Everything You Need to Know About Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing - who doesn’t love it?
There’s nothing like the warm fuzzy feeling you get from a word-of-mouth referral. It’s fulfilling to know that your clients appreciated working with you and recommended your business to others. Especially for a once-in-a-lifetime experience like a wedding!
Word-of-mouth marketing (also known as WOM marketing) is a fantastic tool in every wedding photographer’s marketing kit. There are many benefits to word-of-mouth marketing. For new wedding photographers, word-of-mouth marketing can be the kickstart your business needs; a snowball of clients that sustain your finances, help fill your schedule, and give you invaluable experience as you grow and stretch your skills.
For some businesses, word-of-mouth marketing sustains them for months or even years and they’re happy to rely on this as their primary marketing strategy. But many wedding photographers – especially those looking to elevate their business – will reach a point when WOM marketing instead holds them back.
There can be painful pitfalls to relying primarily on word-of-mouth marketing for client acquisition. Especially as your business grows and evolves. Read on to learn how to easily recognize that it’s time to move beyond WOM marketing!
Let’s walk through the advantages and shortfalls of word-of-mouth marketing, how to set up your WOM marketing for success, and why it’s important to develop and cultivate other, more proactive marketing strategies.
The Advantages of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
There are many advantages to word-of-mouth marketing, especially as you establish your business. Let’s dive in and discuss why WOM marketing is a great strategy!
Free Marketing
Let’s begin with the obvious advantage to word of mouth marketing: it’s free!
Unlike many other forms of marketing, you don’t have to pay in hours of your precious time or valuable funds.
Serve your clients well, ensure they’re satisfied, and you’ve set your word-of-mouth marketing up for success. You can also give your word-of-mouth marketing an extra boost by setting up a referral program.
Passive Marketing
Time for advantage number 2 - WOM marketing requires very little effort on your part.
Word-of-mouth marketing is what I like to call a passive form of marketing. It works in the background and you get to enjoy the benefits! There aren’t any extra steps to add, processes to establish, or posts to write. You can keep doing what you’re good at - photographing beautiful weddings and serving your clients - and they’ll handle the rest.
Local Credibility
Lastly - and arguably most importantly - word-of-mouth marketing helps establish your brand.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful way to build brand credibility and trust in your local community. We’re all human; we love knowing what others think. And let’s be honest - most of us rely heavily on the recommendations of family, friends, and our local neighbors. Hearing the unbiased opinions of others we trust provides a sense of security when we’re facing large, once-in-a-lifetime decisions (like documenting our wedding!).
When past clients share their experiences with others, this builds your brand recognition in your community - either good or bad. The more your brand gets positive recognition, the more credibility is established. Individuals might be wary of booking a wedding photographer they’ve never heard of. But the wedding photographer all three of their friends used? That’s a no-brainer. This is the brand credibility you want.
How to Establish Word of Mouth Marketing
For those of you who are newly established, let’s discuss how to set up your word-of-mouth marketing. If you’ve already established your business, feel free to skip this section!
Spread the Word
Finding that first client can feel next to impossible. This is where word-of-mouth marketing is invaluable. Begin by spreading the word. Who can you share your new business venture with?
Family and extended family! Haven’t talked to them in years? Say hello and share your new adventure!
Friends and their friends and their friends. Ask your friends to spread the word!
Are you starting your photography business as a side hustle? Don’t forget to share it with co-workers.
The elevator pitch: think of the 20-second blurb you’d share if you were introduced to someone in an elevator.
Social media: don’t be afraid to share about your new business on social media. If you’re ready, you can also set up your professional business pages on social media.
Offer a referral program
Once you have your first couple of clients, consider offering a referral program. This can create a snowball effect that leads to additional clients. You can consider offering:
A free engagement session (if referrals happen before the big day)
High-quality prints or photo albums
Credits towards future print orders
A discount towards future lifestyle photoshoots (if you also work as a lifestyle photographer)
Consider offering a tiered referral program; the more (booked) referrals they send your way, the more rewards they accrue.
Network
Reach out to wedding photographers in your area. Are there local groups you can join? If you have a wedding that you can’t take on, refer the inquiry to someone in your local area. Support other photographers and let them know you’re available for any overflow clients they receive, too!
The Pitfalls of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Dangers of “slow season” cycles
Slow season.
Two words that make every wedding photographer cringe. You’ve been there before. The clients stop coming in. Budgets get tight. You work hard to tough it out. While it may provide those begrudgingly nice pockets of time to tackle your never-ending to-do list, we all wish our calendars were a little more consistent.
Enduring the slow season cycle can be frustrating. Do you feel stagnant? Stuck? Have you resigned yourself to the fact that you’ll forever deal with these dry spells?
Guess what? I’ve got great news. You can beat it. But first - let’s talk about why this happens.
We know that wintertime tends to bring a lull in weddings. (Even though we know winter weddings are something extra special.) The engaged couples are out there, but it can feel like a feeding frenzy amongst photographers; especially those who don’t have a larger winter wedding photography portfolio to impress with.
Relying on word-of-mouth marketing as your sole marketing strategy is a surefire way to ensure you get sucked into the wedding photography slow season.
Slow Client Acquisition
But there is an even greater danger to relying primarily on word-of-mouth marketing… experiencing a slow season during the busy wedding months.
That is the worst nightmare for wedding photographers.
And that’s the pitfall of word-of-mouth marketing. It tends to be circular; when those circles of friends are dried up, the referrals stop.
Plus, if your clients are coming from just a few circles, you’re stuck waiting (and twiddling your thumbs) for those friends to pop the question and need you. There could be weeks (or months) between wedding inquiries.
You don’t have the luxury of waiting, and your competitors are snatching up potential clients who haven’t heard about you and can’t find you.
This can become an even bigger problem as your business grows. You’re looking to expand your reach and book more weddings, but you’ve limited yourself only to clients who hear about you through word-of-mouth.
If you don’t have a massive WOM network, you’re going to struggle.
Limited Client Pool
Let’s talk about one more danger to word-of-mouth marketing… you’re limiting yourself to certain clients, and they may not be your ideal clients.
We all have clients we dream of working with over and over again.
The ideal clients that make our jobs not only easy but fun. The clients we can’t wait to share our work with. Wouldn’t life be peachy if every client could be like them? If every wedding was a dream wedding?
When you rely on word-of-mouth marketing, you’re forced to serve clients who may not be as pleasant to work with. They may not want the style you prefer. Their venue or location may not be your favorite to photograph. (Sound familiar?)
As your business grows and you establish your preferences, this can become more and more difficult. Especially when you want to build a photography portfolio that attracts more of your ideal clients, not less.
(On that side note - want to learn how to build a portfolio that books your ideal clients? Check out this freebie!
Keep reading … ⬇️
Let’s pause and summarize what we’ve learned so far. Time for a bulleted list!
Word-of-mouth marketing is a great beginning marketing strategy.
It helps establish brand recognition, it is inexpensive (free!), and - as a more passive marketing strategy - requires very little effort on your part.
As your business grows, it is important to establish other marketing avenues to avoid slow seasons and allow you to reach and book clients you actually want to work with long-term.
When to Move Beyond WOM Marketing
If you’re happy with where your business is relying on WOM marketing, then keep at it!
But if you:
Are tired of slow seasons and the client-search hamster wheel
Feel that your WOM circles are growing slim
Want to start booking weddings in styles you want to photograph
Are ready to start raising your pricing
Are ready to elevate and expand your business
Want to proactively avoid slow seasons or difficult clients…
Then let me introduce you to my favorite marketing strategies that create a strong, powerful marketing funnel: your website and blogging!
I strongly recommend focusing on your website and strategic blogging as powerful, proactive marketing strategies to launch your business to the next level of success.
If you’re interested in learning more about these strategies, check out these blog posts!
If you’re ready to elevate your business, but you don’t have the time, energy, knowledge, or capacity to do it yourself …
I’d love to build you a powerful website that sets you apart from your competition and serves as a powerful business asset.
My Peach and Pine Experience is for professional wedding photographers who are ready to reach the next level of business success.
My websites market proactively 24/7/365. They combine:
Comprehensive web strategy
Psychology-based copywriting
Aesthetic design
and SEO best practices to help turn website visitors into booked clients.
You can begin by learning more about the Peach and Pine Experience and booking your complimentary consultation!
I can’t wait to meet you and learn more about your business goals and dreams!
As always, I’m cheering for you!
Kylee
PS - have a question or an idea for a blog post? Send me a message!
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