Internet Advertising Sites for Mobile DJ's

[Drewbdo]

Just heard back from a photographer who I have done many weddings with. We are both the preferred vendors at this one venue. At least 1/2 of my weddings come from this venue.

The venue owner's primary business is super busy, super profitable, and she is having several medical problems within her immediate family. She doesn't have time to run the wedding venue, and hasn't really been paying attention to the venue for the past year.

The venue usually won at least one bridal award every year from TK, WW, etc, and almost every single review mentioned the venue manager by name, as one of the primary reasons why they gave a five-star review. She was amazing, but she got overwhelmed because she felt the owner wasn't giving her the help or the money she needed to continue to grow the venue successfully.

So, the venue manager got burned out, and left the company in October to return to the medical field. Her husband makes really good money, and travels out-of-state during the week, so she wants something part-time, with weekends free. At the venue, she was always there on the weekend.

She eventually decided not to take the medical job. In November, the owner lists the venue and sells it to the manager of another venue who wants her own place.

The new owner took over in January. She says she plans to keep everyone on the team as is. However, she also has regular vendors from her old venue. So, I don't know if we will be retained long term.

The photographer and I contacted the old venue manager a couple of weeks ago. "Since you aren't working anywhere currently, would you be interested in being our marketing agent?" We heard back from her this morning. She is interested. She has tons of contacts, and will be contacting our leads to schedule appointments, contacting venues to try to get us in the door, taking brochures and flyers to bridal shops, networking with event planners and wedding coordinators, following up with brides to get reviews, etc.

Hopefully this will work. I still plan to hire an SEO person to help get me up to speed on internet marketing.

[DJ Tandem]

Sad story...Hoping that everything turns up good in the end.

[djdoublej]

I have been on Perfect Wedding Guide for a year. They send you leads from bridal shows who need your services, and you contact them. I think it would work better if I had a sales person contacting the leads. Frankly, after working my day job, when I get home, cold-calling brides is the last thing I feel like doing... I'd rather spend time with my family, or get on my turntables and practice, or even catch up on projects at home that have piled up while I'm working 60+ hours per week. Anyway, I've gotten zero customers, and just told them to cancel my account.

I have also been on The Knot for a year. Have had a few leads, "are you available on ___date___", and "what do you charge" type questions, but no appointments and no sales. In fact, none of them have put their phone numbers, so all I can do is email them back answering their questions. I can understand if I'm out of their price range, but I get irritated when they ask if I'm available, I answer that I am, give a call to action "let's chat!", and then I never hear back.

Do you list your rates on your website? I know it can be a big debate on this forum, some think that if you don't list them, you will have more leads contact you and then you can "sell" them on your business.

I took my rates off of my website for a while, but then I was experiencing the same problem you described. Many calls and emails asking "what are your rates and are you available on X date?" but none would ever turn into gigs. Most were just price shoppers and I wasn't the lowest price. It got frustrating after a while, because I was wasting my time telling these people all about my service when meanwhile all they cared about was the price.

So, I went back to listing my rates on my website and I've been happy since. If a couple contacts me now, it's very likely that they will book me, because they know my rates already and feel they are reasonable. And I don't have to waste time talking to price shoppers.

[fatcatdj]

Wedding wire is pretty good, my rep called me today and gave me some pointers about my site on there and seems to be genuinely
concerned about getting gigs for me. I like that. She's going to call in 2 weeks to check up on me. In fact she says she calls all her clients every 2 weeks to make sure things are all good. Does The Knot do that as well? Thumbtack emails to find out why you're not bidding on their shitty leads.

[ParisCreative]

Wedding wire is pretty good, my rep called me today and gave me some pointers about my site on there and seems to be genuinely
concerned about getting gigs for me. I like that. She's going to call in 2 weeks to check up on me. In fact she says she calls all her clients every 2 weeks to make sure things are all good. Does The Knot do that as well? Thumbtack emails to find out why you're not bidding on their shitty leads.

Yeah the Knot does the same. Of course with the amount of money they bring in it makes sense. Don't want to lose that gravy train.

[TimH]

Wedding wire is pretty good, my rep called me today and gave me some pointers about my site on there and seems to be genuinely
concerned about getting gigs for me. I like that. She's going to call in 2 weeks to check up on me. In fact she says she calls all her clients every 2 weeks to make sure things are all good. Does The Knot do that as well? Thumbtack emails to find out why you're not bidding on their shitty leads.

Thanks for sharing this. I just created an ad last Thursday on WW (not a featured one, but a paid one with pictures), but I haven't gotten a single lead yet. I received an email from a WW rep today so I will follow up. Good to know your experience has been good so far.

[classicwonderents]

Hi, just joined the forum and this is a great thread - I'm based in the UK so good to see how things are done over your parts :-)

[SyncopatedSounds]

I'd be willing to pay 5.99 for a lead, in Calgary to get a click on google adwords you are looking at about $8-9 just for a click. On average I am paying about $100/Client, if I could get that down that would be awesome.

Google Adwords
Bing Adwords
Facebook Advertising
YouTube Ads
Kijiji
Craigslist
Wedding Wire
The Knot
Weddings West
Facebook Groups

What's everyones thought on Trade Shows?

[ParisCreative]

Trade shows, eh. It really depends.

I've written my 4th update to my "Mobile DJ and Ad Dollars" article with my latest observations. Check it out.
https://pariscreative.com/mobile-dji...nt-dollars-v4/