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When Advertising Fails, What Then?

January 11, 2011 By 5 Comments

I have been following some interesting discussions on what advertising works and what doesn’t. The general consensus is that none of it works; at least not consistently. Not print, not bridal shows, not wedding portals, not online adverts, nothing, zip, zilch zero, nada.

So what do you do?

You know you have to market, you are even willing to drop a few coins in the pot to do it; but if nothing works what is the answer?

Here is where you begin. Notice that in the above copy I used two different words: advertising and marketing. They are not interchangeable. Advertising is static and marketing is active.

Time was when a bridal vendor could buy a page in the local glossy bridal publication and that was all it took.  That was advertising, set it and forget it. OK, maybe do a bridal show or two and then forget it.

Marketing is constant.  Marketing is networking.  Marketing is PR.  Marketing is reaching out to the people who can bring you work. Marketing is fluid.

Marketing for today’s bridal vendor is in two places: online and face to face.


Point 1:

A truth of the industry that has always been and I imagine shall always be is that the majority of brides find their vendors by referral.  Yes, a lot of that is from other brides but a lot more is from other vendors.  To sell today’s bride the biggest trigger is that she feels comfortable with you and that she trust you.

Yes, I know their opening salvo is always about price, but believe me, if she trusts you she will pay your price.

So, once she finds that one vendor that she trusts, she will take their recommendations in the highest regard. You need to be who they are referring.

This is the face to face aspect. If you aren’t out there networking with local vendors you are missing the boat. This doesn’t just mean calling them and asking them to refer you. Seriously, some people think that will work. No, not even close.

The real essence of networking with other vendors is getting to know them and building relationships with them. Work with them, help them, refer them, support them. All the work you put into and qualities you expect from a friendship are inherent in good networking.

This is an ongoing process and belive me, it is marketing. The more positive relationships you have with other vendors with in your market the more your business will grow. I promise you.


Point 2:

The other marketing today that does work is your own website. It is your marketing tool when you aren’t there. Again this has to be an ongoing project.

You need to keep  your website constantly updated for 2 main reasons.

The first is search. Everytime you update or add to your site the search engines take a fresh look and index more pages. The more content, the more long tail keywords, the better chance you have of showing up in the long, complicated search strings that brides type in to their search engine. Keep adding content and keep fueling the search. This is the main reason that having (and using) a blog as part of your website is so powerful.

The second reason is that if your website looks stale and dated, that is the impression that prospective clients will have of you. If you look stale, they won’t even call. That wedding from 2008 may still be your favorite, but it probably looks old and tired to brides that have been searching the net for months. Give yourself a fighting chance. Keep updating your portfolio with new and exciting images of your work.


Just about now is where you are starting to argue with me that you just don’t have the time for all that. Tough. Make the time or invest those old advertising dollars to hire someone to do it for you. In today’s world, this is what it takes.

Marketing works,

advertising just doesn’t anymore.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, wedding marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Where are Brides Online?

January 4, 2011 By 5 Comments

I think that we have already established that today’s brides are doing most of their research online. The question is where. To answer that, you need to figure out how they are doing their research.

From what I have looked at, here is my drill down.

  1. Image search
  2. Planning research
  3. Community
  4. Local Search
  5. Reviews and Community Referrals

Let’s take these one at a time.

Image search.

The first thing they do is go look at all the pretty pictures. I know it sounds trite but that is just the way this generation is. They are very visual. What this means to you is that you need to make sure that your images come up in a Google image search. The best way to do that is to be sure you have done a good job of tagging your shots when you put them on your website. For more information on just how to do this, read Labeling Your Images for SEO Gold. Now mind you, this won’t make them call you, in and of itself, but it will start the process of making them familiar with your name.

Planning Research.

Trust me, the newly engaged are completely clueless when it comes to planning a wedding. So they hit the internet for planning tips and tools. You know as well as I do that there is enough info on this topic on the internet to fill a good sized library. Most of it is bullshit, some of it is down right scary, a lot of it is worthless marketing junk and a tiny bit is of real value. The problem is, it doesn’t come color coded, so a bride is likely to mistake the garbage for gold.

You know what I am talking about. How often have you sat in a client meeting and wondered where they came up with such a harebrained scheme. She got a tickle of an idea in the back of her brain and then found some source to support it. ~sigh~

Which brings us to our next destination…

Community.

This is in reality where brides that spend the most time online will be: in the forums and bulletin boards of places like WeddingBee.com and WeddingWire.com.

According to a recent report, the only sites in the top 10 that didn’t lose ground are the ones that support community. Even the venerable Martha Stewart Weddings took a hit. The comments on Bee and the forums on Wire are very heavily trafficked. What our brides are doing is talking about their wedding with other brides and learning from them. They have become the primary authority on all things wedding. God help us. It is like kids that learn all of their sex-ed on the playground.

The other place they are finding community is on Facebook. They may notice your page there but that isn’t why they are there. They are there to socialize.

Local Search.

Now we are getting down to it. They start looking for you. Notice I did not say that start looking at the ads on the Knot, or any other site for that matter. They go straight to their favorite search engine. Ok, so ya, Google, but there are others too, at least that is what I hear. ;-) Something else you need to know, these ladies are really good at search. They don’t type in “DJ in New Jersey” they type in “DJ,Trenton NJ, Not Cheesy”. They don’t type in “Wedding Dress, Bellingham WA” They type in “2Be Brides by Gavin Michaels Style No. G233916S + WA”

As you can see, they have already decided what they want and know how to search to find it. That is the reason that you need to put as much information on your website as possible.

Reviews and Community Referral.

Now that they have found you and looked over your website, they still aren’t ready to contact you. They want support that they are making a good choice. For they they go back to their community and ask if anyone knows anything about you. Once comfortable that you are who they think you are, they will check your review on Wedding Wire and Yelp. Save them the step and put the WeddingWire.com Review widget right on your website. Something else the net savvy bride will do is type in “{your name}+complaints”.

Now, maybe, if you have come out on top on all this, they might send you an email.

As to the original question, “Where are brides online?” the answer is search. They aren’t paying attention to banner ads or paid listings, they are doing their own research. When they finally hit your website, it had better be top-notch. It might be the only shot you get.

Filed Under: Blog, Facts & Stat, Marketing, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why the iPad Matters to Your Bridal Marketing

November 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Simply put because it is the future.

Check this blip about the new Glamour magazine app

Each digital issue includes the entire contents of the magazine, PLUS exclusive extras like video, photos and app-only fashion picks you can tap to purchase straight from your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone! You can also save your favorite fashion and beauty items–complete with details on where to buy them–for easy shopping reference when you’re on the go.

This may be just the thing that causes the revival of bridal magazines. Oh stop, I know that Glamour isn’t a bridal rag but they are owned by Conde Nast, so is Brides. Which means that Brides has access to the tech, if they are smart enough to use it.

Why carry a bridal magazine that weights a bunch around when you can just read it on your iPad or iPhone? Double score that you can just click to buy or link to a vendors website. Sounding better? What’s better, since it is in the app store it is now an impulse buy. Bored on the train to work? Buy the latest Bridal porn. Done.

The iPhone is great but the screen isn’t really big enough to really give the reader the same feel of a high end print glossy. But the iPad does.

Next you are going to tell me that, yes the app lets you view the entire magazine but you have to pay for it and no one will pay for content. Au contraire my friend!

Check out this article from the New York Times

The News Corporation said on Tuesday that it had gained 105,000 paying customers for the digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times of London since it started charging for access to their Web sites this summer.

The company said about half of those additions were regular, active subscribers to the newspapers’ Web sites, iPad application or Amazon Kindle edition. The rest were occasional purchasers. Another 100,000 readers have activated free digital accounts that are included in print subscriptions to the papers, the News Corporation said.

“These figures very clearly show that large numbers of people are willing to pay for quality journalism in digital formats,” said Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, the London-based arm of the News Corporation that publishes The Times papers.

The advent of the iPad has given a glimmer of hope to the currently on life support print media.

So there are two things I want you to think about:

First if you are considering putting any money into print, make dang sure that their presence on the iPad is what it should be. Don’t let them get away with telling you that they have a website. Tell them you want something like Glamour has put together.

Second, make sure you back up your purchase with a website that will show up on the iPad when a bride to be clicks on your ad. That means one thing—NO FLASH–. Yes I know it’s pretty, but it is totally useless with the format that today’s brides use to access the web most. You may just want to read this to be sure your site is where it needs to be.

The iPhone and more importantly, the iPad are not fads. This is particularly true with the higher end brides.

Check out what Mary Schmidt has to say about the future and the iPad.

Filed Under: Marketing, Trends, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Google, Genesis and Being #1

October 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Back on October 1 I told you that I was doing a major upgrade on this website. Nothing much changed on the face of things. I think you will agree that it pretty much looks the same and works the same, right?

So what’s the big deal?

What changed is on the back side. I upgraded to the Genesis Framework from Studiopress. I figured that if I was going to be an affiliate and since I build nearly all of my client’s sites on it, it was high time I use that mojo for myself.

One of the reasons I did it was because of the powerful built in SEO that it offers. I picked a keyword that I wanted to own, using the Google Keyword tool to help in that selection. I took care to configure my settings well and I let it roll.

The reconfiguring and theme change only took me a few hours on a Thursday afternoon. (10-7-2010)

This morning I hit Google, 16 days later, to see what the results were.

Now do you understand why I love Studiopress?

Drop me a line if you want this much mojo in your corner too.

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

Seriously, How is Your Website?

September 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

I posed that question in a recent email blast to my subscribers and members. Hopefully it got you thinking.

Today I ran across a recent survey done by online wedding planning site, MyWeddingWorkbook.com

Here is the meat of the survey:

Wedding websites, wedding-related blogs and online search engines are the first three places brides look for ideas, followed by online wedding forums, bridal magazines and shopping at bridal boutiques and salons.

“Generation Y and the Millennials have been using computers and the Internet practically their entire lives, so it only makes sense that these are the first resources they use when they start planning a wedding,” said Jeff Kear, owner of My Wedding Workbook.

In fact, when brides were asked what will be their main source of aid throughout the wedding planning process, the Internet (17.8%) ranked just behind brides’ fiances (28.4%) and their mothers (21.3%) – one of the more interesting statistics from this wedding planning survey…

“It’s no surprise that wedding guidance and shopping are definitely the two areas of most interest for online brides,” says Kear. “However, the recent recession has made brides even more reliant on the Internet for assistance in these two areas. Brides are more budget conscious than ever, so they are planning more events and details themselves and need more guidance. They are also spending more time comparison shopping and browsing for bargains, and the Internet has become the default venue for comparing prices and vendors.”

If your website is old, tired and out of date you are missing this generation. They are on the internet all day and have been for years. They use it for work, they use it for entertainment and they use it to shop and research. They use it on their phone and on their iPads. They have seen the best that the web has to offer.

In light of these new statistics, it’s worth taking a look at your current web presence.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Prices on Your Website?

September 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It seems to be a question as old as the internet. Should wedding vendors put prices on their website?

My answer has always been yes for the simple reason that brides to be just wanted to know if you were in their price range. Today, that isn’t the only reason.

Take a look at this quote from Media Post:

According to the June 2010 UNICast What Women Want from the Web Report, 64% of women plan to use the Internet to find sales and compare prices whenever they plan to make a purchase, for small- and big-ticket items alike. In fact, women 18 to 24 are much more inclined to do this kind of comparison shopping research solely online.

“Plainly put, women are utilizing the Internet as a resource for simple and complex purchasing inquiries. They enjoy, arguably more so than men, educating themselves through the use of the Net,” says Emily Carroll, manager, Strategic Insights, Leapfrog Interactive. “They’re looking for more shortcuts to save time and money. In doing so, they’re searching more, browsing more, consuming more content, and seeking input from their trusted friends and confidants online.”

So, if that is the way women are shopping and using the net in thier day to day lives, they will expect to be able to do the same in thier wedding planning.

Look at it this way. When a woman first jumps into wedding planning, it is truely a different world. Take gowns, even bridesmaids dresses. For their entire lives they have gone into a store, tried things on in a variety of sizes and walked out with the one that fit best. Now, she most likely won’t be able to try on anything close to her size; she has to take the bridal salons word that alterations will make it fit, then she has to wait sometimes 3 months to see if they are right. Everything about shopping as they have known it is turned on its head.

If you can give them some familiar connection to the ways they are used to doing things, so much the better.

Before you start, I understand why things are this way, but she doesn’t. Which brings me to my second point. Education.

I read so many threads and talk to so many vendors that are bent because brides just don’t understand what a realistic budget for what they want is. $150 cake budgets, $500 for photography, $600 for the entire floral budget, $8.50 per person for the reception, the list goes on and on. Do you think it could be because no one tells them?

Flowers, all they know is how much they spend at Costco or Whole Foods to pick up a bouquet for their dinner party. They don’t understand containers or construction or the labor involved in prepping the flowers. Their only frame of reference is that dinner party bouquet. You have to tell them.

So many vendors keep their prices a deep dark secret, “It’s so important to be able to explain what all is included.” Oh hogwash! If you think the only way to do that is face to face you are either not comfortable with your prices or you really don’t understand the way today’s brides shop.

I used to advocate that you just put a ball park price on your site, but I have started to rethink that. Brides really do want to make realistic choices so why not give them the tools. Suppose, you added prices to some of the photos on your website. Something like, “This centerpiece was priced at $xxx. Your price may vary depending on the flowers chosen and the season.” “This cake was priced at $xx per serving. Prices may vary depending upon fillings.”

Yes, I understand that as creative talents that design something unique for each bride, no two wedding will ever be priced exactly the same. Just give them some jumping off point and add a disclaimer that prices listed are only an example of how your prices run.

I know, you don’t want your competetors to see your prices and then undercut you, right? Well guess what, brides are taking your bid across the street already, whether you know it or not. That is where selling them on your persoanl charm and service comes in. If they feel that they trust you more, a few pennies won’t make a difference.

Let me repeat what I said before: Anything you can do to make their wedding planning experience closer to the way they are used to doing things, the better. The more comfortable they are, the more likely they are to spend with you.


Filed Under: Back to Basics, What Brides Say Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Does Everyone Want to Be in Wedding Planning?

August 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

This was in my PR file this morning.

The Dessy Group Introduces Wedding Planning Tools Online.

Now why would a bridal fashion house take the leap into planning? Or, more correctly, to become a

“one-stop shopping” wedding site

I can think of two reasons why.

The big one, at least on the surface, is to keep brides on their site as long as possible. Any couple that decides to use the Dessy suite of planning tools has to do it through their website. Everytime they log on to use the tools or update their wedding website Dessy has the opportunity to expose them to their product line. That is pretty self evident.

The more important piece of this puzzle is that if it catches on, Dessy will now have access to a very deep level of information on its target market. I have a hard time imagining that a company as large as Dessy would have built this thing with out including a few algorithms to pick the data apart. When you spent as much of your marketing budget to build something like this what’s a little more to be able to fully mine the results.

I think that is the the key behind this project. Data.

Will it work? Good question. Wedding planning tools are a dime a dozen on the internet. These are going to have to be pretty spectacular to even get noticed. Had they done it 6 or 7 years ago, maybe.

On a personal aside, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the pitch meeting for this. I’m sure it was never mentioned that they would be taking on the Knot, Wedding Wire and Brides.com. Just sayin’

Filed Under: Blog, Website marketing Tagged With: ,

Warning! Check Before You Write a Check.

July 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

In light of the story coming out of Dallas and Boston today with regards to the biggest bridal show scam ever it seem that I need to reiterate some warnings.

According to information uncovered by Tanya Eiserer of the Dallas Morning News, this was much deeper than a single bridal show in Boston. This scam was run in cities around the country. Karen Tucker, the alleged perpetrator was also trying to bilk money by selling advertising in magazines that never existed.

This is one of the reasons why I have always told my clients to never invest in any advertising vehicle with out at least a one year track record. Never. In the past my reasoning was that these required a huge investment of time and commitment on the part of the producer/publisher and all too often they found in the end that they were not up to the challenge. The result being either a very poorly produced product or the failure to produce all together. Now it seems that rather than people with good intentions gone bad we are being preyed upon by people with only the worst intentions. Be careful out there my friends.

This advice from the Better Business Bureau is a good place to start:

When considering renting space at a trade show event, the BBB advises businesses to:

*Ensure that the event is legitimate. Check with the venue to find out if the event has been booked there. (Duh, isn’t that a no-brainer??)

*Consider paying for the event by credit card. If the services are not rendered as promised, you have recourse through your credit card provider.
*Remember that even though an offer may have a Web site and be on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you should still check out the business and the details of the offer before making any payment.
*Ask to see a booth rental contract before you make any financial commitments. Carefully review the terms and understand what you will be committing to and what recourse you have if the event is cancelled.

Besides that, be it bridal show, magazine or website; give them a year to get their feet wet and prove their worth before you give them any of your precious marketing dollars!

Filed Under: Announcement, Marketing, Rants & Raves Tagged With: , , ,

Search and Why You Need To Understand It

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I am not talking about search in terms of how to come up higher on Google; I’m talking about how to search.  It is fundamental in understanding how to get a desired outcome that you deeply understand how something works.

Every time I do a seminar and I get to the part about search I see all these amazed looks when I tell them the kind of search terms that bride use.  Our brides are very computer savvy. They learned long ago that a generic search brought up too much and quickly learned how to use the tools available to pare it down and bring up more relevant listings.

Brides don’t type in wedding gown; they type in something like lace ballgown with ruched bodice or satin wedding gown+pickups +sweetheart neckline my town. Likewise, they don’t use wedding venue in my townwhere to have a garden wedding for 200 people in My Town. they use

Here is a fun little video that explains it in plain English.

http://www.commoncraft.com/search

For a more technical and in-depth explanation, go straight to the source:Google

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861

Now, why is any of this important? Well, just like any hunter, it helps to know your prey. If you want brides to find your website in search, it helps to what they are looking for and how they do it.

Once you understand how they use search, you can do a better job of using the all important keywords in your website and blog. This is the most basic way to increase your organic search.

Google’s job in life (aside from total world domination.hehe) is to provide the most relevant search results possible. That is part of the reason that the algorithm keeps changing. SEO mavericks quickly learn new tricks on how to game the system. That’s why sticking with the basic policy of great, relevant content, frequently updated will always work.

Here’s my tip. Think about the product you sell and how your customers would describe it. (Note, not how you would describe it) Then use those words and phrases and any variations on them in your content as often as you can without it sounding funny.  Here is an example, I was maintaining a large site for a group of wedding vendors and a men’s formalwear store called to ask why her shop didn’t come up on the site when she searched “tuxedo”  I asked her if that word appeared in her copy? It didn’t because as she said, it is properly called formalwear. I knew that and of course she knew that but the brides don’t. Heck, even she searched for tuxedo! Google is only so smart. You have to use the words that your bride will use and not hope that Google will just understand.

OK, Christine, what word should I use? You already know the answer to that, it’s what your customers ask you for when they call or email. What the heck do they ask for, what word do they use?

The other thing that you need to remember is to put your location in your copy. You know that you serve the, oh let’s say, Orange County, CA area but unless that is spelled out, search won’t just understand because it is on your contact page. Pepper that phrase throughout your site and your blog.

  • XYZ is my favorite florist in Orange County
  • I can’t think of a prettier place to get married in Orange County
  • The next time you are in Orange County, stop by and check out…

See what I mean by including your keyword phrases in a way that doesn’t sound funny? The more you do this, the easier it gets.

Why is that important? Brides will search for vendors in their area. If you don’t use it, you may place high if brides search generically, but hit the bottom of the list when they add the My Town modifier. That put you in competition with the world, not just those in the area you serve. I don’t know about you but I would rather be one of 40 or 50 possible choices than 1 of 1,000,000.

Filed Under: What Brides Say Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Battle of The Behemoths

March 19, 2010 By 1 Comment

battle of the behemothsI don’t know about you, but I am constantly analyzing the best place for wedding professionals to place their advertising dollar. With the current economy, there have been few sign posts to guide most of us.

The newest development in the world of wedding marketing online brings an interesting new spin to the equation.

When Wedding Wire debuted I praised it as a site that I thought brides would like and find useful; but with new players entering the market on a daily basis it is hard to make solid predictions at the launch of a new site. To be honest, few of them have the brains and talent, unique concept and perhaps most importantly the deep pockets to make a serious play. Well, Wedding Wire had the brains, talent and concept in spades. When they added the clout of Martha Stewart Ominmedia as a partner they certainly picked up the exposure and perhaps the cash.

Now in a rather interesting play, they have added the considerable strength of eHarmony’s wedding assets to the network. Among those assets is the behemoth in it’s own right, Weddingbee.  Weddingbee is perhaps the most popular collective blog for brides. Not with out it’s detractors, even the concern over loss of traffic due to it’s sale to eHarmony has not stopped its growth.

So what happens when you bind players this large together in a collective advertising play? One heck of an opportunity in terms of exposure. I am willing to bet that darn near every bride in America is going to hit one of these sites at sometime or another. One ad buy, maximum exposure.

What does that do for the big daddy of them all, the knot. Good question. The real question is are they still the big daddy? That really depends on how you read the numbers.

You know for sure I will be exploring this in a more in depth my for my subscribers on the main Think Like A Bride site next month. I can’t wait to see how much more information, if any comes out between now and then.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, wedding marketing Tagged With: , ,
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