How To Win MORE Bookings On GigSalad, GigMasters & Thumbtack (Booking Site Tips | Gig Jobs 2020)
If you provide event services such as entertainment, photography, a photobooth, or any type of service based business, especially if you’re just starting out, you should be on at least one booking site. By 'booking sites', I’m talking about websites where you can set up a profile, and then have your potential clients find and book you when they have a job they need completed. Some examples are GigSalad, Gigmasters (now The Bash), Thumbtack and more.
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The first, and major over-arching problem that is preventing a lot of people from making money on these sites is that their profiles are not set up to sell. Their bios aren’t set up to sell, their promo pics and videos aren’t set up to sell, the responses they send out aren’t set up to sell, none of it converts. And I’m going to tell you exactly what I mean by that, but first, I can already hear some people saying “well I don’t want to come off too salesy, I just want to put my stuff out there and let it sell itself”. I can tell you that mindset ends up in an empty calendar and empty pockets.
If you’re in business for yourself, you’re a salesperson. Period. Just because you’re implementing sales tactics doesn’t mean you’re being sleazy or unethical. You’re selling a quality service and expecting to make as many sales as possible at the highest profit margin as possible. And you are going to have to implement certain tactics in order to that. So how does this apply to your profile on a booking site?
There is a certain powerful marketing principle called AIDA which I talked about in a previous video that you should watch after this one, that, when applied properly, will persuade people to buy more of what you’re selling. A very brief overview of the 4 steps of AIDA are Attention (we’re going to grab their attention right away), Interest (we’re going to get them interested in the benefits of your service), Desire (we’re going to evoke an emotional desire for your service), and Action (we’re going to ask them to take action and buy your service).
I talked about AIDA at length in this video: • This Four-Letter Sales Secret Creates MILL... , so I won’t go over it again right now, but this principle can and should be applied to every part of your profile, from your bio, to your promo pics and videos, to the quotes that you send out.
One thing I like to do to stand out and save my time from chasing down leads who are just bargain shopping is to set a 48 hour time limit on my quote. The element of scarcity is a proven factor in driving peoples decision to buy, and if you can implement a bit of scarcity in your quote, it can both help motivate an interested buyer to commit, and it can help save you time from dealing with people who just aren’t interested. GIgsalad lets you set a time limit for your quote to expire, but on other sites, you can just write a line at the end of your quote that it will only be good for a limited time. When I do this, I make sure to let them know that the 48 hour limit is just for them to send a response; not to make a decision. I let them know that as long as I hear back from them within 48 hours, the quote will stay open, and if not, the quote will close so I can focus on working with other clients.
I like to always follow up with an email or a phone call after I’ve quoted them, just to let them know that the quote is on the website, and if possible to chat with them a bit about their event and try to begin fostering that relationship. This can be a bit tricky though, because nobody likes sales calls. And what compounds this issue is that a lot of other people are catching on to the fact that you can increase your chances of getting booked by making that phone call. So if you’ve quoted them a couple hours after they sent their request, it’s likely that several other people have already called them, and they’re over it at this point.
This is why it’s important to always respond right away when you get a request. The times I respond right away, and I know I’m the first one to call someone is when I get them on the phone and they say “wow! I just put that request in! That was fast!”.
My final piece of advice for standing out on booking sites is by increasing the amount of reviews you get once you start getting booked. Social proof goes a long, long way in driving sales, and if your leads can see at least a few great reviews from your previous clients, they’re going to be much more likely to book you.
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