It Happened to Me again...

Tonight's a short but sweet message....

This weekend was a whirlwind of Bridal Events in Metro Atlanta and I spent the better half of my Sunday congratulating newly engaged gals on their upcoming nuptials. One girl, in particular, stood out. As soon as I handed her a magazine she said "Oh are you the creator?!?! I'm on your website almost everyday! I read about you in H Magazine... I live in Henry County too!"

It happened again. Right before my very own eyes someone admitted that they actually READ magazines and that she actually found out about me from a recent article that was written in H Magazine. Who would have thunk it? FYI.. I also had an ad in that same magazine, same issue.

Bottom line people. If they're reading articles, they're seeing ads. There's no way they can't. Period.

Here's my fabulous 15 mintues of fame that ran earlier this year.

Just when you thought magazines were useless....

Let's get one thing straight: It's not my intention to use this blog to sell advertising. Yes, I sell advertising for a living, but rather than push my product, I'm just trying to bring light to an industry that always gets heat because people just don't understand it.

But today, I'm here to tell you that apparently advertising, more specifically print, does work. I experienced the results myself . ;-)

Well not directly myself, but indirectly of sorts. It was my magazine after all.

Each month, on the third Wednesday my company and fellow publisher friend Linda Surles of Atlanta Bride and Groom Planner co-host a networking luncheon for our advertisers and prospective clients in the Atlanta Wedding Industry. We meet A LOT of folks! Today was especially unique because I met a new woman, an event planner and she had an interesting story for me.

Last week she was in Priscilla of Boston in Buckhead and picked up OCCASIONS Magazine and was stunned because she'd never seen it before (I'm blushing). She explained that she had been looking for a rental company that had white leather furniture and hadn't been able to find one yet for an event she was planning for quite the demanding bride. She came across Event Rentals Unlimited in our section "An Atlanta Occasion" and low and behold... a picture of a white leather couch provided by Event Rentals Unlimited. She called. She booked. She told them she found them in Atlanta OCCASIONS Magazine. The End.

Client. Vendor. Gap. Bridged... all by a MAGAZINE.

The Seed that "Word of Mouth" Stems from: Advertising

If you follow me on Twitter you know I've been bitching A LOT about AT&T lately. I am a small business owner which means, I have a small operating budget and fancy expensive phone service, just ain't in the cards. I've been on the prowl for new, less expensive phone service with no avail. I've heard Google Talk is the way to go, but apparently it's limited, and I need a solution now.

On a recent 12 hour road trip to Arkansas I occupied my time eagerly flipping through the September Issue of Inc. Magazine. (I have to admit, I'm an Inc. Mag virgin and now I'm hooked). Not only did I find myself immersed in the articles..... I ran across a double-truck (2-page spread for those of you non-advertising language speaking folks) ad for Grasshopper: a virtual phone service specifically designed for Entrepreneurs. It immediately hit me that this just might be what I was looking for and I dog-eared the page to go look it up later. Just like that... Grasshopper had made a connection with me.




Now, I'm not trying to sell phone service here, but this brings me to my topic.... Obviously I had never heard of Grasshopper before. Had I not been reading that September Issue of Inc. Magazine it may have been months before I ever found out about Grasshopper Virtual phone service. That ad answered a question, filled a need and look... now it's being transformed into word of mouth marketing through this blog.

Word of Mouth Referrals are great, but you can't discredit where the buzz began: with your ad. Yes, I'm a true believer in word-of-mouth marketing and referral business, BUT I ask, where did your first customer come from? Or maybe even your 10th or 100th?

I like to compare advertising your business to growing a garden. There are two steps. First Step: planting the initial seeds and then relying on nature to do it's thang. With a garden you want Tulips, you plant Tulip buds and you get tulips. Then comes pollination: the a necessary step in the reproduction of flowering plants that God invented bugs and wind for.... to multiply those plants.

In Business, you want customers, you place advertisements and you get customers. Then, all of your new happy customers tell their friends and thus produce more new customers for you.. etc.

Today's Lesson:

Seeds = Advertisements
Pollination = Word of Mouth

Have one without the other and all you get is a very sparse garden and a below average marketing campaign.

FYI: every hyperlink I created in this post I linked to http://www.grasshopper.com/inc. That's me giving credit where credit is due: The ad that ran in Inc. Magazine. :-)