There are many directory platforms out there that vendors use to put themselves on display for prospective wedding couples to choose from. They all work differently; some are free, some have a yearly or monthly membership, and some you purchase credits in order to buy qualified leads.
They all sound good in theory; an online wedding showcase where couples can put in a request for a vendor and multiple vendors will reach out, or perhaps you pre-qualify yourself by reaching out to a vendor who checks your boxes.
There are a few problems with this setup.
- The amount of choices are overwhelming.
For photographers and DJs especially, there seems to be a never-ending list of vendors to choose from. Many of them offer different things, but it all boils down to one core element, so your end result really depends on the skill level of your vendor. And unfortunately, if you’re planning on a tight budget, you’ve got all the budget-level vendors undercutting each other for your booking. Seems great for you, but this is typically an indication that their skill or experience level isn’t there, they don’t have a full calendar, and therefore will take any thing they can get. And let’s face it – a budget DJ is a budget DJ. They are all going to sound the same, and the risk of a mediocre dance party or catastrophic failure is higher.
2. More visibility means they paid for it
If you’re on a site like Zola, Wedding Wire, or The Knot, you will first see the vendors with the highest visibility. These spots come at a premium for vendors willing to pay it. This is great if you’re looking for high-quality vendors – the investment in these spots means these vendors have the money to invest, typically indicating successful vendors. However, it also could be someone of lesser experience who’s making the occasional splurge to get a higher spot on the page. It also means these vendors are less likely to get back to you, since with higher visibility means more inquiries. Busy vendors don’t make good conversationalists.
3. More responses encourages ghosting
Planning a wedding is stressful. Most people choose to delegate all the responsibilities to outside vendors, and there are a lot of moving pieces that need attention throughout your big day. It is very easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of people you need to talk to. And when you put a request for a vendor on one of these directories, don’t be surprised when you get 5 vendors (or more depending on what you use) wanting your business. You can’t possibly talk to them all, so typically you’ll choose based on the information provided and move on with life, ignoring all the other options.
Ghosting is NOT an acceptable form of communication. But unfortunately, with the overwhelm of wedding planning, this is what happens. All courtesy goes out the window. Plus, you have information telling you “it’s okay, they’re used to it”. However, if the shoe was on the other foot – if you had reached out to 5 vendors and your bottom 2 choices were the only ones who responded – what would you do?
Whose choice is it if you settle or not?
4. Lack of questions means we don’t know what you’re looking for
Let’s be honest for a second – most people don’t even know what they want or what to expect for a wedding.
Can you believe I had a bride’s mother tell me she just wanted “regular DJ music”? What does that even mean? That tells me nothing about who you are and how you want your wedding to feel.
When putting in an inquiry on these directory sites, often the questions are vague and don’t give direction for what a couple actually wants for their wedding. The result is that we, the vendor, qualify ourselves for a lead we may not be qualified for. This wastes your time (and our money). An example would be if you simply wrote “we want music to cover our ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner”. What kind of music? if I’m a DJ and you’re looking for live music, I just qualified myself for the wrong lead based on your vague information.
I believe that most of these directories are free for the consumer to use. (If not, let me know in the comments!). However, all of these directories cost vendors money in some way or another. So I think it’s important for you as a DIY wedding planner to know the behind-the-scenese struggle of all these platforms.
The Knot / Wedding Wire
These platforms, formerly independent, are now both owned by Wedding Pro. They each have a tiered subscription system for vendors with different visibility levels, the lowest of which starts around $200 a month. Do the math – that’s $2,400 a year just to have a place on this website. It does nothing in terms of lead generation for vendors other than making them more visible to wedding planners who use the site. Of course, this money is wasted on couples who don’t use the site.
I can’t speak to the inner workings of these directories, as the subscription price has always been too steep for my business. I’d rather put that money toward Google Ads.
Zola
The free counterpart to The Knot, etc. It doesn’t cost vendors anything to have a listing – however, it costs vendors credits to connect with leads, so it’s really no good unless vendors invest in credits. The biggest advantage of Zola is that you’ll actually be able to see wedding vendors – vendors who specifically serve weddings. However, I’ve had very few couples try to get in touch with me through Zola.
Bark / Thumbtack
Bark and Thumbtack operate a lot like Zola, except they are for a larger range of events. Bark sends matched leads to vendors based on the settings a vendor chooses on what leads they want. When a prospect puts in a request, up to 5 vendors may respond, which costs the vendor a varying number of credits. Planners may view the profiles of vendors, and vendors can pay for higher visibility. However, even if you really liked someone, they can’t respond without spending credits. So if they have none, you’re out of luck.
I bought the Starter pack of 50 credits to check it out. When the Starter pack credits run out, you may request 50 more via their Get Hired Guarantee, which they give you as a “guarantee that you’ll get booked in your first 50 credits” (actually, I found it was a guarantee that I wasn’t going to get hired). However, I got 0 bookings from 99 credits. 15 leads, all ghostings. As a vendor, that is beyond frustrating. How could anyone be expected to keep that up? Who in their right mind would continue to buy credits to purchase low-quality leads? Whether other vendors were undercutting me or not, this is an unacceptable result.
In fact, the ONLY thing I liked about Bark was that they have their own app and you didn’t have to log in on a browser. Their platform was actually pretty easy to use. I just really don’t see how it could work for any budget- to affordable-level musical vendors, which is a real shame because we’re the ones who can use the leg up over established vendors.
The Bash
Vendors using The Bash pay a yearly subscription to be listed on their website, ranging from Basic (which I purchased at a discount for $79.99) to Gold, which costs $499.00 per year (still cheaper than The Knot), and offers larger regions of visibility, more categories to offer, and more leads.
The Bash is typically for private and corporate events, but can be used for weddings as well. I got The Bash ahead of expanding into private parties. However, I’ve had to decline more leads than quotes that I’ve sent out. The real problem here is people requesting performers when their event is 2 weeks away, leaving no time to actually prepare to deliver what the client wants. Do they expect to find people who have something already established? How do you expect to find a vendor who’s available within 2 weeks of your event?
Like Bark, none of my quotes sent resulted in any responses. Again, frustrating, considering I already spent money on a subscription. And don’t try to tell me I have to spend more to get better leads or more leads…If I can’t get booked on your basic plan, why would I scale up? Scaling up from zero is still zero. The math just isn’t mathing.
The other thing was that you can’t upload outside reviews. You need to get hired through The Bash and get a review through The Bash in order for anyone to see what other people think of you. It just doesn’t seem like a great place for even an established vendor to get started.
Gigsalad
Eh, don’t get me started on Gigsalad. Sure, it’s completely free for vendors to use and communicate with planners. But I’ve received the least amount of leads from this platform, all of which have been low quality. Pretty much, if you’re looking for cheap vendors who undervalue themselves, this is the place for you.
In Conclusion
The biggest disadvantage to these directory sites is that you may not even get to see the vendors that are perfect for you and your budget because maybe they aren’t part of that directory. Maybe they got fed up with the bad ROI and ditched the subscription. And even if you can see them, you can’t find them on Google to get in touch with them personally, because they are blocked behind the pay wall.
My biggest gripe is that these websites make money from vendors. Not only are we paying for credits or a subscription, usually they are taking a cut of the booking. This either comes out of our paycheck, or some vendors may opt to inflate their prices to make up for the difference, which really just costs you more. Stack on top of that the lack of quality leads we are actually paying for.
I understand that this post turned into more of a vent of frustration. But this has been my experience using these directory sites. And that’s to say I haven’t had a very good experience, meaning really no experience at all.
I would very much rather a prospective client qualify themselves via my website or listing and reach out to me personally. This is called a warm lead, meaning the person likes what you have to offer before you even make the connection. And typically, a couple reaching out is going to limit it to between 1-3 prospective vendors. At this point, they know what to expect because they’ve done the research on what other vendors offer, and maybe even some of them were transparent enough to include pricing and packages on their website. By the time they fill out the contact form, they’ve just about sold themselves on your offering, and a quick video call and personal connection is all they need to seal the deal.
So please please please! If you’re an engaged couple, just search on Google! If you’re a friend or a parent, shy the bride away from these directory sites! And chances are, if you’re reading this, you are one click away from the website of a music vendor. There is no need to find us on Zola or Bark or any of those. You’ve found us! Support your local vendors!
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