Usage in the online dating category might be down, but revenues are up. Why? Because most of the prominent sites are subscription based with members paying up to $30 a month to use their service. With advertising revenues dropping over the course of this year, any subscription based business that provides true value to their customers will be in better position to weather the storm ahead. Still, what most online dating sites have not done is developed a Partnership Strategy to acquire new customers or members aside from using traditional direct marketing channels and leverage other sites with large and relevant demographic profiles to do so. It starts with understanding who your demographic profiles are and looking to effectively target those users somewhere else. Here is a recent study from emarketer on who is using online dating sites:
Given that the demographic of online daters is now pretty evenly spread from 18-64, it does provide the online dating service provider with many options for partnership. Partnering with other sites to acquire a new customer by way of a special offer and promoting their proposition in return is certainly more cost effective than advertising on your own. I know that Lavalife is looking more and more in to this strategy - should be interesting to see how this plays out.
Ron has extensive knowledge of sales, partnership marketing, account management, business development, affiliate marketing, brand licensing and channel marketing, including working on programs with companies like Wal-Mart, Dell Computer, Carphone Warehouse, Hewlett Packard and Choice Hotels who have all reaped the benefits from the strategic programs that he has created. Over the last few years Ron has worked with leading North American companies that include 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Coastal Contacts, Aeroplan, Linens N Things, Ubisoft, The ALDO Group, NASDAQ OMX, Roscan, Export Development Canada, Cardinal Watches, Track It Back, DiscoverWare and MBNA-Bank of America and has helped them generate incremental revenue, acquire new customers, open new marketing and distribution channels and add value to their existing propositions.
Ron is in great demand as a public speaker and can be regularly heard speaking passionately on his areas of expertise at various seminars and events from leading associations. Ron has been featured in several publications including The Sponsorship Report, Marketing Magazine, The Advisor and Les Affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Concordia University, a Graduate Certificate in Marketing from McGill University, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom and is a B2B Council Member of the Canadian Marketing Association. In his spare time, Ron likes to spend time with his wife, travel the world, play drums in his band and attend his weekly recreational ice hockey game.
I don’t use online dating, but I would assume that services like this would be among the first hit – $30/mo back in your pocket is hard to pass up during times like this!!
Ron Kunitzky
January 31, 2009 at 11:11 am
It is pretty steep, yet some higher profile sites do charge that in some of their monthly plans.
$30, as if people pay that! I thought these would be hit pretty hard to be honest.
Ron Kunitzky
February 3, 2009 at 9:32 am
They pay “up to $30” a month and some sites do have plans at that rate. There are free ones to. You can check out OKCupid.com, for example. The level of service and matchmaking capability and interaction ranges from one site to the next.
Well, one must realize that they are all giving up a certain amount of server load and bandwidth to “tease” the internet dater into the mouse trap. The join!
Once the join happens, there are upsells all over the place. Now, from a business stand point, rock on…if you can upsell your existing customer base, power to you.
The power of online dating has grown tremendously and from a partnership standpoint, dating sites will convert traffic that traditional sites may not be able to monetize for a variety of reasons.
But I would negotiate with each prospective dating company you are entertaining and they will all cut deals based on volume and even conversion.
Also, if anyone needs to question weather or not Internet Matchmaking is ready for partnership or not…should check out a conference that’s been around now for about 2 years called “iDate”. It’s thrown by a guy who gets the dating space and is seeing it grow exponentially.
Once the join happens, there are upsells all over the place. Now, from a business stand point, rock on…if you can upsell your existing customer base, power to you.
If you take adult dating sites for example, they can afford to pay their affiliates up to $130 per signup so I guess $30 is very cheap for certain types of dating sites.
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$30/month is way too much. I can’t believe people pay that.
I don’t use online dating, but I would assume that services like this would be among the first hit – $30/mo back in your pocket is hard to pass up during times like this!!
It is pretty steep, yet some higher profile sites do charge that in some of their monthly plans.
$30, as if people pay that! I thought these would be hit pretty hard to be honest.
They pay “up to $30” a month and some sites do have plans at that rate. There are free ones to. You can check out OKCupid.com, for example. The level of service and matchmaking capability and interaction ranges from one site to the next.
Well, one must realize that they are all giving up a certain amount of server load and bandwidth to “tease” the internet dater into the mouse trap. The join!
Once the join happens, there are upsells all over the place. Now, from a business stand point, rock on…if you can upsell your existing customer base, power to you.
The power of online dating has grown tremendously and from a partnership standpoint, dating sites will convert traffic that traditional sites may not be able to monetize for a variety of reasons.
But I would negotiate with each prospective dating company you are entertaining and they will all cut deals based on volume and even conversion.
The answer is always “No” unless you ask!”
Also, if anyone needs to question weather or not Internet Matchmaking is ready for partnership or not…should check out a conference that’s been around now for about 2 years called “iDate”. It’s thrown by a guy who gets the dating space and is seeing it grow exponentially.
Once the join happens, there are upsells all over the place. Now, from a business stand point, rock on…if you can upsell your existing customer base, power to you.
Some people are really paying that $30 just for online dating. Sounds different.
If you take adult dating sites for example, they can afford to pay their affiliates up to $130 per signup so I guess $30 is very cheap for certain types of dating sites.