WeddingWire’s 2019 Newlywed Report – which is the result of surveying over 18,000 couples who were married in 2018 – showed that couple are continuing to get married later in life, and the average from those couples was 33.  Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau’s statistics for 2017 show the average in the US as 27.4 for women and 29.5 for men, also increasing every year.

Whether your couples might be the same or different might depend somewhat on where in the country you are, and whether your couples tend to be more or less traditional (and therefore getting married earlier or later in life).  However, it still means that the large majority of our couples are now those who are in the middle to younger side of Millennials, and we are starting to see Gen Z couples too (born in 1997 or later).  As a result, there are many things that we need to think about differently in our business.

One core characteristic about these couples that needs focusing on is a shorter attention span.  Studies show a 12-second attention span from Millennials, and an even shorter 8-second attention span from Gen Z.  What do we do with that in our business?  I’ll break it down into suggestions for Marketing and for your Customer Journey, as how you communicate with both your booked couples and potential couples is definitely shifting.

Marketing:

• Messaging delivered in smaller pieces, making each one easier to digest.
• Use different media – think about using a combination of text, images, and video.
• Remember that images can “say it” even better than text – they’re processed 60,000x faster than text!
• Text: Think about using bullets or short paragraphs, and then have more details below or link elsewhere to more.
• Be sure that your most important or attractive messaging is shown first.
• Use a mixture of your words and your couples’ words.  Using snippets from your reviews not only illustrates your value in their words, but they also help change up the flow from being all in your words.
• On your website, be mobile-focused: 80% of users leave from a bad mobile experience, which includes the function of your site as well as the content.  Your site must load quickly – 40% will leave if not within three seconds.
• Have consistent and repetitive messaging (in addition to colors, logo, and imagery) across all marketing channels, so that no matter where they see you, as they move around from site to site while doing their research, it all feels like you.
• Show them only what makes sense for them.  Therefore, if you have different offerings with different ideal couples, having multiple brands/businesses with different websites may make more sense than combining it all into one, as then they are more likely to see the information most relevant to their needs and stick around for more.
• Make it easy for them to contact you and to find your social media and reviews.

Customer Journey:

• Break your longer emails into multiple shorter ones and then space them out.  This way they hear from you more frequently, and they can absorb your messages better.
• Put the most important info first, so that they are more likely to see it, especially when opening your emails on their phone.  Same goes with the most critical question you need answered.
• Text in bullets or short paragraphs then more details below or link elsewhere to more (maybe even a hidden page on your website with just the information for this frequently asked question/issue).
• Questions: If you need to get multiple questions answered, as most of us do, make an online questionnaire (whether in your business management system or a standalone app like Typeform or Google Forms), and then email them the link and instructions (always explain the WHY of something you’re asking your couples to do for you)l.
• Consider filming short videos in place of some longer emails, especially if there are instructions you have to typically give.  Or you can use video as a fun addition to your communication plan, including as an in-between communication.
• Meetings:  First of all, re-evaluate if they all need to be done in-person, or if you can offer virtual options to save everyone time and effort, plus to make your customer journey consistent for your out-of-town couples too.  Communicate before and after your meetings.  Before to set expectations and talk about any prep work needed.  After to talk about next steps.  Both of these communications often result in shorter meetings and being seen as respectful of their time and attention.

I hope that this gives you lots of actionable ideas of changes or improvements that you can make to your marketing and your customer journey!  As always, if I can help, please let me know.