Yesterday’s announcement regarding the shuttering of popular wedding blog Style Me Pretty sent shock waves through the community. Many wedding pros saw Style Me Pretty as the gold standard of wedding marketing and often made it a career goal to be featured.
The hysteria seems to be even worse the next day. Some of my wedding blogger friends are getting messages from worried vendors on their preferred list – Are you closing too?
And wedding vendors are wondering if it’s worth their time to submit their work to blogs going forward. Or maybe blogs will start charging vendors for features so they can stay afloat. After all, if Style Me Pretty can shut down and disappear, what’s to stop that from happening to other blogs?
I totally understand the frustration, and I hope I can address (and calm) some of those concerns here.
Is Wedding Blogging Dead?
The situation with Style Me Pretty is a complicated and unique one. While we can only speculate as to the exact reason for its closure, it’s important to remember Style Me Pretty started as a small wedding blog created and edited by one person, but most recently was sold and became a tiny part of a much larger corporation (Verizon/AOL). While Style Me Pretty may be “huge” to us, it perhaps wasn’t making enough profit (or any profit) for the parent company to see it as something worth keeping around.
If I had to make an educated guess, Style Me Pretty‘s demise was the result of corporate restructuring.
It’s important to remember most wedding blogs are not like this. Most blogs are run by one person or a small team. Blog owners are often easily approachable and accessible. If you have a question or concern about a blog you love, just send an email and talk to them! Don’t make assumptions and don’t freak out over rumors and gossip.
This is also a chance to step back and take a look at your marketing strategies and your goals. Many wedding pros (and many brides) made it their life’s mission to be featured on Style Me Pretty. It’s fine to have goals, but be sure your business and marketing does not revolve around one singular goal or platform. Any vendor who put all of their eggs in the Style Me Pretty basket is in a world of hurt right now.
As a blogger myself, it frustrates me when I hear people say phrases like, “blogging is dead,” or “nobody is reading blogs anymore.” I can see by my analytics this is simply not true. It’s a shame Style Me Pretty is going away, but blogging is certainly a booming industry and there are plenty of blogs out there just waiting to feature you.
So is wedding blogging dead? No, but it’s certainly evolving and unpredictable, and it’s safe to assume your favorite blog probably won’t last forever. The situation with Style Me Pretty is yet another reminder that we are all responsible for our own marketing and we can’t solely rely on third party platforms to carry our business.
Remember:
Maintain your own social channels.
Maintain your own blog.
Maintain your own email list.
Social media and blogs are wonderful marketing tools, and the closure of Style Me Pretty shouldn’t stop wedding pros from investing in these tools. As long as it’s just a slice of your marketing strategy pie.
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Photo by Elisabeth Messina
