Wedding Marketing Case Study Introduction

Wedding Marketing is a subject that covers many topics. First, there is Print Marketing which it itself is divided into subtopics such as magazine marketing, post card marketing, business card marketing, etc…

Next we have the online marketing which is endless in possibilities and MOST of them are free. There is Blogging, Social Medias (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace), Paid Search Engine Marketing, Organic Search Engine Marketing, Link trading, Directory listings, etc…

As mentioned on my previous post about Wedding Marketing News, I am a firm believer that all you need is a website,  a properly hosted blog, and a bit of patience in order to build up a business. I have completely survived without any offline marketing for the last 3 years. I had an ad on one magazine, but it did not generate much income, mainly because by the time I got a lead from the magazine I was already booked. I have not done a Bridal Show in years… I can’t even remember off the top of my head when my last Bridal show was. I was considering doing the Houston Bridal Showcase in August, but I could not find anyone to help me with my booth. I did not want an untrained person there either.

Wedding Marketing Case Study

Well to prove that effective blogging, blogging with a properly installed blog on your existing domain name, as stated on my previous post about wedding marketing news, I have taken an existing website, one with a blog on those free blogging platforms, and completely redesigned the website to include the blog on it’s own domain name as opposed to having it on the free blogging platforms.

Audrey Hu-Gonzales is a wedding coordinator in the Houston Area, she used to host her blog at wordpress.com. Her OLD blog can be found at http://eventsbyaudrey.wordpress.com/. She was under the false impression that she was doing good by blogging on the free blogging sites and had no clue that her efforts were really pointless.

After Months and months of blogging, her website

1. did NOT generate any traffic because of her blogging
2. did NOT go up in the search engine traffic rankings
3. did NOT increase it’s lead generation
4. and did NOT benefit completely through her blogging efforts.

I took on this project back in March (March 27th, 2009 to be exact) and the first thing I did was to set an initial benchmark to see how her website ranked on Google.com, Yahoo.com, and Live.com (now Bing.com)… Yahoo and MSN Live did not even know her website existed, Google knew it existed but ranked her very very low…

OUT OF 24 KEYWORDS, GOOGLE ONLY RANKED HER FOR 7 (NOTE THE LOWER THE NUMBER THE BETTER)

Do you know if your website is even showing up on the search engines, and for what keywords???

Out of those seven keywords, the closest she could get to the first page of the Google.com search results was one keyword which ranked #83. That showed up on the 9th page of the Google.com search results for that one keyword. That means that people looking for a wedding planner using that ONE keyword had to go through 9 pages of results before they got to her website… NINE PAGES!!!

There is a common belief on the web that says that most people do not even go past the 3rd or 4th page of Google.com when they search for information.

Just think about when you search for something, and can’t find it, how many pages into the search results do you go in before you try another keyword or phrase or just select the best looking page for what you are looking for? I’m guessing not very far, and the majority of the time you don’t go to the 9th page. I know I don’t.

Wedding Marketing Case Study – the Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With some minor tweaking to her site, a few off-site optimization techniques, and some Search Engine Optimization to her website, only a month later, on April 24th, 2009 to be exact, was already indexed by Yahoo, MSN Live and Google.com

Out of her 24 targeted keywords her website was ranked as follows (NOTE THE LOWER THE NUMBER THE BETTER)

Well as you can see, just by doing some Search Engine Optimization to her website, the search engines started to rank her website and more importantly, to rank her higher for some of her highly targeted keywords. Now I cannot release the keywords that she is going after because that would is one of the things that I am highly guarding. After all, the keyword hunting was one of the first things we did and that gave us a target to shoot for.

Some keywords are more more important than others because they are searched for, more often.

The keyword hunting took us about a couple of days and it was not too hard but it did involved some head-aching brainstorming and figuring out which keywords were the ones we wanted to go after.

As you can see from the Search engine results, we can conclude that Google.com is slow on ranking a website higher, yahoo.com immediately took her website to the #10, 11, and 19 for some very competitive and highly targeted keywords.

To Be continued…

Happy Blogging!

|o| Simply Frank |o|
Professional Blogging Wedding DJ in Houston

Ok, so a few days ago, I posted an update on my Facebook profile stating that I need help. I have so many online inquiries that I cannot keep track of. As a matter of fact, yesterday I spent some time going through my history of emails and fond 10 (TEN) emails from the past 2 months that I had lost track of, and what I mean lost track of is not that I did not reply to them, but that I did not follow up with a reason why they had not responded to my last email. Most had already hired another DJ and 2 were still interested but would get back with me (more following up, IS THERE AN EASIER WAY TO DO THIS?)

Now, that’s not that bad compared to how many inquires I get from my online forms.

1. January 2009           31
2. February 2009        27
3. March 2009              31
4. April 2009                 39

So this year I’ve had a total 128 leads as a result of having an online form as I suggested in a previous article about converting bridal show leads into online clients using the power of the net. Now, since I have not done any bridal shows in over a year, and I only advertise in one magazine, Premiere Bride, and I have only one online ad that I pay for, The Knot, and since keep track of where all my web visitors come from, I know a few things for fact.

1. 90% of those 128 leads come to my website from the search engines.
2. 5% of the leads come from The Knot
3. 5% of the leads come from other thing such as My magazine ad, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, referals, etc…

Now 128 leads may not sound like a lot to you, but take into consideration many limitations on my website…

1. I don’t have my prices online… Major turn off to some people as they feel I may be hiding something or I am too expensive.
2. I proudly am a Bilingual DJ and Master of Ceremonies…. Major turn off to some people as they feel that I may not be able to represent them correctly or I may not know the music.
3. I don’t have the most beautiful DJ website out there… some people may be turned off by how simple it looks.
4. My website is too wordy… Some people are turned off by not enough pictures and having to read my stuff and find out there is no price anywhere to be found.
5. I don’t have the details about my DJ equipment that I use… this is mainly something other dj’s have suggested.
6. I have ads on my website.
7. I am marketing online… Vendors automatically assume that online brides are cheap, they are if yo u consider paying a DJ 1,200+ for a wedding reception cheap.
8. Worrying what people will say about telling their friends and relatives that they ‘found their DJ online.“
9. They never have heard me play before and I don’t allow outsiders to my events… EVER!
10. People worry about giving out their personal information online… This is a huge one, well they are all big
11. Many other limitations, or mental blocks that people place on their heads about putting an online form on the FRONT PAGE OF YOUR WEB SITE.

Keep in mind, these are all leads that used my online form, mainly because when they arrived at my website, they did not want to call me.

Here is something that you may not realize…

When people are online, having to reach for the phone and call you is an extra action that they have to initiate! They really don’t want to call you unless they really have to and they are extremely motivated to do so.  Think about it when you are online doing research, don’t you want to keep researching, whatever you may be researching? Don’t you want to continue without any interruptions? (unless of course they are friends or family members calling to distract you, lol.) Aren’t most of us procrastinators? Don’t we say, ahhh, I’ll get to this later (I’ll call them later)… and how often does later never come?

What I’m getting at, is make it sooo easy for your bride to contact you that the 11 (Eleven) objectives above are not even thought about, or are easily outweighed.

I even go as far as putting on my form, give me your phone number ONLY if you want us to contact you by phone, what that means to me is that they are interested but are too lazy to look for the phone to call me so they would really love you if you called them… So they don’t have to.

I hope you understand that I’m not trying to brag about how many leads I get; but I am just merely giving you a report on how you can INCREASE the number monthly leads. It’s so simple, place a contact form on your website. I have it on all of mine where they can easily fill it out. See for your self, I have it on my Houston DJ Website and My Photo Booth Rental Website.

Happy Bloggin!

–
|o| Simply Frank |o|

You may have heard that the official site of the British Prime Minister’s Office at number10.gov.uk launched earlier today. The great news is that it’s running WordPress…

–Source:WordPress at No. 10

That is interesting that National Website are going with Wordpress as their main Website Platform. I’ve used the bloggin platform for all my websites and it’s done really, really well, but for a National Website to do it, now that’s Cool!

Last month, June 24th 2008, I wrote an article entitled:How POWERFUL can your Blog be?

Pretty much I wanted to show you how powerful blogs are and how much Google loves them.

As a marketer, your objective is to get your logo or your website in front of as many brides/customers as you can, where ever they may be or go. I know that a lot of brides use the internet to find information about whatever they may need at that time.

So I got an idea to get in front of the brides that would attend the Bridal Extravaganza Show in Houston. I knew they would be using key words such as “bridal extravaganza,” “Houston bridal extravaganza,” “Bridal Show July Houston.” So I wrote an article on my DJ in Houston Website and called it: Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show – July 2008.

It immediately ranked extremely high (1st page results in Google.com) in the search engines for terms related to the Bridal Extravaganza Show. I am talking about, hours after the post, I was indexed and ranked on the first page of Google for most of those keywords.

Luckily I use a visitor tracking program on my website and here are the results of the additional traffic and the keywords used to access my website.

For a Complete list of all the Google Tracking Details from my DJ in Houston Website Download the PDF Report Below.
2008_07_30-google-details-fhpentertainment

This report show ALL the traffic that came into my website as a result of Google.com only. In the month of July, Google.com provided me with 52% of my total monthly traffic, Yahoo 18%, and MSN/Live with 6% of my total monthly traffic. At the time of this post, July 30th, 2008 12:00 pm Central time, I’ve had a total of 3,651 visitors to my website this month. Note: This tracking program will count one person as 1 visitor for each day he or she visits the website. EX. if you visit it today, it will count you as 1 for the entire day (no matter how many times you return), if you visit it tomorrow it will count you again, so you become 2 visitors.

Now, I understand, these are just traffic numbers, they really don’t mean nothing to you until I report income as a result of that traffic.

All I can answer to that is that 85% of my DJ Business Income comes as a result of my website. I have one Ad in Premiere Bride Magazine, and that is ALL the advertising I do. Even that traffic is directed to my website.

Happy Bloggin!!

–
DJ Francisco
Blogger and DJ in Houston

Alborz started writing about something he loved, Exotic Cars , and now he is making a full-time living from bloggin.

listen to the interview to hear how he did it: Audio Interview.

This is a great interview, and it explains at least one concept that you can use right away; writing the titles of your blog posts to get the most traffic to your website and to rank high for your targeted keywords. Also you can understand how to use what you yourself would type in the search engines to find your website. It will open your eyes and your mind to whole new world of online marketing.

Go now and listen to this Audio Interview.

Happy Bloggin

Every Post I write has specific objective, whether it’s to inform, to teach, or to prove something to work, I write to create something useful for my readers.

Most people still don’t trust blogs as a form of marketing, or think it’s not worth the time and effort, or whatever excuse they’ve made up in order not to jump into bloggin’. So this post is for those of you…

In my Houston DJ website, I recently published an article promoting the upcoming Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show, the main objective is, of course, to inform my readers and to make them aware of the show and how successful it can be to attend. I think all brides will find it useful, so I promoted it because I believe in it. The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) objective is, of course to rank high for the words Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show, on the search engines and have the brides click on my link and get some free publicity that way.

This can be referred to as white hat SEO, since I am not doing anything illegal or anything that goes against any ethics. I am simply using the power of my blog to put my website in front of where I think the brides will go, by providing valuable information to them… as a result Google.com awards me with a very high ranking for my website.

Want Proof?

Google (without quotes): “Houston Bridal Extravagazna Show”, “Bridal Extravaganza Show”, or “Houston Bridal Extravaganza” and see the results for yourselves. Also notice how you will get different results for each set of keywords.

If you notice, my DJ in Houston Website, FHPEntertainment.com shows up in the top of the search results (in cases over huge corporate websites like the Houston Chronicle: See Picture above), and that’s only because of the length of time that I’ve been bloggin’ consistently. Again, the hardest part is getting started.

So, this is just one of the perks of consistent bloggin’, building up great content for both the search engines and the readers.

Oh, and of course the end results is, more visiting my website, seeing my name and face, and of course getting to trust me because I’m everywhere.

Happy Bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco
Bloggin DJ in Houston

A recent poll on Problogger.net, What is the Biggest Source of Traffic to Your Blog?, reveals the current method most bloggers are getting their traffic. It’s no surprise that 46% of the bloggers who participated on this poll get most of their traffic through Google.

See the results to find other ideas to generating traffic to your blog. Social Media (Myspaces, Facebook, Stumbleupon, Digg, etc…) is in second place and those are the easiest ways for beginning bloggers to get traffic to their webstie. The name of the article is Where Bloggers Get Their Biggest Levels of Traffic, and you can find i Here.

Happy Bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco, Houston
Wedding Vendor Blogger

How to Rank Higher on Google

I’ve been searching the web for Case studies on “How to rank High on Google” so you can see how many people use blogs as a double edged sword.

On one side, you have the power to inform and persuade your customers into buying into your products or services.

On the other side, you have all that consent built up, assuming you write consistently and tactically, that the search engines Love.

There is an Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer who goes into more detail about how to rank High on Google’s natural Search Results. Read about how he does it here.

Happy Bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco
Houston Wedding DJ Blogger

In January, I was at a wedding reception doing the Master of Ceremonies and DJ duties. They had this one thing I had never seen at a wedding before, and to tell you the truth, at first I was very skeptical about how it would work. Well, to my surprise it was a huge success, people lined up for hours to take their turn in this new phenomenon… Ok, I’m exaggerating, it was not a phenomenon, but it sure seemed like it. What was it?

It was a Photo Booth,

…the same concept as in the malls, but this was portable and was all digital. People lined up for hours to wait their turn at the picture booth.

So being the entrepreneur that I am, I thought, wow that would be a great thing to offer. Especially since this one photo booth came all the way from Dallas Texas to provide their service.

You can find my website by doing a search in Google.com for “Houston Photo Booth” and you will see the website listed as #6 on the first page of the search results.

This was possible for a few reasons.

First, the power of the webstie, FHP Entertainment.com is so strong that if I place a link on my website for any website and add the right content, I can get any page indexed by Google.com. So that’s what I did, I wrote a small launch post for the new Photo Booth Rental Service in Houston I had started.

Second, I decided to use a Wordpress blog and an existing free template. So the design time was NOTHING. It was already done for me. All I had to do was come up with the content and fill up the website with the content that I thought would compel people that visited the website to take an action.

Finally, because of the Blog Content that I added to capture as many keywords as I could think up. Using the same tip I gave out at the Related Search Engine Terms post, I took all the popular keywords for my DJ website and replaced them with photo booth.

What was the result?

The website was launched in February 11th, 2008, exactly 2 months today. I’ve had 23 people fill in the form for more information. A few other decided to call my phone number, and one other emailed me directly at my DJ website looking for pictures, pricing and availability.

A couple booked the service within the first phone call and a few wanted more pics of it being used. I will dare say that about 10 people out of those 23 will book the service. Not bad for 0 advertising.

As it stands, my form sends out one emial at this time. The pricing information.

Hope you can see how powerful bloggin’ is.

Happy Bloggin!

–

Francisco H. Perez
Wedding DJ Blogger