My business is fairly new but taking off pretty quickly. I hesitated in the beginning but finally signed up for the knot and have been happy with the results. Most of my inquiries are very serious and i either book them or am already booked their wedding day.

My question is, does anyone either advertise or know anyone who advertises in the knot magazine? if so, have you gotten much success.

I don't do a lot of marketing and need to jump into something. this will be a big jump for me but want to make sure it's worth it. If i do it I will do a full page ad.

advice please! :-)

no...

i'm gonna agree with tim.....but not just because he's a genius.


it's good to take out ads in magazines:
when have lots of money to spend. when you don't need it to generate actual leads. when you are using it because you are targeting an "upper echelon" client, who expects to use a well recognized, industry leader kind of photographer. many photographers keep ads just to keep their names in front of people. but they realize that the ads (alone) don't generate clients. at this point, it's a name game, and they have the cash to play it. it's also helpful if you're trying to get your photography published in the magazine, b/c some of them give high favoritism to their advertisers.



buuuuuut....in your case, i think you'd probably get more bang for your buck if you spent the money on equipment, software, and training.

traditional marketing DOESNT WORK like most people expect in this market. people are overwhelmed (and underwhelmed) with commercials. they trust their friends, they rely on referals. sounds like you are doing good in that respect. do not expect to generate leads from the marketing, at least not as a sound return on investment. you'd do better just taking all your clients out for dinner!

You know, I've never thought of it in quite these terms... but heck if it isn't true!

I appreciate what you're saying. I'd really like to hear if anyone has had good or bad experience with it. I've gotten a lot of leads from the knot. at this point almost ALL of my business is based on referrals. I've only been in business since January and I need to do something else to market my name and business. I've had a very strong start but need something else so i don't just sit and wait on them to come to me. I live in an area where a lot of brides come just to get married and I seem to get a lot of those brides... or a lot of my brides are destination brides.

so, has anyone had any experience with ads in the knot or know anyone who has??

I honestly think you're better off spending that money on a Google ad... more people use it to find a photographer than look in a magazine.

http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...showtopic=13640


read this. if you haven't already. it might help you decide. good luck.

Great thanks! exactly what i'm looking for.

for being in the first year my business is doing really well. i'm just looking for that one thing to push me over the edge with out sitting and waiting for it to come to me.

thanks for the link.

in response to ur pm lol

still no

jillian said everything I meant to say lol (gee isn't that easy to say ha ha)

I agree with what they have said.
I get 20% of my traffic from Yahoo local. and I get half of my business ( or more) from the web. the other half is word of mouth. granted it is not weddings, but the marketing pattern is the same. other companies that I have run used no print ads at all. there are many way to advertise on line that cost less. the most efficent way is to write a free article with your info at the bottom. -


Patrick

NO....I did them last year, it did nothing for my business...

you know my pm was done in humor, right?

hey tim - i'm confused. you're in jamaica - the land of amazing beaches - and you're posting on osp!!?!?!

you are one dedicated man!!!

i have all of your disks sitting here on my desk. I may send them to you one day...




i'm so glad i posted this question. you all saved me a lot of money!! A LOT! :-)

I started out looking into upgrading my online profile. after a phone conversation with my knot lady and a few emails they almost had me sold on a full page ad.

my no was not humor lol....it was just no ! I dont think ur at the point yet in ur business that this would make sense and once u do reach that point you might even want to look at a hihger profile magazine to match ur killer style..

i am multitasking, enjoying jamaica quite a bit to the point of exhaustion and posting!

i'm holding ur cf card ransom lol

Mary Beth,

I booked the first 3 years strictly from the knot website. I think being there, especially up to a certain price level, has been very effective. You will see lots of other posts about it not working for photographers, but I think it totally depends on your marketplace. I had a lot of inquiries when I did the "category badge" over on the side of all the listings. It does seem to get more people clicking on it than the standard listing on the knot. I am not getting as many inquiries now, but I have moved into a different price range. I just attended the Elevate workshop in Florida. One of the event planners that refers Garrett a lot came and spoke to us. She really emphasized having a nice marketing kit to send out to other vendors. The venues have a lot of turnover and you have to keep on top of when there is a new catering director. I think including the names of the other vendors in your blog posts with links to their sites and in the blog keywords helps significantly, too. Michelle Walker in San Francisco did one of the Pictage webinars and she talked about how putting the vendors in the blog has really worked for her business. Instead of just sending an email with a slideshow link, she writes something nice about each vendor in the blog and then sends the blog link to the vendor. She actually orders 5x7 prints for each vendor and send them automatically with a nice note. It should also increase your search engine ranking for venues and vendors that you work with. Another note - DO NOT do the yellow pages in the phone book. Bellsouth has an online only listing that is pretty cheap in my area that helps with my google ranking. No one is looking in the phone book for a photographer now.

Good luck!
regina

I wasted $3500......

You said yourself you are getting good leads and booking clients from signing up. Would it make sense that if you doubled your coverage you would get twice as many clients.

Sadly advertising doesn't work like that.

Sometimes you spend more money and it doesn't pay off. Sometimes it does. You never know. It's not reliable.

Look around at OSP and other message boards. How many people write posts like this:

I took out a full page ad in theKnot and now my phone is ringing off the hook!

Nobody. Instead, success comes more from Word of Mouth Marketing and other more personal connections. I understand you need that you feel like you must do something. Take it slow, do good work, and results will follow. Plug away, be consistent, and repeat. Very few people have overnight success in wedding photography. Those who do generally have an additional product that supplements their shooting.

If you know who I am from reading the message boards here, you know I am 100% against traditional advertising. It just doesn't work anymore. It used to be that the Yellow Pages and Chamber of Commerce were good places to invest time and money. Now it is the web. Tomorrow it will be cell-phones and handhelds. Magazines are just fluff for coffee-tables and waiting rooms.