One effect of the past year or so of lockdown is that it has inspired many individuals to begin exploring their creative side. No longer tied to the daily commute to our places of work, and becoming familiar with the flexibility offered by using home computers, more and more people have been considering the potential of business startups. If you are one of these budding online entrepreneurs, you might have thought about running a dating service. After all, since the first digital dating site was launched in 1995, this is an industry that has continued soaring in popularity. Here are the key factors to be aware of.
Choosing your niche and brand
Dating websites cover such a diverse range of topics, you must decide which particular aspect you are going to cater for. While you can certainly focus on generic headings, there are already many platforms available to customers, meaning this is a crowded marketplace. A better option might be focusing on a niche area and giving this a unique slant. You also have to decide on a suitable name for your start-up, as well as your brand. Do you wish to invoke dating in your title, or go for something quirky – think of site titles like Zoosk or Bumble!
Creating a business plan
An important consideration is to draft an outline of your concept. Any new business requires to have in-depth planning before anything gets to the stage of designing web pages or purchasing a domain name. You need to ponder every aspect of how you intend to develop your business idea, factoring in everything from financial considerations to risk assessment. How will you fund your idea? Who is going to be involved at each stage of the process? How will you gauge how successful your business is in the longer-term, and what steps will you be taking to develop it?
Design a killer website
You could have the greatest idea in the world for your dating resource, but if your website doesn’t look attractive to casual browsers, no one is going to pay any attention to the actual content. Decide whether you wish to cut corners and use bespoke web design options – there are many templates available on the Internet that can be easily tailored and adjusted – or do you wish to invest in professional graphic design expertise? You also need to pay close attention to aspects such as integrating HD images, as well as font and color schemes.
Promotional tools
Once you have launched your business, promotion and development should be ongoing activities. The beauty of the online environment is you will have access to so many tools for getting your site noticed. If you are starting online dating business, it will make sense to add a blog segment where you will be posting different relationship advices and tips which will provide useful information to your potential customers along with you special offers. Your blog will help you develop an online presence, prove yourself an expert in an industry, and attract more quality leads to all pages of your site. You can take on board all sorts of advice about building and maintaining a parallel social media platform, taking advantage of Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to maintain interest in what you are offering your customers. Content should never be static either, so you should focus on regularly rejigging articles and layout, as well as providing incentives to your customer base.
Monetize your venture
If you want to make money out of your enterprise, you will have to decide how to monetize it. Most dating sites will allow free registration and access to basic features to attract new customers. But what functionality will only be available to paying customers? What fees will you charge? The financial transacting platform you introduce must be robust, trustworthy, and more than capable of encouraging customers to sign up for fee-paying membership schemes. This software have to be tested thoroughly before going live.