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"Price Shoppers": Worth Pursuing, or Waste of Time?

I have a confession: I’m always a little concerned when a wedding vendor tells me – usually with great conviction – that he or she “doesn’t waste time with price shoppers.” (By “price shoppers,” the vendor means brides or grooms who begin a conversation by asking the price of the vendor’s service.)

Make no mistake, unless you are competing primarily on price, I don’t think you should invest a lot of time in trying to sell people who are looking only for the cheapest option. But, the question is, does the mere fact that a bride asked about your pricing confirm she’s primarily concerned with price? I don’t think so!

Shopping for a wedding is a new experience for most of your brides and grooms. Most of them have no idea how much it will cost to get what they want – or even, in many cases, what they should want. Many brides and grooms may start with price, therefore, simply because they don’t know what else they should be asking.

Consider the last time you made a major purchase that required a lot of learning on your part – say, a car, a computer, a piece of expensive sporting equipment. Did you end up spending more than you thought you would, once you found out the options you should be considering, and why they would be important to your overall enjoyment of and satisfaction with the product?

This process of learning what things cost – and expanding the budget to accommodate what you learn you want – happens for brides and grooms, too. Especially for services that may be completely foreign to or misunderstood by people who’ve never purchased them before – e.g., DJ services, photography, videography, custom gown design, etc. The vendor who takes the time to explain the benefits of going with a more experienced pro (or the risks of the reverse!) has a better shot of both creating an educated customer who is willing to pay more AND closing an attractive piece of business.

Reconsider Direct Mail ... Again!

Exactly a year ago, I posted an article urging wedding professionals to reconsider direct mail. Why? Because it's gotten much less expensive (think 1,000 postcards for under $100 -- a typical online deal!).

What's more, since most wedding professionals no longer invest in direct mail, your mailing will be much more visible than the mailings you might have sent to brides five or ten years ago.

Best of all, if you're advertising in print or participating in bridal shows, you probably get access to mailing lists for free. This represents a huge savings versus other business categories -- more typically, advertisers usually have to pay to rent lists.

Bottom line: remember that it takes 10 or more impressions of your company and your message to trigger recognition of your company in a bride's mind. Postal mailing can be a economical way to build that extra awareness you need, and prompt a bride's call.

Check out this interesting article, in which a professional marketing consultant describes the return her technology client received on investing in postal mailing --it was still a bargain for her client, even though they had to purchase use of the list. Especially noteworthy: it offered a significantly better return than "free" email!

Don't Rule Out Postal Mail -- by Shelli Strand, Strand Marketing