How to Use StumbleUpon to Get Free Bride Traffic

Black and white on the beach with heart in the sand - Photo by Lori O'Toole

Everyone’s obsessed with the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Linked In.

But these guys aren’t the only social media kids on the block. Enter STUMBLEUPON.

In case you haven’t tried it out, StumbleUpon is a highly addictive way to randomly discover articles, websites and videos about topics you’re interested in, and share favorites with your friends. It’s kind of like spinning the Wheel of Fortune and watching where the needle lands, allowing you to “stumble upon” into some delightful…or disturbing…cyber lands you never would have found otherwise.

This article from Portent Interactive describes how to use Stumble Upon to get loads of free traffic.

Tips For Using Stumble Upon to Attract Brides

1) It’s best use is for attracting a national or international audience.

This is perfect for retailers and wedding websites who can serve brides across the county. Stumble Upon users are not searching for local topics, so if your business only serves a small local audience, you may get website visitors, but they aren’t going to book you.

2) Be interesting!

Write articles and make videos that provide high entertainment value because Stumble Upon users are after entertainment, not shopping. Do this right and they will “thumbs up” your stuff, which makes it visible to more people.

If you want to get them to your website, you’ve got to be interesting. Let your website do the selling part once they get there.

3) Focus on the most popular topics to maximize your traffic: Humor, Music, the Bizarre, and Photography.

Write humorous articles about weddings. Share unusual song selections, or create Top 10 lists. Write about the strangest wedding stories you’ve ever seen or heard of.

If you’re a wedding photographer, think humorous, strange and unusual. Share those photos and stumblers will keep sharing them, allowing you to attract more website visitors.

4) Use it to inspire topic ideas brides will love.

Even if you don’t serve a national audience, you can still use Stumble Upon to inspire you with topics real brides will read and share. Just take a stumble through wedding-related topics to find out what’s hot. Then use what you learn to create some of your own content using those proven topics.

Stumble Upon may not be for every wedding vendor, but it can be a powerful source of traffic if you play your cards right.

What’s your Stumble Upon experience?

Photo by Lori O’Toole Images

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How FREE Can Make Money for Your Wedding Business

By Stephanie Padovani 5 Comments

Wrapped_Gift

A while back I wrote an article posing the question: If I Give Value For Free, Does That Mean I’m Cheap?

Recently, another wedding vendor responded to it with some concern and asked another provocative question…

“Would you provide the same information you provide to your paying clients as you do to your prospects who just want information?”

Yes, absolutely, YES! I would and I do. Not the same quantity of information, but certainly the same quality.

Here’s why…

When a bride is considering hiring you, she has NO IDEA about the quality of service you’re going to deliver, unless she has already worked with you. It’s like there is a wall around your business, and because she can’t see through it, she doesn’t know what will be on the other side once she’s a paying customer. Normally, she has to go by referrals, recommendations and her own best guess to figure that out.

If the free information or help you provide is not particularly valuable, she’s going to judge your paid services based on that experience as well. What else does she have to go on?

On the other hand, if you give her a high-value, excellent free experience, she’s going to say, “Wow! If she gives this away free, I wonder what her PAID help is like?”

The most powerful proof of your value is a first hand experience. Sharing your best strategy, tip or resource for FREE before you book the wedding wins over more brides with less effort.

The bride doesn’t trust our word about how good our services are. If we have excellent reviews from other couples out there, that will help. But the most powerful proof of our value we can provide is a first hand taste of our very best service.

What About DIY Brides Who Take Our Free Information and Run?

There are some brides who will call you up or meet with you, pick your brain for your hard-earned tips, and never hire you.

This experience can be incredibly painful, especially for wedding planners who spend their time and money in order to make a living primarily by sharing those resources and planning expertise. Or if you’re a wedding photographer who shares your secret location for a photo shoots with a bride, only to find out the couple hired someone cheaper to shoot in “your” spot. Ouch.

When I suggest giving away your best information for free, I don’t mean giving them ALL your resources, knowledge and expertise. Give them just a taste of something really good, enough to make them want more. Enough to prove your value and make them want to hire you.

I don’t suggest that you should give away hours of your unpaid time. Your time is valuable, and your information is, too.

An easy way to deliver that valuable free experience without sacrificing your time is to transform your information into a PDF report, video or audio recording. Take your best strategy, record it or write it down, and share it.

This way you can deliver an experience of your value to numerous brides again and again without wasting your time. You’ll also win over more brides more convincingly than you could do otherwise.

Here Just a Few Ways FREE Can Make You Money:

A free contest or giveaway. The cost you take on by giving away your service can be far outweighed by the website visitors you attract, the promotion and excitement you generate for your business and leads you get as a result.
A free “sample” for prospective clients. Giving brides a small taste of what it’s like to work with you proves your value and makes them hungry for more.
Offering a free bonus packaged with another wedding vendor’s service. This builds powerful networking partnerships and attracts more leads.

Check out the excellent books, Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson and What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis for more ideas about how you can use free to make money.

What do you think about giving away free information to get more business?

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing Tagged With: business, free marketing, free wedding marketing, marketing, Wedding, wedding business, wedding freebies, wedding marketing

A Simple Trick That Will Boost Your Sales

By Jeff Padovani 2 Comments

I love this simple technique Natalie Bradley shares on her guest blog post over on the Black Star Rising blog. You can check out her video here: Use a Free Gift With Purchase To Drive Your Photography Sales

I am a HUGE fan of free. It just works so wonderfully well.

Why? We get really irrational when something is available for free because there is no risk involved. We’re not giving up our hard-earned cash or bartering something of value. It’s just FREE.

Try saying the word out loud. Doesn’t FREE make you feel a little giddy?

In an experiment Dan Ariely recounts in his book, Predictably Irrational, customers were given a choice of two chocolates available for purchase: a gourmet Lindt truffle for 15 cents or a Hershey’s Kiss for one penny. 73% chose the truffle and 27% chose the Kiss.

Then they decided to offer the Lindt truffle for 14 cents and the Kiss for FREE. Guess what happened?

69% of customers chose the Kiss and only 31% chose the truffle. That is decidedly NOT a rational choice for a one penny difference in price!

Free is so compelling that it makes us a little crazy. When you use it in your marketing, with strategies like the one Natalie shares in her video, it can lead to a big increase in profit.

What experiences have you had with using free in your marketing?

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing Tagged With: black star rising blog, free marketing, natalie bradley, wedding business marketing

Why, When and How to Blog Your Way to Booked Weddings

By Jeff Padovani 2 Comments

A girl standing in front of the question why

Leave it to my friend Claire over at the English Wedding blog to make the most convincing argument for blogging that I have ever seen. Really!

Not only does she tell you how to do it simply and easily, she explains the actual results and benefits you can expect to get from it, topics you can blog about and shares examples of wedding professionals who are doing it well.

Read her article here: How to Blog Your Wedding Business

Blogging is not a “fad,” it’s a necessary part of your wedding marketing if you want to book Gen Y brides who are online all the time. If you want to be found, it’s the simplest way to get there.

What do you think about blogging?

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Filed Under: Free Wedding Business Tools, Website Tagged With: free marketing, online wedding marketing, wedding blogging, wedding business marketing

If I Give Value For Free, Does That Mean I’m Cheap?

By Jeff Padovani 5 Comments

A lot of wedding vendors complain about brides who expect something for nothing.

In his book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson describes the difference between those under 30 and those under 30 when it comes to “free.”

Most of our brides are under 30. Most of us…aren’t.

Mama taught us that nothing is free and you get what you pay for. We tend to be highly suspicious of anything free.

These younger brides grew up using amazing, cool services like Myspace, Facebook, Youtube and Google. They just expect to get things for free…especially information.

Does giving brides free information cheapen what we offer?

I was quoted in an eWedNews article about this very subject today, and you can read my words and comments here: Wedding Industry Reluctantly Welcomes the World of Free

Jeff and I started giving away free stuff in our wedding business a couple years ago. I wrote a few special reports, “37 Cheap and Free Ways to Make Your Wedding Unique,” “21 Essential Dream Wedding Tools,” and made them available for brides who joined our email list.

In addition, as soon as a bride contacts us, I start helping her. I share ideas, advice, recommendations and tips. I don’t hold back.

The result?

Free is the best sales tool I have.

I don’t have to convince brides about our value anymore. They get a first hand experience.

I don’t have to use “sales tricks” to book the wedding. Free earns their trust quickly and demonstrates our expertise without trying.

It’s worked wonders for our business and has made “selling” easier than ever.

Sure, there are a few brides who take the goods and run. But so what? It’s a small price to pay and a heck of a lot cheaper than most forms of bridal advertising.

Some of my wedding professional friends think we’re crazy. If you give up your secrets before they pay, they’ll just take them and hire someone cheaper.

But that hasn’t been our experience. Free convinces them that we’re worth it and makes them want us more than ever.

Free is scary. Free is risky. Free is fun.

What do you think about giving away free information to brides? Do you do it for your wedding business?

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing, Home Page Tagged With: bridal advertising, bride psychology, free economy, free marketing, wedding business marketing

If Everything Is Free for Today’s Bride, What Do We Have Left to Sell?

By Stephanie Padovani 8 Comments

I read the book Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson this year and it completely blew my mind.

Anderson talks about the rift in the mindsets of people over 30 and people under 30 when it comes to “free.”

Those over 30 grew up hearing, “Nothing is free.” “You don’t get something for nothing.” They had first-hand experiences with snake oil salesmen and “free” trials that ended up having a hefty price tag.

Those under 30 have an entirely different perspective. They were born into Myspace, Google, Youtube, Flickr. They live in a world where information is free, music is free, blogs are free. They’ve come to expect it.

What will this do to the wedding industry? EWedNews explores this idea in this new article here: “Subscriptions Can’t Compete With Free Exchange of Information”

My question is this: Are we going to fight the push for free information or are we going to use it to build our businesses?

I know which one I’m going to choose!

Sure, information is abundant and that which is abundant becomes very, very cheap. On the other hand, with so much information available…what becomes scarce?

TIME. We have everything at our fingertips and so many choices, but no time to sift through them.

SPACE. We have such an abundance of stuff that we have nowhere to put it.

RELATIONSHIPS. With everyone spending so much time online, we don’t connect with people in person any more.

While information gets cheaper and cheaper, our time gets more precious, more expensive. Time-savers are selling like hotcakes. Storage facilities are filled to capacity. Online dating services are making millions.

When one resource dries up, let’s look for the opportunity. Instead of fighting the trend, let’s embrace it and find a way to make money where things are scarce.

What do you think about the wave of free information and how it is affecting the wedding business? Leave a comment and let’s stir up some discussion!

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Filed Under: Home Page, Wedding Budgets, Wedding Industry Trends Tagged With: free marketing, wedding business, wedding business marketing, wedding trends

14 Websites To Get FREE Marketing For Your Wedding Business

By Jeff Padovani 22 Comments

A sign reading,

When it comes to effective wedding business marketing, it’s either going to cost you MONEY or TIME.

If you find your wedding business gives you a little more time than money on your hands, start using the free marketing power of these websites. They take a little bit of time to set up and use properly for your wedding business, but they’re well worth the effort.

The Top 14 Websites For Free Marketing

1. Wedding Wire

Create a free Wedding Wire account for your business in the US or Canada and start taking advantage of those powerful client reviews immediately. Brides go to Wedding Wire just to research the experience of other couples.

The marketing benefits don’t stop there. Move on over to the Pro Forums for power networking and marketing advice from your peers. Then check out the Wedding Forums and share your expert advice with real brides. Finally, show off your best work by submitting a real wedding over on the Wedding Wire blog.

2. Wedding Bee and Wedding Bee Pro

Vendors are welcome to comment on bride blog posts, so long as your comments are not blatant promotions. Hop on over to Wedding Bee Pro to read blog posts by other wedding vendors. If you’re ambitious, put in an application to be “Pro.” It’s a great way to demonstrate your expertise and attract brides for free.

3. Bridal Tweet

Set up a free profile and you can join in Vendor Discussions, share our own blog posts and interact with real brides. Check out this awesome article about 7 Ways To Attract More Business With Bridal Tweet for more ideas.

4. Wedding Mapper

If your business has been mentioned in any wedding on Wedding Mapper, claim it to add photos and a description to go along with your wedding reviews.

5. One Wed

Create a free business listing to receive “MatchMake” leads and reviews, answer bride questions in the Ask the Experts forum and participate in the Vendor Chat rooms.

6. Top Wedding Sites

Create a free listing for your business with a link to your website.

7. Facebook

Profiles are great for connecting with other wedding vendors, pages are excellent for promoting your business, gathering reviews and attracting bride traffic both on Facebook and in the search engines. This site is a must.

8. Twitter

75% of the traffic on Twitter DOES NOT come from Twitter users. What does this mean?

Twitter is actually a search engine. Other search engines and aggregating sites pick up those tweets and serve them up for hungry searches. That can equal more website visitors for you.

9. Google Places

Set up or claim your local business listing on Google and it can be an easy way to get onto Page 1. Optimize with targeted local keyword phrases, add images and contact information and you’ve got easy, free marketing.

10. Ezine Articles

Follow the Ezine Articles submission guidelines and write an article including local keywords in your headline and a link to your website in the resource box. You’ll get free traffic and multiple backlinks if your article is published by other sites.

11. Hubpages

Follow the Hubpages submission guidelines and write an informational hub about your topic of expertise. Optimize the name and content with your local keywords and include a link to your website to attract free traffic and benefit from Hubpage’s ranking and authority.

12. Squidoo

Check out the Squidoo guidelines (less strict than Ezine Articles and Hubpages), then write a “lens” on your topic of expertise to receive similar benefits.

13. Myspace

I know, Myspace is sooooo 2005. But it’s still a great way to get traffic and backlinks. It’s worth setting up an account optimized for your targeted keywords.

14. Local Business Directories

Even though #14 isn’t a single website, local business directories can be such an effective form of free marketing that I couldn’t resist mentioning them.

Create free accounts on any or all of the 30 business directories in this article. Then don’t forget to search for local wedding directories and get a free listing wherever possible.