There is currently a big change going on in the way brides and grooms select their wedding DJs and other Suppliers. When we first went online it would be traditional searches like 'Disco in Sunderland' or 'Wedding DJ for Alnwick' and what you got was the companies who knew how to use keywords or paid for ads. There is nothing here to guarantee a good DJ as many have little or no Google reviews.
Then things seemed to move over to Facebook (the selling and wedding groups) and sales sites like Gumtree. Another way of finding DJs was via Directories or the glut of sites that set up like Add to or Need a Disco, where they have a directory of DJs who fight for your booking. The most recent stage of this internet revolution seems to be the advent of brand awareness where using Pintrest, Instagram (inc. Instastories) and Facebook Live allow clients to see what and book exactly what they want.
We have done our best to get involved and as part of our rebranding a couple of years ago, tried to get onboard with creating an actual Brand, rather than just a name. We try to pitch now to our ideal market and a group of clients we know as our avatars. People who from experience are looking for the kind of service we provide and who are looking for a company to work with rather than work for them.
Our clients are now starting to "stalk us" on social media and this is what we want. Its like the story of Hansel and Gretel - if we leave enough breadcrumbs around they will find us because we are providing exactly what they are looking for. This doesn't actually provide us more work, but a better fit with our clients. We are still learning however and developing strategies to use highly curated feeds and a range of hashtags to demonstrate what we offer.
We are trying to build a following using the Know-Like-Trust factor so eventually people want to use us before they even have a party planned because we have implanted our brand firmly with them. If you follow our page on Facebook you might have noticed a change recently in the way we post and the type of content we are sharing.
So how are we going about this? Let's start with Know:
Know - We have to get into your feed so you are aware that we are here as a choice. We already feel that we are the best choice for you or we wouldn't be in business. If you don't know we exist however, then all of this is moot. We spend a lot of time improving our SEO, posting on social media, blogging (if you're reading this) and using various other methods to make you are that Disco Couture are here come the next time you need a DJ or Disco.
Like - We need your likes! Why you ask? So we know your watching us and aware of us. We have a decent following but some companies that have been around longer have so much more. This is why we have changed the way we post, we are technically fishing for likes by using topics that grab your attention. We've got enough Disco stuff on our feed to show people what we do and that we are active. Again we need to carefully use hashtags and images so we can be found by the brides and grooms who are looking for a good fit.
Trust - For us this is the most important factor. Our reviews are very important as they go a long way to demonstrate that we do what we say we do. We try to do all of our communication electronically so there is an audit trail and we offer meetings and contracts to our clients so they know they are dealing with a real face and a legitimate company. To many companies make bold claims but never follow them up, we try to ensure that any claim we make we can back up with evidence. When you trust us, you will use us, when you use us, you will recommend us - it's all #win.
Andy P