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Do You Know Where Your Website Traffic Is Coming From?

February 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I’m sure you are checking the stats on your website, but are you paying special attention to where your website traffic is coming from?  Everybody check to see if there traffic is up and how many visitors hit a particular article. I pay even closer attention on where my traffic is coming from and capitalize on that.

Hello, my name is Christine and I am a stats addict.

Social media is one of the top traffic drivers today, right behind Google(if you are doing it right). Because of that,I have people ask me all the time if they should post on Facebook, or is Pinterest more important; but wait, what about Twitter and should I be on Linkedin. I hate to break it to you, but there is no hard and fast rule.

You all know that I run 2 very different websites under the Think masthead. Where the traffic comes from is very different for each.

For Think, Linked in drives a ton of traffic, so does StumbleUpon. On theDish, it’s Pinterest and Google image search.

This isn’t a guess, it is what the stats tell me. So what to you think I do with this information? Why I exploit it to the nth degree!

As soon as I publish a post on Think, I use the socialize buttons on the post to send it to my groups on Linkedin and to StubleUpon because I know they are already interested in what I have to say. I have Linkedin set to email me every time there is a like or a comment on one of the discussions I have started. I respond as close to immediately as possible. Yes, I also have the app on my phone. Oh sure I put it on my Facebook fan page and if it has an image that goes to my marketing board on Pinterest.

Over on the Dish, it’s Google image and Pinterest. To optimize the Dish I pay special attention to labeling my images. Yes it takes time but it really pays off. I have the Pin it button enabled to make it easy for everyone to share. Not only others, but I use it myself as soon as the post goes live.

I am sure there are some of you thinking that if Linkedin works so well on Think, why not use it for the Dish. The answer is that they have 2 different targets and I pay attention to my stats. It all ties in with yesterday’s post where I said to forget about your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths.

Why should I beat my head against the wall trying to get Think noticed more on Pinterest when I can really soar on Linked in?

Where is your traffic coming from and are you exploiting that to it’s maximum potential?

Do a little testing and see which social media network is best for you.

 

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Branding. A New Approach.

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Because of some client interactions of late, I have been thinking a lot about branding. Once again, my favorite magazine , Fast Company is right on time with just the inspiration I needed in an article by Jake Zucker, Proof in the Eating.

Zucker followed the process when a cutting edge consultancy firm took on a not terribly cool small business. There where some great branding take-aways. (Yes the small business is a mall restaurant chain that has absolutely nothing to do with weddings but what have I told you about looking outside the box for branding and marketing ideas. Besides, they have the same demographic you do!)  ;-)

One of the things the consultants suggested was -

know your client first then work backwards

So simple but so brilliant. How many of you started your branding from who you were and what you wanted to project? Who cared what the target market wanted!

When the big kids set out to brand a company, the first thing they do is build complete profiles of the subsets of people in the demographic for the client. They give them names and faces and get to “know ” them. Then they start to build the profile of the business to appeal to those subsets unique problems, desires and needs.  They take into account the way they are attracted to the companies goods and services and the way in which they want them delivered.

How smart is it to have your branding appeal to 50 something crafters when your demographic is 28 year career women that live in a large city? Or building a sleek, clean industrial looking brand when your brides are more likely to follow NASCAR that Fashion Week?

You have to think deeply about who your real client is.

Another point they made…

Millenials value brevity

I see way to many websites that have page after page of the written word. Man, keep it short and sweet, use bullet points and illustrations where ever possible.

Your website and marketing material is to attract there attention. In our industry, you are going to have to have some one on one conversation to seal the deal. That is when you can get into all the details and nuances of what you do.

One more tidbit…

You can’t pick your signature item, your clients will pick it

I know you want to do just the full package, or only want to do fondant cakes, or only plated dinners instead of buffets; but really people, your clients are going to tell you what your signature is. It’s the package that keeps getting booked, or the cake with the ruffles that you are sick of, or they love you as a day-of planner because you have the reputation of saving the day.

As children, we were taught to work on our weaknesses. Bullshit! Why, so you can bring them up to a level of competence? I say you throw out (or farm off) those things that you aren’t excelling in and focus all your attention on the things you are already good at and become great!

In short, listen to your clients about what you do best, your signature item if you will, and become even better. Build your business around it.

One more thing, this one from me.

Our target is constantly evolving, your brand and your business has to evolve with them.

 

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Back to Basics, Branding Tagged With: , , ,

Why 2012 Was A Great Year for Many Wedding Professionals

December 31, 2012 By 1 Comment

I’m confused!

I read an article recently saying that the wedding industry is in worse shape than anyone is willing to admit. Really? Then I have a slew of people lying to me. Or maybe my followers are just a little smarter than the rest.

You tell me.

Here is what I am seeing:

2008 hit this industry like a ton of bricks. Many wedding professionals did not survive.

Because the rest of the economy got hit, many left other industries to flock to the supposedly recession proof wedding industry. This pumped a bunch of new blood into a stagnating industry. Think of it as a much-needed transfusion.

Those that did survive, saw the writing on the wall and knew that what had worked in the past was not going to continue to sustain them. So they evolved.

Did this mean they stopped doing weddings? No, it just meant that they started doing them differently and started adding other things to the mix.

They retooled their offerings to be more inline with the new economy and with a new focus on value for the dollar.

They changed their marketing mix and for some, finally started marketing.

They looked at who their market really was instead of who they wanted it to be and ran with it.

In short, when the economy hit the reset button in 2008, they started thinking like business owners instead of privileged artists.

These are the people who are succeeding and thriving. Their businesses are growing by 20-40%.

I am not talking about the very tip-top of the food chain like David’s and the Knot, I am talking about you. Street level vendors that are in the trenches every week working one on one with brides and grooms on the wedding day. The small mom and pop and solopreneurs that sustain this industry and make it the behemoth that it is. I am not talking about the privileged few that have their name splashed all over the major media. I am talking about the caterer in Nashville, the florist in San Francisco, the DJ in Baltimore and the banquet hall in Pennsylvania whose names you have never heard. I am talking about you and me.

If you are one of those that saw the writing on the wall in 2008 and were smart enough to make the changes that meant you would live to fight another day, you are the ones that thrived in 2012. I applaud you!

Keep it up and 2013 is going to be a banner year. Bet on it!

I want to hear from you about how your 2012 was and what changes you made to make that happen.

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Inspiration, Trends Tagged With: , ,

Tips for Sending Business Holiday Cards

December 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Tis the season for spreading joy and love and apparently some pretty bad taste. As a business owner and professional, you may be sending out Christmas cards this year to your clients and fellow pros. It should be about thanks and spreading the joy of the season, not a time to solicit business!

  Here are 4 well thought out tips for sending business holiday cards courtesy in large part from the very professional Courtney Hammons of A Magical Affair.Christmas card in bad taste

Do not include your business cards – if I am important enough to send a Christmas card to than I should be someone you know!

It is not the time to plug what you do with photos of your work!

If I have not worked with you this past year telling me it has been a blessing working with me leads me to believe I am just a long line of cards you were signing your name to!

Take the time to sign the cards! You are not the queen of England or the president of the United States if the people you are sending the cards to are not worth the 3 seconds it takes to sign your name than you should not be sending them!

 

All of these strike me as in as bad of taste as telling your brides to send cards in their invitations advertising where they are registered!

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

The Buzzword for 2013:Organization

December 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last week was bat-shit crazy!

In 7 days, I logged 50+ hours on my feet working with some of the finest wedding professionals I know. It began with an amazing Indian wedding working with the coordinator; then with a florist setting the decor for a stunning Christmas party. Then the rest of the week I went back to my roots on the culinary staff for a caterer, both in the kitchen and on the floor. Holy moly people, you ROCK!!! Through all of it, from being covered in ganche, to being sticky with pine resin to the overwhelming smell of curry, I adored being back in the high energy world of events.

The one thing that became abundantly clear to this seasoned professional looking at all these operations without the blinders of  ”this is how we have always done it” was that the better organized the head of the chain, the easier the event was to work.

When I was first growing my bakery, these were the hardest lessons to learn. View PostOrganize it 2013

First, learn to get everything out of your head and on to paper in a clear, concise manner. Assume nothing. Even if your staff has made something 50 times, include the formula in the paperwork, so if they need to delegate, they can. If you didn’t get a CAD for the event, sketch one so you aren’t being asked every 30 seconds, “Where do you want this?”

Second, assign specific tasks to your staff. If you just create a list of everything that has to be done, things will get missed. If on the other hand, you assign A,B, C,D and E to one person, that staffer has a very clear directive and can better manage their time. When it gets to the point of doing final check, you just check with them and you know where the gaps are.

Label everything. Everything, even the staff. I know that sounds crazy but someday it may just make the difference. By labeling everything, your entire staff can tell at a glance what goes where and why. That way you can again avoid the , “Where does this go?” questions. It also counts very heavily in the next one.

Organize your space. I know that right now in the middle of the busy season isn’t the time to be doing this, but January is coming. Get on it! The better organized your space, your equipment and you procedures are, the better you will be able to handle these busy times. Start when it’s slow. Get everybody used to where things go and how it’s done. Use your labels religiously. If you get your crew used to the routine early when they have time to really get it, it will be second nature by the time the season rolls around.

Of all the resources you have, the only one that is absolutely finite is time. You can’t stretch it and you can’t make more of it. If you spend some of this most precious resource at the beginning to get organized, you will be in a much better position to control what you have when it really matters.

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Building Your Business Tagged With: ,

Start Now on Your Bridal Show Lead List Follow-up

November 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Bridal show season is roughly a month away, you need to be planning your follow-up now.

Really? Yes, really.

If you don’t follow-up on the leads from a wedding show then why are you bothering to do one in the first place? I understand that most people don’t, but if you want to win, I want you to be on top of it.

Let’s start at the beginning.

How will you collect leads?

If you are counting on the leads the show producer sends you are missing the boat. I will admit that those leads are getting better, but they are still a shotgun blast. Better is for you to collect leads in your booth. If they have come to your booth, they have already shown interest in you and your product or service. That makes them a warm lead. You want their contact information.

To get brides to give you an email address that they actually check you need to offer them something in return. It’s called an ethical bribe.

You should be deciding now what your ethical bribe will be. It could be a gift card or a discount or an add-on product or service. If you are a planner it could be a one hour “help” session via Skype.

You need to determine what your ethical bribe is  NOW so you can use it in your booth design and in your signage and collateral.

Most people do it backwards, they design the booth first and then hope to get everything else done in time. WRONG

You have your leads, now what?

First of all, pay off on the bribe. Duh. Use the opportunity to begin the conversation with your new prospects.

A good bulk emailer has an auto-responder function. Use it!

The first email your prospect should receive is an opt in.

Hi {bride’s name},

it was great to connect with you at the XZY Bridal show yesterday. I promised you {an ethical bride} and there is just one thing you need to do first, click the like below so i know I have your permission to email you at this address.

FYI, we will never sell, rent you share your email address. It’s just between us. Oh, and I promise not to flood your inbox.

Talk to you soon.

The next email:

Send the bribe.

Here is the tricky part that most people bail on, the auto-responder. You have their email AND permission to use it, so use it!

You will need a series of brief, fun, friendly emails that are 90% information about your part of the industry. Tips, tricks, trends and advice are all good ideas. Include links so you can track what is getting your reader’s attention.

Load them in to your auto-responded and set them to send at about 7 day intervals. You don’t want to up your frequency much from that because they will also be getting your regular weekly email updates.

Every email should be customized to include you logo, contact information and links to your website.

I have said it before and I will keep saying it. You need to have these emails loaded into your auto-responder BEFORE the bridal show.

Something else I want to remind you about. Track this stuff so you can learn. Take note of what gets clicked and what doesn’t. Pay attention to which headlines get the highest open rates.  Which each new bridal show you can update and massage your email campaign with just a little effort.

If you want to know, I use and recommend AWeber for email. I have from the beginning and yes, I am an affiliate.

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

Marketing a Wedding Planner

November 13, 2012 By 27 Comments

I have been struggling (yes, me struggling) with the best way to market wedding planners. Oh, there are a bunch of seminars and webinars from “successful” planners that are marketing “get rich like me” schemes. I have 2 concerns with those. First, if they are so damn successful as planners, why have they abandoned it to make money off of seminars?

The second reason I have a problem with them is the focus of this article.

A simple truth about marketing is that to do it successfully, you have to really dig deep and uncover what it is that sets you apart from the herd. So the problem with following someones else’s path is it is only an illusion. Yes, their words and methods may have worked for them but you are unique; you are not them. More importantly, their brides are not yours. If everyone is following the same marketing plan you all sound alike. What would make a bride pick one over the other besides price?

Which brings me back to the conundrum of marketing a wedding planner:

As a wedding planner, what exactly do you do?wedding planner as architect

Are you the architect?The general contractor? The stage manager?

Huh? (Shit here she goes again with the analogies)

Let me break it down for you.

The Architect:

The architect designs everything from the structure to the appliance placement to the general layout of the landscaping. To translate this to wedding planning you start with nothing and design the whole package from location to lighting concept to the style of the invitations.

 

The General Contractor: 

The GC takes the plans and makes them happen. She hires the subs and creates the schedule. She keeps everything on track and budget. The translation: you take the brides concept and find the right vendors to make it happen. You make sure that they are all on the same page and working on schedule, that the flowers are delivered at the right moment and that the cake gets cut when the photographer is in place to catch the shot. You are the field general, implementing someone else’s plan.

The Stage Manager:

The stage manager comes in last, after the walls are in and the floors are in place. He makes sure that at the time of performance  timing is adhered to, that the props are all in place and that everyone hits their marks. This translates to weddings as someone who comes in after all the vendors have been hired and the major decisions made. You manage the actual day of, you work with what they are given to make the brides vision happen.

I want to hear from all my wedding planner friends. Who are you? How do you describe what you do? help me come to grips with this.

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

The DIY Bride

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

You may have noticed that I have been throwing some DIY tips and projects into the mix over on Wedding Dish.

Oh stop hating! Brides are going to DIY!

The reality is that brides are going to do some DIY. You aren’t going to stamp it out no matter how hard you try. To be brutally honest, I don’t have a problem with it…IF…they do it with good taste and they don’t over do it.caution

Here is what I have to say to wedding professionals about DIY and brides.

Different segments of the industry are getting hit by this differently. No matter how hard your segment is getting hit, there will always be brides that would rather buy your goods/service than do it themselves. Your job is to find them.

Not every bride is a fit for every vendor.

When I promote DIY on Wedding Dish, I am always very careful to tell brides to limit the number of projects they take on and to not assume that their vendors are going to do the heavy lifting of set up and breakdown for FREE. You as vendor have to reinforce this message. There is no reason that your crew should be responsible in any way for a bride’s DIY project with out reasonable compensation.

Just last Friday I helped on a wedding that had DIY centerpieces. Now they were pretty and well done, so I had no issue with the centerpieces themselves. Here is where I did take issue: It took 5 staff members close to an hour to do the last minute work that had to be done to finish them and to set them up. That is 5 man hours! There should be compensation for that kind of labor.

Wedding professionals, stand your ground. Your time is your most valuable asset, don’t give it away. Find out in advance what will be required of you and your team and price your service accordingly.

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Back to Basics Tagged With: , ,

Tip for a Successful Blog I Learned from The Wedding Dish

October 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

I don’t know if you have been following the changes taking place on my other blog, Wedding Dish, but I thought it was time to share it here.

I started the Dish back in 2006 as a way to speak directly to brides. At the time Think was subscription only mainly because I didn’t want brides to read it but with a name like Think Like A Bride, I knew that they would find it. So I gave them somewhere to go.

Wedding Dish began to take shape as a curation type website long before anything like Pinterest existed. Rather than post entire montages from real weddings and style shoots, I would post single topic articles. Think posts on guest book alternatives, winter wedding decor and cakes. I think you get the idea.

Frankly the dang thing was just rockin’ along and I was passionate about it and having fun.

Then I had some things happen in my life and I just couldn’t face another happy-happy wedding post. Oh, I tried, but I just didn’t have it in me. I posted here and there but without any spirit or dedication. About this same time the web design and consulting part of Think Like A Bride really took off and I didn’t give the Wedding Dish another thought.

Recently, I started seeing a bunch of pins from the Dish come up on Pinterest. So I wondered to myself, ” What the heck is this all about?” Well OMG! That little puppy had been rockin’ along on its own steam, never losing a beat. In fact, the monthly visitors had doubled. WHAT??

Now mind you, this site had laid there unloved and unkempt for nearly 2 years. With all I have learned about website design in that time I took one look at it and declared it ‘butt-ugly’ and a visual embarrassment!Old wedding dish header

Over the course of a weekend I gave it a complete overhaul, new look, new theme, fully mobile responsive.

Wedding Dish

Then I started to really dig into the stats to see what was making this such a successful blog and share those tips with you.

Well, it is everything I have been telling you regarding web design, how brides search, how to create content and how to optimize it all.

Tips for a Successful blog that I learned from the Wedding Dish

  • Start with great structure. I swear by WordPress and Genesis.
  • Know your target market and speak directly to them.
  • Split your site between image heavy posts and keyword rich copy.
  • Optimize your images like your life depended on it.
  • Give your visitors very easy ways to share.

If you thought none of that mattered, then explain to me why I have images that have been pinned over 65,000 times?

this image was pinned over 65k times

Keep watching Wedding Dish. I have once again found that passion and am ready to rock this thing. As you may have seen, I am taking submissions for images, detail shots please. Contact me at weddingdish@thinklikeabride.com or check the Submissions page for the full details

Filed Under: Announcement, Back to Basics, Building Your Business, Inspiration, Website Design Tagged With: , , , ,

Marketing Tip for Wedding Photographers

October 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Dear photographers, I have a marketing tip for you today.

You know that the primary way that today’s brides and grooms find their wedding vendors is by personal referral, right? Well one of the places they are going for those referrals is to their planner and the other wedding professionals that they hire. That makes these professionals very important to your marketing picture.

Do you know one of the best ways to woo these professionals? Give them what they need most for their marketing, Pictures! Now that is pretty easy, isn’t it?

So why aren’t you doing it?

I was speaking with Lisa of Scoobie Photography and Courtney from A Magical Affair Saturday when this topic came up. Here is the deal, by Wednesday, Courtney will have, at the very least, some sneak peek images from Saturday’s wedding. With some other photographers, she can wait weeks or months for images. Those images are an integral part of marketing her planning firm. The more weddings she does, the more photographers she can refer.

All things being equal,  she is going to refer the photographers that are conscious of this and get her images quickly. Wouldn’t you agree?

So why aren’t you doing it?

It isn’t just planners that this works with. Think about all the vendor portfolios a bride and groom looks through as they plan their wedding. If they are

Ivory wedding cake with swiss dot and sugar ribbon and bows

consistently seeing the same watermark pop up in portfolio after portfolio, that means something.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. When I was doing cakes, one photographer, Martin O’Connor, always did it right. I knew that by Wednesday I would have an envelope in my mailbox containing an 8 x 10 image like the one in this post.

When I pulled out my portfolio to grab that image, it was funny that about every 5th page had an image like this. Now even if I never actually spoke his name in conversation with a bride, she knew his name.  Now imagine that they saw similar images in the portfolios of other cake designers and florists and caterers and bands and DJs. How much power do you think that had.

I will admit that these images hadn’t been corrected nor had the photographer taken the time to work his Photoshop magic on it, but this was 10 years ago and things have progressed immensely since then. What it took Martin hours to do, you could do in much less time.

So why aren’t you doing it?

I know that you have your hands full taking care of your clients, but if you want that pipeline of future brides to keep flowing, this is a great way to do it. Yes it take some of your time, but unlike when Martin was doing this, you can send them all digitally. It’s not like you have to print them and put them in the mail!

So why aren’t you doing it?

The wedding professionals you work with have to feed their social media stream. If they are tweeting and updating during the lulls in a wedding, they want to be able to show their followers more as soon as they can to keep the hype going. Wouldn’t it help your marketing to have them speaking well of you and showing off you images as part of that?

So, one more time, why aren’t you doing it?

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Marketing, Outrageous Marketing, Rants & Raves, wedding marketing Tagged With: , , ,
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