September started on a mission to keep users engaged, after the influx of new members that our record-breaking offer at the end of August delivered. We began the month with a free read session for US members to celebrate Labor Day, which, as usual generated a sizable boost to the number of members online.
We then began delivering our engagement programme; we kicked things off with our regular Dating Coach newsletter, followed by promotion of the Who’s Near Me, Bolt-On, Ice Breaker and Inbox Filter features, before highlighting a number of other key features. With each of these campaigns, we saw not only an increased use of the feature in question, but also a rise in general activity levels due to those users sending more messages, viewing more profiles and generally interacting more with other members.
All of those features are nothing without our members and it’s important to put the best and brightest on show to encourage others to engage. In addition to all the usual monthly featured member activity, we’ve also been implementing geo-specific featured member campaigns for particular US states, including niche-specific activity. In addition, we resurrected a previous format; the ‘Most Wanted’ list which (as the name suggests!) shows the creme-de-la-creme of members as “voted” for by other site users.
A month in the Comms team wouldn’t be complete without some special offers. After the monster that was our end of August campaign, we adopted a “little and often” strategy during September. Post-Labor Day free read session in the US, we ran a Friday the 13th discount, some niche- and geo-targeted offers which were inserted into featured member and other engagement campaigns, and finished up with a platform-wide free read offer to close the month. Collectively, these campaigns were never intended to rival August in terms of uptake or revenue, but combined they were responsible for large growth in the number of members online and a sizable chunk of upgrades to rival any “normal” end-of-month promotion.
Our automated chaser programme of emails is often overlooked outside of the Comms team. It sits quietly welcoming new registrants to our dating sites, prompting them to begin getting to grips with the platform, following up on incomplete actions and delivering timely offers and advice at fixed points in a member’s lifetime. With an ever-evolving platform and new features being added all the time, chasers require constant maintenance to keep them relevant. This month, we’ve been trialing some alternative content and designs to give the information sufficient impact in making sure members are suitably well informed. It’s still early days but results so far are encouraging – watch this space for more developments!
With most countries we cater for moving into autumn, the coming months offer ideal opportunities to grab a bigger slice of users’ time. Expect to see engagement campaigns keeping pace with previous months and more offers and promotions to ramp up conversions ahead of the party season.
Matt Harman, WhiteLabelDating.com Comms team