Many of our partners run both general and “casual” dating sites. There’s a large market for both and most partners make the most of their member acquisition cost by cross-selling new members from one site to the other.
However, I was interested to see David Evans’ post at http://onlinedatingpost.com/archives/2008/03/truecom-no-more-faces/ commenting on True.com’s decision to run more adult/casual orientated advertising.
True.com has always been a premium dating site, focusing on scientific, psychological matching. They even say they’ll prosecute married people and criminals.
Why is it moving its brand towards casual dating? Well, the money, no doubt. As its market share has diminished it needs to raise revenues.
But rather than create a separate casual dating brand, it is diluting its own brand which had previously established itself in the high-end scientific matching area.
True.com should follow the lead of many of our partners and create multiple niche brands with superior conversions than a generic brand – then cross-sell members from one site to another to maximise revenue per member, whilst maintaining a single cost per member acquisition.