Funktastic Chats

Why You Should Treat Paid Ads Differently: Handling Cold Leads vs. Warm Leads from Referrals, with Wedding Advertising Expert, Mark Chapman

June 04, 2024 Mike Zabrin
Why You Should Treat Paid Ads Differently: Handling Cold Leads vs. Warm Leads from Referrals, with Wedding Advertising Expert, Mark Chapman
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Funktastic Chats
Why You Should Treat Paid Ads Differently: Handling Cold Leads vs. Warm Leads from Referrals, with Wedding Advertising Expert, Mark Chapman
Jun 04, 2024
Mike Zabrin

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Why are couples taking longer to book you? Is your website ready to convert a cold audience? Is it relates to gen Z couples, promotion oriented advertising is a thing of the past. This year couples are more attuned to what makes your brand totally different and unique with personality.

We're talking about the power of retargeting leveraging Tik-Tok, Instagram, Meta, and Google to show your ads multiple times and in multiple places.

Mark Chapman is the founder of The I Do Society. Compared to a typical advertising agency, The I Do Society wants to be your partner, not only in creating and managing your ad campaigns, but delivering to you the right strategies to convert a cold audience.

Mark and The I Do Society makes sure that if you're going to be spending money, that every other bit and piece the couple is going to explore about your business is ready to go!

The I Do Society Website

Show Notes Transcript

Send us a text

Why are couples taking longer to book you? Is your website ready to convert a cold audience? Is it relates to gen Z couples, promotion oriented advertising is a thing of the past. This year couples are more attuned to what makes your brand totally different and unique with personality.

We're talking about the power of retargeting leveraging Tik-Tok, Instagram, Meta, and Google to show your ads multiple times and in multiple places.

Mark Chapman is the founder of The I Do Society. Compared to a typical advertising agency, The I Do Society wants to be your partner, not only in creating and managing your ad campaigns, but delivering to you the right strategies to convert a cold audience.

Mark and The I Do Society makes sure that if you're going to be spending money, that every other bit and piece the couple is going to explore about your business is ready to go!

The I Do Society Website

Mark Chapman Podcast

[00:00:00] 

Why are couples taking longer to book you? Is your website ready to convert a cold audience? Is it relates to gen Z couples promotion oriented advertising is a thing of the past. Couples are more attuned to this year to what makes your brand totally different and unique with personality. Gone are the days where you could simply put up a Google ad or an Instagram ad and call it a day. 

We're talking about the power of retargeting leveraging tic-tac Instagram, Meta, and Google to show your ads multiple times and in multiple places. 

Mark Chapman is the founder of The I Do Society. Compared to a typical advertising agency, The I Do Society wants to be your partner, not only in creating and managing your ad campaigns, but delivering to you the right strategies to convert a cold audience. 

They make sure that if you're going to be spending money, that every other bit and piece that the couple is going to explore about your business is ready to go to [00:01:00] it's all coming up right here with Mark Chapman, on Funktastic Chats. 

Mike Zabrin: So I'm here with Mark Chapman.

He's the president of the I Do Society and the wedding industry's leading expert in paid advertising. His team helps your wedding business reach and convert your ideal couple with Google ads, meta ads, and TikTok ads. And I'm so excited to tell everybody here that I am an official member of the I Do Society.

Woo!

Mark Chapman: Yeah. Awesome.

Mike Zabrin: This is going to be a very fun and easy conversation for me today here because I'm so excited myself about it. So thanks so much for joining the Funktastic Chats podcast, Mark. I appreciate it.

Mark Chapman: Yeah. I'm really glad to be here and share a little bit of knowledge in the corner of the world that I know. I love doing it. So, thanks for having me.

Mike Zabrin: Advertising reaches a really cold audience and warm leads will come to your wedding business already warmed up. So, how do you make sure that the website that [00:02:00] couples reach after they click on your ad is actually going to convert them? 

Mark Chapman: A lot of it comes down to making sure that person who clicks on the ad can really get a sense of who you are as a person and what your business story is and that there is personality there. And something also that's really important is that your website communicates what makes you totally different than everyone else. And everyone's business has that. Everyone's business has like one or two things that are totally unique to that business, and that's the important message on the website.

Mike Zabrin: I know that a mutual friend is Heidi Thompson, who I just talked to a couple days ago here and one thing that she said really stuck out to me was like, yo, if you copy and paste all of your content, put it on somebody else's website, and it just looks fine, then you're not standing out.

And that's a serious problem when it comes to getting leads here. Do you find it's a different way of communicating with the lead that's, a cold lead that finds their ad, clicks [00:03:00] on the ad, compared to a referral that comes through your contact form, or a method where they might already have been a little bit familiar with you to begin with?

Mark Chapman: It's a totally different way of communicating, right? Like, we could use the example of you're in the grocery store and you're talking to a stranger and your guard is up, right? Both people's guard is up cause they don't know who this is. Whereas if it's like you saw your friend in the grocery store, you'd be like, Oh, Hey, what happened last Saturday?

And so it's just such a different. Communication relationship that a lot of businesses in the wedding industry haven't really ever been educated about the fact that it is different. And they think if I run some ads that the thing that's going to happen is the exact same thing that's going to happen when warm leads come to me, but it is so different, Mike.

Mike Zabrin: I'd love to get into that. Maybe we could back up a little bit because you actually used to be awedding photographer. That was your full time gig before advertising, right? How did you get into advertising?[00:04:00] 

Mark Chapman: I was a wedding photographer in the early 2000s. And I was just hustling. I was in my twenties and I was like, I was hustling like seven days a week. And I went to the chamber of commerce and all the wedding industry, networking meetings and like BNI and all these things. And those are, and I want to preface this, but those are great.

And it helped me build a business based on referrals. But where I was at, it was like seven days a week, there was no break. And I ended up winning the Chamber of Commerce member of the year award in Huntington beach, California, which is like a super wonderful honor. Like it was at this whole banquet and beautiful, but I remember like getting the award and like coming home to my crappy apartment and being like exhausted and like, I don't really have a lot of money and I'm really tired.

And like, how is it that I can do all this networking? And it's just like, And still just be struggling. And so one of the other folks in the Chamber of Commerce had the printing business and she was like, Oh, you gotta run Google ads. Like I turned my Google ads on and the phone rings and I was like, what?

Like, I don't believe you. Anyway, long story [00:05:00] short, I started learning Google ads. I did it for my own business and it did work. And I was like, wow, this is crazy. I remember like the first time someone called and they're like, I found you on Google. And I was like, what? It's supposed to do that, but it was really wild.

And then other people started asking for help. And before I knew it, I actually just decided I was like, Oh, I could actually help more people doing advertising for them. And I really enjoyed it. So I gave up my camera for a computer and then started that journey.

Mike Zabrin: I think part of the issue with me personally was that, Google and Facebook, they make it so accessible for you to get started advertising yourself through smart campaigns and digital marketing. boosted posts…Before some of these wedding pros began working with you, did you have businesses that were using these methods of advertising? And is there something that we should be worried about when using these do it yourself methods?

Mark Chapman: Yeah, I love that you brought that up because right now, like when I started [00:06:00] Google ads ages ago, like 2009 half the people listening were probably in high school. So we've been through this journey of many years and watched the ad platforms evolve and change. But where things are at right now, I guess my little like warning message is there's a lot of amazing technology and AI is being used in advertising platforms.

But AI does not mean that you have the right strategy. And Google and meta ads and TikTok ads are really good at enabling people to like put 10 a day into their system and like reach people with their ads. And I'm using air quotes. If you could see me 

Mike Zabrin: yeah.

Mark Chapman: people. But it doesn't mean that they're the right people. And it doesn't give you the perspective that you need to think about from human to human, because you can write great ads, you can put beautiful pictures in there, but there is such a human component to advertising, especially in the wedding industry, because these people are going to invite you to their wedding, the most important day of their life.

And it isn't the ad that does it. It's the strategy that does it. The ad is the tool, but the human component of [00:07:00] strategy is so, so, so important. And the, Google Ads platform itself doesn't give you like training on that, I guess you could say.

Mike Zabrin: It's so easy to see, you look at this graph and the metrics are way up. You have tons of people clicking on your ad and you're paying less than a dollar per click. You have, you're looking at all these clicks and engagement metrics, but what are some of the Key performance indicators that wedding professionals should be paying attention to when assessing actually how effective their advertising campaign is because, we were getting a ton of clicks and views, but didn't convert.

Mark Chapman: Yeah, I mean like impressions and clicks don't equal new business. About like between the time frame of 10 to 5 years ago, there was actually really great data that you could get with your ad tracking or your ad campaigns by doing setting up conversion tracking. Like basically like the metal meta pixel is one thing you may have heard of.

Like you put the pixel on your website, you track what people are doing. [00:08:00] Unfortunately, because internet privacy has definitely taken a front row seat. That isn't quite as good as it used to be, but setting up that conversion tracking is still really important because anytime you can track what someone does on your website, when they fill out a form, or maybe they like use your chat functionality on your website, and you can attribute that back to an ad campaign or a specific ad itself, it's really powerful to get that information.

So unfortunately, like we're at a weird time where tracking is not There's a lot of folks working hard on it, but you can't really have internet privacy and amazing conversion tracking at the same time. So we set up tracking and that's really important to do. But then also there's conversations about like, We check in with our members once a month.

Like, Hey, how are things going with you? Have you heard any new questions being asked? Because one way to track results would be warm leads will tell you how they found you and who referred you to that, who referred them to you, right? They'd be like, Oh, my sister, Janet got [00:09:00] married. You were at their wedding.

It was amazing. But cold leads will ask you what's your pricing.

Mike Zabrin: Yes.

Mark Chapman: So there's a human tracking component and then there's a data tracking component that we put together.

Mike Zabrin: I'm curious how you went about navigating this when you were a wedding photographer, for instance, you know, the first cold leads that came in, did you realize that the way you were communicating wasn't working, Or did you just always know that there was this different way of communicating, right from the beginning?

Mark Chapman: I definitely knew it wasn't working because I was so used to talking to people that knew me from some capacity in the community and I think I was a little bit put off at first by the very straightforward, frank questions that were asked from cold leads, and I had to take some time to think about it and Be like, Oh, like that's actually reasonable for them to ask that, because I think it's really easy for us to forget what it's like to be in their shoes when you're a couple, or [00:10:00] specifically, maybe if you're a bride and you're trying to plan your wedding, but you're also a nurse and you're working full time, 12 hour shifts and things.

And so sometimes that straightforwardness, when you don't have an existing relationship is a little bit off putting to the recipient. When you embrace it and you put yourself in their shoes, you can be like, Hey, this is our pricing range. And then you ask them a more like subjective question. Like, how can I help you like have a great wedding?

Do you know what I mean?

Mike Zabrin: Yeah, what are some of the mistakes that you've seen clients before they start working with you make in responding to leads like that?

Mark Chapman: Some mistakes that we often see are Here's one really good example. Text messaging is becoming really important. Folks want to text, to plan their wedding and communicate with their vendors. And many folks have been building up an email strategy for years and years. They've been working on it.

They've heard lots of great information and they have this great email system. So they copy and paste their emails into a text message and like, that's not texting. Texting is [00:11:00] conversational. And

Mike Zabrin: Oh no,

Mark Chapman: seeing, Right? Yeah. Like you, you don't want like a text message. You have to scroll 50 times to read the whole thing.

You're

Mike Zabrin: yeah, especially if it's like an Android, then you're page one of five, etc.

Mark Chapman: heck no, just not going to work. So I think some of the things we're seeing right now is just adapting, trouble adapting to different, Forms of communication that people want to plan with and there being lots of different ways of communicating, like Instagram messages chat on your website, or people texting you, or people emailing you, or doing all those things.

And you're like, like, how do I keep this organized? So I think that's one of the biggest challenges we see in terms of people not quite being prepared to advertise just yet because you need to have a plan of action for taking those multiple channels and making sure that they're followed up with.

Mike Zabrin: I recently got married myself and so being on the other side of things was crazy because I've never realized how many vendors [00:12:00] do not put a phone number on their website. It is the craziest thing and when I see Your reel that you put up, I loved how you had this scrolling, it was like a fixed header as you scroll down the page.

You could always have that option to call or text you or email. I thought that was so cool because a lot of times, I see vendors just placing contact us in really weird places just because they just don't know where to put it, or no phone number at all, no email at all, just a contact form, 

Mark Chapman: yeah. Can you put yourself in their shoes and imagine the friction of just not knowing how to contact a vendor that you've like fallen in love with from their Instagram photos or whatever? And then you get to the site and you're like, Like, why is it such a pain? Like subconsciously, when it's difficult for people to find how to connect with you, it erodes the trust in your business.

And so what you mentioned of a sticky header at the top of a website that stays at the top and it has like [00:13:00] your logo and a call to action button, like request a quote or whatever it is, if that's continually present on their journey throughout your website, they can decide at any moment on their journey through your website, when they want to contact you, they know exactly how to do it. 

Mike Zabrin: So to get rid of some of this friction on wedding pros, websites, what are some easy, actionable steps that wedding pros can take right now to make their businesses? And the websites even better than, you know, maybe some you've seen in the past, you know, like putting your phone number on the website, any anything you could think of?

Mark Chapman: The, well, like what we just talked about, Sticky Header is super quick and easy. Like every web platform has it and you put your main call to action button in that Sticky Header. What is it that, what is that, that next step you want that couple to take? And usually it's like requesting a quote or booking a meeting or something like that.

But another great thing to do is Put a clickable phone number on your site so that they can touch it to call you or touch it to text you. And as much as being a [00:14:00] slave to your phone is not very fun. It is a way that people do want to start asking questions and build relationships, especially a cold audience from advertising.

So allowing people to text you and putting that phone number in your sticky header on your website is a really great idea. And that can be a game changer. And people's minds go too far into like, Oh my God, I don't. Want to do that because my phone would blow up. There's actually tools like Google voice, which is like 10 a month where you can, like, it's basically like a phone number that lives on your desktop and you can manage it from your desktop when you're working there.

Or there's all sorts of like, phone tools and using one of those will be a real big game changer for opening up the doors, but also keeping your sanity because we don't want to drive ourselves crazy.

Mike: I was wondering if we could chat a little bit about the concept of retargeting, because it was one of the things that we had chatted about on our initial call together. 

That was just totally mind blowing to me. And, you know, it made me think I wanted to buy a Hamilton watch for instance, and I was thinking about it. So I went to the Hamilton website and I left her. I was looking around, I was like, now's [00:15:00] not the right time. I clicked out. And then the next thing, you know, I'm scrolling through Facebook, scrolling through Instagram and I see an ad for the same watch. On Facebook and Instagram. And it's so crazy to me. To think how many leads are we possibly missing out on just because they clicked away from our website, maybe because now wasn't the right time. And then they saw your ad again and on another platform again. And then they reached back out and going back to the example with the watch it's just made that watch. Totally top of mind for me again.

Mark Chapman: Yeah, and the basis of this is like why retargeting is done is because when making decisions, if it's not like a 5 or 10 product, and that you're actually going to spend some money on something, couples need to see you in multiple places, multiple times and in multiple formats. To really get a sense of who your business is and what makes you different and wonderful.

And retargeting allows you to do that. Retargeting with products like the watch is actually a little bit creepy, right? Because [00:16:00] it's so darn specific, but in the wedding industry, you can actually do retargeting where you track people who have been to your website, but maybe they didn't convert. But Show them a helpful blog post to get them back to your website or do things that aren't creepy like product retargeting.

And that's why it's so freaking brilliant for the wedding industry because it doesn't have to be spammy. It can be helpful and useful and it is an ad, but it doesn't have to be gross and spammy and like following you around the internet. Yeah. 

I learned from the what's working now, events that the idea society hosted and it was so great, by the way I saw Heidi Thompson on there. It was awesome. I learned so much, but one of the things I learned was about blogging in particular. And just because you brought it up, you know, blogs that made me think of this because we blog a lot. I never really share it though, to Facebook and Instagram. And I realize, you know, sharing that post. 

And I didn't realize that it may have been hurting us because Google wants to share things that we care about. [00:17:00] And this, oh, if they see that it's. Posted to other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They will rank that post higher. Is that, is that true? Do I understand that right? 

Mark Chapman: Yeah. Definitely. Like, um, your, sometimes your Facebook page can come up on a Google search higher than your website if you're not like focusing on SEO and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but then having your blog posts on your Facebook page or your Instagram account. Like in your link tree, it's a really great idea to get people there and make sure you post those blog posts to your social media for sure, because then there's multiple doorways that can be opened.

I'd love. If we could compare these types of ads to listing sites, a lot of vendors are on a lot of listing sites. There's so many of them

what specific advantages? Do wedding professionals gain from working with the, I do society that they necessarily wouldn't gain as easily from listing sites, like the knot and wedding [00:18:00] wire. 

Mark Chapman: Listing sites are awesome in so many ways, but they don't allow you to target by specific demographics. So when you're on a listing site It's open to anyone, and if you're paying for that listing site, you don't have any sort of control over who sees your listing or how your listing is prioritized among couples that are the right fit for you, maybe based on age range or based on income level.

So with Google ads, meta ads, and TikTok ads, you can use demographic targeting and you can say, Hey Google, I want people in this age range of this income level in these specific zip codes to see my ads. So you're basically spending your advertising dollars in a much more focused way. And a lot of folks end up seeing fewer leads, but higher quality leads because the listing sites are super great at like.

That's their job is to connect couples with businesses all day long, but it doesn't mean that it's the right couple. And that's why I'm such like a, like an evangelist. I don't know if that's the right word for these advertising platforms. Even though there's many pitfalls and things [00:19:00] to learn, but you get to spend your dollars in the right way.

Mike Zabrin: When we're talking about listing sites in particular, it's, it's great for a lot of people because you can house your reviews on there, you can Get leads on there, of course, but like Mark said, you could literally target by location, income level. Is that true as well?

Mark Chapman: Yep. Every platform has income level targeting.

Mike Zabrin: Oh my god, that is so, so crazy. How

Mark Chapman: they know.

Mike Zabrin: that is, That is crazy. What, when you're targeting by Income and location and what else do people target by? What else is

Mark Chapman: Interest categories are another big thing. And this might not be like a perfect example, but I think it's one that everyone can relate to. Like if you are a business owner and you're a dog person and you really love dogs and you want to work with other couples who are dog people too, like you can actually target by dog owners or dog interests.

And like, I'm not saying that's like [00:20:00] the right way to market your business, but I think it's one way of. An example of people can relate to really easily, and in the interest options for demographic targeting in ad platforms are massively robust, every sort of type of interest. Maybe another example is like your typical bride or typical couple are like healthcare workers.

And it's possible to do that too inside the ad platforms. And so, just by the fact that they're a nurse or they have a higher level of education, that they probably have an income level that's higher than other people. And so these interest categories and zip code targeting and income levels and things make it really powerful.

Mike Zabrin: At one point you had mentioned that promotion oriented advertising was a thing of five years ago or more where it was, everything was just so promotion oriented especially with TikTok and today and the Gen Z generation here. How has the approach [00:21:00] of advertising in the wedding industry evolved over the years?

And what are some of the most effective strategies that you've seen?

Mark Chapman: Yeah. Like it was really common a few years ago to have an offer that you run with your ads, like you. Let's give example is like get 1, 000 off your venue rental. And that actually worked really well for a long time, but younger couples are not into that. That seems thirsty to them to use a really fun word that they'd use, right?

Like, Oh, they're trying to give me 1, 000 off. Cause they're like, they're not in good, they're not subconsciously like, Oh, they're not doing well. So, The concept of using a promotion or an offer really isn't working in today's advertising environment. And so it really is become a lot more about discovery of what makes that business totally unique.

Like we are the only blank in the state of blank. You know what I mean? It's hard to nail down for every [00:22:00] specific business or give an example, but like telling what makes you different and unique and also just unashamedly being yourself and promoting that in your ads is really what's going to connect you with like minded people.

Mike Zabrin: one of the things I could think of with us is that, I literally have on our website, we could totally play Uptown Funk all day long, right? But have you seen our song list here? We replace we replace Cookie Cutter with musicality and innovation and so, Yes, it may not resonate with every couple out there, but it's us.

Mark Chapman: That's exactly it. And it's going to resonate with the couples that you want to do business with that will appreciate your music.

Mike Zabrin: how has TikTok played a role in advertising in the past few years or so? Because TikTok has just blown up my fia my wife, back when she was my fiance. She was we found vendors on there. It was crazy. And so, how has it changed the game in the past few years or so?

Mark Chapman: I was at a conference maybe a year and a half ago where someone was like, [00:23:00] they said, we've made Instagram too pretty. And They said that in relation to TikTok because TikTok is so much more gritty and organic and you can do like really cool behind the scenes or before and after stuff where Instagram has become this place of like perfection and people are not.

Stupid. They realize that like, Instagram photos are not always real life, but what TikTok has brought to the table with short form video is the ability to really see and feel in a different way that hasn't existed yet. And so, not only is like the nature of the content on TikTok very different and more organic and gritty, but the ad platform itself, they like took all the good stuff from Facebook ads and like, Kept that and then got rid of all the crappy stuff.

So for example, you could create a TikTok ads account, but you don't have to have an organic like social TikTok account that you have to worry about posting all the time too. You can just create a couple of videos and run them as ads and they work really well [00:24:00] without that burden of like, Oh my God, like, I don't know what I'm going to post this week, and then the last part about TikTok, which is really cool and it's happening now and it may not be forever is that it's super cheap, like cost per click to get. The right person, the right audience to click over to your website is like half the cost of a Facebook ad. It's wild.

Mike Zabrin: Wow. One of the things that, separates the iDo Society from other advertising agencies out there is this is a membership. This is not just, we're going to put ads together for you, call it a day. This is a membership and there's just so much to what the I Do Society offers, Mark, and I was just wondering if you could take a moment and tell us some of the gains of working with your agency and what.

What the process is like working with you and how to get started as well.

Mark Chapman: I love that. Thank you so much for asking that because I love talking about it as you can probably tell. Yeah, so we use the word membership because I think [00:25:00] that for us it really does a better job of describing our relationship like the word client is very It's just, and it's not a bad word, but for us, what we want to do is we want to come alongside your wedding business and we want to be your partner not only in creating and managing your ad campaigns, but consistently delivering to you the right strategies of like your website.

Is your website ready to convert this cold audience? Dive into your Google business reviews to see, Hey, do you have enough reviews or should you be posting some photos to Google business too, to get that going? And we take a look at things holistically so that if you spend money on advertising, you know that it's going to work because You know that those couples who see your ads aren't just clicking on your ads and going to fill out the form on your website.

They are scoping out your entire business on their mobile device within five minutes. They see your Instagram, they see your website, they see your reviews. And so for that reason we call it a membership and we work on more than just the ad campaigns because it's a membership. We need to make [00:26:00] sure that if you're spending money that every other bit and piece that the couple's going to explore about your business is ready to go too.

Mike Zabrin: Their five to seven touch points before somebody even inquires, they go to your Instagram and your TikTok and Facebook. And so, if you've got a bunch of, Google Reviews, but you haven't posted on Instagram for two months. That could be a turnoff to a lot of couples.

Mark Chapman: it really could. And it may be just that you've been busy and you haven't had time for it, but that's where we'd step in and we'd be like, Hey, you know what? Actually we need to get some, something going here so that when you do spend money on ads, that bride doesn't like make her way to your Instagram account and think like, Oh, this business is dead.

I'm not doing this.

Mike Zabrin: Mark, I'm so upset because we post a lot of really beautiful reels that I spend just forever on, and then, you After meeting you, I posted a clip of our sound company just loading in. They're literally just putting a stage together. That's it. And the whole clip is about 15 [00:27:00] seconds and it has the most views than any video on our Instagram page.

I'm so upset.

Mark Chapman: sorry. Yeah. hilarious. I'm really glad you shared that though, because it's like, people are really curious. How does it work? And you're building so much trust when you show them like, hey, we know what we're doing. When we load in, this is how we load in and this is why, which is so irrelevant to like the end product, but it really isn't at the end of the day.

Mike Zabrin: yes. So when wedding pros begin working with you, do you recommend All of the platforms at once? Or are there a few that wedding pros want to focus on in particular? How does that typically, how does that typically work?

Mark Chapman: Yeah, we need to make sure that you're first and foremost on Google because when couples are searching on Google for whatever it is, a venue, music for their wedding or a bridal store, they're actively looking for your business and they're in market, we call it, right? They want to find you. So, Google is the first place to start, but it's not enough to just be on Google because Couple's journey [00:28:00] is fragmented and it does involve many touch points.

Um, One of our requirements when we work together is that you're willing to run ads on Google and at least one other platform being meta and or TikTok so that they can see you in multiple places, multiple times and in multiple formats and really start to fall in love with your business. 

Mike Zabrin: I love it and I'm so excited to work with you guys and thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Mark, anything coming up that our listeners should be aware of? I just listened to the What's Working Now event and loved it, so I was just curious.

Mark Chapman: yeah, what's coming up? Oh my gosh. I think just what's coming up is for folks to be prepared for the couple's journey to be a lot longer to conversion than it was in the past few years. So like, No stress, like just keep nurturing those relationships, keep texting with folks and don't give up because couples are just not in a hurry right now.

And that's okay. It doesn't mean they're not going to book. It's just like, we got to respect where

Mike Zabrin: noticed that. What is happening?

Mark Chapman: Yeah. I could give [00:29:00] some hypotheses. I don't have like data to back this up, but what I've Observed is in actually election years. It's very interesting. People get a little weird. And of course there was like a big bubble right from weddings that didn't happen during Covid.

And now those are all done and those are all taken care of. And yeah, people are just like, okay, let's see what happens in the next year.

Mike Zabrin: Mark Chapman is the president of the I Do Society. And his team helps your wedding business reach and convert your ideal couples with the Google Ads, Meta Ads, and TikTok.

You go to www. theidosociety. com. Thank you so much, Mark. I really appreciate it.

Mark Chapman: It was such a pleasure, Mike. Thank you.

Okay. A few things. I want you to walk away with here. Listing sites. Don't let you target. By demographic, whereas the ad space. Can do that. Have you ever thought about what kind of interests your ideal couples have, I'll give you an example. 

Our wedding band offers a big hip hop element into what we do, and we know that many of our couples [00:30:00] love going to the basement, which is a hip hop night club in Chicago and often. They want those songs and that John rhe at their weddings. You know, have you thought about what your ideal couple looks like in this way before and how this can be a model to scale your business, to get the inquiries that you want to get? Another thing is you are also in control in this ad space. 

If you have a rough month and want to save some money, you don't have to spend as much that month. We're headed into June now headed into another engagement season here, and you can raise what you're spending on ads during these months. 

I hope this gave you. I hope this gave you something to think about this week in your own business. You are extraordinary. We'll see you next time.