Each month, XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.
Leveraging skills she mastered from years of mainstream marketing experience, Heather K. is hard at work growing the expanding base of fans and streamers on the recently launched adult camming platform ePlay.
From fostering organic brand ambassadors who can evangelize the site’s many offerings for monetizing interactions, to teaming up with specially chosen Key Club members, Heather has already risen from senior marketing manager to marketing director in her time at the company.
Founded by seasoned industry veterans, ePlay has made a name for itself as a haven for both NSFW creators and SFW personalities who are looking to take their Twitch and YouTube fandom into spicier territory with fewer restrictions.
Boasting a slew of gamified activities, cutting-edge web tech and enthusiastic models, Heather is well-equipped to take ePlay from start-up to big-time brand.
As the XBIZ Woman of the Month, she shares her unique strategies, perspectives and future ambitions in this WIA interview.
XBIZ: Describe your educational and professional background.
HEATHER: Prior to working for ePlay, most recently I managed large marketing teams within the events and wedding industry. With my continued roles as a senior marketing manager, I was often the external “face” of the companies I worked for. With that responsibility, I was given the opportunity to speak to and educate others on behalf of multiple brands.
Prior to this, I worked within the construction industry where I spent 10 years building my career path as I worked my way up from administrative assistant to senior marketing manager. I’m also the sole owner of a wedding photography business, which I’ve been able to successfully grow into a brand that two other employees are now managing.
Personal and professional growth has always been something I’ve been passionate about. While mainstream schooling certainly helped along the way, it’s been the hands-on experience working in the marketing trenches and networking that has led to the majority of my career advancements.
XBIZ: What led you to join the ePlay team?
HEATHER: After almost 15+ years of working within both B2B and B2C marketing departments for large brands, it was my goal to go back to my roots of working with startups. After interviewing for the social media manager position at ePlay, it was refreshing to know that my level of experience was needed, and so I was offered a senior marketing manager position instead, one that was created after I was interviewed.
I was intrigued by the ePlay brand, given I did not have prior experience in this space, and I was excited to be a part of the brand’s growth process. I was also highly motivated to join the ePlay team after finding out the organization not only supported, but also created an environment and community where all streamers and content creators were welcome to be who they are and who they want to be.
Representation and inclusion-for-all has been a passion of mine, both personally and professionally; I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to and educating others on this in the past.
XBIZ: How have your responsibilities and role grown over time, as the brand expands?
HEATHER: When I first joined ePlay, I was hired on to be the senior marketing manager. While the ePlay marketing team has been lean since I joined, it has increasingly become more efficient as we have been able to hire additional team members, both internally and externally via consultants who oversee social media, SEO and streamer support.
Over time, we have put into place additional processes and procedures to allow for a more seamless brand growth strategy, which includes global brand awareness, brand trust and platform stability. My role and responsibility have recently increased and advanced to marketing director of ePlay. I oversee both our internal and external marketing team members, the brand’s marketing and streamer acquisition efforts, as well as continue to drive the strategic planning for our expanding Key Club and ePlay community.
XBIZ: Discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities in marketing ePlay.
HEATHER: With any “new” brand, the biggest challenge is creating brand awareness that also includes brand trust. It is highly important to us here at ePlay that streamers and content creators know they are in control of their brand, their ePlay channel, who they are and who they want to be. We provide the tools that will allow each person who joins the ePlay community to become as successful as they wish to be.
XBIZ: How do you empower talent and foster brand loyalty, while building a sense of community?
HEATHER: People are craving community now more than ever. For businesses, this means that community is critical to future growth and success. However, in today’s culture, forming a community requires much more than simply gathering people together in the same place or accumulating a certain number of users on an app or site.
For us at ePlay, it’s imperative to listen to both the streamer and the fans, as we harness the power of the community from both the B2B (streamer) and B2C (fans) sides. This helps us to increase brand awareness, understand what streamers and fans are needing and expecting and improve our platform’s features, all while building brand loyalty.
Word of mouth is still the most effective way to raise awareness and grow a brand. In fact, it’s said that people are 84% more likely to trust a referral or recommendation if it comes from their friend, or in this case their favorite and already-trusted streamer! This ultimately means the importance of community is at an all-time high.
We empower our streamers to be the voice of their ePlay channel, offer the highest revshare within the industry (80% revshare + 10% referral) and provide the tools streamers need to know where their referrals are coming from, so that they are able to double down on their efforts.
We also encourage and help foster a positive streamer and fan connection on ePlay. We give streamers the power to block and remove inappropriate fans from their channels, which helps provide a safer community for both the streamers and fans alike.
Another way we’ve been able to build brand trust and brand loyalty is by having our Key Club member program, whose participants have helped build and grow an amazing fan base at ePlay that benefits the entire community. As a Key Club member, ePlay actively invests in their brand with social media, direct advertising, customized banners, landing pages, press releases and cross promotions. They also receive special consulting, training and dedicated account management from the ePlay team.
We believe it’s important to be heard, which is why our Key Club members have direct access to the ePlay executive team for feedback and improvements, plus early access to all new features and revenue opportunities!
XBIZ: What is your approach to attracting avid fans to the platform and ensuring they have a positive experience?
HEATHER: At ePlay, we make the online experience of interacting with streamers easy and exciting for all fans. With interactive games and multiple ways to interact with streamers, we positively reward people.
We provide 24/7 customer support that allows the fan to connect directly with our team if issues arise with their account or purchases on ePlay. We provide a stable platform where fans have the opportunity for exciting connections with streamers and content creators. All fan accounts are pre-verified before purchases can be made on the site, which prevents fraudulent charges and leads to fewer chargebacks.
We also put the fans’ experience at the top of our priority list by providing them with a wide range of different types of experiences to choose from. We encourage fans by giving them ample opportunity to connect with streamers and content creators they like.
XBIZ: Describe how you interface with other ePlay team members to plan, execute and assess strategies.
HEATHER: Planning is the key to our success! While ePlay is a fast-moving tech company, we know the importance of properly planning out our marketing strategies and outreach efforts in order to execute them with ease. We have weekly planning meetings with department heads from marketing, customer service, streamer recruiting, social media, business development and product development. With us all on the same page through the week, we are able to bring to life the overall business strategies that further promote continued growth for the company.
XBIZ: Are there any marketing campaigns you’re especially proud of, given their effectiveness?
HEATHER: Recently, we’ve been focusing our marketing efforts to include brand awareness for both streamers and fans. We’re offering up quick educational tips to help encourage and empower both the streamer and fan to connect and engage with each other during live streams and throughout the content creation process, along with monetization of content and private messaging. We’ve seen an increase in fans staying longer within live streams, tipping more and purchasing content from streamers. We’ve also seen an influx of streamers creating epic and authentic content and connections with their increasing fan base.
XBIZ: What kind of business-to-business partnerships do you pursue to drive traffic and revenues?
HEATHER: We are always looking for collaboration within the industry. One way, as mentioned previously, is through our Key Club; the mutual benefit for both ePlay and the Key Club member has proved to be highly successful. It’s important, when we are forging brand collaborations, that we find new and exciting opportunities not only for ePlay, but our streamers and fans too. Later in 2021 we expect to be launching our affiliate program, now that we have gathered sufficient data on customer behavior and have a better understanding of lifetime value.
XBIZ: Give us a glimpse of upcoming ePlay features or events that the community can look forward to.
HEATHER: Our latest feature, direct private messages, just launched recently. Our Key Club members who gained access to the feature have already seen an increase in revenue stemming from monetized private messages, as well as special content requests.
We are in the planning stages of putting together a “Gamers of ePlay” event. There’s a lot of really cool things coming with that, but I can’t divulge too much information just yet.
The only hint I’ll give about upcoming features is that there are a lot of innovative tools in the works that we are looking forward to launching later this year. It’s an exciting time at ePlay, with a ton of opportunities for streamers and fans to connect!
As the world continues to open back up, we are looking forward to being able to attend in-person shows, where we can continue to connect with streamers and content creators.
