Cross-sell, cross-reg, pop-unders, snippets, banners; it’s more than likely that these are among some of the terms that you’ve heard recently.
What does it mean and how does it work?
Cross-selling regularly results in an increase in ROI and, therefore, is paramount in maximising your revenue potential. There are several ways that you can utilise this tool.
To begin with, you’ll need a portfolio of sites; whether General, Mature or Adult, or alternatively, a niched variation of the above. Your Partner Manager will be able to advise you on the most suitable and lucrative solutions for your portfolio, so get in touch if you need any assistance.
Using a General to Mature example of cross-registration, we would promote the Mature site to the General users by placing banners/snippets in the email footer of comms for the General site. This works on a one-click cross-registration (cross-reg) functionality – when the member clicks on the cross-reg banner, their details are automatically copied over to the new site and a member is acquired. Your Partner Manager can code this for you on your behalf. It really is as easy as that!
As well as cross-selling via email, we can also target members more directly from within the application itself. We can code a similar functionality to the email cross-reg but this time, as a two-click process. The beauty of this is that certain parameters can be set so that the banner only appears to members who meet certain criteria. Auto cross-reg snippets can also be added to the member’s homepage and can appear independently to basic and/or full males and/or females.
Pop-unders are pages that appear when a returning member hits the ‘Login’ button on the app page (http://app.domain.com/login). The clue is in the title; these pages pop under the current window, displaying your entire portfolio of relevant sites. When utilising this form of cross-selling, uplift on revenues and member volumes can be substantial, so it’s a great tool for getting the most out of your portfolio.
What does it mean for you?
By cross-selling your members within your portfolio, your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is immediately lowered.
Here’s how it works. A member clicks your ad externally and is acquired by your General site. Let’s say that it costs you £2 for that particular acquisition. Once acquired, that member then cross-registers to another one of your sites; your CPA is immediately halved, as you have actually now acquired that member across two sites – so that particular acquisition actually only cost you £1.
It’s quite common for members to pay for more than one site at a time; in offering them an alternative but keeping them within your portfolio, you automatically increase your chances of growing ROI across your whole portfolio. Arguably, the revenue generated from cross-selling is ‘free’ money; you can leave your portfolio of sites in one place and allow members to find what they’re looking for themselves.
Branding is very important here and should be kept in mind when it comes to cross-selling. Brand association, continuity and consistency from one site to another is key to achieving high click-through-rates and an overall high site and brand performance.
What to do next?
It’s nice and easy! Extend your portfolio by purchasing domains, or creating suitable subdomains, that are in keeping with your existing brand. Get a splash page live and think about some creative ideas for banners – your Partner Manager will be happy to lend a hand if you’re struggling.
If you already have a portfolio of suitable sites, then you’re almost ready to go! Create a pop-under page and send the URL to your Partner Manager so they can attach it to the Login button in the application, which will start spreading brand awareness. Once setup, your CPA will be lowered and your revenue potential will automatically increase.
Get the ball rolling and speak to your Partner Manager about maximising your ROI today.
Kabeer Ghale, Partner Manager @ WhiteLabelDating.com