Why Advertise on the CWD?

Why not may be a better question! In 2009, we're facing a tough economy. Pocket books and wedding budgets are tightening. Toon van Beeck, a senior industry anylyst for IBISWorld, reports that the average amount spent weddings in 2009 is expected to drop by about 8%. The days of big money spending on lavish weddings may be gone, but it's important to remember that couples are still marring. To-be-weds are out there planning their weddings and hiring wedding professionals, even if they aren't spending the big dollars they were only a few short years ago. The pool may be smaller, but maybe that's the best time to advertise.

The inclination of so many smaller wedding businesses in times of economic stress is to pull back, stop advertising altogether, and hope that brides and grooms simply find them without having to spend on advertising, or to just sit back and wait for "better times" to come around again. But how will brides and grooms find them? How long will it be before those better times come back? Will their businesses sustain a long recession with little to no new business? Not likely.

This tough economy doesn't have to be all bad for your business. Remember... many of your competitors aren't spending money on advertising. That means more exposure for you. Additionally, according to van Beeck, the hiring of wedding planners will drop by about 4.2%; this means that more couples will be doing their own leg work searching for and screening their own wedding professionals. Less competition + more couples doing their own wedding planning could have a great result for you! A well planned marketing campaign that focuses on spending ad dollars in your target market can certainly mean new clients for you!

National directories are wonderful... for providing free wedding websites, wedding blogs and forums, and huge databases of articles... but for the advertiser who runs only a "local" business, is advertising nationally really worth those huge ad fees? A national directory's 1.7 million visitors sounds great, but if only 5,000 of them are in your area, and you can't provide services to those other 1,695,000, then why spend thousands of dollars to advertise to them? Spending your ad dollars on local wedding directories, catering to local brides and grooms, is a better way to go. The overall traffic of the local directory will of course be smaller, but the vast majority to-be-weds visiting that directory will be real, local, potential customers.

The Chicagoland Wedding Directory is the perfect place for you to advertise!

1. We are local, catering to to-be-weds in the Chicagoland area.
2. We advertise locally (as should you!), spending our own search engine ad dollars in the Chicagoland weddings market.
3. We are top-ranked on Google and other major search engines for a multitude of key Chicago wedding-related searches, most frequently ranking on the first search results page for most.
4. We understand the cost constraints of the small wedding business and offer a variety of ad options to suit all budgets and needs. And we allow shorter listing terms... as few as three months!

As an advertiser, you can rest assured that your ads will be seen by real potential clients ~ by brides and grooms in the Chicagoland area. Take advantage of our top-ranked exposure in the Chicagoland area and place your business listing with us today!