You may find it difficult to decide which of the various online wedding directories out there you should get your company listed on because there are just too many of them to choose from. You need to keep your potential customers point of view in mind to help you make the right decision and find the ones that are best for you.

You can publicise your company and attract visitors to your website, without blowing a hole in your marketing budget by listing your business on free directory sites. Even though free listings should be taken advantage of because they make a great starting point, there are a few negative aspects to using them. For instance, most of the time only limited contact information like name, address, website and phone number can be listed.

On the downside, many of the free directory sites are not particularly attractive in terms of the way they look, and are sometimes quite hard to navigate around. Another area to consider is whether other suppliers on the same directory will be listed above you because they pay. This is almost always the case, but some of the newer directories will allow Brides to sort the list in different ways, and not always on who’s paid for the premium listings. Therefore, choose the free directories carefully and don’t feel under pressure to take up every free listing offer that comes along.

Paid directories sometimes, but not always, provide better functionality to Brides searching for suppliers. More importantly for your business, you can often provide more information that helps Brides choose the suppliers that suit their particular style and wants more easily. In most cases, you will need to email your information into the directory and they populate your directory entry for you. This is great in the short term as it saves you the administrative tasks of doing it yourself, but the downside is that it is very difficult to change any of the information on your listing between renewals. Also, many directory sites force you to pay per state or county. If you live close to the border of two states or counties, you may need to pay double in order to cover all of the areas you want to advertise and work in. One final thing to check for is what else you get for your money. Do you get reports on what Brides are looking for; do you get analysis of how many people viewed your listing?

There are a number of new sites coming along now that provide a much improved service to Brides and suppliers. These new sites provide both free and paid for listings, complete with the ability for Brides to search and sort on many different criteria, such as distance, price, style, ratings, etc. It is possible to upload your own information to the site, and to manage it whenever you want. So if you are running that special promotion for Valentines Day, you can let everyone know on the directory site easily and quickly! These new sites also permit the uploading of multiple images and videos so Brides can see what kind of service you provide, and how much you cost, before they pick up the phone. This can only be good, as you now have qualified leads identified, and as they say, the rest is up to you!

Mark Strefford is an expert in marketing wedding businesses online, and is the CTO of TheWeddingVine.com, a leading wedding supplier directory, styling and planning website.