The more websites I build, the more I learn. So time for a little sharing.

Here are the top five things that have to be on your website, in no particular order. These are all aimed at wedding professionals. The list may not be the same for other markets.

Images.

Your target market is visual, very visual. I once had a young lady stand up in one of my seminars as I was talking about tagging your images and how GenY mostly surfed for pictures. She stated straight up that she was firmly Gen Y and truth be told, they ONLY surfed for pictures, rarely ever reading a word. So, add them to your blog posts and include large galleries of eye candy. Bue sure that you images are added in a way that the search engines can read them, in other words, don’t use Flash. Be sure to annotate and tag every single image with any relevant keywords, paying special attention to include subject matter and location.

Local Content

Most of my readers are based locally, by that I mean that even though they would love to book wedding all over the world, most of them are in their home town. With that in mind, be sure that you put a lot of local flavor in your website. If brides are looking at your site they want to know that you know all the best places and faces in your location. Remember brides search locally for their vendors. The other part of getting local on your site is that it give you an excuse to use the name of your town or neighborhood frequently. Why is that important? If you want to come up high for wedding planners in Washington, DC you need to have the actual words”Washington, DC’ appear in your content for the search bots to see. Search bots read words, only words; so the more often you can logically mention wedding & Washington, DC in you site the better off you are. (assuming of course you are a planner in Washington, DC, but then you know that)

Testimonials

As many and in as many ways as possible. Give them their own page, add pictures of either the smiling couple or the service that you provided. If they are complimenting you on the flowers and décor, add a picture of that.

Get the Wedding Wire Review widget and put that on your front page. Not only will brides read your reviews but it will make them more likely to give you a review themselves.

Add endorsements from other vendors. Those carry a lot of weight as a bride tries to decide if you are stable and reliable. Any one can get one or 2 good reviews from clients but it is the people you work with week in and week out that can really speak to what you are made of! Incidentally, I spoke with Wedding Wire last week and in their next revision they are adding a widget to add your endorsements just like the review widget. Yeah!

Prices

The number on thing that brides ask to have included in their online experience is pricing. This is something that hasn’t changed in as long as I have been at this. They want to know if they can afford you before they fall in love with your work.

Lead Generator

Right there on the front page and even in the post sidebars, you have to have a lead generator to collect email addresses. You never know when you are going to need them. Email marketing should be an important part of your overall marketing plan. Read why here. You can use it to promote any events you have coming up.

Of course there are other things that will be specific to you, but these 5 things are a must have for any wedding vendor.

I create blog-sites for a lot of different clients. They all have different reasons for doing it.

At the root of why most of them blog is for marketing, but not always. I have had a few that want to keep their website but add a platform that they have control of themselves. A lot of them understand that they can just replace the old site with a blog-site and maximize all there efforts into one url.

If you are only blogging because someone told you that you have to then you are bound to fail. You will end up resenting the effort you have to put into it and your writing will show it.

The best blogs come from people that have a genuine desire to share. They want to share their knowledge, or the cool things they find, or brag on their friends, or tell a story that is evolving over time. The best bloggers love what the have to share, they are connected to it and in turn to their audience. You can’t fake that.

I run across clients from time to time that over think it. As a consequence they never post, they are paralyzed by the fear of getting it wrong.

Here is the best advice you will ever get to get you started:

Think of your blog as a conversation with a friend. That friend that you can talk to for hours.  That friend that values your opinion even if the disagree with you. That friend that shares your passions. Then write ever blog post as if you were talking to them.

Write in the same tone you would use with them. Think of your readers as your perfect pen pal.

Then just enjoy the ride.

Once you have found your voice, then you can worry about all the geeky details.

I just love what my clients have to say.

Debbi, My Personal Cantor, was recently asked who built her website. Here is what she said…

“Her name is Christine Boulton, and you can reach her at …thinklikeabride.com

She’s amazing.  And it was very reasonable.  What’s more, is she specializes in WordPress blogsites, which are the best.  They are so simple to maintain and add content to, and are meant for constant updating, and content additions, which makes Google love it more.  Then – she is very hands on in making sure you know how to use it and administer it.  She’s really a client advocate.  the WordPress site I originally had was built by someone in Canada, and once he got paid for the final version, it was impossible to reach him at all.  Christine is always there for me if I have questions.

Tell her I sent ya!”

Aww, gee. Thanks Debbi.

I include a testimonial page in all the websites I build. You would think I would be smart enough to include one on my site. Oh well, the cobblers children…

This website that went live last week was a little outside of my usually area of expertise, but I think it came out nicely.

The client wanted a place for teachers to post their stories.The mandate was to create a site where anyone could add submission that could them be edited and moderated by the site admins. The client also wanted a fun, masculine look to the site; something that said, we are here to have fun, not share saccharine.

I look forward to seeing how it develops as he starts the process of gathering followers and interesting posts. If you know any teachers, please pass this along. Thanks.

I just handed off the new site for Front Porch Farms.

This one was a blast to work on, Kathy Best, the client knew exactly what she wanted. Her venue is simply beautiful and the images she sent made it easy to capture the fabulous look of the house and grounds.

I thought you might like this site that went live over the weekend; Healthy Solutions Medical Weight Loss.

I know it a bit outside the wedding industry that I usually deal with but still fun to do.

The site went live on Sunday and by Tuesday they already had new patients coming in with their forms already printed out and filled in! The staff loves it, especially the ones that answer the phone.

I love happy clients

What could a new website do for you?

Do you realize how important the images on your website are to your search traffic?

I was speaking to a regional conference of ABC members recently and was telling them about the way their target market searches when planning their wedding. In the early stages they primarily are searching for images.

One young lady stood up and identified herself as a member of Gen Y. She then went on to say that not only was it true that  they were looking at images but that in truth, they rarely took time to read even the smallest amount of copy. Only if an image really caught them would they bother to find out more. Half of the time they never even bothered to visit the website hosting the image, just surfing though a panel on Cool Iris that matched their search.

How does your website fit into this pattern?

First off, if all of your images are locked into a Flash gallery, they aren’t search-able at all. You may have the most beautiful image of “Winter Candle Centerpiece” but if it in a Flash gallery it won’t show up in a Google (or Bing or Yahoo) image search.

Your images need to be labeled and described using related keywoods; including any long-tail keywords that apply. This is the sum total of what the search engines see; they don’t “see” pictures, only the words attached to them.

I see so many websites that are Flash that have been optimized to get the homepages to show up in search. They are  full of metatags and some even still have hidden text. I have news for you, that is not where most people land from a search, they usually land somewhere in the middle on a specific image, page or post. If we are talking about GenY, it will most likely be an image.

So, knowing all this, how does your web presence stack up?

If it doesn’t, give me a shout.

I was reading one of my favorite marketing blogs, Marketing to Women Online by the fab Holly Buchanan and this line jumped out at me:

“Men prefer subject matter that depicts “comparative advertising appeals.”    Women prefer subject matter that depicts “harmonious relationships.”

Well that got me thinking about how we market, in particular why don’t we use more co-operative marketing than we do. Look, we all know that weddings are a team effort and that the best weddings we do are partly a result of the phenomenal team of event professionals that has been put together. They are a result of the “harmonious relationships” between  pros that already know and understand each other working together. Why aren’t we using that more in our marketing?

Yes, I see that many of you have a list of preferred vendors somewhere on your website, but you can do so much more. Why not go a little bit further to formalize those relationships, maybe actually build a team and do a little co-op advertising? How about a page trumpeting your “dream team” that explains why you love to work with them. Talk about your relationships with these fine people. Talk about why you trust them.

As more and more brides opt not to use a wedding planner in a deluded attempt to save money, too often we wind up working with much less than a “dream team”. This make our jobs more difficult. This effort will not only appeal to the brides desire for “harmonious relationships” but also help us to do a better job more easily. Sounds like a win-win to me.

This is certainly a topic that I want to explore in more depths, so look for it to pop up on April’s Think Like A Bride. I’ll put some ideas together on how to use this in you marketing.

I had an interesting conversation with a new client recently. Part of my review of his marketing strategy included asking him when he last updated his website. His answer startled me; he hadn’t updated anything in over a year!

I’m sure you are thinking big deal but this really is a big deal. In the case of this particular client, a caterer, he hadn’t even changed the prices on the posted menus. If you have bought anything in the last year like oh say food or gas then you know what has happened to prices. What do you think having to live with year old prices did to his bottom line? Exactly.

When he told me why he was doing that to his business I was even more stunned. He hated to call the webmaster to change anything because it cost an arm and a leg. Sound familiar? I am dealing with the same situation with an organization where I am a member of the board. This is lunacy.

In today’s culture a website has to be a dynamic, current, ever changing entity. Today’s bride can smell outdated at thirty paces. I’m not necessarily talking about changing the over all look of a site, although that should be done every 2 to 3 years. I am most concerned with you keeping the information up to date.  Are you a wedding planner that only has pictures of weddings you did 4 or 5 years ago on your site? Why not the images from last weekends wedding? I know, the webmaster again, right? What about you florists, those bouquets look a little out of date do they? Are you representing your business to its best advantage? Probably not.

With the tools and products on the market today there isn’t any reason why you should have a website that can’t be quickly and easily updated BY YOU at the click of a button. If your web designer is telling you different he is holding you hostage to old technology and stuffing his wallet at your expense.

I also have clients that have come to me with a perfectly good site that was in fact built so they could update it but they never learned how. WHAT??  Come on, that’s such an easy fix I almost feel bad telling you. If you need to learn how to use the website you have, call whoever built it, offer to pay them for their time and have them sit down with you and teach you how to use it. How do you think I started learning all this stuff oh those many years ago?

I’ll tell you something else, most web designer will get a kick out of showing you all the nifty bells and whistles in your site. Remember, they are techies, this stuff excites them as much as that new source for the perfect ribbon or staffing solution or newest gown collection excites you. Let them show it off. Something else to think about, if you buy a new website make sure that a complete one on one tutorial is part of the package. That site doesn’t do you a bit of good if you can’t use it to its full advantage.

Technology is moving at light speed. The days of building a website and forgetting it are over. Remember, that is where you potential customers are looking for you.  Can you afford to show them you are outdated and out of sync with their world?

If you would like me to review your website, just drop me a line. If I get enough of them I may just do a column reviewing them next month, with your permission of course.

Your target market is talking.  Do you know what they are asking for?  I do.  They are asking for information.  Are you giving it to them?  At the last bride’s panel one of the questions concerned websites and what brides wanted to see.  An online portfolio was nice.  So was a blurb about your experience and credentials.  But what they wanted and weren’t finding was answers.

Brides tell me that they put together a list of vendors in a specific category by asking friends and relatives.  They look through local wedding magazines and attend bridal.shows.  This is where you first hit their radar.  But once you make the big list, how do you survive the cut to the short list?  At this point it is all about your website.
They will sit at the computer, either at work or in the late evening, and go to website after website.  The ones that answer their questions get a second look.  Do you offer what they are looking for, such as fondant on a cake or two cameras for a ceremony?  Do you carry a certain line of gown or invitation or what ever it is that they are looking for?  Are you available for their date?  Can they afford you?  If you answered the questions, then you  get a call.  Remember, today’s bride has been on the Internet since the 1st grade.  Researching a product or service online is an everyday part of life.

One of the big things brides want, but are not finding on many websites is pricing.

That’s a tricky one for most of us.  I know it was for me.  Everything I did was a custom design.  There were a million variables.  How do you put a hard price on that?

All brides really want to know at this point is if you are in their price range.  They don’t want to fall in love with your work or waste their time on a meeting if they can’t afford you.  And you don’t want them to waste your time either.  Do you really want to spend an hour with a couple only to find out that their entire wedding budget is in the neighborhood of your lowest package?

Like me, you may not be able to put a hard and fast price on your website.  But if your don’t put some indication of a range of your prices, many brides will see the beautiful images of the best you have to offer, and write you off as too expensive.  So give them some info.  Give them an idea of where your pricing starts and how it works.  If you normally include a few freebies in your deals, shout it from the rooftops.  The more information they can access from their desktop, the happier today’s bride is.

Think about this when you do the annual review of your website. (You do that, don’t you?) Oh and if you need help, just call.

I promise, it will boost the conversion rate of qualified brides.  Better hits, fewer misses.  And isn’t that why you have a website?