One of the fastest-growing online industries around the world is the so-called iGaming industry. It includes online casinos, online sportsbooks, online poker, and more. Since it’s now easier than ever to start an online casino, the market has become quite competitive.
Despite the fact that there are millions of players around the globe, casinos on the web still need to employ different marketing strategies to attract new players and retain the regulars. Therefore, let’s take a look at the most common marketing strategies and how online casino operators execute them.
Bonuses and Promotions
Bonuses and promotions proved to be the most effective tool for attracting players. The most common type of bonus is the welcome bonus which players can claim after opening an account in an online casino.
In most cases, they also need to make a deposit to activate the bonus. For instance, a standard bonus would look something like this — get 100% up to $100 on your first deposit. Therefore, whatever players decide to deposit up to $100 will be matched in bonus money. Instead of playing with $100, they will start their online casino journey with $200.
Some casinos go one step further, offering no deposit bonuses awarded to visitors just for signing up to the platform. Of course, they are much smaller compared to welcome deposit bonuses.
Since the industry is so diverse, many online casinos experiment with the concept of a welcome bonus, adding more gifts, such as free spins for online slots.
The bonus money isn’t available for withdrawal right away, and that’s the catch. Players first need to wager the required amount of money before their bonus funds become unlocked. This term is called wagering requirements. There are many other terms and conditions for bonuses that actually determine their real value.
Affiliate Marketing
Since it’s sometimes too difficult for online casinos to do marketing on their own, they often offer affiliate programs. Basically, affiliates are experienced marketers who further promote the casino using various digital marketing strategies. In most cases, the affiliate program offers a share of everything that the casino earns via the customers brought in by the affiliate. Good affiliates will manage to strike better deals with online casinos and have detailed marketing strategies to attract more people.
Anyone can technically become an online casino affiliate. However, it still requires great knowledge of how online casinos work and how to market them to make a living out of it. Still, some of the largest online casino affiliates earn millions of dollars this way.
SEO
Many online casino users often don’t know which casino they want to join, especially if they’re new to the world of online gambling. That’s why it’s important for online casinos to rank well on search engines for important keywords. In other words, whenever someone types “online casino,” a certain casino or affiliate marketing site would occupy the first position on SERP (since affiliates also use SEO).
Some online casinos want to rank for specific keywords related to their unique selling points. For example, if a casino has low wagering requirements for its bonuses, it will use all possible keyboard combinations to rank as high as possible.
Social Media Marketing
Some SMM sites have looser regulations when it comes to online gambling, meaning online casinos will use various social media marketing techniques to build communities and attract new players. For example, they can offer special bonus codes for people on social media or advertise new games, tournaments, events, and more.
Final Thoughts: It’s Not an Easy Task
Each online service or tool has a certain perspective on online gambling, and marketers who advertise online casinos need to have strategies that are compliant with each service to avoid getting banned. Therefore, online casino marketing strategies are carefully designed to attract new users, retain the regulars, and adopt somewhat responsible marketing techniques.
Even online casinos themselves need to comply with plenty of regulations, which is why they usually offer bonuses within limits imposed by their regulator. Simply put, they need to have responsible gambling in mind and minimize the harmful part of gambling while marketing the very activity.
