Is advertising in the Knot or Wedding Wire worth it?

Hello,

I searched prior posts and did not find anything..

I was wondering if anyone has experiences with either wedding wire or the knot. I was quoted the following prices...

the knot - 157 a mont for basic and 240 for feature. feature guarantees you a spot on the front page. The wedding wire is very similar in pricing.

approximately 3000 a year is a lot of money, but I know at times you must spend to make.

About me... I have been shooting weddings for approximately a year as the lead photographer and I have done shoots for bands and sports for a few years. As I attempt to go further with my craft I am disappointed at the slow pace of getting clients. I have an active social media and I am in the process of offering photo shoot events.

Basically I dont want to waste my money.... so if anyone has any thoughts on these 2 sites i would love to hear them.

I live in Southern NJ if that helps

thousand-word-photo

David

As a southern NJ advertiser in both, let me give you my take. This is only my experience, obviously the experience of others will differ.

1) I get a lot of business from The Knot. I pay a lot to be in the first six listings, and have done so for the past several years. Does it pay for the cost of the ad and then some? Absolutely.

2) I get very little from Wedding Wire. I do not pay for a top spot, but rather just a "featured" listing (which barely puts me on page one). I have a friend shooting over in Philly who swears by Wedding Wire, so his experience is different. Wedding Wire claims that people are finding me in both places and that I shouldn't think less of their service since both places are being "hit". But, when I ask people where they found me (and I do give them multiple options), between The Knot and WW, The Knot wins out nearly every single time. So, why would I pay for both? I'm not likely to continue with a paid listing in Wedding Wire unless some drastic number of weddings come through to me from them between now and the end of my contract.

The challenge is, will your listing pay for itself based on what qualified leads you get and how many of those you actually land? The investment is worth it if you have the means to pay for it as the growth happens. Getting some reviews helps, but ultimately you want to get at the top of the listings in one or the other. Currently I don't find you until page 12 of 14 in the "graveyard" of photographers, so there's no point in staying there if you want business.

These are not the only ways to get business. I would be happy to tell you more, but there is a LOT to talk about. I'm just up the road in Medford. If you want to get together and chat over coffee sometime, I do this full time and have a pretty flexible schedule.

Michael,I appreciate what you said and it will be used with all the other research I have found. Either way I am finding out it is a risk that is needed for hopeful building of the business.

I would enjoy discussing the business... I will contact through your website if that is ok

David

Of course I'd be happy to meet with you. My site is chadwick.photography (with http:// in front of it - I didn't want the site to automatically convert it)

You do have a listing on The Knot, albeit a non-developed one. At least, the name of the studio and the phone number was the same. They sometimes do this so that couples can find a photographer in order to give them a review. It costs you nothing to at least claim it and put some basic information in there. A sales rep from The Knot might contact you if you do, but that's not a bad thing. They can talk to you more about what they can offer. My particular rep is Tara, and she is very good.

Thousand Word Photography