Advertising? The Knot / Wedding Channel ? Elsewhere?

<p>Hello! I am new to these forums and would like to say hi to everyone!</p>

<p>I wanted to know if anyone has ever advertised with The Knot / Wedding Channel websites? I have heard mixed reviews and am interested to know what the majority of posters here thought of advertising with them. I need to find a way to advertise my wedding photography but I can't afford to pay the high prices that advertising with The Knot costs if it isn't worth it. Also, if anyone has any recommendations that they would like to share for advertising and getting clients I would really appreciate it!</p>

<p>Thanks so much,<br>

Anna</p>

<p>Anna, I posted <a title="Marketing" href="00RpT1">this thread </a>yesterday. Doing things like this are SO much more effective and affordable than running ads or being listed on these sites (though you will get some leads from them).</p>

<p>Now, if your particular geographic area has good penetration with The Knot, you may do alright with it. I was not as lucky. I signed on with The Knot a year ago for 6 months, at $100/month for internet only. I posted some great pics and my logo with the listing. I probably got about 8 calls over that 6 month period from the listing, and only booked one actual wedding with it. The problem was that I was getting calls from brides in another part of the state who were looking for someone in that area. My area (Florida panhandle) is lumped in with the east coast area (this is how The Knot does things, instead of having a better division). The Knot doesn't have the penetration in this market that they have elsewhere. I didn't get ONE call from any brides in this part of the state. I had to travel to the east coast to shoot the wedding I did book.</p>

<p>I looked into the Knot awhile ago and chose not to get involved. They did not have the statistics I needed to judge their performance.<br>

I'm using direct mail to reach high-income brides.</p>

<p>How's direct mail working for you, Steve? I'd love to tap into the higher end market.</p>

<p>If you are looking for proven ad platform designed for small business owners who want to generate traffic to their website. Visitors that are actively searching for their product such as "orlando wedding photographer" or tampa portrait photographer..AdWords is very effective. Hope it helps.Art</p>

<p>I won't use the Knot any more. Wedding channel are the same company. Had bad experiences with them in the past.</p>

<p>I know they bring in the brides, but I don't want to be associated with them. Too W-Mart ish.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone! Steve, thanks for linking your thread too - sorry that I didn't see it, great ideas. Art, I like your idea for the AdWords, right now I think you have to use my full name to be able to google me. It's hard trying to start off, especially since I can be impatient! I made a few phone calls today to some local photographers to see if they would be interested in an Apprentice type. If you know of anyone that might be in the Northern Virginia area please think of me! </p>

<p>I am lucky that I have a wonderful friend that is a successful DJ for weddings in my area and have gotten 2 referrals from him. I have found that from the small number of people who have contacted me they seem to have a very unrealistic idea in the price of wedding photography and I am very affordable as wedding photography goes since I am so new! I had one girl tell me that she loved my photos but wanted me to shoot her whole day from 10am - 5pm for $200! </p>

<p>Steve C- My program is new so not a lot of results yet. <br>

Having tried other ways to reach people, I think this is my best chance. <br>

I have an Adwords account = zip.<br>

Had I been born rich I wouldn't have to do it this way :-)<br>

I sent an email to Dennis Reggie asking how he got into the high end- no answer...</p>

<p>I looked at the Knot and decided it was't for the clientel I was after. ( Low budget, proofs and CD's)<br>

WedPlan, Wed Alert adn Craigs List do JUST fine for me.</p>

<p>Don't overlook the concept of networking with other photographers. Shooters in your area will come in all shapes, sizes, types, price ranges, and temperaments. And, each will have a different level of willingness to send folks your way when they're already booked. I've gotten a number of great wedding clients from my fellow peers. I try to seek out only the ones whom I would use to shoot my own wedding in terms of professionalism, quality, and product offerings. Even if they're above or below my price range, it doesn't matter. I run across clients whom I can't serve because of a booking conflict, and I may want to send them to a higher end shooter, or to a lower end shooter, depending on their budget and desires. Knowing and networking with these folks can pay you tremendous dividends, as long as you (and they) are able to understand the concept of working together for mutual success.</p>

<p>If I had all the wedding bookings in town, I'd be dead trying to shoot them all. Any area needs a good talented pool of pros to handle the business, and there will always be clients who need us. Once you and your local peers start seeing each other as part of a win-win situation, and start sending clients to each other, then it's no longer just YOUR marketing efforts winning clients for you; it's the COLLECTIVE marketing efforts of you and your peers winning clients for all. I guarantee, if you seek out these folks and foster that kind of relationship, you'll both win. You'll learn a lot, swap war stories, talk shop, and develop an important pool of backups who could possibly help you with a wedding if you're sick, break a leg, get in an accident, or some other calamity. </p>

<p>I estimate there are 35,000 weddings per year in the metro where I live.</p>

<p>I's stay away from The Knot. Six months and $2000 later, I have yet to get any booked weddings from them. Invest your money elsewhere! I've been trying to cancel but the sales reps have been pushy asking me to reconsider. </p>

<p>"I have an Adwords account = zip."<br>

Steve , just curious what happened? I normally see great result..were you focused on building a list or making the sale? were you targeting your local market or national? Art</p>

<p>Manuel, what area do you live in? Sorry you spent that money without a good result. I was very disappointed that all contracts last a full year with them and that you can only cancel early after 6 months by written notice. It is such a commitment and it was a little bit of a red flag for me that I couldn't have a trial period for a few months. Still I am a bit curious if it might be worth it in my area. In the Wash DC / NOVA area there are 4600 new brides that sign-up per month to the website. It is tempting but I can't afford the risk at this time (getting ready to have a baby). </p>

<p>Networking with other photographers is a great idea. What is the easiest way to meet other wedding photographers in the industry? I called 2 photographers yesterday about apprenticing and I received a call back from one last night and I am going to meet with her. Her website looks fantastic and I am really excited!</p>

<p>Anna</p>

<p>Anna, the best way to network with other shooters is to seek them out through bridal shows, internet searches for wedding shooters in your area, picking up their biz cards in bridal shops and wedding venues and anywhere else brides congregate. And, you'll see that some of them operate studios as you travel around in your town. You should not only talk to the shooters themselves, but do some background research by asking other wedding vendors who they like and why. It's kind of like picking a boyfriend or girlfriend. You want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and assume they're all up to par and above board, but you kinda want to check them out a little too. You would not want to partner up with someone who has a secret reputation for not being such a great service provider, or who might be a jerk in some circumstances. You have to be a good judge of character in all your business dealings, so a referral to a bad vendor doesn't reflect poorly on you later. And there ARE bad vendors out there.</p>

<p>Another good resource is local bridal vendor associations who publish wedding guides. These can be a good place to advertise and network, but I would not invest a huge amount of money in ads, maybe just a smaller ad to have a presence there.</p>

<p>As you apprentice with other shooters and gain experience, you'll transition into a more experienced and established shooter yourself. Then, you'll have others wanting to apprentice with you!</p>

<p>Art- nothing happened. All my search terms were for the local area- SF Bay.<br>

Basically, I don't care because I'm not interested in promoting to "everybody."</p>

<p>Steve,</p>

<p>Your work is awesome..I would have to look at the account details to give you a valid answer as to why your account didnt work in your local market. I could review the data and share the insights with the rest of the community. Happy Holidays,Art</p>

<p>Are: Thanks for the compliment and the offer.<br>

I'm not sure what data I can get. <br>

My words were many variations on "wedding photography san francisco."<br>

I have gotten some hits on Craigslist, but my marketing effort is now targeted strictly at the top 10% of income. If other groups stumble across me, fine.<br>

One thing is that google is not neutral. In big markets, I suspect that those who pay more get more.</p>

<p>Hi Steve,</p>

<p>If you have keywords, ad copy and landing page used. Along with the keywords I would need match type. If you run an ad report and keyword report that has all the data and check all the boxes which includes conversions, transactions etc. Were you tracking conversions?<br>

Happy Holidays!<br>

Art</p>

<p>Steve,<br>

Also I would need to see you geo settings...were you targeting a national market or did you specify San Francisco only? Thanks,Art</p>

<p>Thanks, Art. I'll have to look closer at that because I am interested in things that work. My source for mailings is infousa.com.</p>

<p>Steve,</p>

<p>Sounds good..I will be interested to hear what you find out.<br>

Best regards,<br>

Art</p>

 

<p>Art - I went into my account, which I have not touched for several years. <br>

I was basically an early adopter and it was pretty clunky, so I gave up.<br>

The current version is much better, so I rebuilt it using your suggestions.<br>

Their estimator says that for 25 cents per click-through I should get 1 a day.<br>

50 cents a click-through would get me two.<br>

What rate works for you?<br>

Thanks for the reminder :-)</p>

<p>I advertised with the Knot for a year, and was not impressed-I spent almost $1000, and got maybe 4 or 5 referrals and 1 booking. It may work out alright if you're in a major metro area, but it really didn't work for me-I've gotten much more work from referrals and simple google searches. I haven't tried adwords, but I agree with Art that that may be the way to go-there are far more brides using Google than any of the wedding websites.<br>

One of the major drawbacks of the Knot is that brides have to create an account to do anything. A lot of people don't want to need to jump through hoops just to browse a website. They also provide no tools for advertisers to update their profile or track stats-everything must be done via e-mail.<br>

I just started advertising with onewed.com-it's about 1/3 the price, month-to-month contract, and they provide tools for their vendors to track traffic and update their ads.</p>

<p>Anne,<br>

I have my listing in the Cincinnati/Dayton OH area. There are great opportunities especially in the Cincy area. I've booked many weddings but all came from Google ad words and referrals. The Knot just turned out to be a flop. I definitely could have used the $2K elsewhere. As mentioned above, networking and getting in good with venues are great for business. Best of luck!</p>