Finding Clients Through Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Sep 18, 2025
If you want a marketing strategy that requires little budget but is incredibly powerful, word-of-mouth marketing is for you. Also known as referral marketing, it’s one of the oldest marketing strategies and still one of the most effective.
Consider the last time you bought something recommended by a friend; this is a perfect example of referral marketing in practice. People naturally trust the opinions of friends and family when exploring something new.
Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best marketing strategies for your holistic business. It’s also how many of my clients attract new clients to their practice.
4 Benefits of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
- By the time a person comes to work with you, they already trust you. Because they’ve been recommended, they’ll know about the services you offer and will trust in the results they can achieve.
- Your marketing is super targeted to those who need what you do. Your existing clients know exactly how you can help others and will recommend you to people they know will benefit too.
- You also have the potential to reach a much larger audience than your family and friends and reach the people within your client’s networks.
- You don’t need a big budget to build your business using word-of-mouth marketing.
Building Your Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy
Create Amazing Experiences
Focus on providing your clients with the best possible experience during all their interactions with you. The aim is for them to become a champion of your services and share their amazing results with their peers.
Good news travels far and will help you build your reputation as an expert in your niche.
Exceed Expectations
Go the extra mile when you can - whether that’s providing additional resources, checking in with a personal email, or sending a handwritten card. Thoughtful gestures help build trust and deepen relationships.
Take an interest in your clients and make them feel special, building these relationships will build trust and turn clients into your best marketers.
Address Issues Immediately
In today’s digital world, ignoring a problem can make it worse. It’s far better to address any concerns promptly and professionally, and minimise the risk of negative reviews. You’re never going to please everyone, but if you demonstrate respect and fairness, people will see through the situation and forgive a lesser review if you handled it well.
Collect Testimonials
When a happy client has completed their sessions with you, ask for a testimonial. Whether it’s a review on Google, Facebook, or a client story to share on your website – they’re worth their weight in gold for your practice.
In my experience, happy clients are generally willing to help you. Make sure you use the testimonials you collect on your website and other marketing to reinforce why you are a great choice for new clients.
Ask for Referrals
Always ensure your request aligns with your professional code of conduct and feels natural to your client relationship. If you’re permitted to ask for referrals, include this request in your client follow-up process – let clients know you are looking for others just like them who you can help.
Referral System
To make the most of referrals, it helps to build a process that supports and encourages them.
Keep yourself on your client’s radar and remind them of how helpful you are. Create a simple system that helps people refer to you. Make it easy for people to find and contact you with details that can be easily passed on.
I used to give clients a helpful info sheet with my services and contact details they could pass on. I also sent a monthly email with useful tips and updates. These simple touchpoints kept me top of mind and regularly brought in referrals.
Give Them Something to Talk About
Studies estimate up to 90% of all buying decisions are influenced by word of mouth. Whilst great service and results for your clients are key to this, by being creative, you can boost the process.
The book ‘Talk Triggers’ by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin provides a great framework for creating an effective word-of-mouth strategy. It’s all about turning your happy clients into volunteer marketers. This is my quick summary of the book:
Talk triggers are the differences that prompt conversations by your clients with others. Being good at what you do isn’t necessarily enough to get people talking, you need to give them something to talk about. They will share the things that are distinctive about you and your services.
Creating a talk trigger for your business can save you time and money on marketing. It will be how you operate daily and will make you stand out from the crowd in a great way. We naturally try to be better than the next person, the key is to be different.
A Talk Trigger in Action
Locksmith Jay provides his customers with an experience that’s meaningful and different from other locksmiths. In an area notorious for poor service, Jay went from starting to being the highest Yelp-rated locksmith in just 3 years. He gives guaranteed estimates with published rates, has a rating system for the locks he sells, performs a security audit for every customer and oils all their existing locks as part of the service.
Excellent service isn’t enough on its own, but it does provide Jay with good tips. He donates a share of his tips to the dog charity ‘Sugar Mutts Rescue’ which is noted on his website. One happy customer wrote about it on her blog, and it was seen by a celebrity who shared it on their social media and went viral. Jay also has hundreds of five-star reviews mentioning the service and Sugar Mutts in particular.
Talk triggers outline the four requirements of a worthy talk trigger:
- Remarkable: You must have something that gives your clients a story worth telling. Doing something better than the next practitioner isn’t enough. You will be noticed for being different or extraordinary.
- Relevant: Your talk trigger must make sense in the context of what you do, who you are, and what you stand for.
- Reasonable: Clients will be suspicious if you promote something that seems too good to be true. Your talk trigger needs to be simple, remarkable enough to be talked about but reasonable enough to be trusted.
- Repeatable: Your talk trigger should be offered to every client, every time. It becomes part of what you do consistently, day in and day out.
The book includes lots of other case studies of talk triggers to inspire you including:
- A hotel that serves a warm cookie to all guests on arrival
- A bank with a phone hotline to the boss, in the branch, for any customer to use
- The dentist who calls patients before an appointment to put them at ease
This is a really quick overview of the value of having a talk trigger for your business. Hopefully, it’s inspired you to consider what you can do to create your own talk trigger and have your clients be your volunteer marketers. I highly recommend reading the book for the full framework and in-depth case studies of what this can do for your business.
The Guiseley Osteopathic Centre, Leeds
This osteopath has created a genius talk trigger in the form of Stan the Skeleton who resides in the window of their clinic. He's famous in the local area for being dressed up in different outfits to bring a smile to passing locals as well as providing a great talking point. Check out their Facebook page to see Stan in action.
This fun, consistent quirky character not only makes them memorable but also brings joy to the community - a brilliant example of a relevant and repeatable talk trigger.
Let Your Clients Do the Talking
If you want to grow your holistic business in a way that feels natural and aligned with your values, word-of-mouth is a great place to begin. And it’s is a powerful way to find clients. Start by providing an outstanding service and then consider how to boost it by adding a talk trigger- you'll be pleased you did.
