The other piece that made the Barbie marketing so special was it was experiential. It was something that we could participate in, right? Like, we could wear pink when we showed up to the movie theater. And so what they did was they really showed us The power of experience.
I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker, and blogger. And you're listening to the Wedding Pros Who Are Ready To Grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level. If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you love, then you're in the right place.
Let's get going with today's episode. Today, I'm chatting with Tayler Cusick-Hollman, the founder of Enji, a brand new piece of software that aims to make marketing manageable for your small business. Taylor has been helping small businesses with their marketing for over a decade, and that experience led her to design Enji. As a fellow marketing consultant, I cannot wait to dive deep today as we talk all things authentic marketing, something I really love talking about.
Taylor, welcome to the podcast.
Hello, hello. Thank you so much for inviting me on to have this chat. I love nothing more than talking shop, especially when I get to talk shop with another marketing expert. So I am, my, my seatbelt is buckled. I'm ready to go.
I'm excited to geek out on all things marketing. Now I'm going to let the listeners into a little secret because we were supposed to have this conversation a little while back and we were just talking before I hit record about it because 15 minutes before we were due to record together. I stood up off my sofa and thought I might have broken my ankle, ended up in A& E, and thankfully it was just badly bruised.
So we have been a long time waiting for this conversation as well, which makes it even more exciting to get into it. Now, I know that we're excited about marketing. But sometimes my listeners or my clients kind of get a bit freaked out just by the word marketing. So I would love us to just simplify this down. When we talk about marketing and authentic marketing, what do we mean in a non jargon way?
I love that because marketing at this point is it's kind of a loaded. term, because there's so many things that you can do and so many pieces that fall under the word marketing. And so, in plain English, right, in the most kind way possible, I like to describe marketing as the things that you do to put your business, whether that's product or services, in front of the people that might buy from you. And that's really all it is. You're building awareness that you exist.
So that you create opportunities for people to actually become customers or clients.
Fabulous. Yeah. One thing I often say to my clients is all marketing is, is telling people you exist because they don't know you exist and you can't get to sales, right? I think people get really excited about sales. This is a bug bear of mine and it may be the same for you Taylor that like at seminars and conferences, people are really attracted to anything that's about sales because they think, Oh, that's the thing that's going to make the most difference in my business.
And they sometimes neglect the sessions on marketing. Whereas actually we both know without marketing you're not gonna get any sales.
totally. Marketing is the piece that happens before you have the chance to sell someone. And so just like you said, if, if you're not marketing, you aren't gonna have any opportunity to try to. turn someone into a paying customer. So yeah, I'll, we, we should go to, we should find all the conferences and like physically pull people into the marketing sessions out of the sales sessions. Be like, did you, have you attended a marketing session yet?
If the answer is no, you don't need to sit in on this sales conversation quite yet.
Yeah, it's so, so true. I just think sales sounds more sexy to people, so they're more attracted to it. But if you're listening to this, make sure you're paying attention to your marketing first. Now, we described it in the intro as authentic marketing. So when you use that word, authentic, before the word marketing, Are you talking about, what do you mean by being authentic in your marketing?
So it's funny that we're having this, this chat about authentic marketing, because I actually really hate the word authentic, because it's so overused in just, you know, in, in the world of the internet, everyone talks about the importance of authenticity. And You know, even though it to me is a loaded phrase, it is still very important to think about when we talk about marketing, because to me, it gets down to the reason you're actually doing the marketing.
And so what's your, what's your purpose, what's your mission, what's your vision. With everything that you're trying to accomplish with your business, because all of that really needs to be wrapped up into all of the things you're doing to try to make people aware that you exist. And I personally think it's really important because there's, I think, a real propensity or habit for people to look to others for inspiration on how to do their marketing. Right. And I can't say that I am not someone.
I mean, you and I both, right? We're marketing consultants. So we are people that wedding pros turn to for guidance and inspiration. But there's a difference between turning to people looking for ideas of how to do something and turning to people and trying to like copy and paste what they're doing in their marketing into your business.
And that is the opposite of being authentic in your marketing, is when you're trying to take someone else's brand, someone else's approach, someone else's marketing strategy, and think it's just going to be a carbon copy that you can use as a totally different business, as a totally different person, with a totally different audience, right? And so that's why I think having this conversation about being authentic is really important.
Especially because in the wedding industry, everyone's heart is on their sleeve for the most part, like that's why you get into this industry. It's because you want to help people, you want to serve them, you want to help them create, you know, one of the most memorable days of their lives. And so there is this really strong... mission that lives inside of everyone, but it doesn't often make it into their public brand and marketing efforts.
That's so true. And people spend so much time looking left and right that they end up, as I call it, being vanilla in their marketing because they just end up looking the same as everyone else and they've got nothing that stands out. But I also think that sometimes comes from a place of, anxiety. So people feel afraid to share their mission or to share their heart because they feel like it should be looking a certain way or they worry about what people will think about their marketing.
Do you have any thoughts on that?
I have plenty of thoughts on that. I mean, you know, I, I see it all the time that People try to portray themselves as something that they're really not as a way to quell that anxiety, right, and make themselves feel more comfortable with what they're doing. And that really just creates a huge disconnect between the brand and persona that you're putting out there of, you know, who I am as a wedding planner or a florist or a venue.
And then by the time a potential client is actually speaking with you during a consultation, you seem like a totally different person, right? Because you tried to be something else because it felt safe. And then when push comes to shove, you're not that thing. And then it kind of creates this awkwardness that then is going to only fuel your anxiety about marketing in a really authentic way. Right?
So I think it's really important for, for people to recognize that Being authentic, to a certain degree, is a very, or can be a very vulnerable thing, but over time, you become more comfortable with it, and no one is asking you to do something that pushes yourself into a space where you are you know, 100 percent uncomfortable and you don't feel right doing it, but it's like, you know, taking these little baby steps to do something that is much more in line with who you are.
That's the really productive space to play in.
Do you have any tips or thoughts on how people identify that mission, how they go back to the heart of why they're doing it and how they then put that into their marketing?
You know, when you sit down and you think about your why, it's actually, it becomes quite difficult to do that because it's, I know people can't see all the hand gestures that I'm, I'm doing right now. I'm a very animated speaker, but you know, it, it all sits like in your chest, right there. You did this because you felt. a certain way. Something was compelling you to become a wedding industry professional.
And so as simple as a mission statement might look, it, it does take some time to really think about why it is you're doing what you're doing. And so when it comes to anything that has to do with, with writing, essentially, I think letting yourself put down the ugly first draft. Is really important because when people are trying to. Seek perfection with the first try, then it becomes an impossible feat.
But even professional copywriters, which that's a large part of what I did as a, as a marketing consultant was write copy. And I still do that every day for myself, but even professional copywriters are not going to write the final draft straight out of their fingers, right? Every keystroke is basically like an educated guess of like what makes sense. At that time, and then you can always come back and revise it.
And so that's what I think the actual first step to being truly authentic in terms of knowing what your mission and your why is, is relinquishing yourself of this, like, I have to write this perfectly the first time I sit down to pen it. But, Once you get over that, if you can just think of what is it you are trying to help people do, and then how do you do it? I mean, it's almost as simple as that. It doesn't have to be this overly complicated thing.
Yeah, it's about having a bit of time and space to think it through and to keep asking why. I once went to a session where they said, don't just ask why once, like keep asking why. So if you say, why are you doing this? Because I want to work for myself. Why do you want to work for yourself? Because I want to be home for my kids. Why do you want to be home for your kids? And to just keep on going deeper until you find the actual real why, which is normally about 10 layers underneath.
And that is kind of a scary exercise, but it is a really thought provoking exercise as well. Now, I think the other thing that people struggle with when it comes to authenticity is that feeling of, okay, if I'm going to be authentic, I have to put everything out there online and I don't want to do that.
And so let's just talk a little bit about that because we know all of the things people buy from people and it's good to have your face and be the face of your brand, but that doesn't necessarily mean everything needs to go on the internet, right?
No, please don't put everything on the internet. You know, I, I'm someone who did the Finger, I'm using finger quotes here.
The persona that I have on the internet is Almost 100 percent the same person that you're going to interact with if we ever have the opportunity to be in the same space But I don't spill my guts on the internet of like everything that I'm doing every single day I don't get into really personal things because everyone has a boundary or a line that you, you should have that separates your personal life from your professional life.
And, you know, there are some people that will put Very private things out there and in a way that's like tied to their, their brand and their marketing. And I personally, this is an opinion. I don't think that that's the best tact to take. I think that that crosses a line into a space where marketing. gets kind of muddy, right? Like, you, I think it goes into a space where you start to pull on the wrong emotional strings in order to get people to know, like, and trust you.
So, you don't have to, if you experience a, something that's Exceptionally difficult. You don't have to put it out there. If you made a really big mistake and you're kind of embarrassed about it, you don't have to put it out there. But if you have a small flub or something funny happens, then yeah, you can include that in how you're presenting yourself to your, your audience and your potential clients because it's It's not like your deepest, darkest secrets.
Yeah. And it's a misconception to say that not putting everything online is not authentic because you're still being yourself, but you have to remember you're still marketing. And I think it's really important. And I remind my clients a lot that when you're looking at other people's social media feeds and your competitors, you have to have that frame as well. You have to have that frame of reference to remember this is a version of reality, but it's not necessarily a hundred percent reality.
So you can't compare yourself. profile, their Facebook profile, their business, because it's only a kind of top level example. And even I think as consumers, we fall into this so easily. I tell this story, she might be listening, but my mom once said to me, you're working so much and you're never with your kids. And I was like, why? Why have you formed that opinion? Because it's a hundred percent not true.
She's like, because all over your Instagram, you're just out at all these meetings and you're doing all of this stuff. And I was like, yeah, but in between all of that, I'm gonna swimming classes, I'm picking them up from school. I'm just not putting that on my Instagram. And so that really made me think if even my mom has a shifted perspective due to what I'm putting on social media. No wonder we all panic when we look at our competitors.
So it's just a reminder that, yeah, we can put stuff out there. But when we are looking at other people. We need to not judge ourselves against that because that's a dangerous place to get to.
It's, it's so dangerous and it's so hard to to stop yourself from getting there. I mean, I, as I've started, well, when I started launching Enji and, you know, really starting to interact with the internet on behalf of that company, I started following a lot of kind of marketing influencers and educators across a range of industries, not just wedding industry.
And I realized not that long ago that I did myself the biggest disservice by flooding that feed with all of these marketing experts because I cannot tell you how badly I was questioning myself every day because I had inadvertently created this space where I was just getting pounded with these messages every day from, you know, hundreds of different, different accounts. And I started to think that I was not good at what I did.
And so when I really love the fact that you're encouraging people to like, not. look at those highlight reels and think that it's your job to keep up because it's, it's not possible to keep up with something that's not an actual reality.
So, so true. Now we've talked about the positives of authentic marketing and what that means. I just love to have a bit of a conversation. I don't know if you've got any examples of the opposite of that. So what actually constitutes inauthentic marketing. So we know that kind of looking left and right. is inauthentic. Have you got any other thoughts about what is inauthentic marketing? I
think that just being something or portraying something that you're really not is the, the truest form of inauthentic marketing and not to make anyone feel badly about this because I think when we all start our businesses, we kind of are a little bit backed into a corner because we don't have clients yet, right? Like we've just started our businesses and we're just trying to get the ball rolling. And so that to me is the space where it's easiest to fall into this.
kind of trap of inauthentic marketing because you are trying to build something out of nothing. And so you're trying to not make it look like to your potential clients that you've never planned a wedding in your life, right? Like no one wants to be in that space. But to almost falsify your CV, essentially, is what we're talking about here. So, you know, you can, you can portray yourself as a professional with a little bit more experience than maybe you really do.
But when push comes to shove, You shouldn't be saying you're capable of doing something that you, you know, in your heart of hearts You've never done or maybe you're gonna Flub really badly and you don't ever want to do that with especially in the wedding space, right? There are there are no do overs in weddings.
And so Knowing and if someone asks you Are you capable of X, Y, and Z, and you know you're not, you're only capable of X and Y, then you should say, I, I'm not the right person for the job for Z, but I'd love to help you find someone who is.
Yeah, and I think it's a really difficult zone to navigate. It's a real kind of gray area that we all go through at some point because There's an element where we need to be confident and we need to portray this person and kind of fake it till you make it. But on the other hand, you're totally right. We don't want to be saying that we can do something that we don't. But I also believe that deep in our gut, we know when what we're doing is wrong. And I think that's.
the only way we can trust that. I mean, some mistakes I've seen people go into again, totally inadvertently is things like grabbing shots from Pinterest and putting them on their Instagram profile, you know, things like that. Cause they just want something, but it's not their work. And although they might like it and they've done it in a kind of innocent way, I would say that is inauthentic or taking stock imagery, for example, and. If it's stock imagery just on your website, that's one thing.
But if it's stock imagery of the thing you do, and it's not clear, I would say that's kind of misleading as well. Because if you haven't made that bouquet or you weren't photographing that wedding, really, you shouldn't be sharing the pictures as if you were. That's inauthentic.
Totally. And that's, that's something that's... It's pretty rampant in the wedding industry, especially, again, people who are just, if anyone's listening and just started their business, you're going to think that I'm picking on you, but I'm not. It's just the, the phase of business where I see this the most, where You don't really have, you don't have a portfolio, and so much of digital marketing is visual based. So, what do people do?
They screenshot images from the, the wedding professionals that they've found and admire, and then they repost it on their own, even though they're giving them credit. It's still a very strange thing to do because you've never even worked with these folks. And you're also portraying... a level of production and design and experience that is, you can't prove that you can actually provide. Just yet.
And so I love that example because it's, it is very much a part of the wedding industry and you know, I, I, I will concede that it's hard to find all those visual aspects and things that you need to get your business off of the ground, but. the mom in you is like, you know when something is wrong, so don't do it when you know that it's wrong, right? Like, just be a good person with a, a, you know, a moral compass and don't do the things that feel icky to you.
Yeah, 100%. And if you're listening to this and you're feeling that's kind of me right now. Number one, don't feel like you're being told off, but number two, know that there are things that you can do about it. So, you know, reach out to Taylor, reach out to me if you need a bit of help with this, but think about, you know, if you don't have a portfolio, okay, what can you do to put together a portfolio? Do you have friends and family that you can do something for?
Could you put together a stylized shoot or could you collaborate on something? And instead of thinking that's an excuse to use other people's work, actually proactively go out there and build your own portfolio. You 100 percent can do that. So if that's you and you're feeling like I need some help with this, do reach out. Don't stay stuck.
Okay. Let's just move forward a little bit because we've talked about what marketing is and authenticity and marketing, but then when it comes to the actual doing it, there are so many options. And this is one thing that I see really people struggle with when they come to me. They're just like, I don't even know where to start. Do I do social media? Do I do Google? Do I do directories? Do I do wedding shows? Like, do you have any thoughts about how people navigate this and where they start?
Yes. So part of, I was thinking about this earlier, that part of being authentic with your marketing is being authentic to what you can do. As a person and what authentic to what makes sense for your business. And so this is the the point in the conversation where I want to superimpose the word realistic on top of authentic because when we when we as we're getting into the doing part of this conversation that's where this shift needs to happen.
So now we're talking about being realistic and that can be really difficult. For a lot of people, especially because there is. pressure from, you know, the, the omnipotent space that is the internet that, you know, we need to be showing up all of the time doing all in all of the places doing all of the things. And that is not realistic. So that's not what we're talking about here in this conversation of authentic marketing.
So I think the first step is to really think about what do you have the capacity to do. In your marketing and for most people, especially if you are a, a business of one, maybe you have the ability to outsource one little thing, or you have an assistant or a team member who can support you on another. But in my experience, and I'd love to hear what your experiences on this too, but. I think that most people only have the capacity to really show up on one to three marketing channels.
And then once you get past that, that's where you start feeling like you're drowning. Is that how you experience things as well?
Yeah. A hundred percent. I think people go too wide and then just get overwhelmed and then do everything kind of badly, unless they're able to outsource certain areas. And so I often say to people like, let's like build up your pyramid as you have the capacity to do it. Like get going with, you know, Instagram and like cross sharing it to Facebook. Let's get really confident on that before you start panicking about whether you should be on TikTok.
Like just decide where you're going to start and do it well and then decide if you've got the capacity. So yeah, I, I definitely agree with that. So how do people identify where to start then? So they know that they can't do everything? Should they be thinking about where their couple are hanging out? Should they be thinking about where they like hanging out? What kind of things should they consider?
It's, it's a little bit of the, that magical in between space where you absolutely should only be marketing your business on the proverbial places that your ideal couples and clients are hanging out. Because if your ideal couple is. not on TikTok, then why would you be on TikTok, right? That's a waste of your, your energy. But the other half of that is Where do you enjoy showing up?
And that comes into play because marketing is such a long, well, it's not a long play, it's an ongoing thing that's never gonna go away, right? You have to market your business for the entirety of the lifespan that you have the business. It's always gonna be a responsibility. So in order to have the endurance to continually market your business, it is much easier to continually show up if you don't hate doing the thing, right?
Because we all drag our feet on things that we don't like doing, of course, right? Then it feels like a chore. So that's the sweet spot that I'm talking about or referencing is where are your couples? Hanging out in real life and or on the internet and what are the the marketing activities that you enjoy doing and then that's Where you should start and then eventually you like you said you build out from there Not all of us.
I think everyone is gonna eventually have to do some sort of marketing task that you don't love It's just a part of the game of marketing. But if you build your strategy around the thing that you enjoy doing, then in the long term, you're going to have much more success.
That's so true. When I launched my Becca Pountney website, I was like, I'm going to blog on this website every week. And I blogged like three times and then was like, Oh, I really need to blog. And then I launched the podcast like, I'm going to podcast every week. And I did it easily because I really enjoyed podcasting and I'm like, okay, turns out I don't like sitting at my computer.
I'm writing the content, but I'm really happy to chat to people or just even be on my own with a microphone and talk about the content. So therefore, why am I even bothering with this? I'm just going to take the blog off my website and turn the podcast episodes into blog posts. And it was really clear to me. Oh yeah. Okay. People would find me from both ways, but if I don't enjoy doing this. I'm not going to be doing it consistently.
Whereas if I am enjoying doing it, I am going to be consistent. And I find that with things like wedding fairs, for example, or wedding shows, some people thrive on that. They love being in the room. They love meeting people. They love meeting potential couples and other people hate it. They fear it. They close up. And so if you absolutely hate something and you don't see yourself getting over that, you don't have to do it.
Exactly. And you know, you're not going to do it. To the level that it does justice to your business if you hate it. Right? You're going to cut corners. If we're talking about in person opportunities, you're going to come off as awkward, right? Which those are all not good things, but that's definitely not the objective when it comes to marketing.
So, you know, I think this is Becca and I giving everyone the blessing to stop doing the marketing tasks that you truly hate and really leaning into the ones that you even find a little bit of fun. out of.
Definitely. Now, this kind of idea of marketing overwhelm and just not even knowing where to start or where to plan, I'm assuming, and this is a big assumption, I may be wrong, that that was what you saw in your clients and that was somewhat of the inspiration for why you launched. NG. So tell us, like, am I right with that? Is that where you were? Tell us where you were and why you decided to launch this piece of software.
Your assumption is totally correct. And I love that. I think you, you guessed correctly because you're a marketing consultant and you've, we probably have a lot of shared experiences working as, you know, consultants who are being hired by wedding professionals and You know, really the, the inspiration behind it was, I, I finally had this opportunity during this, Enji is essentially a COVID project gotten like really, really wild in the best way, because during COVID.
You know, here in the, in the states where I'm based in Southern California and San Diego, I was really busy during COVID. And I don't know how things were in the, in the UK, but it was this weird time where everyone finally was like, I'm going to work on my business. right now because I have no other choice, right? Like, I've always complained that I never have time to work on my business because I'm always working in it.
And now the world has forced me into this place where I have nothing but time. So I actually was really busy with wedding or with website copywriting projects and, and creating strategies for different professionals. And I. Was operating at my capacity and turning away business. And I'm not someone who ever wanted to grow my business by growing a team. That's just not, wasn't in the, in the long play for me, but I've always been someone who. works in technology as well.
It's kind of like the thing in the background that people don't really know about me. And so took a step back in the, in the moments that I had breathing room and I really started thinking about why are people coming to me? And what's the consistent reason? It's the exact same exercise that I know that you and I are telling our, you know, clients to do with couples. Why are people coming to you? And once I uncovered that, you know, people actually would tell me, Taylor, just tell me what to do.
And that was the little nugget that I was like, I could possibly figure out a way to turn myself into software. and give people a marketing strategy that doesn't involve me actually sitting down and spending many, many days thinking it through. So that was the whole impetus for it, is how do I get a marketing strategy or marketing plan in people's hands, almost at the snap of a finger. And so that's what we set out to do. And I'm really excited that like we, we did it.
Everyone just has to play a game of 20 questions with us. And Enji creates a customized marketing plan for them that also shares all these marketing ideas and is a platform that they can use to actually do their marketing in a much more intentional. and quick way.
That's incredible. I love that. I love that you took this idea and you made a virtual version of yourself. So explain to me how it works then. So if I was to say to one of my clients, you know, you really should check this piece of software out because it's going to help you with your marketing efforts. Like what am I telling them to do and how is it going to help them?
So it starts, the foundation of, of everything that we built is the marketing strategy. Because if you're just marketing by accident, right, that's not actually productive. And so, like I said, people just have to answer a straightforward questionnaire, and then they get this strategy.
And then from there, really what it allows them to do is see their marketing strategy, which when I would create them for clients, they were like, 20 page PDFs, which were beautiful and, you know, full of information and ideas and all this stuff. When push comes to shove, they were really overwhelming too. It's like, who's going to sit down and read, like really digest 20 pages of marketing strategy. And so what Enji does is it, it gives you essentially a one page marketing plan.
That's very visual, but it also helps you understand how all these different pieces of marketing Play together. Because that's in the past kind of been, I mean, it's not to the level that when you sit down and you hire someone like yourself, Becca, like you're going to have all these conversations with your client and everything's going to be bespoke.
You know, technology can't ever be bespoke, but what I wanted to build was something that gave people a clear path, and whether they were going to execute on that strategy on their own, or, NG is definitely a space, and it's because the consultant in me is like, Marketing consultants are great. I want people to work with marketing consultants.
People can then add you in to their account as a consultant and then you can come in and the groundwork has been laid and then you can come in and add that bespoke touch to the strategy. So it's really just meant to be something that gets people working, like helps them see here's the place we're going to focus. We're not going to look left and right, as you've been saying, right? We're going to ignore that stuff for now. This is the, the lane we're going to drive in.
And then here are the things that you can can do in order to plan it, organize it, and then do it along the way.
It's so fascinating. The marketing geek in me wants to go and immediately go and play around with it and see what it spits out. And I love it for a couple of reasons. One, because not everyone is ready or able to pay for a bespoke marketing plan. I know that you know that when you're starting out in your business, you can't afford necessarily one to one consultancy because that is time consuming for the consultant. And you are going to get a very personalized bespoke option.
So I love that you've kind of bought in this lower level option that is more accessible to people when they're not quite ready for bespoke, but they're ready for something. And then I love it that you can then further down the line or immediately add that. element in so that you're then, you know, building up once this is going well. Now you can add in that personalized bespoke option from somebody else and they can see that visually too. I just think it's fabulous.
I'm definitely going to go and play around with it as soon as I can. I will definitely put the link in the show notes as well, because I'm sure there'll be other people listening that are thinking, I need to go and play around with this piece of software. And that's one of the things that's always a tricky thing when we're doing an audio recording because no one can see it.
So if you're listening to this, like go grab a phone, go grab a website on your computer and go check out Enji I would love Taylor, if you're up for it, just for the last few minutes of this recording to do a little bit of marketing geeking out together. So I have identified two brands that I think have done some epic marketing, not necessarily all good, but they've done some huge marketing both in the U S and the UK over the last few months.
And I'd love to just have a little bit of a conversation about it. So the first one is prime, prime energy drinks, prime drinks. have blown up here in the UK. I think they have in the U S as well. And one of the things that I find really frustrating about this marketing is how much of it is geared towards children. And also how powerful it has had an impact on children. So my kids are nine and six. They've barely had a fizzy drink yet.
They will go in the shop and they're like, mom, can you buy me prime? You need to buy me prime. Everyone's got a prime bottle. So in your opinion, what a prime doing that's had such a huge impact so fast. And what do we like? What do we not like?
Ooh. So I'm not familiar with the drink, but the, the, the whole concept that you're talking about, I definitely have opinions about what I like and what I don't like. And what, what that boils down to when it, because marketing to children is a very strange borderline, not okay thing to me depending on the product, right? Like, you know, if you're, if you're marketing to them that they should go outside and play. That's great.
If you're marketing a fizzy drink to them, maybe that's so great because it's just a bunch of sugar. But what Prime is doing is, is mass marketing. They're playing a game where they just want repeated exposure. to their, their product. And there's this, you know, fundamental rule in marketing that, and likely everyone, or a lot of people who are listening have heard this, that someone needs to be exposed to you seven times before they're ready to buy. And that's what mass marketing does.
Like, they're not going to just do seven times, they're going for 700, so that You know, it's like this bug in your, in your brain where you start thinking, I have to have this. I have to have this because I'm seeing it everywhere all the time. And so what I love about that is it's effective, but what I hate about it is It's effective.
Yeah, 100%, 100%. And I think what's really interesting and a lesson I think we can learn from it is how much of it has done on word of mouth. Okay. So I don't think my children have ever directly seen an advertisement for this drink. However, their friends are talking about it. They're seeing it in the shops and everyone else is telling them that it's cool.
And I think One thing I talk about a lot in our marketing as wedding business owners is the power of other people talking about your business and how we don't want to neglect that. And we can see that really clearly in this drink that the children talking about it, the other people talking about it, even the parents talking about it is actually raising awareness all of the time and making the marketing even bigger than it was before.
Yep. Absolutely. You know, and it's also like, you know, when you When you find a way to casually enter the conversation, that's, that's always great, right? Because that's organic marketing, which is free. But I think there's also this element of finding the right people at the right time. And so, you know, it probably, I would hope that Prime's marketing department wasn't thinking we're going to go after kids straight out the gate.
But you know, they, they, whoever they targeted first, It was the right target audience, and they just kept repeating the messages, right, with that mass marketing approach, and then eventually it, it trickles down, and so it's a totally different scale than almost any wedding professional would ever need to market at, but It is a, it is a very modern example of marketing in real life and the marketing nerds, right? Like we pay attention to their lessons to be learned from it.
And, you know, I would encourage everyone listening to, to start kind of opening their eyes a little bit to seeing how they're marketed to every day with, you know, print advertisements that are on billboards or in magazines or wherever. And. starting to, to think about those a little bit further and what they're trying to accomplish because there's so much to learn from it.
Yeah. It's a message I push all the time because I think there's so much we can learn from these massive brands. And although obviously we don't have anywhere near the ad spend that they do, we don't have the marketing budget. We don't have the resources. Actually, there are elements that we can learn from. Okay. Here's my second example.
So here in the UK, and I'm guessing it's the same in the U S there's been one movie that's dominated this summer and the marketing has been huge and that is the Barbie movie. Now this marketing has clearly worked on me because it's the only film I think I have ever seen twice in the cinema within a month. I've never done that before. So the marketing is obviously working for me. Like let's have a little conversation.
What have Barbie been doing and how have they just turned everyone pink obsessed over the summer?
So I was, You know, before you even said it, I was like, I hope, I hope Becca brings up the Barbie movie. I hope Becca brings up the Barbie movie because it is, that is a case study that will be added to marketing textbooks in the future. And there is a big asterisk that I think we all need to acknowledge with this is I looked it up. The Barbie movie was about 150 million to make, and the marketing budget was 150 million.
Wow. So, so, the production company put all of their poker chips on the table. And they tasked the marketing department with go big or go home, essentially, right? I don't know if that's a phrase in the UK, but it's definitely a phrase here in the US. Go big or go home. Here's all the money you could ever need. So I think that Barbie definitely did mass marketing. Barbie was literally everywhere. But the other piece that made The Barbie marketing so special was it was experiential.
It was something that we could participate in, right? Like we could wear pink when we showed up to the movie theater. There were Barbie doll boxes that we could stand in. You know, there were lots of, I remember, I can't remember specifics, but I've seen images and video of. you know, really grand experiential things in real life that people could see, right? And stand in front of were not just a static image, like a movie poster or, you know, a movie trailer.
And so that what they did was they really showed us the power of experience and they took it to the next level and really even like, changed the culture of what was going on this summer in, like, across the world, right? Like, the, the states had the same reaction that I think you had, where we all wanted to be a part of it, and over the summer, that was, the only thing everyone was talking about. So, I love this as a case study. It's, it's so, so powerful.
Yeah. And it had this real impact on people. Like I felt guilty that I didn't wear pink to watch the film. Like, what is that about? It's like seeing everyone else doing it and seeing that that's what the thing is to do. It just makes you get FOMO. You feel like you need to be doing it well as well. We also saw here in London, they turned some taxi cabs, you know, like the traditional black taxi cabs, they turn them pink and they. Branded them Barbie, like it was everywhere.
And I think again, something we can learn from it is that they thought outside of the box, like they did stuff that other movies either aren't brave enough to do, or just would never put the budget towards doing. And I think, you know, it goes right back to what we were talking about at the beginning that we don't need to look left and right. We need to be ourselves, but actually we can do things differently. We can think outside the box and no idea is a bad idea if we want to.
Try something new.
Yep. You know, I, one of the soap boxes that I've been standing on quite often as of late is just helping people to realize that marketing is an experiment, right? It's not a, it's not a formula. And so when you just said, you, we have to just try stuff. That's, that gets right to the core of it. You need to experiment because you don't know what's going to work and you have to keep trying to find it.
And then eventually, what worked is no longer going to work anymore, and so you're going to need to experiment again and find the next new thing. And so I love that you brought that up, because it's, it's, I think one of the things that people can really know and, like, accept that will make them feel less crazy. when marketing gets hard.
Yeah, and Barbie fever has definitely infiltrated this house over the summer. And one of the other things I found hilarious, just as we close this conversation about this, is that we, we holiday in the South of France in a really untouristy area. Okay. My parents have a place on there and we go and it's very French and very old school. And we went to this restaurant and my daughter was like, they've got a Barbie movie poster up.
And I'm like, Even in like the deepest depths of traditional France, there is this massive Barbie poster in this restaurant and the six year old spotted it. And I'm like, these people have done their marketing well and we need to learn from it. So yeah, as we said before, I would encourage everyone listening, look at these things. You don't have to be marketing geeks like us to look at it all.
Just look at the brands that you like, the brands that resonate with you, the things that you buy and the reason you buy things and just think, okay. If I was to put my wedding business head on and look at this from that perspective, what could I learn from it? Oh, Taylor, I've absolutely loved this conversation. I love geeking out about marketing. I could do it all day long. Maybe I'll have to get you back when I've got some more brands for us to discuss and talk about.
But before I let you go, we always end the podcast with the same question. So I'm going to pose that to you now. And it's this, what's one thing you personally wish you'd known sooner in your own business?
Oh, this is a good question. Really, and I thought about this for maybe a little bit too long because there are so many things, but I think the one that I feel like is the one to share today is that nothing comes easy and Nothing is as easy for sure as all of the influencers, you know, who are trying to live rent free in our heads, make us think that it is, you know, there's, I come across a lot of advertisements and Instagram content that basically makes almost makes you feel bad if you
don't have a six figure business, right? Like having a six figure business should be easy, according to these people. And a little piece of me dies every time I see something like that because it's not, it's not that easy. And it's, again, one of those things that I think people, it's very helpful and important for people to know that they're not crazy. They're not doing something wrong. If you don't have a six figure business in six months, things take time.
They take a lot of effort and running a business. Period. Whether it's you're a wedding planner, you run a venue, you're a florist, you're an entertainment company, there are hardships and challenges for everyone. They're always different, but it's the, it's the people who can dig deep and find the grit to get over those things that are going to eventually find really great success. And so I don't want people to get discouraged when things get hard because Hey, I just launched a new business.
Guess what? Things are hard. Things are not easy for me. But I'm gonna keep pushing. And so if anyone ever makes you feel like things should be so easy, I think they're lying to you. And that's what I, that's what I wish that I would have known when I first you know, became self employed was that this was going to be the best but the hardest thing that I was ever going to do.
So true. And we do, we beat ourselves up when we see these things. And it's another reason to unfollow a bunch of stuff on social media and also to remember just. Finishing off that point that actually even you might not want a six figure business. Like I have this conversation with people all the time where they're like, I feel like I need a six figure business, but I don't really want one because I'm happy with the size of my business.
And I like being around for the kids and I don't want to grow any bigger and that's okay. We need to take the pressure off ourselves.
Yes. Like everyone gets to define their own goal and objective and. A six figure business is not for everyone, right? Like we, I think most of us are self employed because again, going back to your, you should ask why, like keep asking why most of us, yes, we want to make money, but we want to make money because there's a certain lifestyle that we want to live. And that lifestyle may only require you have. you know, a small business, right? And you get everything that you want.
So, you know, I, I love that this is kind of come full circle to part of the conversation we had very early on. So always think about your why don't let someone else tell you what your why should be, because that's not authentic to what you're trying to accomplish.
Taylor, this has been fabulous. I cannot tell you how much I've loved having this conversation. If people want to find out more about you, more about Enji where's the best place for them to go?
So the website is enji. co and I'd love to invite everyone to check it out. You can try out all the tools for free for 14 days so you can Complete that strategy questionnaire and get your marketing plan for free. And we've got an AI copywriter now and all sorts of things that you can play with. So get in there, poke around, experience it for yourself. And then my social media platform of choice as a geriatric millennial is Instagram. So you can find edgy at E N J I.
Perfect. And I love that there's a 14 day free trial so that we can all go and play around with Enji taylor, it's been such a pleasure. I'm sure this won't be our last conversation. Thank you for your time.
Thank you so much. I have, no one can see it, but I have the biggest smile across my face. I wholeheartedly loved this conversation.
I've just loved that conversation with Taylor. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. There is nothing better for me than talking to someone else in marketing, all about marketing, and I hope you found it beneficial. And I'm really excited to go and check out that tool to see how Enji can help all of you and how it can help me as well. So I'll put that link in the show notes, go and play around with it and let me know what you think. I'll see you next time.