Marathonbet might not be the biggest player in online gambling, but they are making a lot of the right moves to grow their brand. To discuss how they’re doing that, CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero spoke with Dan Towse, head of brand for the operator.
Towse began by explaining that, for a brand to get recognized, it has to apply itself in three important areas. “Customer communications,” he emphasized as the first vital element. “The other thing is that your product’s got to stand up. Once they’ve seen your brand got to the product, make sure you’re giving them value. That might be by the price, that might be by the markets that you’re offering, but if you’re not touching all those three points and doing it well, customers aren’t going to hang around.”
Customer communications just can’t be emphasized enough as an important factor in building a relationship with the customer, and getting them to adopt the brand. “In a day where the industry is so saturated now, if you’re not cutting through with relevant communications, you’re not going to drive engagement with your customer base or with new acquisitions either,” Towse explained. “I think where the industry is moved on ahead of a lot is having relevant communications. Previously, I can tell you numerous times where I’ve received an email for a sport I’ve never wanted to bet on in my life. And where customers are so time poor now, you got to make sure the number of emails dropping in their inbox every day, yours is relevant to the sport that they like to have a bet on.”
Once the customer is on board, the next important step is to streamline their experience, and to smooth out any bumps that might push them away. Towse elaborated:
“In terms of, from customer services to emails to social media to text messaging, whatever it might be, we just got to make sure that we’re consistent with processes that are tried and tried and tried again because there’s no point in me sending out a message in one language, and it being completely different in the other, because consumers are going to see through that, and as soon as you lose that trust, it’s going to be very difficult to get it back.”
One of the most important factors in maintaining a hot brand is in saving customers who have issues from falling off, and that falls on customer service. “They’re not phoning customer services to say, ‘Thank you for letting us place a bet’ with them, they’re phoning because they’ve got a problem,” he told Liggero. “So training for customer services is very important to us. They go through an extensive process, we make sure they know the industry and the product inside out so we can try and find a first time resolution for any customer query that might come in.”
For smaller brands like Marathonbet, sponsorships play a key role in growing public recognition and trust. “Key partners, such as Manchester City, our official betting partner, or Girona, in Spain, who we front the shirt, they allow us to drive our brand to a bigger audience,” Towse gave as examples. “Not just their fans, but a bigger audience than that. That helps drive trust. If you drive trust for consumers, in our industry, that helps them engage with you.”
