Over the last few years, online casinos have increased in both popularity and in number. This means that would-be players are given more choices, and this has created more competition between brands for new customers.
This has obvious benefits for customers with more generous incentives, bonuses, and promotions being used to attract them away from any competition; but the overall marketing strategies have changed, not only to turn the heads of traditional online casino customers but also to move into new markets as well, as highlighted in this article.
Boosting the online presence of major brands
Many online casinos have realised that advertising during halftime and having banner ads everywhere for prospective customers to look at online is effective, but more can be done. This includes having social media feeds that cover issues that are not purely promotional, but offer valuable, usable content to customers about the games they love, or having a blog especially aimed at a casino UK audience.
Content like this is more likely to be shared online to reach new customers virally, as well as the fact that if created correctly with the right on-page SEO, it will show up in natural search engine results for the subject in question, and build an audience in that way.
Looking at new demographics
Many casinos are also targeting new audiences: those that are currently underrepresented in the online gambling world. As this piece from 2015 shows, online gambling is traditionally seen as male-dominated, with males typically starting younger and spending more each year than their female counterparts. So, on paper, it might make sense to go for this low-hanging fruit, but it does leave a whole market untapped.
It could be argued that casinos also need to modify the design of their websites to attract other demographics, and also concentrate more on promoting the benefits of their mobile apps to fit in with younger players, who tend to use their mobile devices for a large part of their day-to-day routine.
Making use of the new levels of accessibility and convenience
This links to another factor that has shaped online casino marketing. The way in which people play the games has changed drastically in the last few tears, and the person playing slots and table games on their desktop computer is no longer an accurate picture of what is going on. Many more players will never have visited the website, use the app to manage their account and could be as likely to play for 10 minutes on the bus as they are for the whole evening.
This means that online casinos can use this convenience and low-time commitment option to attract those who are looking to play on their terms and not have to make an evening of it. This might call for different content in ads – aimed principally at mobile devices and at certain age demographics.
Final thoughts
The online casino world is moving quickly, and those who play casino games now come from a much wider demographic than they did a few years ago. To cater to this, marketing strategies have included content to boost online profiles and target more of the types of people who have become game players because of the increased accessibility on their mobile devices.