One of the things I love most about the one on one consulting I do is that it always gives me ideas on what matters most to my target market…you, the readers of Think Like A Bride. While every consulting client has a different specific need (Hey, that’s why they called me in the first place) in a larger sense they are all struggling with similar issues.

I see so many wedding vendors struggling with identity issues. Whether they are looking for a web make over, trying to figure out what to put in their blogs or  if and where to place advertising it almost always boils down to an issue of identity. What is your businesses identity, what is your “Brand”.

Exactly as I have told brides over and over, first figure out the style and theme of your wedding; you as wedding professionals have to do the same. By finding, defining and understanding your unique brand you have a template for all of your other decisions. When faced with a question simply ask yourself, “Does this fit with my brand?”

For many, defining the brand is the hardest thing they have to do in marketing their business.

Here are a few articles that may help and I plan to explore this yet again in the March issue of Think Like A Bride.

Branding. What Are You Missing

Branding. Again> Or why you need a second opinion

If all else fails, call me.

“So Then I Shouldn’t Let My 6 Year Old Answer the Phone?”

Ummmm, no. That question was really asked of me recently. Do some wedding vendors just not get that this is a

business or are they clueless as to what a business is?

I truly didn’t know how to respond to the question. Where do you start to correct something like this? The question arose after a DJ had asked me to take a look at his business card from a marketing stand point. He asked me if he should risk putting his cell phone on the card. I told him if he wasn’t around his business phone most of the day then yes.

“Oh no” he said, “That is my home phone. I don’t have a business line.”

How many of you have just fallen into your business? Printed up a few business cards and thought you were good to go? More frighten, how many of you did that 10 or 15 years ago and are still thinking that way?

Think Like a Bride is here to keep you up on the trends in our industry, keep you clued in to your brides heads and spew forth marketing advice. I can’t help you if you aren’t at least looking at what you do from the level of a professional. Today’s brides are disenchanted enough and jaded enough that if they suspect for one minute that you are not professional they are never going to give you the time of day; or if they do they are not going to do it for anything but bargain basement rates.

If on the other hand you want great weddings and larger margins you have to look, sound and act like a professional. If you want today’s bride to hand you over a large check she wants to feel like you have it completely together, not some basement Betty just fooling around on the weekend.

Today’s bride is used to a certain level of professionalism when she spends top dollar. Additionally most of our brides have been in or at least exposed to the corporate world. They know how it works. I fear that many of the vendors I run across today have never been in that kind of business intensive world.

Even the simple things like proper business phone etiquette or how to put together a professional looking proposal seem to have fallen by the wayside. Proper spelling and language use count. It doesn’t matter how pretty you bridal bouquets are if your proposal looks like a 3^rd grader typed it you won’t get the good brides. Details matter to these brides. I saw one on line the other day complaining that a caterer she sent an inquiry to misspelled her name in his reply. Her comment “How hard is it to just cut and paste?”

If you want to make a living in this industry in 2010 then you have got to be thinking about it from a business like point of view. We only have 52 Saturdays a year.

Before you even begin to start thinking about spending any money on marketing your business take a good hard look at the little things that make a business’ image. I don’t want you to come to me wanting a brand image makeover if you aren’t already doing the basic things that make you look like a pro. No amount of money spent on marketing is going to work if when they do call your 6 year old answers the phone.

Do you still meet your clients at the local Starbucks? Do you invite them into your living room? That may not be the best plan.

For many of us solo-preneurs having a dedicated off site office is just not something we have thought about or built into our growth plan. Heck, I work out of my bedroom but then I rarely meet with clients, it’s all over the phone and internet for me.  If you meet with clients face to face on a regular basis you need to think about the impression you send with where you meet.

This was prompted by a discussion I was following on a photographer’s forum. The original poster was moving into a new place and was wondering if he should turn his old place into a studio.  Great idea, depending on the location.  It was a 2^nd story one bedroom on a side street. No matter how professional he made it, I still worry how comfortable a single woman would be going there alone.  It had better be in a great neighborhood. The thread continued with many people posting about their experiences when they moved into a real office/studio.

Let’s break it down. Brides will tell you that meeting at the local coffee house is OK. It’s a safe, public place that is easy to find. The problem for you is that you project the same image as every other wedding vendor that they meet there. There is nothing there to set you apart, nothing remarkable. There are distractions a plenty and nothing to stick in their mind.

If you meet in your home you are giving them too much information. Every home has its own drawbacks.  Even if you live in a show house designed by the editor of Metropolitan Home there are still a million personal touches that will show. Add to that the safety factor; do you really want to invite perfect strangers into you private space?  I sure don’t. I also don’t know many women that embrace the thought of being alone in a house with a stranger, especially if he is a man. I realize that it is often easier to meet at your home, particularly if you have children.  This is business folks; that isn’t always easy. The exception may be if you have a studio/workspace that is detached from the home.  Then the client is only viewing your home from the outside.

If you have a dedicated, off-site place to meet you set yourself apart. It is decorated in a manner that reflects your style. It screams professional, not amateur. Clients enter the space in a mood to do business, not chat. Unlike a coffee house, you have every possible sales tool at your finger tips. You just can’t carry everything in a briefcase. If it is in a commercial district it is presumed to be safe ground since there are other people near.  Unlike your home, your client only sees what you wish to present them, not everything about your life. All around it is the best solution.

Wait , you say! I can’t afford a place like that! You may be surprised.  I’m not talking about renting a corner office in a swanky high-rise or popping for commercial space in the shopping district; there are a million alternatives.  I know of two different wedding businesses in my small city that have added office suites to their property. They are tiny little spaces design for no more than meeting clients. If there isn’t something like this where you are you may consider doing it yourself.  Rent a place much larger than you need, divide it into small bedroom sized offices and rent them out to other wedding vendors. It pays your rent and they have a “business home.”

Heck, now that I think about it, my editor/publisher started his company this way in a restored mansion near the town square in Franklin, TN. He had one big room on the first floor.  I also remember photographer years ago that landed a similar place. It was a really cool building that a photographer had bought, built a nice studio and divided the rest up into private offices. She rented her office and had rights to schedule use of the studio space.  It worked out well for her for years. You could think of them as small business incubators.

There is a place that can be found if you put your mind to it. Oh, and yes, every single poster to that thread that had moved into professional space had seen a dramatic jump in their close rate. Just though I’d throw that out there.

Your product is boring and your marketing is boring and you wonder why nobody is talking about your business! So what the heck are you doing to make yourself remarkable?

Slightly different won’t get it. Slightly cheaper won’t get it. You have to be outrageously different and so does your marketing.

I ramble through a lot of websites on a daily basis. It doesn’t matter if you are a planner, a photographer or a florist. Almost all of the websites look alike. When it really gets me is when I am starting work for a new web design client and I ask them to send me a few sites they like. They all look alike. Why are you all so committed to looking just like everyone else? Is it safe or are all you really just like everybody else? You are part of the creative class; you create for your clients every day. Why can’t you create for yourself?

Sorry if all that sounds harsh, but I want you to set yourself apart. I want you to be remarkable! Make this the year that your competitors question your sanity. Be different, be amazing, and discover your brilliance, your uniqueness, your personal flamboyance!

As you know, over the last year I have been emphasizing the web design part of my business. As a result I have had to do what I am asking you to do: really figure out what it is that makes me remarkable. Web design is a very crowded field. I have to be remarkable to stand out. Just tweeting or working Facebook isn’t going to do it. Everybody is doing that. I have to do what I have been telling you to do: find out why the clients that love me love me and then exploit it!

So what are you going to do? What is it that you do differently? Please don’t tell me that it is something as boring as that you prepare Excel spreadsheets for your clients. Please! We are thinking REMARKABLE here folks.

I could tell people that I build pretty sites that have remarkable SEO. Nope, not remarkable enough. I sell my work based on the fact that I can teach anybody, ANYBODY how to manage one of my sites themselves. Boom, Done! Buy your site, I stick around as your tutor, no more paying someone else to do your updates. Now people think I am crazy not to charge for all the support after the fact; but you know what, I have some of the loyalist client evangelists in the world. That IS my marketing!

What makes you remarkable? I can’t answer that question for you. You have to do the soul searching needed to find it out for yourself. If you can’t come up with anything then you had better start thinking why not? If there is nothing you do that is truly, really mind-bendingly remarkable then why should anyone hire you over your gazillion competitors?

It’s January; you can take a day off and do a little navel gazing. Here is what I want you to do. Nothing. Stare out a window. Float on a raft. Turn off the electronics, ship off the kids and spouse and let your mind drift. Focus on your uniqueness. Why do your clients hire you? Why do they give you their money and trust you with their event? Why?

I had a most interesting teleseminar last night hosted by Marc Fuller’. Marc had asked me to participate as an expert on branding and the wedding industry. In what became a very lively discussion here is what I came away with: what are you missing?

One of the hardest things for most small business owners to do is see their business objectively. In order to define your brand that is something you have to do. I think maybe we get caught up in what we think our brand should be rather than what our brand is and can be.

Two of the participants on the call have huge opportunities to do some truly break away branding but they just didn’t see it. I hope I was able to open their eyes just a bit.

The first one is a wedding photographer on the West coast. If I recall correctly she has been shooting weddings for about 2 years. I asked her what made her decide to start doing weddings and that’s when I got her back story. She told me that she decided to concentrate on weddings as a kind of antidote to all the horror she had seen in her long career as a photojournalist. The problem was she wasn’t having much success getting this new career off the ground. Do what?!?

Let’s back up a minute. What is the single biggest buzzword in wedding photography today? That’s right, photo journalism. Here is a woman that is an honest to God, war covering photojournalist, yet any information about that is buried deep with in her website. Why?

The why is because she didn’t see it as special. She wasn’t published in any wedding magazines so I don’t think she thought it would matter. Wrong. Let me tell you, being paid for your work in National Geographic is a whole lot harder than getting into Modern Bride. She has done and lived the photojournalist life that so many only aspire to; shout it from the rooftops.

Needless to say she and I went in and reworded some of her advertising today.

The second is a Bridal Salon owner in Connecticut. The image she is marketing for her salon is along the lines of “We’ll make your day more relaxed.” Doesn’t everyone say that?  As she started to talk a bit about what she does it became evident that she does a lot more than that. First off she understands more about her cliental than most businesses do. The nearby university doesn’t allow cars until the junior year so she does most of her fittings on campus for the clients that need gowns for formals. She also picks up and delivers to campus for things like tuxes. She doesn’t think a thing about it.

She is also aware that the one thing that larger girls want in a salon is to be able to try on gowns. Consequently she stocks a large selection of plus size in bridal, formal and prom. The lady is very good at finding a need or a problem and solving it. That is what she needs her image to be, the problem solver. “We see your needs. Leave it to us to take care of them.”

I would suggest to her that she make a testimonial page one of the centerpieces of her marketing. She should go through all her testimonials and highlight any that tell how she filled a need that was going unmet else where. To here way of thinking she was just doing what came naturally so she didn’t see it as remarkable.

What are you doing that is remarkable today? Maybe you need another set of eyes to see it.

Is it time to get a second opinion on your branding? Probably.

Most of the time we are too close to our own company to really see it.  Sometimes it is wise to get someone else, even if they aren’t a professional marketer to take a look at your brand image.

Here are a few of the thing to study.

• Does it express what you really do?  Look at your body of work, does your branding represent that.
• Is your branding true to your mission statement? If your mission is to be a laid back, casual bridal salon does your name and branding reflect that or does it shout Bling?
• Does your branding speak to the clientele you wish to attract? If you want hip trendy brides are you using vintage images?
• Can someone look at your branding and know instantly what you stand for or is it too vague?

If you are not sure what I mean by branding I am talking about all the different things that represent you. Your logo, sign, business cards, packaging, shop or office interior, voice mail message and even you and your employees clothing.

As I said most times we are just to close to it to see our branding objectively. I attended a seminar in AtlantaAustralia. Needless to say she had a wealth of creative talent already in house; still she hired another agency to do their branding. Why? Because they were more objective and they didn’t have any preconceived notions. The speaker said that they uncovered angles and ideas that her own team had never thought of because they look at it from the inside. recently that was presented by the owner of a rather large ad agency in

Here is another example. I met a videographer at a bridal show and in addition to the requisite giant plasma screen his booth was full of antique camera equipment. I had to ask him why because for me that was just a huge disconnect. Why would someone whose segment of our industry is always on the technology forefront have vintage cameras in his booth? His answer was that he was trying to express that he was creating heirlooms. Ok, so tell me that. I suggested that he incorporate a tag line along the lines of “Using cutting edge technology to create the heirlooms of tomorrow”. By adding that one line to his sign, cards and brochures it instantly made sense. Not only did it make sense, it was down right brilliant but with out it there was that disconnect. Before I heard his answer I had started thinking if he is so into antique cameras how up to date is his equipment? Don’t make your customers have to ask because most of them won’t.

Today’s brides are very loyal to brands that they find to be honest and authentic and that match their vision. Isn’t it time you took a long hard look at your branding?

How many different places do you advertise? A couple of magazines, one or two local bridal shows and a static website. You need to be everywhere your target market looks with the exact same message and tag line.

“Aw come on Christine, I don’t have Coca Cola’s marketing budget, you know” is probably what you are thinking right about now. So let’s look at some ways we can help you stretch that message without stretching your wallet.

Recently I wrote about refining your message as well as why it is important, but if you keep it to yourself it is worthless. Now that you have your tagline you did remember to put it in those magazine ads coming out in January, didn’t you? What about the brochures or trinkets you hand out at the bridal shows? Does your booth design reflect your message or is it just another booth? Now is the time to be thinking about it. It is also time to start working on getting any possible tie in with the promoter in any marketing they are doing in the run up to the show such as TV, radio and newspaper inserts. They are always looking for talent to showcase on this. Don’t forget your tagline.

If you lent things to the magazines for their photo shoot you did make sure to get proper credit didn’t you. It doesn’t do your marketing any good to have your dress or flowers on the cover if you are the only on that knows.

I have also been beating the drum about social media marketing, are you there yet? It’s free you know. If you are there are you working it? When was the last time you posted to a group on MySpace of Facebook? Surely there was at least one question you could have answered in the last month. You did sign it with your tag line didn’t you? What about posting a comment on someone’s blog? Have you started yours yet?

Back to those brochures you are printing up for the bridal shows. Did you remember to get extra to put in the shops that your brides frequent? Remember that the price per goes down the more you order and since you have refined your message you won’t have to be reprinting them soon. Have you offered to let the shops use some of your product to decorate their windows or consulting room? Don’t forget to put a spiffy little sign with your branding along side it.

There are a million places you should be getting your message out. It is up to you to take advantage of them. Or I guess you could just keep doing it the old way.

Do you know what your catch phrase is?

Is it well worded enough that it defines your business in only a sentence or two. Does every single employee know it by heart and believe it to be the golden rule? Can half of your customers recognize it and associate it with you? Or are you not even sure you could describe what your brand stands for in a page and a half of ramblings?

I have talked a little this month about how to differentiate your business but the secret may be how well and how consistently you communicate that message. It is important that your message be distilled down to its core so that it can be easily remembered and repeated often.

You can have one of a million graphic designers or ad firms come in a create a nifty logo and design your letterhead, business cards and website to match but if the logo doesn’t stand for anything it might as well be a shapeless amoeba. That’s not what branding is. It is the message that the logo represents that matters. If you haven’t defined that, how can you sell it?

You can start by writing down you mission statement. Just what is it that your business represents? WHY does your business exist and how to you implement that? Refine that down to a couple of well worded sentences. Bounce it around a bit, see if you are living up to those words in practice. See if they ring true. Maybe start over.

Once you have your mission statement tweaked, pare it down to the bare essence. Turn it into a 30 second elevator speech. Tune that and tweak it so that every time you give that speech the person receiving it “gets” it. Do the words still ring true? Are they still an honest representation of your business and your philosophy? Good.

Now, refine it down into a single sentence or phrase. I know if I keep going like this it will eventually be the size of an amoeba, but I do actually have a point. If you can get the essence of your business pared down to a single phrase you can repeat it infinitely, you can in grain it in your employees so that they can breathe it in their sleep, your customers will find that one phrase synonymous with your name. That phrase is what the world will think when they see that logo. Ahhhhhh branding as it was meant to be.

Once you have your phrase, use it everywhere: put it on signs, have your employees memorize it, heck print it on their paychecks. Use it in ads and on any promotional material. Have it on your voice mail, use it when you answer the phone, never say the name of your company without it. Do these things for two reasons. First you do it to spread the word, second and more importantly you do it to remind yourself and your staff of what you must live up to.

One of the best examples ever: 7up, the uncola. That pretty much sums it up now doesn’t it?  In two words, they said everything that you ever needed to know about their product.

It is an established fact that promotion, PR, marketing or whatever you call it is the driving force behind any successful business.  No matter how good you are at your craft if you don’t properly promote it you will fail or at the very least fail to grow.

Take a look at what some of the most successful players in America have done to get where they are.  If you are a faithful follower of my columns you have already read the E-Myth and you know that your real job is not baking the cakes or shooting the video – it is growing your business. Ultimately, your business is your product. If you don’t look at it from that point of view your business will fail to thrive over time.

Even if you never aspire to international fame and fortune, if you only want your business to grow to a manageable size it is still smart to take a look at how the big boys got where they are. People like Colin Cowie, Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray and Donald Trump didn’t start out at the top. They worked hard to get there and they all did it the same way.

I read an interesting interview with Martha Stewart recently.  Her advice was to find something you are passionate about and use that passion. Here is the kicker, the thing she is passionate about isn’t lifestyles or cooking or decorating. It is promoting Brand Martha. Did you get that, promoting ‘Brand Martha’. Now I will grant you that in the early days her job also included cooking and catering parties but that was only a means to an end. With out that point of view she would still be catering weddings in the Hamptons. So how did she do it?

Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Ray and Donald Trump know how she did it because they have done it too. I have got news for you, Rachel Ray isn’t the greatest chef out there but she is a master at promoting Brand Rachel. Like Martha, Ray has never passed up an opportunity to promote herself.

So how can a humble baker in Michigan or a videographer in Memphis get on the kind of trajectory that these people got on? First you have to change your point of view. Once you have developed the product your business sells use your time and skill to develop the brand. Use the media to your advantage and put yourself in a position to meet the right people.

One of the best ways to get the ball rolling is to donate your time and talent repeatedly to high profile charity events. Notice I didn’t say money. Anyone can write a check but unless it has an abundance of zeros on it you will get little more out of it than a nice thank you note. You have to get personally involved. This puts you in a position to meet the people that can take you to the next level. Yes, this is your basic networking. The difference is that it is in different circles. We all network within the industry now it is time to expand that circle to the larger world.

There is a planner in my area that is starting to get some really sweet national press. I am constantly hearing people question how she is doing it since locally she isn’t perceived as all that. I’ll tell you how she did it. She started by going the charity route to meet some of the high rollers locally. That got her the chance to bid on a few high profile weddings. That was only the beginning. She used those to get her in front of the connections at the next level, always expanding her sphere of influence. She is constantly and persistently reaching out and up to the next level. She is so good at shameless self promotion that I personally find her a joy to watch! Did she start out with a huge bankroll? No, she started out with a vision and in that she has never wavered. I have no doubt that her signature brand will one day stand beside the Colin Cowies and Martha Stewarts of the world.

Your brand can too if you change your point of view.

I don’t know how often you read the bride’s forums; I read several everyday. (Yes, I have a life. Thank you for asking.) The next time you do I want you to notice how they refer to the companies that they talk about favorably as opposed to the ones they talk badly about. In almost every instance they use a persons name for the favorable one, the bad ones are called by the company name. I don’t think it is coincidence.

Women are about relationships. They are more likely to think highly of someone that has taken the time to get to know them and more likely to spend their money with them. They want a face to go with the company. Think Martha Stewart, Donald Trump, Oprah. If they put their name on something, people buy it in droves. The perception is that it comes by recommendation from a ‘trusted friend’. You should do the same thing; become your potential customers trusted friend. Make yourself someone they feel they know.

Put yourself out front and in the spotlight no matter what your company sells. Get personal; let your customers know you. Be the icon that stands behind your brand. Make sure your customers know there is a real person that they can trust, not just some corporate entity. I realize that also means that you are the one all the fall out hits when something goes wrong, but that was a give the moment you decided to go into business for yourself.

Every show you do be there. Be a little flamboyant if you can.  Make sure your picture and a friendly bio is on your website. If you can get the local paper to do a spotlight on you (and your business) do it. Give your potential customers some bit of common ground to latch on to. Blog from a more personal point of view; I don’t mean get chatty about you kids potty training or your love life, just be human. Tell a little story about the wonderful bride you had last week and how satisfying it was to see her get to dance with her father despite his hesitation to dance in front of everyone or what ever happened that touched you. Let your unique personality come through.

Andrea Learned, author of “Don’t Think Pink”, has a great article about humanizing yourself on her blog “Learned On Women”.  You should give it a read.

Think of different ways to brand yourself. Be that business they talk about like a friend rather than a cold corporate entity.