Marketing and online Dating

In the very unique industry of online dating, an e-business must use many marketing tools and techniques to catch the eyes of the business's audience. If the e-business is for some reason unable to accomplish this, the online dating sight will not last long. This section will discuss the marketing tools and techniques used by e-businesses in the online dating industry. There will also be a rating of the three most common online dating networks, rating many areas of the site from ease of use to customer service accessibility.

Few people will argue that online dating has become the preferred method to find dates, relationships, and possible soul-mates. eHarmony frequently advertises with the statistics that in one year they had 33, 000 people get married after meeting in its networking site. There are statistics out that predict that more than 100,000 people get married each year after meeting in a dating network. (Tracey, 2005) With statists like these, one can see why there would be so much high pressure to win curious newcomers. There are marketing tools and techniques used to win them over. These online dating sites have done many things correct.

Picking the best market audience is very important to online dating sites. Sites such as eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com market to the 35 and up group where Match.com tends to focus on the younger, Myspace generation of daters. These audiences play a very important part when analyzing marketing techniques because each audience appeals to a different form of marketing. An older generation does not look for as flashy or trendy of a page design where a younger generation may be bored without the coolest tricks. Chemistry.com has stepped out of the box with new ideas that really appeal to the youth. They have developed a "First Date Planning" module that will help newly met daters plan the first date. Even though it takes a simple approach of meeting at a coffee shop or local cafй, it breaks the ice for both parties. After the first date, the subscriber has the option to go in and input feedback and details about the date. This data is a reference only for the subscriber and is used to determine what the subscriber really is looking for in a partner. After filling out the personal notes, it allows the subscriber to send a message back to the person to let them know if her or she would like to continue dating or not. It is a tool that attracts many people to them over their dating service. All online dating sites carefully pick their audiences and market to them appropriately through forms of media. eHarmony advertises on television more where match.com is more likely to advertise online or on radio stations (Tracey, 2005).

All the sites give a prospective customer to the ability to create a temporary profile and see possible matches. Many of these profiles ask so many questions that the user is ready to see the results for all the time and effort that many people purchase just to see the results. After creating the profile, the sites typically don't allow the prospect to view the matches or match details until after they have subscribed or signed up (Tracey, 2005).

Some of the online dating websites are using promotions such as "Money Back Guarantee" if the subscriber is unable to find a match within a specific amount of time. Match.com uses a 14 day money back guarantee and eHarmony offer an additional 6 months of the service free if the subscriber has not found a suitable mate after about 6 months. The problem with these guarantees is that they are not easy to figure out how to obtain them. The sites all make the member really dig to find them and the prober way to claim them (Tracey, 2005).

Many of the online dating sites are marketing that they can provide a subscriber the perfect match through