Welcome to the Summer Welsh Bride Newsletter - 21.8.2007

The purpose of this newsletter is to keep all advertisers and wedding fayre organisers up to date with news, website development and advertising opportunities. Since our official launch last year, we have been working on a number
of projects which many of you may not know about. Therefore, we have put together this newsletter to let you know
what we have been up to:

Here is a list of what we will be covering:

1. Business Categories
2. Quick Links
3. Listings
4. Sponsorships
5. Video Feature
6. Audio Adverts
7. Vertical Banners
8. Members Page
9. Wedding Fayres
10. Promotions
11. Statistics & Searches
12. David and Emma

 1) Business Categories

In April of this year, we decided to freshen up the business categories without effecting any advertisers.
This took David a long time to develop but it was definitely a worthwhile project. Please see the old
business categories on the left compared to the new ones listed on the right...

 

Over a 6 month period we gathered views and feedback from friends, family and advertisers of how the website looked and performed. We formed a list of possible enhancements and decided to change the business categories to reflect the views of others.

A major change came by separating Photographers and Videographers, a request that should have been predicted at launch. We removed Churches and Registry Offices, simply because the majority of couples get married close to their home and already know the options available.

Unique Services didn’t seem so unique after all and we had no real reason to keep Mobile Bar and Drinks Suppliers,
unless of course we started listing Victoria Wine and other Off Licences...

Musicians came on board, as did Chocolate Fountains and Chair Covers.

There were also other subtle changes as you can see, for example:

Mens Formal Hire became Menswear

Entertainment & Fireworks became Entertainment

For just 2 people, it was not much fun updating 528 pages, moving adverts around and making sure no advertiser got lost in the process. After 8 weeks of hard work, we finally rolled out the new look and hope the majority of you will agree that this was a change for the better.

2) Quick Links

Our most recent project “Quick Links” went live just a few days ago and we feel that this is a great initiative, helping the user to find the services they are looking for. Due to the nature of Welsh Bride and its local focus, there maybe web pages that do not feature a service or company at certain times throughout the year. Before the Quick Links development, an empty page example would look like this:

Welcome to the Cars & Carriages section for Blaenau Gwent.
A list of relevant companies will be appearing here shortly.
Congratulations on becoming a Welsh Bride!!

This message was not exactly helpful and didn’t give the user any alternative to find the services they were looking for. They were simply left to their own devices to try and find a particular service in another area, with no guarantee that the next area they clicked on would be populated with that service.

We have therefore introduced “Quick Links” which enables the user to find the service they were searching for in an area not too far away from where they were originally looking. This will certainly help us to keep users online without them getting frustrated if they see an empty page. Please see the new look for the Cars & Carriages page for Blaenau Gwent.

As you can see, although there are no featured companies in our Cars & Carriages section for Blaenau Gwent, we are giving the user an alternative region that does have companies offering Wedding Cars & Carriages. The user is also advised that they will be leaving the regional directory should they decide to use the Quick Links to find a particular wedding service in another area. If we feel that there are no nearby alternatives, a Quick Link will not be added to an empty page.

Also, please note that Quick Links will be removed as soon as a page has a paid advertiser.

3) Listings

Many of you know from just looking at the website, that our most popular advertisement is our enhanced listing,
1 photograph, a marketing profile, contact details, email and website link.

The Basic and Website listings introduced at launch were stand alone text ads. For obvious reasons, these adverts are less expensive than others as there is little artwork involved. However, we are still bemused why we didn’t introduce these type
of advertisements using the “white background, pink bordered box design” from inception. Exactly 1 year on, we have now introduced this, and it makes the site look much more consistent and easier on the eye.  

See below the new advert compared to old style (SLR Creations example). All ads now use the pink and white box.

4) Sponsorships

In May 2007, we introduced additional advertising opportunities in the form of sponsorships. This introduction has been very well received. The following pages can now be sponsored:-

a) The Home Page
b) Regional Home Pages
c) Wedding Fayres Page
d) Members Page (introduced 1.8.2007)

All sponsorships (apart from the home page which was sponsored for 1 year by the Vocal Show) are available on a 6 monthly basis running from May to November and November to May. We currently only have 3 regional home page sponsorships and our members page spots left available, with of course sponsorships (b, c and d) up for renewal in November.

As you can imagine, there is already a waiting list for the most popular areas. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please let us know and we will add you to the waiting list for your preferred sponsorship. Of course all current sponsors have first refusal at renewal.

Morton from “Off the Cuff” Menswear sponsors 2 regions in North Wales. This is how he viewed the sponsorship opportunity and why he thinks it was a worthwhile introduction…

“David and Emma are always looking to enhance Welsh Bride and sponsoring Wrexham and Gwynedd has giving me great exposure on the website. It’s certainly working for my business”

5) Video Feature

Around about the same time as the Business Categories development, we felt that the Home Page was missing something
and also contained a lot of text for the user. Rather than losing the text (and effect our key words for search engines) we introduced a Video Feature.

Based on a wedding video format, the production gives a clear and concise overview of Welsh Bride so any user will know what to expect from the website. It has proved extremely popular since its introduction and we have received good feedback of how professional it looks and sounds.

6) Audio Advertisements

Once the Home Page video was developed, we thought of another enhancement for advertisers using Audio. As an example, see the link below “Cardiff Musicians” and listen to the “Vocal Show” advert by clicking the audio symbol on the website.

Cardiff Musicians

The Vocal Show seem to be taking over the whole Welsh Bride website, what with the Home Page Sponsorship and
this Audio advert…who do they think they are? Only joking Luca…!!!

On a more serious note, audio adverts do add something extra special. This is just another way for Luca to promote his services and it does sound very professional. Although not licensed for radio, our audio productions can be used as part of your marketing (transfer onto dvd / cd / slide show) and can easily be uploaded onto your own website.

We have teamed up with a number of professional voiceovers and a production company who create the ads for us. The Vocal Show audio was produced by a chap who features on Sky Television so we are using some of the best professionals on behalf of our advertisers. If you are interested in having an audio feature, please contact us to discuss ”your script & musical ideas”.

You will be very surprised how reasonably priced they are. Prices start from just £125 inclusive of VAT and remember this is just a one off fee, meaning you can use this advert indefinitely for your own advertising. Once the audio has been produced, you own the audio, not Welsh Bride.

This is a screen shot of the Vocal Show advertisement. He is now taking over this newsletter...what is the world coming to!

7) Vertical Banners
 
Many of you already use our banner advertising on the website. However, for those who are unaware of this option,
banner adverts are always available as pages get further developed. When a certain category gets more populated,
banner space appears of the left hand side of the page. Many of our advertisers use banners to promote their services
outside their most local region and use different business categories to get more coverage around the website.

For example, A R Jenkins Photography advertise their services in the Rhondda Cynon Taff Photographers section, but compliment their normal advert by having a vertical banner in the Cardiff Entertainment Section. See the example below…

These adverts are extremely cost effective and very eye catching…

All banners when clicked link through to the advertisers website, so if anyone is interested in a banner advert, please take a look around the website, pick your area, business category and get in touch. Banners are obviously subject to availability.

8) Members Page

Some of you will remember that when we launched the website we had a “message board” which was intended to be used
for general wedding chitchat. After a couple of months the message board became very high maintenance and was not
really being used by the people we expected. We were receiving spam and inappropriate messages so decided to
remove the message board in April 2007.

The message board was replaced with a member’s page, of which we have not really plugged since its introduction. Any company can feature on the member’s page and promote a special offer / discount for brides & grooms. We can even
create the voucher for you. To appear on the members page costs £19.99 per year, inclusive of vat.

Here is an example of what we can add to the website which can be printed off by the user.

9) Wedding Fayres

Everyone is aware that Welsh Bride has formed great relationships with some of the biggest wedding fayre organisers
around the country. In the early stages of Welsh Bride, we recognised that this was one of the most effective ways of
getting visitors onto the website, through marketing distribution. Each year we aim to promote at least 50 wedding
fayres across the principality and strive to get more on the site every month.

We have reciprocal arrangements in place with organisers and they distribute our postcards at the registration point
or in their goody bags. We will work with any wedding fayre organiser for the benefit of all parties, and most
importantly to promote our advertisers on Welsh Bride.

Val Slater Wedding Fayres, sponsor of Monmouthshire, Newport and our Wedding Fayres page, are extremely pleased
with the working relationship they have with Welsh Bride and the response they receive from the Brides who visit the site.
“We feel that Welsh Bride is a site which is constantly being updated and improved for the good of its users and advertisers, and we hope to continue our association with the site for the foreseeable future. It is refreshing to work with a company
which has such an interest in the wedding industry and its customers needs.”

Please note: the above image is a screen shot, so we are not just advertising 2 wedding fayres!

10) Promotions

Our biggest and most effective way of promoting Welsh Bride is having a big presence at the
wedding fayres across the country, which works really well using our marketing postcards:

We are also promoting the website in the Mid Wales & Borders Living Magazine, as well as the
North Wales & Borders Living Magazine. We are also aiming to run a promotion in South and
West Wales in the near future. We continue to promote the website using Google Adwords.

Our Google Adwords Campaign is something which will continue to run throughout the year.

11) Statistics and Searches

On average, Welsh Bride receives 250 unique visitors a day, which increases to an average of 300 unique visits each day during the Wedding Fayre Seasons. Of course, we are not able to provide you with every result for every wedding related search on the 2 major search engines, Yahoo and of course Google. We would be here for the rest of our lives writing this newsletter for you. However, we have listed below a few searches which shows that our website has a good overall presence. It is worth mentioning that Welsh Bride covers 24 wedding categories and 22 regions, so we never get too downhearted if we are not on the first page for every wedding related search, but always remember what else we do to promote the website.

If we are not on the first page for a search say “Wedding Musicians”, we maybe for “Wedding DVD”. Therefore, individual companies should not be too concerned, as our aim is to get visitors onto the website and view all categories of business thereafter. In view of the easy structure and navigation of Welsh Bride it is inevitable that the user will click away and
still find your company!

JUST A FEW YAHOO EXAMPLES

wedding services cardiff = First page

wedding dvd swansea = First page

wedding cars caerphilly = First page

wedding cakes newport = First page

welsh photographers = First page

wedding stationery wrexham = First page

wedding entertainment carmarthenshire = First page

bridalwear conwy = First page

menswear monmouthshire = First page

wedding fayres swansea  = First page

JUST A FEW GOOGLE EXAMPLES

wedding dvd swansea = First page

wedding cars denbighshire = First page

wedding favours newport = First page

wedding fayres wrexham = First page

wedding entertainment bridgend = First page

bridalwear monmouthshire = First page

wedding balloons conwy = First page

wedding services cardiff = First page (Adwords – sponsored links)

wedding photographers cardiff = First page (Adwords – sponsored links)

wedding cakes swansea= First page (Adwords – sponsored links)

12) David & Emma

Last but not least, we thought it was about time you found out a little more about us in view that we are the only
two people who work on Welsh Bride full time, with the aim of making our website the ultimate wedding directory
for Wales. (if it’s not already…it will be!)