The view from Cili Restaurant

My friend, wedding photographer, Brandon Mulnix, is in Las Vegas for a conference at the Red Rock Hotel & Casino.

He had an early flight out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, changed planes in Detroit, and arrived at 10:30am in Las Vegas. My math said it would be lunch time. Tonight, we’re planning a night on-the-town, so I wanted to give him a different sense of Las Vegas lunch.

I took him to Cili Restaurant (just a couple of hundred yards from the famous Las Vegas welcome sign), just South of the Mandalay Bay Resort, on Las Vegas strip. The restaurant makes you feel like you’re on the edge of golf course in Hawaii. The service was great and the menu, outstanding. The day was quiet, and one of the dangers of a slow business day, is sometimes service drops off. Not at Cili. They are consistently excellent.

When you’re showing a friend and wedding industry professional your town or taking a local contact to a business lunch, it’s important to have a couple of ‘go to’ places that will always get it right. That is one aspect of: The Art of the Business Lunch.

What are your  favorites, and why.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Technorati Tags: art of the business lunch, cili restaurant, las vegas welcome sign, mandalay bay

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May 2009 be filled with good health and prosperity for you and those who surround you.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Technorati Tags: Andy Ebon, Christmas, seasons greetings, wedding marketing blog

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The Power of the Platform

NOW ON SALE: The Power of the Platform - Speakers on Success. The Power of the Platform is now shipping to all corners of the United States and Canada. Other select countries will be added shortly.

Published by the Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau, The Power of the Platform features Andy Ebon (Blogging Your Way To Success) and 20 other A-list Authors-Speakers.

Speaking luminaries such as, Les Brown, Jack Canfield, Amanda Gore, Dr. Tony Alessandra, and many more, share their success and motivational secrets.

Book release - Holiday Special: The retail price for one book is $19.95 (USD). Through the end of 2008, Priority Shipping and Handling (2-3 business days) is included at no extra charge.

Canadian Pricing is $24.95 (Canadian Dollars); also free shipping. In plain English, SHIPPING IS FREE, until further notice.

No minimum or maximum copies of the book need to be purchased to qualify for FREE SHIPPING. ==========

United States Customers - $19.95 United States Dollars per copy - Free Priority Shipping

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Canadian Customers - $24.95 Canadian Dollars per copy - Free First Class International Shipping

Technorati Tags: Amanda Gore, Andy Ebon, blogging your way to success, Dr. Tony Alessandra, Jack Canfield, Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau, Les Brown, Speakers On Success, the power of the platform

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Have a great holiday, reconnecting with friends and family.

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: Andy Ebon, thanksgiving, wedding marketing blog

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Eat ham!

In the United States, this is Thanksgiving week. Most people are off work on Thursday. Many people have a 4-day holiday.

In fact, many people take a half-day or full day off on Wednesday. Now we’re talking.

There is one drawback. December 1st is next Monday. No buffer, no breather, no nothing.

You have some choices this week. You can land on the couch. Watch some parades and football. Watch even more football. Fight the crowds at the every mall and retail store, as you strive to save buck or two.

Here’s an idea: Make a plan

In a week such as this one, there are generally as many demands on your time. Why not create a nice mix, with some uncommitted time, too.

• Get clerically caught up, ahead of December.
• Do some Christmas shopping online.
• Call some old friends and reconnect.
• Start your marketing plan for 2009.
• Spend quality time, not just ‘time,’ with your family and close friends.
• Surprise someone you’re not that close to, with a heartfelt hug.
• No matter what your overall state of your fairs, ponder your good fortune.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

One more suggestion, after watching the irrepressible Sarah Palin pardoning a turkey…. EAT HAM!!

Technorati Tags: ham, quality time, Sarah Palin, turkey, wedding marketing plan

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It’s also a day when many service business are not open at all, or not open regular hours. One often does find the workaholic business owner at the office on Black Friday, working on long overdue paperwork. Is that you?

It occurred to me, today, that you might want to have your own Black Friday Promotion for wedding or holiday business. I’m suggesting that you, specifically, target this promotion to open leads that have not yet converted to sales.

Pick a dollar number you’re comfortable with, perhaps $25, $50 or $100, depending on the nature of your business. Or, tie the dollar amount to the size of the quote/sale.

Then, send an email or electronic postcard to your prospect, offering that discount or added-value, only if they call you on Black Friday, during specific hours.

This is a soft business day, and you might just turn it into promotion that closes hundred or thousands of dollars worth of sales.

Stand out from the crowd. Do something cool.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: black Friday, Christmas, company parties, holiday shopping, retail biz, sales promotion, wedding

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Rather than just a single field, fill-in-the-blank, asking: How did you find out about us?, you need more.

The strongest strategy is relatively large block of check boxes listing the various ways a person may have heard about you, or encountered  you. Here’s the subtle side. The list should not just include those places you actually advertise or exhibit, but ALL the places you could be advertising in market.

For example, if there are three bridal shows, and you only exhibit in one or two, list all three. If there are five publications, and you advertise in two, list all five.

For one thing, your competitors will have nothing to learn about your promotional practices from this, simply because you have listed everything.

For another, you will get some false positives, and that’s good. People will check boxes for some places you do not advertise. That should tell you that prospects are reading those publications, visiting those websites, or attending those bridal shows, even if they met you someone else. If you see a particular choice coming up (falsely) again and again, you should consider advertising there.

For search engines, list the big ones: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and then a box for other… with a fill in field to specify which one.

For referral sources, list check boxes for: Venue referral, wedding professional referral, or personal referral… again, with a fill in field to specify who.

What you will learn: You will get a much more accurate sense about your name recognition and visibility, and the screening/searching habits of your prospects. Furthermore, when someone lists a referral, from a specific person, you have a much hotter lead. And, you have a conversation point. Beyond that, you know you are getting referred by a specific person, and can acknowledge that referral, whether or not you get the business.

Better marketing decision: We think we know how business finds it way to our door, but we really don’t… unless you keep score. Accurate score.

Using these lead sourcing methods will give you a much better body of knowledge when it’s time to make advertising decisions.

Once you develop the list of lead sources for you online inquiry form, it’s about 1-hour job for your webmaster.

What are you waiting for?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: advertising ROI, Andy Ebon, database, lead sourcing, website, wedding marketing

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The Mad Greek promotes itself with an interminable number of billboards and roadsigns. I would guess there are 50 between Las Vegas and Baker.

I stop here but it’s convenient, different, and serves Greek food. My late mother, born in Athens, would be both amused and irritated by its lack of authenticity and presentation. It IS blue and white, throughout, symbolizing the colors of the Greek flag. It has tacky signs, celebrity signs, and chotckes, from top to bottom.

Maintly, I come here to take a break from the drive, and to enjoy the gyro and eggs. The hash browns are a rectangular slab, right out of the package. The meal is served on plastic plates with plastic knife and fork.

Yet, billboards tout gyros at The Mad Greek as The Best Gyros in the World. They’re OK. I enjoy them enough, but they might not even be the best gyros in Baker, CA.

‘Best’ is hyperbole. It’s another cliche, best left off your ads. If you won the Best of Oshkosh Award from the free weekly periodical, that’s nice, but it means zip. Your brother-in-law, and every other friend and relative could write you in for this meaningless recognition. Don’t think your prospects are that stupid.

Calling yourself ‘The Best’ is puffery and foolishness. Enter and win an industry award. Now that’s something to shout about.

… I can just hear the strains of my mother’s voice lecturing one of the authentic Hispanic wait staff in this almost authentic Greek cafe about the insufficient amount of honey on the baklava. My mom would be speaking Greek, they wouldn’t understand a thing, but would smile and nod. I would be stifling a giggle.

Best, indeed

Before you utter that 4-letter B-word, realize that, at best, it’s subjective. Just do a great job, and be distinctly different. Best is for self-delusional fools. That isn’t you, is it?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: Baker, baklava, best, better, California, gyro, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Mad Greek Cafe

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When he told them he was going to become an on-premise maker of donuts for weddings and special events, surely they must have thought he had completely lost his mind.

Crazy? Maybe crazy like a fox. There is no greater sensory experience than smell. I can vividly remember my first school field trip to a local New York City bakery as thought it were yesterday. The vats of dough being kneaded were the visual wonder. The overwhelming waft of bread baking just begged for a ton of butter to be spread on top.

Visiting the chocolate factory in Hershey, PA, with my parents is another timeless event. Seeing the tubs of chocolate being stirred with shiny, lacquered oars coaxed me with thoughts of diving in.

Experiencing that sensation of smell can tie your memory to a time and place, just as permanently as the recollection of hearing a favorite song for the first time.

So Mike Hogan’s Party Donuts is bringing the equipment and bakers directly to his clients’ event to create those sensory memories of the moment. Friendly bakers and fresh, hot gourmet mini-donuts made on-site. Guests can add toppings to suit their own personal taste.

OK, just try to tell me you don’t have the smell and taste of donuts triggered from your memory. Maybe it’s time to give Party Donuts a once-over.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: Andy Ebon, diversification, donuts, doughuts, mike hogan, party donuts, San Diego, wedding marketing blog

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Wedding Industry Professionals Association (WIPA)

There are many wedding organizations offering networking meetings, conferences, education, networking, and/or certification throughout the United States: ACPWC, AFWPI, June Wedding, Inc., Weddings Beautiful, and ABC to name just a handful.

While all these organizations serve their members, to varying degrees, none of them are actually a non-profit trade association (also known as a Business League).

What’s the difference you ask? A non-profit trade association, such as ISES or NACE, and now, WIPA, is owned by its members. It is not operated by an individual or partnership who own the organization, in perpetuity.

The average member of any of organization, national or local, may not care whether the belong to a non-profit trade association; however, it is more than a technicality. It’s a way of doing business.

Further, there is dominant wedding association, nationally. There a variety of certifications, which have their own value, but there is not uniformity among them.

WIPA is the first national non-profit (501c6) trade association created specifically for providers of wedding products and services.

The purpose of WIPA is to educate the public about the value of employing qualified wedding specialists, to set and monitor performance standards for its members, and to provide members with opportunities to enhance their professional growth.

Pioneered by 36 leading authorities in the wedding business, WIPA was introduced to a select group of bridal specialists recently at The Vintage Estate in Napa Valley, California, on October 1st, and at the headquarters of Wildflower Linen in Southern California on October 7th.

WIPA’s Founding Sponsors and Members read like a Who’s Who list in the wedding industry – Auberge du Soleil, Denon & Doyle Entertainment, Good Gracious! Events, Paula LeDuc Fine Catering, Penton Media (publishers of Special Events magazine) The Carneros Inn, and many other premiere providers.

Joyce Scardina Becker CMP

“We recognized the need for higher level education and professional development opportunities for those employed in the wedding industry,” explains WIPA’s first President, Joyce Scardina Becker, an international award-winning wedding planner and author.  “Our industry has just risen to professional status over the past 20 years, and many unskilled planners and suppliers have been starting new wedding careers at a rapid pace.  There’s an overdue need for a strong code of ethics, and WIPA will set the standards of performance for the wedding industry.  The expert members in WIPA are demanding it.”

As a non-profit association, WIPA is run by its members, who understand what it takes to produce a wedding. WIPA brings together professionals from all wedding disciplines, including cake designers, caterers, entertainment companies, florists, hoteliers, journalists, photographers, rental companies, videographers, wedding planners and many more.

This solid peer network helps WIPA’s professionals produce outstanding results for brides and grooms.  Other national membership service organizations exist in the wedding industry, but they are for-profit entities, in business to generate a monetary return on investment for their owners.  WIPA has been established to satisfy needs that are unmet by the for-profit wedding groups, primarily through superior education, mentoring, certification, career advancement and business support.

WIPA is moving to the forefront of wedding industry education at The Special Event 2009 Conference, which will take place at the San Diego Convention Center on January 27-30, 2009.  At this annual conference that attracts 6,000 event industry professionals from around the world, WIPA members will present six educational seminars on important wedding-related topics.  For more information about The Special Event 2009, visit its website.

The long term plan for WIPA includes local chapters and its own national conference.

Next week, as part of its rollout, WIPA will be hosting launch events on Monday, November 17th, and Tuesday, November 18th, in San Diego and Santa Monica, respectively. These launch events are designed to share information about the benefits of joining this new association.

Monday, November 17th
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina
1380 Harbor Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92101

To RSVP for the San Diego event, please email: jessica@eventsbydesign.com

Tuesday, November 18th
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Fairmont Mirarmar Hotel & Bungalows
101 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401

To RSVP for the Santa Monica event, please email: paula@weddingsbyct.com

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SPECIAL COMMENT: This is ground breaking news. The launch and success of WIPA can be an excellent enhancement to the United States wedding industry. It’s important to find out about, attend launch events, join, and be involved. In this way, wedding professionals can earn both the knowledge and credentials to serve their clients and peers with utmost integrity and ability.

Your reaction, comments, thoughts, and questions are especially welcomed on this news.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: ABC, ACPWC, AFWPI, Andy Ebon, ISES, June Wedding Inc., NACE, The Wedding Marketing Blog, wedding association, wedding trade association, Weddings Beautiful, WIPA

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