

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

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.<p>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.<p>I'm usually quite good at growing a business, but I'm not used to the restrictions imposed to "adult" businesses. I'm stuck.<p>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.<p>What would you do in this situation?<p>Link: http://myticklespot.com
======
coverband
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...

~~~
mattblalock
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.

~~~
coverband
\- 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.?

~~~
mattblalock
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.

~~~
coverband
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...

------
mattblalock
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.

~~~
toppy
How big is your customer/subscriber base?

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

------
johnl
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.

~~~
mattblalock
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...

------
staunch
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?

~~~
mattblalock
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.

~~~
staunch
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.

~~~
mattblalock
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).

