Written by guest expert Saundra Hadley of planning . . . forever events. You can follow Saundra on Twitter here.
Understanding advertising is an area of business where most entrepreneurs are left dazed and confused. In tough economic times, the knee-jerk reaction is to decrease your advertising, which is not always the best thing to do, especially if your competitors down the street are still able to have a presence. That's why now it's more important than ever to understand how to invest your money effectively.
Notice I said the word "invest", not expense. You should always view advertising as a true investment in your business. The return on your investment can sometimes be immediate, or may happen months or years later. Often, business owners make their advertising decisions based on emotions and input from savvy media sales reps. I know this to be true because I used to be one of those reps. I've sold Internet ads, print, magazine ads, booths at expos and helped my customers develop multi-media campaigns to effectively drive business to their establishments. I have to admit, having an advertising sales background and now actually being an advertiser, I'm a media sales person's worst nightmare. I ask them 100 poignant questions and will make them work for their commission!
Figure out Your Game Plan: The most important thing you can do for your business (and pocketbook) is to take the time to accurately determine your target market. Every wedding planning company is different; some planners who are at the beginning stages with their business will want to garner as many clients as possible for experience. Others, who are veterans in the industry, want to cater to more of the luxury clientele. It doesn't matter, there is a niche for everyone; you just want to be sure to determine your own focus.
For example my company's target client is: 25-35 years old, professional/educated, typical range of wedding budget is $15k-$60k and they either live locally or live out-of-town and want to come "home" to get married. They are modern, edgy, tech savvy and are willing to pay for creative and unique events.
Once you've identified your target market then you'll want to analyze the different advertising methods that you should use to reach them. Where are your potential clients spending the most time? On the Internet? Do they buy wedding magazines? Do they read the paper? It is only after deep soul searching and research of your clientele would you want to begin choosing your adverting. It doesn't matter if the advertising investment is as low as $50 a year; if it isn't reaching your target market, then don't waste the money.
Cost Per Client: When factoring any type of advertising I always analyze our total investment and factor how much it costs to reach each potential client. For example (and I'll use nice round numbers to make it easier), if a local magazine ad is $1,000 and reaches a potential 5,000 subscribers then it costs my business $.20 per person. To take it a step further, you should analyze how many people you actually converted into paying clients. Same scenario: $1,000 ad and you sold two clients, the cost per client conversion is $500. Quite a difference, no? However, this is where the investment part comes in; there is a business price for keeping your name in front of people and have them see your branding.
Vanity/Emotional Advertising: There will be times in your entrepreneurial career that you will make advertising decisions purely based on emotion or vanity. You want your business name in that particular magazine because of other wedding planners' participation or you want to be perceived as significant by other professionals in the industry. It's going to happen and we've all done it. However, recognizing the difference between a well-thought out and logical advertising campaign vs advertising that serves your ego will carry you through challenging business years. That is unless you have lots of money to simply throw around, then by all means, carry on.
Below is a review of well-known advertising mediums and my own opinions and thoughts on each one.
Online Advertising: We all know our clients are on the Internet, otherwise many of us would not be devoting so much time in our company's websites or blogging. The key is to know where to advertise online. Many "major" bridal websites (you know their names) will want to sell you banners or preferred listings on their pages; under your state and category of business. Sales reps for these websites will inform you of their xxx,xxx unique visitors per month/day and xx,xxx amount of brides in YOUR state looking for wedding professionals. This is informing you of their "audience" not necessarily your "targeted market". It's the difference between how many people you reach vs. how many actual buyers you are reaching. Which do you think is more important?
What you really need to know is how many brides are in your immediate demographic area (if local brides are primarily your highest source of income). For example, a website notifying me that for only $70 per month, they have over 70,000 brides sign up and visit their Indiana "wedding section" each month. This doesn't tell me how many of those brides could truly become a prospective client.
So instead, I ask them how many brides sign up in 10-12 local zip codes (I provide them in a surrounding area of approximately 100 miles). Now that huge monthly audience of Indiana brides just dropped dramatically to 250 targeted brides. I then apply my trusted Cost Per Client formula. At $70 a month to reach 70,000 Indiana brides (my sales rep would be so happy), it would cost me $.0010 per bride each month. However, at $70 per month to reach 250 targeted potential clients, it would cost us $.28 per bride. And that is ONLY if every single one of them went to the buried "planner" section on the site. Interesting.
Print Advertising: Newspapers and magazines are taking a huge hit right now in reduced readership and paid subscriptions. Magazine subscriptions are at such an all time low they are hiring outside agencies to sell magazines to businesses at a reduced bulk/rate. This is so they can inform their advertisers that subscription numbers are still high. Businesses can purchase for a small yearly fee and receive 5-6 national magazines per month; including some very popular bridal wedding magazines.
You've already developed your Game Plan, and if it includes advertising in national wedding magazines, fantastic! The majority of wedding planners though will want to check in their target demographic area for more regional or local wedding magazines and print publications.
We have several to choose from in our area. Some are good and some are weak in the demographic area (not our target market). You can be sure that I have asked our media reps every possible question regarding their publication; where, how, who, when is it distributed to? Are there reprints/reruns? Is the publication put online? What is their average reader income, age, education level? This information helps us determine if we will insert an advertisement and if the answer is yes, how to develop the print ad's advertising message.
This year we've done something radical and pulled our print advertising out of two local, quality wedding niche magazines. We've always seen a return on our investment, however in the past years the return has dramatically declined. Instead, we'll be using old-fashioned networking, bridal shows, website, blogging, social media and viral networking to promote the business. We'll let you know if this was a successful gamble or not. I may be twittering you from the drive through at BK Lounge (Burger King, thanks Dane Cook).
Check back later this afternoon for part 2 of Saundra's insights on how to understand your advertising options.
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