I've always said that word of mouth and personal referrals are the best leads you can get.

But, lately I've been wondering if I should sink some money into advertising on a couple of the larger more popular wedding sites like "The Knot" and "Wedding Wire".

Has anyone had good results in doing that? Or tried it?

I've got a dance recital coming up, and I thought I might use the profit from that to pay for this experiment.

Thoughts?

Hi Kyle

I have just one ad on an online directory down under : Weddings Australia, Wedding Dresses Invitations Gowns Cakes Venues - Easy Weddings (http://www.easyweddings.com.au) it works very well for me and most of my non referral leads come from there. It certainly pays for itself easily within the first month.

It's probably best to go to the big boys rather than advertise with the myriad of smaller wedding sites trying to make a fast buck ... The big guys also give you a high Google rating in your area so they do all the work for you keeping their site high in the ratings

Chris

If you have a great ad and photo on the Knot, and if you have a great website, the Knot should give you plenty of exposure. The Knot has excellent customer service and a huge web presence.

The Wedding Wire is somewhat less effective but some people like it.

Here in Cincinnati it is well known that some of the major players who advertise on the Knot, and some who don't, will use phony profiles and promote themselves unfairly in the chat rooms, posing as happy customers. They have also been known to talk badly about competitors. It has gotten very ugly from time to time in this area among some videographers.

Other than that the Knot can get your phone to ring.

I personally dislike The Knot because of the chat rooms and will not support it or advertise on it for that reason.

I use both but I have found that most of my web-originating clients are now coming directly from Google searches.

I have been tempted in the UK with I Do Wedding Magazine - Wedding Suppliers (http://www.ido-magazine.co.uk/) and Wedding Directory, UK Wedding Directory, Wedding Services, Weddings (http://www.ukweddingstore.co.uk/) - there are others and they all make great claims about relevant traffic etc but I'm not sure which one to invest in.

I get enough work via referrals and my own website but getting more would allow me to spread the load more evenly

Pete

Peter,

I've also been approached by them with stories of lots of referrals, but I called a few companies that advertise with them in the south (so we're never going to be competing) and again in Scotland (again, no competition) and the only people that seemed to be getting lots of referrals were there bargain basement people and the mid / high end weren't seeing anything like the promises being made.

Of course, different regions do different things.

I'm really sceptical about those kinds of directories because we're the ones taking all the risks by paying money up front with no guarantee of any returns at all.

Call me cynical, but they get their money up front and the only thing they have to do is feed you a few links near the end of your contract in order to get you to renew next year.

One of the guys I spoke to suggested that's exactly what happened with him last year but of all those he could actually get in contact with none of the leads turned out to be anyone remotely interested in his service and didn't remember contacting him. He had decided not to renew. It makes you wonder.

So, does anyone have anything positive to say about these services, in the UK at least? If so, I'm all ears!

Yes I'm all ears as well - I'm not really interested in gigs where I have to travel a lot, so within 100 mile radius is really enough for me so I was interested in Brides Up North - Best UK Wedding Blog For Northern Brides, Wedding Fairs & Events In Yorkshire, The North East & North West (http://bridesupnorth.com/) but again - lots of promises with no real guarentee that brides use it for their suppliers - so it's a gamble - might give it a whirl for one year though :/

I gave up on those sites years ago. Most people who made contact were looking for someone very local or the lowest possible price, often both. I was based in the midlands but I was sent referrals from Aberdeen to Zenor. Often the person who contacted me was very annoyed to find that I was so far away from them and I was even accused of false advertising because they had found me in their area listing even though I'd always asked the directory to place me only in my local area more often than not I'd be shown as offering nationwide coverage.
High/top-end clients will mostly buy from trusted referrals, high profile reputation, ads in quality wedding mags, at prestigious wedding fairs or businesses with an easy walk-in presence such as a studio or shop front, hardly ever from on online contact only, unless you are the lowest price they can find. If there was a cheap and easy way to find quality work everyone would be successful.

I know there are many here who do book almost exclusively from their online presence but my experience of provincial England is that most want a real contact with someone they can feel at ease with on their day. But as is evidenced here on DVinfo there's as many different ways to manage this business as there are contributors, we all have our own often very different experiences.

Not for weddings but I have tried print advertising for corporate events in a big convention magazine. I bought the inside cover for $10,000.00. The add was designed by a real advertising guy, not included in the 10G. My phone rang off the hook (pre-internet). Every call was from someone else selling advertising. They see your add and that means you are a hot lead because you gave their competitor your money! No potential clients called. That was around 1995. It still hurts to think about that one!

Steve

I'm over in Seattle, WA, USA and I don't pay for anything, though I'm currently trying Google Adwords.

The best tool has been social media, especially Facebook. What I do after every wedding is contact all of the vendors, asking if they would like to be personally tagged in the video as well as their business. That potentially reaches a ton of people and establishes a good relationship business wise.

Google adwords has been successful getting people to click on my site, but has not actually converted any clients to my services.

I did WeddingWire for a year and got nothing. I did not renew. But since then they have made it where you cannot be found unless someone specifically typed in your business from my area. That sucks! They are basically trying to force you to advertise.

Haven't done The Knot yet. It's extremely high! I might do it if I get these current wedding inquiries to book.

I just paid a local atlas and so far have seen 0 traffic from them.

I have been doing Google AdWords since November and it finally getting the hand of it more lately.

Been getting more inquiries via Google lately. Just need to convert them!


Has anyone tried any of the big wedding blog sites?

Is anyone paying for advertisements on Facebook? Tried to target your ads to specific potential clients?

I do Facebook off and on... started about a year ago with a free $50 coupon I got online from them.

Haven't ever gotten a paying gig off of it.

I'm doing a campaign right now targeted to Engaged Couples in my city and surrounding cities.

Target audience is about 17,000 people according to FB.

If I could just get 1 booking, that would be great. lol

Leon, what blog sites are you referring to? I'm not familiar with those... all I've seen are like the wedding shop sites we've been discussing here.

Thanks!

Is anyone paying for advertisements on Facebook? Tried to target your ads to specific potential clients?

I've done it, haven't gotten any bookings. I'm thinking of a contest to do to see if it works out for me

Leon, what blog sites are you referring to? I'm not familiar with those... all I've seen are like the wedding shop sites we've been discussing here.

Thanks!

Sites like Style Me Pretty and Green Wedding Shoes. They cover nothing but weddings. You can submit weddings you film/photograph and styled shoots you have been a part of.

Here is a gang of wedding blogs. Top 100 Wedding Blogs - Wedding Blogs | Top 100 Wedding Blogs (http://www.weddingblogs100.com/)

Thanks for those links. I've never heard of that, or knew there was such a thing, but that sure looks interesting. I'll definitely be checking that out!

Regarding the FB advertising, right now, I'm just doing a campaign to get people to visit my website.

Thanks for those links. I've never heard of that, or knew there was such a thing, but that sure looks interesting. I'll definitely be checking that out!

Regarding the FB advertising, right now, I'm just doing a campaign to get people to visit my website.

No problem! :)

I've found facebook to be very difficult. In terms of sharing video content (which is the only real way to grab attention), the folks in my area have gotten bored and now if something is great, its not noteworthy, its only worth talking about if its jawdroppingly superb.

I've tried running competitions, but it only really attracts those people who spend all ay entering competitions, and so are not genuine 'followers' or 'likers'.

Wedding blogs is a great one, and if you can get featured - that helps. Quite often it can be done by dropping an email and suggesting one of your own videos. You can pay to get on directories, but try to find localised ones rather than nationwide.

Some of those big directory sites mentioned I imagine will see you blend into a mass of options. It helps that I'm in NI. We have a fairly large all-ireland one, but recently we have had two NI based wedding blogs start up which have a more creative/quirky/trendy following. I've secured an ad on one of these sites. I hope that works out for me. Its the right clientele I'm after.

I'm also doing a wedding for a guy who is an SEO and Adwords specialist. We cut a deal, and as part payment he is fully rewriting and advising me on my ad campaigns.

My SEO is pretty good for my locality, but my conversion rate could be better, so I'm working on my written site content and package options.

I think I posted here earlier this year that I was asked to film our local Mardi Gras parade in our older downtown district. I had no idea the response I would get when I posted the video online on my Facebook Business Page.

This was all organic, nothing paid on this post.

16,816 reached
184 shares
353 likes
110 comments

Crazy!

Need more gigs like that. The video wasn't anything special really, just highlights. But there were so many people involved in the event, that it got traction locally.

Problem I find is when i do projects for people that may gain popularity, they tend to get launched on the clients vimeo/youtube channel and I'm simply credited in the description which nobody ever reads.

I still believe the majority of my business id going to come from google.

Referrals a close second.

But a client who once seen a music video I did and remembered me when they got engaged.... thats not going to happen often.

I also don't think I'm going to encourage single people to follow me on facebook, and then hope that one day when they get engaged, they hire me.

The majority of people who find my facebook do so as part of their search for a videographer.

In short, your general popularity matters very little, targeting engaged couples is the only way to go.

For the video I made, I posted it to my FB page and also to YouTube myself. I didn't give them a copy. So I didn't have to deal with all that.

As far as FB, yeah I only target engaged couples in my immediate area.

I did have 2 campaigns going: one for page likes and one for website clicks at $10/day each.

But I stopped the Likes one and am only doing the website clicks one now.