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Inside The Online Dating Industry
by Joe Tracy,
publisher of Online Dating Magazine
Online Dating
Industry Praises (and Viral Marketing Techniques for
Services)
In last
week's column we explored several "concerns"
about the online dating industry. This week will be
a contrast as we look at "praises" and things
specific services are doing well.
It's no secret that online dating has become the preferred
method to find dates, relationships, and that potential
"soul mate". eHarmony hasn't been shy about releasing
its marriage numbers - 33,000
in one year according to a study they commissioned. Online Dating Magazine
estimates that more than 100,000 people marry a year
as a result of meeting on an online dating service.
There are several things that many online dating services
are doing right - here are a few:
First Date Planning
Chemistry.com was
launched by Match.com to
compete with eHarmony in
one of the
five types
of online dating services - relationship services. One cool feature Chemistry.com introduced
was First-Meeting(tm). This feature helps you plan your first date (mostly
aimed at local coffee house suggestions) along with agreeing on the date and
time. After your first date, First-Meeting allows you to input feedback (for
your own viewing) about that date, the chemistry, and your experience. Then
it allows you to send a message on whether you'd like to continue dating. It's
a great new tool
in
the
online
dating
process.
Search by New Photos
Some online dating services, like True, are allowing
easy access to search local profiles by those who
have recently updated (or uploaded) new photos. This
is a great concept because it encourages people to
post new photos to get the greatest exposure.
Money Back Guarantee
Some online dating services are now using a "money
back guarantee" as part of promotions. Even Match.com uses
a "14-day money back guarantee" in one of its promotions.
True.com sometimes uses a "7-day money back guarantee" in promotions.
Unfortunately its not easy, with either service,
to find out how to actually get your
money
back.
We'd
like
to
see
online
dating
services offer this as a standard, versus just in
temporary promotions to select groups.
Duel Interest
I like online dating service features that have some
sort of way of presenting a matching interest. For
example, with American
Singles, when viewing a profile
you can select whether or not you feel you'd "click"
with that person. That person is then emailed several
profiles for them to review, including yours, and
if they select that they think they'd click with
you then both people are sent an email that they
might be
a great match. It makes it easier to know that you'll
get a response when sending that first email!
Per Communication Option
One thing
I like about LavaLife is
that you have the options of conducting your communications with credits per
communication
versus paying an entire
monthly fee. This really sets LavaLife apart
in how billing is handled. And since your credits
are purchased
in advance, you are never "automatically rebilled
for your convenience" like other dating services
do.
Respond for Free
On our online
dating services page, the monthly price
for an online dating service membership is in red
or green. Red equals services that force you to pay
in order to respond to a paid member. Green indicates
that it is free to respond to a paid member inquiry.
I have high praise for those that allow a person to
respond for free to a paid member inquiry. The reason
why is because it removes deceit from how many members
you can truly communicate with and it decreases the
ration of inquiries to responses.
Releasing More Details
When eHarmony released
study details of how many of its members marry a year,
it was a huge step in helping
to erase the still-lingering stigma some attach to
online dating. It also was a great publicity move,
especially since eHarmony was
the first to commission such a revealing study.
Last week I revealed that a study found customer satisfaction
low with online dating services. From that same study,
customers expressed concern about the lack of organization
and poor search functionality on some sites. When services
do things to improve the ease of connecting, customer
service, and customer satisfaction, they are
contributing to a more positive image of online dating.
Hopefully there will be a ton of more praise-worthy
things to discuss in the very near future.
Tip of the Week
This week's tip is on one of the most vital methods
of marketing in order to increase traffic and user
base. It is a term that many marketers are familiar
with, but those without a marketing background have
probably not heard of - viral marketing.
Tip #10: Understand and Learn to Implement Viral
Marketing
Viral marketing is the concept of your marketing message/tip
being replicated by others in order to bring the greatest
amount of business to you. You are providing people
with something that they'll want to pass on to others.
It creates interest and buzz.
Last week we talked about Webdate's mega-successful
promotional campaign, using humor in videos to draw
interest in Webdate. This alone, isn't viral marketing.
But two thinks they did turned it into a mega-successful
viral marketing campaign.
If you go to http://video.webdate.com/ just under
the video display you'll see "link to us" and "embed
player" both with easy to copy code. This, combined
with the creative video approach, is viral marketing.
They make it easy to pass along the promotions to
others, creating a growing buzz. So how can you apply viral marketing to your online
dating service? Well, here's one method I thought of
right off the top of my head:
If you have a good tracking program, you could offer
free monthly memberships to members who get their friends
(or site visitors) to sign up as paid subscribers.
It's somewhat like an affiliate program (which we'll
discuss in a future tip), but a bit different. Here's
how it works:
1) Within your member area there is a tab called "Earn
a Free Paid Membership".
2) A person clicks on the tab/ad to get more information
on the program, easily described as "earn a free month
for every paid member you refer."
3) Signup is easy. The person just clicks "sign me
up" and is given a referral code (connected to his/her
username). The person can put that referral code on
their Website, blog, or send it to friends.
4) Every time a member they refer pays for a membership,
the referer gets a free paid month!
Best of all there are many variations to this. For
example, "Refer 10 paying subscribers and get
a free lifetime membership!" Another example is
earning points towards actual prizes (in addition to
the free membership).
The more enticing the program, the more successful
it will be. Best of all, it keeps on growing. Let's
say one member referred 10 people who paid (and received
his/her free lifetime membership) Now lets say three
of his referrals signed up for the program and began
promoting your
site. As you can see, the potential for a strong viral
marketing program is there if it is implemented right.
It just keeps growing.
Put your thinking cap on and come up with some viral
marketing concepts that will help your site achieve
greater success.
Note: My column will be on hiatus until April
2007.
Joe Tracy is
publisher of Online Dating Magazine and is often quoted
by the media in relation to online dating topics. His Inside
the Online Dating Industry column is published every
Friday.
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