Advertising -HIB's

I'd say 60% of my business for 2009 has come from word of mouth, I also have a free ad on gumtree which allows me to put on my showreel, so the rest has come from there. None from here ?

Thanks ebee. Sorry to sound thick but Gumtree allows you to upload a video?

When I first started alot of my business came from advertising on the internet and my website. Now it's advertising and of word of mouth. As time goes by business through word of mouth increases but I would still always advertise on the internet.

Hi Aimee

What sort of places on the internet?

I advertise on here. Also what I did was googled words realting to my business that brides would use and then advertised on the top couple of websites that came up, since doing that my web hits and enquiers/bookings increased greatly.

Not sure if I can put the websites on here so if you email me I'll let you know: *****@*************.**.**

I advertise here but to be honest am pretty certain have never taken a booking through doing so.

I work closely with a range of suppliers and they reccomend me. This is where tha majority of my business came from originally but now word of mouth is definitely playing a big part. Each large wedding I've done has led to at least one other booking for a guest who attended that wedding.

Gosh that's a bit rambly sorry!

Thanks Aimee. YHM

Thanks PC. Not rambly at all ?

Hi Spring

Best forms for me are word of mouth, wedding fayres, referrals from other suppliers websites and local bridal magazines, but then I work to a specific location which isn't the case for you. I must admit I find google adwords pretty good and certainly increases my web traffic. Email me if you want more info on that.

Georgie

Thanks Bygeorge

I know a bit about adwords as my H used to use it but it cost him a fortune. I think it depends on the key words you use so i'll give it a go when i go live and see.

I'd say the following ways of advertising are key for me; word of mouth, Google Adwords, the internet and Google in general and relationships with other wedding professionals such as photographers, beauty salons, planners etc.

I'm hoping that I'll soon be able to add the Hitched forums to my list?

Recently I've been contacted by quite a few of the popular wedding magazines to advertise with them. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has done this and if so what you though of this method of advertising.

Susan x.

It can do, but you set the monthly budget yourself so it doesn't cost you any more than you want it to. You only get billed for people actually clicking through to the website from your advert, and once you've hit your monthly budget it just doesn't bring the advert up again until the next month. Just to give you an idea, I have a max budget of £30 per month and get about 150 visits from it.

Thanks ladies that's a great help.

Does anyone else do anything different?

The bulk of my business comes from Google. I also get a lot of business from another wedding directory - feel free to email me if you want to know which one! (**************@*************.*****.**.**) I very rarely get business from Hitched so I no longer advertise with them - sorry! I swap business cards with other wedding suppliers and pop them in with my brochure and they help out the same way. I have bouquets and brochures in most of the bridal shops in my area which also helps. I also get recommendations via other Brides I have done work for but I've been in business a long time (15 years - the last 8 years on line) so it does take a while for recommendations to come around. I'm in Yellow pages and Yell.com although this doesnt work for me really because, being an internet based business, people tend to search on search engines rather than bring up Yell and search on there.

Hi Spring, you have to upload a video to youtube, and you can then link directly from your advert. Does that make sense? ?

Ooh - that's given me another thought! I had some rack cards printed by vistaprint and they've been invaluable. I have them in a number of wedding dress shops, and whenever I work at a new venue I leave a number with them too. Some just have them available if people ask for recommendations, others put them in their wedding packs. I guess you won't necessarily have direct requests for table planning solutions as suppliers like florists or jewellers have, so if you can get them into wedding packs so that every prospective couple takes it home with them you can't go wrong. Maybe targeting some popular venues, wedding planners, and maybe more importantly, high profile caterers to spread the word might be a good idea? Even if you mailshot 20 or so each month to the spread the word.

Also - get yourself seen! When the site is up and running, write a press release and send it out to as many magazine editors, event planners etc as you can. I did and ended up being reviewed in our regional glossy wedding mag. It didn't cost me a penny!

Thanks Rainbox Florist.

Ebee yes that makes sence ?

Bygeorge that is great thank you x

Hey,

I dont pay for advertising, I find if I do I dont get anything from it. I think im on verey free site possible and I have my website plus word of mouth and doing various events.

Another good site is vivastreet

And on yell.com you get a free listing xx

I'm yet to get any business from Hitched but I live in hope!

Before I was coming up high on searches on Google I tried Adwords but found they are terribly expensive and someone was being a bit click happy on my link (possibly a competitor?) not sure but it was more hassle than it was worth so I don't bother now. When I first opened a business bank account with HSBC they gave me about £80.00 worth of Adwords free though - so that might be something you could look into. It was fun when you didn't have to pay for it!

My main business now comes from word of mouth and from Google or other search engines. I also feature now and again in Wedding Ideas and find that is pretty good for business too.

So I would say Google and the odd bridal mag definitely. Good luck!

Thanks Ladies. You're being a great help.

I think it depends a lot on what you do, and whether you're trying to attract a local market or a national one. But we have two sides to our business - the bridal shop and the online accessories shop.

For dresses, we find that the most effective form of advertising (other than word of mouth, which is by far the best) is probably wedding fayres. They are also the most cost effective. We do a few each year, but we pick and choose quite carefully which ones to do (some are busier than others, and we've done a few dreadful ones). We also advertise in the Yellow Pages, and have spent quite a lot of money this way (but again this is good for attracting local business). Scottish Wedding Directory is also really effective, but I don't think there's really an equivalent anywhere else in the country. It's like the bible for scottish brides, so is essential to advertise in.

For attracting a national market for online sales, we do some national magazine advertising, although we have started being a lot more picky. We monitor which ones have actually generated sales (we have a stats package through our shopping cart facility), so we can work out what we're spending vs what we're generating. The trick with magazines though, is to get your stuff featured - you're far more likely to get noticed that way, than just relying on an ad somewhere in the magazine.

Obviously driving traffic to your website is great as well, so you do that in whatever way you can. If it's free, then all the better.

Thank you for taking the time to reply DSH. That's a great help.

90% word of mouth

9% wedidng fairs

1% other sources this is why i have stopped all paper / magazine advertisign its a waste of time imo

Hi Spring

I do think it depends what service you provide. I am a hairdresser and I find that wedding fairs are very good for me. I am also friendly with a bridal shop ( who i met a a fair a few years ago ) and do a lot of hair for their fashion shows. They recommend me a lot.

I also get a lot from word of mouth. Two years ago I had a bride contact me who had been chatting to a girl at her gym who had had her hair done by me when she was a bridesmaid for a friend the year previously . When this girl got married herself, I was already booked so she found someone else. She gave the bride both of our details but said '' if i had too choose again I would have Sharon , the other girl was great I looked fantastic, but she just wasn't Sharon''. I ended up doing this bride and she then recommended her sister in law to me for this year.

I also searched on google with keywords and then advertised with the companys that came up. sometimes I'm on the first page about 3 or 4 times . I have a few videographers and photographers who now recommend me. Its good to network with other suppliers , but choose your companys carefully, as it can reflect on your own business.

I found that doing regular wedding fairs you get to know a lot of suppliers on a personal level too. The fairs i am at, the organisers tend to put people in the same space each time .This is great as you have a friendly face next to you.

the other thing is if your business is related to another it can be useful to link up together. I don't do makeup but on my website i have a page dedicated to makeup artists that I have worked with and recommend personally. I don't charge them for it and works both ways, get a fair bit of work this way too.

I rarely advertise with companies that contact me randomly.

I've gone on and on a bit there...sorry!?

Hoe that helps

Sharon.?

Thanks Cariad.

Sharon that is a great help thank you.

Hi, most of our business comes from word of mouth, or Wedding fairs are good ways to get business as well ,try to keep away from magazines there are a waste of time, I have also started a web link project, this is starting to get me more hits on the site.

Jackie?

Mostly Google, some from here, wedding fairs. Never from magazines or Yell.

Brenda YHM