A major challenge in today’s world of wedding marketing is the veritable unlimited number of choices to invest your time, money and marketing dollars.
Disguised as the wedding-marketing-doughnut are opportunities such as: The newest entry of bridal show or wedding publication into your market, bartering clubs, networking groups, trade associations, directory websites or leads exchange groups.
STOP! These are a ‘fool’s doughnut,’ not an actual ‘wedding-marketing-doughnut,’ These are, in fact the doughnut hole.
Ask your self this question: “Am I doing everything possible to follow up on existing leads, to make an appointment, and close the sale?”
‘Everything possible would mean actions, such as: Making an action plan for exhibiting in a wedding show, freshening its presentation, prepping and training your staff, making appointments (or sales) at the show, following up with phone calls and/or email after the show, offering a wedding showcase at your facility….. Shall I stop now?
If your marketing execution is passive: See who calls in from ads, inquires via the web, or stops by your trade show booth, then you’re kidding yourself.
Any of the aforementioned ‘wedding-marketing-doughnuts’ that will create more leads are not really the doughnut, they are the ‘wedding-marketing-doughnut-hole.’
The ‘wedding-marketing-doughnut’ is lead follow up, precise leads tracking, prospect appointments, closing sales, improving your product or service, tweaking your website, and a couple of dozen other actions.
Bottom line: Most businesses don’t really require more leads. The require incremental improvement in their business, and better execution of the sales process.
Don’t confuse the ‘wedding-marketing-doughnut” with ‘wedding-marketing-doughnut-hole.” It will be a costly mistake.
Costly mistakes can be absorbed in prosperous times. Right now, you can’t afford to throw good money at bad marketing.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog
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October 7th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Andy;
I agree. Too many businesses focus on the doughnut, not the hole, causing an unsermountable amount of wasted time, confusion and frustration resulting in the bottom line not being maximized.
Thanks for the reminder that the best part of any doughnut is the center!