Stop doing these things now!
I was going through my email list and the websites of many of my contacts and I came across some things that I’ve been saying NOT to do for years. Yet, thousands of my contacts are still using the wrong email address, or doing things (or not doing things) on their websites that could be hurting their inquiries, conversion and of course, sales and profits.
Listen to this new 12-minute episode to see the things they should stop doing, in case you’re doing them too!
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Below is a full transcript. If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or contact me via text, use the short form on this page, or call 732.422.6362
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– Okay, I need you to stop doing these things now. Listen to this episode. I was doing some cleanup on my mailing list. I have about 8,000 people on my mailing list, and I noticed that there were some things that weren’t right there. There were a lot of names in capitals, so if I merged them in, it looks kind of funny. I didn’t have a location information or even country sometimes for some people. And when I like to just send out more specific things if it only applies to the U.S or international, or if it only applies to a certain category. So I was going through, and what I noticed is something that’s been going on for years. There are a lot of people that are using an email address for their business that is not their name at their website. And this is something I’ve spoken about for years. And here’s why it’s frustrating, not just for me but for your customers. If you give me your email address and it’s your name at your website, like me, it’s [email protected] or [email protected], you know three things. You know my name, you know my website, you know my email address.
So I’m looking through this list and I had people where I didn’t have your location, I didn’t have your website, I didn’t have what you do, I just had an email address. And there’s a lot of Gmails on there, there’s still some AOLs on there, there’s Yahoos and Hotmails and the local ISPs and things like that. And here’s where it gets frustrating. If you give somebody your email address and they wanted to go check you out, they can’t go to your website because they don’t have that on there. And then I did Google searches and I’m searching for these email addresses. And if your email address was on your website, it would find it, but it’s not there because you don’t put it on your website. I know a lot of people like I don’t want to get spam and there are things you can do to get less spam. But here are some other things that I found and going, I’m looking at websites and I’m trying to figure out where you are. And I realize there’s a lot of people that have home offices and you don’t want to put your physical address and that’s fine. But put something there to let people know where you are because I’m literally looking at websites and having no idea where in the world you are, not just whether you’re in the U.S or not, where in the world you are, no less where locally you do business. And yes, a lot of you want to be able to do business outside of your local area and that’s fine, but you’re eliminating local customers who go to your website and don’t even know that you’re in that part of, fill in the blank, Ohio or Ontario or England or wherever. They have no idea because there’s no information there at all for them to get any clue that you are the local result for them. Even if they’re shopping for a destination wedding, if you’re in Colorado and somebody is coming from Chicago and they’re looking and they don’t know whether you’re in Colorado Springs or in Vail or in Denver or wherever, they may not know that you’re a good fit for them.
So the things that you can do to show that you’re a local business, one that does business in their area even if it’s multiple areas, is to mention those things, but not the way that I saw some of you doing. because some of you are actually doing things that are hurting your SEO, your Search Engine Optimization. Because you’re still listing town, after town, after town, after town, after town, at the bottom of your website, We serve blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And when Google sees that it actually penalizes you these days because it’s what’s called keyword stuffing. You’re just trying to fool the search engine so that you come up in that result. You want to do it more organically in your conversation with the customer when they get to your website, that if you’re looking for a creative, talented photographer to capture your beautiful wedding in, Colorado Springs, from Colorado Springs to Denver, from Fort Collins to Boulder or whatever, that’s a way to do it. Another way that’s very organic is when you put your testimonials, put the testimonials and then put an attribution that if you are the venue where the couple came from, and if you’re not the venue where you did that wedding.
So put down that you did that wedding in Santa Barbara, California, right? Or even name the venue, and then say, Santa Barbara, California. And now it’s going to give you that little bit of SEO juice, plus your customers will see, oh gosh, they’re working in Santa Barbara and Ventura and all the way up there up in Thousand Oaks and they’re down in whatever, right? So they’ll see those different things. While I’m on the subject of testimonials, I love that a lot of you have them but they’re still too long. Look at them on mobile, they’re filling up a whole screen, a lot of these. And please don’t put dates on there. If you’re putting a date on, I saw one yesterday that was 2016, right on somebody’s website, testimonial, something great somebody said, yes, it was too long, but it was attributed to 2016. and 2016 was almost, well, it is, it’s six years ago already. And they don’t care what you did six years ago. They care what you did six weeks ago, six days ago, maybe six months ago, but not six years ago.
So you want to make sure that you’re doing that. And while I’m on the subject of updating, if you have the Best of from the Knot or the Couple’s Choice or any other awards from any of these sites or any other places around the country or around the world, please keep them updated. I saw one vendor who it was 2018 was the latest, the Knot Best of on their website. And when I went actually and looked, they actually had 2020. So they had an updated and that’s two years ago. Again, they don’t care if you want it in 2018, if you won in 2020, isn’t that better? Isn’t that better to show that? Yeah, so make sure go take a look. It’s a great time of the year to be good taking a look because anytime of the year is a great time to be updating this stuff and make sure you’re doing that. And then another thing in terms of location, I found venues, many, many, many venues where the address was not listed on the front page of the website, not even on the footer of the website. Some of them not on the contact page, there was one I had to go to a dropdown and then pick location to even find where the venue is. You’re a venue, you’re not hiding. It’s not like somebody with a home-based office. And this is frustrating because you’re not using your website the way a customer would. And in the case of a venue, what if a guest was just looking for the address so that they could do mapping? How do you make that easier? Well, you want to put your address right on the homepage. You want to put a link, put your address in a link that if they click it, it’ll open up a Google map or an Apple map or whatever mapping, that it’ll use, Google map a little bit more universal, and now they can find it. I’ve seen this with restaurants as a customer. Also I’m in a new town because I travel a lot and I see a restaurant I’m like, where is it? It’s not on the homepage, not on the footer or the homepage. You have to go to a contact page, you’re a restaurant or you’re a venue or you’re a dress shop or you’re somebody else that has a physical location where people are going to come to you. Don’t hide that information, don’t make it so hard. Don’t add friction.
So these are the things that are adding friction to the process. The email address, if you are a business, whether you’re in business for 10 minutes or 10 months or 10 years, you need to have an email address. That’s your name at your website, especially if you’re doing something that’s personal, where you’re having a communication with someone. I’m okay if on your website, you had weddings at your company name or whatever, but if they’re going to be dealing with a particular person, the more you make it personal, the more it’s easier reduces the friction for the customer. Imagine yourself as a customer, do you want to reach out to info at, or do you want to reach out to Chris at, right? Much better to say, hey, I’d like to speak to Chris or hi, Chris, I’d like to information. Now you know you’re talking with a person. And that was another thing I found on websites where the email address was info ad or something like that. And on the website, it didn’t have a name of a person to contact. It actually will get you more inquiries when someone knows that they’re inquiring with a person and know who they’re inquiring with. And on a lot of these sites, if you’re a solopreneur, even if you have people that help you with events, let’s say you’re a wedding planner. You have people will help you with events. You can be a company and still put a person and still seem like the bigger business that you want to seem like.
So these are things, again, these email addresses, I’ve been talking about this for years. I would say that probably 30 to 40% or more of my 8,000 emails that I have on my list that get my updates, are not at their company website, whether it’s a name or not. Even if it’s info at, at least it’s at your website, but are not at the website and this is adding friction. It is so easy, if you’re using Gmail, Gmail can power the email that goes your name at your website, and you can still read it in Gmail. So if you love Gmail, that’s great. I’m using Outlook, I have an exchange server with Outlook, I can read it on my iPhone, on my iPad, on my laptop, on my desktop anywhere I want, I have that. And yes, I have a Gmail address. I don’t use it for work for anything except Google analytics. It’s the only thing I use it for for work. Otherwise, it’s all for personal stuff. So if I’m signing up for something personally, it’s going to be my Gmail. If it’s something for me for work, it’s going to be my name at my website, [email protected] or [email protected]. You’re actually going to look more established as a business if you’re doing that. And the opposite is you’ll look less established if you’re a real business and you’re an established business, but you’re using a Gmail address or a Yahoo address or heaven forbid these days and AOL email address. Again, use it personally, don’t use your business and don’t worry about the transition. Most email programs will let you read the old email and the new email either in the same inbox or at least in the same program that you can do that.
So is this a little bit of a rant? Yeah, it’s a little bit of a rant, but it’s the same frustrations that you have as a customer. If you go to someone’s website and don’t know if they do business in your area, or if you see testimonials that are five years old, six years old, what are you thinking about them? If you see awards from a few years ago, you wondering, well, I guess they have a one in the last few years. Do I want to do business with them? And if you haven’t won in the last few years, maybe take those off altogether so that it doesn’t highlight the fact that you haven’t won in the last few years. So these are things that you need to update. It’s simple to do, but you need to do them because you don’t realize what the message that you’re sending to people. And you’re not going to frustrate other people when they’re trying to email you or they go to your website from your email address. And I know you’ve done it and I’ve done it. We continue to do that, but we can’t do it if you’re using a Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, or whatever that is. So it’s a little bit of a rant here, but it’s also helping you because there’s a message that you’re sending there. You want to send a better message that we’re easier to do business with, friendlier, less friction when it comes to the website, finding out where we are and things like that. So please know those things and do them now. And if you need my help, let me know.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
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