I am currently reviewing my advertising dollars for next year. I have spent most of my money advertising on the The Knot for 2 years. I have currently canceled but not sure if I should start up again. In the beginning I received some calls, but last year I received three leads. Most of my leads are from referrals. I am asking if others have found TheKnot part of their advertising a success.
I just remembered that locating a good videographer and photographer to work with and refer brides to, can be a big help. Have them shoot photos of weddings where you also share the photos, and have at least one video of you performing your services. Having your video (with audio) on YouTube is a help too. Of course, that's for Officiants especially. Putting 12" X 24" magnetic signs on your vehicle works very well for me. Remember that you never should exceed 10 words including 1 phone no. on it. Other drivers cannot read more than that at 55 M.P.H. The colors should be only black & white because they are the wedding colors in advertising and the phone no. should be reversed to make it show better. If you can afford to advertise on a cable network and it's not expensive, have them show your ads after 11:00 p.m. Good Luck, folks and may God Bless you and yours.
Rev. Turcot, thank you for your advice, as I am not new to the wedding industry I am some what new to the whole "SEO" & keywords. My question to you is as a wedding planner what "keywords" would you suggest that we/I focus on to optimize our search engine presence? Thank you in advance for your professional suggestions!
I have just signed up and will give it a try. My thoughts have been mostly like everyone else.....expensive! I'm not locked into a particular time so I can cancel anytime. I'm still trying to find the right marketing tool. Bridal shows are also expensive and have not produced orders...Editorials in bridal magazines has been the best,
I would say not to go with the Knot. Our market is in South Florida -Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach. Last year we signed up for a highlighted position with 1/4 page in print. In the last year we only received 1 solid lead! Here in South Florida brides are choosing referrals far more than any other source. The strongest and most consistent clients have come from vendor and previous client referrals. My two cents- save you money and partner with some vendors you can trust.
Wow, I am so impressed with everyone's replies. I appreciate everyone discussion. I have also spoken to other small business owners in the wedding industry who had listings on TheKnot, and they are considering their options. Also found out listings (I paid $95.00 a month) were ranging from $50.00 for the same listing. I have been looking for a price sheet.
I have been following this discussion too here and on other free wedding vendor sites, all with the same feedback about the Knot. I was contacted by them and was offered $175/month, but could take the special of $120/month if I signed up that week - one year contract, cancellation is possible after 6 months. I would love that kind of exposure but I would like a more targeted market than DIY only. Being in Atlanta, if they base their rates on area of country/state/town I imagine it makes sense that they wanted $175 since Atlanta is a metropolitan area. But I don't have metropolitan pockets.
I love " The Knot ". I am about to add additional markets to my budget. My advertising views are simple. Website clicks.
Once a prospect is on my site, " The Knot's job is complete. In concerns to getting prospects to my site, the job is well
done. Best of luck. Bill.
The knot is WAY to expensive. I am in Houston, Texas. I agree that it's best to have a web person who has a good understanding of SEO or go with a local advertiser.
I wanted to share this with you and perhaps you can make your decision on these facts.. I want to, but it's still a bit pricey for me..
Mickey,
Great speaking with you yesterday. I couldn’t figure out how to send the attached pdf in a word document, but I’ll give you the highlights below.
The Knot has 2,346,000 average monthly unique users
Get Married has 76,000 average monthly unique users
*please view the attached pdf
When you’re ready to invest in the #1 resource for local area brides, here are our rates and my contact information. I’ve attached a snapshot of the San Diego bride above and a new client sign-up sheet when you are ready to join The Knot! The time is now to get your business front and center on The Knot for 2010. We are entering peak engagement season and January is our busiest month for online traffic.
Our rate card rate for a basic internet listing (one image) is $120 per month or $1,440 for the year. However, through year-end if we have a promotion running which gives you two offers to choose from.
ONLINE ADVERTISING (includes The Knot, Wedding Channel and Party Spot):
The “Spring Into Success” Promo (allows you to choose from one of two following options):
OPTION 1: A 20% discount on a basic profile on The Knot/Wedding Channel/Party Spot - $96 Monthly/$1,152 Annually
OPTION 2: or Pay rate card rate of $120 monthly/$1,440 Annually for a basic online profile and receive nine additional photo’s for FREE (a $600 value).
*These rates expire on December 31st.
Here is some additional information on what’s included with being a Knot, Wedding Channel and Party Spot vendor:
· Largest aggregation of brides online
· 3.5x the unique visitors as our nearest competitor (Brides)
· Free listing on the largest wedding planning app on Facebook – Weddingbook (new) – 500,000 apps installed to date!
Our vendors will reach 80% of their local brides in surround-sound with all of these offerings and great added value! We currently have 17,700 brides in San Diego with an average of 1,700 NEW brides registering monthly.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I will continue to keep in touch.
Newsweek: "Other 'wed' sites aspire to be The Knot."
Vogue: "The chicest wed site in cyberspace."
Business Week: "Don't get hitched without The Knot."
Wall Street Journal: "The best-known wedding site on the Web."
We are advertising on Brides.com but approached the Knot to see what they have to offer so we could run parallel campaigns. Cost was going to be 2 1/2 times what we pay Brides. But the big problem was that the rep did not respond to repeated requests to support her pitch with real numbers in writing. If I can't even calculate an estimated cost per lead, then I am not going to buy the verbal advertising pitch. Disappointed, as I have read numerous times how the Knot worked well for other (wedding cake) vendors.
I have never once paid for The Knot (nor will I) and have gotten an average of 3-4 jobs per year from them anyway. I tell my brides if they liked my work to include that information in a vendor review on the forums. I've even had some brides - months after their wedding - respond to other other future brides requesting information on certain types of vendors by endorsing me. My recommendation: use The Knot's forums via your happy brides, and use Wedding Wire (free storefront) for everything else. Wedding Wire has set it up right too, with their vendor reviews, endorsements, and networking capabilities. Besides, like you, referrals are a big part of my business, I'd rather have the brides that come in with a positive mindset already, rather than that possible skepticism or doubt that they have when they don't know if anyone has been happy with your work. Does that make sense?
