This is a guest contribution by Nathan Howes of Casino Kings. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.
So you’re a keen gamer with a bit of cash (hopefully raised from a minimal slots or casino bankroll stockpiled from playing your favourite casino house at its own games), and you’re gaming at a mobile casino and you think, “Why can’t I access my promotions tab or account data from my gaming window?” This is the light bulb moment you’ve been waiting for. Your destiny is clear: you are going to launch your own mobile casino. But where to start?
When Casino Kings launched in November 2014 we already had a strong background in online gaming. When you see friends and colleagues gaming on their commutes and in their leisure time you don’t necessarily need to know the market research figures putting projected mobile gaming revenues up from $44bn to some $64bn this year to know that the mobile casino marketplace is a marketplace you want to trade in, or a gaming place you want to play in. But obviously it helps.
But how to market a new mobile casino offering? It’s all very well seeing the opportunity, but where do you start?
In fact, even major casino houses have that same moment of hesitation. The big boys invest tens of thousands of pounds, dollars or euros into market research, future trends, and revenue forecasts
And the bigger you are the harder it gets. Being independent makes you manoeuvrable, adaptable, versatile, which means you can launch—as we did—with a unique concept: an independent provider with personality that offers adiverse portfolio of online and mobile casino and slots games and a comprehensive range of user-led promotions.
The Three P’s
The key words here are personality, portfolio and promotion. Offering a diverse portfolio and fresh promotional activity is a must, but speaking to your customers in a voice in which they can understand and appreciate and above all one that gets them excited and eager to get involved is paramount. Of course that comes naturally if you are gamers yourselves. Understanding the needs of your audience is one of the oldest tenements of marketing, but it is much more important when it comes to long-term marketing strategy and development of customer relationships.
Mobile gamers are much more interested in quick to access, high-quality games. Current smartphone users are used to watching movies on their smartphones and they are going to get turned off by sketchy thumbnails and oodles of text. Keep your landing pages and your game reviews concise and full of personality. And partner with developers that have games with as much personality as you do. At Casino Kings, we were adamant that we had to get Thunderkick games in our catalogue for that very reason.
Blog It
The business case for blogging is clear and present, in terms of both SEO and ROI. IgniteSpot puts websites with 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links, while HubSpot reports that companies with 51-100 pages on their website generate 48% more traffic than those with 50 or fewer pages. But blogging isn’t just about indexing and trafficking (although that’s possibly not the right phrase). Blogs are the personality of your website in a bite size form, the heart on your sleeve. But they need to be relevant, either to the games you are promoting or the promotions you are running. And always, always relevant to the lives your gamers are living, because you are living it right along with them.
Social Media Rewards
If you’ve got personality and are busy promoting your mobile offering up the podium, you are on the right track for organic referrals. Social media referrals drive product awareness, brand loyalty and business growth. No wonder that the biggest companies have whole teams devoted to its exploitation. But creating social media buzz might be easier than you think, and it always starts with your product. It’s the old chicken and egg dilemma: have a great product and the buzz will come. Some companies waste a heck of a lot of money trying to create a buzz when they should instead simply focus on their product. Simple reward schemes are one sure fire way to increase your chances of customers spreading the news of your mobile casino online, at home and in the workplace. Mi reward es su reward.
As with any online article, these three core principles probably make marketing a mobile casino seem straightforward as choosing what you are going to have for breakfast. I’m not promising it’s going to be easy, but as long as you let your personality build your product you have as good a chance as any. As with everything in life, personality goes a long way.
Nathan Howes has worked in the online gaming industry for 15 years in various roles. Currently spearheading the Marketing team for a new online casino www.casinokings.com.
