Marketing drives sales.

That is the simple reason why marketing is important and necessary for all businesses, and especially for the matchmaking business. 

Let’s dive into the most common and deadly marketing mistakes matchmakers can make and how to avoid them. 


MISTAKE #1 – NOT HAVING A MARKETING PLAN

A common mistake most companies make is not having a marketing plan in place or just having a short-term marketing plan.

Imagine this: You’ve spent a lot of time researching the market and your competitors, designed a company logo, set the tone of your brand and identified your key selling feature as well as target audience – what a waste of time that would all be if it is not being promoted well. 

Planning in advance will help you to prioritize marketing strategies to reach your targeted market, allocate the budget required and map out long and short team actionable goals.

 

MISTAKE #2 – HAVING A NON-SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE

Naturally in the matchmaking industry, our target audience are singles. However, there are many types of singles in your city. Is your business expertise suitable for anyone and everyone who is single or should you consider narrowing it down further?

  • Is your service for men, women or both?
  • Are you targeting younger singles (early 20s – late 20s) or singles who are more established in their careers (mid 30s and above)?
  • Would your ideal clientele be people who have never married, divorced, widowed, have or do not have children?
  • What about your clients’ sexual orientation?
  • What are some of the requirements to join your membership e.g. earning a certain level of income or anyone who is able to afford your membership? 

The more you narrow down, the easier it is to create marketing collaterals that speak to your audience.


MISTAKE #3 – OVERPROMISING YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENTS

Overpromising looks like this, “The person we match you with will definitely walk down the aisle with you!” or “If you don’t get married, we’ll give you a refund!”.

To stand out from competitors, it is extremely tempting to do the above or an equivalent of overpromising something we are unable to deliver. After all, we know our clients and their motivations for joining us very well. Even if you are the world’s best matchmaker and someone who has a good sense of matching, there are bound to be other factors that come into play, which isn’t within your control. When you fail to deliver as promised two things will happen: 

  • You lose money. 
  • Your angry client spreads negative word-of-mouth causing you to lose your reputation (and money).


MISTAKE #4 – USING ONLY ONE TYPE OF MEDIUM

Since everyone is on Facebook and Google all day, might as well save some money and spend it only on digital marketing right? According to most experts, you should vary in the mediums you use for marketing. 

The impact of seeing a printed ad on the subway, magazine or even hearing an ad on the radio can still be effective in bringing in brand awareness and sales. 


MISTAKE #5 – NOT TRACKING THE RESULTS OF YOUR CAMPAIGN

If you do not track and analyze the data, you will never know what really worked and what didn’t. Knowing where to spend your marketing budget in do not only save you money but gives you more targeted and effective results. 

Hence, monitor your campaigns closely. 

Study the click-through-rate, its popularity, response and the quality of leads that is brought in from all marketing campaigns you’ve developed.

 

 

GET LIVE INSIGHTS!

We would like to invite you to participate in our London Global Love Conference from September 24 – 25, 2019! 

You’ll benefit from hearing about experiences with successful marketing strategies and efforts from these guest speakers: 

  • “Secrets to Generating Over 3,500 Media Appearances to Build Your Brand” by the first certified Matchmaker in Asia, Violet Lim
  • “Digital Marketing: How to Create a Successful Digital Campaign to Get 10X ROI” by the Co-Founder of Viola.ai and Lunch Actually Group, Jamie Lee
  • Online Celebrity Matchmaker, Carmelia Ray will also be part of a panel with media-familiar Dr. Terri Orbuch, Amari Ice and Violet Lim on the topic, “How to Get Your Own Dating Show/Reality Show. How to Get in the Press”.

Come join us! Grab your spot here: https://matchmakinginstitute.com/london-2019/

 

Written by Adrina Ong