#63: Marketing to Gen Z in 2024 with Candice Coppola

MEET CANDICE:
Candice Coppola is an author, podcast host, business coach and entrepreneur who believes that you shouldn't have to do business (or happy hour!) alone.

As a successful entrepreneur who grew a business from the spare bedroom of her home into a multi-country, multi-six figure company - it's safe to say she's navigated the bumpy road of entrepreneurship.

She started her first company, Jubilee Events, during the great recession in 2008. With NO experience and NO contacts, she grew it into a recognizable brand and team. Over 12 years, she worked with clients from all over the world and produced events in excess of 1M.

IN THE CONVO:
Get ready to tap into the heartbeat of the wedding industry with Candice Coppola, a true connoisseur of celebration and an oracle for marketing to the fresh, vibrant Gen Z crowd. In our latest episode of the Celebration Pro podcast, you won't just be listening; you'll be equipping yourself with the insider knowledge that's reshaping the world of weddings. Candice, with her dual prowess as an author and a mentor to wedding planners, unveils the seismic shifts in client tastes and tech-savvy service delivery that are essential to captivate the up-and-coming generation.

- Why understanding Gen Z is important - like, right now!
- How to pivot into attracting this new group while still standing out as a unique business owner
- The expectation of Gen Z and how to match + exceed them

CONNECT WITH CANDICE:
📸 @ candice.coppola
🌐 https://candicecoppola.com/
🎁Check out Candice's vault of resources: click here

CONNECT WITH CARIN:
Hey CEO! Join us over at our new membership the Success Cellar 🍾 - exclusively for growth-minded wedding pros just like you!

Enjoy your first month for only $7 with code CELEBRATE7 or click here

📸 - @celebrationpros
🌐 - www.carinhunt.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:53

Hey there, wedding pros, and welcome back to the celebration pro podcast. As always, I'm your host, karen Hunt, and today I have brought on a guest who has been on my radar for quite some time. We have a very good mutual friend and I'm introducing you here to Candace Coppola. Thank you so much for coming on. We're so excited to talk about today's topic. We're going to dive into Gen Z and Candace has. She has quite a few things in her realm she's an author, a podcast host, and she's also quite the coach for wedding planners as well. So, candace, if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got to where you are right now, and then we'll dive into our topic today.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Well, karen, thank you so much for having me on your show and for inviting me to come and talk about this very interesting topic marketing to Gen Z. I'm so glad to be here. I'm just really thrilled to connect with you. I love your show. I think it's so fantastic, so thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:54

For those of you who may not know me, I'm Candace Coppola. I'm a former wedding planner and designer. I've been in the wedding industry since since the dawn of time. That I feel I like, which is not the oldest person in the wedding industry, but I like to say I've been around since Moses.

Speaker 2: 2:11

I started my planning business back in 2007. And over 12 years, grew that business into a multi-country business with a team and working with clients all over the world, helping them plan moments that matter in their lives. And, simultaneously, people were always asking me to give them business advice, to pick my brain, to take me out for a cup of coffee, and I began mentoring wedding pros back in 2011. And in 2019, I sold my planning business to one of my longtime team members and decided that I wanted to spend my time in this era of my life helping wedding pros build a profitable business with purpose. So I do that through a variety of different ways. I have a podcast, I have a YouTube channel, I have a blog, I have programs and courses and all types of things that help to support wedding pros.

Speaker 1: 3:03

It's. I love when I'm hearing a story I'm like, ah, me too, because it's very similar. I had one of my teammates. She came on, she became partner and then I sold the business to her and moved on and then realized you know, of course, the picking your brain and people starting to ask you how have you gotten to where you are? And all of that resonates so much. And for those listening, candice is an island girl just like me. We're in Barbados while we're recording here in Key Largo, so a lot of fun stuff there and I love that.

Speaker 1: 3:40

And you're probably not the one who coined this, but it just felt so good hearing it come from you, hearing moments that matter, and a big part of what we're talking about right now just in the Celebration Pro community is that onboarding experience and then the customer journey and all those points that we kind of forget, and so we're excited to bring that in and we'll talk a little bit about that today too. But one thing you know during my stint as a wedding planner and business owner in the wedding market, I've really everybody that we were marketing to was generally in our age range. You know we'd get some of the. You know maybe they waited later in life to get married, or it was their second or third, but for the majority of everyone they were somewhere between 20 and 30 years old. And now we're moving out of that and we're welcoming a new generation, and we'd love to hear your take on who is this generation and why is it so important for us, as pros, to get to know them?

Speaker 2: 4:43

Yeah, Well, the generation we're going to be talking about today is Gen Z. Millennials were all the rage and all the pain for the wedding industry for many, many years. I'm a millennial myself and we're at the cusp of a new generation entering into the wedding scene. They've actually already entered. We're already serving Gen Z. Gen Z is opening up businesses in the wedding industry, so they're actually working within. You might be listening to this and you might be Gen Z and we're certainly serving them already in our wedding industry businesses. And by 2025, it's estimated that over 85 million US citizens or consumers will be of Gen Z age. That's over 20% of the US population will be Gen Z just by next year. So when we think about generations and marketing, gen Z's entered the chat and we need to start evaluating how we're doing business, how we're marketing to Gen Z, and really just evaluating everything that we're doing to serve that generation. They're already influencing the wedding industry and I feel like their influence has been felt pretty dramatically across style and how we're expected to market to them and how we present our services, how we also serve them and the client experience that we give them when I started my business, like I said way back in the day, millennials were entering into the wedding scene and they were the much to the chagrin of your Gen X's and your boomers.

Speaker 2: 6:17

When I entered into the wedding industry, boomers and Gen X's, gen X generations were having a difficult time transitioning their business to serve millennials. And that served me really well because I was a millennial. I was like the new kid on the block, as were many of my colleagues who were sort of coming up at the time, and we presented this amazing option for people just like us who wanted to think about weddings differently. And this is back in the day where, design wise, the chair covers and sashes were the big thing. It was a lot of polyester, a lot of purple. It was an interesting time.

Speaker 2: 6:54

But all that to say, as I was starting to grow my business, one thing I noticed was the resistance that Gen X and boomers had towards this new crop of clients and what an opportunity it presented to me. But also I watched their businesses struggle because they were unwilling to adapt to the generation that they now served and to the changing needs of their customers. So I think the biggest, one of the biggest takeaways I'd love for somebody listening to take from this episode is that for your business to continue to thrive and, just quite frankly, survive, you have to adapt to change. I watched businesses close. I watched owners struggle to make money to connect with the client. I saw a lot of complaining about the generation of millennials and I see a lot of complaining about Gen Z's, and complaining is not going to get you anywhere and instead of complaining, you need to get on board with the changes, the emerging trends and the problems, the values and the wants and needs of your ideal clients.

Speaker 1: 7:57

And I couldn't agree more. A lot of what I'm seeing, gen Z, even presenting themselves through online presence. They're actually comparing, they're getting views comparing. Here's Gen Z style, here's Millennial style and they're telling us exactly what it is that they're looking for.

Speaker 1: 8:18

And so I think that, coming in a big difference from Candice, what you jumped into when you started coming from boomers and Gen X to millennials, you didn't have that. There wasn't. It was a little bit more. You didn't have the tech to support the information that was coming out, so a lot of it was guessing, getting your boots on the ground, asking the questions. Right now they're blasting it all over what they want, and so hopefully that can be a tool that we can use as wedding pros and so that we can make wedding pros add to be very efficient in the way that we speak to them. So, on that note, what are some ways that you think we can pivot our marketing efforts so that we can attract the Gen Z couples, not only to attract them, but to make sure we're attracting the ones that we want to work with?

Speaker 2: 9:09

Certainly. First, I want you to recognize that the eldest Gen Z person is 26 right now, which is definitely marrying age. I am finding that Gen Z isn't so quick to get married as previous generations. There's a bit of a delay in getting engaged and in getting married. That is interesting and we'll have to pay attention to that over the years because there might be less clients in these phases where people are waiting and delaying. We're sort of seeing this in the industry where there's not a lot of sales going around. Sales have slowed. They're beginning to pick up in some areas, but they definitely slowed in 2023. So this is just me guessing estimating.

Speaker 2: 9:50

But back to my point. Gen Z is the eldest is 26, but I would even go so far to say anybody 30 and lower is really of the Gen Z mindset and I'm sure everybody listening has clients who are 30 or younger in their business. So when we talk about pivoting our marketing efforts to attract somebody who's 30 or younger, I first. I think the biggest thing you can do is just hang out where Gen Z hangs out, which is TikTok, and I totally get if adding another channel to your marketing efforts is difficult, I totally understand if you don't get TikTok, but you don't even need to market your business over there. That's not what I'm asking you to do.

Speaker 2: 10:35

What I'm asking you to do is to become a consumer of TikTok to see how Gen Z is communicating with each other, what they're sharing about weddings, but also what they're sharing about moments in their lives dating, fashion, style, home all types of topics that happen over on TikTok and you can also see emerging trends in the wedding industry and emerging marketing trends that are happening right now on TikTok.

Speaker 2: 11:07

I like to say TikTok is like the fashion world, where trends are happening and they're instantly almost available in stores and Instagram's. Like the wedding world, where two or three years later, those trends trickle down into weddings from fashion and we start to see the color palettes and we start to see certain things happening in the wedding worlds from fashion and home. Well, tiktok is on the cutting edge of thought leadership, of what people want, of how people are marketing. So if you could just go over there and consume and just be an observer and maybe even investigate how people are making videos what's the format, what's the formula, how are they talking, what are they presenting you'll begin to see how you can start pivoting your marketing efforts to attract Gen Z and, of course, it's just a goal, mindful of data and information.

Speaker 1: 11:57

I love that. That brought two thoughts to mind over here. Which one is that's such a great way to think about TikTok. I owe it. Like I'm always saying, instagram's your portfolio, your websites, your home, like everything has its place, and I think a lot of people feel like TikTok is just another Instagram. So to know that you're going there for the cutting edge, seeing what's going on now, what are people interested in now, rather than the results of what people were interested in a year ago, right, because people are planning nine to a year and a half months out, right, so I think that that's genius. And the other thing that just kind of made me giggle is I've always thought the things that are happening, say, in New York which again it's fashion industry, that type of thing I feel like down here in South Florida, like we don't even hear about what's going on up there for like six months, right, and the same as the Down here, the keys were always like a step behind whatever's on.

Speaker 2: 12:58

Yeah, and this is what you're gonna find on TikTok. So if you just become an avid viewer of TikTok and observer, a passive user, what you will get is inspiration for marketing on Instagram and you will be weeks ahead of trends that eventually trickle down to Instagram from TikTok trending audios, trending video edits and you will have information, more importantly, about Gen Z, your ideal customer, using it as a little place to data mine. So that would be the first thing I would tell you to do, but I wanted to share, if I can Karen, some interesting statistics that I found about Gen Z that I feel like will tee up some of our conversation to come Sure. So here are some statistics that I found 66% of Gen Z pays attention to the product's quality when picking a brand, and you're gonna see this play out on TikTok all the time when people are reviewing products or talking about products. 82% 82% of Gen Zs buy things based on what their parents and their friends tell them to buy. Now, this is similar to millennials, because millennials love to vet everything by committee, and so if 82% of Gen Zs are relying on family and friends to tell them what to buy, that means referrals are really gonna reign supreme when it comes to the wedding industry.

Speaker 2: 14:23

Next, 52% of Gen Zs look to online advocates to help decide what to buy. This is the rise of YouTube reviews, tiktok reviews, amazon finds we all make. If you're already on TikTok, I know you've got a Stanley Cup and some skincare in your bathroom that saw an Amazon gadget that somebody told you you needed to buy in your house right now. I know you do. So. 52% of Gen Zs are looking to online advocates to help them decide what to buy, meaning they pay attention to what people tell them is good and bad on channels like TikTok and YouTube. 60% of Gen Z wants to use text to stay in touch. So for all my elder millennials, my Gen Xs, my boomers out there, who have a hard rule about texting as communication in your business, I hate to be the one to tell you that you're really gonna need to get with the times, because Gen Z wants to use DMs and texts to communicate and you're making it extremely hard by not doing that.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Gen Z can only pay attention for eight seconds at a time. Eight seconds, that's all you have to capture someone's attention. What can you do in eight seconds? When it comes to sales, what can you do eight seconds when it comes to consults? What can you do in eight seconds when it comes to telling them something they need to know to prepare for a meeting, or in your marketing? 67% of Gen Z would rather see real people in ads. 68% of Gen Z read at least three reviews before spending money on something for the first time. 95% of people ages 13 through 17 use YouTube 95% that is like a huge number. And finally, 61% prefer short videos under one minute long. So those are just some interesting facts and statistics about Gen Z that I think can help guide us in how we think about marketing, how we think about client experience and just how we think about business strategy in general.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Well, certainly the I think you said it was 82% rely on referrals, and anyone listening knows that the whole basis of celebration froze is word of mouth marketing and how powerful I feel that is. So that is definitely a plus over here, for sure. And then the other thing is and I'm curious if you have a solution for this, or maybe it's something that will be coming is if we're going to be texting and we're going to be in the DMs and in the messages and not in emails that we know how to organize so well. Is there a way that we can lean into that and still feel organized, so that we're not losing those important details through text message?

Speaker 2: 17:19

Yeah, well, I think it depends on the type of business you have and the systems and processes that you have built in that business, but you're going to need to find a way to make it work. So something that you can consider is using a texting service that allows you to text from your computer. That doesn't necessarily come to your phone it's a third party app, of course, the client is only going to see it as a text but some type of texting software service that lets you separate the two, your personal text from professional and that allows you then to pull that information into planning portals or into client portals so that you can keep track of everything that's happening. I also think that you're just going to have to find ways to stay organized. Remember, there was a time where people talked on the phone and met in person and had handwritten notes so that they then had to go back and either file in a binder or in a client file or type up, and they had to learn how to use email to communicate. So while this, for many of us, feels difficult and we're like, oh, just one more thing to pay attention to, I think there are some ways that you can streamline it, and you're just going to have to find ways to adapt your process to serve the way in which your client wants to communicate with you.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Because I'll tell you one thing If you make it hard for people to buy from you, they will go and buy from someone else. We've all had an experience where we wanted a piece of furniture or to hire a service and it was so ridiculously difficult to purchase. You're like dude, I'm here with my money. Hi, I want to pay this. Why is this so effing hard? And we go and find another solution because we're like this is just ridiculous. Do not make it hard for people to buy from you. And then also, if they buy from you and it becomes impossible to communicate with you, they're going to be disgruntled, dissatisfied, and then we all know where that leads. It's no place good.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Right, and we just heard how important reviews are going to be and the decision power that has. So we want to make sure that, especially communication I think that's a huge one. When it's missed, it results in either no review or, at best, or a non favorable one. So I mean, you've given so much gold here when it comes to what we need to be thinking about, when it comes to Gen Z even a few actionable items. Are there any other tips that you'd like to give our listeners about their marketing strategy?

Speaker 2: 19:50

Yeah, I think there are five things that you can begin to adopt in your marketing strategy, and there are. These are five things sort of play off the statistics that I shared and they're important to Gen Z, and my advice would be to pick one of these things to begin to implement and over time you can find ways to implement the rest if they're applicable to their business, to your business. So the first tip would be to use your customer feedback and reviews as UGC content and UGC stands for user generated content and this is honestly one of the easiest and also one of the most important things you can do for your marketing. When you look at user generated content for brands whether it is a service based business or brand that sells a product like skincare, cookware, homeware, whatever it's those videos we see of somebody reviewing it or talking about it that really pique our interest and get us excited.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Gen Z 52% are looking for online reviews and experts to tell them about what to buy. If you can use UGC content in your marketing, then that just gives you a leg up and helps support someone to buy from you. And some ideas for UGC content would be video testimonials, which can be difficult to obtain. I'm not going to lie, but it's worth trying. Social shares from clients, screen captures with comments, DMs and reviews, and sharing any client generated wedding content. So if a client is sharing from their wedding post wedding, sharing that, a screen capturing that, finding ways to share that with your audience is my first tip. So use customer feedback and reviews and think of it as UGC content and find maybe some unique ways to make UGC content.

Speaker 1: 21:42

I love that I was part. I'm part of a Facebook group for podcasters and the woman who runs the group posted this was so exciting. I just had somebody ask if they could screenshot my DMs as an example of how to sell in DMs and she was so excited about it and she couldn't figure out how to link it and you could just see the excitement, even just her copywriting. And then she found the screenshot and shared it. But she ended up sending the link before she actually had the true screenshot and I clicked on it and I found it because I was excited for her. And then I saw it and I was like, oh, this is really great and it was all because of exactly that the UGC. This is the first time I've heard of it as UGC like the acronym. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:31

UGC content is rain supreme right now and it's something that we can trust when we are listening to a person who feels trustworthy, like they haven't been bought out or paid out. So the first tip is user generated content, and you should be already doing this in your marketing. But now we have that, we put a name to a face and now we understand the strategy behind it and why Gen Z loves it. Tip number two is, as Gen Z loves, personalization, and this is going to trickle down into your marketing and into, honestly, into every strategy of your business. Now, of course, we all love personalization to a point. We want to be able to make adjustments to things or we want personalized attention, but Gen Z pays more attention to brands that create a personalized experience for them. 50% pay attention to brands that offer personalization and co-creation, 52% look for brands that understand them and 51% allow brands to create products or want brands that create products that reflect their identity.

Speaker 2: 23:34

So what does this all mean? For weddings? It means that you need to hype up the personal. First of all, you need to allow for personalization of service to a point in which you're comfortable. If you're a planner, nobody's telling you to take off timeline creation, because that's a critical part of your job. So you don't want to take anything that would take away, anything that would compromise the quality of work. But you do need to look at ways to personalize your services, and so you also need to look for ways to personalize pricing, process, experience packages. Personalization can trickle down into almost everything that we do, and if you can pay attention to personalization and also hype up what you allow them to personalize so they can meet their own needs in your marketing, then you're going to attract people who desire that personalization.

Speaker 1: 24:26

Personalization has been really big. I think that's something that was big in 2023 and is coming forward. Actually, last year was at the beginning of the year. Might've been Forbes, a big publication, had dubbed the year as the year of personalization, and that's only going to continue and become more detailed.

Speaker 2: 24:45

It sounds like Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. So my third tip is Gen Z hates being sold too. So what do we do now? This is so annoying because we're like, if you're a part of any of my programs, I'm like we need to sell, sell, sell. And I don't believe in a hard sell, but I do believe in a thoughtful sale and I do believe that sales is helping someone buy a solution to their problem, and you can do it very thoughtfully and in a way that feels ethical and not sleazy or scummy. But Gen Z hates being sold too, so we need to think about selling to them in a different way than maybe you were taught years ago.

Speaker 2: 25:26

I feel like a lot of the sales techniques out there right now are good, but the first thing is not to gatekeep information. Back in the day, you had to take someone through this whole crazy journey to get your price, and Gen Z is not interested in playing those games. You don't have to put your price on your website, and I have, like many, a resource on this on my YouTube channel. On my podcast, I did an episode about this. I have it on my blog about whether pricing belongs on your website or not. But there's new ones to all this.

Speaker 2: 25:58

But the crux of it is, when somebody wants your price, you need to give them the information. When somebody wants the information from you, you need to make it available. And not only that, but you should have it available in a variety of formats that make it easy for them to clearly understand what you offer and how much it costs. So you might think, okay, well, if they email me or they fill out my form, I can send my pricing in this way. But if they DM me, are you really gonna make them go to your form and fill it out?

Speaker 2: 26:27

That's crazy talk. That's crazy. They need the information now. How can you then send that information to them in a DM? How can you share it at a networking event? So all this to say don't gatekeep information, and make it easy to get them that information. The second would be to prioritize transparency and honesty in your marketing. Gen Z values that, as we all do, of course, but they really pay attention to transparency and honesty in marketing, and so when you're thinking about your pricing your services, be transparent about the costs, be transparent about your starting rates, be honest about what it includes. Tell people why it is this price. What goes in to facilitating their wedding or doing the job that you do. And those are some ways to circumvent Gen Z's hatred of being sold to.

Speaker 1: 27:19

It's yeah, I mean, with every package we create and every new person that is in front of us, I think that the sales tactics shift a little bit. And again it's gonna go back to what you were saying about personalization and really understanding the client that's in front of you. How do they wanna be, how do they want to communicate, what is it exactly that they're looking for? And, like you're saying, no more gatekeeping. And something that I did I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this here on the podcast before but earlier on in my planning days, I was like you have to book to get my vendor list. You don't get that just off the bat. And it was such a disservice because once you show that value of the amazing people you work with and they're able to see that your team aligns with what their vision is and all of that, that's when they're gonna decide. And so, really, again, like you're saying, keeping all that information behind closed doors, it makes it too difficult to decide, and they're gonna go on to that person.

Speaker 2: 28:27

Well, they're gonna go on to the person who offers the most support and gate keeps the least and is very transparent and honest about things. You raise a really great example, cause I did the same thing. I was like, listen, sister, if you want access, all this greatness, you're gonna have to pay for it, and that was, back in the day, how it was done. But that's not what Gen Z wants. And when you think about the gatekeepers that you might be up against, how your transparency, your support, your willingness to give information, to be supportive, to be helpful, might really make you stand out from your competition and that might be the tipping point for people to book you. But you of course, have to do what you're comfortable with, karen, and I don't want you to work for free.

Speaker 2: 29:12

We don't want you to give away things that should be paid for, but what I will say is that people, you might tell somebody a photographer to hire or a planner to hire or a bridal store to go to, that's not going to negate the incredible job that you're going to do for them, so just please keep that in mind. Okay, my fourth tip is mobile is king, and this is something that I think is so important, and I'm speaking to all my peeps out there who have obsessed at Nauseum about your website desktop version, like it is a masterpiece. We get it, we get how gorgeous it is, we get how amazing it is, but your mobile version of your website is way more important in terms of design and functionality, and what I find is a lot of people pay attention to the desktop version and they mobile. Everything is an afterthought, but the truth of the matter is is that your clients are using their phones to plan their wedding, to book their vendors, to basically do everything in their lives, just like you are listening to this podcast on your phone, most likely and so you need to make adjustments in your business that center mobile user ability. Stop obsessing about your website, the desktop version of it, and start obsessing about the mobile friendly version. This is also gonna help with SEO, with Google, all of that stuff.

Speaker 2: 30:31

Make sure that you can deliver your price in a mobile way. I've reviewed so many pricing guides and sales decks for the women in my mastermind wedding pro insiders and one of my biggest gripes is when somebody sends me a pricing guide. It's in a PDF, which is okay, but it is like horizontal and it's small and I gotta zoom in and it's not a page format that is long on my phone and it just makes it so difficult for me to pull that up to be able to read it to see it clearly. So you need to make sure that you're delivering your price in a way that's appealing but also user friendly in a mobile way. And finally, your process your process for planning, for whatever it is that you do, it needs to be mobile focused. People are not gonna log onto their laptop to read your email and then click here. They're gonna use their phone, okay. So if your planning process or your business client experience process is not mobile friendly, you're gonna create a lot of resistance with your customers.

Speaker 1: 31:35

And I think, as business owners, we think about the way that we communicate, right, and so we're sitting at our desktops often doing our work. But is your client doing that? Most likely not. They're not a business owner, right, or if they are, they're doing that at their nine to five and they don't want to be doing that when they're home.

Speaker 2: 31:57

Or out and about and whatnot, right? Yeah? So mobile is king. Everything needs to be mobile friendly for people, and that's going to be even more prevalent as we continue, as, as I feel like we can, devices allow us to do more without needing to be sitting at a desktop or a laptop, right?

Speaker 2: 32:17

My final tip here is to think about humor in your branding. Humor actually matters a lot to Gen Z. They're lighthearted as as much as they are not lighthearted. In some instances they are very lighthearted and this whole meme mentality that we have. That really does well on social media, whether it's TikTok or Instagram or somewhere else, where we create funny memes and we just take the piss out of stuff. Gen Z. Gen Z loves that, and so my advice to you is to bring in humor to your branding, bringing personality into your branding.

Speaker 2: 32:54

Add your own personal style. Whatever, be afraid to speak conversationally, use your tone of voice, say words that you would say. Don't feel like you need to present some professional 2007 vibe when that's not what people are looking for. And also tell stories in your brand and in your marketing. Storytelling is such an effective marketing tool. It's probably the most powerful way to market is to tell stories. Don't be afraid to make things fun and funny and give people a laugh. When you give, when somebody laughs at your content, you give them a smile or they feel connected to whatever you're calling them out on and it's all lighthearted, but it's also funny. You become memorable.

Speaker 1: 33:41

I had a videographer who I've been on their newsletter for a subscriber of theirs for years, and the reason why is because they put gifts in all of their, in all of their emails that they send out, and I'm always I'm always like what is it today? Cause they always pick out the best ones. They're so relevant, they're hilarious and it keeps me wanting more. Yeah, love that and it's fine. So, yeah, I think that's a really fun tip that will go a long way.

Speaker 2: 34:13

Yeah, so just round up these tips UGC content is really important. Gen Z loves personalization, so we need to bring that into your marketing and into your business in general, and hate being sold to, so you need to not gatekeep and be transparent. Mobile is king and humor matters. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:34

I love it. That was great and when we were first talking, in the very beginning we had, I would have mentioned that a big subject right now is client experience. So after, after we've sold to them and after they have signed the you know, they signed on the dotted line and they're going into this client journey of of what it's like to work with you. What do you think some of those expectations are from this new generation?

Speaker 2: 35:02

So many and they fall right in line with everything we've talked about. So we're just applying what I tell you about marketing and we're bringing it over into the client experience to build upon it. Though I think first, gen Z is always scrutinizing cost and the quality of what's being offered, and when you are not offering the promise, they're going to have a problem. So you have to be careful about what you promise and you need to make sure that you deliver on what you sold them. And this is an area where I feel like people unintentionally fall down because we're so hot in the sale. We're like hot to try, you know it's, it's that, it's it's that first date mentality. We're really excited, we're really into each other, we get the client and then what happens is is we can kind of lose the excitement and the energy, just like when you're dating. You kind of you know things kind of they peak and then they kind of settle down. Well, you need to find ways to mirror back to your customer, after they bought from you, the same energy they received during the sale. This is really important. I call this affirming the purchase, and it is critical in the onboarding stage and throughout the entire client journey, making them feel good about the decision they made to work with you, because Gen Z is going to scrutinize costs and the quality of what's being offered as they're, as you're taking them through the wedding planning process.

Speaker 2: 36:33

Next, I would say they want you to cut to the chase. They know fluff involved. They don't need some whimsical guide per se on this phase of the process and if you do make it clear, concise and to the point of what they need rather than over complicating stuff, okay, mobile friendly in your process and in your client experience we've talked about is so critical. They want quick and intuitive technology and communication. So you need to make sure excuse me that your communication style with your clients, your processes, your systems are built to communicate with them in the ways they desire and that you're using software in your business related to your product or service that is easy for them to adapt to.

Speaker 2: 37:25

They don't want to sign up for some crazy new thing that they don't get. They don't want to download additional apps and have 15 apps for every vendor. They want things to feel easy and intuitive. So think how can I make this process easy, mobile friendly, tech centered and intuitive? Finally, we talk about that personalization. They want a personalized and high quality experience. Now, as business owners, we try to personalize, but we also try to streamline and create workflows and automations that help us to do our jobs. Gen Z expects automation and AI to be a part of the process, but what they don't want is for it to be heavily involved in the process, where it devalues the personalization and the experience. Please keep this in mind as you create workflows this year, as you revamp your systems and your processes to allow for automation and allow for AI, but never allow it to take the place of where your personality would shine and to support your clients in the way that only you can do and what they hired you to do for them.

Speaker 1: 38:40

We've been talking a lot about too, about how can we incorporate the five senses, because everything is so digital. What are those moments where we can, like you're saying, maybe over deliver and surprise them with peeking some of those senses? And yeah, you and I I would assume, candace, that you deal with a lot of destination couples yeah, as I do, here in the keys, and so often we didn't even meet the couple until the wedding weekend. Obviously, we had a lot of video calls and things like that, but sometimes they didn't have it in their schedule to come down, and so Making sure that that communication was open and that we were sending written letters throughout the process, and just little things here and there Was so important to them so that they could feel connected to the person who's running essentially their whole, the best day of their life. Right, it can become even more, even more weighted in that sense, when we're working with the destination brides.

Speaker 1: 39:41

Yeah, you're exactly right, karen. Yeah, well, candace, this is amazing. I feel like we just got like a little master class on Gen Z. Thank you so much for all of this insight. I love that you brought us some statistics, you know. I think it really Helps us to say like, yes, okay, we need to start to make the change or Optimize what we're doing in this direction. So I appreciate you so much for coming on and sharing all this with us.

Speaker 2: 40:13

Of course, I'm more than happy to do it.

Speaker 1: 40:15

Yeah, and I have a couple of Questions here, just so that we can get to you a little bit better. If you're ready, I'm ready, let's go. What is the last thing you bought for your business?

Speaker 2: 40:28

Probably something really boring. The last cool thing I bought for my business was a walking pad so that I can, you know, keep it moving while sitting at my desk for Long hours. If you've been thinking about buying a walking pad, like I'm just writing you a Permission slip to just add it to your Amazon car is so great.

Speaker 1: 40:49

There's that Amazon influence. I was waiting for it.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Oh yeah, yeah going through the renovation at my house right now.

Speaker 1: 40:54

You're saying that and I'm like, oh my gosh, everything that I just ordered that's arriving today, was all like going through the reviews and all the things. So, yeah, absolutely. And then, of course, being that again, we're both in the tropics, I always love to ask where your favorite place to travel to is, since we're in, you know, tourist destinations ourselves. Yeah, well, I live where people vacation. Which is such a blessing right.

Speaker 2: 41:21

You know I love going to Europe Italy, paris. I also love New Orleans, any place with history and great food, good shopping and, you know, seeing something completely different than Barbados. No palm trees, no, you know, no tropical weather, just completely different is always nice.

Speaker 1: 41:46

When we do go somewhere, tropical people ask us are like why did you go to Europe, mexico or whatever it is? Yeah, we're like because we don't know anybody there. We can actually go out and play true tourists and not have to run into people we know. So on our end, we like to do a little bit of a balance with both, but I agree, anything with history is always so interesting. Yeah, all right. And if we were sitting across from each other one year from today popping a bottle of champagne in your honor, what would we be celebrating?

Speaker 2: 42:15

Oh, my goodness. Hopefully lots of things, but 2024 being a transformative year that was filled with connection, creation, money, abundance and all the things that I want. That's what I would hope we'd be celebrating.

Speaker 1: 42:30

Yes, I love it. I love it. Yeah, and where can everyone find you? And if there's anything coming up, feel free to share. Oh.

Speaker 2: 42:39

I would love to connect with you. So if you would like to connect with me, I'm over on Instagram. I am on TikTok, but I'm also hanging out mostly on Instagram. You can find me at Candice coppola over there. Send me a DM, let me know you listen to this episode. I love just knowing where people come from and you can learn more about me and my podcast, my YouTube and any of my courses I have for wedding pros, my community for planners and my mastermind by going to Candice coppola calm. There's lots of resources, free resources, there's great trainings there, so there's just lots to dig into.

Speaker 1: 43:14

Love it Well, candice. Again, thank you so much for joining us here and just being a part of celebration pros in so many ways and, yeah, I hope that we get to connect again soon. Same.