When you are just starting your wedding planning business it’s so tempting to take advantage of all of the offers for free marketing. But free services may actually cost you clients if they don’t present you and your business in the most professional way as you’ll learn in this Q&A.
Question
I’m ready to start my wedding planning business. I don’t have much money so I’ve found places I can advertise my business for free but I need a website. I heard I can get one free. Can you tell me where I can get one and how I set it up?
Answer
I understand your desire to save money and find a way to get a free website but honestly, I’m not a fan of free sites. Also, I’ve worked with some new wedding planners who have had free sites and they usually were not happy with them.
Here are 5 problems I see with using a free website for your wedding planning business:
1) You don’t get your own business name as a web address
When you get a free site your web address is usually something like www.freewebsite.com/mybusiness.
This doesn’t look credible and gives brides the impression that you are planning weddings as a hobby. A professional wedding planner’s web address would be www.mybusiness.com.
2) You don’t get an email address
When you pay for a website you can have a branded email address such as [email protected]. You don’t get an email address with a free site so you are limited to using a free email address such as [email protected] or [email protected].
Again, this looks like you are just planning weddings as a hobby, you won’t look like a successful, professional wedding planner.
3) Your free website will have ads
The company has to make money some way and usually it is by placing banner ads on your website that visitors (your brides!) can click through and leave your site to purchase products and services.
4) Your design options will be limited
Most free website companies only offer a few templates on which you build your website so it may be difficult to use the colors you want and arrange your content the way you want.
5) You won’t own your site
The website company owns your site and can take your site down without notifying you in advance. Also, some of these companies struggle financially and if they go out of business, your site will be gone.
Your website is a reflection of you and your business. A free website makes you look like you aren’t really serious about being a wedding planner, you are just “trying it out to see if you like it,” so you haven’t invested money in it. But, for a bride to be willing to trust you with her wedding, she has to see you as a professional who is committed to your work.
So spend the money it takes to set up a website with your company name. If you search the Internet you will find that you can probably create a site for as low as $10 a month and it will be well worth the investment.
And if you have a pressing question about starting or running your wedding planning business, you can send me an email at [email protected]. I will answer them on this blog or in my ezine, “Wedding Planner Tips,” which you can subscribe to here.
