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Archive 2014 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.

  
 
agelessphotog
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


I am considering using weddingwire to book more weddings. I have heard that if you charge $2500+ you probably won't get many bookings. My all day packages are from $1800 to $1995.


Apr 17, 2014 at 01:37 PM
Tony Hoffer
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


What is your question?


Apr 17, 2014 at 01:49 PM
agelessphotog
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


Are my prices in the range of what they are looking for? do you think at my prices I would do well? I know some of you guys have used the service before and was wondering what price range a lot of the soon to by brides are willing to pay on there. It's a pretty big investment so I was just trying to figure out at my prices if I will get a good return.


Apr 17, 2014 at 02:04 PM
Scott Mosher
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


I have friends who shoot $4000+ weddings and advertise there and get bookings. Others of the same caliber get nothing.


Apr 17, 2014 at 02:06 PM
agelessphotog
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


I am just trying to figure out what is going to work best for us. When I google wedding photographer in the city I am closest to I am usually on the bottom of the first page or near the top of the 2nd. So I don't know if one of the SEO optimization services would even help me that much. I try to blog and do things to improve my SEO score as much as possible. I ran a facebook ad and I got a ton of "what are your prices" emails. After telling them most didn't get back to me. I did book one full price wedding off of the facebook ad though. It amazes me that I have my prices clearly listed but so many people are too lazy to look for them. So far Bridal Shows seem to be working best for me.


Apr 17, 2014 at 02:12 PM
agelessphotog
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


Scott Mosher wrote:
I have friends who shoot $4000+ weddings and advertise there and get bookings. Others of the same caliber get nothing.


The reason I brought up price was because I seen a thread where someone said that they only booked a lot of weddings off of wedding wire when they were just starting out and in the $1,000 to $2,000 price range. And the $2,000 price range is right around where my packages are. At first I was thinking that is a lot of money to just take a chance of maybe booking a few weddings. But after I read that I thought well maybe it would work out pretty good for us at the prices we are charging. Also we live in a really small town so I was thinking maybe it will give us a chance to get our name out there in some of the bigger cities around us.

Edited on Apr 17, 2014 at 02:18 PM · View previous versions



Apr 17, 2014 at 02:16 PM
Mitch W
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


Some people only care about finding the lowest price, while others value photography and are willing to pay for it. Which kind of clients you'll attract, if any, is impossible to say as there are any number of factors and variables at play (one being the quality of your work).


Apr 17, 2014 at 02:17 PM
agelessphotog
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


Mitch W wrote:
Some people only care about finding the lowest price, while others value photography and are willing to pay for it. Which kind of clients you'll attract, if any, is impossible to say as there are any number of factors and variables at play (one being the quality of your work).



Yeah trying to research it I see opinions that are all over the place. It would be a much easier decision if it wasn't so expensive or you could just try it for 2-3 months. I do want to get our name out there more in the surrounding area and since we have not been shooting weddings that long I am leaning towards trying it once to see what happens.



Apr 17, 2014 at 02:22 PM
deepbluejh
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


It's going to vary vastly depending on the kind of people looking for a photographer in your area and what kind of market you are in.

I personally am very leary of any company that requires a six month commitment to advertising like this. This is usually indicative of a service that does not work very well.



Apr 17, 2014 at 02:52 PM
agelessphotog
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


deepbluejh wrote:
It's going to vary vastly depending on the kind of people looking for a photographer in your area and what kind of market you are in.

I personally am very leary of any company that requires a six month commitment to advertising like this. This is usually indicative of a service that does not work very well.


That is the biggest problem I have with it is the six month commitment. So far every form of advertisement I have done has paid off very well. I hope that's a good sign that people like my quality of work for the price.



Apr 17, 2014 at 03:06 PM
deepbluejh
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


agelessphotog wrote:
That is the biggest problem I have with it is the six month commitment. So far every form of advertisement I have done has paid off very well. I hope that's a good sign that people like my quality of work for the price.


Well, when you're underpriced, you're likely to get decent results regardless of what you do. Personally I don't think I'd pay the big bucks for Wedding Wire if I were in your shoes. There are cheaper ways to go about it.



Apr 17, 2014 at 03:21 PM
Mitch W
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


Use the "time machine" feature in this forum and then do a topic search for "Wedding Wire" and "knot." Go back each year for several years as there are various discussions, some addressing the same question you are. You might gain some helpful insight from one of them.


Apr 17, 2014 at 03:38 PM
morby
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


I advertised there for one year and booked one wedding. I think it's a waste of money, but some people say it works for them


Apr 17, 2014 at 06:03 PM
dhp_sf
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


All of these listing sites offer one thing and one thing only: visibility. They are simply there as a way to put you in front of the eyes of people searching for vendors. The real question is who are these people that are looking at the listings and do you have something to put forward that sets you apart from the 100s of other listings on the site?

If the answer is "yes" then it may be worthwhile to invest. I have been on the Knot since late 2011 and have been getting enough bookings that it is well worth it for me. But that's my experience in my market. No one will really be able to answer this for you except for you. I will say that I have several bookings for over double of what you are charging (but again, SF is potentially a very different animal than other places).

There are a ton of factors involved when people make decisions on who they contact and who they meet with. Think beyond just the number. You don't want that to ever be the determining factor of your client's decision making process.



Apr 17, 2014 at 09:09 PM
D. Diggler
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


dhp_sf wrote:
SF is potentially a very different animal than other places


I'm sure. In Kansas you'd be working for one-quarter of what you're getting now for the same quality of work.



Apr 18, 2014 at 05:22 AM
Tony Hoffer
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


In my opinion, a photographer should focus their marketing energy on things that differentiate themself rather than things that list them directly next to their competition. At that point, you almost become a commodity.

At your price point, you're probably operating at a loss. I definitely wouldn't remove money from the business in that case, especially with so many free marketing opportunities out there.

Keep in mind that if you spend $1000 dollars to book 3 weddings and make $5400, that is NOT a net positive. That's a $333 customer acquisition cost. At your price point I don't think you can afford that unless you're ok with working at close to minimum wage.



Apr 18, 2014 at 06:49 AM
ricardovaste
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


agelessphotog wrote:
Are my prices in the range of what they are looking for? do you think at my prices I would do well? I know some of you guys have used the service before and was wondering what price range a lot of the soon to by brides are willing to pay on there. It's a pretty big investment so I was just trying to figure out at my prices if I will get a good return.


Scott Mosher wrote:
I have friends who shoot $4000+ weddings and advertise there and get bookings. Others of the same caliber get nothing.


So with these two tiny pieces of information we might come to the conclusion that the pricing isn't all that important, or that it could well be very far down the list, but we're just bringing attention to it because it's more immediately measurable. The same conclusion you might make about just any other potential inquiry.

I was curious so I looked it up, seems like you'd pay $570 USD for one of their "feature" ads for 6 months. Seems like A LOT for what is just a directory. I have no idea how many are in each section, but if it's pages, that's just terrible. Eitherway, I agree with Tony that I think it would be a poorly calculated risk. You would have to be charging more and getting a lot of bookings from it, for it to really make sense in my mind.

What are your current sources of work? Have you gone slack on any of them? Try re-addressing these and working on them further. Then try and branch out into something new. I don't think it's entirely bad thinking at all, I've looked at similar - you want to try something you're not currently doing. But in this case, I don't think it adds up.

Happy shooting!



Apr 18, 2014 at 09:28 AM
TheGE
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


agelessphotog wrote:
I am just trying to figure out what is going to work best for us.


That whole "what works best for us" thinking is backwards. What that does is limit you to only doing the things you're already limited to. You'll only get the same results over again. But to really grow you need to break through that to change yourself to do the things which work better. That means figuring out why things work the way they do and then adapt to it instead of looking to see if it adapts to you... in other words, instead of looking to see if it "works for you."

Maybe that's why it's called a "breakthrough" when you do that and get results.



Apr 18, 2014 at 11:49 AM
NYstyles
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


Its hit or miss with Wedding Wire. I think they are Way over priced. Personally if you want to pay what they want you'd get better results with just a free account there and Google adwords.

Just optimizing your website/images properly and blogging is huge. You want to be 'found' blog, blog, blog. Blogging is FANTASTIC for getting ranked well and staying there.

Just my opinion on Wedding Wire. Fact on the blogging/SEO.

Optimize, blog, and make your website stellar.




Apr 18, 2014 at 08:47 PM
swim_r
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Thinking of advertising on Weddingwire, I have one question.


We have had great success and book 10+ weddings a year at a $4k+ price point. We are in California and advertise throughout the Bay Area. It depends on your market, we have found that a lot of Bay Area brides use wedding wire not to see who is cheapest, but rather to see what photographers are out there. Style is primary and price is secondary.


Apr 21, 2014 at 02:31 PM
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