Week 11: Tapping into the Other Medias A

The marketing tools that I believe are important for my business are Yelp, Google+, LinkedIn and coupons.

We currently use Yelp, but it's a shared account with our golf course so we don't have a dedicated wedding yelp page.Having a dedicated Yelp wedding page would not do a hole lot for us because there are already websites out there like weddingwire.com and theknot.com.

I will start putting more effort in to Google+ because I think if could help boost publicity. If we get more of a presence and build an alliance with photographers then that could bring a lot of brides in. If brides see amazing pictures then they may contact that photographer inquiring about the photographer and what the venue is. It would also be good to see how other wedding venues sell and market their venue.
This is our google+ site https://plus.google.com/114182860726320774798

We advertise on various websites and use coupons when we need to boost weddings on certain weekends. Sometimes they work other times not so much. They usually don't work that well because they are geared towards couples that are having last minute weddings and we don't have to many of those.

If we use a LinkedIn account that could possibly be a way for wedding coordinators to find use and have their clients tour our site. But LinkedIn is geared towards 45+ and most of our couples are between 23-35. But I plan to look into LinkedIn and see whether or not other venues use it.

Week 10 B: Blog comments

I was able to send out my wedding open house invite flyer.

I commented on
Derek Kendall Holmes
Jennifer York 
Sophia Ludyjan

Week 10: Email Marketing

I don't think that having a news letter for the wedding site would really do much to grow business. Mainly because in theory people only get married once. Because it's a one time event they are only our customer for six months to a year. What we have to say at this moment in time may not matter to half of our email list in a month.

The only way I could see a news letter being some what helpful is if wedding planners subscribed to us. But even then the wedding market is so saturated with other blogs and market monsters such as theknot.com and weddingwire.com that I don't know how we could compete. Maybe we could send out seasonal advertisements, but then that gets tricky because people that have already booked with us will want to know why they are not receiving the same deal. Other than that we could possibly send out an extension of our wedding blog and post wedding success stories and how their wedding was different.

While email blasts don't work for the wedding side of our business, the golf side sends out weekly and monthly email blasts. These emails contain information about discounts, course of the month, tournaments and various golf information. It's good that the golf courses do this because it keeps golfers coming back and paying attention to their email.

Week 9: B Categories

The categories that we typically write about on our blog are about engagement stories and vendors we love. Engagement stories allow us to show our personal side of the story writing. Most couples just give us a very basic story of how they met, their not typically bloggers so they don't give it that spice we can. By having up to date engagement stories this shows that we are continuously getting new business.
Another category that we write about are vendors we love. By advertising for our vendors and the wonderful services they provide at our venue they recommend us in return, or at least that's the hope.
 

I responded to:
Skylar Hunter, Katie Nolte and Sherri Moore

Week 9: A Time and Place for Opinions

And How Did That Make You Feel...? 

When blogging about personal experiences, it’s important for the writer to add their own personal touch if it’s an informative opinion piece. As bloggers, we want to paint a picture for our readers and connect with them. If we can connect with them we are likely to gain their trust, when trust is gained the reader is more likely to return. In this instance, we want to sell our opinion and product. As a reader when I’m reading blogs about something I’m interested in I want to be able to relate to the writer. Example, I was just reading about American Eagle Jeans and the writer said something along the lines of “I’m so excited to be blogging about American Eagle Outfitters the place that stole acquired so much of my money in high school” when I read that I had an instant connection and thought “oh girl, I feel you!” because I too spent way too much money there as a teen. I connected with the writer because we shared a commonality and it was something only someone who shopped there would understand. I continued to read her blog. Overall the writing felt genuine and convinced me that maybe this high school favorite may be worth considering again.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - The Big Libowski

Times when a personal touch is not necessary and can hurt your reviews is when the writer is blogging about something they don’t know about. When the connection between the reader and writer does not feel real, it feels forced and the reader can feel it. Know what you’re writing about. Other times when a personal touch is not needed is when comparing technology and new gadgets. When I was shopping for a new phone I compared Apple and Samsung, I specifically looked at blogs that stated facts and did not provide the writers opinion. I wanted to know which one was better and for x,y,z reasons and why this phone took better pictures because of a,b,c. I (other readers too) want the facts, not the writers opinion, I want to form my own opinion. Other times is during certain tutorials just write about the procedure and specific steps, not how you felt while you were going through the steps, we’re not here for your opinion. We’re here for the information.