Congratulations on joining the ranks of casino marketing. 49% of Americans, or 124 million American adults, have a favorable view of the casino gaming industry, which makes your choice to work in a casino exciting!
People love to gamble, enjoy food and drinks, and sometimes even stay in the hotel for a night. Casinos are great for a couple’s night out, bachelor party, or even just an afternoon visit.
While casinos have continued to be a popular destination for day trips or a night out, unfortunately, right now, casinos are closed due to the Cornovirus outbreak. Rather than getting discouraged during this pause in business, use this opportunity to polish your casino marketing strategy.
If you’re interested in learning about casino marketing, keep reading.
Casino Marketing Guide
With all this downtime, what better way to pass the time than to perfect your craft?
These casino marketing ideas will teach you the ins and outs of raising revenue and attracting customers. Here’s how:
Get Found by Consumers
Before you can offer customers your service, they’ll have to find you.
To get yourself found, you’ll want to practice SEO, or “search engine optimization,” strategies for casino advertising. Search optimization is where you place in Google results.
Since you’re trying to be found, you’re going to want to rank as high in Google as you possibly can. How do you do this? Well, it’s pretty simple.
To rank higher in Google, you’ll want to practice keyword optimization. Keyword optimization is when you use the words your audience is searching to rank in their search results. For example, someone may be seeking “casinos in San Francisco.” Or, “buffet near me.”
The type of keywords your audience searches for is going to depend on their personal preferences. Once you have an idea about the keywords your audience is searching for, you can start plugging them into blog posts and content (such as gaming guides) to get found!
Learn the Personalities of Your Audience
As we mentioned earlier, there are going to be a variety of people who are in your audience.
While one person may play at casinos strictly for fun on the weekends, another may be a regular every other day. One member of your audience may be an avid gamer, while the other is a day-tripper, joining a group of friends for a day of fun.
It’s crucial for each of these buyer personas to have something to do at the casino. A day-tripper who is with their friends will probably want a bite to eat along with their time on the casino floor. So, consider creating packages for these folks and for the groups that may wish to visit.
The avid gamer spends more time and money at the casino than most people. For the most part, you will generate 80% of your revenue from 20% of your visitors (give or take). Your players club becomes such a valuable tool. It allows you to establish a reward system to show them your appreciation for their business AND create reasons to visit.
A hotel attached to the casino can be a significant source of revenue, but not precisely in the way a traditional hotel operates. Casino hotels allow us to “extend” the play of valuable customers who may be what we call “time-constrained” (which we’ll discuss in future posts).
Understanding what your buyer personas are will enable you to offer something for each person. The more people you can appeal to, the more business you’re going to get!
Get Customers Online and Offline
Now, it’s not just enough to get your customers coming back to your website.
While it’s essential to grow a large online following, you want that following to translate into business in person. This is where you’ll start to see your revenue grow!
As a side note, if you advertise specific amenities online, it’s essential to make sure those are always available. Additionally, your brand message should be consistent online and offline.
Casino marketers create reasons to visit the property through the use of a few tried and true tools: direct mail offers, promotions, entertainment, and events.
Direct mail offers are a great way to stay on your customers’ radars. Because you can measure ROI more consistently than with most marketing programs, direct mail is not only effective but affordable (no matter the size of the casino). While many marketers are moving to digital, casino customers still value the mail. We often say that the battle is won or lost at the mailbox. The most common direct mail offer is free slot play, but offers can also include a free or discounted hotel stay, daily food and beverage deals, or a combination.
Promotions and giveaways create unique energy on the casino floor. A mixture of large prizes/few winners and smaller prizes/many winners is the ideal way to balance your budget on both the expense and revenue side. Some casinos have created fun, revenue-driving, award-winning promotions.
Events and entertainment are also great ways to draw customers back to the casino. Many casinos book musicians, comedians, or other forms of entertainment. If you can get big names, you’re really going to draw in a crowd, but local acts can also be quite effective. Entertainment can be used to draw existing and unknown customers. And, while customers are enjoying an act, they might give you a nice bump across your entire operation: hotel, restaurants, and casino!
Drawing people into the casino with special events and entertainment is a great way to open the doors to your other services!
Remember the Importance of Forming a Relationship
Loyalty is going to be your best friend when you run any business.
Personal connections will get you far, as regulars provide some of the best business. As your business gets busier and busier, you may start to lean on technology for booking, phone calls, and reviews. While this can be a great asset, don’t forget the importance of establishing and maintaining a relationship with customers. Hosts and player development executives can be a valuable part of your marketing plan.
But you shouldn’t forget your regulars or ones who spend the most time with you. It is especially important to forge relationships with them. A simple, friendly greeting can go a long way. When they stop in, make it a point to check in on them and see if you can help them with anything. This small gesture will go much further than you realize.
Reach Out When You Add New Amenities
If you have customers who haven’t come in for a long time, use this opportunity to brainstorm casino promotion ideas.
Whether they forget about your service or they just haven’t been interested in going to a casino lately, earning their business back is essential. If a customer hasn’t been to your casino in a while, they may have forgotten or grown bored with the same amenities. Perhaps they are looking for something new.
This is why it’s important to reach out as you add amenities!
For example, if you’ve added a seafood buffet, reach out to your audience and let them know. This may just be the push they needed to come back!
How Will You Market Your Casino?
Casino marketing is a crucial step in growing your business.
For more information, consider casino marketing training. A great resource for this is our Casino Marketing Boot Camp!
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