<p>"Friends are God's way of apologising for your relatives" is the old saying. Friends are also how marketing should work, and how it did work before the industrial age: old fashioned word of mouth.</p><p>Vendor friends in the wedding industry are a powerful network force and you can use them for good if you are genuinely friends and you genuinely appreciate their work and they love yours.</p><p>These are four things you can do to be a good friend of a good friend in the wedding industry today, and maybe there will be some word of mouth marketing on the back of it.</p><ol><li><p>Write and post a review of them on somewhere that algorithmically matters, like a Google or Facebook page. Mention the last time you worked together and how they made that experience positive.</p></li><li><p>Make a social media post about them and how they positively affect wedding days with great outcomes for their couples.</p></li><li><p>Link to their website from yours, either from a friends or referrals page, or even from a blog post. Make it a good backlink, taking into account good SEO practices.</p></li><li><p>Understand them and their personality and actually love them by speaking to them in their love language.</p><ol><li><p>Words of affirmation? Send them a note, or make a call, to encourage them.</p></li><li><p>Acts of service? Do something for them to help them.</p></li><li><p>Receiving gifts? Buy them a spa day or a date night with their spouse.</p></li><li><p>Quality time? Sounds like you just bought yourself a drink or a meal with them.</p></li><li><p>Physical touch? Over the drink, give them a hug.</p></li></ol></li></ol>