These days, no industry can reach top level without proper marketing. Yet, those who study the craft often look up to major tech companies, or popular startups. What many marketing-oriented folks fail to understand is that you can learn marketing from healthcare providers, mortgage industry, and fashion brands alike.
Today, we’re not here to talk about any of the mentioned industries nor what they do well in the field of marketing. Instead, we’re going to focus on the rapidly growing online casino industry. When it comes to pushing marketing ideas and creating strong customer relationships no other industry comes close to online gambling. What makes online casinos marketing strategies so interesting is the fact that they always look to have strong bonds and create customers that will come back.
Yet, at the end of the day, doing what online casinos do is not as simple as one might think. Yes, what they offer is appealing to players for many reasons, but online casinos marketing is not a question of luck or chances as some of their games are. Instead it is a mechanism that is fuelled by relentless online casino marketeers and their resources put into one goal – to attract and retain new customers. You’ve probably noticed that the number of online casinos is growing by the day, and having new and loyal customers alike in this cutthroat field of business is vital. Here’s how online casinos do it.
The Basics of Casino Marketing
Online casino marketing works on a simple principle – attract new customers and make them loyal. To appeal to people who will become loyal customers one needs an emotional approach for the most appeal produced. The best example of this is a simple, yet unique way casinos honour their biggest winners – they make a massive announcement to the world, and to other players that one of their own took home a massive jackpot. By doing this, casinos send a message to other players – that could’ve been you. One does not need more motivation to keep on playing.
While attracting new players by announcing past, big winners, the more of the casino marketing work is done once the players become members of the named casino. Folks who tend to spend hours at a casino, need something more than just games, and with online casinos this is even more accentuated compared to regular brick-and-mortar casinos. Every new crypto casino looks to cater to all needs of their players, and they apply various marketing techniques to get there. These are some of the top approaches online casinos have.
Casinos thrive on complimentary rewards. This is the biggest part of online casino marketing. Casinos are more than generous. From the get-go of the customer/provider relationship, customers are given gifts. Yet, according to data we have, only 42% of all companies regardless of the industry tend to use the so-called gift marketing. As far as casinos go, they fully rely on it, and have been since the inception of the first casinos.
Back in the day, casinos treated players with free drinks, meals, and rooms, but today, at online casinos these comps have changed. Instead of the mentioned treats, casinos give welcome bonuses, free spins, bonus rounds, first deposit bonuses, etc. Many modern online casinos even provide customers with real-life rewards such as vacation packages. Having your latest customer given a gift before they’ve even joined your business and spent any money on your product/service is a clear sign of what business you’re running. More generosity could benefit more than a few industries that have none.
In today’s world of business many industries have moved online or at least have some presence on the web. It’s the world we live in. Online casinos do a great job in creating loyal customers by making more than a few of them feel like a VIP personality. These establishments tend to create various events, and let players join in. Not only let them, but directly call them to participate. Why do casinos do this? Well, they love to have people who think alike in the same place. As it usually turns out these folks will have more than a few things in common. That’s why casinos love to organize different events for their players. Standard land-based casinos organize parties, poker nights, and similar events. Online casinos create rooms for these players, where they can chat, play the games they like, and even organize tournaments for them. We should also mention that they do most of their bonding through live chats that allow players not only to talk to each other but to also talk to live dealers.
What online casinos have over all other industries is the fact that all of their customers have one major thing in common – they love to gamble. While this is true, not every casino visitor is the same. Statistics show that Gen Xers and Boomers love slots such as Megaways slots, and that’s some 80% of them. At the same time, Millennials love casinos for their overall appeal, and not entirely for gambling purposes. Because of this, and major shift from regular casinos to web based ones, marketeers who work in this industry tend to focus a lot on their demographics. Not only to learn how to accommodate their customers who are already there but how to make the transition easier for all who want to join. From the moment big online casinos learn about the habits of their top customers they change the approach of their marketing to accommodate these people first.
No matter how much a person loves going to a casino and gamble no one is just about casinos and gambling. Every person is so much more. This is something that is more than clear to casinos marketeers. It is because of their recognition of what your regular casino goer likes you see online casino sponsorships and partner deals all over the place. One of the best examples of what we’re talking about is the online casino and sports betting giants Stake. To cater to a diversified base of players they’ve entered sports such as football and F1, partnered up with competitions such as La Liga and UFC, and with a plethora of individuals starting from Kun Aguero to Alex Pereira. When a customer sees a brand reaching to so many different sports and personalities, the chances are they will share their views. The mix of various brands and personalities have a strong chance to cater to your top customers. Most people, and gamblers more than some other, will not pour their money into a project without a good reason. With top partners saying good things about a casino’s brand, customers will more likely become and remain loyal.
What casinos do better than many other businesses is that they avoid generic ads. When you’re following a certain gambling establishment you will not be greeted with those generic 20% off messages. We all know that these are sent to everyone for no particular reason besides spamming someone’s inbox. One of the first industries to recognize this were the online casinos. That’s why they look to make personalized offers to their customers. The best example of this is the game selection. A casino will not reward a player with free slot spins if they tend to play only blackjack. Instead, they will provide them a bonus or a promotion tied exclusively to blackjack. Considering that all data of online casinos is collected online, it is easier to track each individual player like that. It gives them a starting advantage compared to some other industries. Yet, even industries with the same advantage do not reap the same rewards. Online casinos do not want to give away empty gift baskets. Instead, they fill them with what they estimate a given player will need the most. So, a blackjack player will receive free funds to have a couple of free hands at his favourite table. A poker high roller will be invited to a big name private poker game. Folks who spend time in slot rooms will be given free spins. A simple logic but an effective one.
Going to a casino comes with plenty of risks. Most players who are realistic know that they’re not going to win every time they’re at a casino. Yet, no one likes to lose. Losing frequently will definitely make a player think twice about coming back to a casino. This is where casinos have come with an amazing marketing strategy – they award losses too. Most establishments tend to give back to a player who has lost a lot during one night. Usually it’s not much, but players see it as another chance and sometimes that’s all it takes. Of course, no serious casinos will be looking to cover anyone’s losses. But, they know how to soften the blow when they see fit. The best example of this is a bonus that gives back some of your losses back. Many casinos give their players back $10 if they spent $100 on a weekly basis, that can be spent on their favourite game. Some have progressive returns, so when a player spends $1000 they give back $50 to give another chance to the named player. Of course, casinos are not well known for their generosity, as they’re after all money making businesses, but at the end of the day they know how to take care of their most loyal customers.
From the moment casinos moved online in numbers, many customers followed. Without a need to go to a certain location to enjoy your favourite game, people started to forget how it felt spending hors physically in a casino. Nowadays, people can go to work, commute, be home and still play their favourite games. Because of this, casinos developed a new need – they need to keep reminding people that they’re still here just in another form. From the moment casinos evolved to the world wide web, the marketing surrounding them changed too. Casinos no longer wait for people to come over, they come to them. These days, that’s easier said than done, and yet casinos ran over some other industries in doing this. You have text, emails, and what helps casinos the most – mobile apps. Through apps, casinos can be online with their customers all the time. While every bonus offer, and promotions are more than welcomed, casinos do not only resort to those tactics. More than often they will only later tell players that there’s a new game worth trying out, that the amount of jackpot in a certain game has risen to astronomical figures, or that their favourite blackjack room is missing a player. The point is not to convince a player to play, but to have them aware of the moment when they decide to play to know what’s open. Casinos have become masters in this. Not only do they know what to do, but they also know when to do it. For a player that plays every day, they know that the silence is the best offer. For a player that hasn’t logged in the app for two weeks, a promotional email or a simple message should do the trick. Modern technology has enabled the growth of online casinos, and they continue to thrive on what it brings to the table.
Just a few years ago you couldn’t have put top marketing and casinos in the same sentence. Today, they’re elevating their marketing game to another level showing many different industries what needs to be done for a top reach to new customers and an approach to keep the old ones at bay. With the marketing approaches described above, online casinos are reshaping the marketing domain leading by example. In the future, we can only expect that more different industries will follow the same or at ast similar approach to the way they conduct their marketing.
