anyone use them? I have had some luck with
http://www.eventective.com and i also use wedplan.com
anyone know of any others?
wedding wire is a good resource. The brides are down to earth and a bit more "real" than Knot brides. Also, there is a vendors forum, where you can interact and talk with other wedding vendors ... a great way to keep up with what brides are talking about.
I was hooked up with a good number of these sites, and I recommend keeping VERY good records of how many inquiries and leads that turn into orders and the dollar value of those orders. Eventective is designed primarily for folks looking for venues (and oh yeah by the way you can ask for catering info, too). Be careful as you read the lead info. I had one where the bride said, "We already have the place, the food, the photog ... we need a florist and a DJ." Yet she marked "yes, please send me catering info". If she already had the food, why did she expect me to pay $5 to send her catering info???? so just read them carefully.
I've never had a good lead from Wedding Wire. Too many "we are having 200 guests and our cake budget is $200" types. That and the area I am in is grouped in with all of Massachusetts so I had leads from western and southern MA that were useless to me.
I think it's a your mileage may vary type of a thing.
wedding wire is a good resource. The brides are down to earth and a bit more "real" than Knot brides.
Can you elaborate on what you mean about the kind of brides contacting you through theknot.com? I always read the forums there to get a feel for what people in my area are looking for and don't find them to be that much different from other sites' brides. If anything, they seem to be into DIY weddings and doing things on a budget more than some other sites I go to. I'm trying to figure out where to spend my advertising dollars and any extra info you have is really helpful. TIA!
well, a listing on wedding wire is free, so that's the first good thing!
In the brides forum on WW, these brides do not hold Knot brides in high esteem. When they get (a rare) thread that's a little snotty, they pretty much suggest that bride "go back to The Knot". (It's pretty entertaining!)
On WW, the vendors can also post replies on a brides question, unlike the knot. Obviously you don't want to do a hard-sell this way, but offering advice and ideas puts your name out there with them, and can send traffic to your website/blog.
WW brides are as much into DIY as any other bride, but with the added benefit of vendors being able to post on the bride's thread, also, we vendors can help keep them in perspective and keep them a little real.
It's not just a sales lead site ... it's a real marketing tool for you.
I've never had a good lead from Wedding Wire. Too many "we are having 200 guests and our cake budget is $200" types.
Same goes for Decidio.com, big waste of time and money.
well, a listing on wedding wire is free, so that's the first good thing!
and that is a big plus! listings on theknot.com are expensive! I always wonder how you can track the real leads when so many people go to these sites, do research, then contact the vendor directly instead of via the listing's site. Makes it hard to figure out the real ROI on advertising with them.
I have never had a good lead from any of those sources. I have purchased them from several sites and never once has a bride responded to my contact attempts. I sometimes wonder if they send fictitious leads just to make money. The latest one today from Eventective was a wedding for 150 people with a $3000 total wedding budget. I end up deleting most of eventective leads as they generally are from bargain basement brides.
http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/omg-makeup-emergency-one-week-before-the-wedding-vendors-please/c0c5411a17edb665.html
You mean there are arguments on forums OTHER than CC??!?! Tell me it ain't so....
O.M.G. I just read that WW thread. I like disagreeing over here. They are RUTHLESS over there!
OMG... LOL. I'd get in a HEAP-o-trouble over there too. I have a WW account... I think I may have posted in the forums once. Never did I see anything like that though. LOL
well, a listing on wedding wire is free, so that's the first good thing!
I just checked the site statistics for both websites and maybe you get what you pay for... theknot.com got 2 million unique visitors last August, and wedding wire only got 460,000.
Those are really amazing stats... I mean just for the shear number of potential clients coming through. Anyone have any specific pros or cons about the knot to share?
here's an interesting thread on bridal tweet about choosing a site to advertise on
http://www.bridaltweet.com/forum/topics/to-knot-or-not-to-knot-1
sounds like most people aren't getting much return on their investment...
I've heard nothing good about The Knot. No one I know has ever got their money's worth. It's expensive, and when you want to cancel with them they give you a hard time. I think it really depends on where you are. For me... it would make no sense, but maybe if I lived in Boston... but then the cost to advertise with them goes up up up if you are in a metro area.
For me, I spent more time answering pricing questions than setting appointments. Many wanted to know if they had a certain cake design, how much it would cost. I think I got 2 weddings out of 75 - 85 emails. For me, I couldn't justify the cost. Now, I know some vendors who get great results.
I have not advertised with any site yet, so all of this info is really useful. The only thing that I can comment on is that being a bride myself some years ago, and helping my sister plan her wedding this past November, The Knot has some setbacks. I live in a "rural" area, so when I went to search for vendors, the site made me choose vendors from the nearest metro cities...chicago, st. louis, etc...which are all about 3-4 hours from me. Not useful. Same went with my sister.
Maybe it was just because nobody in my area chose to advertise because of cost, but then again, it did not give me a choice except the metro areas to choose from anyway.
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