10 Reasons A Bride Will Leave Your Website (continued)

Poor Navigation

When a bride can't clearly figure out how to get from one page to another at your web site she'll usually just use the one thing she can count on every time - her BACK button - and leave. Navigation links should allow moving from your home page to any other page on your web site within two clicks. The most usable navigation (i.e. bride friendly) uses both TEXT links (underlined blue text links) and graphical buttons (buttons!! not pictures). I just finished a book by a consultant who works for America Online. They pay him big $$$ every year to make sure AOL is easy to use and "user-friendly". When it comes to navigation, at web sites that deliver the best results, he says it comes down to these five words, "Don't make them think." Poor

Overall Design

In the past 12 months the quality of most of the wedding sites I've visited has improved significantly. I attribute this to the fact that sharp business owners and managers know they can sell more wedding products and book more of their services with a top-notch web site. As a result, most understand that taking a casual approach to the design and marketing of their web sites is a mistake that costs them sales. If you've never built a web site before, if you don't have a very good understanding of online marketing, web page design, programming, and layout, it's unlikely a "home-grown" site will be very effective at selling more of your products or services. When brides find a poorly designed web site it doesn't leave a very good impression. Not surprisingly, they usually just leave and go looking for something better.

Poorly Written Marketing Copy

The words that appear at your web site communicate a message and if your message is poorly written, grammatically incorrect, or difficult to follow, you significantly increase the chances of a bride leaving your web site with a less than favorable impression about your business. Even if she doesn't leave, an ineffectively written and delivered message will reduce the results you get. Marketing copy makes a big difference.

Eye Candy Doesn't Work

Forget about loud colors, blinking or scrolling text, fancy animated graphics, that's NOT what brides are looking for. It isn't a very good way to portray your business and in some cases it communicates the wrong message. In the worst case, it leaves a bad impression. Anything at your web site that distracts or challenges someone's eyes is a potential problem and will most likely annoy a bride or groom who is trying to make a decision about using your products or services.

Get To The Point (FAST)

Give a bride or groom the information they came to your web site looking for and DO IT FAST. If you don't they're likely to become disinterested and then leave looking for better information somewhere else. You probably have less than 20 seconds to deliver enough information to keep a bride interested in staying at your web site. Keep your pages clean looking and well organized. Make it easy for a bride/groom to find information about WHO you are, WHAT you do, WHAT you're going to do for them, WHAT special services you offer, WHAT makes you different and WHY they should do business with you. Everything else is fluff. Brides don't buy fluff they want the real thing - so get to the point right away and give them what they came looking for.

Inadequate Contact Information

Brides love the Internet because it saves them time and makes finding local wedding services easier than ever before. Typically (or, hopefully) a bride will visit your web site, browse through several of your pages, and then want to know how to contact you. Besides an online inquiry form (not just an EMAIL link), you should have your company name, address, phone, fax and email address at the bottom of every page (or in another appropriately located position on each page). If this information isn't easily available it sets up a situation where a bride can visit your site but then leave without taking the next natural step: making an inquiry and requesting more information.

Happy New Year!

Hope it's your best yet!

#25 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#25 - It Will Be Hard To Get Top Ranked At Google Without Backward Links

Also called inbound links, backward links are links pointing to your website from other websites.

For the past 18 months backward links have played a critical role in moving up in position at Google.

Inbound links to your website, not in the form of link exchanges, are an indication to Google that other people like your website enough to link to it.

It's pretty easy for Google to identify a link exchange and it's likely Google gives more weight to inbound links vs. link exchanges. Building inbound links is a difficult and a time-consuming task and should be approached as a long-term strategy. Keep in mind, the quality of the links pointing to your website is more important than the quantity.

Also keep in mind that Google probably doesn't like to see dozens of inbound links show up over a short period of time - it can be an indication you are trying to just use links to move your positioning up.

The way to the top rank at Google is to have high quality websites linking directly to you using links that the Google spider can crawl - and to develop those links slowly, but methodically, over time.

Closing Thought: The Competition Is Getting Tough(er)

Every year, as the number of websites continue to grow, the competition is getting tougher and tougher and you can expect it to get worse.

Unless you have an effective online marketing plan, by next year I predict you'll have 30% more competition than you have today.

The competitors who "get it," have online marketing know-how behind them, execute their online marketing strategy effectively, and day by day - although you may not know it - take away one sale after another from you.

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today.

Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics?

Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

#22 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#25 - The Most Important Variable In An Over-All Search Engine Optimization Strategy Is Your Page Title Tag

I think most webmasters understand the importance of page title tags but what I don't think they understand is how carefully they have to be created.

If the words brides are searching for when using Google, Yahoo!, or MSN, are not in your page title tag, it is very unlikely that you are going to show up top ranked - plain and simple.

Also, putting your company name in your page title tags is a waste of time.

If they search for your company name, your site should rank in a top position in the search engine results page based on your page copy (i.e., your company name on your pages).

In most cases brides aren't searching for ABC Videography (a Philadelphia based wedding videographer), they are searching for "Philadelphia wedding videographers" or "Philadelphia wedding videography services."

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today.

Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics?

Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

#21 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#21 - Getting Top Ranked At Yahoo! or MSN Doesn't Guarantee A Top Ranked Position At Google

Getting ranked well at Google right now has a lot to do with the number of links pointing to your website.

That said, the quality of those sites pointing to you is more important than the quantity.

Yahoo! seems to really be focused on keywords and relevancy - in other words, does your website have the most relevant information to match the search performed. MSN also seems to be putting most of its weight on page content also.

I wish webmasters would tell clients that each search engine has a different algorithm and/or different rules.

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today.

Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics?

Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

#19 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#19 - If You're New To Pay-Per-Click, Start With Google Adwords First

If you're new to the search engine marketing playing field I recommend you start with the Google Adwords "Standard" edition (avoid the "Starter" edition) because it is the fastest way to test and fine-tune your pay-per-click program - it generates more traffic than Yahoo! or MSN and I believe in the wedding industry the quality of traffic is better (i.e., brides and grooms).

If you are unfamiliar with the "pay-per-click" model you SHOULD hire someone with experience to help you.

Setting up the system is fairly easy, but setting it up properly, identifying the right keywords and keyword phrases, and writing ad copy that pulls the most clicks (and beats your competitors advertisements) isn't for amateurs. The money you save should more than pay for the investment.

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today. Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics? Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

#18 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#18 - Pay-Per-Click Advertising Is Smart

Pay-per-click advertising, also referred to as search engine marketing, works and if it's not working for you there is something wrong with your website or your pay-per-click campaign set-up.

Driving targeted traffic to a website that converts visitors into inquiries - and then sales - is another no-brainer. Google offers Adwords, Yahoo! offers Yahoo Search and MSN offers AdCenter.

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today.

Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics?

Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

Get more visibility for your website and reach more brides and grooms (MORE TRAFFIC)... visit the Daily Wedding Tip.

#17 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#17 - Online Advertising Is Smart

Online advertising is a requirement in today's competitive chase for the online bride and groom.

The days of a "free ride" and free traffic are over and free link exchanges are mostly useless for driving quality traffic these days.

Once you have a good website, one with a track record of converting bride/groom visitor sessions into inquiries, phone calls, and sales, online advertising is a no-brainer and should generate a fantastic return-on-investment.

Where should you advertise? Look for sites where your competition is advertising. Ask your peers where they are advertising and getting good results. Look for sites that show up top ranked in search engines for your keywords.

Be sure to monitor your web statistics and referrers to confirm and track the results.

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today.

Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics?

Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

#16 - 25 Things Your Webmaster Will Not Tell You

#16 - Website Analytics: Review Keywords Regularly

In your website statistics you should also find "referring keywords," or the words people used to find your website through a search engine.

If the keywords you are targeting with your page copy and in your search engine optimization strategy are not showing up in your keyword referrals, there is something wrong with your keyword strategy, search engine optimization strategy, search engine positioning, or all three!

If you are getting only a few visitor sessions from the keywords you are targeting it could be an indication of poor organic (i.e., free) search engine positioning.

Marketing to brides online will become tougher in 2009. Don't let the competition eat-your-lunch, join my ADVANTAGE program today.

Looking for the latest wedding industry statistics?

Sign-up for my free Internet Marketing Tips for Wedding Professionals and learn how to DOUBLE your traffic and TRIPLE your inquiries.

Marketing To Brides: Wedding Fashion

Here are the returns (pages that match) at Google for the following keywords:

wedding gowns - 3,850,000

"wedding gowns" - 3,790,000

wedding dresses - 9,440,000

"wedding dresses" - 9,740,000

YIKES!

Should You Advertise at The Knot?

Marketing to brides online is getting more and more competitive.

I get asked this question about 100 times a month:

"Chris, should I be advertising at The Knot and is it worth it?"

The Knot is certainly one of the most visited wedding planning websites on the Internet. As a result, chances are pretty good that some of the brides and grooms in your local market have visited and may even use the website regularly.

Generally speaking, I like The Knot (http://www.theknot.com) because it has done a great job at building a highly recognized brand in the wedding planning space.

There are a couple things I find interesting about their online advertising model and almost all of the people I know who have advertised there seem frustrated with their rotating-account-managers (or inability to communicate with an account manager). But make no mistake... The Knot is one of the places brides visit once they're engaged.

Like with any advertising, and relatively easier with online advertising, you'll want to do some homework and plan on measuring the results you get.

If you are a current or former advertiser at The Knot I'd love to get your feedback. Drop me a line.

Should You Advertise at The Knot

Marketing To Brides Q&A - Leads List Delivering Poor Results

Q: Chris, I get a list of leads from a website that I advertise at and I'm frustrated with the chasing down and lack of response I get when I contact these people. I send these people email and never hear back from them. Any suggestions?

A: Time and time again I hear this. The bottom line is these are poor quality leads and they come from a bride/groom who has visited a wedding planning website, signed-up for "something" and has now made it to a list. I'm not saying they are NO GOOD, I'm just saying come on, get real, this isn't what I'd call a high-quality lead.

The best leads are the ones you get from your website. If you have good traffic but no inquiries or phone calls you have a conversion problem. Conversion problems don't get better by themselves and you'll want to address this immediately.

Keep in mind, if a bride finds your website and doesn't like what she sees with just a click of a button she's on her way to finding someone else. The average bride who uses my Wedding Planning Links website clicks on three links before she leaves permanently.

You may like your website, your web designer might like it, your mother might tell you "it's lovely."

Only one thing really matters: is your traffic turning into inquiries and sales?

If not you have a conversion problem.

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

Wedding Ministers and Wedding Officiants... Don't Miss This

If you are a Wedding Minister or Wedding Officiant and marketing to brides online you won't want to miss a series of tele-clinics and webinars I'm doing with Rev. Claire Goodman.

Rev It Up Marketing is a project we've been collaborating on since the end of last year and we're kicking things up a notch with a three tele-clinics/webinars.

Each class will be filled with great information, tips, advice, and recommended resources. We'll also allow plenty of time for Q&A at the end of the hour.

Session/Class #1
Sunday, March 30th, 8 PM

Topic: Search Engine Optimization Overview.

So, you've got a website... great! But are the couples who need your services finding it? If not then this class is for you!

Session/Class #2
Sunday, April 6th - 8 PM

Topic: The Words You Choose Make or Break You.

Topic includes: The importance of your marketing message, unique value proposition, discounting pros/cons, WIIFM, benefit vs. value.

Session/Class #3
Sunday, April 13th - 8 PM

Topic: Why Wedding Officiants Should Be Blogging and How To Get Started.

If you can't make heads or tales of this thing called blogging or if you've got one but can't quite figure out how to make it work for your business then we can help!

To participate all you need is a phone and Internet connection with a browser (to follow the online presentation). Long distance phone charges may apply.

Visit Rev It Up Marketing for more information.

More Sales

Everyone wants more sales.

That's what marketing to brides is all about, right?

One way to get more sales is to get more inquiries. That's what websites are supposed to do - generate inquiries from brides.

One way to get more inquiries is to make it easier for brides to make inquiries.

I know... that sounds so obvious, but I visit too many websites that make it too difficult to find the contact option or a phone number?

One of my client's recently thought it was a good idea to remove their phone number from the top of her website (we had to have a little talk...).

Why in the world are you making brides LOOK FOR your phone number or even click a link (or button) to find your contact form?

Want more sales?

Then focus on getting more inquiries!

Here are a few ideas:

(1) Add your phone number to the top and bottom of every page. I like to see a phone number at the top right of a page - that's where I think most people's eyes go. I've seen this simple change increase inquiries 30%.

(2) Add your inquiry form to the bottom of your home page. If people aren't ready to make an inquiry after reading your home page you've got a problem. I'm not saying they all will, but I'm saying they should be ready to make an inquiry. 95% of the people who visit your home page should want to, and be ready to, make an inquiry after reading it.

(3) Add a "Bookmark This Site" option to your home page. Not every bride will be ready to make an inquiry on her first visit to your website. Her boss is probably coming back from lunch any minute now and... she'll have to visit later! Adding a simple "Bookmark" this site option is a simple and effective way to build repeat traffic and get more inquiries.

Simple stuff here folks... that can make a big difference.

Here's another way to increase your company's exposure, get more inquiries, and book more weddings!

You Built It - They Didn't Come

In the 1989 movie Field of Dreams Kevin Costner is told "if you build it they will come" and they do. Of course they do, it's Hollywood.

But the same doesn't work with your website. Marketing to brides online isn't anything like a Hollywood movie. You can build a website and no one, I mean no one, will find it or come - for weeks, months, maybe years.

Not unless you have an effective TRAFFIC BUILDING STRATEGY.

Here are the elements to consider when putting together a successful traffic building strategy:

SEO (search engine optimization)

* Optimizing your website for Google, Yahoo!, MSN
* Creating page content that is relevant to the search
* Developing keywords and keyword phrases
* Making sure they appear in your content (i.e. keyword density)
* Creating fresh information and keeping your website up-to-date
* Maximizing your website's "crawlability" (i.e. no FLASH)
* Developing inbound links
* Measuring results (i.e. Google Analytics)
* Patience: it can take 6 to 12 months to see results

SEM (search engine marketing)

* Pay-per-click advertising at Google (i.e. Adwords)
* Buying other links in directories
* Increasing your overall exposure using paid advertising
* Using search engines AND directories

Link Building & Exchange

* Exchanging links with people you know and work with
* Asking for links at other sites thematically the same as yours
* Buying positions at well ranked websites
* Optimizing this by getting direct links (not passed with scripts)

EMAIL Marketing

* Building repeat traffic opportunities
* Exchanging value for a visit
* Expert tips = come back for more = inquiries
* "Touching" a prospect up to 7 times

Web 2.0 (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, bulletin boards, "social media")

* Developing additional exposure for your website online
* Jumping on the "social media" trend
* Blogging
* YouTube
* MySpace
* FaceBook
* Linked In
* Posting to Craigslist


Integration of Offline/Online Marketing

* Making sure your offline marketing and advertising programs fold in to your website and Internet marketing plans.

Without question this is a lot of work and it will take time to see the results you ideally want. But make no mistake, doing nothing is not an effective strategy and the amount of effort you put into the above items will be directly proportional to the results and traffic you get.

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

Online Mistakes: Part 1

Common Online Marketing Mistakes

1) Waiting For Things To Get Better By Themselves

This is the number one problem for people who are NOT getting the results they want from their website - waiting and thinking things will get better.

They don't.

Actually, they'll get worse.

In the online world MONEY is second to TIME. You can't make up time on the Internet and I believe that for every one day you "wait" you actually fall behind by TWO days. Why? Because (1) your competition gets ahead of you by one more day, (2) new competition comes online and further dilutes the marketplace and your visibility/position, (3) it is taking twice as long to get results at Google as it has in the past - what once took a few months is now taking up to year (or more!).

2) Misconceptions Related to Search Engines & Search Engine Optimization

Make NO MISTAKE, when your website is top ranked for your keywords/phrases you have a strategic and significant advantage over your competition. If you've ever listened in on my tele-clinics or heard me speak at a conference, you've heard me say a top ranked website at Google is "like having a money tree in your back yard."

In most cases, you don't have the expertise to get a top ranked position at Google (by yourself, or without the proper guidance and coaching). Adjusting a few meta-tags isn't going to do anything for your website at Google - trust me!

3) Thinking Long Term

You have to think of your online marketing strategey as a long-term plan. To get the results you want, and achieve the success you want, you'll have to have a comprehensive online marketing strategy for marketing to brides that includes:

Design (website design)
Site Content (marketing message)
Conversion (turning visitors into inquiries/sales)
Traffic Building
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Marketing
Advanced Online Marketing (email, blogging, etc.)
Integration of Offline/Online

Food for thought on a cold and now snowing day in Boston.

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

Words of Wisdom: The First Meeting With A Bride & Groom

Claire Goodman, a wedding officiant in Charlottesville, Virginia has some sound advice that she's sharing today: 3 Tips on a Successful First Meeting With a Couple.

Enjoy!

What Is "Good" Conversion?

Today I spent the day with a client in New York City and I'm on the Amtrak Acela back to Boston... I love the Internet (my laptop, my Sprint broadband modem, and my new iPod Touch!).

We talked about conversion and last year their website converted 2.54% of their gross visitor sessions into inquiries. If you use my rule (i.e. take your total visitor count and cut it in half - they are not qualified visitors or they are just people clicking around the 'net), the conversion pops up over 5%.

From those inquiries they booked 147 new clients. Good stuff, for sure.

Conversion... you say. What is conversion, Chris?

Conversion is that magic moment, the goal of EVERY website (IMO), when a bride or groom visiting your website does something you want them to.

If you sell your services it's most likely an inquiry, a phone call, or may be a download of your take-away - you are using a take-way, right?

If you sell online it's when they put something into their shopping cart and then, if everything goes right, enter your checkout process, put up their credit card, and complete the purchase.

So the question is: What is a good converstion rate?

Obviously, the higher the better.

But realistically, if you sell services anything below 5% is an indication something is wrong - either with your website or your traffic (i.e. poor qualified traffic) - or both. Below 2% and you've got a disaster on your hands.

In most cases, I see conversion in the 2% to 3% range and I think that is the average. Keep in mind, that's just an inquiry - not a sale. Tweak your online marketing, do some testing, and I've been able to get to between 10% and 16%.

When it comes to ecommerce the numbers are, sadly, worse. A .5% (1/2 of 1%) conversion is not unlikely and probably about the average. Yes, about average. An ecommerce site that converts 1% to 2% is above average. In a recent article in Internet Retailer, some sites claimed to be in the 6% range. Those, I'm sure are not typical.

As you might guess there are a lot of things that impact conversion and it's almost ridiculous to say there is an "average." Factors like quality of traffic play a large role, things like email marketing and repeat visits/visitors also impact conversion.

Bottom line... track your results (Google Analytics), test different page copy (split testing), test different graphics, test using landing pages (if you're using pay-per-click), get feedback from people who bought from you... gather up all your data and then, and only then, will you have an idea of what is REALLY happening at your website. If you think you've got trouble, then drop me a line.

As for my New York City client, we're shooting for 280 new clients in 2008 and optimizing conversion, getting it to 8% to 10%, is our plan of attack

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

Serving Video via YouTube (and a very funny video!)

Today I thought I'd share a funny video that is being served via YouTube.

So this post is a LIVE EXAMPLE of using YouTube to "serve" your video clips - whether at your blog or at your website.

It's pretty simple:

1) Open a YouTube account

2) Load up your videos

3) Grab the "link"

4) Put it on a web page at your site

In other words, you are "plugging in" your videos from YouTube at your website (or, in this case, a blog).

Cool stuff and FREE!

I highly recommend you take advantage of this technique and in most cases I can't see someone wouldn't do it this way.

Benefits:

Easy

Serves videos across all platforms: Windows or Mac or ???

Eliminates the "streaming or no-streaming" issue (YouTube player streams!)

Fast delivery of content

Saves you bandwidth charges with your hosting company

Enjoy!






Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com/

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

PPC and Landing Page Quality Score

Too many people I speak to who are using Google Adwords don't know what a landing page is.

Even worse, they're not familiar with Page Quality Score, which will impact your bidding costs (poor quality score requires higher minimum bids, higher quality score has a positive impact: lower minimum bids and potentially more impressions and clicks - for less cost-per-click!).

For more information about Quality Score visit:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/09/websites-that-may-merit-low-landing.html

For more information about Landing Pages visit:
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46675&hl=en


Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

The Five C's of Successful Websites

#1 - Content

The information on each of your web site pages is very important.

First, it's what a bride came looking for. If you don't provide what brides are looking for at your website, guess what? They leave. So if you have traffic, but not results, it would be a good idea to take a look at your page content (and also the source of your traffic which should indicate the quality of your traffic).

Secondly, the words and how you use those words on your page play a critical role in how well your website is ranked by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Content means not only delivering a valuable marketing message (unique value proposition, value/benefit, call-to-action), but using the right keywords and keyword phrases so brides and grooms can actually find your website!

Content is very important. Content is King.



Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.