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The Year That Was: 2011

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As I sit here and watch the sun slowly set on 2011 I was reflecting on what an interesting year it had been. There have been some radical upheavals in the industry and some small sparks of life.

Get Married Folded

Priscilla’s of Boston Folded

Encore Invitation left brides high and dry.

The Knot got downgraded.

Wedding business advice has seemingly become an industry of it’s own.

The bloggers and the photographer feuded.

…and the list goes on.

Those little sparks of hope?

It isn’t those people that are coming into the market thinking they are going to make 6-figures as a planner; it’s the small handcrafted mavens that jumped in with out a playbook. Not the ones that brought all their corporate speak and think; it’s the ones with passion and heartfelt joy for what they do. It isn’t the ones that are crying for the world to go back to the way it was; it’s the ones that saw the big picture and changed with the times.

I have seen so many success stories this year and they have all been from folks that are willing to think outside the box, break a few rules and change. Either they stopped looking at weddings through the lens of 2008 or they never had that lens in the first place.

Much like our economy, our industry has a huge gap in the middle. The very big have enough of a cushion that they are succeeding as they slowly turn their great ships around  and the very small are creating a new craftsman sector of the industry. One built on customer service, quality and a vision of weddings as special moments not spectacles.

It’s kind of refreshing.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Rants & Raves, Trends 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:

Wedding Blogs. Good Guys or Bad Guys?

November 10, 2011 By 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: ,

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

What Do Hotdogs Have To Do With Brides?

October 27, 2011 By 3 Comments

Way back in November 2006 I published an article about the wedding industry becoming a target for anyone thinking they could make an easy buck.

We have all seen the droves of people try and parlay their experience in meeting planning, their kids birthday party or their love of cupcakes into wedding businesses. Then it started on the B2B side.

Those of you who are really, truly in the wedding industry, those professionals among you that have worked with brides and grooms and MoBs and even the occasional Maid-zilla know what a wacky world this is. Our industry, because of the emotions, the budgets and the drop dead deadlines is a pretty unique playing field. You don’t just walk into it  from the corporate world and think you can understand it.

More and more people get displaced from the corporate world and as a traditionally non-corporate industry made of primarily mom & pop businesses bridal looks like a great place to land. ~sigh~ I am sorry, but if you haven’t been in the trenches, you just don’t understand it.

Ok come on board, but for lands sake at least dive in and get your feet wet first. Work with us to understand the uniqueness of this world. You may make it you may not, but at least you will know what it’s really like.

Recently I ran across a prime example of the arrogance of some of these people. There is a person out there with an all in one, do it yourself content marketing system built for wedding professionals.  Great, content marketing is a good thing.  That is if you know what the hell you are talking about. How can you possibly write content to market a wedding business if you have never WORKED with a bride?  I have no doubt that her ‘system’ is well organized and planned but my problem is with the content. The media is already flooded with bad information for brides, now someone is mass producing it. Lovely.

Oh, the headline? Well this particular persons bio very proudly states her marketing experience for Oscar Meyer and Kraft Foods. I can think of no way that hot dogs relate to brides. Unless of course you count pigs in a blanket as a reception food!

You may see this a just another rant, but understand, I have been in the wedding industry since 1988 and I am very protective of it. I was all prepared to just drop this company as another flash in the pan. That is until they contacted me and offered to guest blog. Needless to say I had some questions for them in terms of experience in the wedding industry. Here is a direct quote from that correspondence.

{name removed}1 doesn’t work with brides.

She also has years of experience in market research and used that to help her learn about brides and their buying habits by interviewing friends, family and online research, as well as talking to other wedding professionals to learn more.

Ok, you want my respect? Get your butt down here in the trenches and begin to really understand what the wedding industry is all about.

 

1I thought long and hard about whether to include a name or link. obviously, I opted not to promote this company.

 

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

Facebook or Your Website? What’s More Important?

October 25, 2011 By 2 Comments

I was out trolling the internet for inspiration this morning and ran across a  little website I rather liked until I saw this on the portfolio page…

For current photos, please visit our blog or facebook fan page.

 

Excuse me but that is exactly backwards. Exactly Backwards. Your social media presence is (or should be) designed to funnel people to your website, not the other way around.

Your website is the main hub of all your marketing. Everything else you do should be designed to get them to that point. It is where you have (or should) the most real-estate to capture their undivided attention. It is where your contact forms are, your full portfolio, your pricing information and for goodness sake your freaking sale pitch. Why would you use it to send them somewhere else?????

But wait! there’s more…

What this one statement told me is that first off, the website was not designed with the clients needs in mind. You, as the site owner, should have full control of your site. You should have full reign to update any and everything on it. Moreover, you should have been trained on how to use it. If you weren’t, you are being held captive by your web designer.

Then there is the issue of the blog being on a different url. Why? Your blog should be a fully integrated part of your website. Your blog is one of your best SEO tools. It is a near effortless way to add important keywords and tagged images for the search engines to delight over. Why put that much effort into a blog in the hopes that people will make the leap to your website. Dang it, they should already be there.

{can’t your tell I am just slightly irritated}

How about this…

Your blog is an integrated part of your website, just another page really. You work hard and keep updating your blog. The best of the best pictures you also ad to your gallery/portfolio. Every time you do that, your site is set up to automatically post it to both your Facebook page and your Twitter account. Now doesn’t that sound simple?
How about…If you have a website, a separate blog and are still putting all you effort into your Facebook page you are working way to hard. Just like the hub that it is, your website should not only be the central point you bring everyone, but it should also radiate out your hard work.

One page to rule them all

or is that to Lord of the Rings?

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Rants & Raves, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: , , ,

The Final Nail in the Knot’s Coffin

September 9, 2011 By 2 Comments

I have said it for so long that I am blue in the face:

The portals are dead and Google killed them.

Yet year after year, so many wedding vendors throw money at the Knot for ads that aren’t working. They throw money at Wedding Wire and every little portal website that comes along. Then they wonder why they aren’t getting any return on their investment. ~gah~

There was a time when the Knot really was a place for brides to go to get the information and inspiration that they needed. Today? uh, no. Why would they sort through pages of nonsense when all the have to do is Google exactly what they are looking for and get pages of very specific related answers. Even better, pages of images.

Finally I have back up. Today the Motley Fool picked XO Group(formerly the Knot) as their “Throw This Stock Away” pick of the week.  Below is the best quote of the article:

XO in general — and The Knot in particular — just aren’t as necessary as they used to be. Friends swap wedding service referrals for free through Facebook, and Angie’s List has grown into a powerhouse of vetted reviews.

Brides today are going to go where they already feel comfortable.

Now take a look at this quote about a stock they would pick to replace XO Group.

  • Google: XO relies on wedding service providers paying up to be featured on TheKnot.com. Despite all of the lifestyle site launches and acquisitions over the past four years, revenue has climbed just 22% higher at XO. Where are the advertisers going? My best bet would be Google. The search giant’s AdWords platform makes it easy to smoke out leads for pennies per click. It’s also hard to argue against Google at less than 13 times next year’s earnings.

I hate to leave you hanging at the altar XO, but I’m just not that into you.

What does all this mean to you?

In a nutshell, brides are finding information by searching on Google. If your website isn’t top notch and built to be search friendly, no amount of money you throw at advertising is going to do you any good.

Remember when I said “In 2008 we hit the reset button?’ Well this is one of the things that has changed. Ignore it at your own peril.

Oh and one more thing. If you own any stock in XO, I’d probably take the Fool’s advice.

Filed Under: Blog, Rants & Raves, Trends, Website marketing Tagged With: , ,

Who Is Your Customer?

June 23, 2011 By 2 Comments

I got to thinking about this today as I was following a fairly heated conversation on a couple of wedding blogs. 

By and large, the customer base of wedding blogs and the wedding print media is wedding vendors, not the bride & groom.

Now think about that for a minute. Any information based business is going to advocate for their customer base. They are going to speak in such a way and feed their readers information that is going to enhance the position of their customers. Again, please remember, their customer is the wedding vendor.

What does this mean for the bride and our industry?

It means that today’s bride is being fed a steady diet that is not always in her best interest. She is being told what to do and what is hot based on what the wedding industrial complex wants to sell. Just take a look at the dramatic rise in staged photo shoots on wedding blogs. Yes, they are gorgeous, I won’t argue that. The problem is they aren’t reality, although they are often presented as such. Most are unreachable by the average bride. I hate to tell you, but not every couple is hipster or shabby chic. don’t even get me started on the wedding gowns shown in the major magazines editorial. I have ranted on that until I am blue in the face.

It is no wonder that today’s bride is turning to alternatives to wedding professionals. As heavily exposed as brides are to over the top weddings they are beginning to believe that they both will not be able to afford a “wedding” professional and that even if they could, said “professional”  wouldn’t listen to them anyway. It isn’t that they are exploring using professionals and deciding against it, they are looking for alternatives first.

Is there an answer? Maybe.

I think that every wedding professional out there has a blog, why not start using it to really advocate for the bride. There is this little thing called Karma. If you as wedding professionals start telling the truth, being an advocate for the bride, showing them that you do offer alternatives  they will come back. Not only that, they will see you as a savior, a bright light in the darkness and they will be your evangelists.

By the way, I plan on cross posting this on Wedding Dish.

 

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

Time for an Attitude Check

June 13, 2011 By 6 Comments

Rant Alert!

I wasn’t sure whether to call this “What’s With All the Drama” or “How Not to Use Social Media” or maybe “You’re Not the Star, the Bride Is.”

I have rarely in all my years in the wedding industry seen so much bad behavior, bad attitudes and just plain misplaced sense of entitlement in wedding ‘professionals’. What is going on gang?

Saturday night a videographer went on social media to complain that the planner didn’t come find him before the DJ announced the bridal party. Um, lose your time line, Bud? Seems to me it was your responsibility to be on top of the goings on at the event.

Also a videographer, did a blog post telling DJ’s that aside from getting the couple’s name right, their biggest job was to communicate with the videographer. Sorry, I thought the DJ’s job was to keep the party going and the couple happy. Am I missing something here?

How about the photographer complaining about the videographers off to the side of the pavilion because they would be in his shots. Um, didn’t the couple hire them to capture the wedding ceremony? Do they not have some right to do their job too?

Then there was the photographer that wasn’t going to shoot the toast because, “I only focus on the bride and groom.” I guess that was also the reason that he walked up the aisle to get his gear during the recessional instead of shooting any images of the bridal party.

Then there was the bridal shop in a discussion about brides buying gowns online from China that thought that we need

A vigorous effort to force government to put
the clamps on the flood of incoming direct shipments

Um, doesn’t China hold a large part of the United States debt. Wow, what a great idea, lets piss off our biggest creditor over an infinitesimally small part of out economy. I know that it is a large part of this salon owners economy, but the government isn’t going to hang itself over it.

What has happened to the professionalism in this industry. I do realize that 3 years of a struggling economy is starting to take its toll on everyone, but this is not the way to handle it. We need a little bit of an attitude check here. You are not the star, the bride is.

Get this through your heads people, I don’t care what you do or how good you are, you are the hired help. We work live events, not staged shoots. The other vendors are not there to make your product or service look better or serve you. They are there to serve the bride, if that doesn’t fit your plan then you are in the wrong business.

 

Just a heads up.

This isn’t just back room fighting anymore, brides and people outside the industry are starting to notice. I read this quote on Salon.com last week

“A modern wedding is an elaborate photo shoot during which two people who love each other very much attempt to escape the photographers long enough to get married.”

 

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

Content is King. Even the SEO Rapper Says So

April 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

I stumbled upon this on YouTube today. The SEO Rapper on Page Rank.

I love this guy! Not only does he know what he’s talking about but he is one dang Out of the Box thinkin’ Gorilla Marketer! He took a skill and zigged when everyone else was zagging. Oh sure, he could have taken that talent and rapped about sex and guns and drugs, but NOOOOO, he flipped it to the world of internet marketing. I’m sure he is doing quite well for himself and I bet he sleeps better.

Watch the video an learn a little about Page Rank, Content and SEO.

Here is another one just for the fun of it. Social Media

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