Always adding new wrinkles and updates to his presentation, Andy promises to stir the pot for an audience that has new challenges on its plate, due to the further economic uncertainty of the past few weeks.

If you are interested in attending, just click through to the Las Vegas NACE website, and register online >>

Technorati Tags: Andy Ebon, Las Vegas NACE, Marketing and Selling to the 21st Century Bride, marketing strategy, Wedding Marketing Blogger

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• DJ’s Make An Impression By Cleaning Up Their Appearance: No post has generated more readers and comments. Over 1600 viewed this post, the first day. Over 75 comments. This is worth reviewing, just for the comments.
• Rethink Your Marketing Area Now: This post attacks the issue from a couple of angles. Gasoline prices being one angle; marketing efficiency.
• How Many Wedding Chapels Does It Take To Create A Herd Of Bridezillas?: This story of weddings on 7/7/07 is a true classic.
• Getting Trumped By Unofficial Relationships: This post is a reality check. You can do all the right things, when it comes to networking, and still get aced out. Find out why.
• Las Vegas Wedding Chapel Sued By MGM Mirage and Bellagio: What kind of stupidity gets you sue by two major Las Vegas casino hotels? Read the post.
• Are you really indispensable?: This is as much a post about lifestyle and your business, as anything else. It generated the most emails to me, not so much public comments.
• The art of being a conference attendee: Find out how both planning and mindset will create the best possible scenario for learning and relationship building at conferences.
• Wedding Entertainment can mean Funny Business: Clearly the most whimsical post.
• Your prospect doesn’t care about your product or service: Think you have a magical relationship with your soon-to-be-client? Think again.

Enjoy the posts!!

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: wedding marketing blog

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Andy will be giving his signature presentation, Marketing and Selling to the 21st Century Bride. He has been on a very active speaking schedule in 2008, having spoken in Toronto, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, among others.

Marketing & Selling to the 21st Century Bride

Technorati Tags: Andy Ebon, Arizona, phoenix, Wedding Marketing Blogger, wedding mba

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Whether you’re a bandleader, a mobile disc jockey, a caterer or a dress maker, my guess is that personal pride in what you do, is part of your entrepreneurial make up.

You might talk about the size of your music collection, the square footage in a ballroom, or the thread count in a fabric. All are very important, in your view.

Here’s a newsflash!! Your prospective client couldn’t care less. You are talking about features. Features don’t necessarily translate well. Features, rarely, pass the who cares test.

One has to talk benefits. WIIFM: What’s in it for me?

For example, if you say, our DJ’s carry 25,000 songs on CD to every event, So what? That’s just a feature.

The benefit: ‘We have virtually every possible genre of music. and almost any song, for any possible wedding situation. We will be able to please all of your guests’.

A smart competitor can do you one better. >We carry 25,000 songs, digitally, on our laptops. And while having that much music sounds great, the reality is, during a 5-hour wedding reception, time limits us to maybe 60 songs.

More important than having thousands of songs is that all of our laptops have a wireless connection. Sometimes people forget to tell us about a special song, or something just comes to mind, at the reception. It’s rare, but possible that we won’t have it. However, if it’s available from iTunes, we can download it, and play it, on the spot.

This is one step beyond a benefit. You have shown how your business is able to solve a problem for the bride. It demonstrates the creativity and thoroughness in a business.

Problem solving is something a bride cares about. Avoiding, anticipating, or solving a problem, making her day run more smoothly and stress-free. This is what truly differentiates your business from a competitor, and closes sales.

All businesses in the wedding industry can frame their features and benefits in the form of true advantages, from the bride’s point of view. To the extent that you understand the bride’s vantage point, what interests or concerns her, and address her from that perspective, you will break the bank.

Examine your website and print copy. Listen to what is said on the phone. If it’s just a laundry list of features and benefits, your prospect is likely stifling a yawn.

See the world from her point of view, and things will click. Now that’s wedding marketing that closes sales.

Don’t you agree?

Technorati Tags: benefits, features, indifferent bride, indifferent prospect, wedding marketing

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Mobile Beat online

It was eleven years ago, 1997, when Andy Ebon gave a keynote presentation at the first Mobile Beat DJ conference in Las Vegas.

Earlier this week, he made a return engagement giving two powerhouse presentations on Marketing & Selling to the 21st Century Bride and Wedding Industry Print Ads. Several of the attendees commented that the Print Ad session was both educational and had the comic tone of Jay Leno’s ‘Headlines,’ as Andy harpooned some of the more substandard ads.

On the heels of these presentation, Mobile Beat Owner, Ryan Burger, has asked Andy to speak at the Februrary 17-19, 2008 Las Vegas Mobile DJ Show (topics still to be decided). As well, Mobile Beat will be syndicating The Wedding Marketing Blog on its site, MobileBeat.com.

Technorati Tags: Mobile Beat Las Vegas, Mobile Beat online, print ads, wedding marketing, wedding marketing blog

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Andy Ebon is presenting two seminars at the Mobile Beat Chicago Conference. Mobile Beat Magazine is holding its summer conference in Greater Chicagoland. This confab supplements its anchor convention in Las Vegas, held in February. In 2009, it will be February 17-19 at the Riviera Hotel.

Andy will be making his presentation, Marketing and Selling to the 21st Century Bride, this morning. On Tuesday, his presentation will be, Print Ads That Sell.

Accompanying Andy, on this trip, is Jodi Harris of Sight’n'Sound Events. Jodi will making a presentation, today, on Networking for Business.

Technorati Tags: Mobile Beat Conference, wedding conference

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Among the many presentations and seminars, attendees will be transported to a special design seminar by Preston Bailey.

The Wedding Marketing Network’s own, Andy Ebon, will be giving the keynote presentation and a seminar on website usability.

If you have a wedding industry friend who might benefit from this outstanding conference, let them know about. This is last call!!

Technorati Tags: Andy Ebon, canada, Preston Bailey, professional wedding planners conference, toronto, wedding conference

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While rejuvenating in Honolulu, Jessica and I spent an evening with Dianna at the Dole Ballroom, for its mid-week, after-work gathering, Bump on the Hump. Even on vacation, when I’m around wedding professionals, I’m always curious to hear what they’re doing, thinking, and planning… and what’s different about their market.

About two-thirds of Dianna’s work are destination events… weddings, conferences, etc.,. Because of time and distance, it is more likely, than in other locations, to not have the benefit of an advance visit by a client, before the week of the event.

Dianna has the benefit of experience working on the hotel side, at the Royal Hawaiian and the Kahala Hotel and Resort, prior to venturing out on her own, about two years ago. She also draws from her involvement in local NACE Chapter for her vast knowledge of the vendors and venues through the Hawaiian Islands.

She has a keen sense of precision and communication, both with her clients and vendors. As Dianna is now the buyer of services, as well as someone who influences client decisions, it is the wise vendor that communicates their needs, parameters, and other issues to make her job easier, not more difficult.

Not all independent event and wedding planners are created equal. Seek out the truly qualified ones, like Dianna, in your market. It’s a long term relationship, worth developing.

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The problem with the ‘Britney Bridezilla’ is as much with the people around her, as the bride, herself. Mind you, this is nothing new, just a different way to look at the problem, and address it with the bride.

Anyone who watched the MTV Video Music Awards probably thought several things.

• Too much Britney for too skimpy an outfit.
• She wasn’t properly rehearsed for her dance routine.
• What was the deal with those third-rate extensions?
• We accept lip syncing, but the faux-vocals were executed badly.
• Where were friends and her management team, and why weren’t they coaching her?

In fact, Britney has been fired by her attorney, and this week, by her management team. Over time, she had become completely unmanageable. Perhaps because she had only been hearing ‘yes’ for so long that once she started getting some actual push-back from those around her, she simply didn’t want to hear it.

Unfortunately, too many people around ‘the bride’ do the same thing. “It’s your day,” we exclaim. “You can have whatever you want. It will be perfect.” - NONSENSE!! You owe it to the bride, as a wedding vendor, a family or bridal party member, or just a friend, to not buy-in to this nonsense. To be a good vendor, friend, or adviser, sometimes you must stand up on a table and shout, “NO! You’re wrong. What are you thinking?”

As a vendor, too often, one worries about ‘not making the sale’ or ‘alienating the client.’ Don’t be a weakling. Find a diplomatic, straight forward way to save the bride from her own ignorance or poor judgment.

In the end, she’ll thank you for it.

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The wedding chapel featured in the piece, was the Las Vegas Garden of Love. Since then, their activities have created more bad publicity for the chapel, and the Las Vegas wedding community.

A few weeks ago, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper printed an article by Joe Shoenmann, titled: Walk down aisle preceded by a walk on the wild side. The article chronicles court proceedings that have cropped from ‘Chapel Wars,’ within the Las Vegas wedding community.

That would have been bad enough; however, this morning, the Sun published an article, by the same reporter, titled: Weddings crashed Strip Resorts, suit says - Chapel accused of falsely using Bellagio and Mirage trademarks.

The suit alleges a number of things, including that the Las Vegas Garden of Love performed weddings on the grounds of these hotels, and used photos and logos of these properties on its website, in an attempt to misrepresent a business relationship with Bellagio and Treasure Island (an MGM Mirage property).

On the face of it, these allegations appear to be an all time low in bait-and-switch wedding marketing. It certainly creates a contentious legal dispute of major league proportions. The full court filing is available for download from the Las Vegas Sun website.

Small wedding business are dependent on their goodwill and reputation within their local wedding community. A single relationship with a major hotel, hotel chain or other wedding venue is worth a boatload of referrals and income.

This lawsuit is a cautionary tale. I encourage you to read it, thoroughly, and share it with every wedding business you know.

Often, small wedding business feel like big business pay no attention to them, and don’t understand their contribution to the success of a wedding event. In this instance, the big businesses are paying huge attention, and not the kind one would want.

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