Neither your love for online gaming nor your technical superiority is going to be the factors that make your online betting start-up a success. While passion can drive a project and bad IT can be a brand’s downfall, unless you let people know about your business and give them an incentive to play on your site, your project will be doomed to failure.
The Marketing Mix
Marketing and brand building are fundamental to any business, along with decent sources of finance, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a keen sense for business planning. Marketing is not separate from your platform. In fact, if you consider the marketing mix, your platform is just one of the planks of the famous 4Ps of marketing. Devised in the 1960s by university professor Jerome McCarthy, the marketing mix consists of:
- Product
- Place
- Price
- Promotion
Product is your platform, place is where you will market it, price is self-explanatory, and promotion is how you will tell the world about it. Later iterations of the theory acknowledge that your product is more than just a physical entity and that branding and identity are essential to success, but nonetheless, your online betting start-up is part of the marketing mix. While some people have argued that the 4Ps are ‘dead’ because they are purely theoretical, this article argues that they are the touchstone of success and a great way to plan to bring your online betting to market.
Checking the Legality
First things first, before you go anywhere or invest any money in your venture, you need to check out the legalities of online betting marketing. The US has a strictly regulated betting market, with US online gaming only being legal in a handful of states. You need to ensure that you are not wasting your endeavours. You will need to check the basics, because if you launch without doing so, an online review site is not going to be kind to you. Bringing your brand to market includes:
- Applying for and receiving a license for the state/country in which you are operating
- Clear terms and conditions
- Easy access to customer services
- Partnering with reputable payment providers
- Having easily accessible, safe betting options
- Providing a secure site and/or app for igamers to play on
How the Big Guns Do It
You might have thought that it was all about providing fun and making money, but igaming is a serious business. You will need a business plan, cash flow forecast, and a marketing plan if you are going to succeed in a highly competitive market.
As with any brand launch, the more money you have, the easier it is to make an impact. A bigger marketing budget can literally buy influence, sponsorship, and advertising space. If you want to see a textbook example of big marketing budgets in practice, look no further than how FanDuel is the #1 online casino brand.
While FanDuel’s owner, Flutter, had deep pockets, the principles are worthy of note. While they already had a successful sports betting operation, they realised that online gaming customers were looking for something different. Rather than relying on celebrity endorsements, they focused on building a brand identity that would appeal to betting customers. They created a daily free-to-play game that gave players a chance to win up to $2,000. They also created bespoke games for their platform, including World of Wonka, an online slots game linked to the Willy Wonka franchise.
Use Review Sites and Industry Expertise to Your Advantage
What they also understood, and what you also need to do, is to understand that many online gamers do not know what they are looking for when they search for online betting in the US. While there is a strong culture for land-based betting games in the country, many people are very new to the online counterparts, whether they are playing for real money or at social and sweepstakes betting platforms. With so much variation as to what is legal across online betting in the US states, most people search out review sites to get industry-leading expert insight.
One of the sure-fire ways to generate customers for your website is to get expert reviewers raving about what you are offering. Their endorsements can be the make-or-break of any online platform. By finding the right affiliates to partner with, you can turbo-boost your marketing budget. Once you have established your brand identity, getting yourself up the ranks of an expert review site is one of the very best ways to market your online betting start-up.
Do not overlook the importance of genuine, authentic review sites. What matters is that they are independent and interested in ensuring online customers get the best experience. Review sites should not be asking you for money to pay to get a better placement in their rankings. Review companies are always on the lookout for great affiliate marketing programs where everyone can be a winner.
Find the Right Partners
Partnering with the right people is more than just a matter of luck. If you have a great product and are tenacious, you will find like-minded third parties who are happy to promote your unique idea. While it might be tempting to throw money at social media influencers, unless their profile matches your brand and your target market, you might just be throwing your money away.
Every marketing dollar should be carefully considered. Think about the return on investment and what you are getting back for your spend. PR is a great way to drum up attention without maxing out your spend.
Reward Loyalty
Once you have customers signed up, consider offering players an incentive to visit your site regularly. A big mistake can be to focus so much on attracting new customers with irresistible bonuses and offers that brands forget to focus on their existing customers. Loyalty and VIP schemes are a great way to keep people coming back for more and are often more cost-effective than campaigns to attract new users.
Your approach will largely depend on the size of your marketing budget, but careful and considered spending will yield the best results. There is more to marketing than the size of your purse.
