Marketing – What’s your best marketing technique?

[Mark Suszko]

Referrals from still photgs and event arrangers/planners.
All my business was referrals from former clients ans stills guys for about 4 years, I never had to advertise, ever, and was turning business away.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Wedding forums like TheKnot.com and WeddingWire.com are super-useful. (Your mileage may vary, different ones are popular in different cities.)

Now, as a vendor you can’t post in these forums, but they can still be helpful. You pay to advertise in their ad sections, which is mildly useful. You’ll get a few calls from that. No big deal…don’t expect too much from it.

But the real fun starts once you delight these customers. Because they’re already into the whole message-board system they’re the types that will share their experiences with hundreds of other people.

The only “selling” you have to do is to simply make them very happy. They’ll write about everything that happened on their wedding day, and good stories from real people are worth more than any ad you can buy anywhere.

I don’t even monitor what they say online. I don’t really care to know. All I know is that many of my clients say they first saw me on sites like this, and they’re usually not talking about my ad.

[Todd Roush]

Good stuff, keep em’ coming.

I come from 8 years as an event videographer doing a few weddings a year but I am looking to fill my calendar.

I have never lost a repeat customer but in this stunningly competitive wedding industry (DJs, Photgraphers, Kids with video cameras, film students, crazy hippies) with everybody claiming to shoot video.

Since video is a one time job it must be tough to get a reference from a bride unless in a very small town.

These are good suggestions.

Keep them coming!

TR

Todd Roush
Dreamscape Digital Media
Panny DVX-100’s but changing so Sony or Cannon HDV soon.