It goes without saying that theknot.com is a HUGE wedding resource. They themselves claim that 80% of brides turn to them for information which makes them the industry’s equivalent to Walmart. If 80% of the consumers are using them, even for just a small percentage of their planning, shopping, and other wedding prep needs then it should be a no-brainier for most wedding vendors who want to gain more clients – the knot is probably where you can find them.

That being said I recently discovered how ruthless, manipulative, and deceptive they are in their marketing, advertising, and vendor relations. As you’ll read below I sent the regional sales rep, Sara Brunner, a message expressing my feelings about their deceptive practices and asked them to change their ways. I’m not holding my breath but what I am doing though is this – blogging about it in the hopes that you my dear reader will avoid using them in favor of other, more organic, more truly local resources.

The Backstory

While I was doing some research this week into search engine optimization I saw that, (as expected), theknot.com has a huge local market share in the search engine results. They’re not the top listing for Pittsburgh photographers, (and I’m already listed on the site that is), but they are one of the biggest.
Knowing what I know about SEO I decided I’d see if they have free or minimally priced listing (like a great many vendor listing websites do). As it turns out they don’t. No big surprise, and really no big deal because let’s face it – they are the top dog, (according to their own statistics). So they ask for just under $200/per month for advertising which isn’t unreasonable considering that if I add one more wedding a month (or 12 more a year) I could, without any price increases, cover that and not have it even make a mark on my bottom line.

Exploring theKnot

I was seriously considering paying for an advertisement on theknot.com when in the course of my research I checked the local listings page and saw that they have some curious, (i.e. deceptive), language. They have the ads for the type of vendor for the area and then they have below these ads a list of links to all the other folks who have paid for ad space but that don’t fit on the first page. It really is smart from an SEO standpoint as these folks are still listed on the first page of the vendor listings and then listed again with their ad but I digress.

Knotted Up

Where the problem lies is that they have this list under the heading: Complete List of [local area] [vendor type]

So for the list of all of the paying photographers from Pittsburgh it reads: Complete List of Pittsburgh Photographers

Now I’m not an idiot, I understand marketing but “complete list” really? No, not really. I’m not on there. I know a number of other established, well known, busy, and profitable wedding photographers that are not in this “complete list” of photographers. In fact some of the biggest names in the Pittsburgh wedding photography business are NOT listed in this list.

Tightening theKnot

So this is the part where I share with you dear reader the message I sent Sara, the sales rep. Here is the body of the message:

Good morning,
I see on your site that under the local vendor lists you have a section titled: Complete List of [local area name] [vendor specialty]

This is a little disingenuous isn’t it? I mean, honestly, I’m a Pittsburgh wedding photographer and I’m not on the “complete list of Pittsburgh photographers”. I know others that I don’t see on the list either so it can’t truly be “complete” now can it?

I could understand you using the wording “Complete list of The Knot’s (approved/favorite/paying/whatever) [local area name] [vendor specialty].

Don’t get me wrong here, I’d like to pick up some extra clients and the knot could possibly deliver them but with such disingenuous and manipulative language on your site I’m not so sure that I would want to support your business when your website seems to be less than truthful.
Now, I’m not an idiot, I understand marketing and I understand playing hard ball. I also understand the difference between being aggressive and being outright assholes and I’m sorry to have to say this but your company seems to be leaning towards the later.
I’ll make you a deal though – you clean that up and I’ll consider buying an add. I’ll also be posting this letter, as an open letter to the knot on my wedding blog.
Thank you for your time!
W. Donald Orkoskey

Untie The Knot

Like I said before – theknot.com is a huge resource for brides and wedding couples. Again though they are deceptive in their business practices and I encourage everyone to see them for what they are. Digging deeper I found some interesting information about a lawsuit back in 2000 that was the result of them trying to back out of and dishonor contracts with franchise owners of Weddingpages which they bought-out that year. I’ve not found the results of the suit but they were clearly interested in maximizing profits at the expense of small business owners. Read more about the suit here.

One thing that strikes me is that companies that do business like this encourage others to do the same. That’s not to say that all of the vendors listed on theknot.com are in any way as corrupt, morally depraved, and money-hungry as they are. In fact the majority are just trying to survive in a business that can be a little difficult to do so in. That being said the chances of coming across a vendor that will do anything to make a buck and that will deliver a less than desirable product or service are much higher with a website such as theknot.com over a locally ran site or vendor collective that polices it’s members and knows them personally.
In trying to find a way to reach them to discuss the issue I came across the following very interesting post from this February on the Fred Miranda message boards. The post is about theknot.com providing a vendor dashboard. Two of the respondents say that the knot lost their business already and  one reported that a representative told him his business would fail if he didn’t advertise with them. Fail? Really?

This god-complex is the same that I’ve encountered from people in other high pressure sales positions. One SEO salesman told me that he’d pray for me since I was going to be on welfare soon since I opted not to pay his company $1,000 per month to have my business be the only one listed on Google’s front-page. He told me they’d find another local photographer willing to take that offer and that I’d loose my business, my house, my car, my wife, my dog, and so on if I didn’t buy what he was selling.

To think that a sales-person would be driven that hard to feel the need to threaten people is insane and shows just how profit driven and/or unnecessary the company they work for is.  I truly hope that the folks at theknot.com will fix their deceptive wording. If they do I’ll honestly consider buying advertising from them.