Wedding Marketing

I know what I know.

I know writing. I know blogging. I know editing. I know good marketing when I see it.

Ready for your easy-peasy blogging checklist? Click the image above to save your FREE webinar seat now!!

But there’s that old saying that goes a little something like “There’s what you know. Then there’s what you don’t know….then there’s what you don’t know you don’t know!”

And I bet, if you’re anything like me, the third category is where today’s blog post falls.

Because when it comes to free online tools to make your wedding business blogging easier, I bet you didn’t even know to look for them! Let alone that so many even exist.

That’s why I turn to my *super smart* Wedlock forum social media expert Mary Brown for cutting edge tools.

Right now, WedLock members are enjoying a neat forum activity that Mary has set up.

She’s gone out and researched some of the most interesting, easy to use and yes FUN online tools to enhance your blog. To not just make your blog easier to update, but to really make it sing.

She’s posted about ten to our forums, but here are just three:

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Today’s Social Media Forum Activity: FREE Tools to edit photos, create videos,

enhance presentations…Share!

Are you looking for ways to go viral with your messages, engage your fans, reach new audiences, and produce

A sneak peek into our Wedlock Forums...questions asked...and expertly answered!

creative and professional media!? Through the use of these tools, you can accomplish your New Year goals and

enhance your website, blog, and social media sites. Get started with these FREE easy-to-use tools:

Flickr / Picasa – Upload photos to Flickr (Yahoo product) or Picasa (Google product) and then easily organize and share your images. http://www.flickr.com/ http://picasa.google.com/

Picnik – Make your photos fabulous with this fun photo editing tool. http://www.picnik.com/

Photovisi – Create an online photo collage and then import your creative piece of work into your website, blog, or wiki. http://www.photovisi.com/

TwitPic – Post photos and videos to TwitPic and then share your media on Twitter. The four most recent photos uploaded to TwitPic will automatically appear on your Twitter profile. http://twitpic.com/

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Want more free tool recommendations? Try WedLock out right now and access our forums immediately!

Or – save your seat at the January 31 FREE blogging webinar, hosted by Jayne Hallock, Editor In Chief of WedLock. We’ll be reviewing all kinds of tips, tricks and topic ideas.

Register for this free webinar now!!

A Letter From the Editor of WedLock
* Part Two of A Two-Part Series*

A few weeks ago I blogged about how to make 2012 your Year of Fearless Asking.  After talking to folks about that post, I came to realize that a lot of what a lot of wedding pros are ‘scared’ of is…rejection!

Yes, at the end of the day, rejection is at the root of many of our business fears. Do any of these sound like you?

• “I don’t want to ask the bride for a great review…what if she says no!?”
• “I can’t ask another vendor to guest blog for me…what if they say no?”
• “I can’t ask my husband to watch the kids so I can attend a webinar or seminar…what if he says no?”

Take THAT, rejection!

To which I reply – yeah, so what IF?

What if they say no? What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll tell you one thing – whatever the worst outcome to any of the above scenarios is, the benefit of a possible YES greatly outweighs them.

So keep asking! Shove that reluctance aside and ask for what your business needs. Then watch the perks roll in.  Here are a few more ideas to get you going…

Wow, free webinars AND a chance to win an iPad2? Click the iPad above to save your seat at our blogging webinar right now!

Ask for Freebies:

A few weeks ago, while at a tradeshow, my smartphone was stolen. I was crushed and angry and, well, fearful of how much replacing it might cost me.

Then I thought…why not ask TMobile for a massive discount? I have been a loyal customer for almost ten years…surely they could help me out?

And help me out they did! One 10 minute phone call later, the Customer Appreciation department overnighted me a brand new (better!) smartphone for 25% of what they would normally charge. I saved hundreds of dollars…all because I thought to ask.

Keep this in mind next time you’re dealing with a big company. Don’t be afraid to ask for freebies or discounts that can help you keep your business costs down. The worst outcome is them saying no. The best? You saving cold hard cash!

Ask For Favors: Many times, you can easily trade something with another vendor. You can swap services, you can refer brides. You can scratch their back and they can scratch yours, so to speak.

But what if you have nothing to offer…but still need help? Ask anyway! I recently had a weekend business emergency and was panicked with how to juggle this urgent task while watching my four year old. It literally made me lose sleep. Then I thought – wait a minute, why wouldn’t I just ask Friend X if she can keep him for a few hours? I felt ‘guilty’ that I wasn’t able to watch her child any time soon in return, and so I had nothing to ‘barter’ with. But it turns out, she didn’t care and was so wonderful that she swooped over to my house and even picked him up and dropped him off.

This can happen with business associates too. If you need help setting up a booth or moving a piece of equipment, why not reach out to your wedding community? Clearly, you don’t want to abuse this, and you want to make it clear you can and will do the same for them in the future, but asking for a favor now and again can make the difference in your business. Or at the very least – in the level of STRESS you feel running your business!

*****

Now I’m going to ask something of  you.

And as much as it’s a favor to me…its also for YOU.

On January 31, I’ll be presenting a FREE two-hour blogging webinar.

How to do it better, easier, faster…and in more fun ways. And one of the things I’m going to cover is how to get other folks blogging FOR you. Yes, it’s called Guest Blogging and it’s one of the coolest ‘win wins’ in the industry.

So next time you’re short for blogging time or ideas, reach out and ask your fellow vendor if they want to guest blog for you. You win because you get free content on your blog. They win because they get increased exposure by getting in front of your readership. Everyone wins, all because you took the time to “make the ask!” Asking for what you need should be a regular part of your wedding marketing annual plan.

Try it! You’ll be surprised how much your business can grow in 2012…if only you’d ask!

Tell me, in the comments below, what YOU have trouble asking for.

Is it help? Time? Advice? Let the awesome WedLock community overcome those fears..!

And save your seat RIGHT NOW for our fabulous FREE January 31 blogging webinar!

The following is an excerpt from the upcoming two-hour free WedLock Blogging Webinar.

It’s on January 31st…we’re giving away a free iPad2 during it…and you really should save your seat now.

So...read any good blogs lately?

I often hear from wedding pros that they WANT to blog. They know it’s crucial to their business marketing plan…but they just can’t think of what to blog about.

Luckily there are many things you can blog about, if only you are prepared. Heck, I’ll prepare you with one right now!

There’s a topic that is not only easy to write about but one that your brides will LOVE to read about. It’s called The Real Wedding.

How many weddings do you work each year? Do you realize you can milk at least 3-4 blog posts from each wedding?

Simply, easily, and in a way that will make your brides love your blog so much they actually circulate it to their friends?!

In my January 31st webinar, I will go over a whole list of blogging thought-starters and tips. Two hours worth.

Here’s just one:

~   Most wedding pros have a ‘kit’ of some kind they take to every wedding. Whatever yours is, add to it a small notepad that’s JUST for your blogging purposes. It’s important this just be for blogging ideas and nothing but. (Because scrawling a note or two into your longer “To Do” list is a sure way to never read that note – or write that blog post.)

~   Next, during a quiet time at the reception when you’re chatting with guests and bridal party, ask them if they wouldn’t mind giving you a quote or two about what they thought about the wedding, the bride, the food, etc. Tell them you want to feature them in your blog. People love to have their name ‘in lights.’

~   Once they have raved about the wedding in general, move on to specifically ask them about YOUR particular part of the service. Most folks, once they are already in gush-mode, will think of something nice to say about your flowers, your catering, your DJ’ing, etc.

Extra Credit:  Try to get a quote from one or more of the parents of the wedding couple. Why is this extra important?  Because when you later blog about these people, you will have an even more engaging, emotional story to tell in your post.

Once it’s published, simply email a link to that blog post to your bride. Thank her again for allowing you to be a part of her special day and tell her you blogged about it. Explicitly ask her to Facebook about it and send it to her folks to read.

Chances are, the parents could be flattered enough to pass that link around to their friends. And, more importantly, to recommend you to those friends once their kids get engaged!

That’s just one tiny sample of the big blogging webinar that Wedlock will be putting on January 31st.

Save your seat here now, and you could enter to win a free iPad2!

A Letter From the Editor of WedLock
* Part One of A Two-Part Series*

My four-year-old son wouldn’t sit on Santa’s lap this year.  “No fanks,” said he.

(And can we blame him? Sitting on a round stranger’s lap, asking for freebies, is one of the more bizarre things we expect our children to do.)

So I get that he was nervous about the lap-sitting part. But do you know what part he had NO problem doing? The asking part.

When we finally found a Santa who had a chair set up next to him, Mr. “No Fanks” hopped right up and happily rattled off everything he wanted.

Watching this, it struck me that even the most bashful of kids clearly have no issue asking for what they want…so why do we? Because we do! As business owners, we really, really do have a problem with asking.

Whenever I speak in front of a group of wedding pros and talk about getting brides to post online reviews, I can see many of themvisibly cringing. Some even raise their hand and say “Can you help us with the wording of that? I always feel weird asking…”

But you can’t feel weird! Your business won’t survive. In order to make it in this economy, you have to become comfortable with marketing. With sales. With asking.

Yes, asking.

We say sales is hard for the wedding pro, and it is. But really all that is behind a fear of sales is a ‘fear of asking’.  You just can’t quite make yourself ask for what you really need. Like a signed contract, or a happy testimonial.

So I thought I’d do you guys a favor and pronounce 2012 as the Year of the Ask.  If you won’t giveyourself permission to ask for what you, and your business, need to succeed…then I’ll give it to you.  You hereby have full permission to ask for what your business needs.

Ask for Bridal Reviews: Your online reputation can make or break your business. You have heard this before from countless experts, and they are all absolutely correct. You must be online and you must have positive bridal reviews posted online.

So allow me to put some words in your mouth, if it helps you start this conversation. How about, the next time your bride is personally thanking you,you saying something like:

“That means so much to me! I loved working on your wedding and I’m glad it showed. While we’re talking about it,would you mind posting a review about my work online, even just a few words? Itshould only take you a few minutes and it really helps my business whenhappy brides write even a sentence or two about me on my Facebookwall/Yelp/WeddingWire/etc?”

Ask For Referrals:We’ve addressed this is in past issues of WedLock, but it bears repeating. In Issue 10, Andy Ebon wrote a fantastic column with tips on how to get on someone’s preferred vendor list. And our readers loved the article “Romancing the Venue” by the Westin Hotel’s Arik Cullen in Issue 12.

What’s the bottom line? Asking to be on someone’s preferred vendor list is an important marketing technique. It’s also an art. You have to do it right or it can backfire. So find ways to prove yourself to your fellow vendor. Gain their confidence.  Reassure them that you’re going to make them look good by recommending you. But ask. You have to ask.

Ask for Blog Help:  On January 31, I’ll be presenting a free two-hour blogging webinar. How to do it better, easier, faster…and in more fun ways. And one of the things I’m going to cover is how to get other folks blogging FOR you. Yes, it’s called Guest Blogging and it’s one of the coolest ‘win wins’ in the industry.

So next time you’re short for blogging time or ideas, reach out and ask your fellow vendor if they want to guest blog for you. You win because you get free content on your blog. They win because they get increased exposure by getting in front of your readership.  Everyone wins, all because you took the time to “make the ask!”

Ask For Time: Like the rest of the planet, wedding pros always are short on time. It doesn’t matter what I question I ask them. “Why aren’t you doing more with social media?” or “Why haven’t you posted your site for review on our expert forums?” Nine times out of ten, the answer is “I don’t have time.”

But I wonder if that’s true. Do you truly not have enough time to do these very crucial things for your business.  Or are you just spending it on things tha tyou really could turn down. I’ve blogged about this in more detail before, but the main thing is to ask for more time. Get more of your time back.

Log what you spend your workday doing. Just do this for a day or two. Then look it over and make some cuts. It’s easier than you think. Trust me when I tell you that your girlfriends won’t hate you for missing one brunch here and there.  Or maybe your husband can be the one to do the laundry Saturday morning instead of you.

Try it! You’ll be surprised how much your friends and family can help you free up time for important business tasks…if only you’d ask!

Tell me, in the comments below, what YOU have trouble asking for.

Is it help? Time? Advice? Let’s overcome those fears together!

Stay tuned for Part Two of The Year of Fearless Asking.

And save your seat RIGHT NOW for our fabulous FREE January 31 blogging webinar!

From time to time, I meet a wedding business expert who hits me with insightful, straightforward “why didn’t I think of that!?” advice.

Alan Berg, formerly of The Knot and now of AlanBerg.com is one such marketing expert. Today I want to share an eye-opening guest blog post from Alan.

Basically, he talks about how your success or failure lies in the palm of just one hand.

Did this year stress you out? What are you doing to fix that?

It’s not the potential bride’s hand.

It’s not the hand of Wall Street. It’s not your frustrating business partners’, or your short-sighted spouse’s.

Only one hand can guide your business’ growth (or demise). Only yours.

Here’s Alan:

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How was your year? Painful or Plentiful?

As we approach the end of 2011, how do you feel? Are you exhilarated over a great year? Or do you feel beat up and can’t wait for the year to end? I meet a lot of wedding pros every year as I travel around the country for presentations and training. What I find particularly interesting is that, in the same cities, I meet people whose businesses are thriving and those that are dying. It doesn’t seem to matter which segment of the market they’re targeting, there seem to be those that are finding a way to succeed while others are failing.

Why do you suppose that is?

The common thread appears to be a mindset. Some have the success mindset while others have the victim mindset. I’m not saying there aren’t real issues affecting businesses all over the country, of course there are. What I’m saying, and seeing, is that despite those challenges there are people who are finding a way to thrive.

When I was flying out to Wedding MBA I ran into a photo/video wedding pro on the plane. I’ve known him for years and he has a successful business. When I asked him how business was doing he said “Business is great… and that’s what scares me”.

I was puzzled at why his success would scare him and he added “I don’t exactly know why business is so good so I’m not sure that I can replicate it going forward”. My observation is that he’s been marketing his way through the recession, adjusting his pricing and services and being more aggressive while others around him are pulling back. He was adding to his advertising and marketing, not pulling back. He’s gaining market share by default. His competitors were literally giving him part of their market by not taking action, or worse, scaling back their marketing.

It’s a familiar story, not just in the wedding industry. Recessions are a time when some people forge ahead taking market share from those who are crawling into their shells to wait until it’s over. There are countless stories about businesses that started or expanded during economic downturns. It takes courage. It takes drive. It takes a strong stomach.

In my over 20 years in the wedding industry I’ve seen more than a few ups and downs. As a matter of fact shortly after I got into this business the economy tanked. Then it soared. Then it tanked again. All the while I was a commission-only salesperson. I had a family to feed and provide for, so every day I went out and found the opportunities. I couldn’t wait for them to come to me. If I didn’t make a sale, I didn’t get any commission.

I see too many people who are doing that today. They’re waiting for the opportunities to fall into their laps, rather than making them happen. To those people I recommend a great book “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson. Once you’ve read it you’ll understand this advice: Your cheese got moved. Get over it. Go find new and better cheese.

In my “Bridal Black Belt” presentation at Wedding MBA this year I related a quote from Lao Tzu. Most people know it as “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” but the more accurate translation is “A journey of thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet”.

Alan Berg: One on one with his Wedding Pro clients.

I like this version better as we always find ourselves right here, wherever here is. We can choose to stay here, go backwards or move forwards. It’s our choice. You shouldn’t be waiting for business to come back any more than you should be waiting for your investment portfolio to come back. It never comes back. It just moves from where it is today, up or down.

It’s the same with your business. It doesn’t come back, it just starts out every day wherever you are.

So, how’s 2012 shaping up for you? Do you have lots of weddings on the books already? Or, are you waiting for something to change, or someone else to do something? If you are, I suggest you take a look at the person in the mirror and tell them to get moving. 2012 is going to be as good or bad as you make it. It’s your choice.

I’m choosing to have my best year ever. How about you?

Two things you can do right NOW to help you succeed:

1.  Tune in to my webinar with Jayne from WedLock on Nov. 21st and attend our conference together Dec. 12-13th in Atlanta. Register here for the free webinar.

(And if you want to save your seat for the Dec 12-13 conference now – before we sell out after the webinar – then I suggest you save your seat and buy your ticket now.)

2.  Don’t live in or near Atlanta? Come to one of my conferences around the country. You can see the schedule at www.AlanBerg.com/speaking-events  or if you can’t wait, you can watch videos at www.AlanBerg.tv

I just returned from the incredible ABC annual conference in Baltimore, MD.

And so the notion of togetherness is fresh in my mind. There I met hundreds of fantastic wedding pros who’d flown in from all over the country to learn, to get certified, to find new ways to increase their wedding marketing acumen. (Speaking of which – hi there new Wedlock ABC members!)

There are just so many reasons it’s smart for wedding pros to network and come together, as often as they can.

So when Meghan Ely of OFD Consulting sent me the following story of wedding pros banding together yet again, I wanted to share it with my readership. There’s no real ‘lesson’ here unless you can call a reminder a lesson. Because I think this story below, told by Pete and Liliana Wright of PW Photography, is a fantastic reminder that you wedding pros can accomplish amazing feats when you come together.

In fact, you really can be downright heroic.

Here’s the story, as told by Pete Wright:

“This past September, I was sitting at my desk on a Thursday afternoon going through my normal afternoon routine of editing images, returning phone calls, etc. when our studio phone rang with an unexpected call.  On the other line was a planner asking if we were available to photograph a wedding THE NEXT DAY.

We are used to getting the occasional call from a last minute bride and then turning them down, thinking to ourselves “That’s going to be too much of a challenge!”   But this situation was a first for us, as this bride that really did have all of her ducks in a row, ready for the Big Day. But little did she know that she was still going to get the wedding of her dreams- just not the one she had expected.

As it turns out, her “Outer Banks” wedding had been planned to take place in the midst of hurricane season. This move tends to be like playing craps- you toss the dice and hope you don’t hit snake eyes. In this case, the bride unfortunately did, as Hurricane Irene was set to crash the nuptials and there was little Melissa and Jason could do about it.

Or so we all thought. But this couple wasn’t going down without a fight and they quickly decided to move their wedding 200 miles inland to Richmond. They also moved it up one day prior in an attempt to avoid Irene.

This move also meant that they had to start from scratch with booking all of their vendors. We were one of the first to be called, along with The Westin Richmond. We both quickly offered our services for free and then hopped on the phone, contacting our local wedding pro friends and colleagues to see if we could recruit others to lend a (last minute!) hand.

The fun part about all of this is that the Bride had already been interviewed nationally on “The Weather Channel,” so most of the vendors that we spoke with were already familiar with the story because they had been glued to the TV on “hurricane watch.”

Right away, we received enthusiastic “yes’s” from Choice Entertainment, Baker’s Kitchen, Carey Transportation, Classic Party Rentals of VA, Blue Steel Lighting Design and Vogue Flowers tossed in the bouquet and center pieces. Melissa was even able to line up the Trinity United Methodist Church where her parents had gotten married to host the ceremony.

At the end of the day, all of our fellow wedding pros stepped up and gave Melissa and Jason an amazing beach-themed wedding, no where near the ocean. Our collective goal had been to give the couple a beautiful and memorable affair, with the hope that their day was even better than the one they had originally planned. Based on the party that ensued at The Westin that evening, I’d say we succeeded.

Melissa and Jason’s wedding was the perfect example of the importance of team work in the wedding industry. It’s always nice to step back and look at how great things can be when a group of like minded vendors come together with the common goal of making the most important day of a young couples life the best one ever!”

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How about you? You ever swoop in and do a bit of bridal rescue? Don’t be shy – let us know in the comments below if you or another pro ever donned your red cape and lent a helping hand! This is the perfect place to inspire other pros to be a little heroic themselves.

Custom Illustration by Doug Dearth.

Photo Credit to PWPhotography.com

So, I’m not really complaining.

Instead let’s just call it…research.

I don’t exactly whine about juggling my work/family/everything else.  I “report from the front lines”.  And I do it for my WedLock readers.

I’m only half kidding. Like my readers, I lead an insanely hectic life and I often find myself teetering on the edge of burnout.  In my role as Editor In Chief, I don’t just teach wedding pros who are trying to run their own business without running themselves down…I am one!

This is one of the reasons I’m currently working up a presentation on time management. I’ve been asked to speak at a few upcoming wedding business events and I think this is a topic that wedding pros need help with. Badly.

Because how many of you reading this right now would give anything for just one more day in the week? One more hour in the day?! I know I would.  Unfortunately, I’m not a warlock, so summoning excess time from thin air ain’t happening.

But what I can do is help you find your own ways to eke more productivity out of the time you do have available to you. How to eke more calm sanity out of your busy life. Here are some incredibly easy but effective ways to feel like you’re running your life. And not the other way around. I’m listing them in no particular order.

Slay The Beast, One Poke At A Time: Quick – think of the biggest, grossest task you have looming over you. Taxes? Finalizing your wedding contracts? Chances are, one of the reasons you are putting this task off is because it’s a big time-consuming task.

So why tackle it all at once? Simply set aside 15 min a day where you tell yourself you will start chipping away at it. You’ll be surprised how much better you feel once it’s done, and how much easier it is to work on this task when you know it’s for only one 15 minute block.

Write It Out! I know, I know. You’re an egghead genius who can remember everything and keep it all straight in your head. But guess what? It takes mental energy to keep all that straight. Energy you could otherwise use to get these tasks DONE.

So every day, over coffee, pull out a notebook and write out what you’d like to get done that day. Don’t type it into your smartphone where you will ignore it later. Put pen to paper and write it out. First, list it all out.  The big tasks, the little tasks, all of it.

Then asterisk the ones that are the top 3 priorities. Start on those FIRST. That way, even if you run out of time, you’ll have knocked off the most important things first. Too often, we just do whatever is in front of us, versus what is most crucial. So no wonder we are stressed and guilty by the end of the day when “the clock runs out.” By being more intentional with your time, you’ll go to bed each night feeling a lot more in control.

Say No. Say It Often. When you think about it…how much of what keeps you busy every single day is actually avoidable? Will anyone in your book club really be upset if you bow out during wedding season?  Is there any way you can reschedule that non-essential coffee date with your vendor colleague?  You can make a little air in your schedule by just not saying YES to everything.

When You Can’t Say No… Then Yell Help! Are you delegating enough? If you have an assistant or an intern, is there anything you are doing this week that THEY could easily take off your plate?

The trick is to actually let them! I know it’s tempting to handwrite all your thank you notes, but are you sure that you can’t dictate the message once to your assistant? Then she can hand-write it out, and then you can scribble in just your name? That’s just one example of how, once you let go a little control, you can regain a lot of time.

How about you? Are you drowning or are you skilled at ‘eke’-ing? Share your time-saving tips or tricks to share with your wedding peers in the comments below!