All wedding and funeral celebrants should have a website to inform prospective clients about their services and their business. A website and business branding are the foundations of a business. Do you have a website and branding? If you do, what does your website and branding say about your business?
Why Your Business Needs a Website
Your business will benefit from having a fast loading, professional and blog based website. Some celebrants do not have websites as they receive most of their work from social media. Social media is one of the ways to reach a wide audience of prospective clients, but it can disappear, all your hard work of posting and engaging can disappear instantly. Your social media accounts belong to the platform they are on. If social media goes down as it sometimes does, so does your business. If you account is cloned, hacked or taken down, what happens to your business?
This is one of the reasons why celebrants need a website. Your website belongs to you. Your website is your shop window, displaying your services, your geographical location, your fees, your personality. These things are essential for all celebrants. Families and people arranging funerals, celebrations of life or memorials are now looking online for funeral celebrants.
Many funeral directors search for celebrants online, and research celebrants who approach them to be recommended. Should a funeral director require the services of a celebrant who specialises in a certain style of ceremony, they will do an online search.
Wedding celebrants are found through online searches of certain areas or speciality such as those of us who specialise in handfasting, alternative, theatrical or subculture centred ceremonies. Couples sometimes require a celebrant who has a specific skill, or a certain look to fit in with a theme they might have. A bilingual celebrant or a celebrant who signs might be required, or a celebrant who leads a similar lifestyle, or one from a required culture. ‘People buy people’ as the saying goes and finding a celebrant who is the right celebrant is important.
Couples search for non-religious celebrants or celebrants who create life events ceremonies such as vow renewals or naming ceremonies. Wedding venues may also search for celebrants to add them to a list of recommended suppliers or to invite them to wedding fairs. Media companies looking for celebrants to go on tv or radio also search online for websites.
Open 24/7, your celebrant website should be informative of many things, including the following:
Your business branding (not just a Canva created logo)
What kind of celebrant you are (not just a wedding or funeral celebrant)
What areas of the UK you work in.
What you look like currently
FAQ’s (including fees you charge)
How to contact you
Blogs
Much more (we won’t give it away here)
Why Blogs are Important
Blogs are the sharing of information with others online. Blogs are shared on social media, saved, emailed to others, used as a reference or a source of information and they are attached to any images seen online linking back to your blog and your website.
Blogs are personal views or business experiences written in your own style or information on a range of subjects wedding or funeral industry related.
Blogging is something many celebrants shy away from, ironic as the role of a celebrant includes writing information to share with others. Celebrants state reasons why they do not blog. ‘I know I need to, but I haven’t got time’ and ‘it has all been blogged about by others’ are the two main excuses not to blog.
Professional Celebrant Websites and Branding
Professional businesses require a professional and fast loading website. Your website and branding are the online presence of your business. They are a billboard for you as a celebrant and if you want to get business, you need to be found online.
There is so much more to your website and branding than choosing a template from a few offered by a person claiming to be website builder. In a few easy online tutorials, many can build a website, but maintaining one and gaining business from one is a different matter. A website needs to be registered on search engines to be found and regular updates are required once it is online to keep it safe, secure and working.
Many celebrant training companies now offer websites from a selection of templates rather than a uniquely built site. As a celebrant you offer individualised ceremonies so why choose a website template that many others may be using? A cheaper price might be a tempting offer but what is the overall high price should your celebrant website be hacked, cloned, deleted or cannot be found? Can the builder assure you they can keep your celebrant website safe and secure and do what is required for your business to be found?
Before you part with any money, research any prospective person’s or company’s ability to build you a unique website. They should implement the following (and more) for every site they build.
- Hosting
- SEO (including registering on Google and search engines, site maps and correct uses of tags and alt text on images to link back to your website)
- Technical support
- Site security
- Backups of your site
- Google analytics
- Download speed
Things to also ask:
- Can you update the site yourself or add your own blogs?
- Will you receive information on how to do this?
- What support do they offer once your website is live?
- If your site goes offline, how long will you have to wait to get it back online?
- Can they be contacted by phone or just by email?
- What are the additional monthly/annual costs involved such as hosting?
- Will they provide you with monthly traffic reports?
- Do they have a portfolio of other websites they have designed, including ones for other industries?
Ask to see samples of the websites they have built.
Do a search of their websites, how are the sites they have built performing? (Loading times, are any links to other information, social media and resources all working, images sized professionally, any 404 error screens).
Do they all look similar?
Are they using similar stock images, fonts and colours?
Are they demonstrative of any services they have stated they can offer?
Do they show samples of the websites they have built?
Contact celebrants who have had a site or branding created and ask how their websites are working for them.
Ask them about their experiences and if they have had much business from their websites.
Celebrant Branding
What about their branding? Branding is a huge part of your celebrant business and of your celebrant website. Your branding isn’t just a logo, it is the identity and recognition of your business everywhere your business appears. Once again with practice, many people can create a logo (a small part of your branding) in Canva or with AI. Why pay somebody to do what you can do for free? Branding isn’t just about a nice image to put on your business cards or in the correct place on your website. This is what graphic designers do, they work with you to create your business branding.
If they offer branding, do they offer Canva created logos or AI generated logos, or do they consult with you as a professional graphic designer would. Can you see samples of the branding they have created? Are these samples very similar to each other? Do they portray the businesses brands, or do they all say or depict one word ‘celebrant’?
Why is this important and relevant? It is important and relevant because it should showcase their work and their ability to understand your needs for your celebrant website and branding. If a website builder’s website isn’t easy to use, it isn’t fast loading, it isn’t correctly registered on Google, their social media presence isn’t appealing, their content is poor, blogs can be found elsewhere online or are obviously AI generated, are they the right company/person to help your business gain attention and bookings?
Website Costs
When researching your celebrant website and branding, is the price a deciding factor? Are drawn to lower priced services than higher ones? This can be how clients decide if we are the right celebrants for them, and we all know how we feel about cheaper priced celebrants. Our fees as celebrants reflect our skills and experiences in designing, crafting and performing our professional ceremonies. It’s the same with professional web designers and graphic designers. Their fees reflect their skills and experience in designing, creating, building and updating your celebrant website and branding.
Professional Website and Branding
As a professional celebrant, your website and branding should be professional. You want prospective clients, funeral directors, venues, media and others to see your business as being professional, not a ‘side hustle’. Investing in professional services is what your clients will be doing so why wouldn’t you do the same with your celebrant website and branding?
Your celebrant website and branding should be reflective of your style as a celebrant and to attract your clients; ‘people buy people’, does your website and branding portray the kind of celebrant you are, and what style of ceremonies you create?
Are they ‘on trend’ or will they require changing within a few months?
Updating Your Website and Branding
If you already have a website and branding, when were they last updated?
How old are the images on your website?
Is the information in past blogs still relevant?
How fresh and modern is your website and branding? A website is a current business tool, it needs to be reviewed and updated. Is it time for a new celebrant website and branding?
Do Your Research
When you made the decision to become a celebrant, you researched your training company before you parted with your money. Do the same before you part with any money for your celebrant website and branding. Running and maintaining a business requires money to be spent and cutting corners could prevent your business from being found or seen to be a hobby.
If a friend or relative offers to build you a website, or you decide to build your own, remember the purpose of that website is to be found online to generate bookings for you.
Many offering celebrant websites and branding follow current colour themes and use similar font styles with the same stock images seen on other websites. Websites should be unique to each business to reflect the individuality of each celebrant as we all should have our own style. Can/does your unique style and your business identity come across by the person offering to help you to create your celebrant website and branding? Are they looking at other celebrants website for their inspiration or are they engaging with you?
If you want to earn money as a celebrant, you need to stand out from others, and a templated website with similar colours, images, font styles and limited information won’t help you to stand out.
Websites and Branding From a Professional
Here at Choice Celebrant Training, we have an experienced professional who is part of our team. Rob Farrell is our ‘tech guy’; a professional web designer and graphic designer who has been designing branding and building websites for many companies across the UK for over 25 years. He has over 10 year’s experience of creating individual websites and professional branding for many wedding and funeral celebrants after previously doing this for one of the largest celebrant training companies in the UK. One sample of his work is our website which you are reading this blog from.
If you require any information on your celebrant website and branding, you can contact Rob who will be happy to chat to you to about your individualised business requirements.
As the saying goes ‘you only get one change to make a first impression’ so make sure your celebrant website and branding are professional and unique to your business.
