Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / What do wedding couples want in 2024?

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What do wedding couples want in 2024? · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

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Becca: It's February and this is one of my favorite times of year because
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it's when a lot of the industry bodies and directories start releasing their
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reports of survey data that they've collected from their couples planning
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their wedding over the last few months.
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Now I know that sometimes these reports can be long, they can be distracting
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because some of the things in them we don't agree with but there's so
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much goodness to be found in them.
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So in today's episode I'm going to be breaking down for you a
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couple of the reports that have come out over the last week.
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I'm pulling out the information that I think is what you need to know and is
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going to make the biggest difference to your wedding business this year.
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So hold on tight.
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We're going to go through it at rapid fire to save you reading
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through the whole report yourself.
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I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business, marketing expert, speaker, and blogger.
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And you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life
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examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
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As we take a deep dive into some of these wedding industry reports,
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it has to start with some caveats.
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So the two industry reports that we're going to be looking at in today's
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episode is firstly the UK Wedding Report 2024, which was released by
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Bridebook, and the Not Out in the U.
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S.
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have also released a proposal report as well this month.
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So they're the two things we're going to be looking at.
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Now when looking at any report, there are some things we need to pay attention to.
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So first of all, all reports are always going to be slightly weighted
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towards whoever is doing the reporting.
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So for example, the bride book report will ask their survey respondents
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how many of them use bride book.
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Of course, that number is going to be hugely high because they're
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talking to their audience.
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So there are some things we need to bear in mind when we're reading
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this data, and we do need to take some things with a pinch of salt.
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Now the other thing to remember is that when they get this data,
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it is going to be wide ranging.
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So some people that fill out the report are going to be high earners and are going
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to be filling out the report in one way and other people will have had a wedding
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where they've done everything themselves.
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And so therefore, when it comes to things like how much money is being
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spent on weddings and how much money is being spent on individual suppliers,
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again, let's not get too bogged down in.
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that data because it isn't always going to be that accurate.
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However, I do think these reports are worth paying attention to.
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Number one, because these big companies are doing the work for us.
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It takes ages to compile a report like this, to get all of the
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survey data, to pull it together and turn it into something.
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So it's great news that these bodies are doing it for us and
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we can digest it in this way.
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The other thing is they just have a lot of data from couples that
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most of us don't have access to.
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These sites have huge numbers of users.
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So although some of the data may be a little bit skewed because of where
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it's come from, that doesn't mean that there isn't some great data in there.
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So what I've done is I've gone through these reports and I'm going to go
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through the UK wedding report first.
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Although even if you're based outside of the UK, I do think that these
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insights will probably be the same for you because we tend to see that
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it's the same across the board.
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And then we're going to go through the not insights.
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I'm going to go.
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the things that I think are going to be the most helpful that I've pulled
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out of the report, and I'm going to try and give you some thoughts around them.
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So let's start then with the UK wedding report 2024.
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You can go and get this yourself from Bridebook.
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If you want to see the full version of the report, just pop in your
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details and they'll send it to you.
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But these are the highlights of things that I've extracted from that
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report that I think will help you.
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So the first thing that came out is that Bridebook found that couples are actually
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on average spending more on their weddings this year than they did last year.
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Now, this is interesting because obviously we've been going through this economic
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crisis and there's lots of questions around whether people have money, but
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actually the bride book report found that they are still spending money on
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their weddings and they are spending slightly more on their weddings as well.
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So I think the thing we can learn from this is not to get too het up.
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By the news media around us when it's saying everything's terrible, no
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one's got any money because actually that's not what the data tells us.
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So stay in your own lane, keep doing your own thing.
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I think people are still spending money on these areas, things like weddings,
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holidays, things that they've saved up for because they only do it once.
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If they're making cutbacks, it's not likely to be in this area
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and the report shows us that.
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So stop getting bogged down by that negative news media, avoid it,
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just stay in your own lane, do your own thing because this report is
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telling us something more positive.
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Now, the second thing that I looked at, and this year's
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report has got a lot about Gen Z.
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I've been talking a lot about Gen Z in my own talks on stage recently,
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because we know Gen Z are kind of the next generation of people coming
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through and planning their weddings.
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25 percent of all weddings this year are now going to be Gen Z, so it
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is an important part of the market.
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And one of the things I talk about is how important tech is to them, how tech savvy
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they are, they understand the world, they don't know the world without the internet.
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And this report backed that up, so 51 percent of Gen Z couples said
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they will look at your Instagram before making contact with you.
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We need to pay attention to this, because so often we feel like no
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one's looking at our Instagram, especially that grid, because we
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don't get huge amounts of engagement.
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However I've been saying for a long time, Instagram is like your shop window.
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People come and browse it and they're looking at it to get inspiration,
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to see your previous work.
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They're not necessarily following you.
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They're not even necessarily going through and engaging or commenting on your posts.
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But it's important that you have an up to date shop.
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Window.
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So if you are not keeping your Instagram grid looking amazing, you haven't
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got it full of those, wow, images, the best things in your portfolio, or
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you're just not keeping it up to date.
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It's not doing you any favors when it comes to people deciding whether
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or not to make contact with you.
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So take a look at your Instagram.
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If I was to land on your Instagram page today on your grid, would
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I get an amazing response?
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Would I see you for what you do?
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Would I see your best work?
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Would I get a really clear indication of who you're for, what you're
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doing, what your work looks like?
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Is it going to encourage me to want to go further and make contact with you?
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One in two people, 51 percent of Gen Z couples are saying they're looking at your
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Instagram, so you need to pay attention to this Instagram is still a big player.
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Now, I love that a lot of the things in this report are backing up the stuff
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I'm already saying, but the next one is something I have been going on about
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all year and I will keep talking about because it is still controversial to some.
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When asked about what the most important aspect is and what the top
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selling point is of suppliers with couples, guess what came out top?
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Price transparency.
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We know people want to know about prices.
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Why are we still hiding them?
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Price transparency is increasingly important.
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And if you still don't have your prices on your website, you are
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making a mistake because you are likely to be missing out on couples.
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Unless you've got a very clear reason not to, I really think you should have them.
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I've got a whole episode you can go back and listen to about price transparency.
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But this research is telling us people want to know prices.
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They want to be able to look at what your prices are, look at other people's prices.
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They want to understand what they're getting.
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for your price as well.
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Things like why not have prices at a wedding show because people don't
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understand what they're looking at.
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I was having this conversation with some of my members.
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One of my members at the wedding show that she did this weekend
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had a board with her prices on it.
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She said that she got amazing feedback.
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People loved the price transparency.
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Couples want to know how much you are going to charge, what
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you're going to be charging for.
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So make sure you've got prices on your website.
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And if you haven't go back and listen to that pricing.
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episode because I think it will give you some ideas about how you can showcase your
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prices and why I think it's important.
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But prices is definitely something that people are interested in this year.
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Now, while we're on prices, there's another thing that came out later
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on in the report that I want to refer to because when we talk about
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pricing and people wanting to be.
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Understanding your pricing and pricing transparency, one of the things people
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worry about is being compared and that couples will go for the cheapest option.
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Now later in this report, they actually asked couples questions around their
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deciding factors for photographers.
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Now although it was photographers, I believe again that this probably does
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cover all aspects of the industry.
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I imagine that the results would be similar.
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They just.
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don't ask for every single supplier type, but they asked what the biggest
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deciding factor was for photography.
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When they chose their photographer, personality and being comfortable with
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the photographer outweighed price.
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So when it came to a deciding factor, people said the personality of the
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photographer Feeling comfortable around them was more important than their price.
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So although they do want price transparency, they want to
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understand how much things cost.
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It doesn't mean that they're looking for the cheapest offer because
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they want people that are going to do a good job for them, and that
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may mean paying a little bit more.
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So.
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Don't fall into that trap of thinking by being price transparent
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people go for the cheapest option.
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That is not always true.
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And again, this report backs it up because it's saying that when people
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were choosing photographers, they looked at personality and feeling
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comfortable with them over price.
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So don't let that put you off.
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Okay.
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The other thing that's coming out quite strongly when it comes to theming.
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And again, this came out in the report.
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It also came out in the 2024 trends session that I had for my members
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with publicist Megan Eli is that more and more important to couples is
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personalization on the wedding day.
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So they really want things personalized.
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They want to be different from their friends.
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They want little personal touches on their wedding day.
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So if there are things in your business that you can offer a
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personalized service for, then Consider talking about them more.
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Perhaps it's an add on, perhaps it's a premium offer, but personalization
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is increasingly important.
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People want things different.
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They don't want just what everyone else has had.
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They want little personalized touches, maybe personalized name
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cards with their monogram on, perhaps little personalized gifts for each.
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Yes, all sorts of things that you could think of, but have a
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think over your own business.
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What personalization elements can you add in?
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What can you talk about that shows that what you do sets them apart from the
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crowd, makes their day a little bit different and more personalized to them?
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Are there certain things?
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A lot of what I'm seeing myself from weddings I've been invited
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to recently is on my RSVP.
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I'm being asked questions about my favorite songs, my favorite love songs.
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Presumably that's going to help personalize the playlist
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from the DJ at those weddings.
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So think about the little elements you could.
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talk about where personalization comes in because we know it's
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important to couples this year.
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Okay, another part of the report that I found quite interesting was they
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survey people about the day of the week that they get married and this
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year the day of the week that is seeing the biggest decline is a Saturday.
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So, Obviously, Saturday is still far and beyond the most popular
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day, but it is going down.
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So this year, for the first time, less than half of weddings were happening
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on a Saturday as part of this report.
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So why is that?
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Well, I think firstly, Saturdays are very popular and they get full up.
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So quite often people have to look at other options.
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The other thing that I am seeing quite regularly is a lot of
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venues are doing weekday offers.
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And I think this is smart on the venues part.
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Now I understand that it's still the same venue and still the same place,
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but they understand that couples would prefer to get married on a Saturday.
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So therefore, if they can't offer any more Saturdays, a way to fill up
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their spaces in the week where they can make extra money is by offering
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weekday packages at a lower rate.
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And I know quite a few couples this year, again, I'm going to their weddings.
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They are getting married on weekdays because it saved
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them a huge amount of money.
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Now there's a A controversial question here around whether you
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as an individual should charge less for doing a weekday wedding because
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it's still the same amount of work.
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This is a personal decision.
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However, I am seeing some success where people are putting out special weekday
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rates only available off peak or only available on a weekday because they
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are filling dates in between their peak dates and therefore making more money.
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That's a personal decision.
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I don't recommend saying it's a big deal.
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Discount, I recommend putting it together as a special week day package.
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There's a lot to be said for the way you talk about these things,
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but it's working in the venue space.
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So therefore it may work in your space as well.
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Again, I'm not saying you should or shouldn't do this.
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This is a real personal decision, but we know that more and more
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weddings are starting to happen on other days of the week.
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So if you want to pick up some of that extra work, it's important to
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either talk about the fact you do weekday weddings or look at ways
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to attract some of those couples.
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So, when it came to challenges, one of the sections of this report was
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asking couples what were their biggest challenges when it came to booking
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their suppliers, booking their venues.
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And, a couple of things jumped out to me.
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Now, the first one we talked about already, the biggest challenge was
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pricing, so lots of things around pricing, price transparency, not
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knowing how to understand the prices.
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I think by now we've covered that off and we know that needs to be there.
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The second biggest challenge though was overwhelm.
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I think this is a really interesting one.
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So lots and lots of couples said that they found choosing their venue, choosing
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their supplies really overwhelming and I understand that because they
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go on a directory or they go to a wedding fair and they meet all these
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different suppliers and then they can be bombarded with information and it can
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feel overwhelming because they want the information but then they can't digest it.
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So have a think about your own process and how overwhelming what you do is.
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Now I am not saying please don't hear this wrong.
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I am not saying that you should contact them less because if you
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want to make the sale that's not the strategy we need to go for.
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However, I do think we need to present them with information
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that is a lot less overwhelming.
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So look at the emails you send.
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Are you sending huge long emails with big attachments with loads
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of stuff for them to read through?
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Because if you are the chance are they're not reading through it.
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Alan Berg talks about this a lot.
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I've got a great training from him in my members lounge about responding to
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directory inquiries and about keeping it short and sweet, just a couple
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of sentences, one basic question, because that's easy for them to digest.
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So look at your emails.
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Are you sending them huge amount of information?
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Are you making the process for them to work with you super complicated?
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Are you making them have to jump through lots of hoops in order
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to get in contact with you?
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or even to book you.
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And a question I keep asking in my stage talks at the moment is, would
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you be able to explain your own booking process to a seven year old?
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Because if you can, it's probably simple enough.
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But if you can't and it's too complicated, half of your couples
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probably aren't reading it.
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They're becoming overwhelmed.
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So think about how you can simplify your system.
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Things that I advocate for are like putting a three step system
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on your website everywhere.
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So this is how to work with us.
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First of all, do this.
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Second of all, do this.
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Third of all, do this.
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Make it really simple and easy for them to understand.
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Keep email replies short and sweet.
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Give them one very clear call to action and just check that you're
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not overwhelming them with loads and loads of information that they
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just can't digest and understand.
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The simpler you can make it, the easier to understand you can make it, the more
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likely you are to convert them into.
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Okay.
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So remember that big challenges are pricing and overwhelm.
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Okay, some other things that came out of the report were where
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couples found their suppliers.
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Now I think we probably know this information, but just to recap,
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59 percent of millennial couples that were spoken to said they used
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Google, 55 percent said social media, and 44 percent said word of mouth.
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So they were the three most popular options.
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Google social media word of mouth.
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Now, first of all, we need to pay attention to the fact that Google
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is first, because I feel like still lots of you are neglecting Google.
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Are you being found top on Google?
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Do you have a website that is SEO optimized?
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If I am looking for florists in my local area, are you showing up?
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Because if that many people are looking on Google for their suppliers and you're
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not in the mix, you are missing out.
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On potential work, take some SEO training.
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If you don't already have it.
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I always talk about Sarah does SEO and her amazing training.
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Some of you have been through it recently.
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If you want a link to that, she now has an evergreen version of it.
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Her live version is done, but message me and I can send you the link to it.
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We need to be paying attention to Google.
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59 percent of couples said they use Google to find their suppliers.
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If you're not showing up on Google, you are missing out.
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Then of course, social media, which I think we all spend a lot of time
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on and we've talked about already.
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And then thirdly, word of mouth.
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We know that word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing.
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We know that it works.
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So therefore we need to make sure we're empowering our couples to
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talk about us sending them gifts.
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A venue I worked with recently has started sending them a beautiful
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card with an illustration of their venue on when they get.
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when that couple books their venue to say we're excited to
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celebrate your wedding with us.
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It's working really well, the couples are sharing it on social media, they're
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pleased about it, they're talking about it and that really helps down the line
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with word of mouth recommendations.
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The same in our supplier networks, make sure you're going to networking
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events, make sure you're in a great networking community like the members
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lounge where you can get to know people and recommend each other.
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on.
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It's really, really important.
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So pay attention.
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Google number one, social media number two, word of mouth number three.
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Okay.
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There were two other things that came out and stood out to me in
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the UK wedding report this year.
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The first one was this messaging around sustainability.
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So they asked couples whether or not they were making sustainable
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choices for their wedding day.
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They asked them what sustainable choices they were making, and the
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report found that sustainability efforts are definitely growing.
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More and more couples are interested in ensuring they have some of
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these things in their wedding.
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Again, this backs up the things we've been saying for the last year, so
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it's Good to see, but couples do care increasingly about sustainability.
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So are you practicing sustainability within your business?
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Do you have options which are more sustainability friendly and are you
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talking about it just because you do it?
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If you don't tell anyone you're doing it, they won't understand.
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So the biggest thing was people using dried flower confetti
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rather than paper confetti.
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That was a huge percentage of people, but there were other things as well.
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More eco conscious choices when it came to booking local, when it came to choosing.
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pre loved items, all of these kind of things.
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So we know sustainability is important.
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Are you paying attention to it in your business?
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Are you understanding how you can run your business more sustainably?
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Are you looking at options for couples?
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Are you making sure that you'll keep you on top of these trends and
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offering them as an alternative?
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And most importantly, are you talking about it in your marketing?
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Because if you're a balloon company that only uses balloons which are
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better for the planet, for example, make sure you're telling people all
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of the time because otherwise they'll make an assumption that you're not.
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And then the final piece of.
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information that came out of that report was around destination weddings.
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Now, this isn't for all of you, but I know some of you will want to know
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this, but actually it found that more couples are starting to consider
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destination weddings than ever before.
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The number is on the rise here in the UK.
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Italy was still by far the most popular destination, but there were a lot of
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other destinations in the running as well.
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But the biggest thing was that Over 30 percent of couples said they were
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considering destination weddings.
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So if this is a space that you either work in or want to work in, it's good
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news for you that the market is growing.
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So make sure you're in the right places, sharing your messages.
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And I think thinking about what we talked about before, things like overwhelm and
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price transparency, making sure you're giving this information clearly to people
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so they know that it's not too complicated or overwhelming to book a wedding abroad.
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Talk to them about how you can take away that overwhelm, how you can make
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it easier for them and how it looks.
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Price wise as well.
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I think that there was a load of great stuff from that report.
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As I said, you can go and read the whole report yourself, but I think
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there are little things in there that all of us can reflect on and
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think about as we go into 2024.
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The main message though is that all of the things that I've been talking
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to you about over the last year are backed up by this report, which is
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great news because we know we're all going in the right direction.
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And that's why it's important for us to keep on top of our
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education and upskilling.
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So by listening to the podcast, you're doing your business a favor.
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Okay.
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The second report I looked at was a much shorter report, but it was from the not.
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based out in the U.
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S.
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and they did a little report that came through to my email all about
20:05
proposals and I actually thought this was really interesting to think about a
20:09
different aspect of the wedding process.
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Now when they asked their couples, 70 percent of their couples
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said that they are taking some kind of wedding planning action.
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Even before they get engaged.
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So that could be following people on social media, starting a Pinterest
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board, starting to research their venues, even when they're not engaged, because
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they've probably talked about the fact they're going to get engaged soon.
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So what does that mean for us?
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Well, first of all, it means why not consider putting out some
20:36
engagement content on your platform.
20:38
If we know people are looking before they get engaged, we can talk about engagement.
20:42
We can talk about that stuff because we know that people are interested in it.
20:47
The other thing that came out of that report was that 25 percent of
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proposals now hire some kind of wedding supplier to be part of that event.
20:55
I think this is a huge shift.
20:57
When I got engaged back in 2009, which feels like a lifetime ago, it was
21:01
literally just like one person and another person in a couple quietly
21:05
getting engaged somewhere in a park.
21:07
It wasn't this big thing where we had photos and all the rest of it.
21:10
However, nowadays, the proposals are getting bigger.
21:13
People want to do different things.
21:14
People want to remember them.
21:15
So things like people booking a photographer or videographer to capture
21:19
the moment, the rings are getting more.
21:22
Intricate and personalized planners, proposal planners, proposal spaces in
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venues, proposal celebrations with family.
21:29
All of these things are becoming more and more popular.
21:33
So is there something in your business that would lend
21:36
itself to that proposal market?
21:38
Is there a little piece of income there that you're missing out on because
21:42
you're not doing anything for proposals?
21:43
Is there an additional package you could add on?
21:46
There may be ways you can make some additional income for your business
21:49
from this growing trend of more intricate and detailed proposals.
21:55
I promised you a whistle stop tour through those industry reports.
21:59
I've gone through, done the work for you and picked out some of those highlights
22:02
I think you need to pay attention to.
22:04
The big things for me are that Pricing is still a huge topic
22:08
of conversation for 2024.
22:10
We need to be transparent in our pricing.
22:12
And that thing about overwhelm is really important too.
22:15
And finally, remembering that people are looking at your services and
22:18
your products on social media, on Instagram, they are doing their
22:21
research before contacting you.
22:23
So you need to make sure your whole house is in order and everywhere
22:27
you're online is showing the best version of yourself and your business.
22:30
If you need help with anything when it comes to growing your wedding
22:33
business, you know where I am.
22:34
Reach out to me.
22:35
You can find all of my details in the show notes and I'll see you next week.