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Marketing and dating have a lot in common. They both involve putting yourself out there in a crowd of strangers with the objective of trying to win that special person over. Of course, one is for love and one if for money – but the way in which you achieve both is similar. If you have experience dating, but not experience Marketing, this could be something to consider. Below are a few ways in which marketing can be treated like dating in order to achieve success. 

It’s all online now

Marketing and dating are now done primarily online. It’s been this way for a while, but as marketing expert Joey Armstrong points out, the pandemic has really solidified this trend by forcing us to spend more time online. If you haven’t got an online presence, now could be the time to build one. An online presence is more than a website – ideally you should be considering strategies like Social Media marketing, PPC marketing, blogging and SEO too. 

Use your best photo

A business has to have immediate visual appeal. Just as it’s important to use your best photos when setting up an online dating profile, you should think about the way you project your brand image on your website and Social media pages. It’s worth paying professionals to take unique photos of your product and team and to pay professional designers to handle all the graphics. It’s also important to keep your branding looking fresh – just as you shouldn’t use a photo on your dating profile from 10 years ago, you also shouldn’t be using the same website design from 10 years ago. 

Find a connection

Initiating a date involves finding a connection. Generic openers and chat-ups lines will get you nowhere. The same goes for connecting with new customers. Instead of trying to rely on generic tactics, try to personalise your marketing towards different consumers. If you’re trying to promote your personal training service, think about how you can appeal to different demographics – clients in their 20s will be looking to improve their fitness for different reasons to clients in their 50s. 

Be wary of trolls and stalkers

If dating goes wrong, you can end up getting hassled by trolls and stalkers. A similar thing can happen with marketing – you could end up being hassled by people leaving negative social media comments or bad reviews (which may or may not be sincere) or by people continuously posting spam on all your social media posts. Be prepared for this unwanted attention and try to diffuse it as quickly as you can. This guide by Hanson Cheng offers some advice on how to protect your business from trolls. 

Nurture your relationships

A successful date can lead to a relationship. If you want this relationship to last, you have to nurture it. The same goes for marketing. Once you’ve won over a customer, the journey doesn’t end here. You need to keep your customers happy by nurturing your relationship with them. Loyalty marketing strategies can be a way of retaining your customers. This could include sending promotions via email mailing list, introducing loyalty points schemes or keeping customers updated on social media. 

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