Alle Beiträge von Mark Strefford

Blogs Tips for Wedding Suppliers

Simply put, the main aim of a blog on your wedding website is to show your customers that you’re an expert in your field, that you’re someone to turn to when they have a question.

This can be done very simply by offering your customers some useful advice and information. Lets say you are a florist, then your blog posts could talk about the latest trends in wedding flowers, or how to choose flowers on a budget, for example. If you’re stuck for ideas, then think about the conversations you’ve had today with people who’ve contacted you offline. What did they ask for? What did you tell them? Now write it down and use this as the basis for your post!!

Blogs are also a great way for you to communicate with the people who visit your site. They could let you know their likes and dislikes, if your site enables them to leave comments. You should make it a point to acknowledge their comments, because reaching out to the visitors of your site is important. This can be done by directly replying to comments posted by posting a comment of your own to your blog; another way is to address the comment or question in your next blog post.

This will help you establish your name in the market. The percentage of brides that research their wedding on the internet is 90% according to recent statistics. If you give good advice and your potential customers are satisfied, they will begin to trust you and may even develop into repeat customers.

The next step is to add video…

If this is making you nervous, you should know that it really isn’t that difficult. The purpose of posting a video would be to allow the people who visit your site – your potential customers, to get to know you better and it can be a short clip of 3-4 minutes. It is always nice to put a face to the name, and will bring you a lot closer to them.

So what does video on your blog provide?

Only a small number of wedding suppliers add videos to their blogs or web sites. The only ones that do are videographers, and that’s only because they use them as examples of their work and to showcase their abilities.

There are two ways to go about adding video to your blog. One way is to talk directly to your site visitors through your camera, giving them advice and information on specific topics. The other way is to take a video of work that you have done and add audio with your message later.

The important thing is to keep the message uncluttered, understandable and under 4 minutes; it does not matter which of the 2 ways you choose. You Tube is a great source that you can use to check out good and bad examples of videos, to get some ideas to help you create a great one.

Mark Strefford is a leading marketing expert, specialising in helping wedding suppliers attract Brides to their business using the internet. You can watch his free video on marketing to Brides using the internet at bridalmarketing.net.

What To Look For In A Wedding Directory Website If You Are A Wedding Supplier

There are more and more wedding directory sites trying to promote themselves to wedding suppliers, and this can lead to confusion over which ones you should list your business on. In order to select the one that’s right for you, there are some things that you should look at in light of the experience you want your potential customers to have.

You can publicise your company and attract visitors to your website, without blowing a hole in your marketing budget by listing your business on free directory sites. Even though free listings should be taken advantage of because they make a great starting point, there are a few negative aspects to using them. For instance, most of the time only limited contact information like name, address, website and phone number can be listed.

On the downside, many of the free directory sites are not particularly attractive in terms of the way they look, and are sometimes quite hard to navigate around. Another area to consider is whether other suppliers on the same directory will be listed above you because they pay. This is almost always the case, but some of the newer directories will allow Brides to sort the list in different ways, and not always on who’s paid for the premium listings. Therefore, choose the free directories carefully and don’t feel under pressure to take up every free listing offer that comes along.

Both wedding suppliers and brides that are looking for suppliers can benefit more from most of the paid directories. These sites make it a lot easier for brides to find a supplier according to their specific needs and preferences since you can post more details about your business. Getting your details listed on the directory is as simple as sending an email with your details to them, which is great because you do not have to go through the trouble of doing it yourself. On the other hand, it is not that simple to modify those details between renewals. Another thing is, you have to pay per state or country which can be a problem because you might end up having to pay twice as much just so you can include your listing in the areas to want to promote your business in, if you just happen to live close to the border. The last thing is to make sure you get value for your money, meaning they should provide regular reports on things like number of users that viewed your listing, number of times favourited, links clicked etc.

Nowadays, higher quality services are offered by new directories to wedding suppliers as well as brides that are looking for suppliers. Not only free listings but also premium listings are accepted by these new directories. Your potential customers can search through the directories conveniently and sort them area wise, alphabetically or even closest to their location. Businesses can post, manage and modify the details in their own listings anytime they feel the need to. For instance, details of promotions and special offers can be added to the listing, making the information available to all the directory users. Potential customers can get to know more about your company and who they are dealing with before actually getting in touch with you, thanks to the Images and videos that you can upload. Only good can come from being contacted by customers who have already expressed interest in you products or services.

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