Yesterday I drove south of Boston to visit eLove formerly known as Together/The Right One. Terry, Paul and I talked about the matchmaking business and how it’s slowly coming to terms with the fact that the offline folks need to start paying attention to online, and vice versa. In this regard, eLove really gets it and has taken steps to bridge the gap between online and off.
eLove has a long-established matchmaking services and over the past few years have made company acquisitions and technology upgrades to make up-selling online daters to matchmaking a fairly seamless process. The real-time CRM system they have in place is far superior to the old way of doing things and the transparency into the process of selling, matching and managing members has greatly improved their efficiency and bottom line.
I sat down with some of the matchmaker team and looked at the profiles they build, the type of information they use to match people and heard some funny and inspiring members stories. Then I got to see the matchmakers at work, the call center and the other back office aspects of the matchmaking business.
I wouldn’t be surprised if online dating companies start working more closely with matchmakers like eLove. Send qualified leads, if they convert, big payout for the dating site. Various major dating sites have looked into working with matchmakers, tried variations on the theme (Match Platinum), but as is often the case, online doesn’t get offline and the services appear to have languished. Someone at Match correct me if my assumption is incorrect.
I’d love to hear what dating sites have to say about working with offline matchmakers. Comments or privately. Is this something you would like to learn more about, get clarification on how it works and the benefits? Maybe partnerships with offline are better for niche or smaller sites, where a few referrals a month would be a huge revenue generator. Or maybe a serious dating site like eHarmony or Chemistry should send a few thousand leads a day to eLove and see how they convert?
Regardless of the size or type of site that could best benefit from working with a matchmaking company, I think both sides need to start talking more seriously to see how they can work together.
Thanks to eLove for the fascinating look into the world of matchmaking and sharing how you do business.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
“I think both sides need to start talking more seriously to see how they can work together”
I think the Online Dating Industry for serious daters should evolve to destroy any type of Offline Proposals (Matchmakers, Offline Chains, etc)
Why paying USD3,000 or over if you can have the same or better results for less than USD300 ?
Why paying a fortune for a long distance telephone call if you can use VoIP, like Skype?
Why paying for sending a letter by postal mail if you can send an email?
Why buying real books if you can use an e-book like Kindle?
Why buying film cameras if you can buy digital ones?
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Fernando, haven’t you read about the dating services in India with physical locations throughout the country? There will always be a certain percentage of people who go to matchmakers and in some countries its the normal way to find a partner. For many, they would rather pay a few thousand dollars and not have to join a dating site. It’s a perfectly reasonable option for thousands of people and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Which dating site is more efficient than a matchmaker? Go ahead, show me. There no proof that I have seen that dating sites are more efficient if measured equally. Matchmakers don’t scale at all but thats not the point.
Your comparison may make sense to you but you are not taking or don’t understand the human need for connection and sometimes doing it the old fashioned way is the way that matters.
I love getting handwritten letters in the mail. They mean 1,000 times more to me than most emails.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a matchmaker to act as a confidant, a coach and a counselor.
You can say all you want about dating sites being the wave of the future, but matchmaking will always be around. It’s been around for thousands of years already and I don’t see your vaporware system doing anything to change it.
The online vs offline crossover is hugely interesting – the only thing holding this back is conversion from general online dating sites to offline matchmaking – do people who sign up for an online dating site really want offline matchmaking?
This is what I need to see to take this seriously.
We work with Dateline (http://www.dateline.co.uk for online and http://www.datelineplatinum.com for offline) in the UK – they’re the most successful UK base offline matchmaker and are doing very well.
I haven’t see any reliable third-party research demonstrating the crossover between online and offline consumers for matchmaking, that’d be very interesting.
Ross
Matchmaking is for serious daters. It’s a good offer for some of your sites. You should offer it as a feature you can offer your partners. I know that other private label dating sites are looking into it as well.
Emailing members about a matchingmaking service doesn’t require any research, are you that concerned about potential for negative effect on your partners brands? That’s exactly what’s holding online dating back. Take a chance, see what happens.
Warning, if you screw up the value prop, you’ll get nothing back and then sniff and say “I didn’t think it would work”. Another major problem with online dating, companies don’t know how to speak to their members.
Funny how the concept of matchmaking is starting to become more popular. After going through the process, I can see why they charge what they do.
The problem of course remains how do you match someone who is asking for the impossible or lives in a remote/underserved area. This is why what the Matchmaking Institute is doing is so interesting, building the technology to bridge online and off and blurring the lines, which I think is nothing but a great idea.
I’ve spoken to Eddy at Dateline, he’s on your board of directors or advisors I believe.
Well David, I agree that it should be a good idea, I just need to see it proven – nobody has made it work and I believe this is because the two markets are not the same. I believe there may be an overlap for online daters aged 40plus, but again this needs to be demonstrated.
Looking forward to seeing the evidence!!
If someone could offer this as an affiliate program on a global scale for a dating site startup, I think it would warrent an adsense investment to see if the math works?
just a cool site for casual encounteres, casualpal do t co m!
There are no global matchmakers and I don’t think affiliate marketing via adsense is a strong enough pitch. This is probably not a “click on the chick” type of upsell. A simple branded email to members is an easy way to get stated.
On a nationwide level then,　I would be interested in learning how eLove sets up new locations for thier Matchmakers program. It looks as if they have about 23 states covered now. Is this an affiliate program? In Tokyo where I am at, the largest matchmaker, Destina Japan, went under about a year ago. They were reported to be making about half a million dollars per month. This space is now open with no obvious major player filling the hole.
Darian, thanks for the info about Destina. Hoping eLove will chime in and provide some details shortly.
I think eHarmony acts the most like a matchmaker, since they are giving a person matches to choose from and have more hand-holding the customer. They can probably add on more human services and customers would pay for it.
Dave – did you pay for a matchmaking service? Or did they give a free sample of women profiles?
Matchmaking seems like a lucrative business, I think online dating is more focused on the technical aspects. I think the matchmaking institute has a global database that matchmakers and customers can log into. The one area that will always be lucrative is wealthy marriages. Wealthy men want privacy and single women want the wealthy husband. Anyone who advertises that as a coaching service and does it successfully will have it made.
Joe, every dating site gives people matches, eHarmony’s are supposedly more targeted due to the questionnaire members fill out. Not sure how they hand-hold customers.
I didn’t pay or do anything besides talk to the salespeople, learn about the intake process, the info they match on (and how much is intuitive) and see how the operation runs. I received no special treatment besides lunch.
Matchmaking Institute may have International scope through partnerships, but there is not single global matchmaker that I am aware of (and their certainly may well be one.)
You would be surprised at how the average age of people using matchmaking services is trending downwards, or so people tell me.
After a few years on a dating site, paying a few grand to get targeted matches starts to make a lot more sense to some people, and not necessarily rich.
I should clarify that Destina was an international matchmaker for Japanese women and western men. The domestic segment of this market is worth a lot more than half a million per month and is also very competitive.
I’ll try to answer a few of these questions…
Darian…Currently we’re in 22 states (43 cities) with another 10 locations ready to be rolled out in Q1 2010. These locations are NOT affiliates nor are they franchise locations… they’re all under the IDV umbrella. We’re growing mainly through acquisition.
Ross… The conversion rate from online member to offline member all depends on how the opportunity is presented to the members. Sites that collect phone numbers from their members see a higher conversion rate… we’re able to call the member directly and present the off-line Matchmaking proposition. A dating site first needs to determine what percentage of their database is qualified for Matchmaking… you would base this on zip code and income (we’re assuming they’re “singleâ€). We work with sites on a CPA and rev share models. Eddy does a great job in the UK though the business model is a bit different. I’ll be happy to get into more detail at iDate…
Joe… Matchmaking is for the every-day-person. As long as you have a job, you’re emotionally ready to meet new people, can pass a criminal background check and are realistic on the type of person you want to meet… Matchmaking can work for you.
Our goal at eLove is to monetize every lead we generate…be it with online dating or matchmaking. The ultimate is when a paid online member upgrades to a paid matchmaking member. The synergies between online & off-line go far beyond lead generation! Our matchmakers have the ability to mine the online database to support their matchmaking efforts.
Terry
eLove