaching out to.
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But if I wasn't sure whether they were in the US or in the uk, I was
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bypassing them and ignoring them.
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So again, if that's you, if your county, your location is in another
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place in the world, make it really clear that you are in the uk.
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That can be by putting that UK flag, you can just write UK
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covering the whole of the uk.
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But if people don't know, then you may be losing customers before
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they've even got in contact with you.
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So do make sure you've got some kind of location on your Instagram bio
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Now, I don't mind if it's the location you live, the location you prefer
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to work in, but make sure you have something and just saying I'll go
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anywhere isn't really good enough.
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Because like I said, some people wanna know that the person that
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they're booking lives near to them.
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It might be that they wanna make it easy to have appointments or they wanna
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know that you know, the local area.
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Now, if they're getting married in a different area, they may want someone
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from that area so that they know that they're the expert in that place.
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So it's a very simple change to your bio.
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Make sure you've got some kind of location.
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Ideally, add UK to the end of it if it could be ambiguous and make
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sure it's clear for everyone to see.
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Okay.
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The third mistake I found when I was searching on people's Instagrams
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again, was in the direct messages.
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When I direct message some people, the thing that comes
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back is an instant auto response.
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Again, don't love an auto response, but I understand why
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sometimes you have to do it.
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Saying, Hi, Thanks for messaging me.
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Go and fill out this enquiry form.
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Now, again, I totally understand this from a business perspective, we are
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all so busy all of the time, and it feels like the easiest thing is to
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make everyone fill out that form on our website, but you have to understand
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that's frustrating for your customer.
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They've already gone to the lengths of contacting you and reaching out to you.
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On Instagram, and now you are giving them a very impersonal hoop to jump through.
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There's no, hey, couple of questions and then go out, fill out the form.
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It's literally go fill out that form.
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And so you are probably losing people who just think, Well,
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no, I've already messaged you.
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I'm not gonna fill out the form already.
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Just imagine for a moment that you are shopping online.
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Perhaps you go to Amazon, perhaps you are shopping from John Lewis, on their.
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And something goes wrong or you need a question answered, and so
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you go to their virtual chat, the equivalent of the direct message.
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You drop a message in their direct chat asking the question, and then they
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reply saying, Thanks for messaging us.
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Fill out this form.
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It's really frustrating.
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You want an answer straightaway, and that's what you are doing to
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these potential couples when you just auto send them another form.
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Also, chances are there'll be a percentage of people that now won't
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contact you at all, because they don't wanna fill out the form.
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In an ideal world, the best thing you can do is if someone messages you on
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Instagram to reply to them and have a informal conversation with them on
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Instagram, answer their questions, and then try and move them maybe
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onto a call, uh, or onto another different part of your booking process.
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But by telling them that they've just gotta jump through more
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hoops is going to frustrate some people and may lose you some.
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Now, I know you're gonna say it's hard to keep track of the messages
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and it's hard to know where they are, and I get that, but that's
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the world we're living in today.
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We are contactable in all different kinds of areas, and to be honest,
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we need to go out of our way for our customers, or you need to understand
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that you may be losing a percentage of your potential couples by doing that.
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So if you are happy with that, if you're fully booked, and
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it doesn't matter if you lose.
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Then go ahead and carry on with that method.
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But if you want the best conversion rate, a personal response quick,
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and sure is much better than telling them to go and fill out a form.
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Okay.
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The next mistake I may saw people making was a huge one.
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So this one was that they had their accounts on private, so
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they weren't public accounts.
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Now, if you are a business, you should have your Instagram accounts
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set so that everyone can see it.
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They don't have to be following you.
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And one of these accounts I found, and I could see their pictures, but
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they had their messages, their direct messages turned to private, which meant.
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I tried to send them a message about an opportunity, and I got an auto response
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from Instagram saying, You can't message this person unless they're following you.
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Wow.
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What a barrier to entry that is.
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If one of your couples is trying to contact you or someone wants to message
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you, to book you, and they're getting a message saying, Sorry, you can't message
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this person unless they follow you.
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Well, to be honest, you're gonna move on and you're gonna find someone else.
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So, Go in and check your settings.
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Make sure your account, if it's a business account, is visible to everyone.
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It shouldn't be a private account, it should be public.
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And make sure people can send you a message unless you've got a business
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decision why your dms are turned off.
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And if that's the reason you need to put that clearly in your bio because
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otherwise I'm just gonna bypass you over.
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To be honest, if I can't direct message you, I'm probably gonna bypass
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you over anyway because I don't have the time to then go into my email
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or fill, fill out your inquiry form.
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So just think.
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Different customers habits, but don't make your profile private and
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definitely don't have your messages switched onto that setting because it
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feels like, why can't I message you?
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Am I not good enough for you because you're not following me back?
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It just doesn't give the right impression.
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And again, it's a simple setting.
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You just wanna check that it's not switched on.
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Okay.
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The next mistake that I saw some wedding businesses making, and again, some of
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you won't even believe this is possible, but there were a number of businesses
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out there that when I went to their profiles, they had nothing in their bio.
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Nothing at all.
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No information.
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Not just no location, nothing to tell me who they were, where they were based,
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what they did, what problem they were solving for me, what I should do next.
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Literally nothing.
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If this is you, this is a massive, wasted opportunity.
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Your bio is keyword searchable on Instagram.
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That's important.
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Your bio is a place where you tell people the problem you can solve for
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them and why they should book you and where to go to find out more information.
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If you're not giving people that information, you might as well
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not have your Instagram account.
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Up there.
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So do go in and have a look in that bio.
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In a previous episode of the podcast, I interviewed the Instagram expert, Sue
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B Zimmerman, and she talked a lot about things you should include in your bio.
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So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, I encourage you
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to go back and listen to that.
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Episode, but please don't have your Instagram page out there with no bio.
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Get as much information in that bio as you can.
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Don't make it dry and boring.
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Don't waste it with talking about your pets and things like that.
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Make sure you're telling people what problem you can solve for them, where
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you are, what you do, and how you can solve it, and what they need to do next.
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Okay.
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Number six on my list of mistakes I saw on people's Instagram accounts that you might
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be making as well, and I see this a lot and it makes me hold my head in my hands.
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It's terrible pictures.
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You may have the best product in the whole wide world, but if your pictures
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are terrible and you're just taking them on your phone, you are not marketing and
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selling yourself to the level you should.
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Terrible photos.
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Stand out a mile on Instagram.
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Instagram has always been an image led platform.
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When I go to your profile, I should see a portfolio of the highest quality of
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your work, just as good as your website.
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And if you are just taking photos on your phone and popping them on your Instagram
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grid, you are doing yourself a disservice.
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You need to have professional images of your product or service available
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so you can use them on your Instagram.
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Now, I know that you might not have these, so here's a couple of options for you.
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First up, get involved in a style shoot locally to you.
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This is a great way to collaborate with other wedding suppliers, but also a really
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great way for you to get some really high quality images or some of your products.
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Then you can use them on your Instagram feed as long as you're
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tagging the other suppliers.
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The second option is to pay someone to do a brand photography shoot.
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Lots of photographers, particularly in the winter, move away from weddings and
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offer their brand photography services.
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In these sessions, yes, you're gonna pay for them, but you can have a
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multiple images of you with different parts of your product or service.
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On show.
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You can change outfits and then you can use these photos again and again
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and again on your social media pages.
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The next way to get images is to make friends with the photographers who
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are working at the weddings where your product or service is being offered.
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Ask if you can use their photos in return for a credit.
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They've taken a photo of your flowers or your cake, or your suits, or your dress,
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or whatever it is that you do, ask them.
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Build a relationship with them.
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Understand it might take them a while before those images are
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ready for you, but just ask nicely.
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The better relationship you have with that photographer and making sure
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that you are crediting them and giving them the glory for their photos,
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the more likely you are to get them.
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The final thing, if you can't do any of those options, is to invest
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in some equipment, to take your own photographs, making sure that you
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know what you're doing, get it in some kind of blank space or a black box.
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Get some good lighting, a decent camera, even some phones now have really good
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quality cameras, but it's all about the background, how you showcase
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that product, the way you style it.
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There's so much more to it than just snapping a.
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Remember, when it comes to your Instagram, your grid is your portfolio.
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I should be able to go to your grid and see the best of the
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best of your product or service.
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It should wow me.
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It should make me want to spend my money with you and book you.
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If you wanna show little behind the scenes clips and things like that, put them in
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your Instagram stories, not on your grid.
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Your Instagram stories can be much more informal.
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Things you've taken on your phone.
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The things on your grid should be professional looking images.
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Remember, you need to show the level that you want to be selling at, and
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that's where these brand shoots and style shoots can really come into their own.
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Because just because you haven't made a 10 tier cake for a wedding yet doesn't
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mean you can't make a 10 tier cake and have it photographed and start
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using it all over your social media.
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And guess what?
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Maybe someone will then book that 10 tiered cake.
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The final mistake I'm seeing people making all of the time on their Instagram
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is that there's no pictures of them.
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Go take a look at your Instagram.
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Now.
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When was the last time you posted on your grid a photograph of yourself?
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Now, I know you're probably feeling a little bit self-conscious and you're
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thinking, I don't really wanna put myself on the grid, and I totally get that.
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However, when a consumer or a stranger.
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Finding your profile.
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They wanna know who the face is behind the business.
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For most of you, your small business owners is either just
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you or you and a small team.
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And people wanna know who they're booking.
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Yes, they like seeing your flowers, your cakes, your photographs, or
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whatever it is that you offer.
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But they also want to see you.
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You should be trying to have your face on your grid, every nine images
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so that if I go to your profile, I can see who you are immediately.
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Some profiles I visited didn't have any photos of themselves at
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all, even if I scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the grid.
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And if that's you, then again, you need to get some photos of yourself on there.
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If you're struggling for photos of yourself, get involved in a styled
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shoot where they do behind the scenes.
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Or pay a brand photographer to take some incredible photos of you.
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There's loads out there post in my group Wedding Pros who are ready to grow.
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Ask people if anyone is a brand photographer in your area who'd be
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willing to work with you on some photos.
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Yes, it's gonna cost you a little bit of money.
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However, it's well worth the investment and you can use those
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photos again and again and again, especially if you're savvy and you
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change outfit part way through.
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Okay.
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Let's recap those mistakes you might be making on Instagram so you can make
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sure you're not doing any of them.
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First up, make sure if you've got auto response, that the message makes sense.
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Secondly, make sure your location is on your Instagram profile.
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Tell me what country you're in.
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Tell me where you cover, but don't leave it blank.
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Don't make people jump through hoops.
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If you're telling people to DM you, then they DM you and you
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tell them to fill out a form.
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They're just gonna give up on the process.
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Make it as easy as possible for them.
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Get them to send you one word book if they're interested in finding
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out more or prices, and then start a small conversation with them.
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Make sure you don't have your settings on Instagram set to private.
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Make sure people can message and DM you.
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If they're sending you spam, you can just delete them or block them, but the good
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people need to be able to get through.
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Make sure you're making the most of that bio section on your profile.
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Don't leave the bio blank.
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Make sure you're telling people the problem you solve, the service you offer,
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and how they can get in contact with you.
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Make sure you've got a good quality of photographs.
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This is got to sell you.
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It's got to be a marketing platform.
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Make sure it's the best of the best of your images.
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Make sure it's showcasing me, whatever you do at the top end and where you
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want to be, not where you are now.
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And finally, make sure that somewhere on your grid, ideally
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every nine posts is a photo of you.
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People buy from people and they wanna see who you.
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Now, before we close off today's episode, there's one final thing that I want to
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talk about, which is incredibly important when it comes to your Instagram account.
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More and more I'm hearing awful stories about how people's Instagram
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accounts are getting hacked.
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Recently, inside my wedding Pro member's lounge, we had a
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guest expert called Paul Newton.
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Come in and talk to us all about hacking and how we can keep ourselves safe online.
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If you're interested in listening to that video and being part of
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the members club, Go check out the link in the show notes below.
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It's still online.
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You can go and watch it.
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It was an incredible session.
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He gave us loads of great tips, but he talked about Instagram hacking and
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like I said, I'm seeing this more and more where people are coming to me and
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saying their Instagram account has been hacked or they've been locked out of it.
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Someone's stolen it and they've lost it.
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And I know how painful that is for them because they spent hours and hours and
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hours building that up and overnight it's.
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Now, the best way to stop this happening to you is to turn
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on something called two factor authentication on your Instagram app.
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It's super simple.
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You just do it in the settings, turn it on, and that means that even if
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someone gets your password, they still need to get your phone number or
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your email to get into your account.
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So set it up so that it sends you a text if someone tries to log into your account.
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And then if it's not, You can stop them logging in and
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you're protecting your account.
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Like I said, super simple.
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You can do it for Facebook and Instagram.
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Get two factor authentication turned on, and stop those hackers
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getting into your account.
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You've worked really hard on that account.
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The last thing I want is for you to lose it overnight, and that is
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the best way to protect yourself.
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So right now, as we finish this episode, go into your Instagram,
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go into settings and make sure two factor authentication is switched.
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I'd love to know how you found today's episode.
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Drop me a message on Instagram, especially if you've made any changes based on
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the things we've talked about today.
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And why not go ahead and leave me a rating on the show or a review.
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It would be amazing.
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I'll see you next week.