Any Place, Any Time and Any Device

  Today's couples are connecting to your business on all types of devices. How your website appears on a smart phone, tablet or desktop will determine if you get their attention - this can be a huge opportunity, or it can be where you lose business to a competitor.

Are your ideal clients finding you on a Galaxy Tablet, iPhone 6 Plus, or their work computer? A responsive website will reformat images and copy, making it easily accessible and viewable on different devices - regardless of screen size. Savvy web developers are even able to cater the experience to the specific device sizes (fine-tuning what is seen on a mobile vs. a tablet, for example), further driving a great user experience.

We've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating: Google favors responsive design! Responsive web design serves the same HTML code on the same URL regardless of the users’ device (desktop, tablet, mobile, non-visual browser), but can render the display differently (i.e., “respond”) based on the screen size. Responsive design is Google’s recommended design pattern.

Your potential clients should be able to look at your brand any time, any place and on any device. Allow us to create a web presence for you with a responsive site that will cater to each of those experiences and represent you the best! Booking that ideal wedding client takes more than just being good at what you do today - you must also present yourself in a manner that creates trust online...we can do that for you! Contact us for a free consultation.

Why Wedding Vendors Should DEFINITELY Have A Blog

Blogging is more relevant today than ever before! Yes, other social channels are exciting and can certainly be more engaging, but unlike Facebook and Instagram, blogging allows business owners to own the platforms that they are spending time and talent on! As you've surely heard before, only 6% of your Facebook fans are able to see posts from your business page. You can shake your fist at Mark Zuckerburg all you want, but the reality of the situation is that he owns the Facebook platform and can change the settings and advertising requirements as much as he needs to in order to have a successful business. Instead of getting mad, simply refocus your attention on the platforms YOU own.

Your blog should be the center of your marketing because you own it. You control how the content is distributed, who your marketing reaches and when. You can update the design and functionality as trends change, and you aren’t at the mercy of another business trying to make money off of your user engagement. Your followers and clients have as much or as little access to your brand as you want them to have.

Trust is a marketing tool that can’t be bought. When hiring a wedding vendor for a wedding, most couples are flying blind. They know a little about what you do and your style, but they want proof in order to feel comfortable trusting you with the details of one of the biggest events in their life thus far. This trust can be built from the ground up with a successful blog.

So, how do you get started?

1. START A BLOG: Many wedding businesses are leery to start a blog, thinking that the time commitment is not worth the value they receive, and at first that certainly seems so. As we speak to wedding professionals about blogging, one of our favorite sayings is that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Blogging is about consistency and producing quality content that builds on itself over time. Ideally this means 2 posts a week to get the most bang for the buck, but however often you decide to blog, just remember to keep it consistent. There are a number of platforms, but Wordpress is the easiest to use and is customizable, so your site will reflect your brand. Feel like you just can't get over this hump? We're here to help! We can customize a blog to match your website today! Contact us for more info on that...! 

2. CONTENT CREATION: Another concern that we hear a lot is that wedding businesses don’t have anything to blog about. This is an easy one, you're creating visual content on a weekly basis! Once you get started you may have a hard time deciding what to blog first! We like blog series as they allow you to concentrate on a subject for multiple posts and they keep your readers coming back.

Creating great content for your blog also allows you to spread that content to other places, including Facebook, Twitter, and your newsletter. A blog also allows your ambassadors to easily promote you through social media as well.

HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED: •    What are the most frequently asked questions that you get from prospective clients? •    What are some things to do in the area? •    Do you have recommended vendors? •    Has your business been featured in any magazines or popular blogs? •    Feature some images of past real weddings you’ve participated in •    A "what makes your business unique" blog post series? •    Is your business offering any promotions? Need more?... just reach out to us and we can help!

3. SEO: Blogging will have the added effect of drawing people to your brand through search engine optimization. Creating content that is specific to your wedding business niche and your geographic location will add to your PageRank with Google. This brings your site to the top of search engines when people search for terms related to you and your business. The title of the post and the first few sentences of the first paragraph are particularly indexable, so make sure to call out some key terms in these places.

4. PHOTOGRAPHY: Nothing is shared online more than images, so make sure to include an image in each and every blog post. To improve your chance of the image being found in a search, name the photo file with relevant keywords (yes, that means the .jpeg). Images draw a visitor's attention and should be highlighting your unique style.

Make sure to feature all the weddings that you take part in and keep lists of the vendors that participated in each event. Also be sure to share your events in a timely manner with the other vendors, particularly the venue. That way, they can post your images on their blogs and social media (with your logo of course). If you're a wedding photographer, our sister site, LulaWed, can help you share your images with those vendors.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA: You’re producing content and pushing it out into the world; make certain that it is extremely easy for your site's visitors to share your content with their friends and fans! We’ve used Shareaholic on a number of blogs and have found it easy to install and effective. Make certain there is a link on your blog to your other social media properties like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Bonus Tip: ANALYTICS Google Analytics may be one of the most important tools you can use. With Google Analytics, you can know where your visitors are coming from, what search terms they are using to end up at your site and what type of device they are using to look at your content!

Click the image below to download this post's content in one easy infographic. Courtesy of LulaWed!

Why Your Brand Needs A Style Guide

With branding, consistency is key. Establishing a visual brand identity gives your company a voice in the world. That voice should sound (and look) consistent across all media platforms, not only to make your brand easily identifiable, but to also to build up trust between your business and the consumer. The easiest way to keep things visually consistent, especially as your business grows, is having a brand style guide. Listing all of your basic brand elements and acting as the singular point of reference for any future design projects and the designers that might be work on them. Having a style guide can save everyone time, money and frustration.

What’s included in a branding style guide can vary a lot depending on the size of the company.  Most small businesses can benefit greatly from just having a simple, visual one-page reference, while larger companies require more robust corporate identity guidelines.

At the most basic level a style guide should include these elements:

Your Logo & Tagline/Slogan

Include all versions of your logo: color, reversed, black and white. Also include any approved alternate logo arrangements such as stacked vs. one line, or a shortened or iconic version used for social media perhaps.

Color Scheme

The colors used by a brand should be spelled out with as much detail as possible. That means offering up not only hex codes for web use, but also equivalent CMYK and even Pantone color values for print projects.

Fonts

Every brand should have a consistent set of fonts being used in all of their marketing materials, online and off. Listing out these fonts, with examples and character sets, is hugely important. This should include the fonts used in your logo, font’s that should be used as header/body copy and any suggested web fonts.

Photos, Textures/Patterns, Icons, and Other Imagery

Here you will want to include any custom textures, patterns or graphic elements that have been designed to be used in association with your brand as backgrounds or highlights through places on your website and/or marketing materials. You could also include any specifics about the style of photos and imagery that you would like associated with your brand. That way if any stock imagery is needed for marketing down the road it will have the same look and feel as the rest of your imagery does. We are happy to give your existing brand a style guide of it’s own or help you with a whole new branding package! Take a look at our work and contact us today!