iGaming is one of the most competitive industries out there. Ever since online gambling became so popular, people can choose from thousands of casinos worldwide. So how do you stand out? Simply put, by giving marketing a pivotal role. With the right campaign, you can attract a wide audience and make the player experience unforgettable.
Casino Marketing Campaign Tips
Understand Your Target Audience
The first step in creating a successful campaign is knowing who you’re making it for. There are different types of players out there and it’s all about who you’re trying to attract. This is an especially important note for small casinos or those just starting out.
Though the final goal might be to attract as many different groups as possible, it’s best to start with one and then expand. For example, let’s say you have a lot of slots in your selection and want to appeal to more slot players.
By doing target audience research, you’ll find out what this group responds to, how to engage with them over social media, and what type of bonuses you should offer. Some ideas include:
- Posting regularly on social media. Spread your message across multiple social media channels by posting news about upcoming games, asking for opinions, and sharing new promotions you have in store. You can also include bonus codes as an incentive for more people to follow you.
- Sending newsletters. Newsletters can be powerful tools that keep players engaged. Talk about a casino-related topic that interests them, share bonuses, or even write short game reviews. The trick here is not to send too many or too few emails. Depending on what you want to cover, you can send out your newsletter once a week, once every two weeks, or even once a month, and you can also send specific newsletters to different groups within your audience, based on their interests.
- Using personalised ads. Once you know who to target, you can use personalised ads across social media and search engines. Use this space to show your audience the highlights of your casino— what games you offer, what your loyalty program is like, or what bonuses they can expect. The key here is to run multiple different ads and to change how often they appear. This is more likely to draw people in, as they won’t get bored or overwhelmed by constantly seeing the same ad.
Create a Positive Feedback Loop
Making your customers associate your business with positive emotions is crucial for any industry, but especially so for gambling. That’s why you need to create positive feedback loops. To simplify, if players have a positive experience, they’re more likely to return.
Most casinos already do this naturally. For example, they offer welcome or recurring bonuses. As well as that, a positive loop happens every time a player wins. You can also actively act on this by encouraging people to leave reviews and responding to their queries and feedback. The second tip is particularly powerful, as you can also break negative loops with it. So if a player leaves a negative review, you can respond with care and reach out to solve their issue.
Design an Interesting Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are excellent ways to keep customers happy and coming back. They’re another way you can create a positive loop, but also a way to attract new players. A lot of casinos have loyalty schemes that players enter as soon as they register.
That means that they start collecting points or climbing your ranking system as early as placing their first wager. This will immediately pique their interest and give them an incentive to log in more often and discover more games.
Some casinos take this approach to the next level by gamifying their loyalty programs. Players collect XP (experience points) and earn rewards each time they fill the XP bar. Add an avatar to this equation and let them unlock accessories or automatically change the appearance as the player levels up, to amplify the excitement. Casumo Casino is a great example of this, as they introduced a mascot that grows with the player’s level. This has become a staple of the casino, so now existing customers recognise each other’s ranks just by seeing the avatar. It contributes to an active community and fuels some friendly competition.
This way of developing a loyalty program promotes inclusivity and availability, but you can also use exclusivity and scarcity to achieve the same (or even better) results. This is one of the oldest tactics in the book, used first by brick-and-mortar casinos. We’re talking about exclusive VIP clubs. Reach out to only the best and most active players to invite them to join the VIP ranks and offer exclusive promotions and rewards. You can create a separate landing page detailing your program and letting people know what they can expect. This is great if you want to interest various types of people. But if you aim to provide authenticity and attract only high rollers, you can even make your club secret.
Find out more about loyalty programs and what type works best for you: https://www.masterofcasinos.com/loyalty-programs/
Keep up with Trends
Every industry has its trends and gambling is no exception. Keep up with industry news and give players a taste by implementing the trends in your casino. For instance, esports have become very popular for sports betting. Why not partner with an esports platform or start a tournament?
Is a game provider releasing a new game that’s making them the centre of conversation? Be the first to add it to your casino, start a campaign with said provider, or highlight their other games to get the hype up even more.
You can also do this for emerging technologies. Just look at how popular crypto casinos have become since people have been involved with cryptocurrencies more. One thing that will definitely have people talking is virtual reality. If you manage to add this feature to your casino, you’ll completely reshape the way users interact with your games and stand out from the competition in the process.
The Best Casino Marketing Campaigns
“What Happens Here, Stays Here”
You’ve surely heard the phrase “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” by now, as it’s one of the most successful marketing campaigns in gambling history. The original saying was coined in 2003 to create a judgement-free experience for visitors— and it worked like a charm.
To this day, it encourages customers to let loose and spend more money. It’s a brilliant example of creative marketing that made its way into pop culture. And this is all because it accurately played on the desires of players! It’s a prime argument that understanding your target audience goes a long way.
This campaign appeared on TV and in print to reach as many people as possible, showcasing the importance of multi-channel marketing.
“We Hear You”
Paddy Power, an Irish casino and bookmaker, is most famous for their controversial campaigns. From ridiculing Roy Keane in a TV advert to addressing the migrant crisis in a humourous way through another “offensive” campaign, Paddy Power has successfully put the spotlight on themselves multiple times.
But, UK players didn’t embrace these ads and cheer them on— instead, they complained alongside other influential media outlets. That doesn’t sound like it would do tons of good to a business other than generating attention, does it?
That’s exactly why the casino launched the “We Hear You” campaign, where actors parodied the casino and offered an empathetic ear to all those complaints. The twist was that the ad made it look like these were problems you’d run into with other bookmakers, not with Paddy Power. This put the earlier campaigns into a new perspective and made it seem like the controversy and complaints were planned all along.
It also reached millions of people, resulted in thousands of new sign-ups, and significantly raised brand awareness!
“It’s Who You Play With”
William Hill, another famous UK brand, tackled one of the most difficult things about the gaming industry— the negative stereotypes such as antisocialism and depression. This casino launched a campaign that focused on the social aspect of sports betting and how it can bring people together.
After all, watching sports and celebrating the wins of our favourite teams is a social activity, so why can’t sports betting be? “It’s Who You Play With” spread this message across multiple channels and emphasised the casino’s modern and premium services. Most importantly, it helped build a thriving customer base that engages more with each other and the casino.
Conclusion
There are a lot of things that can be done to make a casino stand out from the competition. From fostering communication to knowing who to target, great things are possible when you have a plan. And if we learnt anything from the famous examples above, it’s that you can do a lot with a little creativity. It’s all about knowing how to talk to your audience and recognising their needs.