Where do you advertise?

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Jeff Romard

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Sep 4, 2006
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Jas's thread got me thinking alot of DJ's seem to find ways to spend money on marketing and never work the free stuff so I got to wondering where do you folks advertise, what does it cost you, and what is the return. I'm talking all advertising free or paid
 
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Weddingwire, $52/month - I've done a poor job on tracking response the past couple of years. I do hear a decent number of "We found you weddingwire" comments so it's my impression that it does pay for itself.

Gigmasters, $200/year - This turns up a fairly constant flow of leads. Definitely pays for itself.

Craigslist, $0 - It does cost me time to have to re-post my ad(s) every 48 hours. I post in the Nashville and Bowling Green markets. When I keep up with it, my view is it turns over more leads than either of the other two. I will add in that when I didn't have prices posted on my website, CL gave me a constant stream of "You're too expensive" emails from prospects. Now that I've followed Wes' advice, all I get is a nice steady stream of leads from CL that are well-qualified and ready to pay prevailing rate.

I'm listed on a few other misc sites (wedj and several others I can't remember). Nothing to speak of from any of them.
 
We do a few different things. Weddingwire and Wedj are our two online ones, but both of those are only free listings and they maybe get us one a year. Our next largest is a bridal show, $500 charitable contribution, and that one is normally good for 2-3 directly. After that it's all word of mouth from vendors and previous clients, which costs us nothing.
 
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BTW, I also offer a 10% bump to planners, photogs, venues, etc. They can either keep it for themselves or we'll give it to the client on their behalf. All of the vendors have chosen the kickback for themselves and this practice has probably put 1/3 of our dates on the books this year.
 
Gigmasters for a few years now at $200 per year. 5 events through them last year which is the most so far. I gave a 10% referral fee to another DJ last year which landed 2 weddings. I'm thinking I should make this offer to more people as Rick ^ is doing. I'm also considering google adwords instead of WW. I'm thinking if prospects aren't familiar with your name you just blend in with the rest of the unknown companies, and there's lots of them. Starting the craig's list ads per Rick's method, it can't hurt.

I guess we should include the cost to maintain a website too since some DJs don't have one and others spend a lot. Mine is DIY at about $150 per year. I haven't kept an account of ROI, but it's been worth the $150.
 
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  • Borrowed and Blue www.borrowedandblue.com about $50 a month
  • Gigmasters - just signed their free account... gonna play with it a little more before deciding on paid accounts
  • weeding.com was with them for 9 months... not one lead or response after sending quotes to 40 potential (fake - cough) clients after the first 6 months they did give me the 6 months free option... now sending me a full refund.... after much discussion
  • WeDJ www.wedj.com about $120 a year... mostly for the access to www.gigbuilder.com which in my opinion is well worth it. I have had several customers comment on liking and using the tools that are integrated into my own site.
  • Thumbtack www.thumbtack.com You should be selective about which ones you buy (I am using the "pay-per-lead" method), but it seems to be landing me more and more jobs... just landed 2 more within the last 30 days using them
  • Craigslist... been using them for about 3 years... and like Jas now trying the a la Rick method
  • GigSalad - www.gigsalad.com free listing
  • WeddingWire - www.weddingwire.com- free listing
  • MyWedding - www.mywedding.com - free listing
  • OneWed - www.onewed.com - free listing
  • WedPlan - www.wedplan.com - free listing
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • Own website www.rcbaudio.com - free hosting with google... only pay the fees for the domain name
  • Eventective - www.eventective.com - pay per lead (only $2.50 each) but it has more than paid for itself... probably about 5 - 6 gigs each year
  • Word of mouth also seems to be picking up more
  • Agreements with some photographers and photo booth operators.
  • Have made a few preferred vendors lists recently and those places have also allowed me to place rack cards at their venues
 
Ha....just had a CL call last night. Dude wanted someone to light a stage for a "Hip-Hop Concert". Now MAYBE I turned away a big money opportunity but after a few minutes of talk, I passed. They're not all good leads but the pricing posted to the website sure strains out the vast majority of the crap leads.
 
  • Borrowed and Blue www.borrowedandblue.com about $50 a month
  • weeding.com was with them for 9 months... not one lead or response after sending quotes to 40 potential (fake - cough) clients after the first 6 months they did give me the 6 months free option... now sending me a full refund.... after much discussion
Just got my full refund from Wedding.com happy but amazed they paid it out to me in full and in only took 3 days. Also a little side not. Yesterday I was exchanging some emails with one of the founder of Borrowed and Blue who live in Virginia. As it turns out her next door neighbor graduated form a High School down here and hired me to DJ it back on Oct 20, 2012. (This was one of those Eventective wins.) Anyway, she was telling me her neighbor had nothing but very positive things to say about my services. What a Small World!
 
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Just got my full refund from Wedding.com happy but amazed they paid it out to me in full and in only took 3 days. Also a little side not. Yesterday I was exchanging some emails with one of the founder of Borrowed and Blue who live in Virginia. As it turns out her next door neighbor graduated form a High School down here and hired me to DJ it back on Oct 20, 2012. (This was one of those Eventective wins.) Anyway, she was telling me her neighbor had nothing but very positive things to say about my services. What a Small World!

Yea but what can Borrowed and Blue do for you, business-wise?
 
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Yea but what can Borrowed and Blue do for you, business-wise?
Well I will let you know... only been with them for 2 months, so gonna give them some time and see what they can deliver. I do know they have sent an email to potential bride just this past weekend recommending me. I have followed up with the bride, but she has not responded yet.
 
Well I will let you know... only been with them for 2 months, so gonna give them some time and see what they can deliver. I do know they have sent an email to potential bride just this past weekend recommending me. I have followed up with the bride, but she has not responded yet.

So they send your information to the prospect? They don't give you the email, phone or name of the prospect? In the 2 months, how many leads have they processed to/for you? Forgive me if I seem rather pointed but when it comes to marketing sites, I don't waste time on this fuzzy-wuzzy, "We'll help your exposure." If a site can't produce tangible results within 30 days, meaning I get valid prospects to whom I can make a sales pitch, they're full of B.S. and not worth my time.
 
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Well here's mine...

About 85%+ of my bookings are from referral so my advertising budget is small

$200 for my website, domain names and website creator

Facebook - It's been very kind to me and free

Kijjiji - Free ads placed at appropriate times I don't take the time to do this year round but I do place them in Jan-Mar and from Sept- Dec which are the prime booking seasons

Wedj - Free ad

Partypros, wedding wire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Manta, Canpages, Hotfrog, eventwire, my party planner,and pretty much anywhere that is free to advertise

Eventective - Interesting story I had 4 inquiries just after I signed up that I was very suspicious of as they were only an hour after I signed up and almost in a row. I paid for one just for shits and giggles to no avail and I haven't had an inquiry since

Business Cards - I bought 5,000 simple ones about 4 years ago cost me $150 and I'm still using them

Local Coffee Papers - A couple of times a year I'll buy a spot in the local coffee papers the ones that are free at some restaurants. It costs me about $20/Week to do this and last year I bought 4 weeks. The reach is in the range of 25,000/ week but the demo is impossible to pick

Radio - Although it's been a couple of years I've bought radio in the past. The only way I'd do it again is either if I was buying a small package for a special event or a massive year long one for a TOMA campaign

Local Cable Channels - reasonably inexpensive but from my experience reasonably ineffective also

Yellow Pages - The most I ever spent in a year was in the Yellow pages. I spent over $6000 two years in a row and $2000 the third year then I cut it back to about $500 I now go with a line ad. The YP did very well for me and continues to do so people just don't throw their old phone books away. I also seem to get picked up on internet searches on yp.ca. I know that it doesn't work in all areas but to me it was money well spent it gives a note of credibility when you are only one of three with an ad and you have the biggest

Bridal Shows - I used to do the biggest one in the area and had exclusive rights to it but once they took the exclusive rights away I didn't see it as being worth my while. I didn't want to be there competing with others charging a third of what I do

I used to run a referral program also but dropped that a couple of years back I do occasionally drop off some gift cards to venue managers that refer me often
 
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We are lucky to be very connected locally. We don't pay for any advertising other than our Godaddy site and soon we're redoing the site and will pay the company we'll be using $40/month additional for some new stuff we'll be adding. Really Word of mouth keeps me overwhelmingly busy. BUT, we also have an inflatable business that recommends all of their customers to us, a decorations/lounge furniture company that recommends their customers to us, and 3 major universities that recommend us for all of the events within their schools. And then of course Facebook which is Free brings us a lot of business. I guess it all depends on where you live but i won't ever waste money on Weddingwire or any of these other sites that claim to boost our business. For the last 10 years we just don't have a need for it
 
Interesting development after I posted this thread I received 2 inquiries from Eventective both very oddly worded. I didn't buy either one
 
You must have a pretty good referral base and contact list. I have a high referral rate also but I have a multi-op. I personally did 54 last year and am on pace to do that or more again but the extras for the other djs is where the advertising comes in
 
Jeff, I have a family income issue that is a throttle stop to how many events I take and how much I make. No I am not wealthy!! I think that will soon not be an issue as either my wife will retire or I will leave my current retirement job and go back to school for 4 years using my VA Disability benifits and start teaching MS History. Being a teacher will definetly cut my current pay in half :) However I have always wanted to be a history teacher.

At the MS level and my age, I will probably get to teach history I was part of the making :) I retired from the military after 27 years in 2005, so the Lord has blessed me, I work because, I LIKE TO WORK.