From the Dragon's Mouth

In a recent episode of "Dragon's Den" (on BBC America), Rachel Elnaugh critiqued a pitch for a taxi-based video advertising network. In expressing her dim view of the venture's potential, she made note of a data point that's crucial for any marketer to accept: people today are bombarded with advertising messages, by some estimates receiving more than 3,000 advertising impressions every day.

What did this mean for the unfortunate entrepreneur? The potential investors weren't convinced taxi passengers would voluntarily watch more advertising. More relevant to wedding marketing, they also doubted that any message sent via this new medium would have enough impact to rise above the existing daily impression tsunami.

What does this mean for wedding vendors? A bride receives the same barrage of marketing messages every woman does -- plus, she's now receiving messages from wedding marketers, too. It may take 20 or more impressions just for your message to register as "received" in a bride's mind. That means effective, efficient marketing is absolutely critical to your success.

What should you do -- and not do? In a down economy, marketing is often the first expense people cut, but that's probably the worst thing you can do. Not only is there more competition for fewer brides in a slow economy, there is also an opportunity to get more attention if your competitors cut back. Consider the following dos and don'ts:

DO:

- Strive to maximize the number of repeat impressions your marketing delivers. That means consistency in look, feel and message across your print ads, web ads, brochures, show signage and your web site.

- Place your ads where you would look if you were a bride. That may mean paying more out-of-pocket for a wedding-specific vehicle than for a general purpose advertising opportunity, but, odds are you'll actually be paying less per bride.

- Carefully evaluate new magazine, show and web site entrants to the market. If you are feeling pinched, now is not the time to try an unproven media property. (On the flip side, if you're feeling flush and can afford to add something new, it can sometimes pay off to try something new at introductory rates -- and get a leg up on competitors who opt out.)

DON'T:

- Don't cut out advertising properties for the wrong reasons. In particular, remember that the last publication or web site that a bride saw before contacting you is not the only one that counts! It takes 10+ impressions for any advertising to register -- and, probably much more than that for wedding advertising. Any advertising in a magazine, site or show that demonstrably reaches brides will contribute to the total impression count that ultimately spurs her to contact you.

- Don't let a bride's feedback mislead you. When asked "how did you find me" or "how did you hear about me," most brides want to say whatever will get you off the subject of your business and onto the subject of her wedding as fast as possible. When she says "I found your web site," she probably won't remember -- or care to think about -- the other places she saw you that contributed to her finding your site in the first place.
   Odds are, your web site is not getting you dozens of "free" prospects. Learn to accurately analyze your web traffic (e.g., reviewing "no referrer" visits, setting up tracking URLs, etc.) to avoid making bad decisions based on wishful web thinking.