Do You Know Your Customers?
How often do you see crazy advertisements on the Internet that say things like “Get Paid for Your Opinions”, “Make Money Doing Surveys”, or “Earn Cash by Answering Questions”. These types of advertisements are everywhere, and most of them have people wondering how in the world they could possibly make money by filling out a ten-minute questionnaire. I mean, is someone’s opinion really worth money? Of course, it is, and more than you know.
A person’s demographics, opinions, and preferences are extremely valuable resources to any company. How do you think a car company such as Ford chooses what new features to put into a car? How do you think a food company like Kraft knows if a new product line will be popular with consumers? How does McDonalds figure out if customers will like a new sandwich they want to try? All of these companies use marketing tools such as questionnaires, focus groups, surveys, opinion polls, etc. to obtain information from consumers. They then take the data that they collect to determine things such as the demographics, preferences, and tastes of customers, both current and potential. This aids them in reshaping their current products, or developing new ones.
These kinds of marketing data tools are not just useful in the mainstream world, but in the online adult industry as well. What other measure do you have to figure out if your website is suitable for your audience, other than sales? Of course, if you are making sales than your website is doing something right, but there is a possibility that you could bring even more sales in, just by figuring out your customers wants and needs. If you are a paysite owner, these types of marketing tools could help you figure out which content your customers like and dislike, what content they would like to see, what features of your site they like or dislike, etc. You could also use market research to get into the minds of potential customers to find out what they are looking for in an adult site. The data that you would get from this type of research is very valuable.
So, how do you get information about your customers when you never see or meet them, talk to them, or even know their names? Well, it is actually very easy. First of all, you should know that most people do not take the time to give information about themselves unless they are getting some kind of reward or incentive. You may want to consider offering your current customers something like an extra free week at the expiration of their membership, points towards rewards, or an entry into a drawing for money or prizes, in return for their information and opinions. If you are looking to target potential clients, you can consider giving them a free day’s access in return for their cooperation.
Once you have some kind of incentive established, you will need to figure out what kind of information you are looking to get from your customers. Typical things you will want to find out can include the following:
• Age
• Sex
• Location
• Job
• Income Level
• Content preferences (video, pictures, live, stories, etc.)
• Where they access the site (home, work)
• Connection Speed
• Computer Type
• How often they spend at the site
• What things they like or dislike about the site
• Price (do they feel membership is too much, too little)
• What improvements they think should be made to the site
• What they are looking for in a site (if they are not a member yet)
• Niche preferences (teen, lesbian, amateur, etc.)
• Which other sites they belong to or enjoy
These are just examples of things that you can ask in your market research. The choices are really up to you.
Next, you need to determine how you are going to approach your members. There are numerous things that you can do to find out the scoop on your customers. You could have a pop up window when your members enter the site that describes what kind of reward they could get if they just fill out a short survey. You could have a button on your site that says “Get Rewarded for your Opinion”. You could have a rating system on your site so that members could rate which content they like or dislike. If you are targeting potential customers, you may want to consider purchasing exit traffic from another site and having a window that says something like “Earn Prizes by telling us What Turns You On”.
So, what do you do with the marketing data once you collect it? Once you feel that you have sufficient data, you should then put all the answers into some kind of database program where you can analyze it easily. From your market research you should be able to determine what the general demographics are of your customers and potential members. You will be able to figure out if your site’s content is enough for your members or if you need more or even if you need to get rid of some. You will also be able to figure out what kind of computers and Internet connections your members are using and this will help you determine what site design changes you may need to make. You should even be able to determine who your biggest competition is.
The bottom line is that market research is a very valuable tool, even in the online porn industry. By getting in touch with your customers needs and wants, you will ensure that you are delivering the best site possible. Just by conducting a simple thing such as a survey, you could improve your site, and in turn improve your profits.
