This spring, I participated in dozens of Venue 1:1s with venue owners and event managers, and I kept hearing the same sentence, almost word for word.
“I’m doing everything everyone tells me to do, and very little of it is working. I’m frustrated. And I’m tired.”
Most of these venues don’t have an effort problem. They have an alignment problem.
Back in January, I wrote to you about the market splitting into two camps of couples, the value-driven and the experience-driven, with the middle thinning out. That part isn’t new anymore.
You’re feeling it every day.
Here’s the piece I didn’t say then: those two camps want to be talked to in almost opposite ways.
- A value-driven couple wants the math up front, shown clearly and fast.
- An experience-driven couple wants to feel something before they ever see a number. Send one the message built for the other, and you don’t land in the middle. You miss the booking entirely.
One of those Venue 1:1s was with a venue owner who runs a stunning estate. The kind of place where experience-driven couples should be lining up. They were inquiring, and she kept losing them after her first reply.
She showed me what she was sending. It was a fast, efficient email all about pricing and availability. Which is perfect — for a value-driven couple.
But that wasn’t who was inquiring. The experience-driven couple wanted to feel chosen. And she was handing them a spreadsheet.
So she rewrote that first response. She gave them the same information, but with a different energy: a real note about their inquiry, a quick story, with the logistics lower down.
Her tour booking rate went up about 40% in two months.
TO DO FOR YOU:
Pull up the first email you send a new inquiry. Read it as the one couple you’d most love to book this year. Is it answering their question, or just delivering information? Is it targeted to the couple best suited for your venue?
Because the split isn’t slowing down. But the venues pulling ahead aren’t working harder. They got clear on who they’re for, and made every touchpoint say the same thing.
