It's official. I believe the marketing funnel is dead. For over 100 years, we've been talking and teaching the marketing funnel concept. But in 2025, marketing has been flipped on its head and I think it's time for us to realize the marketing landscape has changed. It's no longer the age of the funnel. Instead, I believe it's the age of the marketing theme park.
I'm Becca Poutney, 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. Have you ever heard someone talking about the marketing funnel? Chances are you probably have. You know, this was a concept that was developed back in 1904 by Frank Hutchinson Dukesmith. And ever since we've been talking about marketing as a funnel. The simple thing is, the more people that go into the top of the marketing funnel, the more people come out at the bottom.
And since 1904, this has been taught across the country in schools, in universities, in business and is a great concept, but let's be honest, the world does not look the same in 2025 as it did in 1904. Now, the idea between Frank's marketing funnel was simple. At the top, it was all about awareness. Someone had aware of your product. Then the next part of the funnel was interest.
Someone had to have an interest in what you did and you had to explain to them why they should be interested in your product or services. The next part of the funnel was desire. They absolutely wanted to get your product or service. And the final point was action. So every single customer worked through that funnel. Now, this made sense. Just think Back to the 1990s, my favorite decade of them all, where pretty much the only place I was being marketed to as a teenager was was the tv.
I'd sit down to watch my favorite show. The advert break would come on and it would advertise something to me. This was showing me awareness. It would tell me all the great features which would give me interest. I would tell my parents I absolutely needed to have it, which was the desire. And then we'd go off to the shops or add it to my Christmas list, which was the action. In 2025, the world and the marketing landscape is completely different. Now, Google are the first to notice this.
Of course they are. They're the leaders in the field. So between 2020 and 2020, talking about their version of marketing, which was no longer about the funnel, but they called it the messy middle, they released a graphic that just showed that no longer is marketing a linear line, but it's a complete web of chaos, otherwise known as the messy middle. So this year, I've been really considering this concept.
As the UK's leading wedding industry marketing expert, it's important that I'm at the front of the game when it comes to how you're marketing your business. So this January, I developed a concept building on this idea of the messy middle and saying goodbye to the marketing funnel. And I coined it the marketing theme park.
So in today's episode, I'm going to walk you through what this marketing theme park concept is all about, why you should be paying attention to it and what it means practically to your wedding business. Now, this is a completely new concept that I have developed and a framework that I'm going to explain to you. So if you are going to talk about it anywhere or share with others about how we're in the age of the marketing theme park, please do remember, remember to credit Becca Pountney.
Okay, let's explain then. What is the marketing theme park? Well, gone is the day, as I said, where you take your marketing, you find out about a product and people follow a linear line to get from finding out about you existing through to booking you. It is no longer that simple. So instead, I want you to imagine you're at the front of a theme park. I'm not sure the last time you went to a theme park. I love a good theme park.
Now, what happens if you get there at the beginning of the day is everyone lines up ready to go in the gate, and the moment that gate opens, everyone goes through the gate and then scatters. There is no one line through the theme park. There is no theme park funnel. As soon as people get through the entrance of that theme park gate, they go everywhere. Some go left, some go right, some go straight forward, some go to the back of the park, the middle of the park, the front of the park.
People go everywhere. And that's what I want you to understand as I introduce this concept of the marketing theme park. This is what is happening with marketing. No longer are people finding you in one place and walking nicely through this funnel. There is a lot of noise, there is a lot of chaos, and they are taking their own direction now to try and explain to you what my marketing theme park is all about. I've developed an acronym to try and help it be more memorable for you.
And the acronym is built around a word that I do a lot when I'm at the theme park, and that is Scream. If you've ever been on a roller coaster, sat next to me, I do apologize. I love a roller coaster, but I also love to Scream. So to help you remember what the different concepts of this marketing theme park are, I'm going to walk you through what each of of the letters in the word scream stand for.
And once we've gone through that and talked about the implications and what today's marketing world looks like, I'm also going to share with you five simple things that I think this impacts when you're thinking about your own business. Let's get started then, with the letter S. The letter S in Scream stands for Spark interest in 2025 and beyond. When you're looking at your marketing and looking at the brands around you, it's incredibly important that you spark interest.
Let's go back to the theme park again, because when you get into a theme park and you're presented with a map, you have to decide where to go first. Something has to spark your interest because there are so many choices and so many great experiences and attractions that you could go on. Now, it may be that you want to go on the roller coaster that's the fastest. Maybe it's the thing that's the tallest, Maybe it's the newest thing that's in the park.
But something about it has to spark your interest and make you choose to go there. It's the same in your marketing in 2025. There are so many different people that people can choose from that you need to find a way to spark their interest. What is it about you and your business that's unique? What is it about it that's going to make them choose you over any of your competitors? So the first thing I want you to consider is how in the marketing theme park world, you can spark interest.
Okay, let's move on to the C. Now, the C in Scream is standing for customized transparent pricing. It wouldn't be a talk from me without me talking about pricing, because I absolutely, wholeheartedly believe in 2025 and beyond. We cannot get away with hiding our pricing. Consumers want to understand how much things cost, and we need to make sure we're embracing that. But not only by just having a standard price, but having customized and transparent pricing. Let me explain what I mean.
Again, using the theme park. So when you're at a theme park you can and you can buy the ticket on the gate of the theme park or you can buy it ahead of time and it's a set price, say it's 50 pounds to enter the theme park. But then once you're in the theme park, it doesn't stop there because there are different pricing layers for different people. Obviously you can go ahead and do add ons, you can go and play on some of the games, you can buy extra food, you can buy extra merchandise.
So there's always an upsell inside of the theme park. But also there are different pricing levels. So for example, if you go to a theme park, you may be able to pay more money so that you can skip some of the queues. This is going to be a more premium experience, it's going to be more expensive, but you're not going to have to stand and queue with everybody else. So now we've got our base price and we've got the premium price as well.
But often it doesn't stop there because on top of that, there's often a platinum or VIP experience too. This is when you pay a whole lot more money. But not only do you get to skip the queues, you now get a guided tour person to take you around the theme park. They take you right to the front of the lines. You're not having to show any paperwork. You get the best seats at the best restaurants, you get the best seats for all of the shows and you are paying for the privilege.
Now, not everyone is going to go for that experience, but there are some people that want that customized high level experience. So in the age of the marketing theme park, people are looking for transparent pricing, but they are also looking for different levels. Whether or not it's the basic level, whether it's not the premium level, whether it's that top level. You need to consider whether or not you're offering these things to your customers in your business.
Or is it just a one size fits all? So S stands for spark interest. C stands for customized pricing. Let's see the R in Scream. So the R in Scream stands for reputation. We're going to come back to this in more detail later because I think it's one of my biggest takeaways when we're looking at living in the age of the marketing theme park, reputation matters. Now I'm off to Disney in a few weeks time. I love going to Disney World and there are so Many things for me to choose from when I'm there.
There are restaurants, there are rides, there are experiences, and there is absolutely no way, even if I go for two weeks, that I can do everything. So I have to start making some choices. And there are a couple of ways that I'm going to make choices, but the top one is always going to be recommendation. Reputation.
If one of my friends has recently been to the place that I'm going and they tell me, becca, you absolutely have to check out this restaurant, this ride, this experience is the best thing we ever did, then guess what's going to the top of my list? That place. Because their reputation has spoken for them, it trumps everything else.
Every advert I could ever watch on social media, every video that pops up on my phone, my friend's recommendation is always going to stand out from the crowd and put that to the top of my list. It's why things like reviews are so important. Because we care a lot about what other people are saying. And also where things like blogs and vlogs do help, because other people talking about those experiences and telling me why they're good also stands out. In the age of the marketing theme park.
Reputation matters and it's incredibly important. So are you putting enough emphasis on this when it comes to marketing your business, or are you forgetting how important it is to have other people talking about how great you are? Reputation is one of the fastest ways to success inside the marketing theme park. When there is so much noise and so much competition, having someone else recommend you is always going to be the best option. Okay, the E in the word scream stands for experience.
When you look at marketing in 2025, it is chaotic, but it is certainly an experience. Brands are online, they're easily touchable. Even celebrities are easy now to interact with. You can comment on their posts, you can even get them to re tweet you on X or whatever it is you want to do. Everything is more easy to experience. You can join in with things you can vote on, polls you can join in with interactive quizzes you can talk back to. AI bots is an experience and people want an experience.
This translates into our real world weddings and events as well. People want an experience. They want something different. They want something they can touch that they can see, that they can smell, they can enjoy, they can talk about and they can make their own content about as well. It is no longer passive when it comes to marketing. The old marketing funnel was just about advertising, telling us why we needed something. But these days it's not like that.
We choose what we experience, we choose what we interact with. And we are looking for personalized, different experiences, even at the point of marketing. It's why Coca Cola was so successful when they started putting names on their bottles. Why? Because it's a personalized experience. We can go hunting for our own names. So in the age of the marketing, theme park experience is incredibly important. A stands for attention economy.
In the age of the digital marketing theme park, we absolutely are living in an attention economy. It is hard for us to keep people's attention. All of our attention spans are a lot shorter. Think about when you go into a theme park, if you've been to one recently or a fun fair or anything similar, it is an assault on the senses. It is loud. There is music playing, there is screaming, there is noise, there are flashing lights. There are people shouting at you to go on their games.
There is so much going on. And this is very similar to how I feel sometimes when I go on social media, because we are bombarded with information, with flashing lights, with images, with scrollable pictures, with things asking for our attention. And even our phone is constantly screaming for our attention, even when we're chatting with our family members. We are living in an attention economy. And it's absolutely true that people's attentions are getting shorter and shorter and shorter.
So when we know we're living in an attention economy, how are we keeping people's attention on us? How are we ensuring people notice us and pay attention to us, interact with us, rather than constantly being distracted by everyone else? You know, I think one of the biggest drivers of this and biggest way we can see it is just imagine that tomorrow you get engaged. You get engaged and you're very excited to plan your wedding.
So you go onto TikTok or Instagram or any other social media platform and you think, I'm just gonna have a quick look at some wedding inspiration. Well, you could search for wedding once on TikTok, and I guarantee you the next time you log on to TikTok, you are going to be served every single piece of wedding content under the sun and more and more and more and more of it. And what happens?
You are now going to feel overwhelmed with choice, with businesses showing up to sell you their products, and your attention is going to get short and you're not going to be able to pay attention to all of it. When we're thinking about the way we market our business in 2025 and beyond, we need to remember we are living in an attention economy where attention is Short. So we really need to think about how we're standing out and how we're grabbing people's attention.
That brings me on to the last letter in the word scream then, which is multiple routes. Now, I alluded to this at the beginning of the chat today here on the podcast because I talked about the moment people enter a theme park and how they all go off in different directions. Now, as I said, unlike a marketing funnel, where everyone goes in at the top and everyone comes out at the bottom, well, these days, marketing doesn't really work like that.
I believe there are multiple routes in and out of the marketing theme park. You know, sometimes someone will come across you on TikTok, and then they'll find you on LinkedIn, and then they'll see you at a wedding show. Then they may see you someone else's Instagram page. There is all sorts of routes into the marketing theme park. Perhaps they find you on Google, then they go to your Instagram page, then they go to TikTok, and then they send you an email.
And there are also multiple routes out of the marketing theme park. The way in which people get in touch with you and contact and inquire with you is constantly changing. Maybe they're sending you a DM, maybe they're dropping into your WhatsApp. Maybe they're sending you a form online. Maybe they're coming via a directory. It is complicated. And no two people are following the same route. Does this sound familiar to you?
And if we try and force people through the traditional marketing funnel, guess what? Unfortunately, it no longer works, and it's hard and we lose people. And so we need to understand that we're living in this age of the marketing theme park, where people come in one place and they inquire a totally different place, and there's no rhyme or reason, and it never follows the same path twice. So what does that mean for us then, in the wedding industry? I've talked you through the different letters.
I'm going to recap them one more time. S. In the age of the marketing theme park, S stands for sparking interest. C stands for customized and transparent pricing. R stands for reputation, E for those experiences, A for attention economy, and M for multiple routes. So what does it mean for us then? Well, first of all, it means couples are easily distracted. This leads to ghosting.
This means to them disappearing off the face of the earth because they're overwhelmed and someone else has grabbed their attention. It means we need to show up in a variety of places and show up often. It means couples want to be able to interact with us in a variety of ways and not be forced down a funnel. Couples want a personalized experience that is unique to them. People want transparent pricing and they want different levels of pricing so that they can upgrade to something even better.
It means that they need easy to digest information because their attentions are short. And also they need clear signposts about how they can get in touch with you and what happens next. And sometimes they're spending longer in the marketing theme park than you expect. So, for example, once upon a time we used to say that someone got engaged and then within a few weeks they booked their venue. Within a few more days later, they put their photographer, et cetera, et cetera.
But what I am seeing out there more and more and more is that there is a huge delay factor in someone deciding that they need a certain type of service and then actually booking. And sometimes they'll inquire with you and then disappear back into the marketing theme park to look at all their different options and be overwhelmed for a couple of months. And then guess what, they come right back to you again.
So those timelines are no longer linear and they're no longer set because people get distracted. And there is a whole lot of stuff for them to enjoy and experience inside of the marketing theme park. So that's the concept and that's what I want you to dwell on as you start thinking about your business in 2025. It is no longer about the funnel. We are living in the age of the marketing theme park.
So as we come towards the end of this episode, I wanted to share with you five practical things that I think this means for your business. If we are understanding we're living in the age of the marketing theme park. So the first one is, I believe as we go into this year, less is more. Now, you may think this is contradictory, and I'm saying that there's so much going on out there and therefore you need to give loads in order to stand out.
But actually, because there is so much noise, I think people are getting overwhelmed. And I think now people are starting to look for quality over quantity. That means we don't need to keep throwing more at it. But what we do need to do is make sure we're having high quality content that is easy for people to digest and is a reason for them to pay attention to us. Perhaps we're giving them some really helpful tips.
Maybe we're giving some really funny reels, maybe we're doing more video content, more inspiration, but we're not doing loads and loads and loads of posts for the pointlessness of it. But what we're doing is we're thinking about how can we spark interest, how can we attract that attention when we're living in this attention economy? What is it that's going to make someone stop and look at me or follow me over all my competitors? So the first thing I want you to think about is less is more.
It's better to do something really well and get it right and stand out and spark interest than to just keep throwing more stuff into the noise. Secondly, I believe, and I mentioned this earlier, that more than ever in this world with marketing, that relationships and reputation is the strongest suit that you've got. Okay? We know in the wedding industry how important relationships are, and it is a way to jump to the front of the queue in the marketing theme park.
You might as well have a big buzzer over your head if someone sends someone else your way, because that is going to stand out from the crowd. So what are you doing this year to build relationships? Are you forging relationships with wedding venues? Are you forging relationships with other in your area, even with people that do the same as you? When was the last time you went out and about to a networking event to meet people in person to build relationships at a conference?
What are you doing to make it easy for them to recommend you? Are you recommending people back? Also, are you ensuring you're using your testimonials everywhere? Are you talking about other people's recommendations of you? Are you posting them on social media? Do you have them everywhere on your website? You need to stand up and be counted because reputation is the fastest way to make moves in the marketing theme park.
It is harder to get your content to stand out when there's 10 million other people shouting about the same thing. But if someone else says, you should go and chat with Becca, that is more powerful than any of it. So my second thing today is that I want you to really think about paying attention to those relationships. How are you building them? Where are you building them? And have you neglected it?
Okay. The third way to stand out in the age of the marketing theme park is to zig when others zag. As you know, I'm a massive spy skills fan and they have a very famous lyric. Zig, Zig. Ah. So that is what we're thinking about right now, zigging, not zagging. So what that means is that when everyone else is going one direction, you go another direction. This is a way to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Because if everyone around you is doing exactly the same thing, you just blend in.
Whereas if you're looking at something totally different, you're saying something different, you're going with your gut, you're being yourself, you're being unapologetically you. You've got new concepts, new ideas, new trends, then guess what? That stands out. So stop looking left and right at what your competitors are doing and copying it.
Instead, go look at some other industries, go and look at industry leaders, go and look at film and TV and all those kind of things and get ideas and inspiration from them. One of my favorite marketing teams at the moment is Aldi. Aldi have great marketing. Their marketing game on social media is brilliant. It is funny. It is different to what everyone else is doing and it stands out. So are there ways in which you can zig instead of zag or zag instead of zig? Stop blending in with everyone.
If you want to stand out, you need to be doing something different. That's what happens at a theme park. The different ride, the different attraction. The new thing is the thing that people are drawn to first. The fourth thing is you do need to be showing up in multiple places and make sure you're accepting to be contacted in multiple places. We know that everyone has a different idea of where they're going for their marketing.
For example, this year is the first year that I've really started to hear a lot of people say that they're starting to book people via ChatGPT. So their couples are going to AI and asking for recommendations and they're being recommended and then they're getting in touch. People are contacting via Instagram DMs. Instagram just added a new feature where you can add your business WhatsApp to your Instagram story so that people can contact you easily there.
Some people will still come via your website form, some people will still send you a text or ring you up. You know, people will come from a variety of places. So you need to make sure you have a variety of options available to you and that you have a presence on all the different places. Now, as I always say, it's not always possible to keep everything going all of the time, especially if you're a one man band. So you can just have a static presence on a site.
So for example, if you're not on TikTok, but people might be looking for you on TikTok, have one TikTok video with an account of your business name. That is a video of you saying, hey, glad you found me on TikTok. I don't actually use it, but you can find me on Instagram or whatever it is. Have something. So if someone finds you there, at least they are not going to be left wanting.
And then the fifth tip I have for you in the age of the marketing theme park is you've got to make all of the information they need incredibly easy to find. If it is complicated, if they can't find the information they need, they will go somewhere else. There are loads of choices for them. Just in your local area, there's probably 20, 30 other people within quite a small radius that do exactly the same as you.
So if they can't find the information with you, they will just go and find it somewhere else. Unless, of course, you've been recommended, in which case they may spend a little bit more time trying to find out the information. So what information do I mean? Well, things like pricing, making sure they've got an idea of pricing. Things like how quickly to work with you, how to work with you, make it really simple.
How can they contact you if things like send me a quick DM or fill in the form on our site, make it really simple and signpost people, otherwise they'll get distracted and overwhelmed and they won't do it. And when they do contact you, don't send them big, long, overwhelming replies because that is the fastest way to get them to ghost you. In the age of the marketing theme park, they are easily distracted. We know that we're in an attention economy and they don't have much of it.
So keep everything short and to the point and don't overwhelm them. Okay, let's recap then, the five things that I think we should be thinking about in the age of the marketing theme park. One less is more is not about throwing more content out there, it's about having better content that stands out from the crowd. Secondly, are you focusing on relationships this year? Because relationships are important. Thirdly, are you zigging when others zag?
Are you being different or are you blending in with all your competitors? Number four, are you showing up everywhere and making sure people can contact you everywhere? We don't know what route they're going to take through the marketing theme park, so we need to make sure we have a brand presence. And finally, number five, is your information easy to find?
Can I go to your website or social media and quickly find how much it costs roughly to work with you, how to work with you, how to get in contact with you and how the process works? If not, maybe that needs some work. I know that that is a lot to take in, but I hope that theme park analogy helps you understand how the marketing landscape has changed and we're no longer living in the 1920s with our marketing funnel.
But the digital age is upon us and it is accelerating faster and faster and faster with things like AI coming and getting better all of the time. If this feels overwhelming and you think, becca, I need a bit more help with this, why not consider reaching out to me to talk about working one to one.
I have a package you can buy which includes a marketing review where I will go through all of your marketing with this lens on and I will tell you what I'm seeing, what needs changing, where I would recommend making changes. I'll also do a competitor analysis to see where they're doing better than you and where you can improve. We'll then get together for 90 minutes on Zoom and I'll go through all that with you.
That right now is £800, but I only have very few spaces available because it's pretty time intensive from my end and I want to make sure I give you the best results. So if that interests you and you want to find out more, reach out to me on Instagram eccapountney or drop me an email. You can find me everywhere and we can chat about it. I really enjoyed talking through this new concept.
If you know somewhere, a podcast I should go on or a stage I should be talking on to try and spread this message far and wide, let me know. I'd love to chat to you. Have a great week and I'll see you next time.