on the radar of online tech talk and we get a fair amount of credit across multiple industries.
X: What does running a company as a husband and wife team look like?
AL: It looks pretty fantastic actually. For a few reasons. The first being that we have very different skill sets. We trust each other’s knowledge and strengths and we take complete ownership over our own work. While decisions are made together, we respect the idea that my knowledge base is very different than Tait’s. Working together has proved to strengthen our relationship and our roles within our home as parents. We love it and honestly wouldn’t have it any other way.
X: What does Style Me Pretty’s business model look like today and how will it continue to evolve? How has it gone from a blog to a media site with advertisements to now a marketplace/e-commerce store? How were these decisions made along the way? How has the addition of locally-focused blogs and the Little Black Book shaped the company? What additions are next?
AL: SMP is a content driven site that focuses on inspiration. Our goal is to continuously provide readers a place where they can plan and design a wedding that is as style centric as those you see published. That comes in different forms, from our vendor directory, to a handful of branded products, to our stream of locally driven content. We launched local as another platform to get vendors’ work into the hands of brides. We receive nearly 600 real wedding submissions a week, many of which are lovely though get declined because we simply don’t have enough space in the content schedule. These local blogs allow us to not only accept more content, but to introduce more and more people to the vendors that are doing such innovative things. It’s a win/win for all.
Working with vendors is hugely important to SMP. We’ve forged relationships with the best vendors in the industry who trust us to preserve the authenticity of their work online and to market each feature to the best of our abilities so as to maximize exposure. It’s a relationship that fuels SMP’s very foundation and one that we hope brings new business to vendors of all shapes and sizes. The vendors that we work with are at the very core of the SMP brand.
As for what’s next, so many things. The most important is to continue to find more ways to drive business to local vendors and to showcase the work of the best out there. We want SMP to be a place that brides never want to leave, so we’re continuing to innovate with tools, ideas and content that will inspire them. Further, we’re really hoping to focus on life moments and bringing the idea of lifestyle into our brand. We want the readers that fell in love with us while planning their wedding to have a continuous stream of inspiration, from planning and designing intimate parties at home, to trying different recipes and cocktails, to welcoming their children into the world. All with the same sense of style and inspiration that they found while planning their wedding. So much to be excited about when it comes to the future of SMP!
