As an introverted single working adult, finding love and meeting new people can be difficult due to the limited time constraints and interactions.
With 25 years of being single, I’ve tried many dating applications and have a love-hate relationship with tinder as well. I’ve written an article on how I thought Tinder can be improved through its features.
However, during Covid-19, getting to know new people is tough with lockdowns. Therefore, I decided to turn back to dating apps to meet more people!
As more people are turning into online dating due to the inconvenience of meeting physically during Covid-19, the competition gets even tougher, and finding the right match may be even more difficult.
As a Marketer, I’ve realised that I could leverage the skills I have in marketing and apply it to online dating applications! Like the marketing funnel, I will be breaking down the process into Top of funnel (Tofu), Middle of funnel (Mofu), and Bottom of funnel (Bofu) and other optimisations along the way!
So let’s get started, marketers!
Top of Funnel

In marketing, increasing the Top of funnel audiences is important as it helps to bring in a wider base of customers so that you would be able to bring them down your marketing funnel!
The Top of funnel is usually for brand awareness and for people to be familiar, know your brand, and what you are selling. To get as many people out there to know you!
Similar to the Top of Funnel strategy, in the online dating platforms, in order to get yourself (The brand) out to many people to know, you should be downloading at LEAST 2 online dating apps and also maximising the number of swipes they limit per day!
For example, Tinder only allows 100 right swipes per day so make sure you swipe finish those 100 to increase your Top of Funnel matches coming in! Cause if you don’t swipe, you won’t find a bride. 😉
If you get a 1% match for every 100 swipes a day, this would mean you will have 7 matches a week and 21 matches a month! So get started with swiping!!
TLDR; Download as many dating apps as you can and finish swiping all daily to increase the number of matches.
Middle of funnel

The middle of funnel marketing strategy would be to get your customers to know you better by addressing their pain points and letting them know that your business provides the solution to it!
This is where you are able to sell and promote your products to the customers once they are familiar with your brand.
Similar to online dating, once you have a match, the other party would already know you a little based on your profile. This is where you would have to lead them down to the middle of the funnel.
How? Well, you can start by starting the conversation with a captivating line! Similar to a hook in marketing, you have to start off with a line that would get their attention.
You have to understand that girls have many more matches than guys and if she were to get 10 matches a day all saying “Hi, nice to meet you?” compared to one which starts off with “Puppies or kittens?”
You would need to try (A/B test) to see which kind of lines works best on the different types of profiles.
By creating a hook for them to reply back, that is when you will start to introduce yourself! Talking to them more to get to know them better and for them to know you as well.
TLDR; Once they match you, start off with a good “hook” line to get them to reply, and then start talking to get to know them better to create more trust and familiarity.
Bottom of Funnel

The bottom of funnel audiences in marketing is usually those that are already looking to purchase from you. All they need is just a little bit more push!
Usually, a call to action will be at the bottom of funnel strategy and also push them a little more, discount code or promotion for first-time users would usually entice the customer to purchase.
How does this apply to online dating?
Well, after speaking to your match and getting to know them, it is important to initiate a date to meet up in real life once you both are comfortable!
How do you know if you or your match is comfortable? Just don’t rush it and the “feeling” would come and you would know. There is no definite answer to this.
So initiating a date to meet up is like a call to action and the “promo”/”discount” would be the place your match wants to visit or something that they like to eat.
Therefore, it is crucial that during the middle of the funnel phase, you get to know their food preferences, likes, and dislikes.
The bottom of the funnel phase is the most daunting phase as it is a make or break. (Your match says yes or your match says no). However, you got to just go for it! Or you will never know 😉 I’m rooting for you!
TLDR; Initiate a date as a call to action once you feel it is the right time where you are both comfortable and suggest going somewhere that she likes.
Alright! So we have come to the end of the marketing funnel strategy for online dating! I hope these tips help with the funneling of your online dating process.
In the next part, I would be sharing tips on HOW to optimise your online dating profile, similar to optimising a marketing campaign!
Marketing Optimisations
When there are very little clicks and conversions in a marketing campaign, it usually comes down to a few things. Audience targeting, budget, copywriting, or the creatives.
Creatives

So for online dating, what we can do is to optimise the creative (Your Dating profile photo)!
You should be taking pictures that have good lighting, where you are dressed well, and perhaps a few lifestyle shots of yourself traveling! Try to get pictures of you doing something interesting as well! For example, diving, trekking, or being overseas!
By improving your creative (Dating profile photo) it would definitely increase the Click through rates (Number of matches) for your online dating profile!
Copywriting
Having good copywriting helps capture the audience’s attention in wanting to know you more as they read your profile.
Therefore, in your online dating bio, you should be sharing things that you are interested in or something you feel about you that is interesting!
You might think that there is nothing interesting about yourself but others would think that you are the most interesting person! So don’t put yourself down! 😉
Write about your hobbies, interest, and what you like to do. This would make them curious to know you more as well!
And also, do add a call to action like “Hmu if you’re interested in diving!”
That would help to increase your match rates with people with similar interests!
Audience Targeting

When it comes to marketing campaigns and the results are not favorable, some might try to change the audience targeting or increase the audience size of the campaign to reach out to more people.
Similar to marketing, online dating also has its own audience size.
From age range to location and in some dating apps, the types of hobbies that you might match with. All these help with increasing the audience size if you increase the range of each metric.
Don’t be too picky in terms of the age range or distance. You never know… the right one may be waiting for you! It could be that you are just limiting yourself. 😉
In Summary

So that’s how marketing tactics & strategies can be applied together with your online dating profile!
By optimising your dating profile and also improving the conversion funnel in each Top, Middle and Bottom of funnel conversions. Hopefully, these strategies would help in increasing your chances of a match and eventually a date!
I hope these tips help increase the value of your online dating profile and I really do hope it would help you eventually get a match and a date!
If you would like to know more or talk about how these tips can be applied even more, you can drop me a message on Instagram @zachchiadotcom or add me on Facebook at Zachary Chia.
Till the next post!
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