I just find it interesting that when I was considering (and did) signing a contract with The Knot that the people there were extremely accessible via email and phone.

Now that I am not pleased with my subscription and am trying to get ahold of them to make sure my account is cancelled the second my 6 months is up, I find that, so far, they are not returning emails or calls.

Interesting eh?

Will keep trying. I was warned about this! But the lady insisted the only complaint people had was that they did not cancel their subscription early enough so were charged an extra month. So I figured "No problem". But its kinda hard if they are not replying to communications!

Grrrrr. I should have known better than to sink $150/month of my limited funds into this thing.

So are you not getting business from it?

No, I'm really not....I've been polling my customers so far and I haven't heard The Knot mentioned one time, since November when the ad started. I've gotten leads from WeddingWire and then mostly just Google searches to my website or word of mouth.

Any advertising takes time to start working. That's the nature of advertising. People also start planning their wedding in phases...and cakes are farther down the line. November to now is not that long. I've booked most of my business through theknot. but i'm not with them anymore. Mainly because I want to try other things and I know I can go back knowing it will work for me.

Anyway...that wasn't what I originally wanted to talk about. With something like that...and email is better because you have it in writing (with a time and date stamp) when you want your contract cancelled. So if they don't follow up...you have more power behind you.

I've done both email and left a voice mail so far...

I find, when I have someone like that who is, um, unavailable to cancel certain things, if they have a menu list of options when you call in...

I call their line and select the choice for "To order new service", and by golly--!--someone picks right up. Then at least I can get a person, and go from there.

You might want to wait, like she said, though and see what comes as the season progresses.

I did the Knot for a year and didn't get one lead. The girls in our area seem to use the chat room and never even look at the vendors who advertise on there. Word of mouth is definetaly the best advertising you can have.

I had the same problem. They were quick to set it up, but when I wanted to cancel, I had to e-mail them a few times to get it done. Watch your credit card statement and jump on that if they continue to bill you.

I also found the Knot to be a waste of money. I have my web site set-up so that I can see where people are linking to me from, and I ask my customer directly. It provided very little traffic. Definitely not worth it!!

I had the opposite problem. I called wanting to find out what it would cost if I was listed under cakes AND catering. I got a call from their accounting dept to confirm that I wanted to cancel?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to ADD! But while I had her on the phone, I asked to change my logo on my ad. She said she'd pass the request to the person who does that and within 24 hours I had an email from the person and within 24 hours after that, I had the change done.

I have great sales folks who handle Indiana!

I spend $1200 a year with them and in 2008, I booked $7500 worth of business. My listing is under "cakes", not catering. I rec'd an average of less than 2 inquiries a month from the Knot ... but the ones I booked were more than enough to pay for it.

One of my Knot brides sent me 2 or 3 brides from the Knot.

I agree that it takes time. I always give any new advertising vehicle at least a year before I determine if it was worth it or not. If I were selling shoes, it would be a different measuring stick because people buy shoes any time they feel an inkling to do so. People buy wedding cakes when they have a wedding, and it may take a year for them to do so.

True...but the monthly charge is such a large percentage of what I actually profit, since I'm still small scale, doing this at home.

I need to find a smaller scale way to get weddings I guess, at least for now. Maybe I'll try again later.

I hate to hear anyone had "not great" results with The Knot. It has been great for me.

My first year I had the ad (and I was still working at home), 12 of my 16 bookings came from there. I spent $1000 and booked $8900.

The second year I booked $6700.
Third year, only 5 bookings from The Knot but it was slightly over $4000.

This ad has more than paid for itself many, many times over.

Are you past the 6 month time period you mentioned earlier? I know someone who just does a stop-payment on their automatic debits to cancel any service or bill she's done with. She said one non-payment and they either call her or cancel the transaction.

No I'm not past it but they are very strict about finding out ahead if you plan to cancel, so I just want her to know its not working out for me yet.

I know a girl in my area who had good success. Not sure what the deal is but maybe its just slow going for me. Maybe connected with the catering packages I mentioned in a few other posts.

I know it works for some, and not for others...just wish they would be better returning emails/phone calls, even when its not all positive and bringing in money for them. They would do better business that way.

I also had very little luck with the Knot. In a years time, I received four calls from the ad. (I also survey) I went to a talk on the best way to advertize and they said the Knot is the kind of place where brides go to visit the forems and get ideas and to look at photos. They normally do not use the vendor areas.

I found advertising with local companies not only cheaper but better leads. Its funny, I have gotten a ton of great reviews on Wedding Wire, but never got a bride from there. Most of my brides are either from the wedding shows I go to or word of mouth or google. I considered doing a print ad this year, but the price was roughly 2500 a year and I just didnt see it worth it yet...(I only do 100 or so weddings a year and that would put a big dent in my budget!)

I NEED to do bridal shows, they are very expensive here but I will have to start. There is one I do that is a show/competition but its probably not as effective as a real show.

I have gotten one wedding from WeddingWire and almost got a second one until the lady was like "Oh never mind, our caterer is providing the cake".

You do wedding shows to get your product in front of brides, but mostly to get the contact list.

Contact list: I send an email to every bride on the list....

"Thanks for attending the XYZ Bridal Show. I hope you had an opportunity to speak with all of the vendors and get some great ideas for your wedding.

now is the time to start planning the details, so I invite you to give me a call to schedule your no-obligation sampling appointment right away. Our sampling appt calendar fills up quickly after these shows, so the sooner the better!

Attached is information about our cakes and catering. Let me know how I can help make your wedding day extra special!"

That's another thing...since I'm "just me" in my home, I do charge $25 for tastings although that charge goes towards the cost of the cake if they book.

I'm finding its not really "cool" to do that though... but on the other hand I can't just make cake for every bride who wants to taste free cake. I'm not really sure how to balance it to protect myself yet attract brides.

Since I do the tastings in my home, its also a big deal to get rid of my four kids and make sure the house is completely presentable...again, another reason I can't afford to give an hour and free cake to anyone who wants to add me to their list of 20 cake vendors...

Can there be a happy medium, esp if I were to do a contact list and do alot of emails?

I guess an open house would be the happy medium...right?

You can make cupcake samples and then take the left over cupcakes to businesses with your card. Just tell them you had them left over from a tasting and they will love you for ever and you might get an order or two.
I used the min-tart pan for my last samples. It worked out great and I could freeze the rest for the next time.
This is a good topic because I was wondering how much business you get from those sights. I'm a member of weddingwire and I get some leads but no bookings or tastings.
Jen...

The shows here are expensive too, but I usually book more then enough weddings off them to be worth it. There is a huge show for two days in January that EVERYONE attends and I book half my season at that show alone.

I not only use the contact list, but I have brides sign up for tastings at the show. (we have a ballot box type thing there) I have even booked weddings at shows! I also offer a show special, if you book at the show, you get a free cutting set or cake topper or grooms cake..whatever you want to do.

I make 10x10 cakes and cut them up for tastings..I only do them on specefic days and do them back to back. Most Sundays I will have 10 tastings in a row, which uses up all the cake. Charging for a tasting is not the norm around here, unless you are a high end bakery and brides are delighted they dont have to pay for the tasting. I think they feel less pressure to book too, and you know what? they then book!

Maybe that's my problem...I"m letting my brides choose the tasting flavors, which means every time its a different kind of cake. Maybe I should just have certain tasting flavors on hand and that way I could much more easily offer free tastings...although not as customized as I was having them...?

I do think I lost a tasting order recently because of the $25 fee and also because my baby screamed right next to the phone while the lady was on it. *sigh*

Hey Kitagrl,
Sorry to hear you're not having luck with Philly Knot. I've been advertising there for about a year and a half and have gotten lots of business from it. The calls do slow up between November and January, so if you have a few more months on your contract you might see it pick up a bit. I don't know what the deal is with the rep not calling back. I haven't tried to contact them since I signed up.

I did a few bridal shows in the area last year and didn't think they were worth the money. There was one in particular that was horrible and very cheesy and I would never work with them again. The other was nice and I think I maybe made back my money with a groom's cake, but that was it. Although I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't follow up with the contact list. That probably would've made a big difference.

Oh...and Happy Belated Birthday!!

What I've noticed is that most brides do not use the "E-mail Us Now" or "Click Here To Contact Us" links to contact me when they see me on The Knot...They usually follow the link to my website and contact me via my online form. The only reason I know that people are finding me on The Knot is because I have a section on my online form that asks them how they found out about me and they usually mark the Knot or Internet Search. I've ever only had 2 people contact me through those links on the Knot. Perhaps people are finding you on The Knot but they aren't remembering by the time you ask them or they consider that to be their Internet Search.

Maybe you could do something like an Online Form for contacting you and going the same route of asking when they submit it?

Good Luck,

Tammi

Thanks...I do ask all my customers where they got my name from...

Thanks for the heads up, I was thinking of contacting them.