Kate Furst from Zola Chats How Their New Vendor Marketplace Connects Couples and Wedding Pros

💬 Show Notes

Welcome to another episode of Funktastic Chats Podcast! Today, we're chatting with Kate Furst from Zola, the fastest-growing women-led wedding planning platform. Kate shares her incredible journey in the events industry, celebrating nearly 11 years at Zola. She provides an inside look at how Zola has transformed from an e-commerce registry to a comprehensive wedding planning tool that serves both couples and vendors.

Kate dives into Zola’s innovative features designed to support wedding professionals, including free listings, dedicated account managers, and flexible pricing plans. She explains how Zola’s unique credit system allows vendors to connect with couples without the burden of expensive subscriptions. Kate also highlights the importance of community in the wedding industry, emphasizing Zola’s tools for vendor collaboration and peer reviews.

Whether you're a seasoned wedding pro or just starting out, this episode is packed with valuable insights on leveraging Zola to grow your business. Learn how to create compelling listings, utilize Zola’s “Say Hello” feature, and navigate the platform’s robust matching algorithms to connect with the right couples.

Don’t miss out on tips for personalizing your outreach, responding swiftly to inquiries, and maintaining authentic connections. Plus, discover how Zola’s new vendor dashboard and resource center can help you continuously improve your profile and attract more qualified leads.

🎙️ Create a FREE Zola Listing

Create a Free Zola Vendor Listing
Connect with the right couples and own your brand with a free listing tailored to your industry.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today we're chatting with Kate First from Zola, the fastest-growing women-led wedding planning platform. Kate shares her incredible journey in the events industry, celebrating nearly 11 years at Zola. She provides an inside look at how Zola has transformed from an e-commerce registry to a comprehensive wedding planning tool that serves both couples and vendors. Zola's unique credit system allows vendors to connect with couples without the burden of expensive subscriptions. Kate also highlights the importance of community in the wedding industry, emphasizing Zola's tools for vendor collaboration and peer reviews. So, whether you're a seasoned wedding pro or just starting out, this episode is packed with valuable insights when it comes to leveraging Zola to grow your wedding business and navigating the platform's robust matching algorithms to connect you with the right couples. This is the Funkatastic Chats podcast. It's all coming up next with Kate Burst. You are special girl. You are extraordinary. You are special girl, all right. So today we're here with Kate First. Kate, welcome to the podcast. It's so great to have you on today.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:28

I'd love to turn it over to you, Kate. How did you get started in the events industry? What is your role at Zola? I'd love to hear all about it.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Oh sure, I could go on and on. I am almost celebrating my 11th year at Zola, so it has been a long time that I've been a part of this company and the wedding industry and I've had a chance to wear a bunch of different hats at the company, which is a real privilege. I started off in operations before we launched, so creating all the supply chain operations, all the customer support operations and really, as we initially started, primarily as an e-commerce company, so I was able to focus on that, really learn. The couple side of the experience ultimately took over the e-commerce side with our registry business and our paper offering for invitations, save the dates, all that fun stuff. And then I have now transitioned to the Zola for Vendors product, which has been amazing because I now get to get a taste for what the vendor side of the experience is and match that with the couple side of the experience that I do feel like I know pretty well.

Speaker 1: 2:37

For those who might not be familiar with Zola or haven't explored the platform yet, can you explain what Zola is all about?

Speaker 2: 2:48

Yes, I feel like a Zola evangelist, so I would be thrilled to do that. So Zola is the fastest growing women-led wedding planning platform that has millions of couples who come to us and love and trust us. And Zola was really born out of the desire to make the wedding planning experience better for couples and we're really proud that now over 2 million couples have chosen to plan their weddings with us, which is really incredible. And Zola started, as I said, as that e-commerce experience. It was like 11 years ago, there was a reality that the registry experience just didn't really match the kind of it was this afterthought, so it started off really trying to create a transformative experience there and that brought us to this place where we realized we could really solve problems for couples.

Speaker 2: 3:41

And then we've just continued to evolve the experience to add more problem solving elements to the platform. So, like I said, we added paper, we added free wedding websites, we added albums and then we added the ability for our vendor marketplace to launch, which happened in 2020. And we now have grown that to over 40,000 vendors who share our commitment to inclusivity, tolerance and respect, and we've now provided those vendors with over 19 million leads, which is just a lot of leads and that allows us to bring together that thoughtfulness that we bring to couples, also to our vendors, and we've taken tons of feedback from both communities to really understand how to build an experience that helps them grow, solves their problems in a way that just feels right and authentic to both of those groups.

Speaker 1: 4:36

So this whole side of Zola that's catered towards wedding pros. This is a newer thing for Zola. Zola has not had this vendor side since the beginning. What does your role entail on the vendor side? Now for Zola.

Speaker 2: 4:50

We've continued to add more components to the platform as we've evolved, continue to solve those problems. So for us now, what we kept on hearing from couples was that when they started their wedding planning process they were just totally overwhelmed. And what we also heard they wanted to find their wedding team but they just didn't really know where to start. It was a really overwhelming experience. But we also heard the same thing for vendors that they felt like they were struggling to figure out how to get good connections to couples and their leads. So for us, that meant that we had this two communities that were struggling, that we felt like we could come together and connect them and do it in a really different way. But you have to do it in a way that isn't just putting volume in front of everybody, because that doesn't feel good. Couples come to us because they know that we're going to provide that level of curation and quality and vendors want to come to us because they know that we're going to provide that level of curation quality and vendors want to come to us because we have that level of quality in our couples. So we had to really figure out how we bring that quality to both audiences and doing it in a way that you can also scale, because you need to cover the entire country and that's a lot of couples and that is a lot of vendors. So figuring out how to bring on that vendor community and put it in front of couples in a way that made sense for both has just been a really interesting opportunity for Zola to get to solve those problems on both sides.

Speaker 2: 6:18

And what we do now is for every vendor, we give them the chance to come on Zola, create a free listing. We give you a dedicated account manager to support you through that process. We'll build the listing with you, we'll help you optimize it and that's let us make these inroads into this community of vendors. That is just a whole new world for us. And you don't want to put the local pizzeria up there because they're willing to pay. You want to put the place that the couples feel really excited about, and so that both the new venues and the new vendors that we put up get to see the Zola audience and that audience also gets to see this kind of curated community of vendors.

Speaker 2: 7:00

So that has been amazing. I mean we also differentiate ourselves to both those audiences by making the information that the couples and the vendors share between them really meaningful. So we ask both couples and vendors to share what they're looking for, what they offer, so that pricing, availability, style all those things can be used as criteria for to match those two different audiences and ensure that you're talking to the right people. You're not just having an experience where we connect you with someone and you're like this isn't anywhere near what I was looking for. Couples want to find something that makes sense for them and vendors want to find something that makes sense for them, and it's frustrating if those leads are mismatched on both sides. So we work really hard to make sure that we are authentic about the criteria that both audiences put forward to connect to each other.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Yeah, I mean just as my experience as a vendor so far on Zola. I feel like I'm not being saturated with unqualified inquiries, but I'm really focused on having the right conversations, not just as many conversations as I can. I mean, there's so many things I want to ask you here, but before we even go on to anything I would listing or anything like that, I would kind of want to start with Zola's credits feature for Wedding Pros, because I didn't want somebody listening to this being like oh God, I'm already paying thousands of dollars a year for this and this service and this. It doesn't have to be like that at Zola, right, right.

Speaker 2: 8:33

No, I think that is one of the things that, when we were researching how we could solve, how we could help the vendor community, we what we found was that it is a crazy world out there for how they have to manage all these different costs and platforms in order to manage and grow their business, and what we found is that you don't really need to. We don't want to force anybody to do anything right. So the way that Zola comes out is that we worked to create this thoughtful group of packages that are super affordable and allow for vendors to invest what they want and can budget in order to connect with couples. There's no locked in contracts. It's totally flexible to your business, and in doing so, we were able to create kind of these multi. We have these different packages that you can just have credit so that you pay as you go when you connect with leads and you don't have to even pay to be on the platform.

Speaker 2: 9:31

So let's say you're a photographer and you're in Boston and you're on the platform when you get leads.

Speaker 2: 9:38

You would then get a message that says, like Sally and Peter are interested in connecting with you and they're getting married in December. This is their budget, this is what they're looking for, and you could evaluate certain components of that lead to say, does this make sense for me or not? And if it does, then you can buy credits to connect with that lead, which is amazing. It's totally different than what other platforms offer, because it doesn't. It's not a subscription model that makes you pay in advance and potentially get no value out of it. And but we also could say we also have this offering where we have unlimited plans that you say I want to pay monthly and connect to as many leads as come in, so I don't have to play that mental math on is what? How many leads have I connected with amongst my budget? And? And so we offer both of these different types of plans to really give that flexibility to our vendors to make sense with whatever type of business they have.

Speaker 1: 10:34

For those who are really looking to manage their cashflow. Vendors don't have to pay to connect with inquiries for dates they aren't available for. They don't have to pay for an inquiry where they know the venue is just too far away, or for more experienced wedding pros. You could go on one of those higher packages. I'm wondering, kate, if you've been having conversations with wedding pros who are brand new to the business and if this model is just giving them a leg up in the business, because it's not a huge financial commitment relative to other subscriptions out there.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Yeah Well, the other thing that I wanted to mention is that we offer you a free trial for anybody who signs up. So you come in the door and you're like I heard really great things about Zola, but like I need to learn for myself, I'm not going to sign up for a year. That feels totally overwhelming. We don't expect that from you. So we give you a certain amount of credits, depending on, like, what type of business you are, and so then you just get to try it out. So that often does.

Speaker 2: 11:34

It's like magical marketing, because it's just us giving you a chance to have the experience and connect for free with leads and see how, what kind of leads we offer, how amazing these couples are.

Speaker 2: 11:46

In a way that takes away then that fear of like, what have I committed to? And we do hear from vendors just how much they appreciate the fact that we do give them that flexibility. But not only that. I think one of the other things that we find is that if you reach out to a couple and for whatever reason, you use your credits and you reach out to them and they don't connect with you, we have this program where you can reach out to us and say hey, that couple didn't respond within the 14 days after I reached out and we'll give you your credits back. So it's, the risk is nothing there's. We're just giving you a way of connecting with this audience that we already built, that we've spent 10 years nurturing and growing, and now we're just providing an amazing way for our vendors to grow their business by having access to this audience in a way that really is risk-free.

Speaker 1: 12:35

This is such a little thing, but I noticed it right away. I love the green checkmark on my profile that says how many Zola couples have booked us. It says 35 couples have booked us. I don't know if that's a lot or a little, but it just adds another level of credibility.

Speaker 2: 12:48

When I say that, what I mean is we have had 10 years of couples getting married using our wedding websites, using our different functionalities, and so we know who they're using, we know where they're getting married, we know the photographers they're using, and so it's this amazing ability to give that kind of social proof to couples and to vendors so that they can see that they're working with someone who a lot of different couples have had amazing experiences with whether it's the check about a number of book couples or reviews that kind of ability for us to give you a trusted vendor team, I think is one of the things that couples and vendors really appreciate team I think is one of the things that couples and vendors really appreciate.

Speaker 1: 13:46

Yeah, this is also why I was just asking about if new wedding pros who are entirely new to the wedding industry have reached out to you over the years because the Zola listing just looks so beautiful. I mean, this is the first time I've ever referred someone to a listing page instead of my website, to be honest, thank you. With all these features the videos, the services, FAQ these new wedding pros that are coming on the market here you're really giving them guidance about how to build their businesses. You know, have you guys connected with new owners in that way?

Speaker 2: 14:15

Yeah, I think what has been so motivating to me as I've come into this new side of Zola for Vendors, after being at Zola for a long time, is being able to hear what the new and existing vendors have to say about the experience. I think they are just so grateful that their businesses are growing, especially because it is a bit of a challenging year out there for the wedding vendor community, given that COVID impacted the number of people dating, which just feels like a wild thing to even have to think about. But for us to be able to say we're here to support you and we're going to make your business beautiful and we're going to help you differentiate yourself. Vendors are so grateful and I think one of the things the listings are beautiful, but one of the other things that vendors are so amazed by is this prospecting tool that we have and we call it our say hello tool, and what it does is it doesn't.

Speaker 2: 15:04

You, as a vendor, don't have to sit back and wait for couples to inquire with you. We give vendors this match, match list of couples that are searching for basically searching for things like you in your area, for basically searching for things like you in your area, and so you get this list and it says, hey, these are 10 couples who have been searching. Do you want to reach out to them and say that you're willing to connect and you're eager to potentially have a conversation? And so it puts vendors in the driver's seat, which is so hard and there's so few places where vendors can basically drive their own business, and so this has been an incredible feature for our vendors to be able to use our say hello feature, and couples love it, because so many of them are intimidated by boiling the ocean of sorts to find their wedding team, and so for vendors to get to reach out are. The new and existing vendors on the platform are just blown away by this ability to grow their business and put it in their hands.

Speaker 1: 16:05

It's amazing to me that we don't always have to wait for couples to reach out first to us to start the conversation. And there's a way to get these ideal couples, quote unquote in front of us by what Kate said the saying hello feature. What are some best practices for vendors to turn these initial prospect interactions and in the meaningful conversations on Zola? Is there a difference when you're reaching out to a couple saying hello versus responding back to a couple? Is the communication different there versus responding?

Speaker 2: 16:40

back to a couple. Is the communication different there? I think it's so. When you reach out with our say hello feature, you can put a little note and I think what we have found is that the more personalized you make that message, the higher the connection rate is, and this obviously seems so obvious, but it is something that we really tell vendors like be personal, like lean into who you are. You do not have to be the masses, you be your authentic self and that person, show interest in the couple's vision for the wedding, Remember how important that day is for them and show empathy and excitement to potentially work with them. I think that is really important.

Speaker 2: 17:22

The other thing I would say is respond quickly and whether it's declining politely because it's not going to be the right match for you, or responding to them when it is potentially the right match, making couples wait the longer they wait, the less likely they are to continue that conversation, and we all know it sucks to be ghosted. And so if you're using the feature whether it's the say hello feature or just getting inquiries being swift in your response goes a really long way. And then there are other little things, like, I would say, addressing the couple by both names. That, I think, is important. We at Zola really want it to be a dual planning process, not just weighted in one side of the couple's hands.

Speaker 2: 18:07

So it can be pretty frustrating for couples when vendors only assume one of them is engaged in the planning process. So your inclusivity goes a long way and when in doubt, keep it short and sweet. Try not to overwhelm couples with too much information, but definitely just keep checking for new leads and don't be afraid to reach out first and keep the conversation going. Vendors this is their bread and butter and for couples this is a totally new side of their universe Most likely they've never planned a wedding before. New side of their universe. Most likely they've never planned a wedding before. And so being thoughtful in your follow-up really will go a long way, because I think a lot of times couples need a little mini break to just process what's in front of them, but that doesn't mean they're not still in the planning process. So being thoughtful in your follow-up, I think definitely also is something that we've seen really provide important return to our vendors.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Yes, and the listing makes the messaging a little bit easier, because I think one message that always frustrates vendors is hey, could you please send pricing and packages? And they don't know what else to ask. They're not trying to just get it out of you, they just don't know what else to ask and that's just the logical thing to ask. And I think between the starting prices at the top of the Zola listing the packages, it takes some of the friction out of the process when you're communicating with the couples and I really appreciate that as a vendor because then I'm focused on selling results, I'm not focused on selling price and I think that it's so great that Zola kind of takes that pricing and packages friction out of the initial messages a little bit Right.

Speaker 2: 19:47

I think when couples are, it's all about who you want to work with on both sides.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Like you might be the most affordable caterer in the universe, but if you're not warm and friendly, there's a chance that a couple is going to be fearful about what it's like to partner with you on that day, and the same goes for a vendor. If you reach out to a couple and they're not necessarily giving you the warm and fuzzies, it's all about that partnership and I think our hope is that we put forward great options for both couples and their vendors and they connect and see what that vibe is like and then they can get into the details and we'll make that swift for them. But our whole goal in asking vendors to give us more information about their business is so that the couples that come to them have already seen a lot of those details, and so it's not wasting the vendor's time by saying, hi, my budget's too low or your dates are unavailable. Hopefully we've done some of that weeding out for them so that when the couple comes to them, it's really about whether or not that's the right connection.

Speaker 1: 20:53

Zola is the only listing sites where other vendors are encouraged to leave reviews, and not just past clients. Kate, how have you seen Zola's review section for vendors stand out unique compared to other platforms like Google Reviews? Because, with me, I just noticed that the few reviews I've gotten from other vendors, the reviews are just so different Talking about what it was like working with us leading up to the big day, the logistics, the things that the couple doesn't see. Have you noticed the types of reviews vendors are leaving? Just the way that the reviews widget looks is just so different to other platforms out there.

Speaker 2: 21:33

Yeah, I think when we first started this, we were like reviews are obviously super important. Started this, we were like reviews are obviously super important. But why wouldn't we let vendors also be part of the review experience, not just couples? Because it's a different level of education, it's a different exposure and education right Like couples are like. This is what it was like to start this process and do and have this experience and what the end result was. And this is my vision as a. This is what my experience was as a couple.

Speaker 2: 22:03

But giving vendors the ability to say I love working with this vendor, they're so skilled, they go above and beyond that is just as important to a couple. And then Zola also. That means that our reviews are important for vendors and for couples. So if you're a photographer and you're trying to find a videographer to partner with, you can come to Zola too and see what it's like to work with these people in the eyes of the customer, but also in the eyes of the partner.

Speaker 2: 22:37

And we see that couples are just as interested in vendor reviews as they are in couple reviews and it shows that community. So often the discovery experience for a couple is that they'll go to a venue page maybe, and then they'll scroll down and they'll see those preferred vendors and they'll see who vendors have worked with and before they know it, they've started to put together this network effect of who they're going to be working with, and that is what vendors love. But it also makes couples' lives so much easier to utilize and leverage these relationships that they're seeing on Zola to guide them through the process, and I think it feels good on both sides. But it also really drives a material difference for our vendors and our couples as they're building up their listings and growing their businesses.

Speaker 1: 23:30

It's funny I always say running a wedding band. I always say we need people to not know us. It's a good thing that everybody doesn't know us. We need more fans. This is great. But Zola just knows how important building relationships is for any wedding pro new or veteran and what a driving force that is for any wedding business. And to be able to realize that and just build upon that is just so unique to me. What are some other ways that vendors form relationships with other vendors on Zola? Because there's like a suggest alternate vendors tool.

Speaker 1: 24:05

There's just so many cool things that I'd love for you to chat about.

Speaker 2: 24:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:09

So I think what has been really one of my favorite learnings about the Zola for Vendors product and I've been out at wedding conferences and we've been hosting gatherings for a lot of venues in different cities is it has just blown my mind how much community is at the heart of the wedding professionals world.

Speaker 2: 24:31

I mean, back in the day, I think it used to be a lot more competitive and cutthroat in the way that people operated, and it is just not like that now.

Speaker 2: 24:40

It is a very supportive and community driven world and I think that Zola has stepped forward, listening to vendors that this is important to them, that they do want to help grow each other's business and grow together, and so we offer not only the ability for them to review each other and help each other get that benefit, but we also offer something called preferred vendors and alternative vendors, which I think is a chance for vendors to say let's say, you're a venue and you're like these are caterers and photographers we work with all the time, so that helps the venue because they're going to be working with more people who they've worked with before, which has worked for them, and everybody already has gotten the cobwebs out of what that first experience is like of partnering on a wedding together, but it also helps the preferred vendors grow, and so they're very motivated to be able to create these connection points and recommend each other so that they're able to display these strong relationships, grow together, solve availability issues together and foster a trusting, vibrant community of vendors who actively uplift one another and ultimately is benefiting the entire vendor and couple community.

Speaker 2: 25:56

And I think that has just been. You put it forward and you're really curious if people are going to use it. And we see that it is very much used and it's amazing to watch that network effect.

Speaker 1: 26:08

I was part of a wedding kind of mastermind workshop here in Chicago about a month ago where they had different groups of vendors so caterers and venues, photographers, videographers, bands, djs everybody is now doing a preferred vendors list. This is like bigger than ever right now, especially in a few. Depending on what field you're in, it could be more competitive than others and and that's why I was just so amazed there's not really a platform like zola that encourages other vendors to connect with each other, because there have been so many times I was like man, I wish that I was more friendly with like one of the veteran you know bands out there, and zola has really given me an opportunity to do that where I'm not sure I would have had a channel to do that through otherwise. So I just thought that was so, so cool.

Speaker 2: 27:00

Yeah, I think it's one of my favorite behind the scenes kind of components. It's like a little bit of a sleeper thing that I think just sits back and just does a lot of hard work for our vendors and it's really great to see.

Speaker 1: 27:13

Zola's algorithms use various tools to help vendors connect with the right couples. Can you talk a little bit more about how Zola pairs wedding pros with the right couples? You chatted a little bit on it, but it inspired me to think about who our ideal couple is in new ways as well, so I was just wondering if you could chat a little bit more about that.

Speaker 2: 27:34

Sure. So when I think it's a lot of it goes back to when vendors are creating the. They go through the onboarding process to customize their, what they're offering and their services are, and so when you're doing that, you're specifying pricing and compelling info in your bio. You're talking about the markets that you serve. So if you are in Chicago, you also probably serve the North Shore and you serve maybe Wisconsin, parts of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Dells and all that. But so we give you the ability to say I serve all these different markets. Right, it's not just hyperlocal to wherever you are, but for a band or someone in the entertainment side, somebody in the photography side, that ability to define markets is transformative, because that means that they're not just pigeonholed into this very small location based system. It really allows them to spread their wings. And we also give them say what services do you offer? And upload photos, faqs and all those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 28:38

And then we take all of that and when couples come to us, we provide a robust amount of filters so that they are able to say where they're looking, say what they're looking for and in a completely authentic way, we just put forward results that match back to what you say you offer and what they say they're looking for, and there's no disintermediation there of like us getting in the way of trying to.

Speaker 2: 29:09

We are just trying to connect on both sides and so it really allows for interest of the couple and services of the vendor to be the number one priority of what comes forward in that match.

Speaker 2: 29:22

And I think that the what I've been really amazed by is we offer all these filters Like are you looking for all inclusive? Are you looking for how many people are coming to your wedding? What is your budget? What are all these different components? And when couples then can filter by that, the results just populate through for of the vendor population that are able to service that couple's needs. And it's incredible to then see how many leads a couple will then generate because we've put forward so many good results for them. So they will then go on and inquire with a handful of vendors and those conversations have already skipped all of the icebreakers of sorts and gone directly into these very intentional conversations, and I think that is something that we plan to just continue to build more on, because there's just always more opportunity for us to continue to take more of those little niche ways that niche interests on both side and use that to make even better connections.

Speaker 1: 30:29

So depending how many credits couples buy, does that mean that they will be receiving more leads or showing up higher in the search results? Or is every vendor fair game?

Speaker 2: 30:40

Every vendor is fair game. So couples connect for free. They just come on and search and they're just connecting with as many vendors as they want. And for vendors we prioritize the only things that we prioritize our listing results on is based off of how engaged you are as a vendor and like as like, for example, and your location, and I mean there's a couple other popularity are you a newcomer? Those kinds of things. But that is if you are a quick responder. That is the kind of stuff that pushes you to the top. If you're gonna ghost couples, we're not gonna put you at the very top because we don't want couples to have a bad experience and so that if you have credits, if you don't have credits, if you have an unlimited package, if you don't have an unlimited package, the results page is really based off of how engaged you are as a vendor and whether or not you're matching to the couple's filters. It's not going to be. It's. Those are the main components that we utilize in making those search results.

Speaker 1: 31:47

I was surprised that I've never been asked by a platform hey, how was the quality of this lead? How did we do here? Did we do a good job matching this lead? Why or why not? That is just something that really makes me, as a vendor, feel like. It encourages me to just put so much trust into Zola, into the couples that are searching for us through Zola, just because I feel like Zola is on my side here as far as getting me the best leads, and not so much the quantity but the right leads and the right conversations. Can we chat a little bit about If there's 40,000 vendor profiles we said earlier right, Is that right? That's right.

Speaker 1: 32:29

If you're not one of these 40,000, could you please talk about going to Zola and creating a vendor profile, how vendors can go about doing that? And then also, we chatted on the reviews feature. We chatted on the connecting with other vendors feature, but was wondering if you could chat a little bit more about some of the other features that Zola offers as well in that listing profile.

Speaker 2: 32:53

Sure. So you come to Zola and we have a Zola for vendors part of the site and you come on and it's just a total breeze to set up it. Literally, it's like you can set it up in a matter of minutes, but at the end we have a dedicated team that will help you do it. And so you go through a very quick onboarding that really just asks you about your business and about the things I mentioned before. What is your pricing? What kind of different packages do you offer? If you're a venue, do you have different rooms? If you're a photographer, do you also offer videography? What is, what is your business look like? And then we say what is what are you? What do you look like? Not physically, but like what is your? Who are you? What is your business? And we want you to tell us compelling info, because the more unique you make yourself, the more people feel connected. You're not making yourself unique for no reason, but you know, the more you're able to tune into the personal parts of your business, the more the couples are able to see and visualize what it might be like to work with you. So you're defining your markets, you're saying your services, you're uploading photos and videos because those are so important. And we say upload more photos and videos as frequently as you can, because couples just keep on looking when they're looking at photos. They love that inspirational moment. We also give vendors a chance to answer FAQs of things that might questions couples might have as they're going through that process. And then we want you to upload your social media handles because obviously that's just super important. So now you've created this beautiful listing, but then I think, what's? You don't set it and forget it. You come back, you tweak it and we tell you what we can, how you can make it better. So our vendor team will then come on and be like hey, I think you could put more pricing information here. It might be helpful to clarify whether it's a minimum amount of spend that you need to kick off a relationship or whether you do it on a price per guest. Whatever it might be, give us more information. Or maybe we should change this front picture to make it a little more compelling, based off of what we see couples really respond to.

Speaker 2: 35:08

So that's a very human side of us that's really coming out to say, hey, how do we make your business better? And we're holding your hand the whole way through, and I think that's at the core of who we are and with all the new features that we're constantly considering rolling out, a lot of it is literally just us trying to listen and help vendors grow their business, and so we have a lot of really exciting things that I think it's coming down the pipe. One of them is that we recently launched a new vendor dashboard for our vendors, which really makes the user experience even easier in your inbox to send those hellos. But also we added this listing strength kind of score of sorts that really says like hey, you haven't added photos in like a year. You should do more here or here's more.

Speaker 2: 35:58

We really could use you requesting more reviews, because we see that vendors with more reviews just get farther along in the process with couples. So we're telling you exactly what is going to help you improve your business, which most people don't do it that way. For us, we are holding your hand the whole way through and that. But we also recently added this resource guide so that you can also this resource center so you can also research and do more yourself.

Speaker 2: 36:26

Like if you go in there, it's like how do I even grow my business more. How do I? What are the right kind of messages I should send couples when I'm responding to them? What is the? What are people in my area doing? How do I foster more of that kind of type of couple to get that a certain type of couple through the door? So we have articles, we have all those kinds of things and that's really new for us to be taking a lot of that personal handholding that we've been doing offline with our account management team and bringing it online. So it's really more in a self-service capacity.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Yeah, I mean us as wedding pros me being a musician we're so invested working in our businesses. I feel like that is great, that Zola gives us these tools on our dashboard to help us work on our businesses, because I know that's something that's really easy to forget about, especially this time of year all the time saying, like what more should I do?

Speaker 2: 37:23

What should I do?

Speaker 2: 37:25

And you shouldn't have to ask us that question.

Speaker 2: 37:27

We should just be able to tell you, like you should just come on and see that like there's some stuff that you could do to improve your profile and like, why wouldn't we do that? And I think one of the other things that we've recently found is that, like, obviously within that concept of reviews, there's a lot more we could do to make that more turnkey for our vendors, and so we recently overhauled the reviews experience because we wanted to give even more features and tools there. So vendors now can respond to reviews, they can ask for more reviews, they can do it in a really easy way so that it's not like copying and pasting a million things. They can track their reviews. And all of that is just to say that we're literally sitting there and listening to vendors all day long tell us what's working, what's not working, and we're busting our butts to make sure that we are driving forward improvements for them, to help them with the experience, make their lives easier and also drive more of those qualified leads their way.

Speaker 1: 38:23

Especially drive more of those qualified leads into the markets that they want to be in. I think what stops a lot of people from expanding is just the financial cost of it on other listing sites. And so for Zola to just say, hey, you could be in as many markets as you want to serve is a pretty revolutionary thing here in the wedding list.

Speaker 2: 38:43

You don't pay more to put more markets on. Exactly, you're really trying to grow Nashville because Nashville and Charlotte are huge wedding communities but you don't have a huge amount of business there. But you can get there and offer your services. Then we will help you do that in just a way that or we both we benefit too, because if you're going to get more leads, then we obviously were able to support you through that, and there's buying more credits is something we would benefit from. But we're putting that forward because we want you to grow your business authentically, not add more markets because it comes at an incremental cost to you.

Speaker 1: 39:18

Kate, first, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I've been waiting to talk to you for a while, just because Zola is just doing so many cool things and it's just really been amazing watching over the past few years all the amazing things that Zola has done for vendors and just really especially post-COVID. I feel like building a community of vendors and helping each other and supporting each other is more important than ever and I think it's just so great that there's a platform out there that fosters that.

Speaker 2: 39:51

Well, thank you so much. We are huge fans of your podcast. We talk about it all the time. We're huge fans of this amazing vendor community and we love being able to support both vendors and couples on these incredible days of celebration and the wedding universe brings so much joy and we just feel very honored to be a part of that on both sides, and we're so grateful for the chance to connect with you and connect with your audience, because there's so much for us to all do together to continue to bring that joy.

Speaker 1: 40:28

Yes, thank you so much. Okay, make sure you go to wwwzolacom or just check the link in the show notes. We'll have just a short link there that leads you right to the Zola for Vendors page. Kate, thanks so much for joining us. Make sure you guys sign up for a profile and if you really feel like it, us Make sure you guys sign up for a profile. And if you really feel like it's a funktastic scent, yes. So thanks, kate, I appreciate it. Thank you All right.

Speaker 1: 40:50

All right, and that's it for today's conversation with Zola, but it does not have to stop here. You can go to wwwzolacom slash four dash vendors, wwwzolacom slashvendors, where you can connect with the right couples and own your brand with a free listing tailored to your industry. This may be a great way to connect with more qualified couples. Grow your network with your peers. If you've been wanting to expand into another market, another city, another state, but afraid of the financial burden, this may be a great way to get in front of other couples in these new markets. Maybe the financial burden has stopped you. Maybe the SEO that's required to get in front of these couples in this new market has stopped you. Take advantage of Zola, because they're doing everything right here when it comes to getting in front of couples with their say hello, feature their algorithms to qualify these couples. So you're having the right conversations. We're going to have all the links in the show notes, so make sure you check those out and you are extraordinary and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 2: 42:08

Once in a lifetime, lifetime.