I know some of you are photographers trying to make it happen and others are trying to make other businesses happen. Maybe this will help a little. Maybe not. We'll see.
The first book: Word of Mouth Marketing | Andy Sernovitz
1) be interesting.
If there's nothing special going on in your business, there's nothing to talk about; which means no one will hear about it unless you spend a ton of money advertising. Who wants to do that?
2) make it super easy for talkers to talk about your biz.
Link to anything and everything where clients might want to talk about you (review sites, your blog, Facebook, etc.)
It's a quick and easy book. Once you read it you'll give birth to pages of idea babies.
A couple of mine for example:
- started responding to blog commentators (let's them know we care about what they're saying)
- started the teacher discount (great clients who talk about us)
- slapped a subscription form on the blogs (makes it easy for people to stay tuned)
- started free high res Flickr images (clients use them in their social site profiles)
- started pre-session questionnaires (now we can turn each session into a magical unicorn ride of portrait fun)
- encouraged testimonials and online reviews. (linking to them. making it mega-easy)
So there you go.
