Book More Weddings With Social Media Engagement w/ Emma Barrera

Want to book more weddings using social media? Just posting & hoping for the best doesn’t work anymore. Instead of wasting your time creating more content for social media, find out EXACTLY how to use it to find and book clients.

Worried you’ll come across as salesy by engaging with potential clients? I’ve got you covered! In this podcast episode, you’ll learn how you can use social media engagement to make your potential clients feel cared for and bring the party to them all while booking more weddings.

Couples are taking longer to book and social media engagement can help you nurture your leads and close more sales. There are so many benefits to adding social media engagement to your social media strategy! We talk about all of these benefits and steps you can take right now to make more sales on Instagram in this podcast episode.

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Mistakes wedding business owners are making on social media
• What social media engagement is and how it works
• How engagement drives bookings on social media
• How to find your ideal clients on social media
• The importance of social media engagement for your wedding business
• Practical things you can do right now to book more weddings from social media
• How to organically grow your social media
• How social media engagement can help you prevent ghosting
• How to do social media engagement without coming off as creepy
• How to get more comfortable doing social media engagement for your wedding business
• Easy ways you can engage on social media and stand out from other wedding pros
• The importance of consent when sending an offer or resource
• How to track who you’re talking to
• Converting conversations to cash
• How to find couples before they even get engaged
• Emma’s experience interacting with vendors as a bride
• Incredible results Emma’s clients have gotten
• How to get everything you need to start doing social media engagement for your wedding business

Book More Weddings With Social Media Engagement w/ Emma Barrera

0:00:00 – Heidi Thompson
This is the Evolve your Wedding Business Podcast, episode number 279, how to Book More Weddings Using Social Media Engagement Strategies.

0:00:11 – Intro
In a world where wedding professionals are struggling to market and grow their businesses, one podcast brings together top experts and actionable strategies to help you build the wedding business of your dreams. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business Podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

0:00:42 – Heidi Thompson
Hello, my friend, welcome to the podcast. I am your host as always, Heidi Thompson, and I am all about helping wedding pros just like you book more of the weddings you want with the clients that you want, and also build a business that gives you freedom and flexibility. And I’m really, really excited about today’s episode.

It’s about something we don’t talk enough about. We talk a lot in business and in the wedding industry about social media, about what to post, about what to create. What we don’t talk about is social media engagement, is social media engagement, and we are all leaving so much money on the table by just posting things and hoping people find us, instead of actually finding our people and interacting with them and building relationships and being able to sell without feeling sleazy. So that is what this episode is all about with Emma Barrera.

Now, Emma shares just an absolute wealth of knowledge during this episode, but she is going to be doing a live masterclass for us coming up on June 11th, so you’ll definitely want to grab your ticket to that. It is an absolute steal. You can grab it over at www.evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/engage, and there’s two ways to attend.

You can purchase the one-off ticket and be able to attend live, ask your questions and get the replay. You also have the option of joining the Wedding Business Collective and getting it included with everything else that comes with the Wedding Business Collective and getting it included with everything else that comes with the Wedding Business Collective, so you’ll find that choice over at https://www.theweddingbusinesscollective.com/engage/.

Like I said, that’s coming up on June 11th and if you want to book more weddings from your social media efforts, you are definitely going to want to be there.

I know I’m excited. I’m ready to learn a ton from Emma, and I already have from this interview, so let’s get into it with Emma.

Today. I am so excited to be joined by Emma Barrera, who is an expert on all things social media engagement, which is something that we do not talk about enough. She’s the CEO of Right Hand Glam, the engagement agency, and her whole thing is, you know, using the social side of social media to get her clients bookings. Crazy concept, right, but it’s something that we don’t do enough, so I wanted to have Emma on to talk about this. Emma, thank you so much for joining me.

0:03:36 – Emma Barrera
I am so pumped because I know that this is an industry that has a lot of questions about this topic that maybe you know is a little bit foreign to this topic. And, as a 2024 bride, I just wanted to say I bow down to you all. You do the Lord’s work and I’m really excited to get to connect with you today.

0:03:58 – Heidi Thompson
I’m really curious how you got into this space of not just doing social media for people, but this like organic growth engagement, which is a very specific area of social media.

0:04:13 – Emma Barrera
Yes. So I will proudly say that we were the first, we were the original engagement agency, and it actually took me a long time to fully accept that, because I didn’t want to come across as cocky. I didn’t want to. Honestly, I didn’t want to give myself enough credit and I think as women we do not give ourselves enough credit whatsoever and so now it is something that I am fully owning. But I actually got my start in this at a tanning salon. The owner was like hey, could you do this thing for me where you log into my account and you just kind of comment on other people’s stuff and get them to follow me?

And I was like okay, like sounds like fun. I’m literally getting paid to consume content and scroll Instagram and I do that anyway, so why not make money doing it? And then, as time went on, I got really good at it and I realized I was being a lot more strategic about it. I wasn’t just commenting willy-nilly, I was really thinking about where the ideal client was hanging out, the things that they liked, what they would do on a Friday night, and it really expanded to what Right Hand Glam is now, which is a lot more strategic, a lot more data driven and, funny enough, people in the wedding industry would have been an ideal client.

Because one of the things I teach and I always say this twice you want to engage with the people who are engaging with people like you.

And I’ll say that again you want to engage with the people who are engaging with people like you, right? So the train of thought here, if we run with the tanning salon is okay, who is getting a spray tan? A bride? Where is a bride going to be hanging out? Well, we’re going to look at wedding venues. We’re going to look at wedding planners. We’re going to look at wedding florists. Whatever wedding-related person that there is, or place that there is, a bride is going to be hanging out there, and so we can apply that way of thinking and that logic really to any industry, to any product, to any service.

And that’s how we started to scale Right Hand Glam and we are now a team of seven. We serve people all over the country, all over the world, in all different niches, and from what I’ve learned about the wedding industry and from being a bride is that you need to stand out from all of the other tabs that someone has.

I was doing a project for someone who was a web designer for folks in the wedding industry and that’s what she said and it really stuck with me. And one of those things that you can do is engagement. You want to close the gap in where you are leaving money on the table, and so for you, that could mean additional touch points. It should mean additional touch points, right. Most of the time with the wedding industry, you get an inquiry form. You’re going to follow up via email, you’re going to get on a call. They’re going to make a decision, right.

But imagine if you could insert more touch points on a place like Instagram, right? So, and super easy thing that you could implement literally right now like, pause this episode and go do this is check everybody that has submitted an inquiry in the past couple months who has not made a decision yet. Maybe it’s the person who literally submitted an inquiry today, right? Find them on Instagram and say hey, I’m so excited that you submitted an inquiry. I can’t wait for us to get on a call.

If any questions come up before then, feel free to send them here. I’m here to support you. And that shows the person on the other side of the screen on the other side of all this, who is a very overwhelmed human, who has a lot going on, who is juggling their job and their personal life and now planning a wedding, which is essentially another full-time job. You’re showing them that you are going to be there, that you’re going to support them and that you are going to give them a white glove client experience. You are engaging with them and creating a touch point prior to the touch point that most other people are starting with, and so that is going to help you stand out from the crowd.

0:08:38 – Heidi Thompson
That is huge. I absolutely love that and I like that. There are different points that this can work. So you’re saying there, like the, you got the inquiry, but maybe they haven’t moved forward with the consultation. But what came to mind for me, you know, when you were describing the kind of work that you do for people and finding the people that you want to engage with is it’s a slightly different approach. In marketing, we look so much at, like, the inbound, you know, attracting the right people, which is super important, but there are so many opportunities thanks to social media to like just go find the people that you want to connect with.

0:09:20 – Emma Barrera
Yes, exactly, and what I tell people is that you need to start bringing the party to your people, because content alone doesn’t convert anymore. Nothing alone converts anymore. Whatever you are doing whether it’s running ads or posting, or just working on your SEO for your website, or maybe it’s engaging in Facebook groups where you’re pitching your services it’s just not enough anymore. People are taking a lot longer to make decisions. People are counting every single penny before they make an investment. So it is super crucial that you take the time to build a connection and build a community. So if you want your account to grow, stop relying solely on. Maybe I could go viral, right. Go out and find your people. So, for example, let’s say you are because I’m located right outside of Philly. Let’s say you are a wedding planner for Philadelphia area brides and you want to go out and find potential clients. A great place to look is a wedding photographer, right, because they are going to post people’s engagement sessions and so what you can do and they’re always going to tag them. Most, I would say like 99% of the time, they’re going to be tagged Go, follow the bride and start engaging with her.

I remember, and this is how I know that someone was doing really good engagement. I remember when I started shopping around for someone to do my invitations, I followed a place in Philly that did invitations and a few hours later another invitation company in Philly followed me. And so I realized at least I think based on what I do that likely whoever was doing the social media slash engagement for that brand was taking a look at who was engaging with the posts of their competitor, and then they started following me. Now where they lost it was they never engaged with me, they never reached out and I didn’t go with either of those companies, but both of them could have closed a sale if they just said hi or at least been on my radar to move forward with.

0:11:44 – Heidi Thompson
That is so interesting, and I think sometimes when we hear about social media engagement, I can just like hear the voice of the person listening to this being like yeah, but how do you do that without being creepy, you know?

0:12:00 – Emma Barrera
everyone asks this question.

0:12:02 – Heidi Thompson
They’re like isn’t it awkward, isn’t it weird?

0:12:04 – Emma Barrera
Look you’re out here to make money. You are a business. You need to choose to make moves to make money. So you kind of have to put that aside. And I have a theater background, so one of the ways I tell people to do this to get a little more comfortable with doing it is imagine you’re slipping into a role. You are stepping into the CEO role and the CEO version of you is who is showing up, right, and it’s no different than sending an email or sending a text message, even.

I think we just have this weird block because it’s Instagram. But once you overcome that mindset and you remember I’m a business and here to make money, it’s not as weird, right, and if we just consume so much content, not just on social media but everywhere around us, people are going to forget. Nobody cares as much as you do. It’s like when we talk about filming ourselves in public, right, I was in London over the weekend and my fiance was like you’re going to film this right here in the middle of Hyde right, I was in London over the weekend and my fiance was like you’re going to film this right here in the middle of Hyde Park. And I was like yeah, and he said well, won’t people think that’s weird?

And I was like Luke. Everybody is obsessed with themselves. Nobody cares what I’m doing. And if they do care, they’re going to clock it for a hot second, be like oh my gosh, look what that girl is doing and move on Right. And if someone is personally offended by a message that you send, that’s on them, right. The worst someone could do is say no or leave you on read and that’s okay, move on right. Someone is always going to need your services, so why not make the first move?

0:13:40 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, I love that, I love the way that you think about that and I think so often we can get hung up on okay. But, like, what sorts of communication are you having with people? And I can think of you know just a few that I’ve had. Recently Another industry person that works with florists in Australia, I started following them. They just sent me a message saying hey and asking you know how I came across the account. That started a whole conversation which would have never happened. So I think and I’m sure you see this a lot like we can kind of overthink the how do we talk to these people?

0:14:28 – Emma Barrera
Yes, and there are a million ways to start the conversation. You can ask someone how they found you and you can just flat out say that. Or you could look at your mutuals and be like, oh my gosh, we have a lot of people in common. Or, you know, you could pick out someone specifically and be like, oh my gosh, I saw that you know blah blah, blah, she’s the best, she’s super cool, I love her content. Um, you can send a welcome message. Some people like this, some people don’t. Um, I personally do.

I think it’s a really fun way to get the conversation started. Um, when you send a welcome message and you send sort of like a fun icebreaker prompt. Um, you can also just respond to someone’s story. People all the time overthink this. I get this question all the time Like how do I start this? Literally, just respond to someone’s story and bonus points if it is dogs or babies. People love talking about their dogs and people love talking about their babies. So, if someone posts their dog, reply and be like oh my God, your dog is so cute, what’s their name? It’s so simple to get into someone’s DMs without it being weird. You’re just starting a conversation.

I always tell people to think of it like online dating and you’re just swiping right by messaging them via their stories. It’s a swipe right and maybe it’ll go somewhere and maybe it won’t. But if you’ve done online dating I mean I sure did before I met my fiance you talk to way more people than you go on dates with right. And if we think of dates as our inquiry call, we’re going to have a lot more conversations and talking stages, then we’re going to have dates and then obviously we’re going to have dates and then obviously we’re going to end up with one person. So that funnel just keeps shrinking down. And if you apply that same logic to social media, every story reply is just the same kind of conversation starter that’s swiping right. And then certain conversations are going to progress to a point of an inquiry call which is going on a date, and then, after your inquiry call, doing some follow-ups on social media if they’re still thinking is also a great thing to do, even if you’ve emailed them.

Go ahead and send them a message, right? How many times do you open an email or a text and you forget? Or you have to go do something, or you just get distracted? I mean, I have ADHD, so I know if I don’t answer something in the moment, it’s just not going to get done. Add another touch point right, like maybe they’re more of a text message girly or an Instagram girly or a email girly, right? It’s different for everyone. I personally am an Instagram girly.

If you want to get ahold of me, don’t text me, don’t email me just send me a message on Instagram and I say this to my friends too I’m like I’m going to take 12 years to answer your text, but if you message me on Instagram, you’re getting a response from me fast, because that’s just my medium that I spend the most time on because of my job, but that’s why it’s so much easier to catch me there.

I mean, my computer’s always on, do not disturb, so I never see text messages, but I always have a tab on Instagram open, so if you send me a message there, you can get me. So you need to think about the fact that not everybody is on top of the medium you’re using. How many of you are sending three and four follow-up emails to potential leads and getting ghosted, right? What if you brought that over to Instagram and you were like hey, I sent you an email, but I wanted to pop in over here and see if you had questions for me. I know you’re probably interviewing some other people, but I wanted to make sure that I made myself available here too, if this is a better platform for conversation for you.

0:18:03 – Heidi Thompson
I love that. It’s so. It feels so just like easeful and like breezy and like, hey, yeah, hey, god, just so you know. You know I know inboxes get full, but I sent you that email that we talked about and, yeah, I’m here, exactly, exactly. It’s so just light and open and I think when we think about, like, utilizing multiple channels, it helps so much with just the general attention span that people have. You know, in this industry, if you’re reaching out to five photographers and five videographers and five venues like you, have so many emails coming back into that inbox, so many, and I’m sure you know this firsthand.

0:18:59 – Emma Barrera
I do know this firsthand and I have to tell my wedding planner to follow up with me like 12 different times. I’m like, can you resend me that email about that thing, because I don’t even know where it is, because there’s so many emails about my wedding in my inbox. But also, I think it just it’s going to help you not leave money on the table right. If you use multiple mediums for communication, you have a better chance of being the one that gets picked right. One of the things that I see complaints about all the time in bride Facebook groups is people get nervous when they don’t hear from their vendors for a long time and then they start asking like, did somebody else use this vendor? And get ghosted. When you are showing from the beginning that you are available for communication across different platforms, that’s incredible and that is going to help you stand out from the crowd. That is going to make the client feel safe and seen in what is an extremely stressful and overwhelming time where things are being thrown at you from all different angles.

0:20:01 – Heidi Thompson
It’s a real trust builder, and I don’t think many people would think of it that way until you really think about it in that context of like you are just making yourself more available, you’re opening more lines of communication, you’re trying to be more helpful. Everyone in this industry loves being of service to their clients and this is such a simple way to do it that really can make them feel, like you said, safer. That can make them feel like, okay, deep breath, this is all going to get taken care of.

0:20:41 – Emma Barrera
Right, and you are already ahead of the curve because you’re sitting here listening to this podcast, right, like you are already getting these tips that nobody else is thinking of. People are like, oh my gosh, I’m going to randomly message a girl on Instagram. If you go in with that mindset, you’re going to feel awkward. But if you go with the mindset of I am helping my client, I recorded a podcast yesterday where the person who was interviewing me said that it would be a disservice to the person you are trying to serve if you didn’t offer, if you didn’t try. Right, so they need you, they know they need you. It’s a matter of who are they going to choose for the service that you have to offer. So why not do everything you can to stand out from the crowd to show support, to say here are all the reasons why you should pick me, without having to like be a pick me girl and be like pick me, pick me, pick me right. Meet them where they’re at, meet them where they’re at.

0:21:46 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and you’re right, it is the mindset that you go into it with. And I tested something for myself because I was like, okay, it was during my last summit and I was getting a ton of people following me and I was like what’s a good way that I can engage with people on this? And I basically wrote up a pretty simple message that I could customize, where I, you know, said hey, you know, I saw you followed me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. By the way, I do XYZ thing and I have this resource. If it would be helpful for you, would you like me to send it to you? And I just wanted to test it and see, okay, would people respond to this? Would they be like, yeah, I want that thing, or would it just get left on read?

And overwhelmingly, people were like, yeah, that sounds super helpful. Please send me that thing. Please let me get on your email list. You know I want to learn how to do these things, so I had to get out of my own headspace of like it’d be weird. And then I found out it was actually really, really helpful to the people that I was messaging and then, if they didn’t respond, cool, no, big deal. I’m not going to continue to harass them about it Like, hey, why don’t you want this thing? But the people who did want it, you know it opened up a relationship and it gave them something that was genuinely helpful.

0:23:32 – Emma Barrera
Absolutely. And one of the things I love that you did there is you made it consensual never send somebody something that is a resource or an offer without asking them if they are interested in receiving it, Because we that’s how you come across as pushy, that’s how you come across as weird when you just send people shit. I hate when people’s welcome messages are like so glad that you’re here, Like join our Facebook group or download this or listen to our podcast. That’s weird.

I don’t know you, I have no relationship with you. This is so out of the blue. When you ask for consent, it makes people feel seen. We actually have a message called the pitcher ditch that is very much similar to what you just described Um, there’s a skeleton and then you plug and play. Um, and I have actually had people thank us for the way that it is worded because it didn’t make them feel pressured, um, it didn’t make them feel overwhelmed.

And a lot of the time you get a maybe later from that and I know for the wedding industry it’s a little bit different. But for people like me who are service providers, that maybe later is golden, because then you get to circle back and you now have a data point. So I also think when you have conversations like that, it’s really important to track who you are talking to. So if there’s a way in whatever CRM you’re using, to you know, notate that you talk to them on Instagram and what they said, do that. If you have a system, a project management system, like ClickUp or Trello or Dubsado or Notion whatever it is you use, leverage that to track your leads. And if you have none of the above, a Google Sheet will do just fine.

0:25:28 – Heidi Thompson
Thank you for providing that simple option because I think we, you know, all too often get into like oh well, I don’t have this particular ability in this tool so I can’t do it. But yeah, just tracking in a Google Sheet and then you know, setting a reminder for yourself to go back into that Google Sheet at whatever frequency you’re doing, this can be like the super quick and dirty simple way to bringing actual engagement into your social media strategy bringing actual engagement into your social media strategy.

0:26:04 – Emma Barrera
Yep, and you are in the driver’s seat. You are the one that gets to decide how far you go. So why not just go for it? Why not just try it? And if you, ultimately, at the end of the day, if you’re like I hate this, this is not for me, guess what? You can outsource it. You can outsource it to people like me who love doing this, who don’t feel awkward about it, and then you don’t have to worry about it.

We have clients that like literally don’t even look at their DMs Like we handle all of it A to Z, soup to nuts, and they never know what’s going on. And they are perfectly okay with that.

0:26:32 – Heidi Thompson
That’s wonderful. Tell me about some of your clients. I’m curious like what does this look like? Like you’re in there and you are interacting and you and your team are like tracking and engaging with people. But I’m curious to hear, like, what are some of the results of that? How does that look for your clients?

0:26:51 – Emma Barrera
Yeah. So it is completely dependent on the type of client and their goals. So what we do for each client is completely different. No two are the same, so I’ll use my two personal clients as an example. I work with a copywriter and I work with someone who has resources for nine to fivers who are looking to make more money, and so what I do for the two of them is completely different. I will call the copywriter rolling admission, and so what I do for the two of them is completely different. I will call the copywriter rolling admission, and so that’s going to be the same for people in the wedding industry, people who are always taking clients, and so what we’re doing there is we’re focusing on building relationships that will eventually convert to cash.

Our big thing is converting conversations to cash.

Right, but it is a longer burn than what I’m doing for my other client, because with my other client, we’re basically asking some pointed questions, or a lot of the time, they’re bringing their issues to us and we’re saying, okay, where is the biggest problem? Where do you need the most help? Is it this, this or this? They tell us and we say, great, have you taken a look at this resource, yes or no? Can we send it over? And then we do a follow-up a few days later to say, hey, did you check it out? What questions do you have? And then we track every single step of that and we even have a maybe later section where we know when to follow up with someone down the line.

For my copywriter client it’s going to be just a lot of normal conversations that will eventually evolve into business and it’s super interesting to see she’s in the middle of a launch right now actually for a workshop and some of the people that I’ve been booking I have been nurturing for months, just building relationships with them, and she was like this person booked in this person book, I was like, do you know how long.

I’ve been talking to this person. Do you know how long I’ve been building this relationship? Do you know how long that they have been engaging with your polls and your content and showing interest? And it just wasn’t the right time. And now this offer was the right thing at the right time and now this offer was the right thing at the right time. So I always tell people that if it doesn’t convert right away, that’s not a bad thing. I’ve had people in my community that have taken literal years to convert, which is wild. But when the time is right, the time is right. And obviously for the wedding industry that’s going to look very different because it is such a specific window of time and you have to be fast and you have to be more on top of it. So I think a strategy more similar to what I talked about with my product-based client is going to work better for people in the wedding industry.

I don’t think it’s something as direct, because I think the wedding industry is something that’s a little more heartfelt, a little more personal, and so you’re going to want to pepper that in and using phrases that mirror the experiences that your brides are going through is going to be super beneficial. Saying things like I know you’re really overwhelmed right now. I know a lot is being thrown at you. I know you probably can’t even keep your inbox straight. I know this feels like a full-time job. Those kinds of things are going to make them feel seen and heard, and how different is that than what other people in the industry are doing? They’re just sending emails. You are showing empathy and that is going to again I know I’ve said it a million times help you stand out from the crowd.

0:30:28 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and I think you know another piece that is pretty unique to the wedding industry. Well, I suppose there are some other industries, but the relationships with the client, yes, super important, but because you don’t get repeat clients typically, you might get referrals from them. So much of your business is coming from the people that you know in the industry, your peers, and I have found that this, like very simple strategic engagement, is so important to building those relationships. So like opening that door to starting those conversations and easing into it before you, you know, pitch someone to do a styled shoot with you or do some sort of other collaboration. It allows you to start to build those relationships and I mean I’ve built full on business relationships with people over, like you said, like a photo of their dog, and that’s where the conversation started.

0:31:38 – Emma Barrera
Yeah, it is so simple and we just overthink it because we have this block of. Well, it’s Instagram. That’s not what Instagram’s for and genuinely, I think part of the issue is that women are conditioned to think that selling is bad because we have been working for so long to reinvent the wheel of the way that men sell and the way that men market. But here’s the deal what they’re doing, the systems and the strategies works, but what makes us different from them is I talk about this with my coach all the time we’re not assholes about it. Right, we are going to do it with empathy. So stop reinventing the wheel. Do what works. Just do it your way. Do it with kindness, do it in a soft way that is going to make people feel comfortable with you. That is not overwhelming.

I’ve had my business for four years. I’ve offered engagement as a primary service. For four years, I’ve worked with hundreds of people all over the world. This works. I promise you that it does. It sometimes sounds too good to be true or far off right. It seems like it’s not going to work because it’s a long game. But when you go in with the mindset that it is a long game, then you’re better set up for success.

You know, for people in this industry, I think it would be really smart to start targeting people before they’re even engaged. Get on people’s radars who are dating. Right, you are working with the average person of Instagram. They’re not using Instagram the way that you are, so start getting them into your sphere of influence before they’re even engaged, before they even need to think about booking your services. So that way, you’re top of mind, and one of the ways you could do that, for example, is I mean you, you could look at any restaurant and go to the tagged photos of that restaurant and then start looking at posts from normal people and be like, okay, this person has a partner, great, let’s try to bring them into my sphere of influence. So, on the off chance that they get engaged and they’re looking for insert service here, they are already aware of me.

0:34:09 – Heidi Thompson
That is absolutely brilliant. And it’s that thing you said, like look who has your people, where are they? Because I mean, we all document so much of our lives, it’s out there, document so much of our lives it’s out there. And I think, if you can take that a little bit of like a detective approach of, okay, like who would have access to these people? Where would they be, what accounts would they be interacting with, it opens up this whole new world.

0:34:40 – Emma Barrera
Right, and you can think about things like you just want to think about where they’re hanging out, right? So they’re hanging out at restaurants. They are going to boutique fitness studios they are going to bring a full circle. They’re going to a spray tan salon, where they’re going to connect with other people, and you’ll find them. It’s really not rocket science. You just have to use critical thinking. And they’re waiting for you. They don’t know they need you yet, but they know that they’ll need you down the line. So why not ease that stress for them and serve them and show them that you are ready to show up before they’re even ready?

0:35:30 – Heidi Thompson
I love that so much and I think, you know, in the early days of social media things were definitely more spammy and I think when we think about this kind of approach, I’m sure you see a lot of people get hung up on that, like, oh, I don’t want to, you know, just go through and like start in their mind harassing all these random people. But the way you described it is you are being respectful, you are being kind, you are starting a conversation. Respectful, you are being kind, you are starting a conversation. You are just interacting like, you know, a normal human being, not some sort of weird sales robot, and if you can be of help, you’re being of help.

0:36:21 – Emma Barrera
It’s really pretty simple. Yeah, these are not messages that you get from that girl you went to high school with who’s like I have an amazing business opportunity for you.

No, this is showing up. It’s just simply showing up because content is not enough anymore. Posting your work is not enough anymore. Collaborating with other people in the industry is not enough anymore. Yes, you need to do all of those things, but if you are not playing an active role in closing the gap where you’re leaving money on the table, you will get left behind and they will close out your tab.

0:36:58 – Heidi Thompson
So true, and you’re not standing out, and this is a very like. We think about standing out in terms of like, okay, what are people seeing on your website? How are you coming across? Are you making it clear who you’re for?

0:37:11 – Emma Barrera
but this is a different way to stand out that really allows you to show that you give a damn, which is really nice yes, and even like I don know this might be a little shady, but I’m just gonna be really honest with you as a bride. So much of what I saw when I had all my tabs open were the same. Like I was like what is the real difference here? Like, what am I looking at? And that’s when referrals are huge, right, so many people in this industry get clients because of referrals, and what I’m looking at a lot of the time when I’m looking at different vendors is often photos from the wedding of all of the different things, and then all the vendors are listed, right, but the things that stand out are the flowers, the photography and, you know, maybe the dress. But when we’re talking about wedding planners, makeup artists, hair stylists, um, even venues, officiants, those things it’s a little bit harder when what you’re posting is just photos from the wedding right, because you didn’t take those. The photographer did.

So what other things can you do to stand out? You can go talk to people. If you have not talked to the people that followed you in the last week, I want you to pause this right now and go do that. Just send them some kind of message, respond to their story. You can even say you know, if you see that someone followed you, you can flat out ask like hey, are you a newly engaged bride? Like, are you in the process of planning a wedding? Figure out why they’re there, right? Like most of the time, if you’re in this industry and someone is following you, they’re not just following you for pretty pictures, right, they’re following you for a reason. They’re following you because they’re interested. So they might not have even submitted an inquiry form yet. Go find out who the heck they are and why they’re here, and then you can speed this process along by being proactive. So pause this, go talk to those people, find out why they’re there and then come back and listen to the rest of this.

0:39:30 – Heidi Thompson
I love how practical that is, like that’s something you can literally go do right now, you can put it in your calendar, you can do it once a week, if that’s what works for you, and you can have these conversations that help you stand out, that start the conversation before they’re ready to submit an inquiry form, because there’s a lot of research that happens, there’s a lot of thinking, there’s a lot of exploring different options before someone is actually ready. Someone is actually ready, like I’ve seen data that says it’s like 300 hours of research and thinking and collating ideas when it comes to putting a wedding together. So if you think about someone might be at that beginning stage and maybe they’re not ready yet, but like in three months and six months they very well could be.

0:40:27 – Emma Barrera
Yeah, I mean, I know for me personally. When we got engaged, we originally decided we were going to get married in May of 2025. And then last August, we were like, why are we waiting that long? And so we decided to move it up to October of 2024. So all of a sudden, I had gone from still having about six months before I needed to do anything to having to start doing everything, and I started acting fast. I started following people, I started looking around, I started asking for recommendations and then, pretty quickly, I had everything nailed down.

And I mean that can change very quickly for a million reasons. People can decide to move their wedding date for so many different reasons and you want to be prepared for that. You want to be ahead of that. And that’s why I say to go check in with these people and find out who they are, and I mean you can ask them straight up. You can be like, hey, are you a recently engaged bride? Have you set your date yet? And one that can just be a way of supporting them, and just be like, oh my gosh, I’m so excited for you.

And you can say, listen, like I know you might have not started looking for vendors yet. But obviously you followed me for a reason, like are there any questions about the process as a whole that I could answer for you? Just position yourself as a resource, right? You’re not selling yourself yet, you’re selling the idea of planning a wedding and putting all these things together so you can say just how can I support you? Like where are you getting started? You know what is your order and like sometimes I mean I know, I didn’t, I didn’t know what order of things needed to be booked the fastest and I got that support.

But, like, imagine you could be that person for someone they’re going to remember that they’re going to remember that you were the one that told them what they needed to do.

0:42:19 – Heidi Thompson
Oh, my God, yeah. And that stands out because everybody else and what most businesses do is like hey, are you ready to book? Yet, are you ready to book? Yet Are you ready? Are you ready to give me something? And in this circumstance you’re being just helpful, and it’s crazy how rare that is.

0:42:40 – Emma Barrera
A concept right, Just being helpful and not going for the sale. And yes, it takes time. This takes effort. This is not easy, but it is so freaking worth it.

0:42:54 – Heidi Thompson
I’m curious what other results people that work with you have seen, because you have this whole team of people who are managing these clients. They’re running their accounts. I’m sure results are kind of running the gamut. So are there any stories or anything that you could share to highlight what a difference this makes?

0:43:18 – Emma Barrera
I do. I have my favorite story that I tell all the time. So I worked for the client for eight months, um, and in our last month together she was launching a group coaching program. She was a business coach and, um, it was a $3,000 program and her launch goal was $50,000.

Um, this was not out of the ordinary for her. She had done it before, we had done it before, and I was like great, okay, normal, totally reasonable, wonderful. Um, and this is back when launches were like four weeks long and we get halfway through and we had only made three sales, and she goes like emma, what is going on? What is wrong? And I was like, babe, it’s tax season. And she was like, oh, I didn’t even think about that. And I was like, no sweat, this is what we’re gonna to do. We have eight months of data and, because we’ve been launching different things, there are a ton of people that we haven’t checked on in a hot minute. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to go and look through my maybe laters from last year because it was tax season, so it was about March, late March, early April, and I’m just going to go check in on them.

So I go to my tracker and I start finding these people and I scrolled up and I saw what we had been talking about and I said, hey, it’s been a minute since we’ve chatted. I remember last time we talked you were working on X, y, z, how is that going? And all of these people were like, oh my God, I’ve been meaning to message you, I’m doing this, I need help with this, send me an invoice right now. And we turned it around and it was a $47,000 launch Three grand shy of launch goal Not too shabby in my opinion not too shabby in my opinion.

0:45:09 – Heidi Thompson
No, and it’s just these like dangling odds and ends that you have from, you know, getting to know people, and I think we all have those things. So like, oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to do that, I’ve been meaning to reach out to that person, I’ve been meaning to like change that thing in my insurance or like this thing in this other part of my life, and it’s like if you can just, like you said so many times, show up, it can be the prompt people need, because we all have this list of things that we need to do and it’s overwhelming as hell. And I was even just thinking about this the other day. I was like I’ve got one good like admin bullshitty type thing that I can do in a day. One like adulty dumb thing like having to call my health insurance or having to call the state. You know it’s like I can do maybe one a day. That’s all I got in me. You know it’s like I can do maybe one a day. That’s all I got in me.

So you have this like running list of like the adult bullshit that we all have to take care of, and you know things fall into that like oh, I need to update my contract, oh I need to, you know, get help with finding a wedding venue, like all of these things pile up but until people have a prompt they don’t necessarily act.

0:46:30 – Emma Barrera
Exactly, and that’s why tracking all of this is so key. If we didn’t have all of that data of eight months worth of conversations, we wouldn’t have known that these people still needed her. And if I also hadn’t taken the extra minute to scroll up and see what had been going on, the response probably wouldn’t have been the same, because we were showing that we cared and that we knew what we were talking about. And, yes, it’s common sense to scroll up and just see what was happening. But here’s the thing a lot of us, myself included, lack common sense in these situations, so it’s so important to remember to do the little things.

One tip I always give people is actually address people by their name. It sounds so silly, but go find out what people’s names are, especially if you’re connecting with people who have online businesses who might not have their names listed. Or you know even wedding vendors right, Like I follow some florists, where the owner’s name is not on there, it’s obviously the name of the, the shop itself or the business itself. So go to the website, go to the about me. Find out what this person’s name is. If it’s not there, go to their highlights. Find out where their name is, See if they have an about me highlight. If it’s not there, go to their highlights. Find out where their name is. See if they have an about me highlight. If it’s not there. Literally spend time scrolling through their Instagram until you find the last reintroduction post and find out who they are.

0:47:57 – Heidi Thompson
That is insane how simple that is, but it stands out because then it’s not like you said. That girl from high school like, hey, babe, you know, that’s like that blanket, clearly, that blanket message, because so much of this is about showing your humanity.

0:48:19 – Emma Barrera
Amen to that. It is all about human connection. I tell people all the time I was an anthropology major in college and they were like how does that translate to social media? Because when people think of anthropology, they think of like Indiana Jones digging in a ditch dinosaurs and I was like no, no, no, no, no, that’s not my anthropology. I was a sociocultural anthropology major, meaning I studied patterns of why people are the way they are, based on the culture that they’re in, and how that influences the world as a whole, and so that’s really actually applicable to what I do every day. I’m focusing on why people think the way they do, why people show up the way they do, what influences their actions based on their background.

0:49:06 – Heidi Thompson
That is so interesting. That is like a connection that I would definitely not expect. But, like you said, it’s getting in people’s heads. It’s like why do you do what you do? And when you start thinking about the way people think you can meet them where they are, that is just fantastic. I love that so much. Emma. We, oh sorry, You’re good, You’re good.

0:49:36 – Emma Barrera
I was just going to agree with you and be like it really is that simple and this is just something that people overcomplicate because they’re scared to do it. They’re scared to sell and they think that if they message someone, that that person is going to immediately think you’re selling to them because you are a business. And if we shift our mindset, we will find so much more success. You really and I know some people aren’t bought into the whole mindset thing, but I find that it is so crucial to this Once you get out of your own way, you will simply make so much more money and you get to help so many more people in the process.

And your wedding is such a special, beautiful thing and what an honor it is to get to be part of someone’s day and it’s a big choice for people. This is a day they are going to show off and remember for the rest of their lives and they want the cream of the crop and they want a team Like I think of all of my vendors as my team. They are my wedding team and I know that I need strong people behind me. I need empathetic people behind me. I need people who are going to look out for me behind me. I need people who are going to listen to me behind me and I feel like I’ve assembled a great team of people and I know that you all want to be that person for somebody else, or you wouldn’t be listening to this right now.

0:51:00 – Heidi Thompson
Well said, very well said, and I think when you come at it with that mindset of being of service, of being helpful, it allows you to do these things and not feel weird about it and not feel uncomfortable. I know that was definitely my feeling. I felt weird about it at first and then I started to see people find it really helpful, really useful, like thanking me, like okay, all right, this is actually beneficial for everybody. So guess what? As a result, I do it more.

0:51:34 – Emma Barrera
You would be shocked at how many people thank you. It’s a beautiful thing it is.

0:51:39 – Heidi Thompson
It’s wonderful, and I really encourage you guys to go take action on this. But speaking of taking action, Emma is teaching a masterclass for us coming up on June 11th and you can find out all about that. You can save your spot at https://www.theweddingbusinesscollective.com/engage/ and this is going to be well I’ll let you explain. What are people really going to get out of this now that they’re familiar with the concept of having an engagement strategy? That’s a thing. That’s a thing that works. How are we then taking it to the next level here?

0:52:18 – Emma Barrera
Yes, so my workshop is called Organic Growth 101, getting Down and Dirty in the DMs and I will be very honest. That is going to be a lot of information. It’s going to be a lot of things that you have not thought about before, and whenever I teach this, people always say that they go back and they watch it two, sometimes three more times, because there is a lot to absorb in 45 to 50 minutes, right, and most of this information is new to people. But it is going to give you all of the things that you need to go out and start engaging immediately. It is all implementable, actionable strategies.

This is not tips and tricks. This is not high level. This is in the weeds how you do what I do. I am not someone who gatekeeps and I know that everybody says that, but everybody else says that about me and that’s why I share that.

This is a compliment that I get again and again, that I am completely an open book and I just want other people to succeed, so I’m not gonna keep my cards close to my chest. You are going to get everything that I do in my business every single day for my clients, every single day, and you are going to be able to go out and do it and, like I said earlier, if it still feels weird, if it feels awkward, if it feels overwhelming, guess what you can outsource it. Like we said, I have a whole agency. I have a whole team of people that are ready and willing to help you make this happen. So I’m really excited to come in and teach this. It’s my favorite masterclass to teach. I’ve taught it for so many different people and I never get tired of it, so I’m really, really excited for you to get your hands on this.

0:54:16 – Heidi Thompson
Me too, and the reason I asked you to come do this is because I get questions so often about okay, like I’m doing what I feel like I’ve been told I need to do on social media, but how do I actually get more out of this? How do I make sure I’m getting leads out of this on the regular? How do I make sure I’m getting bookings out of this on the regular? And this is how you do it, guys. This is the way to do it, and you can grab your spot at this masterclass at https://www.theweddingbusinesscollective.com/engage/.

It’s happening on June 11th. I cannot wait. I know I’m going to learn, selfishly, a ton from you in this, and members of the Wedding Business Collective who are getting access to this as well are pumped because it’s this like weird, cloudy, you know secret area of social media.

It feels like that has the ability to do so much for your business, but nobody aside from you is being like, no, here’s what you need to do, other than like, just talk to people, and it’s like well, what do I do with that?

0:55:33 – Emma Barrera
What a concept. Instead of scrolling reels for hours, get in your DMs.

0:55:39 – Heidi Thompson
And we’re going to show you exactly how to do that.

0:55:41 – Emma Barrera
Yes, we are, and I cannot wait for June 11th.

0:55:45 – Heidi Thompson
Well, Emma, this has been fantastic and I always learn from you. Where can people go if they want to continue learning from you, if they want to connect with you?

0:55:57 – Emma Barrera
Yes, come party with me at @righthandglam on Instagram www.righthandglam.com. Or, if you’re an email person, because we talked earlier about different mediums, emma@righthandglam.com, I am always in my DMS.

It’s always me in my DMS, so you’re gonna catch me, not someone else. I do all my own socials, I do all my own DMs and I can’t wait to connect with you. Let’s get this conversation started before you even come to the masterclass. Start learning. That way, you’ll be able to come with questions. I love the Q&A portion of whenever I teach a masterclass and I’m always here. I am, again, not one to gatekeep, so if you have questions, my DMs are open and I am always more than happy to answer them. Thank you so much.

0:56:50 – Heidi Thompson
This has been a great conversation and I’ll be sure to link to everything in the show notes. Thanks again.

0:56:57 – Emma Barrera
Thank you and see everybody on June 11th.

0:56:59 – Heidi Thompson
I hope you got as much out of that as I did and I hope this has changed your perspective. Social media is something that was always intended to be social. It’s not supposed to be a place where you just go and post something and hope that someone finds it, because hope is not a marketing strategy.

Social media engagement strategy is such a huge opportunity for wedding professionals, especially because basically nobody in our industry is using it. You see this much more in other industries, but this is a real opportunity for you to jump on this, learn how to do it for yourself and be able to get more bookings from social media. And in order to learn the steps for how to do that, be sure to head over to https://www.theweddingbusinesscollective.com/engage/ where you will be able to grab your spot for the masterclass where Emma is teaching us all of this on June 11th. I can’t wait. I hope to see you there and I will speak to you again very soon.

About Emma Barrera

Emma Barrera (she/her) is the CEO of Right Hand Glam, The Engagement Agency. Using data-driven strategies, Right Hand Glam supports scaling service providers & coaches in organically growing your following and increasing brand awareness, ultimately converting conversations to cash. Over the past three and half years, Right Hand Glam has grown to a team of seven and has served hundreds of businesses around the globe.

Emma is also the founder of The Engagement Academy, a program that gives SMMs, VAs, and 9-5 dropouts the tools, tech, and tenacity to add engagement to their product suite. Over the past two years, Emma has trained over 175 service providers in her systems, strategies, and SOPs. She is a TEDx Speaker and scaling mentor, serving CEOs who are looking for business + mindset support to scale their own businesses to agencies.

Outside of work, Emma can be found at rehearsal, traveling the world (her team often jokes that she’s never actually in the country), or jamming to Stevie Nicks. She lives in the suburbs, somewhere between Philadelphia and Wilmington, with her partner, Luke, and fur babies: Beans, Nala, and Remy.

Website: www.righthandglam.com
Instagram: @righthandglam

 

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