ADVERTISER REMINDERS
| |
We have continued our partnership with The Wedding Report. Advertisers in good standing can receive a FREE subscription. Contact Jaime for the new offer code. | |
|
| PWG ADVERTISER
JULY
BIRTHDAYS |  | |
7/24 Hooman Bahrani
Vesic Photography
7/26 Debbie Miller
Deep River Event Center
7/30 Billy Ezzell
Complete Music
If you are a PWG Advertiser and do not think we have your Birthday please send it to Jaime@pwg.com. Date and month only.
|
| KIND WORDS | |
I did indeed enjoy and found the [Guild] luncheon to be beneficial.
R.S. Sink's Photography, Greensboro
Great PWG lunch. Met up with old friends, made new ones, talked shop with everyone, and had great dessert by Manfred.
H.B. Vesic Photography, Winston-Salem (fb)
Thanks so much for the lead list and info. It was our pleasure to participate in the recent Wedding Show. Everything was great and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and interacting with other vendors there that afternoon.
A.S., Macy's, RaleighYou guys are awesome and I love what you are doing! W.A., Wake Alexander Photography, McLeansville (fb)
| |
NEW ISSUE
| |
We have delivered over nine thousand copies of the new Summer issue to many of our 280 plus distribution sites. If you have not received your copies or would like some to distribute to your brides, please contact Jaime.
|
|
|
About PWG
|
Perfect Wedding Guide (perfectweddingguide.com), the leader in wedding media resources, is the oldest and most reliable wedding planning company in the United States. For almost 20 years, they have been dedicated to creating innovative wedding planning solutions for brides of all budgets. Their company offers couples a number of fun, useful, and FREE products to help make wedding planning less of a chore and more of a treat. Their local guides and bridal shows are available coast-to-coast in over 60 markets, showcasing some of the country's top wedding vendors who work right in the bride's backyard. Their national Website, PerfectWeddingGuide.com, is full of fresh planning tips and wedding ideas, an extensive photo gallery for inspiration, easy-to-use wedding planning tools, as well as a wedding blog community hosted by their national wedding planning expert.
| |
|
| CONTACT US |
|
|
| |
|
Greetings!
Time has really flown by since I moved from Florida to North Carolina 6 years and 10 months ago. As many of you know I came out of the automobile business and purchased Perfect Wedding Guide in the Triad and Triangle. Back then the only person I knew in NC was Wally Coppinger, who sold the business to me.
Since that time I have had the pleasure of meeting and/or working with hundreds, no it's thousands of wedding professionals. I've also had the opportunity to learn about your businesses, the wedding industry and to watch many incredibly gifted wedding professionals share your talents with brides and other wedding professionals. It's amazing to watch and/or work with you as you all team together to create such wonderful events.
It's also been exciting to help many of you grow your wedding businesses. We hope as advertisers, show vendors and/or Professional Wedding Guild members you are taking advantage of what PWG can do to help you meet brides and other wedding professionals to grow your business. If not, here is what you have missed during the past 6 years and 10 months:
-Brides have discovered Triad and Triangle wedding professionals in over 270,000 copies of Perfect Wedding Guide
-Advertisers have had access to over 10,000 bridal leads
-Brides have learned about advertisers in over 100 bridal shows
-PWG hosted 25 of the area's most intimate and elegant bridal events
-PWG brought wedding professionals networking and educational opportunities during 170 Professional Wedding Guild Luncheons
I hope you will see Perfect Wedding Guide is truly in the business of helping wedding professionals grow their businesses. We have a proven track record and are here to stay. We work hard to make you a success. You can count on us to place you in front of brides and grow your wedding business!
Right now is a great time to take advantage of our special advertising promotion and savings packages. If you would like to learn more please contact me at gail@pwg.com or 336-676-9631. All the best!
Gail Galloway
Publisher
P.S. If you would like free admission tickets to any of our upcoming PWG Bridal Shows for yourself or your brides please let us know. We would be happy to provide them to you. The show dates and locations are: 7/18 Greensboro, NC A&T Alumni-Foundation Event Center
9/12 Durham, Marriott Convention Center
11/7 Greensboro, Empire & Regency Ballrooms |
Top 10 Tips for an Effective Ad Campaign
| The goal of advertising is to cost-effectively reach a large audience and attract customers. If done correctly, advertising can enhance the success of your business. Here are 10 advertising tips to pay attention to:
Go after your target audience. An advertising campaign should be  geared to your niche market. It is a common mistake to create generic ads that do not speak the language or grab the attention of your potential customers.
Highlight your competitive advantage. One of the keys to all advertising is to accentuate the pros of your company, those factors that give you your competitive edge. Too many ads are clever but fail to sell the benefits of the product or service.
Establish an image. You can recognize the McDonald's arches while whizzing by on the highway. Likewise, there are plenty of products that you recognize by their packaging or logo. Image counts when it comes to advertising and promoting your business. Too many advertisers do not work to build a consistent image.
You have to spend money to make money. There are ways to save money, but typically advertising is not the place to cut corners. It will affect sales, and that affects the bottom line. Successful advertising may cost some money, but that is because it works.
Advertise in the right places. Your favorite magazine, radio station, or even television program might not be a favorite of your audience. Know what they read, watch, and listen to, and advertise in media that reaches your target market.
 Don't allow your budget to run your advertising campaign. If you budget $5,000 per month for advertising, you've made it very easy from a bookkeeping perspective. However, if like lost businesses you have seasonal highs and lows, you are spending too much money advertising during down times and not enough when you want to attract customers. Too many entrepreneurs do not budget according to their seasonal advertising needs.
Diversify. It is all too common for business owners to choose the best place to advertise based on price and potential rate of returns and then stop. As is the case with investing, you do not want to put all of your eggs in one basket. Spread your advertising dollars around.
Don't try to be everything to everyone. No product or service will appeal to everyone. Many business owners, including corporate executives, try to come up with ways to reach every market. Typically, this does not work. It can spell disaster for small businesses, who cannot afford to spread themselves too thin. Therefore, find your market and be everything you can be to that audience.
Test your ads in advance. If you have the time or money to invest in focus groups, you should test your ads on other people. Do they understand and accept the message that you are trying to convey?
Monitor your ads. It is very easy to ask new customers or clients where they heard about you. As simple as this is, many entrepreneurs do not bother to do so. It is advantageous to know which ads generate business. (Allow brides to check off ALL the places she's seen you rather than simply asking for the last place that led her to your door.)
Article from AllBusiness.com. To read the full article, click here.
|
| Social Media is No Longer an Option | |
Struggle finding time to keep your blog, Twitter or Facebook updated? With its low price tag, on-target audience, and amazing results, you must schedule time for social media marketing. Make it easier with these tips:
- Set a pattern of posts such as Tip Tuesday or Real Wedding Wednesday.
- Plan ahead with an editorial calendar.
- Gather inspiration while out and about. Keep a notepad and take pics with your phone to post later.
- If writing is daunting for you, do it in batches. Set them to post on a schedule.
- Outsource to social media experts.
- Blog with a non-competitor weekly. Feature other vendors.
- Keep your tools open during the day and find time saving ones. www.ping.fm will update many sites. View and sort Twitter feeds with www.hootsuite.com or www.tweetdeck.com. Schedule tweets ahead of time with www.socialoomph.com. Follow blogs all in one place through an RSS feed or www.google.com/reader.
The bottom line is you must keep your sites updated. Nothing looks worse than a dated post! So schedule some time each day to work on your social media marketing efforts.
|
| Triad Education Event | "So what's with the Facebook like button thing? And should I care?" Facebook is on track to outrank Google, so listen up.
Just got started with social media and have no idea how to begin effectively marketing your business? Join us for an education event with Angel Guerrero III, owner of AS Web Pros and expert on social media marketing. He'll cover the basics of Facebook and Linked In and how they can help your business grow. Bring your laptop for this working session.
Tuesday, August 10, 5:30-7:30
Emerald Event Center
2000 Wendover Avenue East
Greensboro, NC 27405
Only $6 per person. Chicken wraps, veggie pasta and tea from Create A Cake Catering. Cake from My Beautiful Wedding.
Register here.
|
| PWG On National TV Show | | Perfect Wedding Guide will be spotlighted in an upcoming segment on The Art of Living, a lifestyle and education television show, and hosted by television star and author Marilu Henner. The Art of Living has recently teamed up with the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) to feature unique business opportunities for those looking for new careers due to the high unemployment rate in the U.S. The show will produce a segment on Perfect Wedding Guide's franchising business model to educate their viewers on franchise opportunities.
|
PWG Partners with Wedlock
| PWG partners with Wedlock, a new trade journal for the wedding industry.
For $34.95 a month, all subscribers get:
1. A Glossy 40 page journal, every month: More wedding marketing 'handbook' than magazine - this journal is packed with actionable advice. Issue One features writers from big wedding industry names like WeddingWire.com and WeddingSolutions.com and teaches wedding vendors a host of useful marketing practices like how to write copy that brides love, how to rank for wedding-related terms and how to leverage YouTube and more.
2. A Monthly Marketing Plan, every month: Also included in every single issue is something of a "monthly marketing plan." This is an invaluable tool for the busy professional who just wants to know what to do and how to do it. This way, readers don't just learn theory about marketing - they are handed a clearly spelled out "To Do" list. (It's kind of like a personal trainer for your business!)
3. Two 2-hour live, interactive webinars, every month. Wedlock readers are sent a private login code to two evening webinars, each lasting around two hours. These webinars featured top wedding marketing experts teaching cutting edge tips and taking live questions! Recordings of these webinars are available to Wedlock readers, so they don't miss a moment of top-notch instruction.
4. ** A one-time 5 hour bonus DVD course: And finally, every subscriber to Wedlock Magazine will also receive a DVD course entitled "Bridal Traffic". This is five hours of visual, step by step, easy to understand instruction on how to make a wedding professional's website rank well on the search engines. Wedding pros who have watched this series - taught by Jason Hennessey and Chris Watson - marvel at how fun and understandable Wedlock has made the normally intimidating subject of SEO.
PWG has arranged special subscription pricing for our ADVERTISERS.
http://www.wedlockmag.com/cmd.php?af=1203875
Contact Jaime for the 15% discount coupon code
Our customers will receive a 15% discount off the first issue of Wedlock. This also comes with "Bridal Traffic," the 5 hour bonus DVD which our IT team has reviewed. According to Rick, VP Technology, this should be "required viewing for everyone in our industry." We received our first copy and it's full of excellent information.
|
Get Reviewed!
| Calling All PWG Advertisers!
Are your brides reviewing YOU for future sales growth?
Send your brides to http://raleigh-durham.perfectweddingguide.com or http://the-triad.perfectweddingguide.com and review your services. They don't need to register to review!
Also, don't forget to:
-Update your photos (we encourage all advertisers to use high resolution, professional images only)
-Update your text
-Check your contact information
Your online listing is one of the three basic platforms that we include with your advertising. Make sure your listing is optimized for the best search results!
|
| Happenings in the Industry | Paula Poe, wedding and special event manager for The Picnic Basket and Maslow Event Design hosted a Bridal Open House Tea on July 27 at the new Chapel Hill Venue in beautiful historic downtown Chapel Hill. 6/28/10
PWG will be collecting donations during the July and August Triad/Triangle Guild luncheons to support local schools. For needed items visit the Teacher Supply Warehouse for Guilford County Schools and the Crayons 2 Calculators website for Durham County Schools.
Triad Luncheon:
August 4 - Level Two, Greensboro
Triangle Luncheons:
July 28 - The King's Daughters Inn, Durham
August 25 - R. David Thomas Hotel & Conference Center, Durham
|
|
|
|
|
