Marketing in this economy....

[Margaret]

Morning all, ok things are a getting difficult in the economy and Im wondering what your doing differently to market your business.

Me, I find myself
*mailing more postcards to potential clients
* using email even more than in the past
* as an event planner, I find myself doing more phone calls after the initial meeting than I have in the past

What are you guys doing differently?

[Telli Griffin]

Margaret,

If you have some time can you explaine to me how to do postcard mailings. I have been thinking about doing one with the holidays comming up but I am not sure how to go about it.

Thanks,
Telli

[Margaret]

Hi Telli, to find clients, I use the mailing list that I get from AFWPI to mail to potential brides and I have others that I mail to businesses in my area that may need an event planner.

If your looking to do a holiday mailing, are they going to your clients or to look for new clients?

[Telli Griffin]

Sorry it took so long for me to reply, I don't really have a client base to market to. In my area we have alot of "old money" and horse ranches. I wanted to market to them for holiday parties

[Sandy Ouellette]

Hi Telli,
Your post card mailing for holidays are a great idea. Send to past customers, or the ones who have pre-registered with you. You can also send to list of brides you get from bridal shows.
I send holiday cards to everyone who has been a customer from the time I opened my doors in 2006. I have another post card that I use for the bridal show girls, just highlighting my products.
I also send anniversary cards to past brides. This keeps the door opened for when their friends or sisters are getting married.
When you get a post card in the mail, usually people turn it around to read it, that's why they are successful.
Sandy

[Telli Griffin]

Thank you!

[Sandy Ouellette]

I rotate my advertising. One week I advertise in CT, the next week in MA and the next week in RI. The fourth week I mail out post cards. I also utilize as many free posting as possible. Everyday I am searching for the sites that I can advertise on for free. Even if that means adding a link on my web page.
The post cards are mailed to the people who I have either pre-registered at my store, or those who registered on my web site.
I also donate a tuxedo at various local events. At least my name is being mentioned in print and on radio. The tuxedo is already in stock, so actually, I have no cost with that.
During big events in town, I do gorilla marketing. I have a high school girl and boy dressed up in a wedding dress and tuxedo walking around handing out my brochure.

[Lena Gott]

Wow, Sandy, your guerilla marketing idea is fabulous! I'll need to get creative like you. What kind of big events do you do this at?

[Margaret]

This is wonderful way of thinking out of the box. Good for you!

[Eco Chic World Weddings]

I have found myself making myspace pages for my sites to connect with musicians and other vendors.

I have begun networking more with vendors.

I offer many more free consultations.

I am marketing myself in several locations, where I have teams of people to work with.

I am going to have my teams post our information at the local florist shops and other creative places.

I sign up with all the free advertising wedding websites and have bought some leads from Decidio.

I am noticing where people are spending money on weddings... California and Maryland...

I am opening up to different circles of people to market my services to like Green Weddings, Organic Weddings, Destination Weddings, Chic Weddings, and so forth.... Making a new website for each idea. I have made websites for my photographers, my venues, my wedding musicians and posted on all the free sites.

I am offering vendors tips for having their clients book with me, calling and emailing the information and having my team go by with our business cards and information.

I am networking on one of the wedding websites forums and making good friends with some of the brides, and learning a lot about what brides want.

I am learning about the press. I have been in one green wedding article, have been mentioned on the press release for an opening of one of my designers Eco Clothing Store. I am responding to 4 other offers for articles on Wedding Bartering, Carbon Neutral weddings, a green weddings book author.

I am posting craigslistings and have the most response from this.

I am looking into offering consultations to corporate companies on how to go green in the wedding industry and beyond.

I am spending way too much time in marketing and promotion and not as much time wedding planning and officiating as I would like.

I now have clients coming to me for marketing and web design. Not the field of my dreams. I love wedding planning and design and officiating!! The brides either have a lot of money or hardly any. Lots of DIY brides right now. Teaching them that our skills and services save them time and money is my main focus. Lets promote the wedding planners. We really do save them soooo much money and stress in their relationships and time!!!


Thanks for the Question and Discussion~~ looking forward to learning what others are doing.

[J_Rothstein_Jewelers]

I am listing our name on every type of internet yellow page, Yahoo & Google maps page, Merchant Circle, hotfrog, etc. that I can find, & I'm asking our customers to write reviews about our services. In this economy, it's all about good service, & customer referrals. We are also writing more postcards for our upcoming events, but I forgot about thank-you's... !