The Bank Holiday Definitely Delivered

We promised you good things from the Bank Holiday weekend and we haven’t let you down!

Bank Holiday weekends always provide great opportunities for your site(s). There is so much potential for extra visitors and higher conversion rates and this August Bank Holiday proved to be no exception.

Bank Holiday Monday was the highest grossing UK revenue day since March this year, those extra conversions really paid off! This is great news for you and your site(s) and just shows that spending that little extra bit of time maximising your online spend really does pay off.

It wasn’t only the August Bank Holiday that saw great results. Overall August has been a very profitable month. It was the best month for the number of online members we have ever seen on the White Label Dating platform!! This is an amazing statistic and clearly shows that online dating is getting more and more popular, thus making your site more and more populated which helps increase your member’s chances of finding a partner - so winners all round!

We look forward to seeing more results like these for September and the rest of 2010!

Customer Care Just Carries on Improving

In the past month we have introduced two very important departments to the customer care team. We are pleased to announce we now have a retention team who are at hand to assist all members with cancelling subscriptions or any queries regarding cancellations. This new cancellation process allows members to cancel their membership with us when needed over the phone, the process is instant and the member will receive instant confirmation after speaking to a representative via our free phone telephone line.

We have also introduced a new fraud department to the team, this allows the Customer care team to concentrate more on our members whilst the fraud team are on hand to filter out fraudulent activity on the site and remove any members from the site that are not using the service as intended. This will make all of our sites a more enjoyable and safer place for our genuine members to be.

The Number One Event for Interactive Marketing

It’s that time of the year again…ad:tech time! We are not exhibiting at this year’s London show but have just secured our place at ad:tech New York which is taking place on 3rd and 4th November at the Javits Convention Center - New York.

ad:tech is the number 1 event for interactive marketing. The Digital Marketing Conference for today’s marketing leaders, an event not to be missed if you can help it!

As mentioned, we will not be exhibiting at the London show, but we will definitely be attending as it’s such a great event for the online marketing and advertising community. The London event is taking place on Tuesday 21st September and Wednesday 22nd at The National Hall, Olympia.

If you can get to ad:tech London, try and attend some of the workshops as well as having a wander around the exhibition. You can pick up some great tips and it’s a great networking event!

We are really excited to be exhibiting at the New York show! It will be a great opportunity to connect with our US market. If you are lucky enough to be heading to New York around the same time, be sure to drop in, we would love to see you!

One Final Reminder

With it now being September we wanted to give you one last reminder about the Partner Awards 2010. With the closing date being September 30th you still have a few weeks left to really put your all into your site(s) and campaigns.

Go that last extra mile, it will all be worth it if you win one of the 5 star trips up for grabs or any of the other top prizes going! Have to say we are a little jealous of what is up for grabs!

So go on, give yourself that one last push!

Good Luck!

Don’t be a Stranger

You don’t have to wait another whole month until you hear about our new updates and news. You can receive regular updates on our blog, twitter and facebook page. We want to hear from you to understand what you like about our newsletters and what you think would be useful for the future, so be sure to get in touch.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop me a note.

Kindest Regards,

Francesca Heath

fheath@whitelabeldating.com

WhiteLabelDating.com

 Computer Business Review’s Gary Flood takes a look at how dating is rapidly changing our digital landscape. With Global Personals’ company sites receiving 6 million visitors per day plus a huge 85 million unique page views being logged last month, Flood speaks to Global Personals founder and CEO Ross Williams about the issues that surround the industry:

Williams says there are issues in the industry but that his firm takes great pains to avoid them. “Some dating sites outsource too much and have moderation teams in different parts of the world and so on so they don’t take enough care to validate responses and check that each profile or first message is from a genuine person and has the content it should be,” he says. “There are some unethical practices out there that do need stamping out. But for us, customer service is paramount so we take care to try and prevent this as much as possible”.

…What we have here is a great UK technology company growing and doing well, plainly. Williams also stresses that the last thing he’d do is outsource his technologists, either; he says the fact that they can have coffee in the same kitchen as his customer service or business development people is a huge bonus for the company in terms of innovation and dealing with problems.

- Click here to read the article in full -

Best Weekend Of The Year For You

As you’ll be aware, we always advise maximising advertising investment at times that you anticipate a larger captive audience. Therefore, it should be great news that this weekend sees the following:-

- An anticipated rainy Bank Holiday

- The end of the month

- Payday for most people

There’s never been better potential for visitors to your site(s) to convert to full paying members - ramping up your revenue for the month. To take full advantage of this Bank Holiday revenue potential, you’ll need to maximise your online spend to achieve the best possible results.

Opportunity Knocks

With Sunday traditionally being the best converting day of the week, this should be further enhanced by the extra day’s Bank Holiday. If you’re unsure as to the best way to increase your marketing spend, feel free to contact your Partner Manager today who will be waiting to take your call to help.

Relax!

With so much potential, we know that it can be easy to spend all day checking your revenue figures! That’s why we’d encourage getting everything set up today so that you can relax and enjoy the results of the long and rainy weekend.

Rain clouds have never looked as good!

Best Wishes

Your White Label Dating Team

www.whitelabeldating.com

It’s with much pleasure that we’re able to announce our latest partnership with an exciting new publisher.

The Independent are the most recent of many large publishers to recognise the potential revenue available by offering their readers value added services such as dating. We’re delighted to be able to going into this joint venture together and look forward to outstanding results.

Renowned as being the best white label dating provider in the UK, it’s no wonder we remain the publisher’s number one choice! The Independent will be in good company, joining many other well known publishers such as The National Magazine (NatMags), Dennis Publishing, Bauer Media, J Media and Future Publishing.

We look forward to bringing you more details of the partnership shortly, so watch this space.

Dating4Divorced.co.uk was featured in the article, 10 new ways to meet a man which talks about matchmaking techniques for 2010. It included pulling with a pooch, having a tweet-up, different dating ideas and of course online dating. Lorna Harris, a divorcee and mum of four talks about her success and what fun she had when she joined up to Dating4Divorced.co.uk.

Sign ups for the site soared yesterday after being featured in fabulous magazine, it just shows what those Sunday morning papers can do for you!

You can check out the article online. Well done Dating4Divorced.co.uk, keep up the good work!

What better time to reflect on performance over the last month? So take a few moments out of your busy schedule to hear all about the last month’s developments.

Messages in Their Millions!

July was one of our busiest ever months for online member communications.  Between the 1st and 28th July on average 1,026,631 messages were sent per day!! Of course, more messages mean greater engagement which ultimately improves the experience of members on the site and keeps them paying for longer.

To support all of this additional online activity, our Customer Support Team have been working harder than ever to make sure that they’re on hand for any questions members have.

Take that Step…Go International!

We know that one of the biggest challenges can be standing out from the crowd in an industry that sees new sites launching every week. However, our International territories continue to go from strength to strength as they make the most of less mature markets.

For months now, we’ve been talking about the successes of the South African market, but Wednesday 28th July  turned out to be the best revenue day EVER for our South African partners! Go SA! This just goes to show that the market continues to grow and is showing no signs of saturation to date.

In the past month alone we have had many different sites launch internationally due to their UK success. A few of these sites include:

www.mylovebuddy.co.za

www.datingfuntonight.com/SouthAfrica

www.wrmdating.com/South_africa.html

The site www.wrmdating.com has done particularly well. Last month the conversion rate for the UK site was 24% with the South Africa site growing at 26% and the Australian site growing 34% compared to last month. For a site which has only recently spread its wings over to the SA and AU it’s really showing great potential!

With such strong growth in the market, we’d recommend speaking to your partner manager today to learn what the network could offer to you and how you can grow your existing portfolio of sites to maximise your revenue potential.

New Dedicated Mature Network

With the number of active internet users growing amongst older generations and the average lifetime of the population increasing, there are more mature singles now than ever before.

Following significant investment in research into the online dating market, results show that there are over 1,592,000 potential over 50s online daters. With more disposable income (75% lie in an affluent socio-demographic band A-C1) and time on their hands, online dating is proving to be an increasingly popular method of meeting new people.

After conducting this research we decided to meet this demand, and are pleased to announce that we successfully launched a targeted network exclusively for these individuals. This network specifically caters for the mature market and provides a community tailored to meet their needs, free from the inconveniences that come with sharing the site with much younger members. They also benefit from a tailored CRM programme and promotions.

Following the launch, the initial performance has been very encouraging and we look forward to seeing this go from strength to strength as new members join these bespoke sites. Should you wish to find out more about this new network and the benefits that it could bring to you, please speak to your Partner Manager today who will be happy to discuss this with you.

Suspicious Members & New Search Functionality

We have recently introduced a ‘Mark As Suspicious’ button into our Moderation Tool. This allows our moderators to track a profile that may look a little suspicious but not enough to reject it completely. Once this button is clicked, we are able to run a report to keep an eye on the activity within the profile to ensure that the member is genuine. What a fantastic way to stop those nasty scammers ruining your members dating experience!

After reviewing member feedback, we decided it was time to update the search facility. We don’t want your members having to search through page after page of unsuitable members, so we’ve introduced new ways to narrow down their search. They are now able to search using the following options:

• Name
• Age
• Last Online
• Latest joined
• Newest video
• Newest photo

So far the feedback has been fantastic. We recognise that making the member experience the best that it can possibly be, the lifetime of membership is lengthened and thus revenue per member increases. Good news all round!

Just Another Reminder…

Just another little reminder about the up and coming Partner Awards 2010! You would have recently received a email about the awards, the categories and the prizes and I’m sure you think the same…it’s definitely one not to be missed!

With the closing date being the end of September, there’s still time to make a difference and secure your tickets to an all expenses paid holiday of a lifetime.

Check out our blog for the most recent news and updates on the awards.

Thanks for Reading

Hope you have got your WLD intake for the month.

You can keep up to date with the goings on of WLD at our blog, and remember to follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates and news.

Be sure to get in touch if you have any questions regarding anything in this month’s newsletter, or if there’s anything you wish to discuss.

As always thanks so much for reading, and see you next month, enjoy the start of those summer holidays now wont you!

Kindest Regards,

Francesca Heath

fheath@whitelabeldating.com

WhiteLabelDating.com

With the closing date being the end of September, there’s still time to make a difference and secure your tickets to an all expenses paid holiday of a lifetime.

The Categories

Two months is plenty of time to secure your place as Partner Of The Year, but don’t forget there are plenty of other categories too. Let us take this opportunity to remind you:-

1. Partner of the Year*

2. Biggest UK Revenue Growth*

3. Biggest International Revenue Growth*

4. Most Successful Casual Site

5. Best Converting Site

6. Best Site for Retention & Lowest Churn

7. Best Site for Re-Initials

8. Best Site for Lifetime Value

9. Best Site Design

10. Best Marketing Campaign

For more details on each of the categories and what you can do to help secure your place, be sure to speak to your Partner Manager today!

The Prizes

With such great prizes on offer, we’re sure that you don’t need reminding, but just in case, let us whet your appetite…

The winners of the top three categories; Partner of The Year, Biggest UK Revenue Growth and Biggest International Revenue Growth will receive an all expenses paid* trip to either Miami, New York, Las Vegas or Dubai, the choice is yours!

Other prizes include high tech gadgets, vintage champagne and a weekend away in a top London hotel. These awards are unprecedented in the industry, but we recognise the need to reward you for your hard work and determination and we’re delighted that so many of you are grasping the opportunity with both hands.

Give your campaigns that extra push in these last few weeks and it could be you jet setting off on that 5* holiday!

It Could be YOU

There really is no reason why YOU can’t be our “Partner of the Year” 2010. We’re here to help you go for that one last push which we know could make all the difference!

Plans are already being made for this year’s Partner Conference and we are really excited to announce the Partner Awards there this year.

If you wanted to have a chat about the awards, your current position and what you need to do to secure your place, your Partner Manager will be at the end of the phone waiting to take your call.

Good luck and don’t underestimate how much work you can do in just 2 months!

Francesca Heath

www.WhiteLabelDating.com

*All expenses paid includes flights, accommodation and £1000 spending money

Query of the week:

With Summer here and everyone jetting off on their holidays our members are in the mood to upload some of their best holiday snaps! Whether it will be sipping cocktails by the pool, relaxing on the beach or showing off their Jet Ski skills uploading new and recent photos are a great way to get their profile noticed and to increase their success on the site. Photos are just as important as the personal profile in finding the perfect relationship, a Full Member can upload up to 10 photos and as the saying goes a picture says a thousand words……

So here is a few tips we give our members for those perfect profile photos;

Girls

Tip 1.

The head shot, it’s all about eye contact and flirting! Smiling sweetly does work but is not quite as effective as flirting with the camera.

Tip 2.

Women get great results from “the universally maligned MySpace Shot” the hold your phone above your head and click look. So girls, if you’re looking to get some extra messages the simple “MySpace Shot” is “the single most effective photo type for women”. Get involved girls!

Tip 3.

Finally bringing pets back into the mix, unlike guys girls should stay far away from posing with our furry friends as it can rapidly drop your repossess, it’s even worse then posing with a drink. Ladies, you have been told. Hopefully these results have given you a bit of help and guidance on what to do for your profile picture. So go get snapping!

Boys

Tip 1.
Another thing to take into account is what you have on. If you decide not to flaunt your bare chest, the results showed that men who dress more casual come out higher than those who made more of an effort. So I think the moral is boys, lose the shirt or lose the tie!

Tip 2.
Right then, onto that all important face shoot. According to the survey the best look for guys is to not smile and to look away from the camera. That sounds easy enough hey?

Tip 3.
A pet, posing with one is a huge plus for a guys profile. It’s apparently nearly as good as showing off those abs! So whether it’s your little pooch you pose with or the neighbours cat get a cute fluffy animal involved, they can work wonders for you!

Tip 4.
One final tip to add is to try and do something interesting in your pic. Us girls are suckers for a musician, a pic of a guy playing a guitar for example can make a girl become interested in you without even reading your profile. Always a good start! Hopefully these results have given you a bit of help and guidance on what to do for your profile picture. So go get snapping!”

Customer Satisfaction Rate:

98.3%

This Weeks Good Feedback:

Sandra from Fish Dating UK

“Just wanted to thank all of you up in the back of beyond for taking us girls seriously when we have doubts re a members credibility.
You have deactivated a potential scammer from your site after my report..
Thank you for making this a safe place for vulnerable ladies like myself..
Well done ..
Sandra”

Jenny on Dating Partners

“THANK YOU DATING PARTNERS I HAVE FOUND THE LOVE OF MY LIFE ON YOUR SITE! I AM STILL IN A STATE OF SHOCK BUT WE JUST CLICKED FROM MESSAGE NUMBER ONE!!!!”

The enquiries that your Customer Support Team receive vary on a daily basis and you can track weekly trends by following our blog where we have a regular updates from the team.

For now though, we thought that it would be helpful to share some success stories with you as we know it can sometimes be really easy to get caught up in the numbers and forget the difference that we’re actually making to people’s lives.

CASE STUDY: Date Me Today

We’re actively trying to collect data from members as they cancel their membership to better understand their needs and to establish ways to improve. As a result of this, we’ve been amazed to see how many matches take place on a daily basis across the sites.

To kick off our good news stories, we thought that we’d share a message received from Trish, a member of Date Me Today.

“I have met an absolutely wonderful man through your site - we are both sure we have found the person we are looking for. I didn’t believe it would happen for me and I would like to say thanks to all at Date Me Today - probably the best £30 I ever spent!”

We think it was all in the wand!

The Heart of Your Business

We continue to work on improvements to the platforms and communications to members to ensure that they have the best possible experience on the sites, extending their length of membership and increasing their chances of finding a match.

We look forward to bringing you more stories of success, but in the meanwhile be sure to check out the blog for our latest developments.

Kindest regards,

Mel Kirk
B2B Marketing Manager
www.WhiteLabelDating.com

We have created a great opportunity for ourselves to receive accurate feedback about why people are cancelling and we can also give members tips and advice on how to increase their chances of success on the site. This makes it a more enjoyable experience for them and allows us to help out our members that little bit more and hopefully keep them with us for just that little bit longer!

We are also in the process of launching our Live Chat Support across our Premium sites. This is just another avenue for members to be able to contact us and receive excellent customer service. The chat facility is working really well as it lets our members know that there is a face behind the computer and that we are always here to help. The whole customer experience feels more human and user friendly

We look forward to seeing how the chat facility will work across all of our sites!”

Query of the week:

We have recently introduced a new mature network specifically for people over the age of 40. This has created many questions from members about the benefits of this network.

We have had a big call from members over the last few months to have a database for people over a certain age. As a result, we decided to create a service for the over 40s. By doing this, members can be assured that they are in contact with people within their own age group and without the potential inconvenience of being in touch with people who they feel are too young. It really creates a more tailored experience for all!

We still have our general network which is not age specific so you can sign up to any of our other sites if you feel the mature network is not for you. The main aim of this is to ensure that we can provide a great experience for everyone from all age groups and all walks of life.

Customer Satisfaction Rate
97.8%

This Weeks Good Feedback:

David on ‘Senior Dating 4 Fun’

‘Would just like to thank you for the FREE MESSAGING day Sunday
I have to give credit where it”s due, a nice gesture of your site,
to give some thing back sometimes..
I know of no other Dating Site site that does so… it would do them good to follow your example…

Regards..’

Barbara from ‘Friends of Yours’

‘I just wanted to tell you I have met a wonderful man through your Friends of Yours site. We are very happy and I wanted to say thank you. I will be cancelling my subscription because I have found the one for me.
Thank you.’