Hi All,

Just curious how people are spending their marketing dollars. We all know that word-of-mouth is our best friend, but most people will advertise as well. Now, TheKnot.com seems to be the de facto standard for advertising, but I find them to be expensive, especially for how saturated their vendor listings are. Good advertising focuses eyes solely on your product, and the knot tends to just throw everyone in the same spot with no true way of immediately differentiating your business from the 50+ others in your area.

I'm interested to hear what people are doing and how much success they are seeing. Breaking it down, I can think of the following 'common' methods:

1. Google AdWords
2. Print Magazines
3. Bridal Shows
4. Ads/Listings on Online Portals (e.g. theknot.com)

I'm going to leave it at that for now, but feel free to add methods I may have missed. I do not expect people to expose their best marketing campaigns, but the four above are the most widespread and widely known. Are they worth it? Is there a good return on investment with these?

- Dan Ackermann

if you aren't yet... you should be in a BNI [business networking inter'national] chapter. you can be the only photographer in there and it's a great way to enhance word-of-mouth advertising which may just be the best way to roll.

i'm also in the chamber of commerce and some other civic event groups.

- travis

Thanks Travis,

Unfortunately it looks like they won't accept you unless its your primary profession. No part-time businesses. I'll have to wait a bit for this one until I go full time with photography.

- Dan

Client Referrals
Vendor Referrals
Website

First two come from established friendships with other wedding vendors.

Print magazines, too expensive....bridal shows, marginally successful depending on the shows output for advertising......too iffy.

The KNOT............YUCCHHHHH............the website who takes your money to advertise with them yet tells brides to "bargain" for discounts with their vendors.....hows that for biting the hand that feeds you.

Dan...

that shouldn't be an issue. I've got a chapter here in Tucson of 60 members and there's a large part of the group that have other jobs... example: Arbonne gal

at anyrate.. if it's your only profession you are representing there I thought you could still do it. You might have one chapter really doing things by the book - but if you look around I think you'll find one you can join.

www.bni.com

- travis

I'll look into it. Do you have any estimate of the percentage of bookings you get from being a member of the BNI?

not spending on anything, just word of mouth.

Did you know that on Facebook you can create very targeted advertising by marital status, gender, geography, interests and many other things?

We use word of mouth, our website and two bridal shows a year. That's it.

venkman wrote:
TheKnot.com seems to be the de facto standard for advertising, but I find them to be expensive, especially for how saturated their vendor listings are. Good advertising focuses eyes solely on your product, and the knot tends to just throw everyone in the same spot with no true way of immediately differentiating your business from the 50+ others in your area.

We use the knot and yes they are saturated with photogs. You say how do people tell you apart from the other? Well they click on our links and let our work explain the rest. Sure I will miss a bride or two because she was lazy and just emailed 20 of us instead of looking at out work online. But I have to say, we get 50% of our high end weddings from the knot.

venkman wrote: 1. Google AdWords Dont need them as we use SEO properly.

venkman wrote: 2. Print Magazines Dont do them since they cost thousands to get shown for a short period of time and most brides skim over them anyways. I dont know anyone in my area who gets bookings from them. They do them just to brag OOOOOO I was in a magazine. Yes you were and you also spent thousands to be in it too.

venkman wrote: 3. Bridal Shows Did one once and the shows in my area are mainly bargain basement brides who want the best deal and dont care about the work. What a wasted day. I turned down so many weddings just so I could do the show. I could have made a boat load of money doing a wedding instead of losing $1000

venkman wrote:4. Ads/Listings on Online Portals (e.g. theknot.com) One the of the best ways to go. cheap and easy to do. now days brides are all online looking. SO get your name out there. Like I said 50% comes from online ads for us. We spend $150 a month on them and we in return get a lot of work from them.

You forgot one of the most important ones of them all. WORD OF MOUTH!!!! 50% of our work comes from word of mouth and it is free. DO a good job, work with the client and get the job done right and they will be your free advertising for years to come.