Good morning everyone and welcome to another week on Bride Booker.
As wedding fair season is in full swing, you will no doubt be sending information out and dealing with incoming enquiries on a daily basis (if you're not click here), obviously some of you will be busier than others.
It's the next few months that will determine how successful most people year's are, a good three or four months with incoming enquiries will mean a great year at the other end, a quiet few months on the enquiry side will mean a struggle!
I think there is an abnormal focus put on enquiries in the industry and, a lot of the time, what happens to these enquiries gets forgotten! At the end of the day, an enquiry means nothing until you get that deposit or order cheque!
This is fatal as if you don't deal with the enquiries you do have well, then it doesn't matter how many more you get, "you ain't gettin any more bookings"!
90% of people I deal with can quite easily squeeze at least another one or two bookings or orders out of their exsiting enquiries, for some it can be a lot, lot more! You've just got to give each enquiry the time and attention it deserves, it makes me cry when I sample people's sales strategy and after making an enquiry, don't get a reply for a week or so!
I'll stick my neck out here and say, everyone reading this post can convert one more enquiry at least in the next year with a little effort. What would that extra enquiry mean to you? How much is a wedding booking worth? How much does each enquiry cost you? Add these factors together and you'll see the true value of conversion!!!
To read more about wedding conversion click here.
Some food for thought I'm sure!
Until next time
Edward
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Duplicate Content & Google
Hello again and welcome back to Bride Booker Blog.
I've heard a lot of talk over the last month or so about duplicate content and how google hates it and it will kill your search engine position or prevent you from moving up the rankings.
A lot of these people don't actually realise what Google sees as duplicate content and how it will affect your search ranking, so, while what they're saying is true, what they actually believe is duplicate content and the methods they take to remove are completely wrong!
Firstly, the term duplicate content is slightly misleading, it suggests that it is a page that has content copied from another source. While it is possible to get one of your pages dropped by Google for this reason, you are far more likely to lose pages on your site which are too similar.
This can be a BIG problem for you! Imagine you have two pages which are very similar but contain information about two different products and, as a result show up on different searches. If Google looks at your pages and thinks that they are too similar, it is likely that one will get dropped from the search engine results pages.
Secondly, if you're pages get dropped from the results pages they then lose their page rank which had been passed onto your optimised pages meaning they will fall down the results pages!!! Pretty serious stuff!
What makes it even worse is that I have seen supposed SEO experts optimise customer sites and actually create a duplicate content scenario by their efforts!!! Just imagine that, you've paid someone to try and get you to the top of the Google's results and thay have actually got your pages banned!!!
I've written an in depth article on what exactly duplicate content is and how you can avoid it which you can view here.
http://www.evolutionweddingservices.co.uk/members/218.html
Let me know if you have had your site optimised by a specialist SEO company and I'll check it to see if they have created any duplicate content in the process.
Until next time.
Edward
I've heard a lot of talk over the last month or so about duplicate content and how google hates it and it will kill your search engine position or prevent you from moving up the rankings.
A lot of these people don't actually realise what Google sees as duplicate content and how it will affect your search ranking, so, while what they're saying is true, what they actually believe is duplicate content and the methods they take to remove are completely wrong!
Firstly, the term duplicate content is slightly misleading, it suggests that it is a page that has content copied from another source. While it is possible to get one of your pages dropped by Google for this reason, you are far more likely to lose pages on your site which are too similar.
This can be a BIG problem for you! Imagine you have two pages which are very similar but contain information about two different products and, as a result show up on different searches. If Google looks at your pages and thinks that they are too similar, it is likely that one will get dropped from the search engine results pages.
Secondly, if you're pages get dropped from the results pages they then lose their page rank which had been passed onto your optimised pages meaning they will fall down the results pages!!! Pretty serious stuff!
What makes it even worse is that I have seen supposed SEO experts optimise customer sites and actually create a duplicate content scenario by their efforts!!! Just imagine that, you've paid someone to try and get you to the top of the Google's results and thay have actually got your pages banned!!!
I've written an in depth article on what exactly duplicate content is and how you can avoid it which you can view here.
http://www.evolutionweddingservices.co.uk/members/218.html
Let me know if you have had your site optimised by a specialist SEO company and I'll check it to see if they have created any duplicate content in the process.
Until next time.
Edward
Monday, 21 January 2008
Another Freebie
Good morning and welcome to another Monday Bride Booker Blog.
Just a quickie to tell you about today, but it could be of great value to some of you.
In my ongoing quest for wedding industry information, I've come across an opportunity for some (not all I'm afraid) of you to get a free advert on the new Wedding Planner website.
For those of you who don't know or haven't heard of Wedding Panner before, they publish a series of regional printed guides called "The Wedding Guide".
Click here for more details and to find out if you qaulify for the free advert:
http://www.weddingplanner.co.uk/Content2.aspx?PageId=10c
I hope this helps
Until next time.
Edward
Just a quickie to tell you about today, but it could be of great value to some of you.
In my ongoing quest for wedding industry information, I've come across an opportunity for some (not all I'm afraid) of you to get a free advert on the new Wedding Planner website.
For those of you who don't know or haven't heard of Wedding Panner before, they publish a series of regional printed guides called "The Wedding Guide".
Click here for more details and to find out if you qaulify for the free advert:
http://www.weddingplanner.co.uk/Content2.aspx?PageId=10c
I hope this helps
Until next time.
Edward
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Tracking and Measuring
Good afternoon on this rainy January Thursday - is this rain ever going to stop????
For those of you who know me, have been reading my blog or are an Evolution Programme subscriber, you will have certainly heard me drone on about tracking and measuring your sales and marketing activity - you may not do it, but you will have certainly heard me talk about it!
If you haven't been tracking and measuring then you are certainly not the only one, in fact no one seems to listen to me when it comes to this subject (if you do please let me know!), so I have been thinking about ways to make it easier for you to track and trace what you are doing.
It is because of this that I have been spending my January evenings putting together a Wedding Marketing Tracker spreadsheet. Fingers crossed its nearly finished so I thought I would pre warn you that it would be appearing on the web site soon. I'll post a message when it finally goes live, but, provided you are subscribed to my updates, you will receive notice when it does.
As usual, if you have any comments good or bad, please let me have them - its how I track and measure myself!!!!
I hope you find it useful.
Edward
For those of you who know me, have been reading my blog or are an Evolution Programme subscriber, you will have certainly heard me drone on about tracking and measuring your sales and marketing activity - you may not do it, but you will have certainly heard me talk about it!
If you haven't been tracking and measuring then you are certainly not the only one, in fact no one seems to listen to me when it comes to this subject (if you do please let me know!), so I have been thinking about ways to make it easier for you to track and trace what you are doing.
It is because of this that I have been spending my January evenings putting together a Wedding Marketing Tracker spreadsheet. Fingers crossed its nearly finished so I thought I would pre warn you that it would be appearing on the web site soon. I'll post a message when it finally goes live, but, provided you are subscribed to my updates, you will receive notice when it does.
As usual, if you have any comments good or bad, please let me have them - its how I track and measure myself!!!!
I hope you find it useful.
Edward
Monday, 14 January 2008
Wedding Fair Success Part 3
Hello again. I hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready and raring to get stuck in.
Well for those of you who have been with me for the past couple of weeks, you've made it to the end of my Wedding Fair Success series and, after today, you should have some great ideas to improve the way you attend wedding fairs. For those of you who have joined in the middle, don't worry, you can read all my previous posts below or by clicking on the links to the right ->>>>>
Okay, so I've touched on Planning, Location and Appeal previously, I'm now going to talk about when the doors open and there is nothing more you can do on the preparation.... you're now into sales territory whether you like it or not!
Many people over the last few years have told me that they "don't sell to any of their brides", "I don't believe in it, I just answer a brides questions and let her make up her own mind". Well that's fair enough if that's what you believe, but what these people have described is your basic soft sales pitch.
So what's my point? SALES, that's what it all boils down to!
No matter what you do before or after, you're success or failure at the fair will depend on your sales pitch and how many people you deliver it to.
Bear these points in mind:
Every wedding fair is different.
At the quiet ones your pitch should be long.
At the busy ones your pitch should be short.
Your pitch should instill confidence in your potential customer.
You should have a reason for taking the details of every bride you speak to.
At the fairs I have visited, I have seen suppliers at either end of the spectrum - some who will wander around when their stand is quiet, stopping and speaking to brides and others who spend the whole day sat down behind a table on their stand. Which end of the spectrum are you and which end do you think you should be?
Well that brings to an end my Wedding Fair Success series, to sum up, essentially all a wedding fair is, is a gathering of potential customers, how many of these you turn into actual customers depends on your Planning, Preparation, Delivery and Follow Ups. Provided you address all of these points you will ensure that your wedding fairs are a valuable part of your annual marketing plan.
If you are an Evolution Programme subscriber, you can read further information by visiting the Wedding Fair department on our web site.
I would welcome any feedback that anyone has on this series and I will be releasing a more in depth series of lessons later in the year. If you haven't already, register your details on our website to be kept up to date with all my upcoming releases and receive your free 7 Point Success Plan.
Until next time.
Edward
I haven't completely decided what subjects my next posts are going to cover, so if you are experiencing any particular wedding business issues, drop me a line and let me know and I'll try and cover them in one of my posts over the coming weeks.
Well for those of you who have been with me for the past couple of weeks, you've made it to the end of my Wedding Fair Success series and, after today, you should have some great ideas to improve the way you attend wedding fairs. For those of you who have joined in the middle, don't worry, you can read all my previous posts below or by clicking on the links to the right ->>>>>
Okay, so I've touched on Planning, Location and Appeal previously, I'm now going to talk about when the doors open and there is nothing more you can do on the preparation.... you're now into sales territory whether you like it or not!
Many people over the last few years have told me that they "don't sell to any of their brides", "I don't believe in it, I just answer a brides questions and let her make up her own mind". Well that's fair enough if that's what you believe, but what these people have described is your basic soft sales pitch.
So what's my point? SALES, that's what it all boils down to!
No matter what you do before or after, you're success or failure at the fair will depend on your sales pitch and how many people you deliver it to.
Bear these points in mind:
Every wedding fair is different.
At the quiet ones your pitch should be long.
At the busy ones your pitch should be short.
Your pitch should instill confidence in your potential customer.
You should have a reason for taking the details of every bride you speak to.
At the fairs I have visited, I have seen suppliers at either end of the spectrum - some who will wander around when their stand is quiet, stopping and speaking to brides and others who spend the whole day sat down behind a table on their stand. Which end of the spectrum are you and which end do you think you should be?
Well that brings to an end my Wedding Fair Success series, to sum up, essentially all a wedding fair is, is a gathering of potential customers, how many of these you turn into actual customers depends on your Planning, Preparation, Delivery and Follow Ups. Provided you address all of these points you will ensure that your wedding fairs are a valuable part of your annual marketing plan.
If you are an Evolution Programme subscriber, you can read further information by visiting the Wedding Fair department on our web site.
I would welcome any feedback that anyone has on this series and I will be releasing a more in depth series of lessons later in the year. If you haven't already, register your details on our website to be kept up to date with all my upcoming releases and receive your free 7 Point Success Plan.
Until next time.
Edward
I haven't completely decided what subjects my next posts are going to cover, so if you are experiencing any particular wedding business issues, drop me a line and let me know and I'll try and cover them in one of my posts over the coming weeks.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Free Live Chat Software
I hope you're enjoying my current series of posts on Wedding Fair Success, the last part is going to be posted on Monday, hopefully in plenty of time for you to use for any upcoming fairs.
Before then I just thought I'd let you know about a great piece of free software that I've just come across which could give your website an advantage over your competitors. It's called Volusion Live Chat and lets your website visitors see when you are online and then contact you directly to ask questions about your site.
You can see more details by clicking on the link below.
http://www.volusion.com/livechat_software.asp
Depending on how much you know about changing your website you should be able to install it quite easily, alternatively ask your webmaster to do it for you - it should take him a matter of seconds.
For those of you who are well and truly stuck, I'll hopefully try and post a video instruction clip in the next couple of weeks.
Any problems in the meantime please let me know.
Until Monday.
Edward
Before then I just thought I'd let you know about a great piece of free software that I've just come across which could give your website an advantage over your competitors. It's called Volusion Live Chat and lets your website visitors see when you are online and then contact you directly to ask questions about your site.
You can see more details by clicking on the link below.
http://www.volusion.com/livechat_software.asp
Depending on how much you know about changing your website you should be able to install it quite easily, alternatively ask your webmaster to do it for you - it should take him a matter of seconds.
For those of you who are well and truly stuck, I'll hopefully try and post a video instruction clip in the next couple of weeks.
Any problems in the meantime please let me know.
Until Monday.
Edward
Monday, 7 January 2008
Wedding Fair Success Part 2
Hello again and thanks for visiting back to check out part 2 of my Wedding Fair Success series.
Hopefully the January blues aren't hitting you as hard as they are me, and you have found it in yourself to give my first post some thought, maybe you've even come up with a killer "icebreaker" for your next fair or a surefire way to get a brides attention at your stand?
No? Don't worry, although I'd still recommend that pay some serious attention to your fair planning it's this part and the next which are the really valuable ones.
Unless you're very lucky, you'll find yourself competing against someone else supplying the same product or service as you at almost every fair, even if you've got no direct competition, you're in an ongoing battle to get visitors to pass your stand first and foremost and then stop to talk to you.
Now there are ways in which you can help maximise your exposure to passing guests and then increase the chances that they'll stop and pay attention to your stand. Some of this will go back to my previous post on Planning, so if you haven't read it already, pay attention now.
There are two point which you need to consider to ensure that more of the visitors at the fair stop at your stand, Position - where you are located, and Appeal - does your stand look interesting.
Position - Think about the venue of the fair and try and work out where the best positions will be for capturing visitors and then request that you're stand be positioned in one of these locations. Obviously this will need to be done beforehand to avoid disappointment, unless you want to take a chance and get up extremely early on the day.
Appeal - Think about the appeal of your stand. Does it draw attention? Is there something of intrigue which will help stop a bride in her footsteps? Is it clear what it is you are selling or providing?
Bear these two points in mind and you can be sure to increase the number of brides that stop and speak with you on the day.
If you are a subscriber to the Evolution Programme there are articles available on both of these subjects:
Click here to learn more about positioning your stand.
Click here to make your stand more appealing.
There is also my Wedding Fair Supercharger strategy to convert even more visitors to enquiries. Click here for more details.
Remember to check back next week for the final part in this series.
Until next time.
Edward
Hopefully the January blues aren't hitting you as hard as they are me, and you have found it in yourself to give my first post some thought, maybe you've even come up with a killer "icebreaker" for your next fair or a surefire way to get a brides attention at your stand?
No? Don't worry, although I'd still recommend that pay some serious attention to your fair planning it's this part and the next which are the really valuable ones.
Unless you're very lucky, you'll find yourself competing against someone else supplying the same product or service as you at almost every fair, even if you've got no direct competition, you're in an ongoing battle to get visitors to pass your stand first and foremost and then stop to talk to you.
Now there are ways in which you can help maximise your exposure to passing guests and then increase the chances that they'll stop and pay attention to your stand. Some of this will go back to my previous post on Planning, so if you haven't read it already, pay attention now.
There are two point which you need to consider to ensure that more of the visitors at the fair stop at your stand, Position - where you are located, and Appeal - does your stand look interesting.
Position - Think about the venue of the fair and try and work out where the best positions will be for capturing visitors and then request that you're stand be positioned in one of these locations. Obviously this will need to be done beforehand to avoid disappointment, unless you want to take a chance and get up extremely early on the day.
Appeal - Think about the appeal of your stand. Does it draw attention? Is there something of intrigue which will help stop a bride in her footsteps? Is it clear what it is you are selling or providing?
Bear these two points in mind and you can be sure to increase the number of brides that stop and speak with you on the day.
If you are a subscriber to the Evolution Programme there are articles available on both of these subjects:
Click here to learn more about positioning your stand.
Click here to make your stand more appealing.
There is also my Wedding Fair Supercharger strategy to convert even more visitors to enquiries. Click here for more details.
Remember to check back next week for the final part in this series.
Until next time.
Edward
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Wedding Fair Success part 1
Happy New Year
Well we're into 2008 and wedding fair season is just about to get well and truly underway. I've been spending most of my Sunday's since September visiting different fairs and looking at the successes and failures of different exhibitors and the techniques they use. From visiting these fairs and talking to exhibitors on both a professional level and from a customers point of view, I have made a list of the points you need to consider if you want to have all the fun at the fair!
First and foremost, and weeks before the fair you are exhibiting at, you need to plan your attendance at the fair. What do you want to achieve? Are you promoting a special offer or new product? Have you prepared your leaflets and flyers, stand, samples and sales message? Have you got something that will make a bride remember you? What reason has a bride got for visiting your stand?
One thing that stuck me when visiting fairs was the "icebreaker" that seems to be a standard line across the board - "so when is your wedding?" Now I'm not saying that I'm in the same frame of mind as all the brides that visited these Fairs, but my Fiancee Sarah is, and that was one of the top points on her feedback list - is there no one original out there???
Think about this, spend a little time before your fair thinking about something which will make you stand out from the crowd, I guarantee it won't do any harm (provided you stick within the boundaries of social decency!) and even if it gives you just one extra enquiry it has to be more than worth it!
In Part 2 I'm going to touch on raising your exposure at Fairs and getting more people to visit your stand.
For my Evolution Programme subscribers you can view my "Wedding Fair Supercharger" article which gives you an integrated marketing strategy to turn more visitors into wedding enquiries for you.
Click here for more details.
If you have any questions about making the most of your wedding fairs, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Until next time
Edward
Well we're into 2008 and wedding fair season is just about to get well and truly underway. I've been spending most of my Sunday's since September visiting different fairs and looking at the successes and failures of different exhibitors and the techniques they use. From visiting these fairs and talking to exhibitors on both a professional level and from a customers point of view, I have made a list of the points you need to consider if you want to have all the fun at the fair!
First and foremost, and weeks before the fair you are exhibiting at, you need to plan your attendance at the fair. What do you want to achieve? Are you promoting a special offer or new product? Have you prepared your leaflets and flyers, stand, samples and sales message? Have you got something that will make a bride remember you? What reason has a bride got for visiting your stand?
One thing that stuck me when visiting fairs was the "icebreaker" that seems to be a standard line across the board - "so when is your wedding?" Now I'm not saying that I'm in the same frame of mind as all the brides that visited these Fairs, but my Fiancee Sarah is, and that was one of the top points on her feedback list - is there no one original out there???
Think about this, spend a little time before your fair thinking about something which will make you stand out from the crowd, I guarantee it won't do any harm (provided you stick within the boundaries of social decency!) and even if it gives you just one extra enquiry it has to be more than worth it!
In Part 2 I'm going to touch on raising your exposure at Fairs and getting more people to visit your stand.
For my Evolution Programme subscribers you can view my "Wedding Fair Supercharger" article which gives you an integrated marketing strategy to turn more visitors into wedding enquiries for you.
Click here for more details.
If you have any questions about making the most of your wedding fairs, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Until next time
Edward
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)