Media in Focus - Easy Weddings

Your Name & Position: Matt Butterworth, Managing Director    
Name of your media brand: EasyWeddings.com.au    
Target Markets: Brides-to-be and businesses focusing on the wedding industry
Launched:2000
Staff:19

See Easy Weddings' listing on MediaScope

Please provide a brief overview of your brand, your market position and forward plans?

EasyWeddings.com.au is Australia’s No. 1 wedding website and awarded Telstra’s 2011 Victorian business of the Year. We’re a directory of wedding suppliers from across the country (everything from dress designers and cake makers to photographers and florists), and we can put you directly in front of more than 227,000 brides each month, most of whom are ACTIVELY planning their weddings.

Can you give us an overview of your background and experience?

Both mine and Katrina’s backgrounds are in hospitality where customer service is paramount. My hospitality experience was focussed more in the areas of party hire and event management through a family-owned business, but I also have IT and computer business systems qualifications. Katrina, too, has had extensive experience in the fast-paced worlds of eateries and restaurants, as well as bookkeeping and accounting.

Together, we’ve spent years learning about running a business and that experience has stood us in good stead in EasyWeddings and we understand all aspects of the industry and from the point of view of both the customers and the wedding suppliers.

Tell us how & why your site was launched?

When Katrina and I were planning our own wedding back in 2000, we couldn’t find anything on the Net that would help us plan our wedding in one spot So, we decided to build it ourselves.

I started by buying a book called, learn HTML in 24 hours and EasyWeddings.com.au grew from there. Today, we’re Australia’s biggest wedding-related website, and we employ 19 people.

What benefits does your site offer advertising buyers and marketers?

We pride ourselves on being able to offer clients a 360-degree internet marketing service. Aside from offering basic exposure in the main directory, which connects suppliers with brides actively looking for their services, we offer further levels of exposure across the directory and social media marketing services (so Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc), and we can help clients integrate their content across any digital platform.

We also offer suppliers access to Australia’s largest wedding community via our network of blogs and Facebook/Twitter groups, which have more than 13,000 fans (most of them brides-to-be actively planning weddings).

What is the best & worst thing about being an independent media publisher?

The best thing, without a doubt, is the ability to move quickly when opportunities present themselves in this industry, but also challenges. The worst thing is that I see 100 opportunities and due to the lack of financial backing we can only pursue a select few of those.

It’s just a bit of guess work as to which one will pay off most.

Tell us about your advertising sales structure?

Our main source of revenue comes from the EasyWeddings.com.au directory advertising, which is sold on a subscription basis. We have more than 3500 advertisers from within the wedding industry on the site, everything from car hire and bridalwear to musicians and even magicians. Our sales team comprises eight staff whose main aim is to help businesses grow.

Our biggest challenging is educating clients as to the value of a website visitor to their site and the value of being able to send true, targeted traffic to them.

What tips can you offer other media owners when dealing with advertising buyers?

Be open and honest, make suggestions out of the norm, your market is what you are best at, you’ll know best how to connect with the audience, and you’ll need to pass this onto the media buyers. They’ll come to thank you for your expertise and form strong relationships.

Can you offer any advice to someone starting a new commercial media business?

Think big, but plan small. Goals, big ones are great, just remember to plan for the little steps that make up that big goal! Also, remember that even media businesses don’t take off overnight, there will be a lot of effort for little return in the early stages.

Where do you get your advertising and marketing information from?

We spend a lot of time networking within the community to stay on top of industry news. We also subscribe to a bunch of news emails such as Adnews and MediaScope.

Would you like to be profiled like Easy Weddings?  Please get in touch

___________________________________________________________________

Other Pages of Interest