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Website for Fisher’s Tudor House

February 2, 2012 By 2 Comments

It may not look like it on the surface, but this was a huge project. The mandate was to take two very dated, very old school websites and bring them into 2012. There were so many pages and interior links that just sorting it out required a flow chart. The SEO was Jurassic but losing ranking in such a competitive market wasn’t an option. Top it all off with an eCommerce component and a former webmaster that didn’t want to be a team player. I even pulled in old friend Marc Fuller to tweak the SEO.

 

The shining light was a client I just love. He understood the challenges and listened to my advice. Now he is no longer held hostage and is amazed at how easily he can update the new site himself.

Fisher’s Tudor House 2012

Just so you can get some idea of where we started…

thanks Pete.

Filed Under: Announcement, Website Design, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Facebook or Blog?

January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I ran across an interesting question today about where you should put more effort, in your blog or your Facebook page.

I’m not really sure why that is a question. Let me break it down for you.

Your website is your own personal piece of  internet real estate. Think of it as your home because in terms of your marketing, it is. Your blog should be the heart and soul of your website. In web design today, integrating your blog as a page on your website is the only way to go. If your blog is off on another url from your main one you are missing the boat.

Today’s brides go to one place to find their vendors above all others:

SEARCH.

If you aren’t ranking high in search engines for what you do and where you do it, you are behind the game.

Reread that last sentence. Notice I did not say for your name. I hope to hell you rank number one for your name. Unfortunately, that isn’t how brides search. They search for things in places.

Huh?

They search for florists in Bucks County.They search for wedding planners in Washington, DC. They search for caterers in Fairbanks, AK. They don’t search for Polly Sue Purebreds Catering. If they do it is because they have already been made aware of Polly Sue from a referral and that is a post for another day.

Now that you understand this, you understand why your personal piece of real estate is so important.

Back to the original question: your blog or Facebook.

Every time you post to Facebook, you are sending all that Google juice to Facebook.com, not to Polly Sue’s url. Great, I’m sure Mr. Zuckerberg appreciates the Google juice, but frankly, you need it worse than he does.

Think of it this way, you have an office or a store but you still meet people in the local coffee-house. Instead of investing to improve your office or store, you take time and treasure to improve the coffee-house. That’s just dumb.

How about this instead, you work on improving the store, and then post updates on the coffee-house bulletin board. When your potential customers start looking for you the coffee-house bulletin board is one of the many signs pointing to your store. When they get to your store, they see how amazing you are.

Enough with the analogies, if you don’t get it yet you never will.

Your blog should be an integrated part of your website.

Facebook should send traffic to your website, not the other way around.

Post to your blog and have it automatically cross-post a headline and an excerpt to your Facebook page leading them to your website.

 Done.

 

 

Filed Under: Announcement, Marketing, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How to Handle a Bad Review

December 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

I don’t know if you have been following the recent string of articles over on eWedNewz concerning reviews on wedding websites. If not you can catch them here, here and here.eWedNewz logo

What started as a story regarding the sale by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia selling their interest in Wedding Wire grew to be an indictment of Wedding Wire and it’s review program. Whether you like Wedding Wire and it’s review program or not isn’t really important to my point. They are only one of many review programs out there and I happen to think Wedding Wire does a pretty reasonable job.

Here is the thing, you are not going to please everyone.

Yes that is what we all strive for, but it isn’t going to happen.  So on that rare occasion when someone is upset enough to take finger to keyboard and put it out there, how you react is of vital importance.

The first thing you want to do is step away from the keyboard. DO NOT post a response in the heat of the moment. Your feelings are hurt and you are probably angry. Give it a day or two to filter.

Then post one or two reasonable sentences. Something along the line of

“I am sorry that we did not meet your expectations. We are actively reaching out to you via private channels to help resolve these differences.”

Of course you will need to reach out to them, but the point of the post was to let anyone reading the bad review know that you stand behind your work.

What you don’t want to do is post some long, rambling explanation or string of excuses. That is just going to start a very public pissing contest and that is the last thing you want.

Be sure to contact the hosting website to have the review verified or moderated. Sometimes this works. Sometimes.

What if you have no idea who this bride is?

Yep it happens. What if a competitor that is sneaky, malevolent and underhanded lies and posts a bad review on your page?

First you will contact the hosting website to have it verified. That can take forever and they may not even take your side. In the meantime, you need to respond to the review.

“I am not finding any reference to such an incident in my records. Would the poster please poivide her wedding date and location so that I may attempt to resolve this issue.”

Now you have publicly called them out and the ball is in their court. If they continue without providing the information they look like fools. You have also done a lot to CYA.

The main thing you want to keep in mind is that today’s bride is savvy enough not to base her opinion on just one bad review in a long list of stellar ones. In fact in some ways, it makes the other ones look more real. If every single review is Amazing!! Stellar!!! Way beyond expectations!!!!! they start to look a little fake. You know, like those late night infomercials.

Come on now, you do that yourself when you read reviews.

If worse comes to worse and you just can’t take it or find a way to resolve it; contact the website and have yourself removed entirely from the site.

Since this whole bruhaha started with a Celebrity planner’s bad review on Wedding Wire, I reached out to Sonny Ganguly, CMO at WW to be sure you could have Wedding Wire rated badgeyour business removed. Here is his response:

In regards to your question, a wedding professional can inactivate their WeddingWire account by sending a request to our Support team at support@weddingwire.com. Our team will then inactivate the wedding pro’s account and remove personal information that they entered from the Storefront.

Ok, so that was kind of vague and didn’t really answer my question; so I followed up with this:

I need just one point of clarification please.

 Our team will then inactivate the wedding pro’s account and remove personal information that they entered from the Storefront.

Would you remove ALL information regarding said wedding pro? All traces of them, including reviews or would you leave a basic listing?
I still haven’t received an answer to that one yet, but I will post it to the comments when/if I do.
If nothing else comes out of this dust up and the press from it, I do believe that WW will be more closely watched with regard to the review process. To quote one of their, umm, associates “That’s a good thing!”

 
 
As I was writing this I saw this come through my Twitter stream

@idillionaire: If you’re not making enemies, you’re not doing well enough.

Filed Under: Announcement, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

We All Just Want To Be Big Rock Stars*

December 13, 2011 By 2 Comments

I watched an interesting documentary this weekend, Page One. There were several takeaways that I discussed with my journalist friends. There is one I want to share with you.
Have you noticed the growing industry within the industry?  Wedding industry sales and training conferences.  Why is that? With even more information on the web everyday you would think that getting people together to hear the same group of talking heads spout generalities and rehash the same old tips would be fading. I wondered why people would continue to pay thousands of dollars to have someone blow fairy dust up their skirt.You’ve seen them.

Double your income in 5 easy steps!
Be a six-figure wedding planner!

Now I think I understand.

In the film, Page One, Brian Carr, a long time reporter for the New York Times, was asked why there were suddenly so many conferences for newspaper professionals. His answer set off a light bulb in my head. He said that it was a way for people in a deeply troubled industry to get together and feel like they are still relevant.

Oooo, ouch. You aren’t going to like my correlation.

I have always maintained that the most learning at these conferences took place in the halls and over food and libations with the people you met. I stand by that. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against learning and expanding your view and knowledge, but there is one of these “Industry Expert Conferences” every month now, if not more often. So why bother with the conference part? Because there are people that make a heck of a lot of money off them for one thing.

Another thing is all that fairy dust. The cold hard numbers about the wedding industry aren’t anything to write home about. Brides are spending less, in more unconventional ways and there are more people entering the industry than ever before. Yet here are these ‘experts’ sprinkling fairy dust and telling everyone to “believe.” Every one goes home in a bright eyed endorphin fueled haze, been there, done that. Six months later they crash and need another fix. Quite simply, the fairy dust merchants make them feel better.

OK, here is the rock star tie in…
Have you ever wondered about these industry experts? There are a few out there that I have a ton of respect for, like Jacqueline Johnson and Sheryl Davis. Oddly, those are the ones you rarely hear about. They go quietly about their jobs of helping to shape their part of the industry with out waving banners proclaiming themselves know -it -alls.  Most of the rest of them, they are either selling their product or they just want to be industry rock stars. Either they rehash the same old information over and over again or instead of teaching you anything you are subjected to a very thinly veiled sales pitch. Oh, but you did get your dose of fairy dust.

*Thanks to Nickleback for the inspiration and the headline.

YouTube

Filed Under: Announcement, Back to Basics, Rants & Raves Tagged With:

Increase Your Bridal Show ROI

December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s that time of year again. Bridal show season is right around the corner. Are you ready?

Do you know how to pick the right show to reach your target bride?

Do you know how to take advantage of pre-show publicity?

Have you designed your show collateral?

Do you know how to design your booth for maximum effect?

Have you written your post show follow-ups? You are doing more than one, right?

I have said it before and I will say it again, bridal shows are expensive in both time and treasure. You need to get the best return on your investment that you possible can and there is only one way to do that.

Be Prepared!

Proper planning from the moment you decide to do a show gives you the jump. One of the keys to high ROI is a total cohesion of all aspects of your show marketing. Decide early on your message and then don’t vary, just keep pushing that one message home.

If you want more information, in a clear, point by point style, you have to read the book. Don’t wait until the last minute, do it now. You need time to develop your message, get stuff printed, get the word out early to build interest and get the booth designed.

Seriously, if you are going invest money in a show, (not to mention a day on your feet) don’t you deserve to get all you can out of it?

Bridal Show Success is the only comprehensive guide to trade shows written specifically for the bridal industry.

It takes you through the planning, to the show to the follow -up. Step by step it will teach you how to produce the most ROI off any bridal show.

Think of how much you have riding on your bridal show marketing, $14.95 is a drop in the bucket to make it all work flawlessly. Heck that’s less than you are going to spend on coffee for your team the day of the show! Isn’t that a small price to book more brides?

Buy the book today, reap the benefits for years to come!

Here is what one reader had to say…

TaylorMade Weddings>Think Like A Bride

My Bridal Show was a success yesterday. I took your advice – “Go big or go home”– and made quite the impression. Let’s just say…the fish was a BIG hit! Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge in your book. It pays!

 

Filed Under: Announcement, Back to Basics, Blog, bridal shows, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Is The Knot Not Happy?

November 9, 2011 By 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

Two New Websites. A Caterer and a Bridal Salon

October 13, 2011 By 3 Comments

I’ve been busy busy in the pixel mines of late. Good thing the treehouse has direct access to their deepest darkest recesses!

First up is a new client  Mrs J’s Baking and Catering that was, of course, a referral from another happy friend of Think. Celeste Morris, the owner, was living with a site she hated and had very little control over. Oh, she could add some content but not much and had little or no control over the look or the galleries. Well now you know I was going to fix that nonsense!

Her site looked generic with no real branding to match what she did. You see, unlike a lot of caterers, Celeste specializes in southern style comfort food. Not much except the menus reflected that. So here at Think we fixed her right up with a new logo and new branding to go with her shiny new site.  An hour or two of my standard tutorials and she was able to update anything she wanted.  She has started to blog and this fall we have her signed up for Ashley’s Blog Camp! 

Tale a look. (I just love her background) The image is a link to her site.

Mrs J's Baking & Catering website

Next up was a redo for a site I originally built back in 2009. Sarah Morris, The Something Blue Shoppe in Hartselle, AL still loved her site but she came back from Bridal market full of ideas and energy. Well you know how we women are, fill us with ideas and energy and the first thing we do is redecorate!  It was time for an update anyway so off we went. I added a few features and made the look a little sleeker.

 Let me know what you think.

The Something Blue Shop website

Sarah’s other store Something Blue Too’s website is slated for the same treatment as soon as I get finished with the 3 wedding planners sites I am working on now. We have to get it ready for prom!

Filed Under: Announcement, Blog, Inspiration, Website Design, Website marketing Tagged With:

Blog Camp. Be There!

October 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

Are you afraid of blogging?

Do you struggle with what to write?

Many of my clients know they should be blogging as a way to market their business but are intimidated by the process. They don’t know what to write, think it has to be some long winded post or don’t feel that their writing skills are up to par. I give tips and ideas but often that isn’t enough.

Help is on the way!

Ashley King, long time friend of Think and owner of Ashley’s Bride Guide is finally hosting her fabulous Blog Camp again.  She hasn’t done one of these since 2009 but people are still talking about it.

Unlike so many seminars out there today that only spout generalities, Blog Camp is hands on, down to the nitty gritty and jam packed with valuable take-aways.

The blog camp will take place over 2 days and will cover just about everything you have ever wanted to learn – from setting up your blog to helping Google find it to promoting it on Twitter.   I assure you, this will be a very hands-on, informative camp – designed to get you motivated and to give you a step-by-step plan for taking your blog from idea to reality. I’ll discuss key obstacles and how to get around them along with how to grow your readers.

Don’t believe me, look at what some of Ashley’s former students have said.

I was ‘forced’ to sign up for Ashley’s Blog Camp by my daughters who said I would never be successful at my business & was warned “the world will leave you behind” if I didn’t learn how to blog. Thinking I could never learn about blogging, I had rather stand before a firing squad than go to blog camp.
Ashley was a wonderful teacher & certainly knows all about the blog world. She was not intimidating at all. She never continued in the class until she was sure you understood each step.
The class was fun & when it was over Ashley assured us that if we had any questions we could email her anytime.
Going to her class was one of the best tools I used in advancing Bella Weddings.
~Vickie Stanton / Bella Weddings

The blog camp was well organized and presented with lots of energy and a great working knowledge of the subject.  It is a must for anyone in any industry seeking more insight into the world of blogging.  It’s probably one of the best values for the money spent that I’ve participated in in years.

Martin O’Connor Photography

www.martinoconnorphoto.com

Ashley’s Blog Camp for wedding professionals was a very informative experience me as a Nashville Wedding Professional.  I attended the 1st blog camp in 2009 to give social media insight but took away so much more information.  Ashley is passionate about helping vendors reach their full potential at the same time connecting them to potential brides.  Whether it’s Google Analytics or finding your voice, she definitely practices what she teaches in BlogCamp  & gets results!
The “icing on the cupcake” is that she is a great encourager & cheerleader for new wedding professionals in helping them reach their full potential online. I would highly recommend Ashley’s Blog Camp to new wedding professionals & existing professionals needing a refresher!

A. Latrice Cushenberry
www.LatriceCushenberry.com

Event will take place on Sunday – November 6 & 13, 2011. Workshop will start at 3pm and will last for approx 4-5 hours, depending on questions.  For any of you in the mid south, this is a must attend.

For all the rest of my readers spread across the globe, Ashley has promised me that if there is enough interest she will host another one that is on a single weekend and arrange hotel deals for you. If you aren’t able to attend this on, either contact Ashley directly or leave a note in the comments telling her you are interested.

 

Ready to register?

 

 

Filed Under: Announcement, Back to Basics, Blog Tagged With: ,

The Picture of A Great Website

August 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

I loved the phone call I got on Wednesday.

I had a site go live for a client, PictureThisNashville.net, on Monday. On Wednesday Elaine, the owner, called to tell me she had booked a wedding from the site and for the first time the client said they had found her on Google.  That 3 days to go from not showing up on Google at all to showing up on the front page. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Here is what Elaine had to say

Where do we begin to thank you. Christine you are amazing and we are so glad we met you.  I will never forget our first meeting I knew right then and there you were the person to help us get our business heading in the right direction. Since you redid and relaunched our website we have had a 42% jump in viewers and we booked a wedding from someone that found us on a google search which I know you helped with.

Thank you so much. You ROCK!!

Elaine Pardo – Ingram
PICTURE THIS NASHVILLE
www.picturethisnashville.net

Have a look for yourself. (the image is a live link)

By the way, Elaine’s concept for a completely new type of Photo booth is killer. Please check it out, especially if you at all techie. It’s worth a look just for the Touch Screen iMac’s. They are so fun to play with!

Filed Under: Announcement, Website Design Tagged With: , , ,

Websites to Sing About! How’s Yours?

August 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I have been a busy, busy bee. Lot’s of my client sites were in need of an update, but I still found time to build a few new ones.

First up, A Song for Her. Gil Grand and his PR agent Melissa Mathews first approached me with their idea in the spring and it was a great one. Gil is an award winning singer songwriter and now you can have him write a custom song for you. Need to say “I love you” or “Dang, I screwed up” or “I miss you?” Then Gil’s you guy.

Now I will be the first one to admit that I know virtually nothing about music or the music industry ( ya, ya I know I live in NashVegas) but by listening to what they wanted and what they did, I was able to identify their target audience and give them what they needed. Have a look

To make a long story short, Gil and Melissa were so happy that when Gil’s company, Grand & Gee were nominated for CCMA Music Publisher of the Year they called me to do their ad! We wish Grand & Gee all the luck in the world, they deserve it.

Filed Under: Announcement, Marketing, Website Design, Website marketing Tagged With: ,
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