How do iGaming Brands Market Themselves to Customers?

Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, July 22, 2022

In mature markets such as the UK, the online gambling industry has regularly recorded double-digit annual growth over the course of the last decade. Even as the UK market faces a regulatory and legislative headwind, it remains highly lucrative and continues to deliver sizable profits on behalf of operators.

However, it should come as no surprise that such a large and generative market is also highly competitive, with even established and household brands having to fight aggressively for a relatively small market share. This is also true in a number of emerging markets around the world, including North America.

Of course, brands utilise a number of effective and innovative marketing techniques to help them build and retain market share, many of which are also widely used across a number of industries. We’ll explore three of the most purposeful below, while explaining how they help brands to stand out from the crowd.

#1. Email and Content Marketing

Most operators spend their majority of their marketing budgets on digital channels, with email marketing particular popular. Of course, this has much to do with the fact that email marketing boasts an impressive return on investment (ROI) of around £35 for every £1 spent, while the channel is also highly effective at engaging potential customers.

It’s particularly effective when acquiring new customers, thanks to its relatively low cost and high rates of return. Remember, it remains approximately five-times more expensive to acquire new customers across different industries, so identifying ways of doing so affordably is key for brands in competitive markets.

In terms of strategy, casino brand typically create integrated online campaigns that engage customers and encourage them to share their email addresses. They’re incentivised to do so by the promise of frequent communication in the form of updates and promotions, whether these are welcome offers for new customers or existing promotions that include reload bonuses.

Over time, email marketing can become an excellent way of keeping players informed and engaged, while you shouldn’t discount the role that it plays in creating customer

relationships and helping to shape your preferred target audience. These factors establish email marketing as one of the most valuable communication and marketing tools for iGaming brands, regardless of their status or size of customer base.

In terms of integration, email marketing is also a great way of driving assisted conversions through social media channels. This is especially true when you use dedicated email marketing tools, with options such as MailChimp, Drip Mailer Lite and Hubspot Email Marketing currently leading the marketplace.

On a similar note, content marketing also offers a low cost and highly engaging way of targeting players. What’s more, this type of marketing approach can be channelled through an on-site blog, along with outreach content that targets customers through alternative platforms and extends the reach of an individual betting brand.

If we also accept that understanding player preferences and the most popular iGaming verticals (while also identifying the most appreciated bonus offers and structures) are key objectives for brands, the good news is that you can tailor your content strategy to fill such gaps in knowledge in the minds of customers.

Objective game and casinos reviews can be used to engage players and help them make informed decisions, for example, as can up-to-date information on relevant tournaments, events and game releases. You can also provide expert content that provides detailed advice to players, whether this helps them to understand welcome bonus T&Cs such as wagering requirements or the fundamentals of betting strategy.

#2. The Deployment of Tailored and Generous Bonuses

Rewards and bonus incentives have become one of the most effective iGaming marketing tools, especially as the market has become increasingly competitive and crowded. Over time, this technique has also become increasingly sophisticated, with the deployment of times and targeted offers to suit different players.

We’re now also entering the age of artificial intelligence (AI), which is being used to collate huge swathes of player data and build intuitive customer profiles. As a result of this, bonuses can be tailored to suit the needs of individual players, in terms of their scope, composition and the precise terms and conditions included.

We’re also seeing bonus structures becoming increasingly creative, with deposit matches, no-deposit free spins and free spin promotions now widely used and often combined to establish completely unique offers. Wagering requirements are also lowering on average across the board, to cater for the majority of UK players who bet as little as £2.57 per week and approximately £133 per year on average.

Many of these offers are cross-game in nature to account for the broad taste in verticals often boasted by casual players, although free spins are often confined to a select number of popular slots (although this aspect of free spin bonuses may well be customised in the future). There’s also a wider range of casino bonuses now available to existing players, including reload promotions, cashback offers and refer-a-friend schemes.

If you register at a new casino platform in 2023, you may also notice that the welcome offer is split across your first three or even five deposits. This enables operators to increase increasingly generous and high value offers, without forcing casual players to wager outside of their means.

#3. The Rise of Casino Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is a common tactic across a broad range of industries, including the iGaming market. Affiliate marketing describes an arrangement in which ‘affiliates’ earn a commission for each customer visit or signup that they generate for an iGaming brand. Affiliates can come in many forms, from independent comparison sites and informative blog sites.

The benefit of this strategy is that it enables customers to seek out information and find the right site for them through a non-intrusive channel that isn’t overly promotional in nature. At the same time, affiliates work to highlight and convince players of an operator’s value, often while pinpointing the key considerations that players have in mind when comparing the marketplace.

Interestingly (and like email marketing), affiliate marketing is also a low-cost option for operators, with casinos agreeing to pay affiliates for pre-negotiated advertising activities and outcomes, usually a new customer signup. This model is secure and safe in addition to being highly targeted and cost-effective, while it can be mutually beneficial for all parties involved.