This data is found from a nation-wide survey that sampled both wedding businesses and couples, across various ethnicities, income levels, and ages, regardless of first, second, or third plus marriages. Since this survey included great diversity, we want to know what your thoughts are about these numbers in comparison to local vendors. Help us figure out the state of the current, local wedding market by answering these questions:

• How did your business report compare to these findings?
• What are your thoughts on the reported decrease in spending?
• How do changes in price of production influence these numbers?
• What measures will you be taking to adapt to the current market?

The best answer is to first define your target market and then take a hard look at your current marketing plan.  If you advertise in every publication, not only are you spending a fortune, but you will also find yourself fielding calls from brides not wanting the level of services you offer.  So now you are spending money to waste your time. Suppose you offer a very good, basic video with fast turn around, why waste your time and money targeting brides who are  looking for the next Spielberg?   Conversely, if you are the next Spielberg, how many times do you want to answer the question “What is your least expensive package?”  If your advertising plan is targeting every bride out there, then you are taking a shotgun approach to a problem that requires a laser beam.  Targeting your market can help reduce this dilemma.

One of the best things you can do is pull last years records.  Take a fine tooth comb and really explore what weddings fit best into your niche.  Are you finding you have more success in booking brides with large guest lists or with smaller less traditional affairs?   Do your brides tend to have a high or low per person cost?  Don’t just look at the overall budgets.  We all know that a $20K wedding for 50 is not the same as a $20K for 200.  Are the brides you have booked choosing cutting edge or more traditional?  Take a hard look at the brides who are choosing you and find out why.  It is not out of the question to ask them.   Listen to their feedback, it might surprise you.  Once you have taken the time to figure out who is booking you, you can decide whom you want to book.

Who do you want to target?  Which brides do you work best with? Are you volume oriented or are you better suited to fewer but better?  Where does your pricing fit in relation to the competition in your market?   What is your niche?

Owning your own business should be about more than just the bottom line.
If you aren’t getting any personal satisfaction out of what you’re doing, it may be time for a new plan.  Think about where you get your ‘buzz’,   That feeling of  “Yeah, man, I love my job.”   When you look over last years records, take the buzz factor into account.  Where did those brides come from?

Hopefully you are beginning to see the difference that defining your target market can make.  Once you know exactly whom you want for customers, the next step is to craft your marketing to your target.

Hope this helps!

Here’s to your success

B

• What Brides think about Bridal Shows

The bride says:

Wedding Vendors were too aggressive.  “It was just awful!  All these people coming at me and and bombarding me with information.  It was just overwhelming.”

B’s Takeaway:

Brides desperately need to be helped, not sold.  Ask her questions that help her uncover what she wants, because she probably doesn’t know yet, instead of telling her about you and your services.  Otherwise, you’ll drive her away.

Be the oasis in the center of crazy at a bridal show by NOT rushing her and NOT forcing your materials on her.

If you want to REALLY win her over, give her advice and help that has nothing to do with your services.  It will earn her trust and bring her back, even if she isn’t ready to book right now.

• Be a real person and not a company to attract more brides.

The bride says:

“It seemed like everyone at the bridal show was a big company.  I just wanted to work with real people, not a big corporation.”

B’s  Takeaway:

Be real, personal and genuine at a bridal show.  There is a temptation to portray yourself like a big company because it makes you seem more important or credible.

If you’re a one or two person operation, don’t hide it!  This is actually a strength.And if you ARE a bigger company, train your sales reps to deliver a personalized experience.

• What Brides Remember about their vendors

• Brides remember the things that went wrong…even when they don’t complain about it to you.

The bride says:

“Our DJ wasn’t very good.  He played okay music and everything, but he gave a bad impression, and our guests noticed.  Some of my friends came up and said, ‘Is your DJ hitting on the bartender?  He came up to us at the end of the night with dip tucked into his cheek.  Disgusting!”

Vendor Takeaway:

Stay professional on the wedding day.  Don’t drink, try to pick up the staff or get caught chomping on a pastrami sandwich.  She might not say anything about it that night because she’s too busy being a bride, but she IS paying attention.

• Couples don’t always tell you what they REALLY think.  

The bride says:

“At the end of the night, the DJ came up and asked if he could use us as a reference.  Of course, I said, yes.  What was I going to do, tell him NO to his face?  If someone did call me for a reference, though, I’d recommend that they NOT hire him.”

Vendor Takeaway:

When you ask a bride or groom for their opinion of your work, your website or your services, 95% of people are going to say something nice.  They don’t want conflict and they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

If you want to know the truth, you have to look at your results.  Are you booking the weddings you want?  Are you getting the price you want?

If you aren’t getting the results you want, you need to change, no matter what your clients tell you, because the evidence doesn’t lie.
Have you ever been the fly on the wall listening in to the conversations of brides and grooms?  What did you learn?

The tips

1. Design your booth early and do a trial run.

You need to know what is going to be in your booth and what distinctive features it will have so you can use that information to design all the other bits that go with a successful show. Consider traffic flow and the surrounding vendors in your plan.

2. Use a distinctive feature from your booth design in your sales collateral.

Put something memorable in your booth and then have that same thing on your printed material and your after show email layout.  A great example is for a bridal salon to use a very hot, unique gown in the very front of the booth, say red for example. It may not be the gown you sell the most of, just something that will stick in bride’s memories. Then when they see that same gown on your sale material they will remember you. Your unique design feature can be an unusual cake, or centerpiece, or a remarkable print; anything that stands out.

 3. Create good signage. Just setting your business cards out is not enough.

Your sign has to be large and distinctive. If your show allows it, consider paying to have yours hung from the ceiling of the convention hall. Be sure to tie that image into your sales material too.

 4. Most show promoters do a good deal of pre-show publicity across a range of media.

Get with the show promoter about getting a spot on their TV exposure or writing an article for their website, blog or any print outlets that are covering the show in the weeks running up to it.

 5. Do your own pre-show publicity.

Send out a press release if you are doing anything noteworthy at the show like participating the fashion show, giving show day discounts, or showcasing a new product or service.   Talk about it in your social media outlets like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and your blog. Send out a pre-show email blast and/or postcard inviting bride specifically to your booth.

6.  Catalogue what the crowd is doing and do something different.

If all the sugar artists in your area fill their booth with 3 or 4 full size cakes make one larger than life dummy and than a wall of centerpiece size cakes that are all different. Get some vertical shelving  and fill the shelves with different thing that you do: cookies, small cakes, examples of sugar flowers and put something amazing on that top shelf that will be seen above the crowd.

Are all the florists doing a major statement piece arrangement in the center of their booth? Do a variety of smaller, more realistic ones. A client of mine gets a corner booth and takes down the outside wall. On that point she puts a 7 foot tall wrought iron tree hung with bouquets and boutonnières. Smaller arrangements and tabletop décor line the back wall, again going vertical with stands. They are grouped to go with the various bouquet styles. Trust me, that tree draws a lot of attention. Brides first see it as a whole and then start discovering all the parts that make it up. If a bride zeros in a particular bouquet, she can show her ideas for centerpieces that go with it.

7.  Use unique follow up ideas If you are looking for follow up ideas, send in an accomplice to sign up.

Seriously.  The only way to know what kind of follow up your competition is doing is to get on their list. Find an employee or friend or daughter of a friend and have them sign up for services in your category. Use an email address that can be forwarded to you. Once you know what they are doing,  do something different.

Some of you may think this all sound a little shady. If I were telling you to go steal their ideas I would agree with you; but I’m not. I’m telling you to do this kind of research so you can zig when they zag. Marketing is about making you stand out from the herd. If you are doing the exact same thing as everyone else you are just going to blend in. Be outrageous, be flamboyant, be uniquely, marvelously YOU!

If you would like to get more valuable tips like these to assist you with your wedding marketing, please sign up for our free newsletter here.

Cheers to your success!

If you have ever worked one of the major wedding shows you have seen the look: that deer in the headlights look on the brides face. You just know that the one thing running thru her head is “ELOPE NOW”. They come to the show full of hope and excitement and by the time they are half way through they are overwhelmed by the task they have in front of them. The options at their feet boggle the mind. “Do I really have to have a custom aisle runner for my wedding to be complete?”  If you think about it that is the kind of message a lot of wedding vendors send. That is the old way of marketing for weddings.

Today’s bride is very savvy to the hard sell. They are at the show to gather information not have it crammed down their throats. Today’s bride is more thoughtful and less emotion driven in her wedding purchases. You will not get her by trying to convince her that today is the last chance she will have to order the only tulle draped crystal encrusted golden scepter guaranteed to make her wedding the envy of all her friends. They just aren’t buying that anymore. They are planning and choosing in a manner that pleases their dreams, not what the magazines or you tell them they must have.

How can you reach them? With patience and calm gentle help. I know that as a general rule I tell you to be up and excited when you work a show and I still stand behind that. This is another opportunity. When you encounter one of these dazed zombies take them under your wing, be their guide so to speak. Take a “Now honey, it’s not as bad as you think; with a little help it can all be accomplished easily” attitude. Be the expert that will thoughtfully listen to their wants and concerns and find them helpful, personal solutions. Offer to set up an appointment to talk with them in more detail as they move forward in the process, personally write your email address on your card with a “You can reach me here anytime.” Let them know that you can see just how overwhelming the show is for them and you will be available for them when they need you. Empathize with their current state.

It goes back to the hospitality theme, turn off the hard sell and turn on the caring and compassion. They will love you. What’s more they will tell all their friends about the lifesaver they found at the show. Hey, you can’t buy that kind of word of mouth.

Want to know more about building relationships with brides?  Join our mailing list and get informed

Everyone remembers a good advertising slogan and while you aren’t using a slogan in your email subject line, it is the main thing that will cause a bride to open your email. Once she has made the decision that she is interested in your subject she expects the content to be high quality, branded (add your logo!), and interesting. Make sure that you content is as well written as an article, and if it is longer use at least one picture to add visual interest. How well are your emails work for you?

In this post I will carefully dissect the anatomy of an effective, optimized marketing email.   Let’s take a look at the must haves.

1.  A Clear and Attention-Grabbing Subject Line

Before your email subscribers even read your email, the first thing they’ll see if the email’s subject line. Likely, your email is sitting in your prospects’ inboxes alongside many other emails, many of which will be from other vendors. The pressure is on for you to make it stand out with a clear, eye-catching subject line. Keep it brief, and use your space wisely. Try to describe the offer you’re giving them within the email as clearly and concisely as possible. Avoid trigger words that can easily land you in senders’ SPAM box.

2.  Be a Real Live Human Sender

When you send a personal email to someone you have a current relationship with, the “From” address is someone’s name,. Experiment with how you customize your email’s sender name, and consider making it come from a real, living, breathing member of your marketing team to make your email messages more personal. Try a test to determine which format of your sender name contributes to the best open rate (e.g. First Name Last Name vs. First Name Last Name, Company Name vs. Company Name).

3.  Be Obvious with your Branding

Your subscribers should immediately know where your email is coming from.  Create and use 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 your reader to immediately recognize your email, and trust it’s content.

4. Personalization

Current research shows that one third of marketers believe that personalized marketing campaigns are highly effective.  Yet most of you aren’t including any personalization elements in your 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.  Set the Stage by offering 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. Create an Obvious 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 free wedding planning timeline, you must say “Download The Timeline Now” or “Get the Timeline Today”).

7. Explain the Offer Clearly

Clearly highlight what email recipients will get out of downloading offer or registering for more info. Use bullet points to break up the text and emphasize key takeaways. Demonstrate the value of the offer.  For example,  “This timeline will keep you focused on the necessary steps to take for flawless wedding planning”

8.  Social Sharing Buttons

Include social sharing links on every email you send. 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. Using Images to Capture Attention

Break up text with a professional-looking image. Try matching this image with the content of your offer. So, if you’re offering a timeline, include a picture of the cover page. If you’re offering a special offer for a service, include a photo of a Bride enjoying that service.  This will prompt the prospect to envision themselves doing what the photo demonstrates, and compel them to click on the offer.

10.  Social Media Follow Buttons

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.

11.  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.  Trust is the number one deciding factor for your prospects, giving them the reassurance they need that you will not share their private information is valuable and can set them at ease.

12. Alway give them a out

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.

If you would like to get more valuable tips like these to assist you with your wedding marketing, please sign up for our free newsletter here.

Be sure to let me know if there is anything at all I can help you with.

Cheers!  To your success

So where to begin? Well without any knowledge on Facebook pages, my options were pretty limited. It looked like Google was going to be my new best friend for today. Well, three days later let’s just say Google and I had spent entirely too much time together. And I still was an HTML Dummy.

Google must have been feeling pretty guilty for being completely worthless because all of the sudden, the perfect page appeared! Dun dun dun PAGEMODO to the rescue!  A website that allows users to create their very own specialized welcome page without HTML? No way! Yes way, from that point on I was smooth sailing. Now my biggest decision was choosing my color scheme. My oh my, how things had changed.

In just three days I had gone from the Facebook Newbie to the Welcome Page Pro. Oh the feeling of satisfaction….

Challenge: Complete.

The #1 mistake wedding vendors make in their businesses is believing that being excellent at what they do is enough to succeed.

It’s not enough to be the best at what you do. It’s not enough that you have your certification and can deliver cutting edge, top notch service.  Being the best doesn’t book weddings.

Let me give you an example…

Let’s say you have the recipe for the world’s most delicious Haggis. It’s 100% organic, contains no chemicals or preservatives, and tastes like an edible orgasm. Everyone who tries one eats at least two, and they never look at Haggis the same way again.

The response is so good that you decide to sell your Haggis out of your house. You hang a sign, “World’s Best Haggis” over your door and wait for the crowd to show up.

And wait…..

But you have the best Haggis in the world! Why aren’t people buying it?  Whine.

You may indeed have the most delectable recipe in the world, but if no one knows about it, you won’t sell a single plate.

You can’t rely on your skill as a wedding professional to book the weddings for you. You need to be equally skilled at marketing and sales if you want to succeed.

Most wedding vendors study their craft: planning, photography, video, floristry, entertainment, invitations, etc. Then they hang a sign over their door step and wait for the business to arrive.

When it doesn’t come, they complain about the economy, the media and uneducated brides who just don’t know a good thing when they see it.

Nothing happens in business until someone buys.

If you don’t know how to communicate a clear, compelling message in your marketing and compel those leads to buy, you won’t be in business for long.

To quote Michael Ellsberg in The Education of Millionaires:

“…success has it’s own skill. There’s the skill of the craft. Then there’s the skill of success…it takes about the same amount of effort to learn the skill of success as it does to learn the skill of the craft itself.”

You NEED to learn how to market and sell your services. Period. Otherwise, you will never reach the level of success you want in business.

You must become a student of marketing and sales if you want to have a successful business, and place just as much emphasis on learning those skills as you do in perfecting what you do.

The only way around it is to pay someone else to market and sell your business for you. Yeah, it’s expensive. Sales is the highest paid profession in the world.  The good news is that your competitors are horrible at marketing and sales, too. Even learning A LITTLE will put you light years ahead of them.

What have you done to build your marketing and sales skills lately?  If you’re not learning, you’re losing. Are you going to complain about the fact that you don’t have any leads, or are you going to do something about it?

If you’d like to get more free information and strategies like this join our wedding business tips email list here.

1. Run a Facebook Ads Campaign

The only way way you are going to see financial return from your Facebook page is by getting traffic to visit your page and “Like” it.  The easiest way to do that is to run a Facebook ads campaign.  Always remember to split test your ad for maximum results.

2.  Get a Shopping Cart

If you sell products, like a video or photo prints, then adding a shopping cart app to your Facebook page is a great way to sell directly off of the platform.  There are a number of free apps to chose from, but i you want something really special and completely branded to match your companies vibe, have one custom created.

3.  Create a competition App

People love competitions, and they go viral on Facebook faster than cat videos!  Hire an app development company to create a competition app for you, and drive traffic to that app.  It will get you more likes, more traffic and will sell more of your products and services.

4. Create a Social Game

You have heard it before… playing games at work is something you just do not want to encourage!  Or do you?  Small businesses still underestimate the power of an addictive social game.  Get one created and branded, and it means huge exposure for your business.  If it catches on, you are looking at hundreds of thousands of people on your page.  How’s that for exposure?

5. Build an Email List

We get them all the time from the print advertisers we pay every month.  Now that we can message your fans on Facebook, why would you not tap that resouce and build a list that is ideal for future marketing tactics.  Simply us a static HTML app and integrate it with Mailchimp.

6. Create a Video Series

If you are selling products or services the best way to attract immediate attention is to launch a video series, promoting them.  video is the second most interactive feature you can have on your page (aside from apps) so use them as much as possible!

7.  Monetize your Videos

Once you have created video and they are running of Facebook, it will send traffic to your Youtube pages.  This means higher conversions for your display ads, more clicks on your Google Adsense ads and higher search engine results overall.  Kaching $

8.  Blog Roll on Facebook

We all have blogs right? If you don’t then that is a whole other topic, but for those of us that do, why not monetize it?  You can use Facebook to attract new readers (and buyers) by integrating your blog roll on your page.  All you have to do is find a FREE app that allows you to pop your RSS Feed on there, and boom it’s done.

9.  Fan Rewards

Have you heard about affiliate marketing?  The idea behind it is when you convert your fans into word of mouth promoters, even sellers.  Offer them rewards to promote for you.  give them Free stuff or help with something special.  The more they help you, the more money you will make in the long run.

10. Podcast

The most vastly understated markeitng tool is the humble podcast.  They are easy to make, and easy to use as an attraction marketing tool on your Facebook page.  Schedule and informative podcast once a month, and you’ll grow your page large enough to see profit.

Use these tips and you will see the money start to roll in.

It all sounds really great, but I have no time to do them you say?  Let us help with our Social Media Resources.

One thing is clear, Facebook is trying to steer people and brands towards greater interaction and social connectivity. Predictably, Facebook is placing more power in the hands of the user, which will make it more difficult for businesses to gain fans without spending money. Let’s take a closer look at how you, as a marketer, will be affected.

Open Graph in Basic English

What the heck is Open Graph? Open Graph is really Facebook’s attempt to extend the social connectivity and interaction of its users across the entire internet. In other words this is Facebook trying to create its own search engine without actually doing it. Open Graph was launched last year, but the new changes – well they’re pretty extensive. Open Graph links with other websites on the internet. When you interact there, Facebook publishes your activity in your news ticker.

This is a bold move by Facebook – a sort of response to the Google+ hostile takeover. Now, when you interact on third party websites – you’ll be able to see which of your friends liked the particular song, book or sports event on that page. Without being on Facebook. It’s a running Facebook profile available on other people’s websites. We’re talking about a personalized web experience here.

The change is extremely profound, but there are mixed reactions coming from the marketing community. One side of the coin has us yelling: great! More reach for Facebook fans on our own pages means more brand visibility. Closer communities and greater interaction – and its all automated! On the other side of the coin – it all belongs to Facebook. Facebook is muscling in on your website ownership. They’re claiming parts of your website for their own personal use. Red flag moment!

News Feed and New Ticker

I’ve already explained that the news ticker isn’t just going to be there for Facebook based interactions with your friends. It will incorporate outside interaction as well. What’s even more amazing, is that you’ll be able to click on a friends outside interaction, and do that same activity – direct from Facebook.

It’s so revolutionary that you can almost see the Facebook team snickering at Google from behind their office desks.  I am actually  impressed, and as a marketer, this is going to open up an entirely new chapter in interactive-marketing for you. I would suggest you get prepared!

My predictions – The news ticker and feed just made social management more important than any other form of marketing in the world. The leaps that Facebook is taking to customize the online experience, can only improve sales for marketers that learn how to use interaction properly. It might be easier to get content into your fans tickers, but the pay-off for top story posts will be that much greater.

You’ll have to be smarter, more creative and write content that blows away your competition if you want to make an impact. Remember, you’re not only competing with other businesses now, you’re competing with friends and family. Targeting is crucial, social content is pivotal and accurate strategy and maintenance is a priority for brands that want to earn money from Facebook.

Timeline and Sponsored Stories

Everyone on Facebook will have a timeline, or a page that essentially sums up your life or who you are in one neat profile. This will be the central part of Facebook for many fans.

That’s why for brands to make it into a profile timeline, they will have to find ways to become truly meaningful to their fan base. Marketers will be working extra hard to make an experience with their brand timeline-worthy. It’s excellent exposure and ideal brand promotion space.

Sponsored stories have a bunch of new interactive features, which will be great for customer feedback and attracting customers to your page. As a marketer on Facebook, you’re looking at a lot of change coming your way very soon.  Check back often.  I promise to  keep posting about the changes, and how they impact your life and your business!