Nobody believes you.

It’s not your fault – spammy marketers have burned out consumers on “value.” Everybody’s product or service is the best ever.

But…

Ever bought anything on Amazon?

Figuring around the same price, do you buy the 3.5-star widget, or the 4.5-star widget?

This is social proof. Social proof is how you really prove your value to someone who has never worked with you. Social proof is massively powerful. Social proof proves results – social proof proves promises.

Social proof is testimonials.

Real people, real clients, sharing real experiences with you and your photography.

No joke: if you don’t know what you’re doing with marketing, if you don’t know how to market yourself, if you’re out of ideas or sick of gimmicks, just start by sharing client testimonials. Anything nice anyone has ever said about you and your work.

“What if I don’t have any testimonials?”

Get them. Ask your past clients, free or paid, anyone who has worked with you. Ask them if you can interview them about their experience with you, so you can help them write a testimonial to share with other folks who might be in the market for professional photography.

“What if I don’t have any clients?”

Then, like I talk about in Freemium Photography, get busy. Get booked solid with any mix of free and paid clients. You need momentum so you can practice your photography and your business skills, and so you can plant seeds of experiences that can grow into great testimonials.

“What if I’m scared to ask for testimonials? Why can’t I just wait for them to come in organically?”

For the same reason it’s so hard to passively get the phone to ring with new business. Proactive success almost always precedes passive success. Why shoot with 10 clients and get one testimonial when you can shoot with 10 clients and get nine testimonials? The only difference is being brave enough to ask.

Three questions:

1. Are you currently flooding your marketing with testimonials from happy clients?

2. Why not?

3. What can you do to change that?

If you’re stuck, e-mail me and let me know – I read every e-mail.

James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com

Similar Posts: