Ask HN: How on earth can I grow an "adult" company? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How on earth can I grow an "adult" company?

10 pointsmattblalock18 comments

I know this is a little out there for HN, but I've been here and discussed my business several times and now for the first time feel comfortable asking for help.

A bit about me: I'm 23, this is my 4th "real" business, I've received angel investment for this project and one prior to this. The previous company was acquired for a small sum but I was ready to get out and everyone was happy.

I'm usually quite good at growing a business, but I'm not used to the restrictions imposed to "adult" businesses. I'm stuck.

About our situation: over 100k has been invested and spent, mostly on promotions and tech (a lot of backend management stuff). I'm the sole founder, but have had a team of 3 the whole time. I recently had to lay those people off and now it's just me. Our sales are stagnant and barely enough to pay for necessities... and I've been going at it for about 16 months now.

What would you do in this situation?

Link: http://myticklespot.com

I think it's a promising business actually. Have you decided who should be your customers? Women who see your ads and buy it directly, or men who buy it for their girlfriends/spouses? Since G. Ads seem to be expensive for you, then you'll need to switch to guerilla marketing and try to go viral. Hire a few local kids and film a sexy+funny sketch, post it on YT/FB/Vimeo, etc.; link to HN and ask for help with your site ('check'); promote it as a better gift for mother's day/birthdays/etc. Post on wedding registry sites to target bachelorette parties -- in fact, generate a bachelorette party package with free tiaras and pink bags; don't think about dildos, think about a fun accessory that will improve your customer's sex life...

Some of the things we've done in attempts to go viral:

-We gave away about 16,000 $25 gift cards, a limited number each day for a month. Didn't work so well, ended up with a bunch of people just getting them because they we're free. Had a very low percentage of ideal customers. Pretty much a disaster.

-Introduced Free Toy Friday (may be changing the name to Pleasure Fridays, or something else). We draw a name from our e-mail subscribers to be given a free something in the $50 price range. The FTF has garnered about 200 or so new subscribers in the past week. We introduced it about two weeks ago.

When starting, my plan was to target directly to a more conservative or discerning woman but we honestly have far more male customers buying for their lady friends. I still want to be reaching to the women, but I think I'm honestly reaching more men - both in advertising/promotions and in actual conversions.

I really like the video idea, but in my attempts to maintain a very classy feel, its hard to go sexy or funny without losing the message. Or at least I've had trouble with that.

- Don't give away free gift cards -- make your audience earn it by doing something for you (e.g. have 10 of their buddies friend you on Facebook, etc.)

- Try to have an ongoing conversation with your customers using your distribution list. I don't mean just advertising sale items in your email; something like "see how our customers are using this" or interesting info/stats they can read without complaining about spam. Of course, you need to make sure your emails go through via abiding by all requirements of an ethical sender.

- Did you try affiliate sales? If your customers are mostly male, affiliate sales from male oriented sites might be significant.

- Did you try offline advertising to get to a female audience? Magazine ads in Cosmo, etc.?

I wish I would have made them earn the gift card...

We do have an affiliate program but I'm not very familiar with operating one. It's been a pretty solid flop... maybe one sale in the past 3 months through it... I've made a lot of effort to make it work, weekly e-mails and updates, new banners and link suggestions every week. We have one of the highest commission rates around, up to 26%, but it's just not very successful.

As for advertising in Cosmo, thats sadly beyond our budget. We've been mentioned in some pretty major media though, but had pretty much no financial return from it. A mention on Ellen, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Health, Cosmo, Latina, ABC news, and quite a few others but the return on the effort to get mentioned there is so intense and the return so minimal I've all but stopped the PR train. Further, most media don't allow us to advertise with them.

quote: "As for advertising in Cosmo, thats sadly beyond our budget. We've been mentioned in some pretty major media though, but had pretty much no financial return from it. A mention on Ellen, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Health, Cosmo, Latina, ABC news, and quite a few others but the return on the effort to get mentioned there is so intense and the return so minimal I've all but stopped the PR train."

That's the worst thing you can do... Are you using the quotes from ABC etc. with an "As mentioned in ABC News..." type of boasting on your home page? If not, get to it right now...

To be funny yet tasteful while targeting a mainstream audience I'd focus on the elephant in the room, and play with the idea that this is a taboo subject with a certain giggle factor.

My imaginary commercial: A few young women, professional types, talking about "the party" and "the gift" and laughing about what their friend's reaction will be (presumably it's a shower or birthday party). Maybe leave a certain amount of mystery and never say exactly what "it" is, but hint.

It's okay to buy, and it's definitely okay to laugh about it at the same time.

Adding the mainstream credits to your site like someone else suggested would also serve the same purpose.

I think it would be best to avoid anything clinical or mechanical (I believe this is the main complaint about adult movies).

A little more information:

I'm really struggling to make anything happen. I'm hustling daily in every way possible, but it seems I'm really spinning my wheels up against companies who (reportedly) spend upwards of $40,000 a day in Google ads...

Everywhere I turn, I'm being banned, removed, and not permitted to really speak about anything just because I offer products that are specifically for grownups. I mean, I can't even advertise in the GoneWild Reddit... despite the fact that it is 99% porn and naked people... I don't even sell porn and you won't find a single naked person on our website... its totally bazarre.

I'd be very, very open to any and all suggestions for growth.

How big is your customer/subscriber base?

Customer base is about 2,000, about 10%-20% repeat customers.

Being "adult" may not be the problem. You may want to think of the problem as a "niche market" problem. Retail companies that succeed in niche markets do so by branding themselves better than everyone else. You might look for a different "niche" to market like adding hair trimmers, body washes, etc to attract a different clientele and market the higher margin toys as a website afterthought.

We spent about 5 months away from sourcing adult products and attempting to carry high end bath and body products. The problem was always that the manufacturers didn't want to be sold next to adult products...

Completely absurd, considering they'd probably love to be carried by Drugstore.com (or Amazon, for that matter) that works heavily in this industry. I've even flown out to some of these places, random little towns, to meet and understand the manufacturers. They won't touch our business with a 10 foot pole...

What makes your site different from the 10,000 other sites selling sex toys on the internet? Why would a customer buy from you and not a more trusted/bigger brand?

Quality products, our Happiness Guarantee, and fast discreet shipping.

-Every product we offer we have deemed body safe and high quality. We have a 2% complaint rule; if 2% of a product's sales result in a complaint, we stop selling it. -Free 90 day returns. Almost unheard of. Most retailers offer no returns or a 7 day guarantee. We stand behind our products. -We deliver 98% of orders in 48 hours or less in boring brown boxes.

Discreet shipping and quality products don't seem very different. A liberal returns policy could be though.

The Zappos Strategy. Get people to tell themselves that they're not really "buying" a toy, they're just going to try it out and then return it and get their money back.

Store credit is meaningless -- that is not a refund.

Free shipping is essential as well. Both ways. Otherwise people are thinking about how much the shipping will cost.

The key is for people to think they can screw the store. They'll try out a toy, return it, and be out no money.

The secret is that most people buy something and either enjoy it enough, or are too lazy, to return it. That's when you win.

The problem is that you need to have enough money/inventory to support the people that do return. Obviously you have to have limits, to minimize abuse.

This costs money though. It may not be a strategy you can afford to pursue.

Discreet shipping and quality aren't very different. The quality service (phone, live chat, and e-mail) also play a part in our difference. Or so I like to think...

I tried free shipping for a while, maybe two months, and found absolutely no increase in sales or average ticket. This was after tring a flat rate, $5 for all orders, 1 item or 40. No real change there. When I said "Screw it!" and switched to a calculated Priority Mail, I saw a 200% increase in average order - and I've stuck with that.

Maybe I should give free shipping another try, I can do some A/B testing with free shipping and see how it goes for conversion rates.

The biggest problem is attracting new eyes. Google ads are just far too expensive and not netting any real results (1-3% conversions).

These are the minimums you need to have for any company these days... Not a significant differentiator for you, unless everyone else sucks in your industry...

Most do suck. Most of our competitors have dismal websites filled with naked women and men. They have a no-returns policy, offer no support at all, and many (maybe 80% of those we've evaluated) don't even publish an address or phone number on their website.

That's why I got into the industry, I felt I could offer something different, something better. Now I'm feeling like people want the craptastic websites and piss-poor support.

*these statements are pretty much anecdotal.

What would make you buy from me instead of from a trusted/bigger brand?

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