Matchmaking sites are online platforms that help individuals and businesses find business partners, potential employers or employees, suppliers, customers, investors and more. They usually take one of the following 3 forms:
- C2C platforms, which connect private individuals with one another: classified ads sites, paid or free service exchanges, second-hand marketplaces, rentals of all kinds of goods… such as BlaBlaCar, Airbnb or Vinted…
- B2C platforms, built around professionals who offer services to consumers. These are mainly matchmaking sites for finding service providers of every kind, such as general directories or sites specialised in a particular niche (Booking, Deliveroo, Izi by EDF…)
- B2B platforms, where professionals address other professionals. You find the same kinds of platform as in B2C, with providers dedicated to businesses (consultants, consulting firms…), such as Amazon Business or Cdiscount Pro.
Good reasons to create a matchmaking platform
Creating a matchmaking platform has many advantages, including:
- Creating a new source of income: once your matchmaking platform is live, you can generate revenue from your site in several ways, such as online advertising, selling subscriptions that unlock particular features depending on the plan, or taking commissions on the transactions made on the platform.
- Raising brand awareness: a matchmaking platform helps users find what they are looking for, whether business partners, potential employers, suppliers, customers, investors and so on. The aim is to raise the brand’s profile and become the leader in its sector.
- Building a customer database: by collecting data about the users of your platform, you gain valuable insight into their trends and behaviour, which can be used to design new offers and services, or reused for another project later on.
- Adding value to your business: creating and developing a matchmaking platform is not only for new project owners. Many companies build one to launch a new service and strengthen a business that already exists. Groupama, for example, created a matchmaking platform to make it easier for farmers to sell local produce to consumers. PagesJaunes, the French Yellow Pages, launched a matchmaking platform called “PagesPro” that lets businesses find service providers in many fields (IT, marketing, communication, etc.). These companies added matchmaking platforms to their services to diversify what they offer and grow their business.
It is important to note that creating a matchmaking platform can also bring challenges, notably in terms of cost, competition and regulation. What matters most is to weigh the benefits and the risks carefully before getting started.
How to create a matchmaking platform? The 5 fundamentals
A matchmaking platform is a marketplace in the broad sense: it has to connect people who need something with people who offer it, whether services or physical products. Creating a matchmaking platform therefore follows the same process as creating a marketplace, and calls for a combination of technical, commercial and marketing skills.
Beyond that, the following steps are essential to create a successful matchmaking platform:
1- Analyse the market
Once you know which type of matchmaking platform you want to create (classified ads, professional contacts, services for individuals, etc.), you need a thorough market analysis to understand consumer needs and current trends. To do so:
- Study the existing markets and work out what works well and what could be improved.
- Identify the consumer needs and wants that current offers leave unmet.
- Analyse the existing competition to understand its business model, positioning, marketing strategy, strengths and weaknesses.
- Assess the potential revenue and growth opportunities.
It is important to pin down the added value your matchmaking platform will bring its users. If other platforms already occupy the same niche, you will need extra features such as price comparison, richer user reviews and ratings, an active community or advanced search tools.
2- Launch a first version of the matchmaking site (MVP)
At this stage, you give part of your audience a “beta” version of the matchmaking platform. This means building what is called a minimum viable product (MVP). It is a minimal version of your platform, with just enough features to be put on the market and gather user feedback. It is used to test and validate the concept of your matchmaking site quickly, before developing the full version.
To launch an MVP, you can use different CMSs such as Ning, Drupal or .NET, or use technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the front end and PHP for the back end. Platforms such as WordPress, or frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, can also make development easier.
If you decide to work with professionals, the Medialem web agency offers a service that goes beyond development, with support throughout your project. Medialem makes sure it has understood all of its clients’ needs before setting out the specifications and technical characteristics of each platform. With some of the most competitive prices on the market, Medialem brings its expertise in marketplaces, web marketing, growth hacking and the web in general to guide project owners and make proposals at every stage of the matchmaking platform’s development.
3- Make sure the user experience (UX) is optimal
Once the website is live, test your platform to find and fix errors. It is also essential to make sure the site is friendly and easy to use. Several actions help with this:
- Understand how users behave, and listen to their motivations and frustrations.
- Form hypotheses about how to meet their needs.
- Test those hypotheses.
- Improve the product based on the results of the tests.
- Keep evaluating the platform after launch, to make sure it still meets users’ needs and to catch any problems.
As a rule, the success of a matchmaking platform depends on what is done to anticipate users’ specific needs and ensure an optimal UX. It is therefore worth building in tools such as:
- Messaging that makes it easy for members to talk to each other
- Online appointment booking
- Online payment
- Quote requests
- Storage space
- Document sharing
- A discussion forum
- A blog
This list is not exhaustive, but it shows how many features a matchmaking platform can contain.
4- Choose the right payment service provider
Choosing the right provider matters all the more because payment comes at the very end of your customers’ buying journey. A complicated online payment undermines your platform’s user experience (UX) and wipes out your conversion efforts. Making the right choice of PSP for your platform will therefore have a direct impact on the project’s profitability.
5- Promote your matchmaking platform
Once your matchmaking platform is ready, many tools will help make your site known, such as:
A- Email marketing: email marketing, or emailing, means creating and sending emails as a direct marketing channel. It relies on the consent of your contacts (no spamming) and on personalised messages.
B- Blogs: use content marketing strategies to draw attention to the platform. This can include blog posts, videos, webinars and podcasts on topics relevant to the platform’s users. Create your own blog where you talk about your new platform. People like reading useful information. Neil Patel applied this technique with great success.
C- Build a community: you can start by organising events to introduce your platform to professionals and potential users, such as seminars, workshops and conferences. What matters most is to open a dialogue with your users and build a connection with them. Building a community sometimes takes time; people appreciate commitment and attention. So never hesitate to interact with them and answer their requests.
D- SEA (search engine advertising): use online advertising campaigns to promote the platform. This can include social media advertising, paid online advertising and video ads on YouTube.
How do matchmaking platforms make money?
To make money, many matchmaking platforms choose a business model that takes a commission when they pass a lead on to their partners. On each transaction, the platform keeps a percentage, larger or smaller. You do, however, need to keep your commission rates “reasonable”: some partners are reluctant to share their revenue and often find commissions excessive. A successful example of a matchmaking platform that chose commissions is Reedsy. The site connects writers with publishing professionals such as proofreaders, editors, designers and translators, and takes a commission on every transaction between a writer and a professional found through the platform.
Other platforms choose subscriptions. Access to the services requires a paid subscription, usually with several tiers of options and therefore of prices. Above all, this means maximising the value for whoever pays. Generating a large volume of potential transactions is therefore crucial to offer significant added value. The economic balance is not always easy to maintain, either: a subscription is a source of recurring revenue for the company, but that revenue can vary with the number of subscribers, their engagement, the competition and market volatility. Among the platforms that chose this kind of monetisation is The Nanny Collective, which connects parents with qualified nannies and charges parents a monthly subscription.
Finally, advertising can also be a good solution. It lets you offer a free matchmaking service to your users, and providers like it because they receive their payments without commission. To earn substantial revenue, however, you need a large, qualified audience. Nextdoor, for example, is a platform that connects neighbours to encourage communication and collaboration within local communities. Nextdoor is free for its users and makes money through targeted local advertising.
Your choice of business model is not set in stone. You can test different plans, prices or commission rates, charge the supply side or the demand side, change business model entirely over time, or even combine several. To learn more, Medialem has written a complete article on the business models to choose from for your company.
In short, the 5 rules for creating a matchmaking platform:
- Analyse the market
- Launch a first version of your matchmaking site (MVP)
- Make sure the user experience (UX) is optimal
- Choose the right payment service provider
- Promote your matchmaking platform
Once your matchmaking platform is up and running, the revenue it generates will depend on the business model you chose. Doing thorough research before you start anything is essential: the right information saves time and money. These steps are general and can vary depending on the type of platform you want to build. Creating a matchmaking site can also be complex and time-consuming, so it is wise to get help from professionals. For more information, contact us: we will be happy to discuss your project ideas.