eHarmony is a global online dating site matching over one million users every day based on compatibility. It was founded in 2000 by Dr. Neil Clark Warren who practiced as a clinical psychologist, counseling thousands of couples for 35 years before founding the company.
To date, eHarmony has brought together two million marriages. In a survey of 17,000 couples over a 7-year span, eHarmony had a 3.86% divorce rate versus the nationwide average of 40 to 50%. The same matching technology is now being deployed in different verticals including the jobs market finding compatible employees with employers as Elevated Careers powered by eHarmony.
Kerianne Mellott, eHarmony’s director of social media is leading the charge in improving the company’s engagement in the social sphere. Her mission was to create the overall strategy for how the company communicated and engaged with customers. With a large budget devoted to television commercials, management wanted to find a way to utilize social media to improve targeting and re-targeting, something not possible with television. The company faced challenges in its nascent social efforts with:
- Monetization of social channels: eHarmony sought to improve clickthrough rates and conversion events in social communities such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Periscope.
- Engagement across channels: With users utilizing multiple social channels, the company wanted to make sure it could reach the same person across different channels.
- Demonstrating ROI: Mellott’s team sought to find people on social media and drive down the cost per customer acquired versus other lead generation techniques.
Mellott organized eHarmony's social media efforts with Hootsuite. Hootsuite served as the publishing, scheduling, app directory and campaign performance tool. Daily content was created, then scheduled and published throughout the various platforms. By reaching out to successful couples, the team activated client testimonials and wedding pictures in their digital campaigns.
eHarmony used an organic and paid social media strategy to find new customers. If the content is related to a specific market, Mellott added targeting capabilities such as demographic, location, and interest to reach the most relevant audience. Based on initial performance and moderating ads, she then put promotional dollars behind various Twitter and Facebook posts.
To prove that social media drives more subscriptions, Mellott integrated Hootsuite and Google Analytics with existing eHarmony code in order to track all data coming from social and multiple steps of conversions.
The impact of the Hootsuite deployment at eHarmony illustrates how social media could measurably improve engagement of prospects; engagement growth is key to driving click-through rates and conversion rate optimization. eHarmony found that if their community is well-looked after, then customers are more likely to engage and subscribe.
No additional departments are planning to deploy social media, although Mellott’s team work as liaisons between eHarmony’s public audience and the Trust & Safety and Customer Care team who help customers for multiple reasons.
However, due to the proven success already seen in Social Media for eHarmony, Mellott has expanded efforts in the department! eHarmony has now created Twitter and Facebook channels for eHarmony Español. The goal is to reach the Hispanic market with tailored content that speaks to singles looking to find love.
More emphasis has also been placed on eHarmony Canada profiles, as well as profiles for eHarmony’s sister site, Compatible Partners.
In addition, Mellott’s team offers overall guidance for other offices in London, UK, Sydney and Australia. They share content, campaign ideas and best practices to adopt in their local markets.
eHarmony has improved their response time and established a clear way to track subscriptions from social media.
Scaling Resources & Organizing Engagement
- 20% more efficient in daily social media workflow, which includes an 84% response rate to community members
Improving Conversion via Optimized Content & Targeting
- 50% increase in creative production for engaging posts and ad creative for paid campaigns.
Proving the ROI of Social
- 103% increase in ad spend within the last 12 months.
Social Media Community Growth
- Improved follower growth versus competition by 10 percent
- Grew the overall size of the community by 24 percent
- Increased engagement by over 150 percent
Hootsuite served as the publishing, scheduling, app directory and campaign performance tool.
Hootsuite is the most widely used platform for managing social media.
eHarmony has improved their response time and established a clear way to track subscriptions from social media. Today, they have an 84% response rate within two hours of a customer reaching out. Compared to many of their competitors who don’t respond or moderate social, this approachability sets them apart in a saturated market. As a result, they’ve seen 10% greater increase in follower growth over competitors.
eHarmony values the relationships they build through public-facing profiles and provides a safe and trusted space for singles to communicate with the brand. In the competitive market of online dating, eHarmony stands out and respects the difficult journey of someone finding the love of their life. During that process, the brand is available to answer questions or handle account concerns in a quick and easy manner.
eHarmony is gratified to see the enthusiasm that surrounds their social media content.
For example, eHarmony saw a woman tag her two friends in the comments of a recent Instagram Ad. eHarmony replied to the comment and started a cheerful exchange with the people tagged. Moments like these let eHarmony know their content is making an impact and expanding beyond their intended reach, bringing people together and creating a safe place to communicate.
