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Unlike many from the previous generation, I grew up in a computer literate world. My Dad works in IT so we always had a computer in the house; in fact by the time I left home at eighteen there were seven for my family of four! We each had a laptop and there were also three desktops that had accumulated over the years. (I am now in my late twenties and my husband and I have two laptops each and a desktop!) While I've always used computers, recently I've found that I'm coming to rely on them, and especially the internet, more and more. For instance in the past I would have gone to a travel agent to book a holiday, but now I would not dream of doing that, instead I spend my evenings trawling through the internet trying to find the best deal. Having analysed my surfing, I found that I reject websites from companies that require me to call up or provide my details so that someone can get back to me - I want the information instantly and don't want to waste my time on something that isn't going to be what I want.
Having spoken to many of my friends, I've found that I am not alone in my use of the internet and my desire for instant information. My husband and I got married last year and many of my friends are also planning weddings. I used the internet to find a number of suppliers for our wedding and I don't think it is too much of a leap to assume that many brides-to-be will also be looking to the internet when planning their weddings, and importantly, when looking for a DJ. The internet has so much 'instant information' that members of Generation Y have been conditioned to want everything instantly. Modern brides want to see if a DJ is available on their chosen date, find out what music they can play, get a rough idea of what they charge, and read what other people have said about them before they spend their valuable time making an enquiry. Not only is an advert in the Yellow Pages no longer enough, a static website doesn't make the grade either, interactivity and instant information is now a must.
According to the Pro Mobile Reader survey 2008 only 50% of the DJs surveyed had a website and I imagine that the number of sites that provide the sort of information I mentioned earlier is a fraction of those. I can bet that every DJ that has a website gets enquiries from it, but I wonder how many potential customers don't get as far as making contact because they can't find out instant information - it wouldn't surprise me if the number isn't significantly higher. The problem is that unless you are educated in computing (or are willing to pay someone who is!), providing the features that Brides want is near to impossible, or at least it is without DJ Intelligence.
DJ Intelligence is an American company. From my experience of American mobile DJs, many are way ahead of the DJs I have met in the UK when it comes to professionalism. It seems that a larger percentage run their DJ businesses full time, and take their job very seriously - it's not just a hobby, so it is no surprise that this idea was developed by Americans. But luckily for us Brits, American websites and UK websites work the same way so there are no cross-culture issues (the DJ Intelligence software also accommodates differences in date, address and currency formats appropriately for UK customers). DJ Intelligence is a suite of online tools that is very simple to use - it provides the HTML code for various 'add on' elements such as a date checker, and a music library, which you can copy and paste into your own website, and then customise to suit you. Once you register you can login to a control panel, and from there you can copy and paste the code to get you started, plus view booking enquiries, client communications, and set up all of the tools to be specific to you.
Written By Liz Johnson |
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The full article can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 37, Pages 70 - 74 |
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Copyright EJ Media 2003 - 2010
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