Dating drives humanity with as much desire as unslaked thirst, unquenched hunger and dreamless sleep. It is a basic need, to bond, to seek out romance, to merge with others ... be it in the heated throes of a casual affair or the intimate devotion of a long-term relationship.
So it was, that with the inevitable rise of dating sites, there arose an equally fierce demand for software-as-a-service (SaaS) innovators like White Label Dating, which was co-founded by visionaries Steve Pammenter and Ross Williams.
A consistent driver of revenue growth on our platform is the extensive, highly targeted offer and engagement schedule that our customer engagement team sends to our members, which also has a significant impact on revenue growth.
Laser-focused on the greatest cost for dating businesses — customer acquisition — White Label Dating stepped forth to fill the void, with niched and tailored online dating services.
Utilizing peerless technology and highly-responsive customer support, not to mention a growing portfolio fueled by partners fielding brand and marketing costs, Pammenter and his associates acquired a stellar reputation, as well as a treasure trove of analytics ripe for datamining.
Yet, despite their enviable strength in the marketplace, White Label Dating never rests on its laurels, instead identifying new opportunities for optimization and monetization at every turn.
And, with Pammenter’s shrewd management skills and bold execution, partners are certain to reap the rewards of custom reporting and proactive suggestions for ever-expanding opportunities. Lest such a font of wisdom go untapped, XBIZ sought out the accomplished COO for this exclusive interview!
XBIZ: Tell us about your professional background prior to co-founding WhiteLabelDating.com. What led you to enter the online dating SaaS market?
Pammenter: In 2003, online dating had been in existence for around six years. There were a number of established dating businesses seeing success in the market, but attitudes towards online dating were very mixed. Early adopters flooded to the marketplace while others tentatively dipped their toes in the dating pool; the market was still in its infancy and its potential, seen in its later cataclysmic success, remained unknown by the majority. Undertaking a project for an online dating site with his web design agency, Rawnet, Ross Williams had the foresight to identify a gap in the market for an innovative and disruptive new online dating model.
The offerings from the well-established dating companies in 2003 were generic, using similar technology, and only differentiating from one another in their branding and choice of marketing channel. The greatest cost for these dating businesses was (and still is) customer acquisition.
As co-founders, Williams and I identified a demand for more niched, tailored online dating services. We discovered that acquisition costs were considerably lower for niche dating brands, making this a viable and profitable business model, so we made the decision to launch a performance-based white label model with plans to develop a portfolio of niche dating services, where partners provided the brand and marketing cost, and the company provided the technology and support. This service became White Label Dating.
Throughout the longest recession in economic history, the demand for the company’s products and services has continued to rise, while the online dating services division has continued to thrive.
XBIZ: What separates WhiteLabelDating.com from the competition in terms of analytics, customer relationship management, niching functionality, payment solutions and technology?
Pammenter: White Label Dating is well-regarded for offering a level of support and service that is unparallelled by any other dating provider. Our experienced account management team is skilled in helping our partners to grow their revenue by identifying new opportunities for optimization and monetization, providing custom reporting and analysis and proactively suggesting new brands and opportunities that will help partners grow their businesses.
We have two offerings for partners of White Label Dating — you can drive traffic to our existing portfolio of over 100 revenue share offers or you can create your own portfolio of sites. Our advanced niching functionality means we have hundreds of niche combinations to choose from; whether you want to launch your own diverse portfolio of sites spanning a variety of niches, or you want an exclusive bespoke offer for your traffic type, we have a solution to help you make money.
Having been around since 2003, partners and affiliates can rest assured that White Label Dating is a trusted and reputable partner — your investment will always be safe with us.
XBIZ: Niche dating sites often outperform general ones, doubling the retention rate in certain cases. Which niches have you observed generating the greatest revenues, among your 1700+ niche sites? What distinguishes the top performing brands from the rest? For a general dating site looking to capitalize on niche offerings, how can WhiteLabelDating.com help them out?
Pammenter: Niche dating sites are exceptionally valuable for generating high revenues, which is why White Label Dating can create an offer or a site for every niche. Popular niches on the company’s Casual network include cougar, MILF, dogging and BBW. The beauty of our software is that we can help our partners and affiliates successfully monetize their existing niche communities — whatever their focus.
We can also help existing Mainstream dating sites generate an additional 15 percent in incremental revenue by developing a comprehensive cross-registration strategy; we recommend that every partner creates multiple niche cross-registration sites to give them an opportunity to monetize non-converted registrations. Our experienced account management team can help partners find the right combination of niches for their portfolio.
XBIZ: You’ve worked with a variety of partners, ranging from media publishers to website owners. What are the unique challenges and/or advantages that radio and news organizations face in creating a successful dating site, vs. those whose business focuses exclusively on online dating? How do you cater to each?
Pammenter: Radio and news organizations typically do exceptionally well from running dating services, as the brand equity they’ve already built means their listeners or readers have a high propensity to invest in complementary branded services. As a result, brand traffic typically experiences very high conversion rates. The additional benefit that brands have is that they can use existing, and also unsold, ad spots to promote their dating services. This means that they’re not missing out on any revenue opportunities while developing a recurring revenue stream. The same is typically true of every service that serves a brand extension.
We are also seeing an increasing number of publishers adopt the same techniques to promote their dating site as our other partners and affiliates who exclusively operate dating sites. PPC and affiliate marketing remain highly profitable ways of promoting a dating site, and a number of our media partners are now using these channels to allow them to cast their net wider.
XBIZ: Earlier this year, you announced that conversion rates had increased by 15 percent on the Mainstream network by merging General and Mature niche networks. Tell us what inspired this move and how it has improved conversion rates at present. Any other strategic merging on the horizon?
Pammenter: We undertook the project to merge our General and Mature niche networks after one of our analysts identified an opportunity to increase engagement for the higher age range on the General network and for the lower age range on the Mature network. The goal was to enable a much greater pool of members to communicate with each other, enriching the user experience and increasing conversion.
We merged the two networks in November 2016 and as a result, conversion increased by 22 percent in the Mature age bracket, by 13 percent in the General age bracket, and members on the newly combined Mainstream network are benefitting from an enhanced user experience. We are now confident that we have the optimal performance levels across all of our networks.
XBIZ: Recently, you announced significant growth across your platform, including a 10 percent month on month uplift in daily registrations and a 33 percent increase in Casual conversion in the last year. To what degree did factors like your new niches — vegetarian, vegan and facial hair preferences — as well as an upgraded White Label Dating Design Tool, contribute to this success?
Pammenter: The upgraded White Label Dating Design Tool was a major contributing factor to helping us grow our revenues. The tool helps partners to create new dating sites, and cross-registration sites, quicker than ever before, meaning that they have the opportunity to capitalize on any new opportunities — like our latest new niches — as soon as they come up.
A consistent driver of revenue growth on our platform is the extensive, highly targeted offer and engagement schedule that our customer engagement team sends to our members, which also has a significant impact on revenue growth.
XBIZ: How does White Label Dating help affiliates take advantage of their traffic sources with detailed reporting, streamlined setup, infrastructure and a robust member database?
Pammenter: Our robust member database has registered over 55 million users to date so when affiliates send traffic to sites on our platform, they can be confident that the liquidity, customer engagement activity and merchandising all contribute to a high conversion rate.
Getting started with White Label Dating is simple. Affiliates can simply register at Affiliates.WhiteLabelDating.com and choose the offers they want to start sending traffic to, while partners can register at WhiteLabelDating.com and get started right away. Our experienced account management team is on hand to get them set up quickly and take care of implementing every available monetization opportunity, including adding cross-registration sites, campaigns and testing price points to find the optimal rates for your traffic.
In addition, we offer comprehensive reporting and postback functionality so you can feed our data directly into your own reporting system.
