Do Bridal Lead Lists Actually Work?

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Question:

HI Stephanie & Jeff,

Still benefiting from your Book More Brides videos, excellent value for money.

You raised an interesting point about having leads stopped, one of the biggest providers I have been using for years has just stopped his business. I know you are on the other side of the pond but do you know of any good firms that sell bridal leads over here in the UK?

Bye for now

Terry

Answer:

Hi, Terry.

Most paid sources of bridal lead lists are not worth the money. The leads aren’t targeted for your specific business by type of client, budget, style, etc., making them very poor quality. It typically takes a lot of work following up for very little return.

Our clients have reported getting a response from only 1 out of 100 bridal leads of this type! Apparently, they sell them cheap for a reason. :)

A better investment would be to put that money into turning your website into a real money-making machine, or possibly running some Facebook ads. They are much more targeted demographically and you can test your results. More ideas for effective wedding marketing at a reasonable cost here.

In other words, rather than purchasing leads, build your own bridal lead list! When you send targeted traffic to your website and then get those brides and grooms to enter their name and email to get a cool freebie (what we call a “Bride Bribe”), like a free report, video or valuable checklist, you’re creating a list of very warm, qualified leads you can now follow up with.

If you DO decide to purchase bridal leads, investigate their quality first. Ask your wedding vendor friends about their experiences, and grill the company for statistics and references.

You’ll want to ask:

  • How many unique visitors do you get?
  • How do you qualify your leads?
  • Do you provide stats on my ad views and click throughs?
  • What exactly these brides think they’ll be receiving when they sign up? If the bride hasn’t contacted you directly, she often considers your emails to be spam, no matter what she agreed to upon sign up.

With any bridal lead list, start out with a monthly trial if possible to measure your results before committing to something long term.

I was very impressed with the advertising experiment with the UK site, Wedding Chaos, done by Claire Gould over at English Wedding. They offer great metrics for tracking and you can learn a lot from her results and test them out for yourself, which I highly recommend.

Good luck with everything!

Stephanie

What do YOU think about bridal lead lists? Have they worked for you?

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Why You Need To Find Your Voice Now To Boost Interest and Sales!

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A mistake that a lot of businesses make is that their content sounds the same as everyone else’s content. Now I don’t mean they are all writing the same thing. Instead they are all writing in the same professional voice. While being professional is important, so is making sure that your content has its own sound.

Think about when you meet someone for the first time. While there are a lot of factors that go into your analysis of who they are, their voice is what will stand out the most. No one sounds the same, or talks the same way and your unique voice is what should help you stand out online. Try to find a way to get your writing to mimic how you talk, even if it’s just a small change in the pattern of writing, or including more exclamation points.

As a wedding business you are automatically a part of a very intense competition for getting a brides business. If you sound like everyone else not only will she have trouble figuring out whom to go with, she will also keep searching for a wedding vendor that stands out. Do what it takes to make your business the one that stands out and boost your wedding business sales. Find your voice and use it!

For more tips on writing in a way that makes you stand out make sure to check out this awesome article on ProBlogger.

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If You Have Great Content What About Your Design? Don’t Lose Brides Due To A Layout Flub.

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Crafting a great article is quite similar to writing any great content online, regardless if it’s used as an article, a website “about” page, or sales copy. Every aspect of both the writing and layout needs to be optimized to draw the reader in. If you can’t draw someone in with interesting content, you aren’t going to land the sale.

But interesting content is just the beginning of the battle. The layout of your wedding business website  is just as critical as it determines how easy the content is to read, and whether the layout enables the ability to interact with the content. For some great layout tips make sure to read Ginny Soskey’s article on the subject.

Another critical part of any website layout is to make sure that it easily points to your contact information or sales page. Without that information easily attainable you will lose brides just because they didn’t take the time to go to your contact page. Remember, everything you write is both being written to tell a bride about your business and to convince her that she needs to contact you, not your competition. Make sure that once she’s convinced she can actually contact you easily. Don’t make her jump through any hoops. 

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How To Get Links Back To Your Wedding Website

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Building links back to your site is not something that most wedding businesses do, but it is something that they should be doing. Getting links that are posted on other sites that point back to your website is crucial to show up higher in Google search results and is just as important as good SEO content and keywords.

There are a lot of different good ways to get links. Bottom line however it comes down to using social media such as a Facebook business page that you’ve added a link back to your site, as well as building relationships with bloggers and other website owners who are willing to write about you and post a link back. There is no super easy way to get backlinks, but it isn’t hard either. For an in-depth look at how to get more links to your wedding business website check out this awesome article by Paddy Moogan. What are some tips you’ve learned to get more backlinks to your site? 

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The New Best Way To Capture A Brides Attention

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When did you last look at a bunch of wedding business websites? There is a trend which is quickly catching on with wedding websites that is crucial in capturing a bride’s attention and it increases the probability of changing her from an observer to a client.

This trend is pictures. Lots of artistic, eye catching pictures that show off the work your business does. Now obviously over using pictures is no better than not using pictures at all, however you should use a few pictures on every website page you have, as well as having a photo album to show off more of your work.

The reason this works according to Kathy DalPra’s brilliant article on Bride Appeal is because pictures convey an idea faster than words. They also show how good you are, and let’s face it; brides today are used to social media where they see a ton of pictures all the time. So what do you think? Are pictures the next big trend?

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Trouble Getting Brides To Read Your Website?

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Have you ever wondered if your writing is good enough on your wedding business website? Well so does everyone else and the truth is that everyone makes one mistake or another. The trick is to catch the main mistakes that turn off brides while not becoming such a perfectionist that you kill the emotion of your content.

BloggingTips.com has an awesome article pointing out the top five mistakes made by rookie bloggers. While you may or may not have a blog the truth is that the main tips in blogging count in any type of online writing.

One my big pet peeves when reading online content is when there is no flow to the writing. What is flow you ask? It is writing in a way that ties thoughts together. If all you have is a bunch of thoughts thrown together you’ve lost all possibility of interesting a bride in your website, let alone booking her. If you just can’t get your content to sound right get a friend to help with the editing process. Everything you write directly affects your online success so take the time to find a way to get your site read well and make it interesting at the same time. What do you think?

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How To Design Your Wedding Business Website To Turn Leads Into Clients

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When you go to create or re-design your wedding business website theme you should always remember the main rule to website creation. If there is any potential that a potential lead can get confused by your layout and get lost, they will. A beautiful site is brilliant, but you always have to make sure that it makes sense and is easy to navigate.

If you have a lot of pages to your site pick the main pages that a bride needs to click on, make them the main tabs and add drop down menus for each to lead the bride to any additional pages. The reason this is so important is because clutter, even a semi-long list of pages, leads to confusion and a bride will often give up looking at your site before they know anything about you. Remember, the purpose of your site isn’t primarily to show your business style and overwhelm a bride with facts, but is to turn a potential lead into a customer. That change in perspective changes the layout and design of your site and should lead to better success. To discover more tips in website design make sure to check out the article by Matthew Toren. What do you think?

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How To Build A Successful Wedding Business Website That Works

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If you are having trouble reaching brides online there is always a reason, and it’s not just because they choose someone else. Any time a bride chooses another company as her wedding vendor it is because, for whatever reason, you didn’t “fit” her idea of what she was looking for.

On your website there are two major keys to why you might be getting views, but little actual interest in your company according to Lori Kozlowski. The two things intertwine forming a whole. First you have to make your wedding business website easy to navigate and remember that the modern bride is used to everything being convenient. Keep it simple. Second you need to know what your ideal bride does and tie your product or service style into that. If you do wedding for adventurous brides who will get married skydiving, you probably don’t want to do a formal wedding themed website but do want to keep it professional. If on the other hand you do weddings for high end weddings, you want your website to be as glamorous as possible. Know your bride and reach her in her world, not yours. What do you think?

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7 Things Brides and Grooms Look For in a Wedding Vendor Website

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I recently did a survey of over 30 brides and grooms to ask what they look for in a wedding DJ website so that I could write an article for Mobilebeat magazine based on feedback from real couples.

(Hint: this is a great bit of market research to do for your own business, by the way.)

Much of what they told me applies to ANY wedding business. Here’s what they had to say…

What Brides and Grooms Want

1. Reviews and Testimonials

This was by far the most popular response.

Couples want evidence of your value in the form of reviews and testimonials from your happy clients. Make sure those reviews are recent and that you have lots of them.

2. Prices and Package Information

This request isn’t much of a surprise. When couples visit your website, they want to see how much it costs and what’s included, with as much detail as possible. They also liked the idea that you would “customize” packages for them.

3. Unique Ideas & Inspiration

I was asking about DJ websites specifically, so brides and grooms responded that they wanted to see unusual music and song ideas.

However, this applies to your wedding business, too. Couples like your website to give them ideas they can use for their own weddings.

If you’re a florist, write articles and display pictures of the most unique and unusual arrangements from your weddings. If you’re a wedding planner, talk about the amazing details your couples have pulled off to show their personalities. If you’re a wedding photographer, share images and tips about how to create unique photographs.

Show off your expertise and prove your value by sharing inspiring ideas and photos on your website to attract more clients.

4. Pictures!

Couples want to see lots and lots of pictures. And not just any pictures; they want to see images of happy couples (like them) enjoying your services.

A photo of you and your staff, or of your setup is also desirable so the bride or groom has an idea of what your presentation will be like at the wedding, but don’t overdo it.

5. Video

Brides and grooms love to see video on a wedding vendor website so they have an idea of what you’re like in action. This is especially important for entertainers and officiants.

The bottom line: websites with video attract more visitors who stay longer and turn into more leads.

6. Contact Information

This should be on EVERY wedding professional’s website, but apparently it isn’t because it was mentioned by brides and grooms numerous times.

They want an easy to find Contact button that includes your phone number and a real email address in addition to a contact form. This should be easy to find on every page of your website.

7. Honorable Mentions: Professional Website Design, List of Venues, a Blog, Gender Neutral Language

Brides and grooms expect your website to be easy to navigate and uncluttered. They’re making a first impression based on your site, so make it a good one.

Having a list of venues where you’ve done weddings shows off your experience and gives the bride or groom confidence in your work, especially if you’re familiar with their location.

You can use a blog to give couples what they’re asking for in many of these categories: images, video, testimonials, ideas and inspiration, examples of the wedding venues you’ve worked.

One respondent made a really good point I hadn’t thought of. If you plan to attract same-sex weddings, make sure you use gender neutral language.

Same sex couples are looking for words like “partners” or “bride or groom” instead of “bride and groom.” If they don’t find these on your website, they’re going to assume you only work with “traditional” couples.

This is what real couples had to say about wedding vendor websites. What do brides and grooms respond to most on your website? Leave a comment and share your pearls of wisdom!

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How To Get Your Wedding Business Website to Show Up In Search Engine Results

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 Good SEO is what is required to get your wedding business website to show up in search results. While the first step always has to do with getting your site keyword optimized that is just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s think about this a different way. You know that are a ton of brides getting married every year. You as a wedding business want them to choose you over other local wedding businesses. So you build a website, get the site keyword optimized, and are left sitting with your site on page 10 of search results for your local area.

Why is this? It’s because you need inbound links. These are links leading from other sites back to your website. They can be on social media sites, mentions on blogs, online articles, blogs, other wedding business websites, basically anywhere online. But if you’ve ever started to delve into this you already know that it takes a lot of time, and you have to do it right to get the results. Thankfully Nick from “Shirts That Go” has written a great article explaining the many facets of how to get inbound links. A good starting place is to double check all of your social media sites and make sure that your website url is listed on all of them. Have you worked on getting inbound links and what strategies have you found that work the best for you?

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