Online Gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry, with new players signing up every day. The popularity of this hobby has created a wealth of opportunities for marketers trying to reach this audience with product marketing campaigns.
Though many countries have banned this form of gambling due to its socially disruptive nature, people around the world are recognizing its benefits and are seeking out online casinos to satisfy their need for excitement.
Why Online Gambling?
The benefits of playing online are becoming more prominent by the day. Not only do you have the convenience of being able to play from the comfort of your home, but you can also do so in a way that fits around your other daily activities. No matter where you are, what you’re doing, or what stage you’re at in life, you can always find an online casino that provides the enjoyment you’re looking for.
The most prominent benefit of online gambling is the fact that it’s available 24/7. This allows players to engage in leisure activities that were previously unavailable due to time constraints. Furthermore, thanks to the advancement of technology, video tutorials for new games, and helpful apps, new players can learn the ropes of playing various gambling games quickly and easily.
Marketing to this Audience
Due to the ever-evolving landscape of the world wide web, marketers must always stay ahead of the curve if they want to keep their businesses relevant and profitable. This is especially important when marketing to a niche audience such as online gamblers, as the technologies and methodologies that they’re accustomed to using may no longer be sufficient for the task at hand. For example, newspaper ads may not be effective anymore due to the fact that many people are seeking out online gaming content instead.
The good news is that digital marketing strategies in general, and online gambling marketing strategies in particular, are still very relevant and quite effective when used correctly. The bad news is that many marketers still struggle with understanding key digital marketing concepts like SEO, paid ads, and conversion optimization. Trying to do too much too soon can land you in trouble, as you’ll most likely over-estimate your client’s ability to handle new challenges and will have to scramble to make up for lost revenue. What you need to do is take it one step at a time, learning from each campaign you run and using the experience to improve your next venture.
The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Approach
Optimizing your website for search engines like Google can’t happen quickly or easily. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of trial and error. There are simply too many factors that you need to consider when attempting to optimize a site for search engines, making it a perfect job for a digital marketer or SEO specialist. The good news for you as the marketer is that there are some tried and tested strategies that you can use to start off with.
The first step is to create a strategy. This entails coming up with a list of the keywords or phrases that you as a marketer want to rank for (usually in the form of headlines, subheadlines, and descriptions). For example, if you’re trying to rank for the keyword or phrase, “gambling,” you may want to create a dozen different headlines, subheadlines, and descriptions for online casinos that use different language and words to grab the attention of your target audience.
The next step is to develop an SEO-friendly website layout. A design that’s easy for search engines to crawl and register on your site will help you get the most out of your hard work. When designing your website, ensure that your CMS (content management system) and website platform of choice allows for each piece of content to have an individual url. This means that each article, review, video, or whatever you post can have its own unique url that Google can use to find and index it. Better yet, create a unique url for every page on your site so that you can track the success of your SEO efforts separately for each page. If you run a blog with multiple sections, create an individual url for each section too.
Paid Advertising (or “PPC”)
Paid advertising or PPC, as it’s commonly known, takes a bit of a different approach than organic SEO. With PPC ads, you’re basically paying Microsoft, Google, or some other company to promote your site or app in some way. You can set a daily budget and specific advertising goals, so you can keep track of how effective your campaign is. Though this type of advertising can seem overwhelming, it’s actually very easy to navigate once you get the hang of it.
The first step is to decide what you’ll spend on advertising. You can start small, maybe spending just a couple hundred a week, and work your way up to a few thousand a week as soon as you get the hang of it. The important thing to keep in mind is to not put all your eggs in one basket. Trying to rely on just one form of advertising is risky business, as you never know when a company may decide to stop running ads for your product or service. Getting a bit of traction with organic SEO may mean the difference between continuing to receive traffic or seeing your efforts go to waste.
Conversion Optimization
Last but not least, we have conversion optimization. This is all about improving the experience of your website or app’s visitors to make them more likely to convert into paying customers. Some of the tactics you may want to consider are A/B testing (where you test different versions of a webpage or ads to see which one converts the best), dynamic pricing (where you tweak the price of an item based on a visitor’s previous actions), and multivariate testing (where you test multiple combinations of variables to see how they affect the bottom line). Each of these tactics requires a bit of advanced statistical analysis, so it may be better to leave this to the experts.
If you follow these five easy steps, you’ll have no trouble understanding online gambling marketing and applying it to your own business.