For better or worse.
Photo by Cameron Clark
In psychology, there’s a cognitive bias called Anchoring, which is when a person makes a decision based on the first piece of information they received.
This can be something they read on your Instagram or website, something their friend who referred you told them, or even something written in the proposal you sent them.
Here are three examples of how Anchoring often impacts wedding professionals, for better or worse:
1. Your pricing on your website says, "Investment starts at $5,000”
You think you've covered your bases because you've included the phrase "starts at." It’s a logical approach that still allows you to get to know the potential client and find out what type of work their wedding is actually going to require from you.
Anchoring bias means your potential client saw $5,000 and now that is the number stuck in their head. Guess what didn’t stick? Those two little words: “starts at.”
Because the $5,000 figure is anchored, when you send a proposal for $9,000, they feel blindsided and upset. They feel like you're trying to take advantage of them because you saw them pull up to your studio for the initial consultation in a nice car or walk in carrying a luxury handbag. What was a positive brand experience with you is now a negative experience.
While this is unfair and it may be technically their fault for not paying attention to the “starts at” wording, you are never going to win by trying to compete with how someone’s subconscious chooses to remember what they first saw or heard.
2. Changing which number is listed first in your proposal can help you sell more
If you offer your services in collections (you’re no longer calling them wedding packages), Anchoring bias can help you more easily sell the option you really want them to buy.
If offering more than one option, list the one with the highest fee first in your proposal. This anchors that number in their mind.
I typically recommend making your highest collection price higher than you think someone will pay. It’s great if they buy it, but its purpose is really to make your less expensive bread-and-butter middle collections sell more.
Remember, a core value of millennial clients is that they see themselves as savvy consumers who make smart financial decisions (they may not actually be good with money, but they want to feel like they are). Anchoring your highest price first in the proposal allows them to feel comfortable spending the price of your middle collection.
Splendid Pro Tip: If you offer wedding collections, all of them should be priced in a way that makes you money, including the lowest one. Ask yourself: if all your clients only bought your lowest priced collection, would you be profitable? If not, fix your numbers. Too many people make the mistake of pricing the lowest one to just break even.
3. An ultra-specific tagline can anchor your brand as the one they remember
I talk about this all the time, and I’m going to repeat it again: You need to get super clear about what your brand is about and who it is for.
When most people hear "get super clear about what your brand is about," they think of the age-old concept of "defining your why" (recently made popular again by Simon Sinek's book.)
While it is true you need to know your intrinsic motivators for doing what you do (supporting your family, paying for your kids' Ivy League degrees, creating experiential memories for your family through amazing vacations, extending hospitality through a beautiful and nurturing home, building orphanages, etc), that is not what I am talking about here.
I am talking about getting clear about what you do and who it is for.
You’re smart, so you know that you need to go beyond “I plan weddings” for “brides and grooms.” Maybe you’ve landed on something like this:
“I specialize in planning beautiful weddings” for “couples who love love.”
This sentence may sound sweet, but it is meaningless marketing jumble. Let’s unpack why:
“I specialize in planning beautiful weddings." Yeah, no kidding.
Here’s where marketing messaging diverges from reality a bit: while there are definitely unstylish weddings out there, if no one is marketing themselves as “specializing in ugly weddings,” then saying you specialize in beautiful weddings lumps you in with everyone else. If no one is claiming the opposite, you will not stand out. If you specialize in beautiful weddings, you specialize in nothing.
Now for the second part: “for couples who love love.”
Again, this sounds sweet, but it is super generic: some people may be afraid of love, but very few actively dislike love. It does not drill down enough into which type of engaged couples you are actually looking to target.
All these types of sweet sounding, meaningless taglines do is anchor your brand as the same as everybody else.
Splendid Pro Tip: Photos count, too! Lead with your strongest work, not necessarily images from your favorite clients or the wedding that was the most fun to work on.
Designing your wedding marketing and business strategies to include using the Anchoring bias in a positive way allows you to guide the conversation and better attract the types of clients you want to work with.
Written by
LIENE STEVENS
Liene Stevens, the founder and CEO of Think Splendid, is an author, speaker, and award-winning business strategist. Armed with $2000, a healthy work ethic, and an undeserved dose of privilege, Liene bootstrapped Think Splendid from a scribble in a notebook to a successful wedding business consulting firm with a client list spanning 94 countries
