ALERT! YOUR CURSOR IS ON THE BRIDES' LOG-IN!
If you are a current advertiser, use the form to the
right to log in to your vendor account.
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Begin advertising now
 to secure online contract form.
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About Cape Fear Wedding
Overview for advertisers
Our staff, history and affiliations
Frequently asked questions
Advertising essentials
Book: The bride's planning "bible"
Online: Website ads and links
Prospects: Fresh, targeted sales leads
Marketing strategies
Matching each vendor's needs
Business basics: first things first
Rates & payment options
Rates, deadlines & specifications
Discounts, monthly & quarterly plans
Other marketing services
Free advertising design service
Optional online ad packages
The Cape Fear Wedding Show
Contract forms
Secure interactive online form
Printable form (PDF format)
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Reserve space
soon
for upcoming
Winter-Spring 2010-2011
Sale of advertising space begins in August
for the next edition of Cape Fear Wedding. Sign on early and get immediate online presence
to bridge the months until the next handbook is published.
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7. Marketing strategies: Matching your needs
Choose the right combination of print, online and payment options
Qualified sales leads
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Step-by-step guide for prospective advertisers
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Business essentials
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One size does not fit all when it comes to marketing. We serve a highly
diverse clientele with widely varying advertising needs. Here are some typical scenarios, and our recommendations for
how we can best serve those vendors.
If you are just getting started in business. Cash flow can be a challenge
for entrepreneurs starting a new venture. Investments in equipment and stock, licenses and insurance, rent deposits
and utilities all take a bite out of your wallet. And setting up a website and printing business cards, brochures and other
marketing materials can leave very little money for an ad campaign.
And any business just getting started won't have much revenue immediately, either.
Recognizing this reality, Cape Fear Wedding offers maximum flexibility in payment choices and
contract terms. Our recommendation for most small start-ups is:
- Begin with a small, quarter-page ad. This gets you the same web exposure and access to sales leads as a larger ad, but
minimizes your costs.
- Choose the monthly payment option. This gets your ad campaign started for just $45.50 a month.
- A full-year contract (two editions of the book) offers substantial savings over contracting a single edition at a time.
But we will gladly allow changes to your ad, including upgrades to its size, between editions. Any difference in cost is pro-rated
to reflect the best possible deal for the advertiser.
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If you want to emphasize online advertising. Some of our clients believe
they get the best results from website ads, and want to minimize their investment in print. Cape Fear Wedding has always
been an online-intensive ad buy. Our website and electronic sales leads are major components of every contract.
For the vendor who wants the strongest possible web exposure at lowest cost, we recommend:
- A minimal contract -- a quarter-page print ad -- buys the same online exposure as a full page, and gives full access
to online sales leads. The modest print component can be considered a "bonus," to help maintain brand awareness among your
competitors. A presence in Cape Fear Wedding handbook, the essential brides' "bible" for greater Wilmington, is important
for a vendor's credibility.
- Our "Preferred Vendor" option puts a banner ad on the first screen of the vendor index for your business category. That
guarantees your business will be seen first, regardless of the number of competitors in your category, or where your name falls
in the main alphabetical listing.
- "Preferred Vendor" banners also rotate throughout the CapeFearWedding.com website, adding additional opportunities for your
message to get noticed.
- Specially targeted online "tile" ads are also available for vendors who want a guaranteed presence on particular high-traffic
pages. For details on web banner and tile ads,
to online ad options.
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Economical 'Preferred Vendor' banner ad option guarantees advertiser's visibility online. Banners appear at top of vendor listing. Click to see example.
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If you have a multi-faceted business that fits in more than one category. A
number of our advertisers offer services in more than one area. That means a single ad may not be the most effective way to
convey more than one message. We also have some family enterprises, in which the husband and wife each operate distinct aspects
of the business.
To make it easy for these clients to get maximum efficiency -- and savings -- we recommend:
- Designing a separate ad for each aspect of the business. For example, one client has an ad in the "Reception Site" section
for its restaurant ballrooms, and another ad in the "Food" section for its outside catering service. We've had other clients
who place a large ad for a DJ service in the "Music & Entertainment" section, and a small ad under "Videography."
- To minimize cost for the advertiser and administrative overhead for ourselves, we do a single contract for multiple ads by the
same company. The rate is based on the combined size. Two half-page ads, normally $800 each, are billed at the full-page rate of
$1,250. Two quarter-page ads, costing $500 each if bought separately, are billed as a half-page ad for $800. These combinations are
eligible for all discount or time-payment options, too.
- We don't charge for ad design, so it's not a problem to have us create individual display ads for each aspect of your business.
Multiple ads can have a totally different look, or use consistent "branding" themes, as you prefer. For more on design services,
to
free ad design.
- If you choose to run just a single ad that could fit in more than one category, we'll place it in the section of the book you
request. On the website, that ad will be indexed under every relevant category.
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A single contract can cover more than one ad, placed
in different parts of the book, at the best available rate.
Half-page ad on left is in 'Food' section; on right, in
'Reception Sites.' Both are part of a single contract.
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If you want to adapt an ad you are already running in another medium. We can
help you revise an existing ad design to fit our page format. But it's not as simple as just sending us an ad you are using elsewhere.
To ensure you get the best results, we have some important recommendations:
- Look at the ad specs if you or an agency are designing your ad. Dimensions for our ads are posted online and are on our rate cards.
Every issue, a number of advertisers waste considerable time and energy having to redesign ads that were submitted at the wrong sizes.
to
ad dimensions.
- Consider actual size and visual impact. Cape Fear Wedding's convenient purse-size format means a page in our book is only
half the size of magazine-format pages. A quarter-page ad in a larger-format publication is the size of a half page in Cape Fear
Wedding.
- Type doesn't shrink well. We're often asked to take, say, a half-page ad from a magazine and reduce it to a half-page size in our
book. The result isn't good: Type is too small, or cramped, and may not reproduce well. Possible solutions: Rework the ad so its absolute
size stays the same; or reduce the amount of copy so font sizes can stay unchanged.
- We'll be happy to redesign an ad to fit our page format. To do so, we need the original artwork (photos, logos) and the names of the
fonts used. We'd much rather do this than have to shrink or distort an ad that was never meant to fit in the space a client is paying for.
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Ad sizes and proportions don't translate directly
between handbook and magazine page formats.
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Qualified sales leads
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Step-by-step guide for prospective advertisers
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Business essentials
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