The paramount questions addressed by moderator Patrick Curran of CCBill were how to tap into the mainstream marketing space, what techniques to use in branding gay websites in magazines and other offline outlets, and how, in some cases, cross-pollinating gay and straight content can help fortify traffic conversions and broaden a particular niche audience.
Sharing trade tips on gay site marketing were Lisa Turner of Bad Puppy, Rainey Stricklin of Pride Bucks, Brian Dunlap of Bionic Pixels, Reena Patel of Naked Sword, Karl Edwards of Bedfellow and Andy Fair of Dirty Boy Video.
Stricklin started by saying that often straight website owners end up venturing into the gay market almost as an afterthought and without any fully developed site plan, and she urged those website operators to get to know the market and what works and what doesn’t before expecting results. She also stressed the difference between branding gay sites in the consumer market as opposed to within the gay adult community, which she said is more open to sex and more apt to be responsive to marketing campaigns.
“What distinguishes the gay market is that it is inherently more sexualized than the straight market,” Dunlap of Bionic Pixels said. “This opens up more marketing and product promotion options.”
Turner from Bad Puppy said her company uses a wide spectrum of advertising and branding techniques including print advertising in both gay and straight magazines, and sponsoring events like gay rodeos and the Gay Men’s Chorus.
“These are all very important for name recognition and branding,” Turner told seminar attendees, adding that spreading an advertising budget across many outlets is very important, instead of spending it all on one huge ad or radio spot. She also added that Bad Puppy is careful to customize advertisements to the overall flavor and style of the branding outlet in order to blend in, going so far as to choose models that are similar to other models used in the publication and being spare and specific in ad word verbiage in order to target consumers.
Although Fair said that for his sites, particularly Straightboysfucking.com, he tries to be as unconventional as possible, which he feels is a more suitable statement for the type of content he features.
Edwards of Bedfellow agreed that continuously reinforcing the brand is crucial so that when a user finally arrives at the website, it is the result of some other branding source, and Patel of Naked Sword said that offering up consistent ad content over a long period of time has yielded good results for her company.
Patel pointed out that website operators should realize that with most long term success, they should expect overhead costs when venturing into offline marketing, and that just because they have developed a premium website, it will cost money in the long run to secure branding and tap into alternative ad sources.
“Be specific in what you are presenting,” Edwards said. “Times are tough. Kiss babies if you have to, but whatever you do, get the word out there. If you have a good product then your job at marketing will be a lot easier.”
Edwards added that he felt that gay men marketing content to gay men was usually more successful in his view because of a stronger affinity for knowing what the sexual triggers and keys to gay male desire were. However, several of the panelist disagreed, feeling that it isn’t even necessary to be gay to market gay content; it just takes feedback from gay peers and a strong commitment to understanding what surfers are looking for.
“There is a huge range of preferences,” Stricklin said. “And they are all successful for a number of specific reasons, mainly having to do with the successful conversion of traffic. You just have to understand what your ultimate goals are.”
One audience member added that today, sexuality among younger generations is very fluid, which make it easier to cross promote gay and straight content.
Wrapping up the hour-long seminar, Dunlap encouraged attendees to develop content that turns them on personally and show surfers that the product being marketed to them is authentic and real.
“Give credit to the surfers,” he said.
