The Stationers Guild

Every year at the National Stationery Show, I visit The Knot booth.  The Knot is considered by many to be the leading website for weddings.    In fact, many stationery stores advertise on The Knot and some have reported considerable success.  I became disenchanted with The Knot many years ago – not because I was a shareholder and watched their share price fall from $30 to $10 – but for The Knot’s lack of integrity and misrepresentation of local businesses and local resources.  To those charges I now add incompetence.  “Incompetence,” you ask?  Sure, take the The Knot’s application form at this year’s National Stationary Show.

I know, how embarrassing is this?  Nevertheless, I suspect that many stationers signed this application form in the hope that they would find the “promised” bridal couple and possibly more in their town or county.

I sincerely hope that fellow stationers will be rewarded for their advertising, but I suspect that your potential client will be hijacked by The Knot’s propensity to promote its national online fast food chains that masquerade that they are local businesses.   While The Knot could be a great asset for struggling local businesses, they have sold their integrity to the highest bidder and as a result, the consumer, the stationery industry, designers and artisans have been short-changed. 

Let me be as plain as possible:  Local stationery stores and other wedding-related local businesses that advertise on The Knot are simply subsidizing their own demise.  I wish The Knot would wake up and “do the right thing.”   Maybe a spelling class would also help.   Even the stock market might notice. 

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

This week at the National Stationery Show (“NSS”) a colleague of mine told me that the Editor of Get Married, an online wedding website, was going to visit a bricks-and-mortar stationery store and find out what actually goes on when someone seeks advice on wedding invitations.  I was intrigued:  gosh, will a “real world” experience get in the way of shamelessly promoting the same monotonous and tedious designs from online resellers?  Sceptical, but willing to give Get Married the benefit of the doubt, I trekked over to their booth at the back of Javits Center to see if they had made any relevant  improvements to their website.

I came across an enthusiastic young woman explaining the benefits of advertising on Get Married to two stationers.  As they were wrapping up, I jumped in and asked:  Will I be able to find a “real” stationery store on your website?    Using Connecticut as an example (my home state), I asked to see if they had any stores listed under invitations?

As I suspected, the only “local” stores you can find are “national” online resellers.    I think most people are savvy enough to know the difference between a business that sells “nationally” online and a local store, why can’t Get Married see the difference?    Despite the fact that wedding sites like The Knot, Martha Stewart Wedding and Get Married like to hype the local shopping experience, local relevance is determined solely by how much advertising dollars you are prepared to spend to “buy” local space. 

I explained to the young salesperson, that I considered this to be a deceptive promotion and it was causing people searching for local resources to move away from wedding portals.  She promised to bring this to the attention of her superiors.   Fortunately, I believe that mobile search will eventually kill these relics of self-promotion and deceptive claims whose primary interests are selling advertising and generating affiliate income.  Information from these websites is little more than promtional hype.  Let the buyer beware.

If you are an independent stationer thinking you will benefit from these websites, think again.  The money you spend on online marketing is far better spent promoting your own website and engaging in local search optimization. 

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

As reported earlier, Google is aggressively reaching out to local businesses to improve search results for people who place a local qualifier in a search.  Google Places is certain to overhaul the search dynamics and improve search results for those seeking “wedding invitations Greenwich, CT” or “wedding invitations 06830″.  The natural or organic search results will return a stationery store -hopefully yours – in local search results for “wedding invitations” in your town or zip code.

Clearly, mobile search has been driving Google’s effort to improve the search experience for a growing number of consumers using mobile devices.  This is a tremendous opportunity for mom and pop stores and smaller businesses to effectively position their store for mobile search.  To determine how effective your online marketing is working for you, visit getlisted.org to see how well your store stacks up for local search in the four key search engines. 

Twitter is also beginning to make “big” noise on the local search front.  While I have reluctant to recommend Twitter and other social media tools, the local search component has caused me to reassess my position.  With technology, it is difficult to forecast what is coming next, but clearly the time of Twitter and Facebook has arrived.  If you value your business and want to help tech savvy consumers find your business, it is about time to reallocate your Yellow Pages advertising budget to online search.  You will be glad you did and so will your new customers.

This is also the death knell for wedding portals who have so corrupted the local search component.  If you are paying for advertising on The Knot, Martha Stewart Wedding or other wedding portals, this money should now be reallocated to local search.  It’s a heck of a lot cheaper and far more effective.  Why pay for advertising to compete with the likes of weddingpaperdivas.com who are paying close to $50 for each sale in your local space?  Makes no sense.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

One of the more promising developments of online search is the reemergence of  ”local search.”  This is occurring at a frenetic pace as more search engine companies are targeting mobile phone or mobile device users who prefer to shop locally.  With Geo-targeting and GPS positioning, a mobile phone user can quickly find local stores within his shopping radius when he enters in a search such as “best pizza” or “business cards” or “wedding invitations.”  The search results will target stores that meet that search criteria within his or her immediate vicinity based on the embedded GPS in the phone.

The conversion rate (sales to search ratio) is reportedly 8 to 10 times higher than traditional search since the mobile phone user  generally appears more willing to act on his search results.  If true, this will bring about a huge upheaval in Internet search trends.  Companies like The Knot and Martha Stewart Weddings have corrupted local search by allowing online companies and Internet resellers to “purchase” zip codes and metro-centers at the expense of local resources they claim to tout.

In effect, if you are looking for an experienced stationer in your neighborhood to craft a wedding invitation, your search results on these wedding portals will be compromised by online dealers that have co-opted this space on the pretext that they are “serving” this market.  I have been unsuccessful in convincing either The Knot or Martha Stewart Weddings that they are deliberately misleading their clients.  Needless to say, advertising dollars are more important than integrity.

With the growth of the use of mobile devices for search, wedding portals and online stationers will necessarily suffer as search results will be truly local based on the embedded GPS system in your mobile device.  Search results will once again target brick-and-mortar stores selling products and services within the vicinity of the user.  Those stores that have optimized their website and store for local search will stand to benefit.  This could bring about a much needed change in an industry where product quality has been compromised by deceptive advertising and the predatory practices of companies like The Knot and Martha Stewart Wedding who place the interests of their advertiser in front of the consumer.

If you are a stationery store, looking to optimize your website and/or bricks-and-mortar store for the mobile search revolution, please contact rmay@stationersguild.org .  We can help.

Richard W. May
Founding Member of the Stationers Guild

I came across an interesting article in today’s New York Times by Sam Roberts with the intriguing title that “More Men Marrying Better Educated, Wealthier Wives.”   The gist of the article suggests that men who have sought marriage “from the standpoint of physical and mental well being”  now realize that a better-educated partner can also contribute to their “economic well-being.”   While this might be seen as a major evolutionary break-through in male maturity and self-realization,  the “alpha female” (The Knot’s characterization of the upwardly mobile female) is unlikely to compromise her rigorous approval standards.  One anonymous textile executive quoted in the article reportedly queries bar slugs and first dates with “Do you have a passport and a library card?”  Gosh, that will certainly weed out the field of eligible males rather quickly and so much for “Love at first sight!”

As I have no skin in the game (married to a far smarter woman and breadwinner -a fact which she reminds me of each day), I am free to offer this advice to men whose emotional IQ is higher than their testosterone level:  Buy engraved stationery and seek out a woman with an expensive pen.   I might add that Crane & Co. and William Arthur have sensational personalized stationery promotions going on right now, so you can buy in cheap and score big with a personalized note to the woman of your dreams who is currently involved in an unhealthy relationship with her Blackberry.   Can you imagine her reaction when she receives your hand-written note on engraved stationery?   Her Facebook “friends” and “Twits” on Twitter will simply fade into oblivion proving decisively that the pen is mightier than texting. 

If you need help selecting your stationery, please enter your Zip code or City and State in the Search Bar in the right hand corner to locate a qualified stationery store in your neighborhood.   If, however, you are looking for a woman with the “right”  fountain pen, might I suggest a limited edition Omas Château Lafite Rothschild fountain pen with a sterling silver nib which retails for $1,750.  I ordered the Chateau Lafitite pen for a woman as a birthday gift to the man of her dream’s whose passions were limited edition pens and French wine.  Apparently, his passions didn’t extend to the woman in question and I still have the Omas pen.  If your bride-to-be is looking for a pen to ink the relationship, tell her I have a great deal for her at Thérèse Saint Clair.

Chateau Lafite Fountain Pen

Richard May
Therese Saint Clair

Over the last week or so, local search pundits have been debating the impact of Google’s launch of Google Place Pages.  Andrew Shotland who publishes the Local SEO Guide Blog recently wrote an article on the impact of Google Place Pages on the local search market.    As described on the Google Blog, a Place Page is  “a webpage for every place in the world, organizing all the relevant information about it. By every place, we really mean ‘every’ place — there are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks and cities all over the world.”  Indeed, this is pretty heady stuff.  One might ask: “Who needs Big Brother?” 

If you are a local business owner, you definitely need to take control of your business listing on Google.  Simply log on to the Google Local Business Center and add your business or update your existing one.   One can debate the merits of Google’s strategy, but I certainly am not going to tangle with the 800 pound gorilla of internet marketing. 

Personally, I think this is very good news for local businesses and very bad news for the many so-called local search engines and search portals that have sacrificed the integrity of their local search function to pursue advertising revenue.   As I commented on Mr. Shotland’s Blog, ” Local.com, the YellowPages.com (including the many YP varietals) and most search category portals (i.e. The Knot for weddings) have compromised local search by ’selling’ zip codes and towns/cities to online marketers under the premise that ‘they are serving local markets.’  It’s not the same! In fact, it is deceptive and comprises ‘real’ search results.”

While I doubt very seriously that these deceptive advertising strategies will soon disappear, I encourage anyone who owns a small business to take control of their business and the way it is represented on the Internet.  While I do not have any particular insights into Google’s long-term business strategy, I do know that Google’s Local Business Center is packed full of useful tools for local storefronts.  These tools are free!  While you are at it, also claim your business on Yahoo and Microsoft. 

Before spending a penny on advertising  in Local.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, or the online Yellow Pages or any other portal make sure you take a look at competitor advertisers in your search space.  If online dealers occupy that space, save your advertising dollar for something more worthwhile.

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

I was somewhat taken aback but hardly surprised that the National Stationery Show will partner with Get Married to produce a series of bridal theme displays.  The National Stationery Show is scheduled for May 17 through May 20 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

I must admit that I am not familiar with Get Married’s pedigree, but a cursory review of their website suggests that it offers little more than the myriad of online wedding sites that populate cyberspace.  What does Get Married have to offer that The Knot or the Wedding Channel or indeed a boatload of other wedding portals don’t have?  These hyped-up wedding portals are designed to sell, not inform.  Their value is largely determined by the all-powerful advertising dollar, not relevance to the consumer or the craftspeople and designers who make fine stationery products.

While I applaud The National Stationery Show planners for enlisting the help of a “wedding planner” to help showcase bridal theme displays, why did they select an online wedding website?  I view this as a sell-out to online resellers and online printers who are rapidly undermining the craftsmanship of fine stationery and custom invitations.  The National Stationery Show organizers should be chastised for promoting distribution channels rather than the artisans who make fine stationery and invitations and the experienced stationers who sell them.

Online wedding websites should be judged by their advertising sponsors, the products they promote and the distribution channels found on their website.  Specifically, I judge the integrity of wedding portals by the number of “true” local businesses that are listed under local resources.  For instance, Get Married, today listed six sources for local invitations and calligraphy in Connecticut on their website.  Four and probably five of these “stationers” are national resellers or printers.   Get Married is no different than The Knot or Martha Stewart Weddings who promote national resellers and printers as local resources.  How sad it is that these website owners have so little regard for the online buyer who may be looking for an experienced stationer in their neighborhood and invitation designers and fine paper lines who would never consider selling invitations online.

In an era when our public leaders quibble over the definition of  “is”, how can we expect website owners and search engines to agree that “local” refers to a business at a fixed location.  An 800 or 888 prefix is not a local business.  It is most unfortunate that online buyers searching for genuine local resources now have to sort through irrelevant, yes dishonest, search results that have been compromised by advertising fees paid to these wedding portals.

As a long-time visitor the National Stationery Show, I can’t wait to see the Eco-Chic wedding theme table promised by the organizers.  I suspect that the “Eco-chic wedding”  is just another questionable marketing ploy by the organizers to make us feel good about buying invitations that are produced from recycled paper and post-consumer waste.  Like the marketing spin on local resources, I suspect that this is simply   Greenwash spin that only serves to discourage leading craftspeople where concern for the environment is simply an integral part of their everyday life.