For most small businesses, the primary aim is to find and keep customers and clients. Very often, the focus will be on the more traditional forms of adverting, but nowadays, business owners need to take a more digital approach.
The modern-day business landscape is becoming more and more digitalized as time goes on, meaning that companies need to move with the times and fully embrace digital marketing. As consumers spend less time absorbing traditional print media and more time browsing the internet and using mobile applications, the digital space becomes a prime territory for advertising campaigns.
Digital Marketing Inspiration from Online Gaming
Digital marketing may still be a relatively new concept in certain industries, but there are a few markets that are setting a blueprint for effective digital strategies, particularly the emergent online casino industry.
Within less than a decade, the iGaming market has grown to become a global presence worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In such a highly saturated marketplace with many global platforms, all competing to be the best poker sites and casino platforms, effective digital marketing is crucial for generating and maintaining customer engagement.
From affiliate marketing to exclusive social media promotions, online casinos are reaping the rewards of their successful digital marketing strategies. Here are four key lessons in digital marketing that you can learn from these remote gaming operators.
User Experience is Everything
How do the most successful online gaming platforms differentiate themselves from their competition? By making User Experience (UX) a priority. When a casino gamer signs up for a digital platform, they’re expecting it to be easy to use, and provide a wide variety of games, all offering an immersive gaming experience.
You can adopt a similar UX-focused strategy by asking yourself:
Is my website (mobile and desktop) clear, attractive, and easy to navigate?
Does the User Pathway make it clear for potential customers to place orders or make purchases?
Are functional elements like menus as intuitive as possible?
You need a Strong Brand Identity
Whether your business was launched 10 days ago or 10 years ago, a clear and strong brand identity is crucial to stand out from the crowd. Online gaming operators are all too aware of the importance of a strong brand identity, which they back up with consistent messaging across all advertising mediums and exceptional customer service.
According to Dan Towse, head of Branding at Marathonbet, strong brand identity will enable an operator to “cut through” the cluttered marketplace, but it’s “what sits behind the brand…behind your above-the-line stuff” that is “extremely important for consistency”.
Focus on Social Media
Compared to an average small business, online gaming brands have much larger budgets and financial resources to carry out extensive digital marketing strategies. Despite this, you’ll find that many of them focus most of their efforts on social media promotion.
From customer acquisition to customer engagement and brand credibility, the potential of free to use social media platforms as business development tools is being maximized by iGaming companies.
In the same vein, your business needs to have a presence on as many online platforms as possible. Focus on creative ways to utilize the free tools that are available on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Increasing user engagement by directly interacting with your customers or clients on these platforms will, in most cases, deliver better results than paid-for advertising campaigns.
Generate Customer Loyalty
One strategy that iGaming operators are renowned for is generating customer loyalty through time-limited bonuses, promotions, and loyalty programs. While bonuses are an effective way to attract new customers to a platform, loyalty programs keep them playing for the longer term. While it’s not always possible to offer extensive rewards and promotional offers to customers, particularly at the start-up stage of a small business, there will be cost-effective ways that you can give back to your longer-term customers while attracting new ones in the process.
