What has worked best for leads?

[Dan Minor]

What do you all find to be the most effective approach at drawing attention to your company and product. Obviously word of mouth is top. But what works best otherwise? Website, yellow pages, postcards, networking, newspaper ads, associations (The Knot, Perfect Weddings, etc...). I would love to send more traffic my way and am thinking about dumping a nice chunk of change into a website. Let me know...Glen?...Peter?... I am convinced that if they meet our company and see our product that they will book.

[Matt Sawyers]

My top 5
1. Word of mouth
2. Business Cards
3. Alltimefavorites.com
4. Postcards
5. Website listed in directories

I use VistaPrint.com to get my business cards, they look very professional and they don't cost an arm & a leg. I created an image in Photoshop, then uploaded it to their website. Now I also have my website on the card so that really helps, pull people to website and see what I am all about.

I also use alltimefavorites.com which is a service directory for business related to special events. You can pay for a subscription and be listed at the top if someone in your area is browsing for a service you offer, or you can do the registration for free, and you probably won't be listed at the top, but at the bottom. If you go with their free status its up to you to pay AllTimeFavorites a commission of 5-25% if you use their leads. They ask that you be fair in whatever you pay to them (yes, you pick the percentage), but the more you pay them the more likely you business will show up to customers that are browsing. They will also send you leads if someone inquiries by form to them about a service you offer in the area that you service.

Again I use vistaprint.com to do my postcards, I get them for about $45 for 250 (including S&H). Again I create them in Photoshop and upload the picture, know I you aren't a photoshoping-kind-of-person, then they have templates that they allow you to use (there's quite a few).
Also sign up to receive their e-mails & you will receive major discounts on their products & services. Like the postcards for instance I think they are $49.95 but if you use the coupon thought your e-mail, it's like $38 or something. Of course you can leave the back blank or type in whatever (I actually did one set blank and another side with a description of my services). As for the postcards that have the description of the services I offer, I send that to all friends and family that I have. And the ones that have the blank back I send to previous clients, wishing them happy birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc. And I have received SO much good feedback from doing this, people saying "Thanks for the happy birthday card" (yet in there mind I have hypnotized them to think about my services when they think of birthdays and special events! Muhahaha...)

I have also listed my website in google & yahoo and some other dinky search engines' directories. I get a few people saying they found me through there, but not a lot, but it is nice to know it does work.

By the way I recommend using Freewebs.com to start off with a website, there full package hosting starts at $4.75/month...cheap ain't it....I use it, check it for yourself www.mattfilms.com (It's a bit under construction right now thought, doing a bit of updating)
Anyhow back on freewebs, they offer a bunch of services at an awesome price, like form submission, ad-free, here is a bit from my account:

Account Essentials
WebSpace

Used: 9.1 Mb
Available: 200.5 Mb

Bandwidth

Monthly Allowance: 1500.0 Mb
Used: below 100Mb
Available: 1500.0 Mb

I think you can but additional webspace & bandwidth if needed.

So that's my 2 cents, hoped it helped, by the way if you would like to see pictures of my business card or postcard, let me know.

[Jeremy Rochefort]

Originally Posted by Dan Minor

What do you all find to be the most effective approach at drawing attention to your company and product. Obviously word of mouth is top. But what works best otherwise? Website, yellow pages, postcards, networking, newspaper ads, associations (The Knot, Perfect Weddings, etc...). I would love to send more traffic my way and am thinking about dumping a nice chunk of change into a website. Let me know...Glen?...Peter?... I am convinced that if they meet our company and see our product that they will book.

Make an appointment/s with the wedding organisers and wedding related industries in your area. Don't do this by phone or email - go see them! This is a good starting point so that they know who you are and are more comfortable in referring business your way. Hand them a bunch of business cards/leaflets and try and show them a demo again so that they can feel more comfortable referring you.

It would go without saying that they would expect for you to pass business their way but if the two way street starts working, it becomes a never ending supply of leads.

This works well for me and have good relationships with quite a few photographers, organisers etc. And, having worked with them before makes ME more comfortable referring them.

B&G's like referrals and people who talk from experience, it gives them a better feeling too. One thing I am always sure to do when I am referring is to pertinently point out that "I have worked with them and so far have had good feedback". I make it very clear that I can refer them but don't accept responsibility if one of those referals go sour - need to keep my plate clean if something goes wrong.

Good luck and as always - marketing, marketing, marketing!

Cheers