The holiday season can be both, wet and dry, for affiliate sites. As an affiliate you will find that some of your players are running low on cash due to holiday expenditure (Christmas gifts, decorations, Thanksgiving dinner, etc.), but you will also find that other players have some extra cash in their hands that they want to use to have fun doing their favorite activity. It is then that it becomes the role of the affiliate to ensure that those deposits continue to happen throughout the holidays.
There are two ways in which affiliates can increase the number of deposits this holiday season: getting new players to sign up, and encouraging existing players to deposit more. None of these things are hard to accomplish, and it is only a matter of following 5 basic affiliate marketing tips to succeed at it.
1. Promotions, promotions, promotions. This holiday season make sure that your affiliate managers help you design edgy, catchy promotions to catch the eye of your players. Of course it is suiting to have promotions related to the holiday season; however, you could also decide to go bigger on the bonuses and prize money as a Christmas gift to your players. Another idea could be to run non-holiday promotions for those players who are not fond of holiday music and decorations, but that still appeal to the sentiment and spirit of the time.
Ask your affiliate manager what their site has in mind for the holiday season in terms of bonuses and promotions and find the ones that suit your audience best. This will gain the interest of your existing players, as well as encourage players looking for something different and exciting to join your site.
2. Know Your Audience. Are your existing players fond of the holiday season? Are they family guys sharing the spirit with their loved ones? Or are they bachelors who cannot wait to go wild on New Year’s Eve? Do you have a mix? Knowing your demographics is important to know what type of things they want to see on your website, not only during the holiday season but at all times.
3. Sell the Idea, not the Promotion. It is very likely that the holiday season will be a time when you get a lot of clicks on your site’s banners and promos. However, this does not mean that the players reading your content and visiting your site will go all the way and deposit. This is why it is important that before you encourage players to deposit and participate in a certain promotion, that you convince them that the casino you promote has what they are looking for. This will guarantee that the players who click will do it out of genuine interest to participate and engage with what you and the casino offer.
4. Be Casino-Selective. The holiday season does not run for long, and you might want to try to work deals with those casinos who offer what your players want. This does not mean that you will stop dealing with some of the sites you promote, but that you’ll put more emphasis on working with those that appeal the most to your demographic. When you are selecting the casinos that you want to promote strongly during this holiday season, try to find those that are launching new games. It does not matter if the games have holiday topics or not, existing players are often ready for new, exciting things and new games are the best way to go about this.
5. Dress-up. Post photos of yourself as Santa Claus or as a giant turkey on your forums when you advertise promotions (Bryan Bailey of Casinomeister is excellent at these types of thing). This will give your site a personalized touch for the holidays that can appeal to your players as they will see the guy behind the scenes and sympathize with you. If it doesn’t work, you’ll still have a good story to tell during the holidays.
Did you find these tips useful? Do deposits usually increase or decrease on your site during the holiday season? Have you already tried dressing up? Share your photos, tips and opinion at our forums and on the comments section below!