How Do I Market My New Wedding Planning Business?

Services, Starting Out

If there is anything that scares me, its the thought of starting my business and then having it totally fail! I am starting my own wedding planning business in the Toronto area. I’ll be a certified coordinator (some are not!) with no “experience.”

So my question is, how do I sell myself? I have done 3 weddings (all for free – friends and family), but they were all done before I even thought of becoming a WP, so I don’t have a portfolio. Who is going to want to hire someone without that PROOF of “experience”? If you look at the competition, they all say the same thing “…has done X amount of weddings” or “over 15 years experience…” – I don’t have that.

I was thinking of starting out with a cheaper price than the other companies (average 10-15% of total wedding budget), but then… how much cheaper? Then I was also wondering what kind of special offers I can give out for signing with me… maybe a day at the spa, a gift certificate for a vendor, etc. but would that work?

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Jay’s Answer: First, if your new business must succeed for financial reasons, then don’t start it in the first place. A new business is by definition, a risk.

Next, to increase your chance of success, start with a strategic plan. Who are you targeting (demographics, location, etc.)? What problem are you solving? Why should they trust you, etc.? Who are your competitors? Study them – know what they know.

Everyone once was a beginner. Hiring someone new is a tradeoff – they have less experience avoiding the inevitable bumps but more invested in the outcome (to build a portfolio).

Don’t start by advertising “I’m inexpensive”. That screams the wrong message.

What Are Best Practices For Optimizing Website Meta Tags?

eMarketing

I’ve been researching meta tags and it’s a little frustrating. There seems to be a lot of conflicting advice out there. What is your take on what you want your meta tags to reflect in order to optimize your search engine results?

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Jay’s Answer: Meta tags can matter, but remember what you really want are the right people finding your website easily (and then converting them to customers).

Focus on value on the copy of the website itself. The home page should be focused around the problem the “right” people are searching on by analyzing web search volume in the past few months. Spend your time crafting the page so it immediately speaks to the needs of the prospect. Yes, make sure that the keywords that people search are are sprinkled throughout the page naturally, but don’t sacrifice human-readability.

Once the site is ready for traffic, then get your site registered with the search engines and get links to your website organically (i.e, without paying for them)(Website placement is based on authority, and one of the metrics of authority is link quality/quantity). You don’t want traffic until you have a site that’s effective.

SEO is an art, hence the wide differing opinions on the techniques.

What’s a Good Tagline For An Online Marketing Company?

eMarketing, Names + Taglines

I run an online marketing and web solutions company called “Whirlwind”. We are into web strategy, online campaign management, SEO/SEM, etc. and also offer customized web solutions including site/blog development. As of now, we do not have any tagline for the company, and I would like to ask the members here is they can help us come up with something good.

I am ideally looking at a three-beat advertising slogan, which can add a lot of punch. We figured that this would be needed because the name of our firm doesn’t directly imply what kind of services we offer. So a persuasive/intelligent tagline or slogan would help.

A coupla examples of a three-beat advertising slogan:
1.The few, the proud, the Marines
2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Business Problems? We Strategize. Web Results.
  • Your Business, Online, Everywhere.

The tagline should mention a key benefit of working with you. Web strategy (etc.) are services, not benefits. Here’s my tagline thinking:

Your Business, Online, Everywhere =
your business – makes the tagline personal to the reader. Removing “your” may work, but it strips the tagline of a “voice”
online – your specialty
everywhere – where the client’s company will be seen.

Note: online/everywhere may appear to be redundant, however many businesses are online, but aren’t visible. What Whirlwind focuses on is the online marketing.

Along the same lines:

  • Be Online. Be Seen. Be Successful.

Ideas For School Field Trip Fundraising?

Clubs + Associations

I am on the fundraising committee for my daughter’s school field trip to Washington DC. I have a list of things that I have brainstormed but just wondering if you have any ideas or examples of non-profit fundraising?

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Jay’s Answer: There’s the indirect and direct form of raising money. Indirect things are “buy this product/service from me, and it’ll help me get closer to our goal”. Direct things are “sponsor our trip to DC and we’ll have your (business name) on our bus’s banner (or our trip t-shirts)”.

Direct things can leverage your time. A few good sponsors can be the equivalent of selling 1000 brownies.

Where Should I Advertise My Non-Fiction DVDs?

Products, Publicity, Starting Out

We are a small production studio that just released a series of non fiction DVDs. Our target audience is guys and girls ages 17 to 26. I am currently thinking of possible advertising avenues to place our product in front of our target audience — any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Our advertising budget is quite small at the moment, so the best strategy for us would be to start with inexpensive advertising and use the profits to move on to reach more people in more expensive mediums.

This is the current list I am considering:

  • Nightclub/Bar Bathroom Ads
  • Direct Response Infomercials, Radio Ads
  • Print Ads
  • Mall Kiosks
  • Banner ads on social networking sites

Are we on the right track here? Are there any other possible ways to advertise in malls or nightclubs? What other ways can we reach 17 to 26 year old guys and girls?

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Jay’s Answer: I’m assuming you’ll also have a website.

If your business is local/regional, the local nightclubs, malls, etc. make sense (don’t forget movie houses). But if you’re not limited, then the internet. Don’t forget free things like press releases (if you have something newsworthy/useful), sending press kits to key media influencers, and video teasers (on video sites – make sure your teasers have your website clearly listed).

How Can I Sell Advertising In Tourist-Visited Grocery Stores?

Publicity, Services, Starting Out

I sell advertising in a tourist destination area at grocery stores.Trying to get info or research to show locale business in this area it will benefit them to advertise locally and just not out of the area.

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Jay’s Answer: It sounds like the goal is to have a location in the grocery store to advertise local businesses for tourists.

First, what’s the competition for getting food & snacks in the area? You’re competing with grocery stores, vending machines, hotels, etc.

Second, the location in the store – will it be visible? How do you know?

Lastly, what other locations are advertising hubs for tourists. These are also your competition.

The best measure of effectiveness is actual testimonials. Are you existing advertisers getting business from the display? How much more business? That’s what prospective advertisers care about.

How Do You Market To Very Confident People?

Products, Publicity

We are going to sell a customizable product in the fashion accessories niche and because of the relatively big freedom our customization options offer we expect people who are confident about their look and appearance to be our (first) customers. They are the people who are “courageous” enough to use all the options we give them and some of them might have waited for exactly that. We don’t have a certain age group limit for our product but it is most likely that it will attract people between 20 and 35 who can afford to pay the premium price.

We will advertise mostly online and use public relations to our advantage. Because of our premium brand we also have to be careful what channels of advertising we use and how of course.

Any ideas for the look, feel and copy of our advertising campaign to appeal to our target audience would be awesome!

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Jay’s Answer: Since you’re selling a visual product, show your prospects how customizing will look. Use models in your target demographic for your visuals. If the product is being sold locally, use a local model in the demographic – their face may be helpful to selling it as well.

The language of the ads should be using your demographic’s language – use the words & phrases they use (for example, have a focus test of your product with a test group. Tell them about it in your language, and ask them to “sell” it to others in the group in their language. Make sure to record the session so you don’t miss anything).

Model the campaign after other successful ads targeting your demographic. Where are they placed? How do they look? You don’t want to clone them, but want to be able to place your ad side-by-side with them and be as “strong”.

How Can I Get Involvement In A Hospital Taskforce?

Clubs + Associations, Names + Taglines, Services

The hospital I work for is a 200-bed hospital that needs to improve it’s quality and safety scores. In order to due this, we have put together numerous Quality and Safety initiatives to be put into action in the coming year. Some of these are: Safety, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Timeliness, Equability, and Patient-Centered. We have also made different sub-committees in order to make these initiatives happen. I am on the sub-committee titled, “Quality Communication Task Force”. The purpose of the Quality Communication Task Force is to communicate key strategic initiatives in a focused, organized manner to all levels of the organization.

The main goal of the Quality Communication Task Force is to have every single employee in the hospital provide all six initiatives (Safety, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Timeliness, Equability, and Patient-Centered) and then be rewarded with some type of celebration. So, here’s my dilemma, how do we communicate all of these initiatives to the employees? We could do a PowerPoint in different sessions to the employees, but that doesn’t seem very engaging, and that doesn’t build excitement. And that is what we are trying to do. Build excitement and get everyone motivated to change and improve the hospital. Also, in addition to needing ideas on how to identify and bring these initiatives to the employees? Any ideas on a creative name for this committee? Besides, “Quality Communication Task Force”.

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Jay’s Answer: Start by creating some ideas for how different groups in the hospital can improve. Then hold meetings where employees meet with their supervisor and provide concrete ideas that are in alignment with your general goals (and more than just ideas – collect stories of things that people have done – they “stick”). Share these “best-practice” ideas with others within the organization. Consider finding other “best-practice” lists for other hospitals in your area as well.

To build excitement – focus on WHY people in the organization should care. Is it a matter of pride? job security? salary?

Share the stories – and make them about how a group within the hospital did something significant, not just the individual. You’re trying to build a team mentality for improvement, not just superstar individuals.

As for a name: Hospital Boosters. You’re trying to help people to help themselves, not force them into a specific set of behaviors.

What Is A Good Tagline For Our Training Programs?

Names + Taglines

We are looking for a tagline for all of our human resource training programs that we have developed. (ie. Edge Program, CLP/Cookson Leadership Program, Planning academy/Harvard & Stanford, and Six Sigma.

What we came up with was-Explore or Expand or Excite…….(not to sure if this works)

Also on the training tagline should we also build on it…..and would that become a larger tagline for HR?

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Jay’s Answer: I’m assuming that the tagline is for internal use only (you’re not planning to market it to the general public) and that the purpose of the tagline is to increase internal awareness of HR training.

The tagline’s purpose is to concisely specify the benefit to the client. What’s the benefit to your training? Educational? A basis for performance/salary review? Mandated by internal QC circles? Required for management?

“Explore – Expand – Excite” doesn’t work as a tagline, because the benefit isn’t clear to the reader. For example, consider:

  • Work Smarter, Not Harder
  • Don’t Get Left Behind
  • Leadership Begins With A Single Step
  • Stay On Top Of The Latest Developments
  • Is Your Resume up-to-date?
  • Learn Industry Best Practices

As for a HR tagline, it sounds like you want HR to become an sought-after internal resource. Again, the benefit is key. For example:

  • What Do You Want To Achieve?
  • Helping You To Improve Your Skills

Focus on the key principle of creating a tagline, and you’ll be well on your way.

How Can I Market The Benefits Of Organ Donation?

Publicity

There is a severe shortage of organ donations in America; approximately 98,000 individuals are on a wait list hoping for a solution which oftentimes seems hopeless. 71,000 need a kidney to end the three-day-a-week, three-hour-a-day dialysis regime. Many men, women and children languish on this list for ten years or longer — nineteen succumb every day prior to receiving a desperately-needed organ transplant. The problem is getting worse.

According to a Fortune 100 company actuarial analysis, our unique solution appears to be the answer for rapidly fulfilling this shortage. It is lawful and it does not take advantage of human beings in the third world. After initial start-up capitalization the program will be self-sustaining in perpetuity.

The problem is to create a strategy to turn what is currently a yucky or unmentionable topic into an unyucky topic which will become a household word and a point of public pride.

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Jay’s Answer: This is similar problem to how to sell life insurance. The benefit of the service only occurs after you’re dead, so you need to convince people to think of others, leaving a legacy after you’re gone.

One idea is to focus on celebrity endorsements – everyone from sports stars, politicians, to actors. The message is simply, “I care about my fellow human beings enough to gift them something precious that I no longer have a use for”. Making the process of organ donation public will help.

The second part is to tell real stories about how the donor recipient and the donor’s family have met. In that way, the donor’s life actually continues on.