As of late yesterday, almost 60 wedding professionals from Greater Cleveland (including Akron, Youngstown, and beyond) had chosen to invest one business day and a few dollars in Wedding University, a 4-seminar presentation by THE Wedding Marketing Authority, Andy Ebon.

Today’s Bride, a full service wedding marketing company (bridal show, magazine, and website) is hosting the wedding marketing seminars.

The all-day seminar series will cover a variety of topics designed for wedding industry businesses, including: Website Usability, Effective Bridal Show Promotion, Print Ads That Sell, and Building A Focused Social Media Plan. The day will be capped of with a catch-all, question and answer session.

This is an 11th hour call to spread the word to any wedding industry peers you have in the Greater Cleveland market.

Today’s Bride is a member of BSPI (Bridal Show Producers International).

Andy travels North America and beyond, presenting single seminars, half-day and full-day sessions, as well as speaking at national and international industry conferences. To inquire about bringing The Wedding Marketing Authority to your market, please feel free to inquire via this site or call 702-227-9926.

Cleveland Rocks!!

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Many wedding industry business cards pass through my hands. Many emails descend into my computer. Recently, I started to notice a disturbing trend in email addresses.

An alarming number of email addresses reek of amateur hour. One wouldn’t show up at a networking event in T-shirt, cutoffs and flip flops, would one? Why would a business use an equally lame email address?

Without busting actual addresses or people, let me construct some fictitious email addresses and then explain their various shortcomings.

• janesbakeshop@aol.com: This person shows a website address on her business card as janesbakeshop.com. AOL is something almost all of started with; however, it is not a business email address. It makes you look as though you are operating out of your garage. Even if you are operating out of your garage, one should move on to jane@janesbakeshop.com. Don’t close the AOL account. In fact, it’s good to use an AOL browser to see how people look at your website. AOL now includes email forwarding features.
• midnightmama9696@yahoo.com: I’m glad this person has a private social life or nickname; however, it doesn’t look very cool when filling out an industry order form and doesn’t show well on a business card. This kind of email should be strictly private.
• joesdjandweddingofficiant@gmail.com: This person has multiple businesses and is trying to wrap them into one free email address. He should have two websites: joesDJservice.com and weddingofficiantjoe.com – He should maintain them as separate business identities. For that reason, Joe might get a personal domain, such as joesmith.com to use for ALL communication. His standard email might then simply be joe@joesmith.com. I recommend having a Google email account (gmail) as a business backup, but it does not support the name or domain of your website, correctly.
• tennesseeweddingdiva@hotmail.com: Don’t use the word Diva, unless it is part of your business name or domain name. NEVER use a Hotmail account. Hotmail accounts have a high incidence of being used to send spam. Consequently, your email to a prospect or customer has a much higher chance of being directed to a spam folder or blocked, entirely. If this business has the domain tennesseeweddingdiva.com, then the email should be maryclaire@tennesseeweddingdiva.com.
• bayareamuseum@msn.com: Abbreviations are tricky. Is this Green Bay, Tampa Bay, San Francisco Bay, or some other bay? As well, it’s an msn.com account; not a real domain. In the real world, it should be something like events@tampabaymuseum.org
• supercalifragilisticexpialidocius517@theworldsbestdisneydj.com: Annoying, long email addresses are counterproductive. Short, sweet, and easy to remember is the way to go.

Your email address should be simple and reinforce your domain name. AndyEbon@WeddingMarketing.net or simplify further by just using your first name. This is about being explicit, memorable and projecting a professional image.

Here’s the deal. If you use a sub-standard email address for your business, change it, today. Then, modify your email listings, everywhere, to the new address. Notify your contacts. It’s not that difficult; just takes some time. Tough!

If this is you, these steps should have taken place long ago. NO EXCUSES!! Just get it done! Amateur Hour is over.

And if one of your friends is a guilty party on this matter, please forward this blog post address to them. They will thank you.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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The Magic Wedding Marketing Pill

Some of the recurring questions I get, typically at seminars and conferences is: “What’s the right social media to do first?” or “Should I cut back on print advertising?” or “How come my website isn’t working like it used to?” or “How do I find the time to understand all the latest technology?”

All these question are, in essence, the same question. “Andy, could you please give me a list of the optimum marketing methods to make my business successful? I need the Magic Wedding Marketing Pill.”

Sorry, no-can-do. Answers in Wedding Marketing are not that simple.

I taught college for eight years, and one important thing I learned is that students were look for THE right answer. Sometimes I would present a real life business situation that I had experienced. Along with the scenario, I would present four or five possible alternative solutions to address the problem. The class would discuss it, and then would vote on the preferred path.

I would coyly try to move on to another subject, and students would interrupt with, “But what’s The right answer?”

With a smile, I would respond, there is not ONE right answer. I can tell you what decision I made, and why. However, there may be several effective choices; sometimes none.

In the same way, as a wedding marketer, you are looking for the Magic Wedding Marketing Pill. You want the correct dosage, the least side effects, and the best schedule to make it work.

When working with a client directly, I can recommend one or more courses of action. Even then, if you don’t take the pill on schedule, or take too many, all the recommendations are for naught.

Many marketing wizards believe that you should be spending up to 50% of your time on marketing (that should include selling). Perhaps a more efficient and effective person might be able accomplish the same level of sales with a 35-40% commitment. Typically, improving marketing/sales efficiency come with plugging the holes in the the leaky boat.

Beware of the Bright Shiny New Object: This is the axiom for we ADD business marketers who fail to follow a strategy to its fruition because we get distracted, drop the ball, and move on to something else.

• One blogs, perhaps somewhat effectively, but get distracted by trying Twitter. With no goal or strategy for Twitter, we drop the ball on both, and fail miserably, announcing that New Social Media doesn’t work.
• The new bridal show or wedding publication comes to town. They can’t sell booth or advertising space at retail, because they have no track record, but manage to attract commitment. Let someone else waste their money on testing these new shiny objects. If you wouldn’t pay retail for them, why should you bother with them, at all. Stay with what you know, and improve your ad, or booth exhibit.
• I’m not sure whether to focus on Facebook or LinkedIn. Facebook seems like more fun. I think I’ll do that.

Marketing is an endless set of alternatives. How many phone calls to you make? How many emails or postcards do you send?

Here is the solution: Measure the effectiveness of everything, and then start optimizing, based on results.

If you don’t have the tools or methods to do that, you better get started. Otherwise, you are engaged in seat-of-the-pants-marketing. And that, my friend. is like rolling the dice.

Spoken like a true Las Vegan!

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Last evening, in making the keynote presentation for the ADJA Conference, I spoke about we use, misuse and abuse, various forms of communication media.

In talking about email, I said, “If you and I exchange three emails on one topic, I stop emailing and pick up the phone.”

There are exceptions to that. Alan Berg (The Knot) said in his morning presentation that while what I said is true, often. when it comes to communicating with a bride, exchanging emails is often a ‘legitimate conversation.’

This is true for a few reasons.

• Most brides work during the day. They may be free to quietly exchange emails, but many are not easily accessible by phone.
• The under-40 generation is very comfortable exchanging emails and text messages. They see these methods as a conversation, even though we would prefer to have a phone conversation or face-to-face sales meeting.

A couple of years ago, a client reminded me of something I had told him a dozen years ago. I had said, “We must communicate with prospects and clients in the way they want to be communicated with.” Aside from ending a sentence with a preposition, that’s a good thought. I am pleased that Alan reminded me of that reasoning.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Email

A couple of weeks ago, I posted: How to benefit from fewer: Email subscriptions, connections, friends, and followers. That post is a summary of clerical cleanup meant to lighten your load.

I blocked some free time, yesterday, to just address email subscriptions. Over time, I had accumulated an incredible number travel news (airlines, Priceline, etc.,), technology updates, software updates, events updates, updates, updates, updates…

When I took a critical view of the subscriptions, one-by-one, I was appalled at how many were coming in that I was setting aside for future view… and never actually read.

Here is what I found when digging into my email.

• For most of the subscriptions, simply unsubscribe. Or, if the sender gives you four options for news and promotional updates, downsize your subscription to the single most important choice.
• For the few subscriptions that you you really believe are important, create an email rule, within your email software. That way, any particular news source can be routed to its own sub-folder, within a master folder, titled News or Reading. This method drastically cuts down in-box clutter
  
• Three months later, you can visit your reading folders, again, and take a second look at what you picked for reading later. Then, prune a second time.
• As a by-product, I found that many email notifications from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were going unread, because they were unnecessary. I simply went to these social media sites and updated my contact preferences, reducing email to what was truly important.

You and I are in an era of unlimited information and communication choices. If one went on sabbatical, just to read, in any form, you could never keep up with the geometrically expanding supply of knowledge.

Please report back if you put a dent in your inbound email clutter.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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Remember, about ten years ago, you were still excited to receive email. You were thrilled to get anything new in your email box. How times of changed.

Let’s not kid ourselves, we like to see our numbers rise: Friends on Facebook, Connections on LinkedIn, and Followers or Twitter. As an astute wedding marketer, one should realize, the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of the our activity is done with 20% of these people. Maybe less than 20%.  We love to see the specials from Priceline for the last minute cruise or airfare, but we rarely (never) respond.

Getting straight to the point… I am tightening the reigns on all kinds of communication and connections to improve my overall result. Essentially, I have taken the position that  my connections, friends, followers, and email subscriptions are like clothes in my closet. They tend to accumulate to the point of obscuring my view. It’s only when I remove some of the clothes that don’t fit, are out of fashion, or are just old that I can truly see and enjoy what remains.

I have developed a simple list for eMarketing Maintenance. I expect to use it 3-4 times per year (depending on how quickly eClutter accumulates). Thought I’d share it with you.

• Email pruning
  • Ruthlessly unsubscribe from eNewsletters and promotional letters that you are not reading or actively utilizing.
  • If you cling to certain eNewsletter subscriptions, set rules to automatically route them to a particular reading folder and read them in bunches.If you didn’t realize that your email software enables you to set rules, then consult the help section or software manual. It won’t take you long to master, and will save you a ton of time.
  • Enable junk mail – spam filtering.
  • Probable result: You should be able to reduce your inbox email volume by 50% or more. Because you will be routing certain emails to specific folders, the remaining inbox emails should be fewer, and easier to act on.
• Facebook Friends:
  • Scan your friends database, name by name. If you don’t recognize a name, visit their profile. If you don’t instantly recognize a reason for being connect and you have had no interaction with them, unfriend them.
  • If you unfriend someone, they will not receive a notice. They can contact you again, for connection.
  • Create list sub-groups from your overall friends list. It is simple to organize specific special interest sets, such as: Family, Friends, College, Clients, Trade Associations, etc.,. You can add a person to one more of these subsets. This way, you can focus time and attention on like-minded people.
  • Probable result: Unfriending marginal connections should remove 10-25% from your list. Organizing your remaining friends will result in more efficient communication (social or business).
• LinkedIn Connections
  • Using the same perspective as Facebook, prune marginal connections for a cleaner list. As with Facebook, people do not receive a notification that you have disconnected them. If you don’t have much of a real connection with them, they will not even notice or care.
  • Make Recommendations: If you give some, you will get some. Find 10-15 people truly know, professional, and give them a nice write up. You will get reciprocation from some. Don’t hesitate to ask others.
  • Probable result: Reduce your overall connection list by 10-20%. Spark activitiy with recommendations.
• Twitter Followers
  • If you don’t have a specific reason for being on Twitter, determine one, now. You should be able to define the commonality of your followers and the theme of your Tweets, clearly and easily.
  • Go through your followers, one by one, and delete any X-rated sites, MLM promoters, wannabes that haven’t posted a profile photo (or website link, or bio), and people outside your industry (except personal friends).
  • Just because someone follows you, doesn’t mean you have to, or should, reciprocate. You can change your mind as time goes on. unfollow as appropriate.
  • Probable result: Reduce follwers by 10-40%. Reduce following by a similar amount. Reduce overall traffic such that you actually read and respond to Tweets.

Don’t feel the need to do this all at once, Budget a half-hour a day, over a couple of weeks, to refresh your online social media presence. While you’re at it, make sure your profile information is up to date, for those you choose to share it with.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Last year’s Wedding MBA, in Phoenix, was so much fun, I thought I’d bring it home with me

Actually, it’s great to announce that Wedding MBA Show Producer, Will Hegarty, has done just that. I’ll save the words. Just watch this 5-minute promotiional video to get a feel for it. Hope to see you there… I mean here!

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Authority

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A funny thing has happened during the stampede to online social media… many of the burgeoning masses are showing visible signs of a business/personal identity crisis.

My friend Bob Swartz is always amused by the/my saying, ‘When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’

One online tool that has multiple uses is the 140-character text message. A few of the ways you can utilize 140-characters from your cell phone or your computer are:

• Text (Instant Messages)
• Status updates on MySpace
• Status updates on LinkedIn
• Status updates on Facebook
• Updates on Twitter
• … fill in other online social media

There is one big problem. All online social media are not created equal. In clearer terms, although 140-character texting is the same mode of updates, each of these sites has its own specific use.

There are excellent tools, such as ping.fm, that allow you to make multiple updates, simultaneously; however, if you use ping.fm without thinking you exacerbate the problem.

Breaking it down.

• LinkedIn use is roughly 80% business – 20% personal
• Facebook, with its recently added business tools, is now 50% personal – 50% social
• Text messages by phone are person-to-person
• Tweeting on Twitter is a single message that reaches all of your followers. You can also Tweet, directly, to one or a few people who follow you.

Bad habits from email and message boards seem to have continued into this generation of technology. On Twitter, the same people who hit reply-all, instead of reply, often send a Tweet to their entire following, when they should be responding to an individual.

The same people who post a public rant on a message board, often do the same thing on their status line on LinkedIn or Facebook. once you do that, you can’t take it back. If your audience is both business and personal, it looks like we’re peering into your thought bubble. Trust me, the world does not need to know everything. You might as well just howl at the moon.

When you write in any medium, remember who your audience is: Business, personal, all, a few, just one. If you fail to understand the subtleties, often enough, people will tune you out, unfollow you, unfriend you, disconnect from you, and generally think you’re unfocused and self-centered.

Whether business or personal, write for your audience, period.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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If you ever need to text someone on their phone and you’re at a computer you can actually send one through your email account. Just send an email to their address below based on their phone service:

• Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
• AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
• Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
• T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
• Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
• Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com
• Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
• Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
• CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
• Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
• Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

===

This is a tremendous tool to send reminders for appointments. It will drastically cut down on no-shows.

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Andy Ebon will be revisiting his old digs, the San Francisco Bay Area, next Tuesday and Wednesday, to address the Silicon Valley Chapter of NACE.

At their meeting, Tuesday evening, Andy will be delivering a presentation suitable for Inauguration Tuesday: Fast Track Your Marketing for the Current Economy. The Silicon Valley NACE meeting and dinner will be held at the San Jose Hilton.

As a follow up, Andy will be giving a 2-hour seminar, 8-10am, Wednesday morning, titled: Blogging Your Way To Success. One can attend either of these events or both, and non-members are welcome, too. The blogging seminar will also be held at the San Jose Hilton.

Information for RSVP’ing for the meeting is posted on the Silicon Valley NACE website. Details for the attending the blogging seminar should be posted by the end of business, today (1/14).

The seminar, Blogging Your Way To Success, is based on the chapter Andy contributed to the book, The Power of the Platform: Speakers On Success.

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