You probably wonder precisely what content marketing and writing a great dating profile have in common, but this week a friend asked me to review her profile to improve the quality and quantity of the men who contact her. This was not the first time I had rewritten somebody’s dating profile, and I don’t think it was the first time I rewrote hers, but it occurred to me that there are similarities between web content marketing and writing a good dating profile.
When I was dating between 2012 and 2013 during the closing stages of my divorce, I soon figured out what made a good and a bad dating profile. Not just about what was attractive to me personally, but what it is that drew me into the profiles of the sort of women I contacted. They were good content marketers, even if they didn’t know it.
If you want more men or women to contact you and to improve both the number and the quality of contacts, you need to think of it using these content marketing tactics. I used POF and OK Cupid (and another whose name I have forgotten), so I cannot speak for Tindr or any of these based purely on pictures. You can use these tactics anywhere you have a written profile.
Attention-Grabbing Headline
This is easy on POF because you have an option to put in a headline. Too many people put something dull or meaningless like “looking for love”, “hi” or “Giving this a go”. On OKCupid (if it still works the same way it did when I closed my account some 18 months ago) you should put this in your brief summary. Anyway, back to POF, think of it as your click-bait headline. Buzzfeed and Viralnova don’t get people to click with headlines like “you might be interested in this”, “click here, it’s really good” or even “looking for people to read our stuff”. They compel people to click with “you’ll be amazed when you see this!” and variations on that. Here are some examples of great dating profile headlines on POF I remember from my time there.
- Yoohoo, I’m over here! Pick me! Pick me!
- The woman above me is married. The one below? Possessive
- Spider catcher required. Applicants go direct to inbox
- Oh great, you found me! Thought I’d lost you there
- I’ve got a ticket to ride… want to come along?
The key with these and other great dating site headlines is that they stick in the mind for various reasons – either for being funny, interesting or a play on words like a song title. A great headline on your dating profile will increase your visitor numbers.
The Benefit to Your “Customer”
When writing a dating profile, we want the world to see how fabulous we are, don’t we? But everybody is doing that and there is one essential element that most people miss to set them above everybody else. It’s a very competitive world, just as consumer business is competitive, so while you are telling people what is so great about the “product” (you), you should not forget to inform the “customer” (the men or women you hope to attract so you can go on a date with them) about the benefits of doing so.
How will their life be better by having you in it? What skills do you bring to the relationship? What unique qualities do you possess? Why should they pick you rather than anybody else with a similar profile, skills and qualities? Would you buy a new mobile phone from a manufacturer whose only concern in the marketing material is informing you how awesome the company is? No, you wouldn’t. You want to know how this phone is better for you than the last one and what advantages it offers and importantly, why you should upgrade. In this case, they need to see the advantages of being in a relationship with you (upgrading) over the advantages of being single (keeping the phone they already have).
Call To Action
In marketing speak, the signing off text that compels people to want to act on the enticing information you have presented in the article or material, is called a “call to action”. A generic “contact me to know more” on your dating profile won’t harm your prospects, after all if they have made it to the end, then the chances are they are going to contact you anyway, but it is dull. If you do irony, then you could sign off with something like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity so don’t delay, contact today! Throughout the text, include small calls to action – build the anticipation. For example, my friend loves to travel and I suggested she put in her profile something like this:
I do like to relax between adventures. Fancy joining me on the next one? Tell me where you like to go and maybe we can compare notes!
That is a classic call to action – contact us, let’s do this, you don’t want to miss out do you? Could you really live with yourself passing over this once in a lifetime chance and I end up going on my adventures with somebody else?
All it remains for me to say is pay attention to what works in the dating profiles you look at, think about what makes a great dating profile and good luck in your dating adventures!
Very interesting! I occasionally use Tinder and even though there’s a focus on pictures the written bio is important too. Mine has a call to action (I list a handful of topics that I especially like talking about) and that’s how most of the conversations start–with any or all of the topics covered.
There we have it people, it works!
Pretty much my experience too. There were some women whose profiles I initially dismissed because we seemed to have very little in common (dismissed as in thought about messaging them but decided not to bother). However, I can think of at least three of these who later contacted me and we found we had lots in common; they just chose not to put those things in their profiles but because I had, we found a connection.
It’s always a good idea to show people what you are all about and not to write those horribly generic profiles about how “I like going out and staying in” or “I love music” and other such meaningless twaddle.
My favorite is the guys who just put their college and graduation year. Like okay, that’s part of who you are, but probably not what I wanna talk to you about. Or the “ask me anything” type bios. The worst!
I feel your pain 😦 This is probably not something you experience, but there is a ridiculous habit of women in my age range putting a picture of their cat as their only profile picture.
Yes, because it’s your kitten I want to go on a date with!
Ahahaha that’s so bad! There’s a habit of guys in my age range only putting group photos of them with their frat bros. I can’t tell which one you are!!
Oh yes, the unlabelled “out with the girls” group photo. I feel your pain with that one too.