Advice on marketing direction for my unique business

[Soomro]

Hello everyone! I built a company/website recently (link to it on my profile) called Attractive Talents. The reason I'm posting about it is because I'm a little confused on figuring out the right direction to discover the "where" of where my customers are at.

Attractive Talents is supposed to be a company much like a cross of Thumbtack and Indeed. Basically a site where recruiters can find talents in industries where physical appearance matters (e.g. modeling, acting, high end bars/restaurants/nightlife, events, adult film, etc), and its revenue is made when people are connected. Because there are 9 different industries where users can connect, and 2 types of users per industry (recruiters & talents), that puts me at 18 different groups of users I can market to.

After reading "Ready, Fire, Aim" (a business book), it highly recommends doing what competitors are doing to market your business in the first stage of growth ($0-$1M in revenue). It also recommends contacting your competitors to gain insight for how they're marketing. I've only been working on figuring out where my customers live for a day but the chosen path I took was to target the adult film industry because it seems the most susceptible to improvement, and only to focus on San Francisco because I'm basically starting with no money so I can't spend a ton on ads. There is basically only one competitor I could find and it seems likely they will never respond.

I guess the advice I'm looking for is this: how am I supposed to find the best place to market to my customers when I can't copy competitors and should I start with another industry group? I'm also trying to find out what the best medium would be (PPC, email, etc).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Practic]

Hello everyone! I built a company/website recently (link to it on my profile) called Attractive Talents. The reason I'm posting about it is because I'm a little confused on figuring out the right direction to discover the "where" of where my customers are at.

Attractive Talents is supposed to be a company much like a cross of Thumbtack and Indeed. Basically a site where recruiters can find talents in industries where physical appearance matters (e.g. modeling, acting, high end bars/restaurants/nightlife, events, adult film, etc), and its revenue is made when people are connected. Because there are 9 different industries where users can connect, and 2 types of users per industry (recruiters & talents), that puts me at 18 different groups of users I can market to.

After reading "Ready, Fire, Aim" (a business book), it highly recommends doing what competitors are doing to market your business in the first stage of growth ($0-$1M in revenue). It also recommends contacting your competitors to gain insight for how they're marketing. I've only been working on figuring out where my customers live for a day but the chosen path I took was to target the adult film industry because it seems the most susceptible to improvement, and only to focus on San Francisco because I'm basically starting with no money so I can't spend a ton on ads. There is basically only one competitor I could find and it seems likely they will never respond.

I guess the advice I'm looking for is this: how am I supposed to find the best place to market to my customers when I can't copy competitors and should I start with another industry group? I'm also trying to find out what the best medium would be (PPC, email, etc).

"
I guess the advice I'm looking for is this: how am I supposed to find the best place to market to my customers when I can't copy competitors and should I start with another industry group? I'm also trying to find out what the best medium would be (PPC, email, etc)."

No one will give you the correct answer. The only way to go forward is to test different approaches. If you do not want to copy competitors they use new and not traditional approaches. Here is a suggestion: find recruiters (or agencies) interested to work with you on revenue or income sharing models. If this will not work then try it with talents.

 

[Xavier X]

@Soomro As with any multi-sided marketplace, you'll have to deal with the famous "chicken and egg" situation. The optimal approach will always vary, depending on the specific niche.

In your case, I'd recommend attracting talent first, then offer value to recruiters with your pool of "verified talent," or whatever. With marketplaces, you must subsidize the platform for one side of the market. In this case, it would be the talent. Make it free for talent to post profiles. Put the profiles behind a paywall, with only one image and first name visible (or something like that). Recruiters pay for full access.

Most "talent" in the listed industries are eager to post profiles in new places, to maximize exposure. So it shouldn't be too hard to get some amateurs on board, for a start. With time, you can pull in bigger talent. To get sign-ups, visit forums, facebook groups, reddit subs etc, where these people hang out. Don't spam, just have a conversation with them about it.

With a quick look at your site, I'd recommend changing your logo to something more fun. It looks too corporate.
Some of your drop-down categories aren't optimized for clarity. I assume a traditional model looking for work would fall under "photography," but you need to clarify and be specific. Use the word "model" in there. You're also using only "film," instead of actors, actresses and such. Make it dummy-proof.

I won't recommend trying to put adult categories front and center, as the lead. That will deter a good chunk of your targets, on both sides. Lastly, you have your work cut out for you, because today, everyone is an "IG model." This means recruiters already have free access to a massive cache of sometimes attractive wannabe models, whom they can instantly contact. So you'll need to have a strong and creative value proposition to offer them.

 

[Soomro]

@Soomro As with any multi-sided marketplace, you'll have to deal with the famous "chicken and egg" situation. The optimal approach will always vary, depending on the specific niche.

In your case, I'd recommend attracting talent first, then offer value to recruiters with your pool of "verified talent," or whatever. With marketplaces, you must subsidize the platform for one side of the market. In this case, it would be the talent. Make it free for talent to post profiles. Put the profiles behind a paywall, with only one image and first name visible (or something like that). Recruiters pay for full access.

Most "talent" in the listed industries are eager to post profiles in new places, to maximize exposure. So it shouldn't be too hard to get some amateurs on board, for a start. With time, you can pull in bigger talent. To get sign-ups, visit forums, facebook groups, reddit subs etc, where these people hang out. Don't spam, just have a conversation with them about it.

With a quick look at your site, I'd recommend changing your logo to something more fun. It looks too corporate.
Some of your drop-down categories aren't optimized for clarity. I assume a traditional model looking for work would fall under "photography," but you need to clarify and be specific. Use the word "model" in there. You're also using only "film," instead of actors, actresses and such. Make it dummy-proof.

I won't recommend trying to put adult categories front and center, as the lead. That will deter a good chunk of your targets, on both sides. Lastly, you have your work cut out for you, because today, everyone is an "IG model." This means recruiters already have free access to a massive cache of sometimes attractive wannabe models, whom they can instantly contact. So you'll need to have a strong and creative value proposition to offer them.

Thank you so much @Xavier X, I really appreciate the well thought out response. I'm going to implement what you've said in the next couple days, craft a strong offer, and start contacting talents. I'll give y'all an update within a week.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Johnny boy]

Focus in an even smaller niche first like hand models in LA, then add onto it. Facebook started with Harvard students only. Get people to join with some classic hustling and doing everything manually. Then the network effect will take over.