By 2020, the sex toy industry is expected to be worth nearly $30 billion worldwide. More dildos, vibrators, and other pleasure items are being sold than ever before. However, buying sex toys remains taboo in many cultures, and marketing sex toys for sale online can be tricky due to their adult-only rating. Traditional channels such as Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram are out of the question. In addition, most sites do not allow you to advertise unless they are already classified as pornography. Therefore, in order to successfully target mainstream audiences, new ways of marketing sex toys need to be explored.
Here are some strategies that can increase your audience and potential sales, and help maintain stability in the sex toy industry.
Provide Content
Most people don’t like to be sold to, but they are usually interested in learning about what you have to offer. Whether it’s through an internal blog or an affiliate page, write background articles about your industry, product reviews, provide answers to frequently asked questions, and post them along with links to your online store. This way, you’ll attract new prospects, build relationships with them, and over time, build enough trust and curiosity so they’ll want to buy from you.
Send newsletters
Offer users of your store or website the opportunity to sign up for regular newsletters. Provide them with monthly updates on new product releases, as well as upcoming sales and specials. You can also invite them to participate in surveys about the products or anything related to the site, such as design, features, and additional content they would like to see. Not only will this help you better understand your audience; it will also build a better relationship with your potential customers.
To increase the chances of converting website traffic into sales, offer a coupon that can be used on their next purchase as a thank you for their participation. A freely chosen amount of $5 or $10 is usually enough to get people interested in making their first purchase, even if it’s a smaller one, especially if they’ve never used a sex toy before.
Run personality tests
Most people like to fill out questionnaires about themselves to find out about their inner world, personality, or special traits. Why not have a special place on your website for tests such as “Which best sex dolls satisfy my desires” and relate each answer to the corresponding toy in your catalog.
Encourage product reviews
When it comes to something as personal and intimate as a sex toy, it can be difficult for some people to talk about it with their friends or loved ones, let alone seek advice on what items to buy. Reading online reviews may help those who are hesitant to make up their minds about which toy to buy, what to start with, and when or how to use it.
Honest reviews from other users will be far more beneficial than product reviews from the manufacturer. It will also help build and maintain customer relationships, trust, and ongoing brand connections. To entice existing customers to write reviews, have a link to a special review page under each product in your catalog, and offer incentives such as “25% off your next purchase” for every review submitted and posted. The same incentive could be printed on a flyer and sent to customers with each purchase. For in-depth and meaningful reviews, include topic ideas for your customers to write about and prompt them to make it as personal as possible.
You can also send a new gift each month with each order and ask for product reviews for those gifts. This will keep your customers entertained, increase brand awareness, and help you test new products.
Be discreet
Most people feel more comfortable ordering sex toys if they don’t have to worry about being discovered by the mailman or their neighbors. Many pleasure product companies operate under completely inconspicuous names that appear on packaging and credit card statements. For example, sex dolls operate under the name “House of Fun” while credit cards show only the “HOF” reference. Market this privacy strategy on your website to help potential customers feel safe.
