WhiteLabelDating.com now has 30 media brands on board, with a collection of over 500 sites being promoted via radio, magazine and newspaper brands. As recognised brands, they can essentially just plug a dating site into their current offering and shout about it to their already established audience. A number of our media partners now see dating as a key part of their business, giving it on-going coverage and utilising new feature launches and dating news within their marketing campaigns.
Now, these guys are the experts. They have built a brand from the ground up and after years of business, they understand exactly what their audience responds to and what marketing material encourages their interest in a product. So take note! You are also essentially building a brand, and without it your site cannot gain traction in the dating market and even if users register, you’ll find their propensity to pay much less because there is no trust or relationship with the site.
We’ve always said that social media is a key part in building a brand as it’s where your members can communicate with your site and essentially develop a positive relationship with your brand. However, don’t just rely on this as means of connecting with your user. Remember:
Marketing message- this is the first ever connection a user makes with your site, and essentially determines how they respond to your brand. If communication is clumsy, they’ll think your site isn’t reliable. If your marketing message says something different to the experience they receive, they’ll see you brand as a fraudster, and if they respond well to your ad, you don’t want them to land on a lousy looking homepage…
Site design- ok, so you have managed to pull in a user with a snappy, well targeted ad, so why trip yourself up on your homepage design? Daters have become more aware of the options out there, and so they do take in the copy and content on your homepage, the logo, the tagline. It’s all part of their decision to register and also further moulds their interaction with the brand. Ensure your site copy is relevant to your marketing copy, is easy to read and has good call to actions to ensure that registering to your dating site is as smooth and as simple as possible.
Site usability- WhiteLabelDating.com provides you with the best tools for an attractive and above all effective homepage. If you aren’t using our expandable registration form, why not? It encourages a better visit to registration rate and this result is of the user finding the form easier and less laborious to use. Ensure your search form defaults to show results based on the user you are targeting! If you find that more women than men join your site, make it easier for them to enter by defaulting results to show men – make the user feel like your site is catering to their needs specifically. Regional targeted marketing and regional targeted homepages also help towards this.
The reason media acquires and then converts users so well is because of their brand, and their brand is built by targeting a captive audience and fulfilling their needs with a good user experience, giving them a product that satisfies their wants and also matches their expectations. You determine all of this before with your marketing message so ensure you do it right!
As a result of their captive audience and previous good user experience, media brands always see conversion rates far exceed our network average. It’s all because the user has had a good experience in the past, and so assumes the dating site will match that, therefore they are more likely to upgrade to a full membership! We also have sites that have been with us for a while now, and as a result of their continued investment (daters see their ads more frequently), design updates and quality marketing campaigns (that match their end user experience), they too have built brands from the ground up and as a result their CPL, CPA and click to registration rates have all improved. So don’t just assume that media are the only ones who can build and then monetise a brand!
Take inspiration from brands that are looking to capture an audience similar to that of your dating site. Look at how they communicate with their users, what topics are relevant, the kind of questions and views their users express on their Facebook or Twitter page, forums, etc. Sign up to their newsletter to keep an eye on the kind of content they use and above all, if they have one, how they promote their dating site. And why stop there? The big dating players all have Facebook and Twitter pages, they have tried and trusted homepage designs which have been meticulously analysed right down to the placement of an image, so again, use them as inspiration!
Lauren Barnes, Partner Manager @ WhiteLabelDating.com.