In this article for wedding venues, we've looked at 5 common wedding venue marketing misconceptions for 2024 to uncover the real story behind the data and help inform your venue's marketing decisions.
Data is like a ventriloquist dummy; you can get it to say anything you want it to. As a wedding venue owner, operator or marketing manager, you need to know the truth behind any data you are relying on before making marketing decisions for your venue.
At Guides for Brides we spend a lot of time analysing data reports from wedding venues, comparing them to our original data sources and wedding industry information, and uncovering the truth behind the headline statistics. As a venue, you have access to the most accurate data relevant specifically to your business, but it's helpful to understand what's happening nationally in other wedding venues to understand the bigger picture and the marketing opportunities you could be missing.
Here we look at a five misconceptions we're currently hearing about, with our opinion of the real picture behind the headline, and the opportunities that venues can leverage.
"Couples are short of money this year"
There's no doubt that couples have been far more cautious and price sensitive when booking their wedding venue, and are keeping a closer watch on their budgets throughout planning. However, when speaking to 2024 couples we are hearing that they have found it relatively easy to control costs and are more likely than ever to still have their "contingency fund" available to spend. Suppliers are already cashing in on this and are encouraging couples to book last minute extras such as magicians, content creators and photo booths. Wedding venues can benefit by offering upgrade options to this summer's wedding couples; cocktail hours, sweet carts, light-up letters and premium drinks packages will tempt last minute spending and offer a good return for the wedding venue.
"Our target demographic isn't on TikTok"
As a busy venue manager, you may not have time for TikTok, but it's the fastest growing form of social media and your target couples are already using it to find venues, often choosing it over Instagram as its algorithm is so much more targeted. If you think it is just for younger users, think again. In January this year, just 25% of users were aged 10-19, 22.4 were 20-29 and 21.7% were aged 30-39. It is growing fast and already has 1.5 billion users worldwide, compared to Instagram's 2 billion users and will become part of every wedding venue's marketing strategy.
If your wedding venue isn't yet on TikTok, now is the time, but be warned; it's a digital marketing agency's dream as it is so hard to get right.
"Thursdays are the new Saturday"
It's undeniable that Thursday wedding bookings are up, but this is being driven by venue pricing, not demand from couples. With the exception of conference venues, it is now widely accepted that venues reduce prices by 10-20% for midweek weddings, to encourage midweek weddings. This is particularly the case for exclusive use wedding venues. Couples are realising that they can easily trim their wedding guest lists by option for a non-weekend date to save a little more, and venues are actively marketing Thursdays as they know that guests will start their weekend early and bar spend will be strong.
"May and September are more popular than July and August"
There's not been a decrease in the number of teachers getting married, or a sudden confidence in the weather in May and September. Just as with Thursday bookings, this shift is due to dynamic pricing from wedding venues helping to spread bookings into the shoulder seasons. While May weddings can give your venue an early flush of marketing images and reviews to get your season started, booking every September weekend could mean losing out on all the valuable marketing opportunities for wedding venue open days or wedding fairs at a crucial time.
"There's been a big increase in weddings in town halls"
Google is showing a marked increase in searches for town halls, which many people assumed resulted from couples looking for budget wedding venues. However, it's not consistent across the country.
We know that Google data is reliable, so what has driven the increase, and why is it only in some areas? By speaking to Registrars, we could start to see a pattern. In order to prioritise higher-paid work delivering weddings in licenced wedding venues, some registration districts have significantly restricted the number of statutory marriage appointments they offer, some down to just a few registry office appointments each month, forcing couples to look further afield.
It's good news for licenced venues as it forces more couples their way, and the Old Marylebone Town Hall is a great example of a licenced venue that has made the most of the opportunity. Anyone planning a destination wedding or celebrant-led wedding still needs the statutory legal wedding, so if you are in an area with high demand for these "town hall" weddings, consider offering a simple low cost option at your venue to satisfy that demand. It's a great way to fill late dates and there are almost always up-sell opportunities once the couple have booked the ceremony. There are a lot of couples searching for "town hall weddings" and low competition currently for that phrase, so if you can service that niche it is worth optimising your website by using relevant keywords.
Guides for Brides offers wedding venue consultancy and social media management, including a £500 package to launch and establish a wedding venue TikTok presence. We're always delighted to help wedding venues with their marketing, using up to data trends, data and insights to deliver cost-effective results time after time.