Each month we will highlight some of our favorite sites on the web and show how they can help you run your business more efficiently. This month we feature Animoto, Issuu and Mint.

• Animoto: Animoto is one of our favorite new sites on the internet. It is the easiest way to make professionally produced videos from your existing images, and it does it automatically. Simply upload some of your photos, add some copy, and pick a song. Animoto does the rest! Within a couple minutes the site will create a professional quality video for your business using ‘Cinematic Artificial Intelligence.’ Animoto videos have “the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.” We love the quality of the videos, they look great on your WeddingWire storefront, and you can get started for free!

• Issuu: Do you have a presentation coming up? Looking to create a wow factor with your next client? Issuu is an online publisher that allows you to publish your presentations, documents, sales kits, brochures, magazines and more online. You can send a link to potential clients and they can flip through the contents just like reading a book. Issuu allows you to create a free account and is a great way to showcase your portfolio. Simply add a link to your work in your email footers.

• Mint: Mint claims to be ‘the best Free way to manage your money,’ and so far we think they may be right. The site allows you to link all your accounts in one place, from checking and savings accounts, to credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and more. Mint makes it easy to track your spending and provides detailed breakdowns by various categories. Even better, the site sends a notice any time an upcoming payment is coming up or if any of your accounts are hit with unwanted fees. Mint is like having a personal money manager on your staff that doesn’t get paid!

There are millions of sites on the web, and hundreds of new ones popping up each day.  Which sites should you care about?  Which can help you grow your business?  Each month we will highlight some of our favorite sites on the web and show how they can help you run your business more efficiently.  This month we feature Mashable, iStock Photo and Wufoo.

• Mashable: Wondering how Twitter appeared out of nowhere?  Or maybe what new online sites can help you grow your business? Are you looking to keep up with the latest trends on the internet?  Mashable is one of the largest blogs dedicated to social media and it is one of our favorite sites to stay on top of today’s online trends.  You’ll find the latest news about Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, the iPhone and much more.  Mashable allows you to easily become a tech guru!

• iStock Photo: Are you looking to find high quality wedding photos?  Want to make sure you own the rights to the photos? iStock Photo is the largest royalty-free stock photo destination on the internet.  The site boasts over 4 million different images, and each file can be purchased for as little as $1 and then used as often as you’d like.  If you’re looking to update marketing materials or any of your bridal images, take a look at the variety of images iStock Photo has to offer.

• WuFoo: Don’t let the funny name fool you, Wufoo is one of the easiest ways to collect information over the internet.  The site allows you to easily create contact forms, online surveys and invitations so that you can collect data, registrations and even online payments.  What’s best, is that you don’t need to be a web developer to create the forms!   So whether you have an upcoming event or want to do some market research, Wufoo allows you to create forms easily and the first 3 are free.

Staying up-to-date with business and marketing trends is critical to any company, but especially in an industry like weddings where most marketing happens online these days.  But information doesn’t just fall from the sky, it means we have to do some homework.  Finding time to learn something new everyday might not fit into your schedule, but carving out an hour or so a few days a week should be a priority, after all your clients expect you stay current with today’s trends.

Keeping current with wedding trends is probably easy as you know where and how to find that information, but what about search engine marketing trends?  Or Search Engine Optimization tactics?  Or web design best practices?

To start, you’ll need a RSS reader account.  I’ll suggest using Google Reader as it’s free and easy to setup.  Below are a few of the websites I follow regularly:

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In today’s wired world, engaging in social media is a powerful way to help increase your brand awareness and reach potential clients.  Just take a look at the recent results of surveys conducted by Nielsen Online:

• Over 67 percent of online users are engaging in “Member Communities”, which includes social networks and blogs, making it more popular than personal email.
• Twitter continues as the fastest growing social networking site, growing in popularity as not only a means of communication between friends, but as an essential part of brand marketing.
• While topping the charts for the number of unique visitors, Facebook also leads the way for stickiness, with the average user spending 3 hours and 16 minutes on the site. The average Twitter user sticks around for about 12 minutes.

Top 5 Social Networking Sites

It is evident in these results that social networking has become an essential part of today’s online experience.  At WeddingWire, we are committed to educating and connecting you with numerous social networks in order to extend your reach to today’s wired brides.

Facebook fan Page is a public profile you can create and personalize to showcase your business and services to Facebook users. With over 200 million registered users, creating a Facebook Page is one way to help reach your customers and potential clients. The best part is it’s completely free!

Creating a Page is easy. Simply visit Facebook Pages, click on “Create a Page” and let the fun begin.

• Step 1: Pick Category & Name
  Choose a category that best fits the services you provide. Please note that you will not be able to change your category once you choose, so pick the closest match. Next, choose a name for your Page. Since this Page is for your business, you should use your business name. This will help extend your brand awareness. Click “Create Page.”

• Step 2: Picture Time
  Click “Upload a Picture” at the top of your Page and upload a photo. A logo or a picture that represents your business is the best choice.

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What is the foundation of social media? A simple question with multiple ways to respond, but I found a great post this morning that discusses the 5 C’s that make up the foundation of social media marketing.

• Conversation: Go where the conversations are taking place - Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube, etc.  Establish accounts and create your identity.  Stay up-to-date with your accounts and participate often.  Really get to know your followers and audience so you can actively participate.

• Community: Seize the opportunity to not only join and participate in conversations, but add your own value.  This is how you create a community, which you must work to maintain and earn the trust of your followers. A good site for community building (in addition to the ones mentioned above) is Ning.  Ning allows its users to create their own social websites and social networks. It’s a good place to create a form or community around your product, which in return can produce useful user feedback.

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In order to maximize on what Twitter has to offer, it’s important to build your community. To do this you have to start by figuring out what your objective is. Do you want to keep your followers up-to-date on your business? Do you want to share dialogue with followers, maybe potential clients? Do you want to stay ahead of the social media curve? Whatever your objective is, it is important to determine it first and then dive right in!

I found a great list of 10 tips to guide you in establishing your community. Here is a quick summary:

• DO - create a user-friendly ID. Your Twitter ID is part of your personal brand, so use your name or business name. If neither of these are available, blend them or stay as close to them as you can (ex: MegWW). Also, the shorter the name the better!

• DO - search for people. It’s complete normal and accepted to follow people you don’t know (a huge part of what Twitter is all about). So search for people in the wedding industry or even people from an industry you don’t know much about! Try Twitter Search or Twellow to find people to follow.

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Facebook reached a big milestone yesterday.  There are now 150 million people around the world actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using the site every day, according to a post on the official Facebook Blog yesterday.  Back in August 2008, the site hit 100 million active users, which means the number of active users has grown 50% in a matter of 4 months! And not to mention, the site is less than 5 years old.

What started off as a platform utilized mostly by college students, Facebook is now being used by people of all ages, including grandparents, parents, and children.  The site is also available in more than 35 different languages and 170 countries and territories.

As mentioned in a previous post, Facebook can be used as great online resource to help you reach today’s wired brides!

New to Facebook?  Set up your free account today and get started!

Do you have any predictions on how the site will continue to evolve in 2009?  Share them in the comments section!

Check out the results of a survey, summarized in eMarketer and Mashable yesterday, that outlines the benefits of embracing social media marketing.  Respondents were from the Marketing Executives Networking Group.

Customer engagement took first place, with 85% of surveyed executives citing it as the main benefit of using social media marketing.  Only 21% of executives, however, think that it is a “great lead generation source”.  That means most of those surveyed do not think social media directly impacts sales.

Regardless, the majority of respondents agreed that there are numerous benefits to engaging in social media marketing, given it is low in cost, it can be used a source of feedback and results, and it allows for direct customer communication.

Although this was a small survey, I think the take away message is that it would be beneficial to utilize social media marketing as one of your marketing mediums for 2009.

What do you think the benefits are for using social media marketing?  Do you plan to incorporate more of it in 2009?

With the current state of our economy, many companies are turning their efforts to Inbound Marketing because it is a more efficient way to market their business than traditional, Outbound Marketing.

Let’s take a look at the difference between the two types:

• Outbound Marketing: Main goal is to find customers.
• Inbound Marketing: Main goal is getting found by customers.

So why are companies now using more Inbound Marketing tactics? Here are a few reasons I found:

• It costs less. Inbound Marketing is all about creating good content and talking about it. This can be done by starting a blog, creating a Facebook fan page, posting videos on YouTube, or using Twitter. All of these examples are free and can draw a significant amount of attention.
• Better targeting. With Inbound Marketing you can be more selective when choosing your audience instead of targeting the masses.
• It’s an investment, not an ongoing expense. If you invest money in creating content that puts you in the high rank of Google’s organic results (which is free), you will be there until someone else displaces you.

With the New Year only weeks away, it might be helpful to take a look at your own marketing plan and see if you can incorporate any of these Inbound Marketing tactics!

For more details on Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing, check out this great blog post from HubSpot.

With over 1/3 of all engagements projected to happen over the holidays and the New Year quickly approaching, now is the time for you to hone in on your marketing efforts! Over the next few days I will cover some different ways to help you do this.  Today, let’s take a look at email marketing.

Emails can work as a means of advertisement.  According to a recent MediaPost blog, email marketing is still the highest ROI channel and earning $45+ ROI for every dollar invested (DMA, 2008).

As mentioned in the blog, the key to email marketing is there is a right and wrong way to approach it. The wrong way involves sending the same email, multiple times. This tends to increase your list churn and drive readers away, making it very hard to earn back their respect.

The right way is to make sure that each email counts.  Here is my take on a few good tips from the MediaPost blog that you can use to help you do this:

1. Get the tone right - Position your products and services so that they meet the need of your customers during the realities of our time (i.e. down economy, low budgets, etc.)
2. Realize that discounts are not the only motivator - Although discount emails can sometimes work, they tend to fall into the “wrong way” category if they are repeated too many times.  Try providing helpful tips, value information, and timely offers in your emails.  These can boost your response and protect your margin.
3. Integrate online channels - Use emails to spark a conversation that will continue to other social mediums, such as facebook, twitter, etc.
4. Ask for feedback in each email and every source of contact with your customers - It is key for you to monitor customer feedback and experience. Make sure you listen to what the customers are saying and communicate back with them. This is only going to benefit you in the long run!
5. Thank your customers - Send helpful tips and special offers to good customers and new buyers.  This is a great chance for you to encourage your customers to tell their friends about you!

These tips and others listed in the MediaPost blog can help you become a smarter marketer and assist you in crafting your emails the right way!

Feel free to share any other email marketing tips you have personally had success with!

Well maybe not all americans, but Cone Inc, a communications company, released the results of a survey they did of 1092 people earlier this month about their social media habits that I found on Search Engine Watch. The results of the survey indicate that 93% of the participants say that a company should have some sort of social media presence.  Additionally, 85% of the same group say that the same companies should be interacting with them on social media outlets.  Other findings include:

When asked about specific types of interactions, Americans believe:

• Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
• Companies should market to consumers (25%)

It’s an interesting study that supports the common notion that social media should be a part of your overall marketing plan.  Whether it’s a Facebook Fan page, a Myspace profile, a Flickr profile, or a company blog, customers today have many places to visit on the web today so being where they are is going to be key to attracting new business.

What social media avenues are you using to reach today’s brides?  What has or hasn’t worked?  What are your barriers to using social media if you don’t already?