Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
Bridal is 60-70% of the revenue. The wedding planner picks the MUA, not the bride.
Most full-time makeup artists in Australia get 60-70% of their revenue from bridal work, the rest from editorial, formal-night runs (school formal season is a real seasonal spike), corporate headshot days and special occasion bookings. Inside the bridal slice, the dirty secret nobody talks about is that the wedding planner picks the MUA, not the bride. A planner running 30 to 50 weddings a year has a shortlist of three MUAs they trust, and the bride almost always books from that shortlist. Getting onto that shortlist is half the marketing job. The other half is converting a single bridal trial into a full party booking (bridesmaids, mother-of-the-bride, sometimes the bride's sister and mum of the groom too) which lifts a single $250 trial into a $1,400 wedding-morning block. Almost no MUA does either consistently because they're on a job from 4am to 2pm every Saturday and the marketing happens between.
Good makeup-artist marketing has three jobs running together. First, a per-style bridal portfolio page library: a soft-glam-bridal page, a romantic-natural-bridal page, an editorial-bold-bridal page, a cultural-bridal page (Indian, Lebanese, Vietnamese, etc., where you have genuine specialism). Brides search for the look they want, not for 'makeup artist near me', and a portfolio split into the three or four styles you actually own ranks for the specific search and pre-qualifies the right bride. Second, an aggressive directory-optimisation play on Hello May, Polka Dot Bride and Easy Weddings: a properly written profile, the right keyword tags, consented review uplift, fresh portfolio uploads every quarter. The mid-tier listings outperform a passive top-tier listing every time. Third, a wedding-planner outreach and relationship layer (industry-night attendance, planner-specific portfolio drops, referral-fee structure where appropriate) that gets you onto the shortlist of the planners running 30+ weddings a year in your city.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Sets the plan around two numbers that move the MUA business: trial-to-party conversion rate (one bride into a six-person wedding morning) and wedding-planner referral volume. Briefs the other agents so the per-style portfolio pages, the planner-referral ads, the consented trial-chair social and the directory listings all push toward shortlist position with the right planners and full-party bookings from each trial.
Imports your existing site and ships a per-style bridal portfolio page library (soft glam, romantic natural, editorial bold, cultural-specific where you specialise) so brides searching for the look they want find your work, not the MUA two suburbs over. Surfaces the trial-to-party pricing ladder on every bridal page and builds a planner-specific portfolio drop page you can send to wedding planners by URL after every industry night.
Owns whether you appear in the map pack for 'wedding makeup artist [suburb]', 'bridal makeup [city]' and the style-specific searches. Complete Google Business Profile flipped from 'Beauty salon' to 'Makeup artist', service-page schema, review prompts after every wedding (not after the trial, which gets a different prompt), and crucially the directory profile optimisation on Hello May, Polka Dot Bride and Easy Weddings.
Runs Meta ads on the planner-referral angle and the per-style bridal portfolios, with engaged-in-the-last-year interest targeting in a 15km radius. Lifts spend ahead of formal season (September to November) and the bridal booking peak (January to March, when most brides book for the year). A small Google ad set on the high-intent 'wedding makeup [city]' and 'bridal trial [suburb]' searches.
Turns every consented look into a post in your voice: the trial-chair shot, the wedding-morning behind-the-scenes, the pro-kit shelf (MAC, NARS, Charlotte Tilbury, Hourglass, Pat McGrath), the airbrush-vs-traditional explainer, the lash-strip-vs-individual choice. Builds the visible case for your craft and your kit, not for a discounted rate. You snap one kit or look shot, the agent drafts the caption, you approve in two taps.
Drafts the longer-form pieces brides and planners search for: 'soft glam vs editorial bridal, which suits my dress', 'airbrush vs traditional foundation for wedding photos', 'how to plan your bridal trial timing'. Two a month, in your voice, that pull bridal research searches and double as homework you can send to the bride after the trial.
Your first 30 days.
- Per-style bridal portfolio pages indexed for the two or three signature styles you actually own
- Trial-to-party pricing ladder surfaced on every bridal page above the fold
- Hello May and Polka Dot Bride listings rewritten with optimised profile copy and consented uploads
- Planner-specific portfolio drop page live and ready to send by URL after every industry night
- Meta planner-referral and per-style bridal ads running with engaged-in-the-last-year targeting in a 15km radius
- Google Business Profile flipped to 'Makeup artist' with full bridal / formal / editorial / corporate service list
- 'Soft glam vs editorial bridal, which suits my dress' blog drafted and linked from every bridal style page
- Trial-to-party conversion and planner-referral volume targets delivered by Sam
Bridal is 60-70% of the MUA business and the wedding planner picks the MUA, not the bride. Getting on three planners' shortlists, getting your Hello May listing properly optimised, and converting the bridal trial into a full party booking at the trial chair are the three things that move the business. None of them happen on Instagram. None of them happen on a Saturday when you're on a wedding from 4am. They happen Monday to Wednesday between bookings, and almost no MUA gets to them consistently because the kit needs cleaning and the next trial is at 11am.
Agencies are too dear for an MUA business at $2k to $3k a month and most don't know what Hello May is. Tools are cheap but the trial-to-party conversion workflow is a Notes app reminder and you forget. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the per-style portfolio pages, optimise the directory listings, run the planner-referral ads, and post the consented trial-chair content. You snap one look photo, approve the week, done.