How can I improve my listing performance/increase messages and enquiries?

Coco Wedding Venues (CWV) is almost exclusively UK couples and is well known for the quality of leads generated. Our goal is to match venues with couples and for that to lead to a booking. We have large numbers of genuine couples who click through from our pages and send direct messages from our platform. We consider these numbers carefully when setting our membership prices so that venues get a great return on their investment.

How couples use our platform

Couples will see your venue several times while using the venue finder, trying different filters, and leaving/returning during their search. They will engage with your listing in various ways, e.g. quick views, gallery views, page views, etc. We record all these things separately to represent better how well your venue is being seen and generating interest, and means some numbers are much larger than others.

Couples' survey question:

How did you contact the wedding venues?

We'd love for all couples to use our direct messaging system or at least click through from our pages to your website so it can be tracked and reported. However, in our surveys of couples, we found that 79% would discover your venue on our platform but then contact you directly via your website, email, or telephone.

How to know if your listing is doing well

Most leads we generate will contact you directly; only around one in five will use our messaging system, which means your success on CWV is more than just the number of direct messages you receive!

The number of couples looking for a venue and their level of engagement will change through the different engagement seasons (see our marketing trend calendar in your report); you can't simply look at absolute numbers to know whether your listing is performing well.

We think the best way to measure performance is to compare your results with those of our other venues during the same period using our "Platform Averages."

If you view your reports, you will see that alongside every absolute number is a percentage showing how close you are to the platform average. Your aim should be to equal or exceed the platform average.

What can I do to improve my listing?

Success is not guaranteed. How you present your venue on our platform will significantly impact the leads it generates, and keeping it up-to-date is essential. Use our "Are you up-to-date?" section (shown below) on the home page of the Members' Portal to help you with this.

In addition to staying up-to-date, what you show on your listing will impact its performance statistics, and the different parts of your listing will impact different statistics. We'll explain each number below, what it means, and how to increase it. Remember, all of these statistics represent potential leads, not just the messages statistic.

Impressions and how to increase them.

Impressions are the number of times your venue has been visible within the Venue Finder. The number can vary between locations. Places with more weddings have more couples and therefore more impressions. Keep this in mind when you view this number.

To increase your impressions, you can do the following:

• Ensure you have selected all the correct search categories for your listing. The more categories you are in, the more searches you will appear in.
• Add late availability dates so you appear in our Late Availability page and consider a boost to push you to the top of this page.
• Consider a location boost. Boosting your listing with a region and/or county boost will push your venue to the top of search results.
• Consider applying to join our Collections. It will generate impressions from couples willing to step outside their location criteria. We do not recommend this until you have a location boost.

Engagements and how to increase them.

Engagements count the number of interactions with your listing, including page views, quick views, gallery views, clicking on offers, availability and highlights, etc.

Increasing impressions will increase engagement.

To improve engagement, focus on the following visible areas in the Venue Finder where it will have the most significant impact.

• Main header image: Look at the top venues on the leaderboard (within your report) for tips on a good header image.
• Price: If you show your "From" price, ensure it is the lowest possible price for your venue (mid-week, off-peak).
• Intro: The short intro text is all the couples have to go on, so list your main selling points up front.
• Name: Make sure the name you give your venue isn't misleading; e.g. avoid saying "Castle" if it is also a barn or marquee venue.

Referrals and how to increase them.

Referrals count the number of times couples have clicked through to your website, socials or contact details. Remember, nearly 80% of couples (four out of five) will contact you directly, so this is a good measure of how well your listing is doing.

Increasing engagement will increase referrals.

The advice to increase referrals is the same as to increase direct messages, so see below for what we recommend.

Messages and how to increase them.

Messages count the number of enquiries sent directly from our platform. Remember, only one in five couples will do this; the rest will contact you directly.

Increasing engagement will increase messages.

Here are some tips to help improve referrals and messages:

• Limit facts and figures: You want to include the maximum capacities for the venue and a price range, but try to avoid overwhelming the listing with every possible permutation and price.
• Explain the possibilities: If your venue can be used in different ways, briefly explain that so the couple can find something in your offering that chimes with their aspirations.
• Testimonials: Gain trust with testimonials. You can have up to 20, and you should try to get them to explain what they loved about their wedding, not just say thank you.
• Images, images, images! Finally, it goes (almost) without saying that images must be current, professional, and beautiful.
  • Your images should show your venue at its best, and your gallery should include a mixture of exteriors, interiors, and inspirational images from recent weddings and/or styled shoots. If you are launching a new venue or have new spaces being built, we're happy to include architect CADS, renders, or illustrations. Your images should also be inclusive and represent all your couples.
  • Read The Images You Need to Market Your Wedding Venue for detailed advice on the members' community blog.

"My leads aren't converting to bookings".

We sometimes get questions about why some leads aren't converting to bookings, and we understand that this is critical for your business! Our role in your marketing funnel is to capture genuine couples looking for a wedding venue who understand your key selling points and pass them on to you. At that point, they are better than Google clicks or PPC because they have been somewhat qualified before they reach you, but from there, it's over to you!

Sometimes, there can be a mismatch between what is said on a listing and the reality of the venue, leading to couples not booking. While this can happen, and we encourage your listings to paint an accurate picture, it isn't the most common reason for the failure to convert a lead. If you want tips for converting leads, please see our industry blog article Maximising Conversions from Third-Party Wedding Venue Directories.

We hope this advice was helpful, but please get in touch with us if you need help or have any questions or concerns. For more inspiration and industry tips and tricks, don't forget to visit The Wedding Venue Insider, our members' community blog.