The 10 things you need to be a successful celebrant in 2024

In an ever-evolving world, the role of a celebrant continues to grow in both significance and complexity. As we look towards 2024, the path to becoming a successful celebrant is paved with new opportunities, challenges, and the need for a diverse skill set.

This article explores the essential qualities, skills, and knowledge areas that we believe will define success this year.

From mastering the art of personalised ceremonies to leveraging technology and understanding the latest trends in celebrations, we explore the key topics that every aspirant needs to embrace. Prepare to embark on a journey that will equip you with the tools to succeed and excel as a celebrant in the dynamic landscape of 2024.

1) Rock solid celebrant training 

Being a successful celebrant means mastering a wide number of skills from being a celebrant to the business of celebrancy. Not only do you need to be great with people and presenting, you also need to be a skilled scriptwriter, adaptable and organised. Being a successful celebrant means running your business like a business, not a hobby. You’ll need to master the art of marketing, sales and other business-centric roles. Many of our most successful celebrants attribute their financial success to the advanced celebrant training they have done with us, that taught them to think differently.

Being a Celebrant is an amazing career move, but you’ll be spinning a lot of plates, and having rock-solid Celebrant training under your belt that’s prepared you for all aspects of the role is a definite advantage.

2) A Standout Website

Even with the proliferation of Social Media, most customers still start their search on Google, so a standout website is essential. It’s the place where you can showcase your brand, tailor your messaging and talk about what you do without the limitations placed on you by social media platforms. It’s also a great place to repurpose the content you post on social media.

We go into this in more depth in How to have a stand out celebrant website. But for starters, or a truly standout website, you’ll need:

• A great user experience
• professional photography,
• great branding and design with personality
• And clear messaging that states precisely what you do, for whom and where!

It’s worth investing in a professional website design that aligns with your personality, as you can see from these 5 Stunning Celebrant Website Designs it really does make a difference.

Don’t forget to spend some time on SEO for your website, even basic SEO can make the difference between your website being found and disappearing into the ether. And make sure you add your web address to your business cards, social media posts and profiles, banners, flyers and marketing materials.

Read more: How to have a stand out celebrant website

3) A professional brand 

A professional brand that reflects your personality and appeals to your ideal customers makes selling your Celebrant services so much easier. Your brand is often the first (and lasting) impression people have of you, and if you’re putting effort into marketing your business, you want to make sure that you’re giving people the right impression! 

So if you DIY’d your brand when you first started, maybe it’s time to review it. As brand guru Danielle Garber (who recently did the AMC brand glow-up) says – “If you don’t love your brand, your clients won’t either!” Don’t just focus on your logo and colour palette; it’s worth the time and effort to arrange a styled shoot or brand photography shoot.

Your brand is more than just a logo, it encompasses the core message of who you are and translates that to your prospective clients and wider world.

Professional branding can be used across your social media, business cards, posters, flyers, and website, ensuring you’re seen as the professional Celebrant that you are! And great news: AMC alumni get 10% off our Celebrant Brand design services. 

And once you’ve got your new brand locked down, don’t forget those all-important brand photos to elevate your website, social media, posters and more. Check out the TFP Styled shoots for Wedding Professional Facebook group for styled shoot opportunities.

Related Post: Branding for Celebrants: An Essential Guide

4) A successful celebrant marketing strategy 

Your marketing strategy is a plan for how you’ll get in front of ideal couples and convince them to book you. The options are endless, but the marketing activities we’ve seen prove successful for Celebrants time and time again include:

1. Venue outreach – Popular wedding venues have a steady stream of couples booking weddings throughout the year, so they’re one of the best sources of leads, and it’s a great way to get bookings when you’re just starting out. Just know that you’re going to have to pick up the phone and speak to the venue manager or wedding organiser, just sending an email won’t cut it because these people are busy! Your goal is to get a face to face meeting and get on the approved supplier list. Once you’re on the list, be sure to nurture the relationship with the venue manager.   
   • If you’re a Funeral Celebrant, you’ll want to target funeral homes, it can be difficult to get in with some Funeral Homes, but it’s worth putting the effort in to build a relationship.
   • Watch how AMC Alumni Stuart Entwistle did this to start his Funeral Celebrancy business
2. Social media – It’s important to have a strong social media presence as you’re building your business, it’s a good way to capitalise on any existing networks you already have, and as you grow your business, you can create a solid following that leads to bookings. Be sure to choose your social media platforms wisely, focus on the 1 or 2 main platforms your ideal client hangs out on. And be consistent in posting engaging, inspiring and useful content regularly.  Related: The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media for Celebrants
3. Networking – Industry-specific networking events are a great place to meet other celebrants and vendors, make sure you collect people’s details and follow up with them after the event. Whether it’s venue managers, photographers, florists or wedding planners, they can be a great source of potential leads. Just don’t expect immediate results, networking is all about building authentic, lasting relationships and reciprocity.   
4. Blogging & SEO – It’s all very well having a standout website, but it’s not much use if nobody is visiting it. Think about the kind of information your ideal couple will be searching for and create useful blogs or guides to help them, local reviews of venues and vendors you’ve worked with are always a good way to drive traffic (and goodwill).  Ensure you optimise your Google Business Profile and your website pages with relevant keywords, descriptions and high-quality images. 
5. Directory Listings – Celebrant Directories can be a great way to get bookings but remember that competition is high, so you’ll need to make your listing Stand out. Start strong with a compelling headline and a clear and concise description that highlights how you’re different as a Celebrant. Use a professional photograph, add reviews and keep it updated. List your services and the areas you serve. It can be helpful to indicate pricing, too, even if you state “prices from”. If you are looking for inspiration and help, we’ve written a masterclass on How to write a standout celebrant directory listing.
6. Fairs & Exhibitions – Wedding Fairs for Wedding Celebrants or Baby Expos for family celebrants, can be a great place to network, get your name out there and meet lots of ideal clients in one place. Just make sure you do your research to find the right ones to attend, put the time in to prepare and read our Ultimate Guide to Wedding Fairs to get the most out of it.

Read More: How to Market Yourself as a Celebrant

5) Your own Celebrant resource library

Successful celebrants understand the power of having resources to hand, they work smarter, not harder and don’t reinvent the wheel when they don’t have to.

Work smarter by creating your own resource library of checklists, templates and cheat sheets to streamline your client onboarding, marketing and venue communications. Other things you can add to your library include poems, quotes, sayings, moving speeches, song lyrics, ideas for unity rituals, traditions and creative ideas you can use at some point in the future.

Digital libraries like Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion or Evernote provide an easy, searchable library you can categorize and keep for future reference. Plus, they’re often backed up and on the cloud, so you can access them from anywhere.

The good news is that when you sign up to AMC training, you get access to our Celebrant Vault of templates, checklists, scripts, contracts, cheat sheets and more.

6) Great Systems & processes

Save yourself time with great systems and processes to reduce your workload and create great customer experiences. Map out your customer journey and then find ways to streamline and automate:

• Automate your booking systems like Calendly or Dubsado
• Arrange video conferencing with Zoom or Google Meet
• Organise your files and images in Dropbox or Google Drive
• Design certificate templates in Canva

7) A great reputation

Reputation matters, especially when you’re going to be involved in some of the most significant moments of people’s lives. Successful celebrants understand this and invest the time in gathering reviews and testimonials from customers; in fact, they make it part of their process. Have a reputation and referral strategy set up for:

• Google Reviews
• Social media reviews & testimonials
• Network referrals
• Celebrant Awards and affiliations

Remember that people are busy, you may have to reach out a few times to remind them to write a review. If you’ve had clients that have emailed you feedback, make it easy for them to leave a review; send them a link to leave a review on your Google Business Profile, or Facebook page and include their original email, so they can save time by copying and pasting the review.

8) A portfolio of work

Wherever you choose to display it, you need a Portfolio of work to show prospective clients and venues to secure new bookings. Collect photos of you with happy customers alongside testimonials, comments from ceremony attendees and even other vendors. If you’re a funeral celebrant, take photos of the floral arrangements or tributes to display alongside your testimonials and reviews.

If you’ve received praise, a thank you card or email, you can include these in your portfolio too.

We love how our Celebrant Mentor Miranda displays her portfolio in a professionally printed photo book. If you’re going to do this, remember that often, pull quotes can be more powerful than reading the entire testimonial. Don’t be afraid to edit out longer sections.

9) A customer experience that delights

 Successful celebrants build a great reputation and an enviable portfolio of work though delivering a customer experience that delights. Quite simply, at every stage of the customer journey, they nail it! 

Consider all parts of your customer’s journey and think of ways you can delight and add value:

• Information Gathering
• Enquiry & Discovery
• Booking and preparation
• Customer communication
• Contracts and payments 
• The Ceremony itself 
• Post ceremony communications

Successful celebrants make it easy to find out about them and then book them, their discovery calls are well run and leave their customers feeling heard and understood, the invoicing and payment process is seamless and their ceremonies are personal and unique. 

Set yourself up for success with the ultimate Celebrant Toolkit

10) A growth mindset

 Successful celebrants know that a growth mindset is essential to build a thriving business. As your business evolves and grows you’ll need to uplevel and grow with it, it’s one of the most exciting things about being a Celebrant.

To make sure you don’t get overwhelmed, look through this list and highlight 1 or 2 areas that you feel would make the biggest difference in your business this year and focus on those. Once you’ve implemented the changes you can always come back and focus on the other areas.

If you’d like to learn more about our Advanced Celebrant Training & CPD, get in touch or join our Wildly Successful Celebrant Community online.