Blog Titles are Key

Blogging is one of the most effective activities you can do when it comes to attracting leads for your wedding biz.

Don’t believe that?  Well here is how we have seen it result for us.  We have found that when we blog, we;

• attract targeted local brides and groom traffic.
• increase our website ranking and visibility.
• demonstrate our expertise.
• gain powerful networking with other wedding pros.
• pre-sell brides on our services… and so much more!

The problem is that writing a blog post.. or even a whole bunch of them, isn’t enough.  We should be reading stuff that brides actually read.

It’s All About the Title

How do you decide what to read when you are checking out a blog?

What I do is  surf around, skimming articles.  I am not really committed to anything, just sort of “checking things out”.  Asking myself, “What is worth my time” while I read the titles.

THE TITLE – This is the place where you either have my attention, or you don’t.  Come up with a good title and you are half way there.

I totally get stuck here sometimes.  Racking my brain for what to write next.  How do I put it into words that capture their attention without being to wordy?  Does that happen to you? Here is a technique I use when I struggle with writers block.

5 Title Strategies Techniques

1. – 7 Common/Disastrous/Deadly Mistakes Brides Make When {insert your topic here, like “picking their wedding flowers}

We all want to avoid making mistakes, especially when it comes to something as important as our wedding day.  Use the pain around “deadly mistakes” and the bride simply will HAVE to stop and read your article.

Examples:

• 7 Common Mistakes Brides Make When Choosing the Wedding Date
• 3 Disastrous Mistakes Bries Make After the Wedding
• 4 Disastrous MIstakes Brides Make that Ruin the Honeymoon

2.  5 Best Location for {Insert your topic} in {Your Area}

When in doubt, write about Locations.

One of the biggest challenges we hear about from brides has been choosing the perfect location.  Whether that be for photos, their ceremony or honeymoon, they all struggle with where is the best place for them.  Use your knowledge about venues you love to write a blog post they can’t resist, and that showcases your vibe.

SEO BONUS:  These titles are amazing when it comes to attracting local bride and groom search engine traffic.

Examples;

• 5 Best Intimate Wedding Venues in Austin
• 10 Best Lake View Locations on Lake Travis
• 3 Uncommon Wedding Location in Austin

3. – How to Get/Do/Have {Cool things Brides want} For Your Wedding

Admit it, we are all addicted to Pinterest, the pins that are by far the most popular, are the “How to” pins.  That is because we want to be inspired.  Brides crave wedding ideas and inspiration.  “How to” posts draw them i like a magnet.

Examples;

• How to Find the Perfect Wedding Dress for your Figure
• How to Plan a Beach Destination Wedding
• How to Use Color to Express Your Personality at the Wedding

4 – The Pros and Cons of {Insert topic} For Your Wedding

When making a decision, couples want to explore both sides of their choice.  This is especailly useful for couples in the planning stages.

Examples:

• The Pros and Cons of Planning Your Own Wedding
• The Pros and Cons of an Outdoor Ceremony
• The Pros and Cons of Delaying Your Honeymoon

5. – Planning a Wedding at the {Insert Venue in your area}

Yet another way to write a rockin’ local blog post title.  This title uses local keywords quite naturally, which means you will have local brides and grooms flocking to your site.

You can also use it as an easy way to network by promoting the best venues in your area.

Examples;

• Planning a Wedding at the Ritz
• 5 Reason to Plan a Wedding at the Driskill
• How to Plan an Outrageous Wedding at the Elks Club

Parting Tips

These tips are just the beginning.  A few more things to keep in mind are:

• Mix and match like I did in some of the samples titles.  Dive in and make them resonate your corporate voice.
• Come up with your compelling title before you write.  This way you can be sure your piece is going to knock their socks off.
• Send a quick email or Facebook message offering your potential titles to the couples you already booked to ask which they find most interesting, then write it.

No more writers block!!

If you would like more free info and strategies like this, join our Wedding Marketing Tips list here.

{Posh} Co Working Photo Shoot

Although I have been in the wedding industry for about 18 years, I can totally not claim that I am a photog, by any stretch of the imagination.  I did think it important to take some photos of the private offices, and the shared space to show all of you!  After all, our hard work to create this space deserves to be showcased.

Each room is decorated a bit differently, but the overall theme here at TWG’s Posh Bridal Lounge, is all things weddings!

When we started the build out, I knew I loved the vintage vibe that was so popular.  It just felt like home.  Cozy and unpretentious.  There was something to be said about the sleek feel of the ultra modern vibe here in Austin as well, so we decided “Why not mix the two?”

The sleek modern feel of the Ikea dinner tables and cabinets creates the foundation of durability and stability.  The “fluff” is added in vintage style to bring the theme together in each room.  Did you know that when you are member, you can decorate the space with your brand?  This way each room feels like it is “your office”.

Our open and airy common room, affectionatly called “The Lounge” is a great place to pop in for the day and get some work done.  No kids, or distractions, just great coffee, networking and a relaxed inspirational space.

Grab some lunch and come over for a tour!  Your first day if FREE when you do!

Coffee, Tea and Water are always free.  We also try to keep an assortment of healthy and unhealthy snacks on hand just in case you have a sugar crash when you are here, and need a pick me up!

Stop by soon and check us out!

7 Steps to Better Email Deliverability

How often do you open your mailbox, grab the pile of unsolicited mail and throw it in the trash? Probably a million times. How often do you pause to think you might have unintentionally thrown out non-spam? Probably a lot fewer times. Get ready for the same type of experience online.

The last place you want to see your emails is in the spam folder. Yet with the further sophistication and higher demands of Internet Service Providers, the probability of this happening is high. That is why deliver-ability becomes a critical element of a successful email marketing campaign. To help you tackle this issue, we put together some best practices for increasing email deliverability:

1. Check Your Email for Spam-Triggering Words

Make sure your subject line and body of email don’t include any keywords that can trigger spam alerts. Some Email Service Providers (Email Service Provider ;ESPs) help you identify these phrases with features such as Content Detective, SpamAssassin and ContentChecker. But the most universal piece of advice you can adopt to avoid spam-triggering words is to keep your emails out of the box. Be bold and think outside the frame of what other companies are using.

2. Suppress Against Hard Bounces

Are you keeping track of the percentage of hard bounces you get? You need to be. If that number is rising, bring it up with your ESP. Since hard bounced can really hurt your reputation, you will have to clean your list regularly. Make sure you suppress against them if that is not already something your ESP is doing on the back end.

3. Increase Engagement Levels

Mail clients have started tying the engagement levels of your email subscribers to your reputation as a sender. In response to this, you will need to keep your recipients highly engaged in order to appear reputable in the eyes of Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, etc. Do your recipients click on emails or do they delete them? Do they mark them as spam? What action do they take? Make sure your subscribers don’t get what they don’t want.

4. Set Expectations in the Welcome Email

Greet the newcomers when they sign up for your newsletter or other types of email communication. In the welcome email, set some expectations explaining why that person is receiving your messages, how often they are going to be sent out and from whom exactly. These details will help you build a relationship that goes a long way. When you sign up for GroupOn, for instance, you expect to be receiving daily emails and look forward to them. Follow GroupOn’s example and make your subscribers look forward to your emails.

5. Don’t Forget Branding

Branding is vital to how emails are being read and how recipients understand them. It helps people make the connection and say, “This is the real thing, not just a third-party email.” Include your logo in your email communication and make it clear this really is your company. Also consider including your company name in the subject line of your emails.

6. Use a Preference Center

If a recipient wants to update her email address, does she have an easy way to do that? Provide her with a preference center, in which she can make that selection and tell you what the best email is to be contacted at. Give people the option to mark how frequently they want to receive emails from you and share their favorite topics. Such a feature will show you care for your subscribers and respect their preferences.

7. Track Your Complaint Feedback Loop

You are probably tracking hard bounces and soft bounces. But do you know how many people clicked on the “This Is Spam” button? First, look into that and understand how many of these complaints you are getting. If the number is significant, you will have to take action. Remove the subscribers who have complained and stop torturing these poor souls. Also consider putting the unsubscribe button at the top of the email instead of at the bottom. (Unsubscribing is better for your reputation than having your email reported as spam.)

These best practices will help you monitor your deliverability and improve it overtime. Don’t be the piece of mail that got stuck in the spam pile and unintentionally got thrown out. Stand out.  Read more on email marketing tips.

If you’d like to get more free information and strategies like this, joun our email list here.

Anatomy of an Effective Marketing Email

Email marketing can be a very powerful lever for lead generation within your arsenal of inbound marketing tools.  While I htink most of us can agree that email is still alvie and thriving, there are still many marketers that struggle to leverage it effectively for leads.  So, why not break it down for you?

In this post I will carefully dissect the anatomy of an effective, optimized marketing email.

1.  A Clear, Concise, and Attention-Grabbing Subject Line

Before your email subscribers even read your email, the first thing they will see is the subject line.  You email is sitting in your prospects inbox’s alongside a ton of other emails, many of which will be from other vendors just like you. This is why it is so important that you make it stand out with clear, eye-catching subject line.  Keep it brief, but use your space wisely, and try to describe the offer you are giving them within the email as clearly and consciously as possible.  Avoid trigger words that can easily land you in the SPAM box.

2.  A Real, Live Human

In communication between real people, the “From” address is someone’s name.  Experiment with how you customize your email’s sender name, and consider making ti come from a real person to make your messages more personal.  Test to determine which format of your sender name contributes to the best open rate.

3.  Obvious Branding

There shouldn’t be any question to your subscribers about where your email is coming from. Create and utilize an email template with consisting branding elements. Include your logo! Use your company’s branding colors. Omitting branding elements suggests a lack of professionalism and security.  You want them to trust you, or they will not buy what you are selling.

4.  Personalization

While research shows that one third of marketers believe that personalized marketing campaigns are highly effective, the majority of marketers aren’t including any personalization elements in their campaigns. Email marketing (especially lead nurturing) offers a great opportunity to leverage the power of personalization. You can use data about your database to segment them into groups and send them more personalized content offers based on their behavior and wants/needs. At the very least, use your data to personalize the greeting in your email. Furthermore, as we mentioned earlier, make your email come from a real person within your organization. Consider including their picture and signing off the email with their nickname.

5.  Offer Context

Before you give your email recipients the opportunity to access your offer, set the stage for why what you’re offering is valuable to them. Keep it brief, use compelling language, and consider incorporating statistics to emphasize importance. Add a link or two for your offer within this section, too.

6.  Obvious Focused Call to Action (CTA)

Include a prominent CTA for your offer. Make your CTA’s text specific about what action the reader must take to receive the offer  and create a sense of urgency (e.g. “Now,” “Today,” etc.). Avoid vague language like “Submit,” and try to tie the CTA to the offer itself (e.g. for a live webinar, you must say “Register For the Webinar Now” or “Reserve Your Seat Today”).

7. Explanation/Value of Offer:

Clearly highlight what email recipients will get out of downloading your ebook or registering for your mailing list. Use bullet points to break up the text and emphasize key takeaways. Demonstrate the value of the offer.

8. Social Sharing Buttons/Links

Include social sharing links on every email you send to further expand the reach of your email content. If readers find the content within your email valuable and feel compelled to share it with their social media connections, now they can easily do so! This will help you reach a wider range of potential leads with very little effort.

9. Image

Break up text with a professional-looking image. Try matching this image with the content of your offer. So, if you’re offering an ebook, include a picture of the cover page.

10. Additional Product-Based Offer

Maybe some of your email subscribers are ready for a more product-focused offer like a personal consultation. Use the real estate in your P.S. as an opportunity to tie your main content offer to a more middle-of-the funnel offer.

11. Social Media Follow Buttons/Links

Grow your social media reach by giving recipients opportunities to subscribe to your updates in social media, too. Add social media follow buttons to encourage subscribers to follow you on Twitter, ‘Like’ your Facebook page, subscribe to your YouTube channel, or follow your company updates on LinkedIn.

12. Link to Privacy Policy

As the web evolved into an even more social and public platform, concerns about privacy continue to get raised. Give your email subscribers peace of mind and a sense of security by including a link to your company’s privacy policy.

13. Unsubscribe Link

ALWAYS include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email marketing messages. Neglecting to do so will put you in violation of CAN-SPAM regulations, cost you quite a bit of your valuable marketing budget, and severely damage your company’s credibility.

Facebook Timeline Provides a 46% Lift in Brand Page Engagement {Study}

If you are a marketer wondering if migrating your brand to Facebook Timeline was worth the effort, heres some encouraging date:  A researcher reports that brands are getting an average 46% more engagement with Timeline.

The researcher, Simply Measured, drew its results from an admittedly small sample: just 15 Facebook brand pages.  Doing so may have created a false sense of lift, especially since the greatest beneficiaries, Livestrong and Toyota, saw their engagement rates jump 161% and 156%, respectively.  (The full list of brands appears below)

Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured, says the average, however, is weighted so that the engagement per post is taken into account.  “These are just preliminary results,” he says.  Simply Measured looked at early adopters and compared their Pages’ engagement from Jan1 to Feb. 29 and then from Feb. 29 (the day Facebook allowed Timeline Brand Pages) until March 26 and compared results.  (If the brand launched its Timeline Page after Feb. 29, then Simply Measured started from that date.)  The findings are as follows;

A deeper dive into the data reveals that responses to status updates actually fell with Timeline, but engagement with videos and photos were up a composite 65%.  Shoenfeld’s theory is that the larger images on Timeline are leading to more engagement with visual material.  That will prompt marketers to post more videos and photos.  “We’re wondering if this is because of Pinterest,” he says.

Facebook reported that a week after introducing Timeline, some 8 million brands – roughly one-fourth of the brands on Facebook — had upgraded to the new design.  Those that didn’t will be ported over to Timeline on March 30.

Is your Facebook page making sales for you?