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What do wedding couples want in 2024?
Episode 988th February 2024 • Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney • Becca Pountney
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Today I am sharing the insights that have come out of the latest UK Wedding Report from Bridebook and the Knots recent proposal report. I am looking at the date to answer the question what do wedding couples want in 2024?

Download the full UK Wedding Report

Download the Knot Proposal report

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Time Stamps:

Introduction to industry reports (00:00:00) Explanation of the importance of industry reports and the intention to analyze two specific reports.

Caveats of reading industry reports (00:00:53) Guidance on how to interpret industry reports and the potential biases in the data.

Insights from UK Wedding Report 2024 (00:03:16) Highlights from the UK Wedding Report, including increased wedding spending, the influence of Gen Z, and the importance of Instagram for couples.

Importance of price transparency (00:06:04) Emphasis on the significance of price transparency for wedding business and the impact on couples' decision-making.

The role of personality in decision-making (00:08:58) Discussion on the importance of personality and comfort with suppliers, outweighing price considerations for couples.

Personalization trend (00:10:02) The increasing importance of personalization in weddings and the potential for wedding businesses to offer personalized services.

Shift in wedding day preferences (00:11:00) Insights into the declining popularity of Saturday weddings and the opportunities for wedding businesses in weekday weddings.

Challenges for couples and simplifying the process (00:12:51) Identification of pricing and overwhelm as significant challenges for couples and the need to simplify the booking process.

Sources for finding suppliers (00:15:32) Insights into the main sources used by couples to find wedding suppliers, including Google, social media, and word of mouth.

Empowering Couples (00:16:18) Tips for empowering couples to share and recommend wedding businesses through gifts, networking, and word-of-mouth.

Sustainability in Weddings (00:17:12) The increasing importance of sustainability in weddings, including eco-conscious choices and the need for businesses to promote sustainability efforts.

Destination Weddings (00:18:33) The rising popularity of destination weddings, particularly in Italy, and the opportunities it presents for businesses in this market.

Proposal Trends (00:20:21) The growing trend of pre-engagement wedding planning and the increasing demand for elaborate proposals, creating potential opportunities for wedding suppliers.

Pricing and Social Media Presence (00:22:15) The importance of transparent pricing, addressing overwhelm, and maintaining a strong online presence to attract potential clients.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcripts

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.

Becca:

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

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proposals and I actually thought this was really interesting to think about a

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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

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engagement content on your platform.

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If we know people are looking before they get engaged, we can talk about engagement.

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We can talk about that stuff because we know that people are interested in it.

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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.

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I think this is a huge shift.

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When I got engaged back in 2009, which feels like a lifetime ago, it was

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literally just like one person and another person in a couple quietly

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getting engaged somewhere in a park.

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It wasn't this big thing where we had photos and all the rest of it.

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However, nowadays, the proposals are getting bigger.

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People want to do different things.

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People want to remember them.

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So things like people booking a photographer or videographer to capture

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the moment, the rings are getting more.

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Intricate and personalized planners, proposal planners, proposal spaces in

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venues, proposal celebrations with family.

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All of these things are becoming more and more popular.

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So is there something in your business that would lend

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itself to that proposal market?

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Is there a little piece of income there that you're missing out on because

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you're not doing anything for proposals?

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Is there an additional package you could add on?

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There may be ways you can make some additional income for your business

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from this growing trend of more intricate and detailed proposals.

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I promised you a whistle stop tour through those industry reports.

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I've gone through, done the work for you and picked out some of those highlights

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I think you need to pay attention to.

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The big things for me are that Pricing is still a huge topic

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of conversation for 2024.

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We need to be transparent in our pricing.

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And that thing about overwhelm is really important too.

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And finally, remembering that people are looking at your services and

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your products on social media, on Instagram, they are doing their

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research before contacting you.

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So you need to make sure your whole house is in order and everywhere

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you're online is showing the best version of yourself and your business.

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If you need help with anything when it comes to growing your wedding

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business, you know where I am.

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Reach out to me.

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You can find all of my details in the show notes and I'll see you next week.

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