You hear it all the time: "Get more traffic!" But what exactly does that mean to you, the adult Webmaster? It means that if you want to stay in business, you need to keep buyers interested in your stuff – and that means letting the buyers know that you have stuff to be interested in. This is called "marketing."
There are four competing Marketing Strategies in the Adult Industry.
- The "Cheap and Plentiful" Marketing Strategy
- The "Designer Glitz" Marketing Strategy
- The "Sell-Sell-Sell" Marketing Strategy
- The "Ground Zero" Target Marketing Strategy
The "Cheap and Plentiful" Marketing Strategy
"It's Porn – they'll buy it." This strategy assumes that everybody already wants it, so make it cheap and stick it in their faces until they buy it. This method of marketing centers on website replication and wide distribution. They make loads of cheap and fast, carbon-copy websites and scatter them across tons of different domain names. The idea being that the surfer couldn't possibly avoid spending money on their sites – because the sites are unavoidable. This is often combined with "we're cheaper" attitude. Think: The gas station on every corner.
The "Designer Glitz" Marketing Strategy
This is the "If you build it – they will come." philosophy based on the idea of the "superior product." The idea is that if you offer quality, you will get quality sales; riding on the assumption that if it's expensive, then that is what the buyer is looking for. These "designer" webmasters build one, or a small selection of massive, incredibly gorgeous and very expensive websites – with very expensive content. This also shows the: "We're prettier therefore we're obviously better" attitude that may in actuality, be far from the truth. Think: the really expensive designer grocery store.
The "Sell-Sell-Sell" Marketing Strategy
This advertising-heavy "Buy this NOW!" style believes that the surfers won't buy their smut – if they don't hammer them over the head with it. This webmaster initiates an aggressive selling and promotion effort such as spam and millions of pop-ups, to belabor viewers into making a purchase. Think: TV ads, plus radio ads, plus magazine ads, plus billboards.
These first three viewpoints focus on greed – the desire to convert a site into an overnight cash-cow and make a fast buck. The emphasis is on pushing what content they have to everybody they can reach, rather than finding out what market might actually be looking for their product.
These are a short-term outlooks that do make money fast – and go downhill from there. All three of these marketing strategies take aggressive, exhaustive and expensive selling and promotion programs to maintain profit levels.
The "Ground Zero" Target Marketing Strategy
"I have what you already want." This is a long-term plan designed around customer retention: if they know you have it they'll come back to you for more. The "Ground Zero" target marketing strategy focuses on the prospective buyers and their needs, rather than the webmaster's bank roll. The idea is to offer prospective viewers exactly what they are looking for. The trick is knowing: Who wants what you have?
The "Ground Zero" Target Marketing strategy rests on four pillars:
- Seek - Identify the buyer for your specific content.
- Adapt - Determine what that buyer is looking for – and provide for those needs.
- Overcome - Integrate your marketing techniques.
- Conquer - Make money – and keep making money.
Now that you have an understanding of the various types of marketing strategies, it's time to take a look at the steps for implementing your target marketing strategy. Stay tuned!
