We did it - officially the best wedding industry podcast - in fact the best business podcast! We won Gold in the business category of the 2025 British Podcast awards.

To celebrate here's my reflections on the evening and a chance for you to listen to our award winning entry!

With thanks to Ciara Crossan, Ian Ramirez, Anshika Arora and Michelle Miles who all featured in our entry.

Time Stamps

• 00:01 - Reflections on our win
• 01:42 - Celebrating Success and Future Directions
• 06:13 - The Importance of Imagery in Multicultural Marketing
• 13:55 - The Importance of Price Transparency in Sustainable Marketing

I'm Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger and you're listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.

If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you're in the right place. Let's get going with today's episode. We only went and did it last night. I was at the O2 for the finals of the British Podcast Awards.

It was an incredible achievement for us as my small team to even be shortlisted in the business category of the awards.

When we saw who we were shortlisted up against, people including the Times, the Economist, Bloomberg, huge media corporations, we never thought in a million years we had a chance of winning. And yet we did it. We took away the the gold. And I cannot believe it.

In fact, I scream so loudly you probably heard it from wherever you are based in the country or even the world. The Business Podcast Gold award goes to. Wedding.

I want to say a huge thank you to my small but mighty podcast team. I record this podcast in my home office with amazing guests from all over the world.

It then goes to Hayden Morris, my incredible editor, who's actually a university student studying sound engineering. Like, what an incredible moment for him to win this award. It's him who makes this podcast sound exactly as it does.

And then to Simona, my content creator, who takes that podcast and puts it all over TikTok to entice new people to come and listen. We had a great night and I'm so thankful to them for being part of Team Becca Pountney.

To celebrate, we wanted to release this special bonus episode where we're actually going to share with you our award winning entry that Hayden put together. There were very specific criteria to enter these awards that we had to put together.

Episodes of the podcast that reflected exactly who we are and what we did. And so we're going to play that for you now.

And I hope you can see why the wedding industry podcast wedding pros who are ready to grow took away the gold award. That's it. We're the best business. Not just wedding business, we are the best business podcast in the whole of the uk. Enjoy.

This is what is happening with marketing. No longer if people finding you in one place and walking nicely through this funnel.

There is a lot of noise, there is a lot of chaos and they are taking their own Direction. Now to try and explain to you what my marketing theme park is all about. I've developed an acronym to try and help it be more memorable for you.

And the acronym is built around a word that I do a lot when I'm at the theme park, and that is scream. If you've ever been on a roller coaster, sat next to me, I do apologize. I love a roller coaster, but I also love to scream.

So to help you remember what the different concepts of this marketing theme park are, I'm going to walk you through what each of the letters in the words scream and stand for.

When you're looking at your marketing and looking at the brands around you, it's incredibly important that you spark interest. Let's go back to the theme park again, because when you get into a theme park and you're presented with a map, you have to decide where to go first.

Something has to spark your interest because there are so many choices and so many great experiences and attractions that you could go on. Now, it may be that you want to go on the roller coaster that's the fastest. Maybe it's the thing that's the tallest.

There are so many different people that people can choose from that you need to find a way to spark their interest. What is it about you and your business that's unique? What is it about it that's going to make them choose you over any of your competitors?

So the first thing I want you to consider is how in the marketing theme park world, you can spark interest. Okay, let's move on to the C. Now, the C in Scream is standing for customized transparent pricing.

Consumers want to understand how much things cost, and we need to make sure we're embracing that, but not only by just having a standard price, but having customized and transparent pricing. Let me Explain what I mean. Again, using the theme park.

So when you're at a theme park, you can, and you can buy the ticket on the gate of the theme park or you can buy it ahead of time and it's a set price, say it's 50 pounds to enter the theme park. But then once you're in the theme park, it doesn't stop there because there are different pricing layers for different people.

Obviously, you can go ahead and do add ons, you can go and play on some of the games, you can buy extra food, you can buy extra merchandise. So there's always an upsell inside of the theme park. But also there are different pricing levels.

So, for example, if you go to a theme park, you may be able to pay more money so that you can skip some of the queues. This is going to be a more premium experience, it's going to be more expensive, but you're not going to have to stand and queue with everybody else.

So now we've got our base price and we've got the premium price as well. But often it doesn't stop there, because on top of that, there's often a platinum or VIP experience too.

I think it's really important it's that couple first thing, because actually every couple is going to be different.

Whether they're Caucasian, whether they're South Asian, whether they're any other culture or fusion, their family situation, their beliefs, everything is going to be very different. And so whoever they are, we ought to be taking them on a case by case basis. I think that also plays into this conversation.

And I know I've talked to you about this before, but quite often I hear people saying, particularly venues, oh, I want to move into more of a multicultural space. I want to attract different parts of the market. And they kind of lump it all together as this one big thing.

How should we be talking about this stuff? How should we be talking about it in our marketing?

Yeah, absolutely. I think with marketing, one of the most important things is imagery. I think we live in a generation where everyone is extremely visual.

I know I definitely am. And especially with social media, that is the first thing you see.

So before you even read the word multicultural on someone's website, you look at their imagery to see if it's somewhere where you can visualize yourself getting married.

And it's very natural that if you are having a Asian wedding or a Chinese wedding, if you can see in their marketing that they've got a couple from that specific background or even one individual in that couple from that background, you're automatically more drawn to it.

And I think that's something which suppliers should increasingly be more and more mindful of, especially if it's a space that they want to go into, that your imagery is going to be the most important thing first. Secondary to that, I would say it's the network.

We are a relationship based industry and I think really trying to speak to and know and hear from as many suppliers who operate in that space, you'll learn so much more.

So I know that even through our conversations, I've learned so much about your space and you've learned so much about my space, even within just an hour or half an hour. Zoom call.

And so I think that's something which is definitely sometimes overlooked because naturally we're also busy in our work, whether it be through wedding season. Once wedding season finishes, we're in inquiry season.

But I think it's really important to take that time out, especially if you want to intentionally enter a specific culture.

They've had certain ways of doing things all along and whilst they're evolving, it will always be really beneficial for you to at least know a couple of people within that industry and at least rely on them to say, oh, by the way, we have a couple coming in, they're of this background. Do you mind if I just ask you a few questions? Because I think that will help you get so much further as well.

So good. So, so helpful. I think people just need to think differently and realize that couples want this.

Like they're so excited about the experience of their day.

I quite often say to my hotel venues or venues I work with, imagine when your couple turn up for the venue tour and they just wander in, they don't know where to park and then they go find the reception and then someone's grumpy with them and then they're waiting around for you. I said, you're trying to sell them the wedding day now.

On the wedding day, I guarantee you're going to greet them like they're the King and Queen of England with their Prosecco. I'm like, how are you selling that when you're not giving them an experience that's anywhere close to that? And I think people are like, oh, yeah.

Like, it's the simple things where it's like, how can we make these people feel as special as they will on their wedding day? Some great, great ideas in there.

Yeah. And it's really about finding the actions. You know, I think about what we do as a, as a business in a quadrant, right.

We have actions or opportunities that land in this quadrant. And I always want to find the, the actions or value add that's going to fall in low effort but yield the highest result.

Something as shifting the way that you show the venue is low effort by result.

Right.

Having the sample, you know, veil hidden in one of your suites. Low effort, high result. Right. It's nothing groundbreaking.

And so I challenge anybody that's listening that is a venue to really think about what are these little changes that I can make to add to the experience? Is it something as simple as let's sit down and chat for 10 minutes. That's nothing groundbreaking, but it's going to give you a big result.

Even like you said, the Prosecco, like, hey, let's kick things off right at the beginning with a little bit of celebratory toast. At Madera, we host sangria. So we do Sangria Saturdays for our tours. And again, it's coming down to what this current generation wants.

They want an experience. Right. We want to tap into their emotions, we want to tap into their senses.

Even more importantly, love it. So many great ideas. I know people listening are going to be having sparks flying and different things they're thinking about.

Now, you mentioned at the beginning that you also have another business venture on the go now. So you obviously have your work with the venue, you have your speaking, but I believe you're now working with other venue owners as well.

So just tell me a bit more about that and what that involves.

Essentially what venue Help Desk is, is we are a go to resource for venues that have a specific problem and then we point them in the direction of a vetted solution and just talking.

About it, because you're right, as I say, as a marketer, people buy from people. People want to understand.

And actually your couples and your fellow suppliers will also feel seen and heard in that because they're also probably thinking, oh, I can't do the everything. I can't be perfect, but I could actually do that one little thing. And so, and so has given me permission to be okay with just doing that thing.

Now that actually brings me on to my next little topic of conversation that I had noted down here.

Now, I'm very about transparency and honesty on this podcast and I think one of the things that people are scared of and I will include myself in this, is that fear of judgment, of saying to the world, I'm trying to be more sustainable or you know, putting on their website that they're working with you or, you know, I've listened to the sustainability podcast, whatever it is, and then they're scared about the backlash. Now, in the kind of world of transparency, I'm going to share my own thoughts on this. So we're going to talk about it in a minute.

But I am going to be coming to speak on a panel for you at your sustainable conference. And I'm really excited about it. I'm really pleased that I found a way that I can support it and publicly talk about it.

Because, as I said to you in an email, I can't talk about all of the events. But if I'm involved in them, if I'm part of them, then I'd love to talk about it and share about it.

And I do love what you do, but there's that little bit inside of my head that thinks, will people call me out on that if I sit on that stage and I'm talking about it and being part of it, and then they know I'm going to Disney World on an airplane in April, will people be like, how dare you come to this summit?

And I'm sharing that because I think that is genuinely what a lot of suppliers and people in the real world think, is that they're like, I want to take these steps, I want to be part of these things. I want to help. But I also don't want people calling me out and saying, you shouldn't be doing this. Absolutely. And you are absolutely not alone, for sure. Yeah.

Every single person that is coming to the summit is on their own sustainable journey. Like, it never stops. We are on our own sustainable journey.

And I think it's really important to acknowledge, you know, we have been running this summit for. This will be our fourth year. And every year we have come across these same kind of concerns from people.

You know, how can I sit on the stage and talk about this when I'm not. I'm not far along in my journey? I don't have the answers. I, you know, I don't know my carbon footprint as a business.

How can I come and talk about, you know, actually what we do as businesses every single day can be a sustainable way of doing business. We don't want people to change what they do in their business. We just want them to be conscious about the choices that they make.

So marketing is still marketing. Sustainable marketing is. Is kind of.

It's kind of marketed as this different thing, like, oh, you need a sustainable marketer to come and help you promote your sustainable story. No, no, you don't. You need to Understand the principles of marketing and how important authenticity is. That's what you need to understand.

And so having you come and join us at the summit and for you to come and talk about something that you're already talking to your audience about is really important. And the experience and the journey that you have had as a business owner, you have come up against these experiences.

You have seen these things in your businesses. You work with businesses on a daily basis that experience the same things that our audience in the room experience.

And so it's really valuable to have that knowledge. It.

You see, I think pricing transparency, we need to touch on that a little bit more because I know I talk about it all the time, people who've been in my world from stage on podcast, I always talk about how important it is, but I think it's still an area that people struggle with.

There's an old school way of thinking that once I get them in the door, then I can sell them something if it's, if there's prices there, they'll go for cheap. But we, I don't believe that is the case. We can see for the data set that you've got here that actually this is important.

People are telling us it's important.

I really like this thing that you've put in there where it survey feedback indicates that hidden costs are frustrating and couples prefer clear upfront pricing, not to mention time consuming for them and you. So what are we seeing out there?

Are you still seeing that venues are resistant to this price transparency or do you think people are starting to realize, actually this is quite important?

I think it's, it's a tale of two halves, right? There are definitely people that have realized, yes, it's important, put it out there, just publish the prices.

We don't want to be busy fools ourselves. We want, you know, we want to be upfront with people. But they're absolutely, you know, I still hear from venues saying that, you know, they.

Exactly what you said at the beginning. Let's get them through the door. Let's. We don't want to show the prices because they might think it's too expensive.

But you know, 30% of couples aren't inquiring, they just aren't inquiring flat. You're not even getting the inquiry. Forget about getting them through the door. Not even getting the inquiry.

If you don't have prices on your website, they're just immediately ruling you out. And I think a lot of them feel like, you know, maybe the venue might be hiding something, that it could be a Waste of their time.

There might be an assumption that it's too expensive and it just kind of increases uncertainty for them and maybe, you know, dare I say it, anxiety. They just don't want to put themselves in that position. So, you know, there's plenty of. Kind of plenty more efficient to see.

There's plenty of other vendors, there's plenty of other venues that are publishing their pricing. So they've just. They've just moved on. You know, they're looking for a way to cut you off the list.

Yeah.

And I think it's sometimes as well as they just don't want to be embarrassed. They don't want to go and see something and then actually have to say that they can't afford it.

Again, I thought it's a really interesting kind quote in the report where it said, it's disheartening when you find somewhere lovely, go through the time and effort of inquiring only to find out it's out of budget. And that. That just one sentence really spoke to me because I thought, that's tough. Why are we making couples do that?

Because we're making them fall in love. Maybe we're giving them an amazing experience. We're showing them around. We're giving them Prosecco. This.

They can see how amazing it is. They love it. But then that's embarrassing, that's disheartening. When they realize I can't afford it. That just makes them feel small.

Exactly.

And I do think, you know, of course, in any kind of business transaction, there be an opportunity to, you know, get a little bit more for people or get people on a higher package. If they do fall in love with it, they might be willing to spend more.

And I think in fairness to some of the businesses out there, you know, that might be their mindset. And I don't think that's incorrect. You know, I really do think that is the case.

But you have to give people at least a guideline, even just a range, so that they can say, okay, well, that's in my ballpark at least, even if I'm at the lower end, then they might come fall in love, and then they might find money elsewhere.

So that was it. That is what the judges listened to. That is what they voted on. That's what they judged on.

It went through multiple rounds, and somehow we walked away as the winners. Special thanks must go to those guests whose podcast we used for the entry. They had no idea that they were used.

So thank you to Anshika, to Ian, to Michelle, and to Kira. You're legends and I love everything you have to say. And you're a massive part of this win, too. Hope you enjoyed this bonus episode.

Listening to our entry, I'm sure you've seen all of my content all over social media. I am so thrilled to have won this award. I'm going to be talking about it for days, weeks, months, and probably years.

We'll be back to our normal episode on Thursday, but for now, I'll see you next time.