Hire a Photographer!

November 29, 2011 By ndulj 3 Comments

I hear it and see it all the time: wedding vendors that do fabulous work but have lame photos to show for it. They spent hours sweating over the perfect food display or those gorgeous tissue paper pom-poms hung perfectly from a tree or the centerpieces on top of the perfect linen. Then after the fact, often months after the fact, the wedding photographer, after much arm twisting and begging sends them a file of stunning prints of the B&G, the wedding bands and a picture of shoes! Wow, score!

Now whose fault is this? Well it damn sure isn’t the photographers. They were hired to shoot the B&G and the list they sent them, not your details. (unless they were on the brides list, that is)

Here is a tip:

Hire your own photographer!

Then they are working off of your list. You should get the images in a timely fashion and have just the shots you want.

OK, here it comes…

I am about to get hit by photographers that forbid other shooters at their weddings. In this instance, get over it. These vendors are hiring their own professional so they get the marketing materials that they need and have every right to own. Besides, you obviously aren’t shooting what they need in a way that helps them. Your client is the bride. You need to find a way to work this out. I mean come on, 9 times out of 10 this outside shooter will be done before the guests arrive and you won’t ever see them.

But WAIT! There’s more!

Hey you photographers just starting out…

I am always asked how you can break-in with the top designers and planners. How about you start hitting them up to shoot their details? Do a good job over a period of time and they may just add you to their roster.

In my outsider, twisted opinion that is a win for everybody.

The vendors get exactly what they need.
The wedding photographer doesn’t have to worry about shooting for the vendors.
The new photographer gets some real world experience and some new contacts.

What’s not to love?

Oh, and I get great images to work with when marketing my clients.

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Back to Basics, Building Your Business, Marketing, Outrageous Marketing, Website Design Tagged With: advertising, Customer Service, Marketing, website design, Wedding Business Success

Market Local

November 22, 2011 By ndulj 1 Comment

Want to know where to put your marketing dollars?

Think Local!

How much money do you waste advertizing in places like the Knot, Party Pop or the one I find most ridiculous, Grace Ormond? Do you really think your brides are there looking for the florist to do their bouquets? or their cake? or their DJ? Please.

OK, let me ask you in a different way. Do you think you are smarter than Google? I found this quote in this month’s Fast Company

Google covets the $140 billion local ad market.

If Google covets it there is only one reason; because it works. it will work for you to.

Last week at Blog Camp I was asked where and in what order wedding vendors should put their marketing dollars. Here you go:

Your own website.
Your social media (use it to point back to your site)
Local wedding or event website. In NashVegas that is Ashley’s Bride Guide.
Local Bridal Shows that have magazine and website tie ins.

That’s it.

If you have money left, think events and promotions.

I have only one caveat to this whole “only local” thing. Wedding Wire may be a national site and I doubt seriously if you will ever book a bride directly off it, BUT it is worth the spend to have their Review Widget on you website. Brides trust it. In essence, that is money spent to enhance your own website, so it fits the criteria.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, wedding marketing Tagged With: advertising, Marketing, Think Local

Wedding Blogs. Good Guys or Bad Guys?

November 10, 2011 By ndulj 1 Comment

So what’s with all the hate lately?

It seems that photographers are stepping up on their blogs to trash wedding bloggers. Really?

First this from Hindsight Bride.

Then this from Jonas Peterson, The Mason Jar Manifesto.

Then Off-beat Bride stepped up to defend Mason Jars.

Heck I have even had my own say in the matter a few months back.

Here is the deal, gang

Photographers want to get published on the top blogs. Bloggers want to do what pleases their readers. Those aren’t always the same goal.

Heck it has even gotten to the point where brides will tell their planners, ” I want my wedding published on Style Me Pretty.”

Ya’ll are acting like Kim Kardashian. It’s supposed to be about the wedding, not the publicity.

but that isn’t my point…

You, photographers, your job is to give the client what they want. In most cases, that is pictures of people. Their friends and family.

Bloggers, your job is to give your readers what they want. In most cases that is detail. Who gives a rats ass about people they don’t know? All they want are ideas they can be inspired by and snag for their own wedding.

You are both right. You are both servicing your client.

So here is the deal. Photographers, if your goal is to get published, give the blog editors what they want:details. If that means hiring a second or third shooter to get those shots then that is what you have to do. You can’t expect the blog editor to throw their readers under the bus.

Read the editorial guidelines on the blogs you want on and follow them. When you interview your bride ask them questions about the details of their wedding. Is it going to be worth you paying another shooter to get them? Notice I said ‘you paying’ not the bride. It’s your goal to get published, not hers.

It is time for everyone to stop the madness and start working together.

Know what you want and what it is going to take to get it. don’t just whine about it.

For the record, I’m not a big fan of mason jars, but if that was what my readers wanted to see they would be all over my blog! Check out Wedding Dish? Do you really think I love candles all THAT much?

I big hat tip to loyal reader and friend June Hoffman for pointing this nonsense out to me.

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Back to Basics, Rants & Raves Tagged With: blogging, bridal marketing

Is The Knot Not Happy?

November 9, 2011 By ndulj 1 Comment

Thanks to some ongoing discussions in The Wedding Water Cooler I became aware of a recent statement by the XO Group, parent company to The Knot.

You probably missed it. Heck I missed it. It was buried on page 17 of their most recent Q10 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (You read those, right?) anyway, thanks to reporter Paul Pannone for doing the due diligence of wading through this thing to find this statement.

It long, so I’ll highlight the good parts.

The Internet advertising and online markets in which our brands operate are rapidly evolving and intensely competitive, and we expect competition to intensify in the future.¹ There are many wedding-related and baby-related sites on the Internet, which are developed and maintained by online content providers. New media platforms such as blogs are proliferating rapidly.² Retail stores, manufacturers, wedding magazines and regional wedding directories also have online sites that compete with us for online advertising and merchandise revenue. We expect competition to increase because of the business opportunities presented by the growth of the Internet and e-commerce. Competition may also intensify as a result of industry consolidation and a lack of substantial barriers to entry in our market. In the wedding market, we also face competition for our services from bridal magazines. Bride’s magazine (published by Condé Nast), Bridal Guide (published by Meredith), and Martha Stewart Weddings (published by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia) are dominant bridal publications in terms of revenue and circulation.³ We believe that the principal competitive factors in the wedding market are brand recognition, convenience, ease of use, information, quality of service and products, member affinity and loyalty, reliability and selection. As to these factors, we believe that we compete favorably. Our dedicated editorial, sales and product staffs concentrate their efforts on producing the most comprehensive wedding resources available. Generally, many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources and high name recognition. Therefore, these competitors have a significant ability to attract advertisers and users. In addition, many independent or start-up competitors may be able to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in Internet user requirements,⁴ and other competitors may be able to devote greater resources than we do to the development, promotion and sale of services. There can be no assurance that our current or potential competitors will not develop products and services comparable or superior to those developed by us or adapt more quickly than we do to new technologies, evolving industry trends or changing Internet user preferences. Any such developments or advantages of our competitors may have an impact on our future operations and may cause our past financial results not to be necessarily indicative of future operating results. Increased competition could result in price reductions, reduced margins or loss of market share, any of which would materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Ok, so I highlighted most of it.

This might help.

¹Ya think? What have you been in a coma for the last few years?

² Go bloggers! Again, this is new to you people? I have been screaming from the roof tops for years. The portal sites are DEAD.

³ Did they just notice that they aren’t the only game in town?

⁴Well of course they can. That’s why the blogs have been eating your lunch for at least the last three years. The internet today is about being nimble.

My point is that the only thing new about any of this is that the Knot is coming out and admitting what we have all known or suspected for years.

My question is are they just noticing this or has someone clued them in that we are sick of their fairy dust?

# # #

Great I just found more to love about the Knot… I went looking for an image for this story and I ran across the company description. Clearly, their focus is on the “catalog” sector. In other words, they want to sell their products to brides and could care less about whether or not they buy from local vendors.

XO Group Incorporated Company Snapshot

Business Description:

XO Group Incorporated operates in the Catalog and mail-order houses sector. XO Group Incorporated Formerly known as Knot, Inc. (The). XO Group Inc., formerly The Knot, Inc., is a life-stage media and technology company. The Company connects engaged couples, newlyweds, and first-time parents with the community, products, and inspiration. The Company’s brands include The Knot, The Nest, The Bump, Weddingchannel, Wedding.com, Registry Services, Wedding Shop, Wedding Tracker, Lilaguide, Partyspot and Great Boyfriends. The Knot (www.theknot.com) is the Internet’s wedding planning solution. Its WeddingChannel.com packages planning information with a registry search tool. Both brands also deliver listings of local wedding planning services. The Company has launched many services: e-commerce, which is focused on personalized products for weddings and baby gifts; personal Website builders, and local mom social networks.

You want my advice?

It hasn’t changed. Go local and build your own web presence. Yep, it may be easier to write a big honkin’ check each month to companies like the Knot instead of doing your own homework on local and building up your site. But then, so is just throwing your money in the fireplace; same results.

Filed Under: Announcement, Blog, Horror Stories, Rants & Raves, What's Not