How to Make a Dating Affiliate Landing Page That Converts
A killer landing page is one of the key elements of success in the online dating affiliate niche. If you’ve never created one it can seem like a daunting task, but with advances in off-the-shelf design software, the truth is that anyone can create a sleek professional-looking online dating landing page with just a little time and effort.
Not all landing pages are created equal, however, as the above infographic shows. The vast majority have less than 30% conversion rates, and the ugly truth is that the largest share goes to those who achieve less than 10% conversion rates overall.
Meanwhile, at the top end of the scale, a handful of elite marketers, just under 10% of all those polled, regularly bag over 70% conversion rates.
So what’s their secret? We are here to share with you the key elements that can make or break a landing page and the secret formula that will transform your struggling affiliate marketing business into the runaway success it deserves to be.
8 Essential Landing Page Basics
- Compelling Headline
- Frame the problem
- Provide the exact solution
- List the benefits
- Social proof
- Call to action (CTA)
- Inbound links
- A/B Testing
1. Compelling headline
Spend time on your headline. The first thing your target audience reads is this. If you fail on the headline, nothing else matters. Don’t try to be clever, instead make a bold, clear statement that lets them know exactly what they are going to get by signing up for your dating service.
2. Frame the problem
Describe the problem in detail. Get specific. Use emotive language and power words to hook your audience and make them feel it. People make impulse decisions based on powerful feelings, not logical deduction.
3. Provide the solution
After you frame the problem, show them the one specific solution they cannot live without. Make sure they understand that all the pain they feel will go away when they make the intelligent decision to sign up for your offer.
4. List the benefits
Don’t talk features. Talk benefits. What’s the difference? A feature is something that sounds great, like waterproof materials on a shoe. A benefit is a shoe that keeps your foot from getting wet. Stay on message and make them feel every good thing that’s going to happen after they sign up.
5. Social proof
Where possible, and do everything to make it possible, provide social proof. The internet is an impersonal place where everything is subject to misinformation, disinformation, and false marketing. Nothing convinces more than testimonials from other satisfied users of your service
6. Call to action (CTA)
Never leave this out. The presence of a strong call to action radically changes the statistics when it comes to conversions on a landing page.
7. Inbound links
Don’t leave your landing page alone on the internet. Point to it from all of your best-performing blog posts and web pages. Get other web pages to point to it as well if you can.
8. A/B Testing
A good landing page is always a work in progress. Test out more than one version and see which one consistently converts best. Once you have one that works you can consider sending some paid traffic in its direction.
These are the essentials for any basic landing page in any niche. Now let’s take a look at the specifics of landing pages in the online dating affiliate marketing niche.
7 Landing Page Musts for the Online Dating Niche
- Privacy and security
- Video content
- Niche down, way down
- Stupid easy sign-up process
- Singles near you
- Great quality stock photos
- Pick a service you really believe in
1. Privacy and security
The element of privacy cannot be overstated in online dating. There are any number of reasons why someone wants their online dating habits to remain private. This can range to anything from personality to those looking for a little action unbeknownst to a current partner.
Things can get very serious if there are data leaks, information hacks or other breaches of security on a dating site and your potential users will need to be assured that whatever service they are signing up to takes this very seriously.
2. Video content
Video is a standard marketing tool and we all know how compelling it is. If you can obtain clips of users, whether they are paid models or otherwise, from your affiliate account manager then make sure you use these. An attractive person speaking directly to your prospective sign-up can be a powerful tool to drive conversions.
3. Niche down, way down
A general dating site might seem like a great idea, after all, doesn’t a bigger audience just mean more conversions? The stats tell a different picture. The more general your message the fewer individuals it will appeal to personally.
Take the time to figure out in detail who your audience is. Are they Christian singles? Or maybe they are casual daters looking for a one-night stand? You’ll find it hard to target both these audiences on one page, so make your mind up which market you want to target and stay on message.
If you want to target other market segments, do it with a different page.
4. Stupid easy sign-up process
This is important on any landing page so let’s not only make it easy, let’s make it positively stupid easy.
At any moment your potential sign-up can get cold feet and a simple thing like asking for too much information or having to navigate two, three pages, or more to get to what they really want (other singles) can be a huge turn-off and lead to page abandonment.
You don’t want this. Make the process super simple with just a name, an email, and a couple of clicks. Before they know it they are signed up. Their cold feet will disappear once they get inside and everyone’s a winner!
5. Singles near you
This is a widely used and highly effective method used in the online dating industry. If the online dating service you are marketing has software that geolocates its audience and you can integrate this into your landing page then jump on this and use it.
Failing this you can add in more general data based on stats and information from the dating service in question. Specific numbers work really well, so make sure to let people know how many active users there are and any other juicy tidbits that will entice your reader into filling out that form.
6. Great quality stock photos
It sounds boring, but don’t be fooled, a few well-chosen stock photos will make a huge difference. Remember that you are in the business of fun, romance, and hot action, so people want to see other people that they can potentially meet. If your landing page is faceless or has cheap, low-quality images, it’s a huge turn-off.
Spend the time to find some really high-quality pictures online and make your page stand out from the crowd.
7. Pick a service you really believe in
Too many affiliate marketers grab the first shiny looking product that comes to hand. Take a little time to look at the online dating service you will be marketing and make sure you can get behind it.
When the time comes to write your landing page copy, the words will flow and your belief in the product will shine through to your target audience.
The Top 5 Dating Affiliate Landing Page Mistakes to Avoid
- Wall of text
- Cheap tacky images
- Badly defined audience
- Lazy or zero A/B testing
- Clunky sign-up process
1. Wall of text
The last thing a dater wants is a wall of text. Show them the kind of awesome attractive people they will be meeting.
2. Cheap tacky images
If your images are cheap, what will that say about the kind of people who join the dating service? Don’t skimp on these. Make sure they look clean and professional.
Badly defined audience
Don’t mix and match. If you start off talking about senior dating and then finish up with upwardly mobile young professionals, you will confuse and lose your audience.
Lazy or zero A/B testing
It feels like hard work. You don’t want to do it. But do you want to make conversions? If the answer is yes (which of course it is), how will you know which landing page works if you don’t test them? Knuckle down, learn how to do this, and then take action.
Clunky sign up process
The slightest barrier can turn those cold feet into runaway fingers. Be careful about asking for too much information upfront and request the absolute minimum that the affiliate program requires in order for your conversion to count. Privacy is a big deal in the online dating niche so leave that to the platform itself to take care of.
Take Action Already!
Now you have all you need to know to get started in the lucrative online dating affiliate marketing niche. It’s never been easier to create a landing page with point-and-click template-based software. All you have to do is follow the points above to turn an average landing page into a high-performing affiliate conversion machine.
So what are you waiting for?
CandyOffers has all of the best affiliate programs in the online dating niche and we want you to succeed. Sign up right now with just a few easy clicks and start building your killer online dating affiliate landing page today!