10 Best Casino Marketing Strategies | Tips to Grow Your Business

This is the most comprehensive guide on casino marketing you’ll find.

Today, we are going to show you the best casino marketing practices that are genuinely working.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll discuss today:

• How to make a website that’s functional and user-friendly?
• What kind of incentives work best for customer acquisition and retention?
• How to gain a competitive edge over competitors?
• How to make your online casino stand out in Google?

So, do you want to achieve next-level results with your online casino?

Let’s get started.

#1 Create a Functional Website

Having a highly functional website should be the top priority of your online marketing strategy. 

Why?

The first impression is crucial to keeping people on your site and getting them to come back. And these are no empty words. 

According to WebFX data, 94% of first impressions are related to your site’s web design. However, that’s not everything. A well-designed website is also crucial in terms of getting customers’ trust as 75% of website credibility comes from design.

Your website is normally the first sticking point between you and your customer. Thus, your website’s design must encourage visitors to go through the account registration process and sign in to the game immediately.

Here are some points that you should consider while developing your casino website.

Build landing pages that reflect the core message of your casino and grab users’ attention. Let users interact with your casino’s website as fast as possible. To do so, pay attention to the page load speed. Use proper navigation structure to let users find information about games, services, and odds in just a few clicks. Highlight your casino’s key features at the top of your pages with drop-down menus. Then, whenever a visitor looks for information on what you offer, they can simply find it. To get additional trust, we suggest including happy customers’ reviews. They may include genuine testimonials from your loyal clients saying how much they managed to win or how great a time they had playing.

#2 Set Transparent Rules

Due to a significant number of shady practices associated with the gambling niche in the past, maintaining transparency is crucial in online casino promotion.

Your overall marketing plan and business objectives should start with making sure that users feel safe and secure when they visit your page. Therefore,  you should highlight information about the size of the minimum bet. Customers prefer to play in a casino that doesn’t force them to place huge bets to play a game, especially at the beginning. That’s why it’s imperative to define such details explicitly. 

Be honest with your customers and clarify the terms and conditions.  This will let you obtain their trust and build relationships that may last for many years. Let them know that they’ve found the right place that satisfies their needs while ensuring transparency and safety.

#3 Send Email Newsletters

Another online casino marketing strategy that will power up your business is creating an email database. Email marketing is the digital equivalent of direct mail. Currently, it’s one of the most potent and cost-effective elements of internet marketing, generating $38 for every $1 spent, which is an outstanding 3,800% ROI.

Apart from that, it creates great opportunities to connect with each customer individually and build a sense of personalization. 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.

MailChimp has conducted extensive research concerning the most important email metrics. The average email open rate for all industries they analyzed is 21.33%. 

In the table below, we have included average stats for the gambling industry. As you can see, the average open rate is a bit higher than the average open rate for all industries.

Average Open Rate	Average Click Rate	Hard Bounce	Soft Bounce	Unsubscribe Rate
21.62%	3.30%	0.42%	0.38%	0.15%

All the data prove that a strategy that incorporates digital marketing activities such as email newsletters isn’t a practice to miss when it comes to building a robust online presence and customer retention.

To get your customers’ emails, you may ask them to leave their contact details through your blog. Add incentives in the form of free bonuses and offers at the site in pop-ups, subscription signup or registration, etc.

When it comes to content, use newsletters to tell users about new games, special offers, and casino events. A fabulous newsletter should include:

• A catchy subject line to attract the user’s attention along with the casino logo;
• A brief overview of the primary information you want to share with users;
• A button or link to an offer at the site in case users needs more information.

Read More: Email CTR – What is Click-Through Rate and How to Improve It

#4 Run a Blog

Blogging is a brilliant way to show your target audience that you’re an active, modern company that has more to offer than just your services. Similar to email marketing, blogging is highly cost-effective. In fact, those who utilize blogging for marketing purposes see 13 times the ROI of businesses that don’t, making it an essential casino marketing strategy.

With consistent and valuable posting, you are winning loyal followers. They will promote your business through other marketing channels such as social media and word of mouth. Even if some visitors arrive at your site just to read an interesting blog, you’re still spreading brand awareness among consumers.

While creating blog posts, your articles don’t have to be about your business only. Don’t hesitate to use your creativity in coming up with engaging topics for your audience. This way, you’ll boost your position in search engine results, bring some organic traffic and potential new customers to your website.

Here are some exemplary ideas that you can develop further:

• discover what’s going on in the casino industry, 
• gather tips on popular table games, 
• explain the math behind gambling, 
• share insights on the psychology of gambling, 
• answer your readers’ frequently asked questions in a blog post.

And so much more. All of these topics are great ways to get attention to your site and increase brand exposure.

Read More: Why Have a Company Blog: 7 Fact-Based Reasons

#5 Take Advantage of Affiliate Marketing Tactics

Affiliates are people who can bring traffic to your online casino through their websites. 

By providing truthful information on various online casinos, affiliates gain trust among players and manage to attract a significant audience to their websites.

While it’s not necessarily the case for other industries, online casino affiliates are quite often players themselves. This means they have extensive knowledge and industry expertise as online casino users. They often run blogs or do live streaming to share their gaming experience with other players. Long story short, affiliates (or professional affiliate companies) are not strangers in the iGaming world and know their ins and outs.

With great search engine optimization tactics, link building, and activity on online forums, they get high rankings in search engines. Using these resources, they refer quality traffic to online casino operators through relevant marketing channels.

Collaboration with a website that offers casino online reviews is an excellent way to advertise to your target audience. With an incentive in the form of special promotions, you send the right message to the right audience. 

Customers who access casino review websites usually have transactional intent. This means they are looking for the best place to start gambling online. Through affiliate marketing, you have a direct link with potential customers and an opportunity to let them know what your business offers.

#6 Offer Bonuses

As we have mentioned, potential visitors of your casino are looking for a perfect starting spot. Thus, one of the best methods for grabbing their attention is offering bonuses. 

Here are some of the most common bonus ideas that you could incorporate into your online marketing plan:

• Welcome bonus,
• No deposit bonus,
• Free spins,
• Monthly bonus,
• Payment Method Bonus,
• High Roller Casino Bonuses,
• “Refer a Friend” Casino Bonus.

Bonuses are in such high demand because they allow players to try out a new casino without any risk. They are also a way for your casino to stand out from competitors. Of course, you don’t have to stick to the list mentioned above. A good idea is to even create bonuses that can’t be found anywhere else, making your online casino one of a kind.

However, remember that not all bonuses should be aimed at new clients. One of digital marketing best practices regarding brand development is to focus on customer retention. New visitors are indeed important. Still, what helps online businesses grow the most is support from loyal fans.  We’ll be talking about the value of leveraging customer retention in the next section.

#7 Implement Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are an excellent method to show appreciation towards your regular players.  Additionally, attractive loyalty bonuses entice your clientele to stick around for longer, make multiple deposits, and spend big.

Even though such bonuses are nowhere near as common as they should be, they are used by the biggest and best gambling sites. This is one of the factors that indicate A-listers of the casino world. 

The idea is simple: players are added to a loyalty program and encouraged to play slots, place bets, and make deposits to gain points. Typically, the higher levels in the loyalty program feature better rewards.

Usually, players can exchange loyalty points for bonus cash or other perks. Moreover, some loyalty programs use gamification, where players have to complete certain missions and access the benefits through entertainment.

#8 Monitor Competitors’ Odds

Today, consumers search online before any product purchase. In the iGaming world, it means they are well aware of aggregate odds sites like OddsChecker. In fact, it has never been easier for customers to perform an odds analysis. Thus it comes as no surprise that they will choose a site with the best odds and invest there.

Having that in mind, strategic monitoring of competitors’ odds will let you stay ahead and deliver the most tempting offers. Knowledge from such insights may translate into expanding online presence, which helps drive traffic, acquire new players, and increase revenue.

However, remember not to make it a single shot. If you constantly keep track of competitive odds, your brand’s exposure will continue, ultimately attracting more and more online traffic to your casino.

Read More: Why is Competitor Analysis Important? Stay One Step Ahead

#9 Optimize Your SEO

Fact: 90.63% of pages get zero traffic from Google.

As scary as it may seem, getting out of this circle isn’t that difficult. With proper SEO optimization techniques, your website will gain the traction it deserves. All you need is knowledge and patience because SEO takes time to bring visible results.

The basic SEO technique means including keywords in your landing pages and meta tags. As the name suggests, a keyword is a crucial term that lets users find your page on Google.

Let’s assume you are having a great holiday in Las Vegas, and you feel lucky today. What term are you going to type in Google search? Most likely “casino las vegas.” right? And that’s your keyword.

Cutting a long story short, keywords influence your ranking on search engines. You should include them in the titles, meta descriptions, and content to increase organic traffic and make compelling ads.

Read More: Is SEO Worth it for Small Business? We Believe So.

#10 Work with Marketing Experts

A surefire way of improving your content marketing is to employ a digital marketing agency. Industry experts have extensive knowledge across SEO, social media planning, content creation, and marketing automation tools.

Digital marketers can ensure your brand’s growth in search engines through well-planned SEO strategies and copywriting activities. Additionally, they may help find proper gaming industry advertisers through influencer marketing strategies. 

If you are interested in a casino marketing agency to help you drive revenue, traffic and boost performance in search engines, you should partner up with GamerSEO. Don’t hesitate to contact our team members! It’s the right time to begin crafting a personalized campaign that’s tailored to match your marketing budget.

FAQ

Can you advertise gambling?

When it comes to Facebook and Instagram gambling policy, here’s what they say:
“Adverts that promote or facilitate online real money gambling, real money games of skill or real money lotteries, including online real money casinos, sportsbooks, bingo or poker, are only allowed with prior written permission.”

A similar case occurs with Google ads.  They also allow casino advertising only when their specific criteria are met. These are the following:

• the advertiser has to get a proper Google Ads certification,
• gambling ads must target approved countries, 
• They have a landing page that displays information about responsible gambling and never targets minors.

How do you market a casino business?

In today’s digitized world, traditional marketing media channels are surely not enough when brands want to achieve success within a given industry. Speaking about the casino business, here’s a quick rundown of the marketing activities that will certainly power up your marketing strategy: 

• Create a functional website,
• Send email newsletters,
• Set up a blog,
• Use affiliate marketing,
• Offer Bonuses and loyalty programs,
• Monitor your competitors,
• Team up with a digital marketing agency.

What is the target market for casinos?

Defining the target audience is especially important for new business owners who are just starting their online gaming facilities.

The target audience may be challenging to identify because there’s no single persona of the average online gambler. The data regarding a typical casino player vary from country to country. However, it’s noticeable that they usually are males between 18-35, but the male/female ratio gap can be as small as a single percentage point [Slotegrator]. 

As the same source informs, in more developed countries, casino visitors tend to have higher income and education levels, with strong interests in technology.

Still, the 18-35 demographic are mostly slot players and sports bettors, whereas vast numbers of older players spin and wager every day.