You hear it all the time: "Get more traffic !" but what exactly does that mean to you - the adult webmaster ? It means that if you want to stay in business you need to keep buyers interested in your stuff - and that means letting the buyers know that you have stuff to be interested in. That's called MARKETING.

There are four competing Marketing Strategies in the Adult Industry.

- The "Cheap and Plentiful" Marketing Strategy
- The "Designer Glitz" Marketing Strategy
- The "Sell-Sell-Sell" Marketing Strategy
- The "Ground Zero" Target Marketing Strategy

The "Cheap and Plentiful" Marketing Strategy

"It's Porn - they'll buy it" strategy assumes that everybody already wants it, so make it cheap and stick it in their faces until they buy it. This method of marketing centers on website replication and wide distribution. They make loads of cheap and fast, carbon-copy websites and scatter them across tons of different domain names. The idea being that the surfer couldn't possibly avoid spending money on their sites - because the sites are unavoidable. This is often combined with "we're cheaper" attitude. Think: The Gas Station on every corner.

The "Designer Glitz" Marketing Strategy

This is the "If you build it - they will come" philosophy based on the idea of the "Superior Product". The idea is that if you offer Quality, you will get quality sales; riding on the assumption that if it's expensive, then THAT is what the buyer is looking for. These "Designer" webmasters build one, or a small selection of massive incredibly gorgeous and very expensive websites - with very expensive content. This also shows the: "We're Prettier therefore we're obviously Better" attitude that may in actuality, be far from the truth. Think: The really expensive Designer grocery store.

The "Sell-Sell-Sell" Marketing Strategy

This advertising-heavy "Buy this NOW!" style believes that the surfers won't buy their smut - if they don't hammer them over the head with it. This webmaster initiates an aggressive selling and promotion effort such as Spam and millions of pop-ups, to belabor viewers into making a purchase. Think: TV ads, plus radio ads, plus magazine ads, plus billboards.

These first three viewpoints focus on greed - the desire to convert a site into an overnight cash-cow and make a Fast Buck. The emphasis is on pushing what content they have to everybody they can reach, rather than finding out what market might actually be looking for their product.

These are a short-term outlooks that do make money fast - and go downhill from there. All three of these marketing strategies take aggressive, exhaustive and expensive selling and promoting programs to maintain profit levels.

The "Ground Zero" Target Marketing Strategy

"I Have what you already Want." This is a long-term plan designed around customer retention: if they know you have it they'll come back to you for more. The "Ground Zero" target marketing strategy focuses on the Prospective Buyer and their needs rather than the webmaster's bank roll. The idea is to offer prospective viewers exactly what they are looking for. The trick is knowing: Who wants what you have?

The "Ground Zero" Target Marketing strategy rests on four pillars:

- Seek - Identify the Buyer for your specific content.
- Adapt - Determine what that buyer is looking for - and provide for those needs.
- Overcome - Integrate your marketing techniques.
- Conquer - Make money - and keep making money.

Steps for implementing the Target Marketing Strategy

What you have to sell determines who buys it - and that buyer is who you should be marketing toward. Adopting a tailored marketing program - one that targets a specific group of viewers - is a far more effective way to get and keep customers. So how the heck do you do that?

1. Identify and define your Market - by identifying the Buyer

No webmaster can operate successfully in one market because no one type of content is for everybody. A good example is an ordinary hardcore site. Since everyone likes sex one may assume that anyone will want to come here. Not true. Gay men, Women and Straight men all like hardcore - but not necessarily the Same Kind of Hardcore.

The broad market for hardcore smut is divided into a variety of target niches such as Gay men, Women and Straight men. Other niches that would be interested in buying hardcore smut include Lesbians, Bisexuals, bi-Curious and the Fetish crowd. And every single one of these can be sub-categorized to even more individual tastes.

Even basic straight male viewers have pronounced taste divisions. The guys under the age of 35 seems to prefer light fare such as amateur, teen, lesbian, and voyeur smut. The older surfers aged 36 and up, are more jaded and therefore, more exploratory in their tastes. They'll watch more of the shock-value smut such as spanking, golden showers, pregnancy, S&M, facials, fisting, group sex, even she-males.

2. Determine your customers' needs

Fast-Buck marketing the same content all the way across the board will do little to increase your sales, because the customer base in each individual market has varying needs. Let's look at the Gay market, which covers a surprisingly broad range of buyers with diverse needs: Gay Men, Bi-Curious Men, Fetish aficionados. Curiously, Transexual, Transgender and She-Male content generally appeals to Straight men. Gay men prefer their smut featuring the beautiful and the masculine. They have no interest in anything Female.

Consider:

- What are the different types, appeals, colors and prices? Conduct a simple search on Alexis.com for other sites in your category, ranked according to traffic results, and look at what they offer for the price.

- How is your site different and better and how can you demonstrate that difference to your various target niches? Tour the more successful sites to check their layout and what they offer. Can you see what is making them successful? Can you improve on what they have to offer? Can you see who they are advertising with and how?

Target Marketing according to the individual needs that defines your particular market, will have far better - and longer lasting - results. By knowing who is looking for what you have to offer, you will sell far more effectively.

3. Integrated marketing

Now that you know who is looking for your stuff - how do you let them know that you got what they want? This is where you use all those dirty marketing tricks that I just told you not to use. But this time, you know WHO to use them on! The real trick is not to rely on any one form of marketing, but to use each where it will do the most good for that market.

- Search Engine's and Directories
- Targeted Opt-in Email marketing
- TGP & MGP posts
- Banner advertising
- Internet Radio spots
- Magazine advertising

There are four things to consider in any marketing campaign:

Content: What are you selling and who normally buys it? Just because you have a hardcore website doesn't mean that everyone will want to look at it. Consider what specific type of content you are selling: Straight? Gay? Fetish? Straight men rarely buy Gay content, and Gay men are not all that interested in hardcore content that features females. Are you offering your content to the right buyers?

Distribution: Where do your target customers go to find the kind of stuff you sell? Search engines and directories are your friend. Use them. Check your stats: Where is your traffic coming From? Plan marketing campaigns that take these sources into account. Also consider your .com address. The more complicated the address, the less likely customers will want to type it into their search bars. A heavy sales campaign - including an appearance on The Random Radio Talk Show.com -- will sell very little smut if you are not Easy to Find.

Pricing: Can the target audience afford your smut or are there too many free alternatives? Pricing usually entails matching competitors' prices but this does not take into account that you may have better - or more common - content. This may be more - or less - than competing sites. Consider using non-price incentives such as time packages, free minutes or two-for-one deals to increase sales on content that is more expensive. Build an appetite for what you have to provide.

Promotion: What advertising options can be used to reach the right buyers? This is the only variable considered under the Profit-Marketing Strategy. However, the thrust and content of your promotion -- posting TGP and MGP pages, search engine advertising, posting to bulletin boards, buying advertising space on commercial sites or banner swapping and the little stuff: directory listing, webrings and toplists -- change according to each target market for your content. Think before you pay for that expensive advertising or build tons of TGP pages: What works best for what product in what way? If you have a Story Site, TGP and MGP pages may not be the right marketing tool for you

4. Profitability or: "Show Me the Money"

Making a buck is the point of this exercise but it's not the Be-All End-All. The whole idea is to "Keep the money flowing" instead of making fast money now at the expense of your entire operation down the line. A heavy "Fast Buck" advertising campaign will of course still sell smut, but it will not have the same impact as a targeted marketing campaign. "Fast Buck" marketing is also far more expensive. By knowing who is actually looking for what you have to sell and using integrated marketing elements to grab them, you'll sell more smut consistently for a longer period of time.