I recently met with a couple who focuses on destination weddings, selling over $1.7 million in this category alone. They want to expand their business and asked me for ideas on how to do just that. I went ahead and spent some time with them, but their solution was staring them in the face before they ever approached me.

When they asked me for advice, I started with this question: How many of the clients who attend a particular destination wedding, not including the bride and groom, book ongoing vacations with your business? The answer: none. My next question? What’s your follow-up marketing plan around those who attended? The answer: there isn’t one.

Without having to spend a dime on marketing, SEO, keywords and more, this couple has a gold mine at their fingertips. The individuals who have attended a romantic destination wedding planned by this couple have had amazing experiences. In some cases, this could be the first time that they have ever interacted with an actual travel agent.

It was very easy to open this couple’s eyes to a great opportunity, just by asking those initial questions. The next step would be to design a process around engaging those individual guests after they return from their friend’s or family’s wedding in paradise.

One very effective and easy way to do that involves conducting a survey of those who attended to get their feedback and comments regarding the overall experience. Notice how the suggestion goes beyond the bride and groom, which is a given, and encompasses all who attended. Getting the bride and groom to support this follow-up approach is key to getting the most responses, so ask the newlyweds if it’s okay to use their names and agree to share the results with them as an incentive.

A critical component in increasing romance sales is keeping the agency’s brand in front of these individuals on an ongoing basis. We help agents do that effectively and efficiently with Agent Studio’s Marketing Center. A smart agent takes the list of attendees and organizes it under the Smith Wedding Group, for instance. Once uploaded, the names also land in the master list as well, for that particular agency’s marketing center.

The tools are there to automate the process, or, if desired, the site owner can create custom newsletters in minutes. This couple simply needs to spend a little time setting it up and they’ll be able to reap the rewards for years to come.